4 Epic Science Fiction Shows Everyone Should Watch

While Sci-Fi lovers are always waiting for the next great space odyssey, such as Star Trek or Star Gate, The Expanse takes the idea of exploring the galaxy and whittles it down to just our own solar system. It brings a new twist to the dream of exploring space in a way that is all too recognizable to our war torn world and does it beautifully. The series, which aired in 2015 on the Syfy channel, takes place in a not too distant future when humanity has succeeded in colonizing the inner rim of our solar system. The Earth is a paradise where there is no war or famine, but only the wealthiest members of society are allowed to live on it. Mars is a militant state that seeks to distance itself from the earth and struggles to terra form the red planet while maintaining the most impressive military armada of the factions. The last group are the Belters, who represent the poorest people in society. They live on the larger rocks of our asteroid belt, mining ice due a water shortage, and most of them are incapable of surviving in Earth’s gravity due to maturing on low gravity planetoads. The series takes place from the perspective of an Earth diplomat, a Belter detective and a mixed crew of misfits who have found themselves in the middle of a conspiracy to ignite a war between Mars and Earth. The series is highly entertaining and is set to release its second season in 2017.

Falling Skies is one of the more interesting shows to come out in the last decade. The series, which aired on TnT in 2011, takes place six months after aliens invaded and took over our planet. It revolves around Tom Mason, a former history professor with Boston University and his three sons who are all members of a resistance group desperately fighting to take back the world from a group of aliens who have decimated every world they’ve come across for the better part of the last 20 millennia. Fans of dystopian television will recognize the theme of a group of survivors trying to stay alive, but Fallen Skies is much more than that. It’s about putting the pieces back together after everything has been ripped apart. During its 5 season run, the viewer gets a glimpse as to kind of tenacity and perseverance it takes to win, keep and build a nation. While the show blends the idea of the American Revolutionary War in a similar way that Firefly blended Wild West themes into the Sci-Fi series, the metaphors can easily be applied to any struggling people striving for independence from cruel dictators… and there’s a bunch of cool alien mythology to dive into.

Dollhouse first aired in 2009 and sadly only lasted for two seasons but is one of my personal TV favorites. The Fox series is about a corporation operating several establishments around the world housing dozens of men and women that can be hired for anything from a sexual encounter to assassinating a world leader. The catch is that none of these people are actually people. The Dollhouses use a fictitious piece of technology that allows them to upload a person’s memories, aka who they are, and download a new personality into them. If you want the woman of your dreams, pick a doll and they can create a person who actually believes they are in love with you, and are designed to already be into whatever you are. If you want a priceless work of art stolen, they can download the skills of the world’s greatest thief into them, exc. The problem with their lucrative little system is that it starts to malfunction. Echo, played by the gorgeous Eliza Dushku, is a doll who begins to remember all of the personalities she’s been imprinted with and starts to short circuit when she is on her “dates.” To make matters worse, some of the other dolls are beginning to form attachments toward one another when they are in their zombie-like-brainless states, which isn’t supposed to be possible. During its short run, the series goes from questioning what it is that makes a person a person, to what would happen if this technology caused a dystopian future. If nothing else, it’s the sexiest show on this list.

If Star Trek, Firefly and Prison Break had a baby together, you’d get Farscape, which is by far one of the greatest Sci-Fi, nay TV shows, ever! The 1999 series ran four seasons and finished its epic take with a two-hour feature length film. The plot revolves around Astronaut and Navy Cmdr. John Crichton who winds up on the other side of the galaxy when his space shuttle is sucked into a wormhole during a flight test. Lost in space, Crichton is forced to work with a ship full of alien prisoners as they escape the Peacekeepers. Right from the beginning the series gives the viewer two mysterious to ponder; where did the wormhole come from, and why do the Peace Keepers look identical to human? Both of which are eventually answered, but in the meantime, the series protagonist has to learn to work with the crew of prisoners, some deserving their captivity, aboard a living spaceship, which also happens to be pacifist with no weapons on board. The series explores whether or not humanity is actually ready to meet alien life and how aliens would perceive humanity’s petty differences and idiosyncrasies. With all of that said, there are few shows that I regard as highly as Farscape, which lands just south of Star Trek and Star Gate in my opinion.