Some good current TV shows about space are dramas, while other new space TV series are hilarious comedies. Red Dwarf. Yes, a genie who serves an astronaut. It’s not like astronauts are chilling on Neptune right now. A slew of spinoffs followed, starting with the hugely popular Stargate: SG1 (1997-2007) and followed by Stargate: Atlantis (2004 – 2009) and Stargate Universe (2009- 2011). There are a few jokes, but “The Orville” is a far cry from the kind of show you’d find Peter Griffin in. Americans With Credit Card Debt Could Be In for a Big Surprise, Price Alert: These SUVs Are Now Only $19,000 (Deal Of The Day), The card so lucrative, our expert signed up personally. Based on notes from legendary Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, Andromeda charts the adventures of a sentient ship and her crew as they struggle to come to terms with waking up after being effectively paused in a black hole for hundreds of years. It’s no wonder that the Doctor has been wowing viewers for over fifty years (on and off); the series is chock full of aliens, laser-weapon battles, strange and wonderful technology, and of course, time travel! Meanwhile, Apple TV+’s Dickinson squeaks onto the list with a 75% score, joining the first seasons of The Twilight Zone and Modern Love and miniseries I Am the Night as 2019 TV seasons that flirted with Certified Fresh and won. Star Wars and Star Trek are arguably the best space operas ever made, but what are some of the other great sci-fi epics? Philip J. Fry was a lowly pizza delivery guy in New York of 1999 before getting frozen on New Year’s Eve and waking up on the verge of the year 3000. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. The Andromeda Galaxy is the closest galaxy to our own. What do you get when you mix classic British humor with the sweeping scope of the space opera? This includes plenty of trips into space, even if it’s just to a cheesy amusement park on the Moon. Before Joss Whedon was helping to shape the Marvel Cinematic Universe with “The Avengers,” he was not having quite as much success on the TV front. As with any good space opera, the characters are the main focus, as our hero (of sorts) grapples with the expanse of the universe and his place in it. Definitely a B-movie, this movie is all about over-the-top sex appeal, featuring pleasure machine/keyboards, lesbian queens and women smoking the "Essence Of Man." but with the help of Henson Productions, there are some truly incredible creatures in the Farscape universe. Like us on Facebook to see similar stories, Opinion: How to stop a killing like that of George Floyd from ever happening again, Biden lifts sanctions on International Criminal Court officials. It’s silly and definitely not meant to be taken seriously, but there is a good reason that this has such a place in the halls of sci-fi history; it’s just incredibly fun to watch. - the heart of this film is in the love story, and it winds up with much more than an epic battle to save the world; with an uplifting and sweet scene guaranteed to leave you grinning. The characters, the technology, everything in this fictional version of the 23rd century is over the top and fantastically intense. 150 Essential LGBTQ TV Shows TV has been instrumental in the LGBTQ rights movement and in changing attitudes towards the community. The Firefly crew was brought to the big screen two years after cancellation with Serenity, which is essentially a big budget, two hour episode of the show. This epic movie of war and intrigue set against the backdrop of space centers around a fictional drug trade and the battle to control it. This family friendly show definitely turned the sci-fi story on its head, and remains sweet and funny to watch. However, it’s also an iconic sci-fi show of the era, right up there with “Star Trek.” The property is so well known, and the premise so enticing, that it got a Netflix reboot, this time with Parker Posey as the nefarious Dr. Smith. Surprisingly, the show lasted 10 seasons and only ended in 2007. Not a film to make cinematic history, instead this is an action flick with plenty of punch and heart, that’s got all the elements of a simply enjoyable film. Here are some space-themed shows, not including ones about aliens who come to Earth, with all due respect to “ALF” fans. This hilarious series follows the adventures of (probably) the last human being in the universe, stranded on a mining ship along with a hologram, a robot, a computer, and a new breed of cat-human-creature. Yes, this was a real show. Two dudes travel through the universe in a car they call the “Space Hoopty.” Somehow, it lasted a full season on UPN. Another portal-based story, John Carter’s (Taylor Kitsch) story begins in 1868, as our title character is attempting to live a normal life – a hope dashed when he finds a medallion that transports him to Barsoom/Mars, where he finds himself right back in the kind of conflict he was avoiding at home. The go-to source for comic book and superhero movie fans. Pedro Pascal stars as a Mandalorian bounty hunter who finds himself trying to protect “The Child,” who you probably know better as Baby Yoda. The X-Files reboot, starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, continues to provoke fan debate about the outer reaches of space. Isn’t it a show about a genie? The original “Battlestar Galactica” from 1978 is considered a somewhat flimsy attempt to cash in on the “Star Wars” hype. Including Unorthodox and Elite, these are great Netflix foreign series. Then the show for rebooted in 2004, this time around as a serious and heady drama set in outer space. Sure, he’s regenerated a time or two, but he’s always the same alien with the police box that can travel through time and space. Tony Nelson finds the genie because he lands on an uncharted island after a space mission. After all, he’s the one best known for “Family Guy.” People were expecting a raunchy comedic take on “Star Trek,” but it turned out that MacFarlane basically wanted to create and star in his own version of “Star Trek” instead. Despite largely negative reviews, it remains a space-opera cult classic, and an early example of surrealist filmmaker David Lynch's talents. One day you’re just a run-of-the-mill guy on Earth, and then some mad scientists shoot you into space to make you watch bad movies. Related Articles. We didn’t have hoverboards in 2015, and we don’t hold that against “Back to the Future II.”. “Buck Rogers” is another show created in the wake of “Star Wars.” However, the character of Buck Rogers actually was probably one of the inspirations for George Lucas’ space opera. Only a select few have been to outer space, and they haven’t gone very far. We managed to sneak ALF in. Despite a cult of adoring fans and a strong cast led by Nathan Fillion, “Firefly” lasted only one season. Their adventures through space (looking for Earth, looking for other humans, looking for something else entirely) become a backdrop for odd-couple comedy and a whole range of hilarious situations. Although the series unexpectedly ended on a cliffhanger, a miniseries was later created to wrap up the show, so new fans should follow up the series with the three-hour Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars. Obviously, Captain Hunt (Kevin Sorbo) and his crew set out to bring the values of the long-dead Commonwealth to the new world in which they find themselves. “Space Ghost Coast to Coast” basically started the idea of Adult Swim, Cartoon Network’s late-night bloc of programming for a more mature audience. Sure, maybe it was a little bold, even in 1975, to posit that there would be a base on the moon in 1999. This multi-award-winning series sadly declined after Robert Hewitt Wolfe (the man who originally developed the idea from Roddenberry’s notes) left the show, but it’s still a great series to watch, and many fans believe that had Wolfe stayed, it would have continued for much longer. One of the few space-operas not set in the distant future, Farscape instead makes use of a helpful wormhole to fling our hero John Crichton (Ben Browder) into a very different corner of the galaxy, one filled with alien races in the midst of a vast conflict. “Final Space” seems to fly under the radar a bit. With William Lundigan, Joyce Taylor, Charles Herbert, Tyler McVey. “Avenue 5” is his latest creation, a show about a luxury space cruise ship that runs into a bit of a problem. It’s a great time to be a sci-fi fan! It’s not quite as sharp as Ianucci’s other shows, but there is promise in the premise. However, “ALF: The Animated Series” is a cartoon prequel about his life on Melmac. Since then, Rose has written for Horror Honeys, Moviepilot and Quirkbooks as well as Screenrant, increasingly focusing on comic books and live-action comic adaptations, as well as diversity and representation on screen. They lived way up in the sky and had to use little ships to get around. That includes TV shows, of course. One of the most appealing elements, however, is Joss Whedon’s inimitable brand of humor,  as his complex characters spice up their adventuring with quips that viewers will be quoting for years. Well, at least “Space:1999” took a big swing. It doesn’t have the amazing opening credits “ALF” does, but it is a show about space. While the chances of seeing Captain Mal (Nathan Fillion) and the rest of the Serenity crew on screen again are slim (cue Browncoat sobbing), the series has found a home in comic book form, where the Serenity series lives on. Rose also co-hosted the DC Movies Podcast, and has guested on other nerd and entertainment podcasts over the past five years. This modern classic plays on a fascination with ancient Egypt, creating a world where the military has possession of a gate that allows them to pass into other worlds, and a team that heads out into these strange places to explore how other worlds have affected our own. Sometimes the action takes place down on Earth, but The Doctor and his human companions are also out in space from time to time. The space opera was the rare show for its era that was basically plotted out before it even aired. We’ve all been there. Set within a collection of planets rife with danger, intrigue, and gruff heroes, it is absolutely incredible. The following list of the 100 best TV shows of the last decade was created by Paste writers and editors through a weighted system, and though there may be … Yes, the title explains the premise. Miniskirt Space Pirates (ミニスカ 宇宙海賊 (パイレーツ), Minisuka Pairētsu) is a Japanese light novel series about space pirates written by Yūichi Sasamoto and published by Asahi Shimbun Shuppan since October 2008. 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