Looking to queue up another sci-fi thriller rather than stepping outside this weekend to face the tundra? We’ve got you covered.
Or rather, the Metro readers have. We asked for your favourite little-known sci-fi gems and you certainly came through.
So while we wait for Stranger Things to finally arrive on Netflix next week, there are plenty of older, newer and all-around weirder shows you can watch this very minute.
The list includes time-travelling shenanigans, the far-off corners of outer space and even a misfit detective with some otherworldly cases to crack.
Some stick to the hard-and-fast conventions, while others play around within your expectations of the genre — and they’re all well worth your time.
So here’s the list of sci-fi thrillers that might not have crossed your screens yet…
Farscape
You’re in for a treat, because this one was the most recommended choice among readers.
Farscape debuted back in 1999 and soon became one of TV’s leading sci-fi cult classics. The show stars Ben Browder as astronaut John Crichton, who ends up caught in the swirl of a wormhole.
It chucks him out in a distant corner of the universe, where he bands together with a bunch of alien refugees on the ship Moya. But life is never peaceful far out in the cosmos and they’re being chased by Peacekeepers – think the Hunger Games militaristic version and you’re not far off who they are here.
The plan for Farscape was to make a five-season arc, but the show was abruptly cancelled before the final instalment, going out with 88 (!) episodes in the bank. The worst thing about the cancellation was it ended on a loose end. Until 2004, when the show returned with the three-hour miniseries Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars to tie everything up.
Guardians of the Galaxy meets The Muppets was how reader Lee Miles, who owned the box set back in the day, billed the show.
Ali Luck put it bluntly enough: ‘I don’t want to have to say Farscape because people should all know about it. But just in case… Farscape.’
Continuum
Read the synopsis of Continuum and it has a clear tinge of the mind-bending Black Mirror – this wouldn’t be a list of sci-fi thrillers if we didn’t bring up Charlie Brooker’s opus somewhere.
Having run from 2012 to 2015, this sci-fi thriller meets cop drama stars 2077 cybernetically enhanced cop Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nichols), who is trapped in present-day Vancouver.
Except it might be better there, because 2077 is run by huge corporations. (Are we far off that though…?)
Like 1984 before it, the world has become hi-tech and hugely reliant on surveillance to keep everyone in check. Not that everyone does, because Kiera is tasked with chasing the dissenting terrorist organisation Liber-8 through time.
Continuum was a show that got smarter the further it went along. Plus, Adam Whatford said it had a ‘valid political commentary’ when it first aired in the 2010s, adding: ‘Unfortunately, the commentary is still very much valid today.’
12 Monkeys
You might be thinking, ‘Isn’t that a Brad Pitt film?’ Well, yes it is, but it was also a TV show with a few of the same characters. Plus, it feels like a good sign if there are multiple versions of something, right? Why else would they both?
Here, the time-travelling plot focuses on James (X-Men’s Aaron Stanford), a scavenger in 2043 – okay, this was a bit further away when the show aired in 2015 than it is now.
That is indeed the year he returns to in order to prevent the contagion of a gruesome plague, called the Kalavirus, which led to a small little thing called the decimation of humanity. James’ mission is to eliminate those 12 monkeys that first caused the virus.
We jump back and forth between the present day 2010s and the future of the 2040s as we go, so it’s much fun for anyone that enjoys Loop-style cause-and-effect hokey cokey.
Ben Dieter Holt had particularly high praise for the show, writing: ‘One of the best things I’ve ever watched and probably surpasses the original film.’
Word on the street is the first season is a bit lacklustre, but persevere because it’s upwards from there on out.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
With an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, you can’t go wrong with this and it’s easily available to watch over on Netflix.
Based on Douglas Adams’ detective novel series, this sci-fi entry first aired back in 2016 and follows bellhop Todd Brotzman, played by one of the legends of another hugely popular genre Elijah Wood.
It’s just another day at work for Todd, until he comes under suspicion for having murdered a millionaire in the hotel penthouse – not good! Rescue comes in the form of titular smooth-talking detective Dirk Gently (extra points for the fun name) Dirk Gently (Samuel Barnett).
Instead of suspecting Todd, he convinces the bellhop to work with him on cracking the case. But this is when the sci-fi elements comes into play, because it turns out that his work tends to involve the paranormal.
You might not have heard of the show before, but Justin Bodle has and described it as the ‘best program on Netflix’ before its unfortunate cancellation with two seasons in the bank.
Space – Above and Beyond
Nathan Hobbs recommended Space – Above and Beyond, calling it ‘one of the best and most overlooked sci-fi series ever made’, adding that it was 30 years ahead of its time.
Set in 2063, the show follows members of the US Marine Corps 58th Squadron of the Space Aviator Cavalry known as the Wildcards.
This rag-tag group has been cobbled together from Earth’s military following an attack on our solar system by a mysterious alien race known as The Chigs and represents humanity’s last hope of defeating the extraterrestrial menace.
While the series only ran for one season, it’s fondly remembered by sci-fi fans and regularly appears on lists of underappreciated TV series.
Indeed, Starburst Magazine said in a 2018 review that ‘it’s stunning how well the series has aged since its original run’ while Jesse Alexander of i09 claimed you could see the influence the series had on beloved shows like Lost, 24, and Alias.
Sliders
Chris Jrj, meanwhile, proved he’s a man of exquisite taste when he recommended the woefully underrated Sliders.
They wrote: ‘Real heroes will mention Sliders. Legendary heroes remember watching Sliders long enough for it to get a bit rubbish.’
This weird show followed a group of interdimensional explorers who invented a miraculous piece of technology that allowed them to ‘slide’ from dimension to dimension.
Unfortunately, on their first adventure, they lost the coordinates to their home reality, forcing them to leap from one alternate universe to another, hoping each time that their next leap would be the leap home (wait, that sounds familiar…).
While the concept might have been a bit derivative of other shows, it was a fun idea that allowed the writers to tell a variety of stories. There were episodes where Nazis controlled America, tales where dinosaurs still walked the Earth, and, of course, there’s a zombie episode.
It was daft and delightful, but as Chris Jrj said, as time went on, it did fall off a bit. If you slide on over to Reddit, you’ll find several people saying seasons one and two are brilliant, but the rest is a bit disappointing.
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