Science fiction and fantasy have ruled television for over 50 years, but some shows have brightened our screens and supercharged our brains more than others. Here's our list of the 100 greatest science fiction/fantasy shows of all time.


How did we determine these rankings? Using science . That means that if you disagree with the shows we included, or the order we ranked them in, you are anti-science , and must go back to living in caves and eating animals you killed yourself, with your bare hands.

Just kidding — actually, we know that these rankings are highly subjective, and we argued over them for hours. And we don't expect you to agree with every single choice we made.


We did try to look at a show's popularity at the time it was on the air, how much of a cult following it's garnered since it ended (if it's already ended), and how much influence it had on other TV shows and pop culture as a whole.

Feel free to argue with us, and each other, in the comments — just please, be friendly and civil about it. Thanks!

Additional writing/reporting by Graeme McMillan, Meredith Woerner, Lauren Davis, Annalee Newitz, Stephanie Fox and Stephen Goldmeier.