Space TV Shows are Hit or Miss, but These Five are Definitely Hits

If you’re a fan of space, Hollywood and TV studios have given you plenty of content to devour. Unfortunately, not all of it is palatable. I certainly love to watch a cheesy B Movie and tear it apart from time to time, but often it can be hard to tell the real gems from the guano in which they’re surrounded. For this piece, I want to focus on five Space TV shows that are truly done well. These shows represent a few different periods of time and different premises. Also, I limited myself to only one Star Trek series.

Not that I’m putting these in any particular order, but Joss Whedon’s “space western” Firefly is far and away my favorite sci-fi space TV show. The rest of the fans and I weep and gnash teeth every time we think of the fact that it was canceled after only fourteen glorious episodes. Thankfully the cast was able to get together and wrap the show up somewhat with the film, Serenity. Still, even with only a small sample of episodes and an only slightly satisfying ending, this show is absolutely brilliant. Firefly is currently streaming on Hulu, and you can buy the season from any other digital media outlet. Serenity is not streaming anywhere at the moment, but it does show up on the Netflix machine from time to time.

Whereas Firefly is a tragically short series, the mid-’00s reboot of the classic Battlestar Gallactica is an epic undertaking. Look, I can’t stress enough how amazing this series is. Honestly, though, the commitment to get through it is worse than committing to 22 MCU movies. It’s going to take you a while. There are 73 hour-long episodes in total. On top of that, the opening episode is actually a two-hour movie that sets up the rest of the series. Edward James Olmos is outstanding, as is Katie Sackhoff and the rest of the cast. The show has some amazingly tense space battles, but at its heart, it’s a very human drama about a bunch of people trying to find their way home and reconcile their past. You can stream it on Amazon Prime Video.

Like I said, you only get one Star Trek series on this list. And if you have to pick only one Star Trek series, you go with Next Gen. Period. Now, I am not a bona fide Trekkie, but I’m enough of a fan to know that this was an absolutely superb series. We can debate all day long on who the better captain of the Enterprise was, but at the end of the day, Star Trek: The Next Generation featured 7 seasons of over twenty episodes apiece. TNG provides you with a smorgasbord of sci-fi gold — from some hilarious moments to some very poignant ones. Truly a quality series that still holds up over three decades later. Next Gen is also available on Amazon Prime Video.

The recent Netflix adaptation of this sci-fi classic is just as high-quality as everything else the streaming-service-turned-studio puts out. The series follows the Robinson family on their journey through space after being forced to leave Earth. When their ship crash lands on an icy alien world, however, they are forced to deal with all kinds of danger. With no way home, the Robinsons have to band together to face their harsh new reality. Excellent acting from Molly Parker, Toby Stevens, and the rest of the cast, along with quality production and good storytelling make this new version of the old space TV show classic worth watching.

Stargate SG-1, like Star Trek: TNG, has a bajillion (ten) seasons to testify to how great it was. At first glance, the show is a little bit Quantum Leap, a dash of MacGyver, and a lot of Star Trek. What sets SG-1 apart, however, is the fact that it’s about elite Air Space Force unit dedicated to using Stargates to defending Earth from alien threats. It’s got Richard Dean Anderson in it, and that alone makes it worth every minute, but the action and variety of episodes certainly doesn’t hurt, either. You can stream it on Amazon Prime Video.

Other Space Entertainment

Here at Space Porn we try to put out a good balance between news and entertainment, so if you liked this article, and you want to read some more about space entertainment, why not check out this article about Space Podcasts?

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