Science fiction, like Westerns, is often more about the time in which it was written than the time and place it portrays. Here are the classic science fiction television shows – from before 1990 – that got the most votes from
users of the website TV.com.
1. "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987)
In the first spinoff of the "Star Trek" franchise juggernaut, Capt. Jean-Luc Picard led a bigger, fancier, family-friendlier USS Enterprise on a quest for new life, new civilizations and some 1980s-style political intrigue.
2. "Star Trek" (1966-69)
The original Capt. Kirk and crew explore strange new worlds as an allegory for our own, telling stories about the Vietnam War, the Cold War, racial prejudice, and even birth control against a galactic setting.
Vote Now: Who Is Your Favorite Actor of All Time?
3. "The Twilight Zone" (1959-64)
An anthology show in which "Ordinary people find themselves in extraordinarily astounding situations," according to IMDb. Taut writing and a dash of sly humor made up for sometimes-low production values.
4. "Quantum Leap" (1989-93)
A lab accident sends a scientist ricocheting through time and the lives of people in crisis. It's up to Sam Beckett to solve the each person's problem, great or small, before ricocheting off – "Oh, boy ..." – to the next crisis.
5. "ALF" (1986-90)
A sawed-off, sarcastic alien is marooned on earth in the home of a typical suburban family. ALF (his name's Gordon) does his best to help his hosts – which doesn't always work out. It was followed by a Saturday-morning prequel cartoon set on Gordon's home planet.
6. "Doctor Who" (1963-89)
It's the original story of the mysterious traveler of many faces and his parade of companions across all of time and space. As was the case with his vehicle of choice, there was more inside than you might have thought from looking at the surface.
7. "The Jetsons" (1963-88)
"The Flintstones" took 1960s suburbia into the Stone Age. "The Jetsons" took it into the Space Age. Cartoon though it was – and it became solidly Saturday-morning fare by its second incarnation – it's easy to forget that, like its Stone Age counterpart, "Jetsons" started out as a primetime show for grownups.
Vote Now: Which Actress Is Your All-Time Favorite?
8. "Battlestar Galactica" (1978-79)
Some believe life here began out there ... and it's running for its life trying to find us, with a space-going aircraft carrier escorting the survivors of an alien robot attack in a quest for Earth. The series was rebooted with much heavier political and religious overtones in the 2000s.
9. "The Outer Limits" (1963-65)
There is nothing wrong with your television set! Like "The Twilight Zone," an anthology series, but "The Outer Limits" was more solidly grounded in technological, "hard" science fiction than the "The Twilight Zone." It was rebooted in the 1990s.
10. "V" (1984; original miniseries 1983)
Giant saucers appear over Earth's cities, but the visitors are our friends — or are they? They come to drink our water and to eat us — and provide a space-going allegory of Nazi occupation.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.