TV-Shows.TVThe best shows for me! The best sci-fi TV shows 2026 – ranked by the community. Science fiction series ask one central question: what if? What if AI develops consciousness, time travel has real consequences or humanity inhabits other planets? The highest-rated series in this ranking use those premises as a lens for social and ethical questions – not just as a backdrop for special effects.
How are the series charts created?
Rankings are based on real user ratings. The more votes a show receives, the more stable its chart position. When you rate shows yourself, your personal recommendations improve too.
(7/10 stars)After saving the life of an international diplomat in Washington D.C., a pair of U.S. Secret Service agents are whisked away to a covert location in South Dakota that houses supernatural objects that the U.S. Government has collected over the centuries. Their new assignment: retrieve some of the mis... more
(7/10 stars)A group of teenagers are sentenced to community service for past mistakes only to find their lives changed after a storm gives them strange new powers and new problems to overcome. more
(7/10 stars)A late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J. Fry, after being unwittingly cryogenically frozen for one thousand years, finds employment at Planet Express, an interplanetary delivery company in the 31st century. more
(8/10 stars)The sleepy Pacific Northwest town of Eureka is hiding a mysterious secret. The government has been relocating the world’s geniuses and their families to this rustic town for years where innovation and chaos have lived hand in hand. U.S. Marshal Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson) stumbles upon this odd tow... more
(8/10 stars)The story of Stargate Atlantis follows the cliffhanger episode on Stargate SG-1's seventh season finale "Lost City", where SG-1 found an outpost made by the race known as the Ancients in Antarctica. After the events of Stargate SG-1 season eight premiere "New Order", the Stargate Command sends an in... more
(8/10 stars)In the far-distant future, Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds is a renegade former brown-coat sergeant, now turned smuggler & rogue, who is the commander of a small spacecraft, with a loyal hand-picked crew made up of the first mate, Zoe Warren; the pilot Hoban "Wash" Washburn; the gung-ho grunt Jayne C... more
(9/10 stars)Westworld is a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the evolution of sin. Set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, it explores a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged. more
(8/10 stars)`The truth is out there,' and FBI agents Scully and Mulder seek it in this sci-fi phenomenon about their quest to explain the seemingly unexplainable. Their strange cases include UFO sightings, alien abductions and just about anything else paranormal. more
(8/10 stars)A century after Captain Kirk's five year mission, the next generation of Starfleet officers begins their journey aboard the new flagship of the Federation. Commanded by Captain Jean-Luc Picard the Galaxy class starship Enterprise NCC-1701-D will seek out new life and new civilizations - to boldly... more
(7/10 stars)In a distant part of the universe, a civilization of humans live on planets known as the Twelve Colonies. In the past, the Colonies have been at war with a cybernetic race known as the Cylons. 40 years after the first war the Cylons launch a devastating attack on the Colonies. The only military ship... more
(7/10 stars)A glimpse into an alternate history of North America: what life after WWII might have been like if the Nazis had won the war. The Man in the High Castle explores daily life in 1962, fourteen years after the end of a longer Second World War (1939–1948 in this history). The victorious Axis Powers - Im... more
(7/10 stars)The Shannara Chronicles roughly follows the storylines set out in The Elfstones of Shannara, set about 300 years after the War of the Races—which ceased magic and confined the demons on the Forbidding, locked by an ancient tree called the Ellcrys. The series chronicles the journey of Wil, Amberle an... more
(8/10 stars)After a pandemic kills 80% of the world's population, the crew of an unaffected Navy ship - the USS Nathan James - must try to find a cure to save humanity. Their mission is simple: Find a cure, stop the virus. more
(7/10 stars)Follow the adventures of the Federation starship Voyager, under the command of Captain Kathryn Janeway. Voyager is in pursuit of a rebel Maquis ship in a dangerous part of the galaxy when it is suddenly thrown thousands of light years away into the Delta Quadrant. With much of her crew dead, Captai... more
(8/10 stars)After a global invasion by several races of extraterrestrials that neutralizes the world's power grid and technology, quickly destroys the combined militaries of all the world's countries, and kills over 90% of the human population within a few days, the chaotic aftermath of an alien attack has lef... more
(8/10 stars)A television anthology series that shows the dark side of life and technology. more
(8/10 stars)A group of people around the world are suddenly linked mentally, and must find a way to survive being hunted by those who see them as a threat to the world's order. more
(7/10 stars)Captain Jack Harkness is a man from the 51st century trapped in the past who leads the last remnants of the Torchwood Institute, a top secret British agency outside the government whose job it is to investigate alien goings on in the world, act in mankind's best interest, and, if needed, be the Eart... more
(8/10 stars)A Secret Service agent goes to Wayward Pines, Idaho, in search of two federal agents who have gone missing in the bucolic town. He soon learns that he may never get out of Wayward Pines alive. more
(7/10 stars)We all use math every day... Inspired by actual cases and experiences, Numb3rs depicts the confluence of police work and mathematics in solving crime. An FBI agent recruits his mathematical genius brother to help solve a wide range of challenging crimes in Los Angeles from a very different perspe... more
Sci-Fi TV shows are the genre most driven by a single core question: what if? What if AI becomes conscious? What if we colonise other planets? What if time travel is possible but comes with unexpected costs? The best science fiction uses these premises not as an end in themselves, but as a lens through which current social, ethical or technological questions can be examined differently.
This ranking covers sci-fi series across a broad spectrum: hard science fiction with high technical ambition, space opera with epic interstellar scenarios, dystopian series, time travel stories and near-future concepts that are only a small step removed from the present. Series that deliver on both dimensions – compelling story and substantive ideas – consistently rank at the top of the community charts. Use the streaming filter to see immediately where each series is currently available.
If sci-fi TV shows are your thing, you might also enjoy fantasy or thriller series for similarly imaginative or tense storytelling.
The top Sci-Fi TV Shows are ranked by real community votes. The more ratings a show has, the more stable its position.
Use the streaming filter to see which Sci-Fi TV Shows are available on Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max and more.
Rankings are based on real user ratings. The more votes a series receives, the more stable its chart position.
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