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The 9 Best Space Shows That Aren't Star Trek

Don't know how you guys feel about comparisons to Star Trek but I thought this was interesting.

Also, Mods ... if this kind of post is not allowed, I don't mind it being taken down.

I've only watched about half of all Star Trek content with series and movies and animations. I thought I had years of content to watch in the future ... but after hearing about other series from other people over the years, through comments in this community and through lists like this Youtube video ... I think I'll be spending the rest of my life watching scifi, the majority of which will be Star Trek.

39 comments

  • I remember really enjoying Earth: Final Conflict when it was on the air, though I don’t know if it holds up today. It was based on some Gene Roddenberry notes and produced by Majel.

    They had some very cool futuristic gadgets that I wish had made it into the mainstream a bit more. The design for this communicator was awesome, for example.

  • A great list. I haven't watched most of these either so you are not alone there.

    I would say that if you could never watch another show for the rest of your life after picking just one, it needs to be Firefly. After that, you may die happy. Not kidding to be clear, and not even limiting to sci-fi there: it's that good. It's also, unfortunately, short. There is a movie though, which wraps up the dangling plotlines.

    Farscape is damn good, and weird. "Goodly weird or weirdly good?" Yes. Both. Neither. Sorta. Just watch the first episode, and you'll know if it appeals to you or not.

    Babylon Five isn't "good" as the term is normally used. Instead, it is "deeply satisfying". Like going to the gym, you need to force yourself to watch it much of the time, yet when you do, you will not regret having done so. It is an older style of television, more like a play almost, and gets wonderfully boring at times, but has the deepest plotlines that I've ever heard of in video form. Or at least the ones most applicable to irl. You'll literally enjoy the bad guys especially, bc they aren't "evil" -> they are us, if given half a second and a full opportunity to have gotten into such a situation.

    BSG I don't know how well it has held up. This video says well so... maybe. I recall that when I watched it, it was "difficult" to do so, probably bc it matched up too closely with what was going on irl at the time. MAJOR trigger warnings for this one, especially torture/abuse - and I don't mean like "torture is (always) bad", but rather "torture can be good sometimes, even necessary, now let's go rape someone today!" level of psychological mind-fuckery. Sadly I wish I was even halfway joking here. You may want to save this one for later, until you have time to really process it. Also, this video should have included some of these warnings - I consider it irresponsible even to have not. That series is DARK - yes, deliciously so, but that's still worth a trigger warning in my book, so that someone knows in advance what they are getting into.

    • Great advice here. I totally agree with Firefly. Close to perfection in every character/story/etc.

      For BSG, they made a 2-part movie to kick it off. I watched that a few years ago and it still holds up pretty well. If you like those intro-movies, it's worth a watch as a series (even though it does end poorly).

      Babylon 5 is on my near-term list to start.

      • Firefly was too wonderful for the for-profit TV media to handle - definitely we would have enjoyed more, but just as definitely that was never going to be allowed under those conditions.

        BSG:

        This update of the late-1970s programme takes a decidedly darker tone...

        Yeah, I'll say.:-) Especially that one where they encourage rape - shudder. I can't recall Stat Trek ever hitting that hard? More impactfully, sure, bc Capt. Picard was a freaking role model of leadership, as too were Kirk, Sisko, and... well... no, not Janeway:-).

        Remember to persist through Babylon 5 - you won't be disappointed, at least not in the long-term, although you might not enjoy every moment of every episode either. Unlike Enterprise though, it will be worth it (hey-oooh!:-P).

    • Great input .. will definitely keep all this mind for when I turn 90 and decide to watch something other than Star Trek.

      I'm joking around but sometimes I feel bad that I'm coming to the end of a series I'm watching ... I watched TNG years ago and was sad to see it end ... watched VOY to end the was sad to see it end ... now watching DS9 and almost at the end and feeling sad. But I'm looking forward to other Star Trek series and will have years of content to slowly watch. But even after all that ... there is still so much to watch and enjoy, it's amazing.

      • Good: that means that you are a normal human being. Keep in mind that like food, consuming any kind of content too quickly is bad for health. Watch something, then touch grass, repeat if you feel like it - no biggie. Network producers have ignored that definitely real humans prefer quality over quantity so... that's not your fault that there's so much more to watch than can be enjoyably handled. This is our new world now. Perhaps someone will design an AI to watch our TV for us, and just feed us the highlight clips - heck, they may have already even!?:-P

  • I tried watching the Buck Rogers tv series recently, Buck's just too much of a dick head with the ladies. A product of its times maybe. Been passing the time with Logans Run, and android was introduced in the tv series, helps run the plot and provides some wit.

39 comments