I hear Babylon 5 and The Expanse is nice, but I hear so little about those two shows I don’t know what to expect of these stories.
live action as animated recommendation is allowed.
Apple TV has had such an amazing run of good sci-fi lately
Silo, Foundation, For all mankind, Murderbot (honestly my favorite), Dark Matter, Pluribus
They are putting out a ton of great stuff.
Murderbot is fantastic and the Trek type show he’s obsessed with has actors who’ve been in actual Trek shows, it’s brilliant
Their scifi is pretty much the only reason I keep my AppleTV subscription. They put out so much good stuff.
And Pluribus surprised me. I had no interest in it until I found out there are aliens.
If you want funny scifi but with a frequent emotional edge, Red Dwarf is fantastic.
The Orville, Foundation, farscape, sliders (stop at end of s3), Stargate
stargate certainly and battlestar galactica. if you can handle tos and the old batte star you may want to give buck rogers a try and space 1999.
bc i havent seen anyone else post it… Galaxy Quest!
Since that IS just Trek in disguise, everybody probably assumes OP has seen it.
fair, fair… i think i’ve even seen it on a couple of lists of the “best” star trek movies lol.
Somebody’s got to mention Red Dwarf. It’s kind of like if The Office (UK) and Farscape had a baby and raised it on an old Dr. Who set.
Babylon 5
Stargate SG-1
Farscape
Coming back to add that, if you like character-driven stories, but have never thought that kaiju might be your thing, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters now in its second season on AppleTV might be for you.
The show takes place in the middle of the Monsterverse continuity that currently has the licence for Toho’s Godzilla monsters. It’s an entry point nonetheless. You needn’t have ever seen anything in this continuity or others to get into it.
It’s less focused on fighting Titans than on the mystery of understanding them, the weird science fiction efforts humanity uses to share a world with them, and most of all the characters whose lives are intertwined with the mystery.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
Not big fan of Kaijus, I watch some recent godzilla movies and the the two which fights together with King Kong.
Here to fanboy over Babylon 5.
B5 is a political comfort show for me, especially these days. It was brazen for the 90s, with characters facing questions like: recovering from drug addiction, cross-cultural romantic relationships and their hurdles, colonization and genocide, bisexual representation, the loss of family members, and what to do if you’re a military member serving a regime that you hate. It’s deeply philosophical and mature, and it’s had a profound impact on my life.
It had the time to develop complex relationships between characters. One of my favorite characters is an alien ambassador named G’kar, played by Andreas Katsulas.
Andreas KatsulasHe was an absolutely brilliant actor. The world lost a treasure when he passed.
Just to add while the CGI aged the content of the dialog hits harder to me an adult than it did as a kids. Top work.
Babylon 5 is fantastic - I guess if I were to describe it briefly (and vaguely), it would be “interstellar political drama with mythological undertones.”
I loved it as a child but it’s hard to rewatch. It’s not good.
Gotta be honest, I lost interest after a while because the basic premise needs juuust a bit too much suspension of disbelief. Although I’m sure, if you can accept the premise, the individual episodes can be entertaining.
Yeah if the initial premise seems too far out for you, probably best to stop there. The first season gets pretty weird in very 1970s ways at times.
Start gate series is my second favorite to star trek, I heard Babylon 5 is good. Didn’t like the expanse felt to just more capitalist hellscape then scifi to me but I only watched the first episode but that’s just my opinion and observations.
Dr who is a good sci-fi show as well as a rarely talked about show sliders from the 1990s. (Besides the last season imo)
Expanse is weird in that Season 1 is a completely different show than the rest of the seasons.
Season 1 is primarily a detective on a space station.
The rest of the seasons follow characters on a spaceship.
Your opinion on The Expanse is a valid and common one. It is a capitalist hellscape. But it’s been mentioned already, it’s a slow burn and by the second season you get why it took a while to get there. It’s an unfortunate cliche that is true a lot - sometimes, you have to get through the first parts, either because of the needed character/worldbuilding, or simply because the show hasn’t found its way yet. Don’t give up on it.
The Two are nice. Babylone 5 could seems dated today but there’s some really cool things in it
I’m on my first watch of Farscape, so far so good, great puppets
Firefly maybe ? But Adam Baldwin and Joss Whedon are two very big asshole
“The Two” ?
Babylone 5 and The Expanse. This two. Don’t know why my keyboard capitalise « Two »
How dated is Babylone 5 compared with Deep Space Nine?
I’m here to recommend The Expanse. It’s more of a near-future dystopian scifi setting than Star Trek, with humanity petty much limited to our own solar system by technology. I read the books before the show became a thing, and I like them both.
I read the books before the show became a thing, and I like them both.
Because the books are great and the show is great I would actually suggest reading it all before watching the show.
Good call.
Babylon 5’s is great if you like serialization. The first season is very weak due to a major health crisis in the principal character that occurred between the shooting of the pilot and the launch of the series. The story was adjusted so that a new station head and actor could take on the lead.
Farscape is an absolute gem and a wild ride. It really picks up after the first 12 episodes. It’s so incredibly influential on so many science fiction shows in the streaming era that it’s worth watching just for that alone. Be aware that the show was canceled before it could wrap up its full arc. A limited series was made later to wrap up the storyline — make sure you’ll be able to be able to get it.
I’m a fan of many of the old 1960s and 1970s shows but watching them really depends on your tolerance for older production styles and scripting. Space 1999 is worth tracking down for sure.
In terms of more recent shows, three serialized shows that involved time travel that actually stuck the landing are Continuum, Travelers, and 12 Monkeys. All are very good, with strong ensembles, but reflect the darker sci-fi trend of the 2010s.
I highly suggest the skip/watch list for Farscape so people don’t waste time on the filler episodes and mandatory flashback episodes.
Definitely a YMMV situation.
Many episodes that may be described as ‘filler’ are ones that have side adventures or character development. Farscape isn’t rigidly serialized. Just because it’s not moving the main plot narrative doesn’t mean it’s filler.
plus one to farscape. should have listed it in my mentions.
Farscape had absolutely no right to be that good on a $4.99 AUD budget
