8 Ambitious Sci-Fi Shows Nobody Remembers

Published Aug 29, 2026, 11:30 AM EDT Memory Ngulube joined Screen Rant in April 2024 as part of the Movies and TV team. Since then, she has written for the Perennials and Streaming team, covering a wide range of topics from new releases to old movies and TV shows. Memory is currently a Classic TV writer. Before joining Screen Rant, Memory was a freelance copywriter who specialized in email marketing and social media management. While she enjoyed her job, her true passion was always movies and TV. When she isn’t writing for Screen Rant, Memory can be found reading, baking (which is one of her passions), or watching her favorite K-drama. The science fiction genre has never been short on ambitious ideas. Sci-fi has constantly pushed the boundaries of storytelling with bold concepts that range from sprawling space operas to dystopian futures. While some sci-fi TV shows like Firefly have become cult classics and earned a devoted fanbase long after their debut, others haven’t been so lucky. Even without the likes of Severance and Pluribus, which are currently the talk of the town, the sci-fi genre was already pioneering ideas that audiences now take for granted. Looking back at some of the sci-fi shows that have faded into obscurity reveals just how much experimentation was happening on television and how easily even the boldest science-fiction concepts can be forgotten once a show leaves the air. This, however, doesn’t mean that the forgotten sci-fi series haven’t left their mark on the genre. In fact, the influence of TV shows like Space: Above and Beyond can be seen in modern space operas such as The Expanse. The most frustrating aspect of these science fiction TV shows being forgotten is that they still hold up today. Their plots, premise, and characters are as intriguing in modern television as they were the first time they graced the small screen. Blake's 7 (1978–1981) The 1970s are famously remembered for Star Wars, but there’s another space opera that was ahead of its time. Created by Terry Nation, the writer best known for creating Doctor Who's Daleks, Blake’s 7 followed a group of fugitives and rebels fighting against the Terran Federation in a dystopian future. Of course, a space saga is nothing new, but Blake’s 7 shined in the way that it portrayed its characters. Where some science fiction shows and movies of the era chose to depict their characters as heroes, Blake’s 7’s protagonists were unreliable. Blake might have been fighting tyranny, but his methods weren't always heroic, while Avon frequently appeared more interested in survival and personal advantage than in liberating humanity. Blake’s 7 didn’t have the biggest budget, yet it still managed to create an expansive universe with alien civilizations and advanced technology. Though the show’s set is nothing compared to what we see in sci-fi today, it is still impressive for the time it was released. Interestingly, Blake’s 7 was supposed to only run for three seasons, but the BBC decided to commission another installment due to how popular the show was. Caprica (2010) Battlestar Galactica is widely considered one of the best sci-fi shows of all time. What many may not know is that the space opera actually has a prequel, Caprica, that debuted in 2010. Instead of following soldiers battling Cylons across the galaxy like Battlestar Galactica, the series went back 58 years to examine how the Cylons came into existence in the first place. With the success of its parent series, it's surprising that Caprica only ran for one season. Caprica wasn't really the Battlestar Galactica sequel many viewers expected. Understandably, audiences might have wanted a TV show that was a spinoff of BSG to be a military science fiction series. What we got was a show that was more interested in tech, family drama, and politics, instead of the ideas that made its parent show a cult classic. Defying Gravity (2009) Defying Gravity was a multinational production, involving American, Canadian, British, and German partners. With so many creative minds working together, one would think that the series would be etched into history as one of the greatest science fiction TV shows, or at least that it wouldn’t be axed after just one season. Defying Gravity was heavily marketed as Grey’s Anatomy in space, which ultimately worked against it. Calling the show Grey's Anatomy in space emphasized the romantic and soap opera elements rather than its ambitious science-fiction mystery. That alienated viewers looking for serious space exploration and simultaneously made the show sound like something entirely different from what science fiction fans wanted. The most frustrating thing about Defying Gravity is that it barely had time to establish itself. Only 13 episodes of the TV show were produced, and ABC aired just eight of them in the United States before pulling the series. The remaining episodes received limited exposure elsewhere and were subsequently made available through other means. FlashForward (2009–2010) MovieStillsDB FlashForward was one of the most ambitious network science-fiction dramas of the 2000s. Based on Robert J. Sawyer's novel, the series had quite the fun premise. On October 6, 2009, virtually everyone on Earth simultaneously loses consciousness for exactly two minutes and 17 seconds. During the blackout, people experience a vision of their own lives approximately six months in the future, on April 29, 2010. ABC heavily promoted FlashForward as the next major mystery box science-fiction hit in the wake of Lost. Its premiere was a major success and attracted a large viewership. However, the audience declined dramatically over the course of the season. The series also suffered from a lengthy hiatus. After its first 10 episodes aired in late 2009, the show didn't return until March 2010. That interruption came at exactly the wrong time for a mystery show that depended on viewers remembering dozens of characters, clues, and unanswered questions. If audiences didn’t tune in after FlashForward returned, it's no wonder that the show was forgotten, no matter its potential. Odyssey 5 (2002) Image via Everett Collection Created by Manny Coto, who went on to work on the Star Trek franchise a year after Odyssey 5 debuted, the series has a premise that immediately grabs its audience’s attention. Five members of the Odyssey space mission are orbiting Earth when they witness the planet implode, erasing all of humanity. All hope seems lost until the Seeker appears and takes them back in time so they can prevent the catastrophic event from happening. Odyssey 5 doesn't have the best visuals, but it is still an endlessly fascinating series. The show combines several sci-fi tropes, including time travel, space opera, and apocalyptic mystery. Odyssey 5’s sheer ambition alone should have guaranteed its continuation, particularly with Coto behind it, but that wasn’t the case, as it was canceled after one season. The 4400 (2004–2007) Image via MovieStillsDB Over the course of nearly six decades, 4,400 people mysteriously disappear. Some vanish in 1946, others decades later, and their disappearances appear completely unrelated. Then, in 2004, all 4,400 suddenly returned at once. The mystery deepens when some of the returnees begin displaying extraordinary abilities. 4400 was a reboot of The 4400. It aired in 2021 and was canceled in 2022. The real appeal of The 4400 is that its premise could support several different kinds of science fiction at once. It begins as an alien-abduction mystery, develops into a superpowered drama, becomes a government conspiracy thriller, and eventually turns into a story about time travel and humanity's evolutionary future. That's a remarkably ambitious progression for a cable series from the mid-2000s. Space: Above And Beyond (1995–1996) Image via MovieStillsDB Space: Above and Beyond is one of the best examples of a sci-fi series that was far more ambitious than its short television run suggests. Created by Glen Morgan and James Wong, the writers and producers associated with The X-Files, the Fox series imagined a future where humanity had begun colonizing other worlds and then found itself fighting a devastating interstellar war. Fox canceled Space: Above and Beyond after its first season because it wasn't attracting enough viewers to justify its considerable production costs. The show was reportedly extremely expensive for its time, with later retrospectives putting the cost at approximately $1 million per episode. Fortunately, the series is now considered one of the best military sci-fi shows out there, and is perfect for fans of Battlestar Galactica who would like to watch something similar. Devs (2020) Devs arrived with little fanfare. As a result, it wasn't a major mainstream hit, but it has developed a dedicated following. Devs wasn’t by any means a conventional sci-fi show. The series leans towards philosophical conversation more than it does on the actual science fiction aspect of it, and therein lies its beauty. That’s not to say that there isn't any actual science in the show, considering that its premise is about secret experiments. Unlike other TV shows on this list, Devs was conceived as a self-contained eight-episode limited series, which means that its story is complete. The sci-fi show is visually stunning, with one of its most appealing qualities being Nick Offerman, who took on an unusually serious dramatic role as Forest, far removed from the comedic persona audiences associated with Parks and Recreation.