Power, Survival and Humanity: 6 Greatest Sci-Fi Shows of the Last 50 Years, Ranked
Science Fiction Finds Room on TV
Science fiction once seemed better suited to movies, where spaceships, alien worlds and futuristic technology could be presented as spectacle. Television showed that the genre could benefit from having more time to tell its stories.
Longer storytelling gives series space to develop characters and settings, making even far-reaching ideas feel tangible. Some of television’s most ambitious sci-fi stories have also changed audience expectations for the genre.
Battlestar Galactica’s Moral Questions
In Battlestar Galactica, humanity’s artificial creations, the Cylons, rebel and devastate the Twelve Colonies. About 50,000 survivors flee aboard a fleet of ships led by the aging Battlestar Galactica, while Commander William Adama, played by Edward James Olmos, works to keep them alive. President Laura Roslin, played by Mary McDonnell, tries to preserve a government as the fleet searches for Earth.
The Cylons can look human, and some hide among the survivors. That threat leads the series into questions about religion, military power and occupation, without making either side an uncomplicated hero or villain. Its central concern is what parts of humanity deserve to be saved.
The Expanse and Political Tension
The Expanse depicts humanity spread across the solar system, divided among Earth, Mars and the residents of the asteroid belt. Earth retains substantial political power, Mars has built a militarized society, and Belters extract resources while holding little influence. The balance begins to falter when detective Josephus Miller, played by Thomas Jane, investigates Julie Mao’s disappearance; Florence Faivre plays Mao.
James Holden, played by Steven Strait, and the surviving Canterbury crew are caught in an incident that threatens interplanetary war. Their storylines converge around the protomolecule, an alien technology that changes humanity’s understanding of the universe. The series keeps politics and practical limits in view, with distance, gravity, fuel and scarce resources shaping what characters can do.
Key points
- Battlestar Galactica follows about 50,000 survivors fleeing the destruction of the Twelve Colonies.
- Human-looking Cylons bring questions of identity and morality into Battlestar Galactica.
- The Expanse divides solar-system society among Earth, Mars and the asteroid belt.
- The protomolecule discovery in The Expanse alters humanity’s understanding of the universe.