Star Trek is a landmark of television, and I’m not here to tear it down. I’ve spent a long time watching it – all of it, the good, the truly great, and the stretches that test your patience like nothing else. The Original Series still holds up in ways that surprise me. The Next Generation peaked somewhere in its third season and stayed there for years. Deep Space Nine remains the most underrated entry in the franchise. But somewhere around the late 2010s, when every new Star Trek show seemed locked in a race to outrun the last one, I found myself returning to one question: What does space opera look like when the weight of a 60-year-old franchise isn’t sitting on its shoulders?
The answer is extraordinary. Every show on this list earns its place by doing something Star Trek either couldn’t or wouldn’t. That means committing to a single, multi-layer story arc, refusing the utopian comfort of Starfleet’s moral compass, or just treating the galaxy as a weird and hostile place. My criteria were simple. The show had to be a proper space opera, with a big universe and real consequences; it had to sustain itself across multiple seasons or at least leave a mark too deep to ignore; and it had to do at least one thing better than the best of Star Trek.
Why You Should Trust Me: I’ve been writing about sci-fi movies and TV shows at MovieWeb for several years, and the genre was a personal obsession long before that. I’ve watched more space opera shows than is probably healthy, and that includes rewatching some of the shows on this list several times, as well as deep dives into production history. When I recommend something in this genre, it comes from a real place.
Honorable Mentions
‘Andor’ (2022 – 2024) – Technically set in the Star Wars universe, Andor is the closest thing to a prestige political thriller this galaxy has ever produced. It belongs in every conversation about great sci-fi, and the only reason it’s not on the main list is that it’s Star Wars, not an original space opera.
‘Dark Matter’ (2024– Present) – The Apple TV adaptation of Black Crouch’s novel arrived with surprisingly little fanfare and turned out to be a tightly constructed sci-fi thriller. However, it’s more of a thriller than an opera, which keeps it seated in the honorable mentions.
‘Killjoys’ (2015 – 2019) – This series has five seasons and tells a complete story that’s equally funny and dark. It never got the recognition it deserved, likely because it aired on Syfy. If you’re working through this list and want something lighter in tone, start here.
‘The Orville’ (2017 – 2022)
Seth MacFarlane Created the Star Trek Show That Modern Trek Forgot How to Make
When critics eviscerated The Orville in 2017, viewers didn’t quite agree. While Star Trek: Discovery debuted the same fall to its own divided reception, The Orville quietly pulled millions of weekly viewers who recognized something the critics missed: this was the show that understood why people loved space opera. It knew how to tell a moral fable without lecturing, how to let a crew actually like each other, and how to balance lighter moments with sincere ones. After three seasons, The Orville moved to Disney+ and found even more viewers, many of whom were used to streaming Star Wars content but decided to stick around for something different.
Watch This If: You’ve grown increasingly frustrated with what Star Trek has become and want a show where a crew of flawed, funny people explore space together and grapple with thorny moral dilemmas. Season 3, in particular, is as good as it gets.
Skip This If: The first half of Season 1 is bumpy in ways that are hard to defend. The tonal balance between comedy and drama hasn’t settled, and a couple of episodes are rough enough to make you question the entire premise. I recommend pushing through to Episode 7 (“Majority Rule”) before you decide.
‘Stargate SG-1’ (1997 – 2007)
10 Seasons, One Guinness Record, and a Mythology That Kept Expanding
Early in its 10th season, Stargate SG-1 entered The Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running science fiction series produced in North America. It surpassed The X-Files with 214 episodes across a decade. It’s remarkable. However, what’s even more remarkable is that it didn’t coast on nostalgia or a built-in fanbase. It started as a sequel to a mid-budget 1994 movie and, episode by episode, built a mythology, a civilization, and a hierarchy. Also, I absolutely admire how Richard Dean Anderson’s self-deprecating, deeply competent Jack O’Neill never once tried to be Kirk.
Watch This If: You want a show that rewards patience the same way a long novel does. The seasons feel like a military sci-fi procedural. It is accessible and fun. Somewhere around Season 4, the story deepens, and you realize the emotional payoff will be brilliant.
Skip This If: Season 1 is slow. The world-building is doing essential work, but the pacing reflects a 1997 television environment that wasn’t made for binging. If you need a show that hooks you immediately, this isn’t it.
‘Foundation’ (2021 – Present)
The Show That Spent 70 Years Being Unadaptable
Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy won the Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series in 1966, beating out The Lord of the Rings. For decades, Hollywood agreed it was phenomenal and couldn’t figure out what to do with it. The source material spans millennia, has minimal action, and centers on the abstract idea that mathematics can predict the fall of civilizations. Apple TV spends upwards of $10 million per episode to bring that vision to life, and it shows in every single episode. The show invents and expands upon parts of the books, adding weight and consequence to a story that was always fundamentally about time and consequence.
Watch This If: You’ve read the books and always wanted them to have a pulse… or if you’ve never read them and want a space opera that puts its faith in you to keep up. The Cleonic dynasty storyline is quite unsettling. In Season 2, Foundation stops being impressive and starts being incredible.
Skip This If: You’re a strict Asimov purist who needs the adaptation to play it straight. I am one of those people, and I’ve noticed the show departs significantly from the source material, introduces characters and storylines that don’t exist in the books, and makes changes Asimov himself might have either endorsed or hated.
‘Farscape’ (1999 – 2003)
The Jim Henson Company’s Weirdest, Most Emotionally Complex Sci-Fi Show in History
Commissioned by the Sci-Fi Channel and produced by the Jim Henson Company, Farscape ran for four seasons and featured a cast of criminals on the run that included two full puppet characters, Rygel, a small and magnificently arrogant alien monarch, and Pilot, a massive multi-limbed creature that required 16 operators to bring to life. The puppetry is almost beside the point once the show finds its rhythm. Years before the Peak TV era made it fashionable, Farscape understood that the most compelling sci-fi shows are about psychological disintegration as much as adventure.
Watch This If: You’re bored with sci-fi shows that play it safe. Farscape has a reputation for exploring dark territories, and by the time the story becomes brutal, you’re so invested in these characters that it lands like a gut punch.
Skip This If: The production looks dated in places, and the tone ranges from physical comedy to psychological horror, sometimes in the same episode. It can be disorienting early on. If you need a show to commit to one register from the start, Farscape will test you.
‘Firefly’ (2002)
14 Episodes, and 20-Plus Years of Grief
I always think of Firefly less as a space adventure and more as a story about people stuck in economic and emotional limbo, trying to stay intact inside a system that has already moved on without them. Fox aired the episodes out of their intended order, promoted it with trailers that made it look like a genre comedy, and parked it in the Friday night death slot before canceling it with three episodes still unaired. More than 20 years later, Firefly carries a 96% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, and its core cast continues to move me. The crew of Serenity is very likable and honest.
Watch This If: You haven’t seen it and consider yourself a sci-fi fan, and I’m slightly envious because you get to watch it for the first time. Use the correct order (starting with the two-part pilot “Serenity,” not “The Train Job”), and clear your weekend schedule. There’s a reason people who love this show feel that way.
Skip This If: Unfinished stories are painful for you. The 2005 movie provides some closure, but it’s costly closure, as it solves the narrative problem by removing what made the narrative so good.
‘Babylon 5’ (1993 – 1998)
Essentially Invented Prestige Serialized Television… on a Cable Budget, a Decade Before Anyone Coined the Term
Every prestige drama I’ve watched that tells a single, planned story across multiple seasons, be it The Wire, Breaking Bad, The Expanse, or Mad Men, owes a debt to what J. Michael Straczynski proved was possible in 1993. Babylon 5 was the first show to introduce viewers to a multi-year story with a pre-planned beginning, middle, and end. JMS wrote 92 of the show’s 110 episodes, and that level of singular creative control is the root of foreshadowing that pays off three seasons later.
Watch This If: You’re the kind of viewer who likes knowing where the story is going, and who trusts that the seeds being planted in Season 1 are going somewhere worth waiting for. Babylon 5 is slow-burning by design, and when those threads converge in Seasons 3 and 4, it’s a beautiful feeling.
Skip This If: The production values are a genuine obstacle. Season 1 was made in 1993, and the CGI has aged about as badly as anything from that era. The writing is exceptional enough, though. If you can’t engage with a story through visual limitations, this will be a hard sell. But you’ll miss out on a lot.
‘Battlestar Galactica’ (2004 – 2009)
No Sci-Fi Show Has Come Close to How Uncompromising ‘Battlestar Galactica’ Is
Battlestar Galactica won a Peabody Award, the Television Critics Association’s Program of the Year Award, landed on Time’s 100 Best TV Shows of All-Time list, and collected 19 Emmy nominations. That’s the official record. Here’s the personal one: I watched Season 2, Episode 10, “Pegasus,” for the first time and had to stop halfway because it was so unflinching about what human beings do to each other under pressure that I needed a moment to process it. Ronald D. Moore, who cut his teeth writing for The Next Generation, built BSG as a deliberate inversion of Star Trek’s optimism. And it doesn’t let anyone – the President, the Admiral, the audience – off the hook.
Watch This If: You want science fiction that operates at its best and doesn’t use the genre as an excuse to soften anything. Start with the miniseries as it sets up the emotional stakes.
Skip This If: Morally compromised protagonists are a dealbreaker for you. BSG breathes on the premise that there are no clean hands, and every major character (including the ones you love most) will do something hard to forgive. If that’s not a world you want to spend 73 episodes in, the show will wear you down.
‘The Expanse’ (2015 – 2022)
Canceled Twice, Rescued by Fans, and Still the Best Hard Science Fiction Shows of All Time
I’ve always found The Expanse most compelling when it’s simply letting systems like gravity, scarcity, and ideology collide. Watching how people adapt inside those constraints is just as fascinating. None of the other excellent shows on this list — like Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica — treat the physics and politics of space as inseparable. However, The Expanse does. It doesn’t portray space as silent and cinematic, but as dark, indifferent, and full of bodies that can’t get home. Seasons 3, 4, and 5 each earned perfect 100% scores from critics, and yet, The Expanse earned zero Emmy nominations across its entire run.
Watch This If: You’re willing to give a show three episodes before you judge it. The Expanse front-loads its world-building and asks you to be patient. By Episode 4, the show reveals what it actually is, and from that point on, it’s almost impossible to stop. This is the rare sci-fi series that gets better every season.
Skip This If: You need narrative momentum, and a slow-burning political setup is something you cannot lean into. The Expanse is based on a novel and moves like a novel. That’s a compliment, but it’s also a real description of what it demands from you.
Do you agree that these space operas are better than Star Trek? Was your favorite on the list? Let us know in the comments!
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
