Science fiction and fantasy' is a pretty broad term when it comes to what we can soak up via our screens. So, if at any point during this piece you feel we’ve overstepped a boundary and stretched those borders just a tad too far, bear with us. We’re only human after all—we’re not the robots, AI, aliens, ghosts, or werewolves you’re used to tuning in to.
When it comes to that far-reach of the galaxy fantasy viewing, let’s just say nobody’s going home empty-handed. There’s plenty of great viewing at every turn and on any budget.
As you’d imagine, Netflix and Prime do a pretty good job of controlling the market, as they pretty much do right across the entertainment board. Yet, a year or two ago, another major contender stepped into the mix with a mass of bang-up-to-date science fiction and fantasy programming in the shape of Disney+ (Disney Plus).
You’d be hard pushed in today’s age of television to fail to find a good handful of superb science fiction TV shows on any of the popular services, but we’re going to give you a few pointers into getting the best of the action.
And of course, it would be remiss to fail to include the home of everything Star Trek in our offerings; head over to Paramount+ for the entire catalogue—old and new.
Other honourable mentions go to …
For the most up-to-the-minute facts and figures from the experts at Reelgood (our go-to when it comes to all shows streaming), we searched for science fiction TV shows with the highest Reelgood scores, and then for science fiction movies with the highest Reelgood scores, too. If you’d rather put your trust into IMDb, you can, or you can search all the latest releases. It’s a great place to start picking out your new favourites.
Okay, the list goes on and on, and our top-ten might not look the same from where you are, but with StreamLocator in place, it doesn’t matter—the door’s open for all your global streaming needs.
There are quite a few Marvel series still in wider circulation; who knows if they’ll stay out there or be pulled to Disney Plus exclusively. Stream ‘em up from your existing services while you still can!
The highest-scoring movies include masses of classic science fiction and fantasy movie titles. And there’s plenty to pick from.
In fact, the highest score in our search went to Castle in the Sky (Netflix) from 1986! Other unsurprisingly popular classics included X2, Solaris, Inception, Superman, The Matrix, and Back to the Future. I don’t need to go on—you get the idea. Plenty of high-scoring classics; everything you need for a rainy day in front of your favourite screen.
Leaving the past in the past (or don’t, we wouldn’t!), here are a few more recent suggestions that we think nobody should miss from the big platforms. If you’ve got ideas of your own to what we should all be watching, we’d love to hear about them.
If you haven’t seen Netflix nostalgic trip into science fiction and fantasy, then really—where have you been? Do you even have a TV? It’s a few years old now, but don’t let that put you off; it’s still as good as when it first aired. So far, we’re 3 seasons in with a brand new 4th just around the corner (allegedly!). It’s easy to absorb TV, yet brilliantly put together, holding you through every twist and turn of the story.
This beautifully constructed and delivered reboot—now with three complete seasons—gives sci-fi fans plenty to get stuck into. There’s so much to this show, it’s impossible to sum up in a few sentences, but consider killer robots with consciousnesses as the attractions in a wild-west theme park of the future, and you’ve about skimmed the slightest sliver from the surface. Superb performances that put this favourite of ours firmly on the map.
With possibly the most committed adaptation to Margaret Atwood’s 1985 book to date (and there have been a few), The Handmaid’s Tale is still going strong 3 seasons in. In a future world where STDs and pollution all but destroyed human fertility, control of the women left fertile is controlled by a programme set to satisfy their male masters.
It feels like it's taken forever, but Star Wars fans finally have a live-action TV series with a budget and all the trimmings to match the movies. Following the original trilogy (5 years after Return of the Jedi), the tale tells of a lone Mandalorian bounty hunter, Din Djarin, who’s on the run (of course!) in true Star Wars style. After being hired to retrieve the child Grogu, he decides to protect the infant instead.
Grogu, or Baby Yoda as he’s commercially most well known, has captured the hearts of viewers throughout the world, as well as the accountants and marketers of Disney’s unstoppable merchandising machine!
It seems like we’ve seen thousands of Marvel movies and TV shows since Iron Man landed on our screens (on one knee, probably, with a fist on the floor in front of him) back in 2008.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is the latest big to small screen connect, with Sam Wilson, the Falcon, and Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier, knee-deep in the events following Avengers: Endgame.
The BBC is renowned for a different style when it comes to its science fiction. With a typically more family-focused audience, brought up on a diet of Dr Who, you can see how His Dark Materials follows a well-defined methodology, yet again delivering cracking TV fit for all.
Based on parallel universes, magic, science, and theology, with children as lead characters, it’s BEEB through and through; it’s really quite brilliant. It won’t ever be Westworld, The Walking Dead, or The Handmaid’s Tale—but it doesn’t need to be, does it? It delivers a lovely shift in pace from heavier hitting, adult options.
We’re going to wrap up with a recent release (at the time of press) that we think is well worth a stream. Based on the Baker Street Irregulars of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle fame, the show follows a group of teenagers rallied to assist Dr John Watson in solving increasingly supernatural crimes as he searches for the missing Sherlock Holmes.
Head over to our streaming services page to see just how many different streamers we’ve cracked, providing our subscribers with access to the TV shows from every corner of the world. With different catalogues of TV and movie selections in every location, you’re opening yourselves up to far more of the best entertainment than ever.
Well, in this version of the universe anyway…
