25 Greatest Sci-Fi TV Shows Of All Time

Which shows truly made us believe in the impossible?

The X Files
20th Television

Television is one of the longest-standing modern forms of escapism, allowing us to temporarily forget about the highs and lows of the real world and lose ourselves inside multiple fictional ones - and when comes to escapism, it doesn't get any better than science fiction.

A genre that has thrilled us all for decades - centuries even, if you want to predate TV and film - it has filled us with questions, answered many of them, and left us wondering if there truly is life out there.

Yes, as our endless on-screen encounters with aliens, deep conversations about cloning and bizarre obsession with technology can all attest to, science fiction has given rise to some of the greatest shows in not just its genre's history, but the history of television in general.

With that in mind, let's jump right into the annals of TV history and take a walk down the wild, the wonderful and the downright weird lane of science fiction in order to explore the greatest sci-fi entries to have ever graced the small screen.

Be warned, things are about to get freaky...

25. Quantum Leap

The X Files
Library

What happens when the government threatens to pull funding on your life's research into time travel? Why, you test that life's research on yourself and catapult out of existence and into the timeline. Yup, that's pretty much the premise for the '90s small screen spectacle that was Quantum Leap.

Physicist Sam Beckett's attempts to prove his theory correct before he was shut down resulted in him trapped in a repetitive battle with time (hello plot-of-the-week convention!) in which he landed in a random person/creature's body and had to set history right in order to return home - which never happened and only resulted in a new time mission the following week.

Quantum Leap was definitely one of the more creative uses of the genre and it probably wouldn't have worked in any other period, but the layers of cheese associated with '80s and early '90s television ensured that it did, while its often humorous tone allowed it to embrace that hilarity - in the same way that DC's Legends of Tomorrow does today.

It's just a shame that it was all let down by a poor creative decision in the series finale.

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Michael Patterson is an experienced writer with an affinity for all things film and TV. He may or may not have spent his childhood obsessing over WWE.