15 Most Visually Stunning Sci-Fi TV Shows

Now for a real cult classic; Battlestar Galactica (we're talking the newer version which ran from 2004 to 2009) has been widely acclaimed and hailed as a brilliant update to the 1978 original. In concept, it's a sci-fi allegory for the contemporary War on Terror, with many more adult oriented themes to boot.

The titular starship is the only armed military vessel left in the Twelve Colonies and as the hostile alien Cyclons attempt to wipe out what remains of humanity, it's up to the crew of Galactica to ferry the last remaining refugees home to a thirteenth colony, Earth.

To bring this tale to life, Zoic Studios were put in charge of rendering the future environments and they did a fantastic job in bringing the franchise back in the early 2000s. The effects of Battlestar Galactica stand out for how seamlessly they blend with the live action and it took a massive amount of work to achieve this.

It took 138 hours of daily shoots to put the backdrops and shots together and to maintain the illusion of space, the artists used many different shot types to ensure the effects never became repetitive. All told, there's a reason the show still resonates in the golden age of TV.