Over the last few years my family and I have binged all of Star Trek, then moved on to Star Trek adjacent shows like The Orville and Stargate. At the moment we’re not really watching anything sci-fi. I was wondering if anyone had recommendations for similar shows (or maybe some books) that fill the void left by Star Trek. In particular I really like the episodes that deal with interacting with other civilizations, diplomacy, and exploration more-so than say, an anomaly episode.
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I’d say the The Expanse fits the bill. It is a book series with a very successful television adaptation.
100%. Just finished watching the entire series a couple days ago and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Concur. I’m a huge Trek fan, and The Expanse fits that blend of optimism and realpolitik.
I’d have enjoyed it a lot more with a better main character. He really is the blandest white man in the universe.
Definitely. There were a few things that could have been optimized a bit more, like dat invented language wot dey speaking in. David Strathairn totally sounded like Bruce Lee when he tried to get the accent down. But I appreciated their attention to details, like requiring “juice” for high-g burns (as opposed to Star Trek ships hitting near light speed with the crew only needing to hold the edge of a nearby desk to handle the acceleration).
I’m still wondering what the heck the storyline idea was with those weird dog like creatures 🤷🏻♂️
the infuriating thing is that according to the books he is a pretty unique mix of … checking … ”the only child in a family co-op of five fathers and three mothers“
they could have done almost anything with the character in terms of appearance and chose this sigh
I love the expanse i think it is one of the best recent space sci fi shows.
But its not really a startek style show and i dont think its what op is looking for.
I think the show sliders would be much better if stargate is a good example of a non startrek franchise that fits the bill.
But then so is Doctor Who now that i think about it
Huh, I didn’t really think of Dr Who and Star Trek in the same terms. I guess? Dr Who is great, but it’s so much campier than anything after TOS. Also, I’ve only watched New Who. I did try watching the first old ep a while back but it wasn’t really something I could watch. But it’s such a long running series, are there any seasons of the old show that are super worth watching?
I’ll also check out Sliders.
Classic Who went through enough changes that there might be something you enjoy in there. It was arguably at its best during the Tom Baker years. (Season 12). If you can’t get into that, then it may just not be your jam. A lot of the charm to the old series came from the low budgets and aggressively short production times. But with the 4th Doctor they had gotten a little more confidence from BBC and I think their budgets started getting bigger for a few years.
The original Doctor Who in the 60s was more like original series Star Trek, in that it sometimes felt more like a stage production than a television show, and that kind of writing is understandably dated.
I was worried about it being a bit of a departure, but it does fit if we apply your interest broadly
And no i cant recommend any of the old Who because i also could not watch it.
Sorry friend, but i hope you find something that scratches your itch! Ide love an update if you find something that fits the bill! Even if its just s DM letting me know what you settled on
Thanks. Downloading it now.
Oh that’s one I’ve seen. I enjoyed the first few seasons but got kind of tired it after trying to watch the first few eps of a recent season. Around the time where that spacer started hucking rocks at Earth. I don’t know how it was gonna go from there, but it was starting to feel very… supervillain has a good point so let’s make them do awful things so you can’t sympathize with them. Idk, I could probably be convinced to give it another try if people thought it got good.
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^ This person right here knows their sci-fi. A lot of good recommendations here.
Special shout-out on Dark Matter. I found the first episode almost unwatchable, but that was because I went into it with the wrong attitude. If you don’t take it to seriously it’s a really fun show (as I discovered when I gave it a second chance). And it just gets better and better. Such a shame it was cancelled too soon (though that seems to go for about 95% of science-fiction TV shows!).
Lexx is fun too, just in a really weird and raunchy way.
STARGATE!
Goofy, but also deep enough. It captures some of that Startrek: TNG vibe in a totally different way. Not a lot of modern stuff has come close to that balance, closest would be Orville and while closest that leans far more into the comedy (I also still effing love that show, I’m just saying it’s different).
Also totally agree re: SGU. I loved it. I get why it’s divisive, but it’s still one of my favorites.
::: It’s the first part of the series where humans are on the cutting edge, not behind. Everyone else is gone, everything we knew is outdated, we are finally carrying the burden of being “the fifth race”. It’s dark because it has to be. It’s an amazing addition that was just starting to spread its wings when it got cancelled, :::
It’s an amazing addition that was just starting to spread its wings when it got cancelled.
Seaquest dsv is what they want. They changed it to seaquest 2023 for the last season, but I’d skip that anyway, I rewatched it a couple of years ago and that season is just straight garbage. Big changes to the cast, apparently the cast and the producers etc were constantly bickering, and boy does it show. Easy to see why it got canned before the season had even ended.
Very solid list. I have not thought about Seaquest in a very very long time. Might need to rewatch it here. I remember its originally airing like it was yesterday.
Also Sliders is a great 90s sci-fi TV show for up to the 3rd or 4th season from what I remember. As soon as the doc left it went down hill from what I remember 20 some years ago
Babylon 5 and Farscape are great.
Babylon 5 is more like Trek with diplomacy and semi-realisitic plots, while Farscape leans a bit more toward Star Wars; fun, campy, weird at times but well-written.
You may also like Red Dwarf which is like the IT crowd, but in space.
Yass red dwarf!! Grew up watching the series on public television.
This comment includes all the shows I would also recommend.
Babylon 5 came out about the same time as Star Trek DS9. The first season is sometimes hard to get through, but well worth it. The character development and storylines are mostly excellent as they grow and intersect throughout the show. Season 5 can take or leave.
Farscape is another one where some people are turned off by the Jim Henson puppetesque characters. Another older show but has some great storylines and character development.
Red Dwarf, older British Humor, silly.
Highly recommend giving Farscape and Bab5 a try.
Your last line has sold me on red dwarf 😂
Its very old, be prepared for some content that is not appropriate today.
Also if you do watch it. Kryten’s way of speaking is based on Robert Llewewllyns visit to vancouver canada and how he felt people in vancouver spoke, or at least thats the story i remember. Doesnt really factor into the show, i just thought it was an interesting choice given the distinct way Kryten speaks
Kryten enunciates so precisely. His accent is easy to understand and a pleasure to listen to. British English has so many different accents that it is sometimes difficult to follow without subtitles.
Haha cheers for the heads up!
Start with series 3, that’s where it was up to speed and you don’t miss much
You do miss out on how the show got better over time. It’s painful but its worth it for the overall enjoyment of the show.
Not trying to convince you though, just expressing a counter perspective for otthers on why it might be worth not skipping
Farscape gets… weird
civilizations, diplomacy, and exploration
Babylon 5 - It has a bit of a slow start with the first season (just the 1990’s Trek shows), but it picks up about midway through season 1 and gets progressively better (higher stakes) until season 4. Season 5 is okay, and then there are series of movies, and recently even an animated show in the universe.
To add to this, they have been talking about remaking the show.
So what you’re saying is, I should watch it now so I can complain when the remake isn’t as good. /s
I mean, the Expanse is fantastic sci fi, both book and show. It’s not that Star Trek like though.
In particular I really like the episodes that deal with interacting with other civilizations, diplomacy, and exploration more-so than say, an anomaly episode.
In light of this, and since you were able to work through the not-so-stellar episodes of ST, I’d strongly argue that Babylon 5 should be your next stop.
It has a slow start, some more mixed episodes, dated special effects and both main characters (they switched after season 1) are plain “heroic American leader” types, but virtually everything else is top tier even today. An excellent political plot, humor, great characters with genuine growth.
Just be aware that it is different from DS9 (personally, I like both).
Battlestar Galactica (the new one) and The Expanse are probably worth pointing out, too. To me, they’re the best high-production-value sci-fi shows that didn’t sacrifice their plot. Nevertheless, both are far more grim than the shows you’ve mentioned and overall “feel” different.
Was going to say Babylon 5, but yeah it’s very 90s at this point. I do love it very much
BSG (the 2003 remake) was amazing. So much better than the original version. And it really ushered in a new era of more gritty, darker science fiction on television. My only complaint with it was that they largely botched the ending (especially the whole Starbuck thing. But I won’t elaborate on that as it is spoiler-heavy).
The other science fiction series that I feel most-closely mimic the energy of Star Trek:
- Star Gate SG1/Atlantis - Episodic planetary exploration and adventure with overarching serial universe-building
- Babylon 5 - Space politics and looming galactic war (the show pitched to Paramount right before they made Deep Space Nine)
- The Orville - Space utopia and moral dilemma seen from the outside (The Next Generation with all the funny outtakes left in)
(This list is for anyone reading. Enjoy B5, OP! Let us know when you get to that part where everyone cries.)
The Expanse is an amazing sci-fi series that just gets better every season. Politics, war, discovery of new life, all within new civilizations cataloguing the early expansion of humans from the Earth to within our local system. Acting is top tier, graphics get better each season due to it’s meteoric rise in popularity.
But yeah, nothing quite like those pure gold episodes of Star Trek: TNG. The new Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is more like TNG than the other series going on right now, but only has 2 seasons at this point I believe.
If you like British comedy then Red Drarf was surprisingly good imo
The summary I just read sounds great, thanks for the tip!
Ooh… I’m not sure if a summary really can set expectations in this case. But do give it a try! It’s silly but it’s hilarious.
+1 for Red Dwarf. Cheesy in a great way
I don’t know if you gave Stargate Atlantis a try. It doesn’t reach the heights of SG1, but it has it’s moments and is enjoyable overall.
Stargate Universe was awesome. I will die on this hill.
Season 1 has some rough episodes, but the second season was great.
We watched Atlantis then some of the movies. When we looked into SGU it was on a different streaming service and we read it wasn’t great and got canceled early. Still worth seeing the little that’s there? Does it feel like it got to end on its own terms or is the cutoff jarring?
Yeah, SG1 was outstanding, SG:Atlantis had its moments but was annoying, SGU was just bad.
I personally couldn’t get into SGU. I don’t know how it ends because I never finished it. It felt like it was trying too hard to be like the Battlestar Galactica reboot.
The obvious answers are outside TV media.
Mass Effect 1, the video game, was originally conceived as a Star Trek game, but they couldn’t secure the IP rights, so ended up pivoting to a new universe that feels Star Trek like. Play it on story mode.
In print, there are literally a hundred reasonable options, some more or less like different elements of Trek. A good choice (in my opinion) is The Spiral Wars – rogue ship and crew, diplomacy, great combat, alien civilizations that are non-monolithic… Or CJ Cherryh’s Alliance Union universe (a good entry point is Downbelow Station, a good overview of the universe) – many different scenarios and topics and a lot of ethical dilemmas that would make Trek proud.
Of course, if TV is your thing, try out Babylon 5, Stargate, or Farscape. They all sort of start slow.
If you’re not into games I can recommend the excellent playthroughs by NitaZera. There’s no player commentary, just pure game. It’s like watching a TV show. Of course you miss out on making your own choices but the author has made sure to pick interesting ones. There is continuity because the events of each game (and the choices) build on each other.
The way you describe it reminds me of Primitive Technologies.
Thanks for your post even though it wasnt for meant for me!
I played through ME1-3. I didn’t know it was inspired by Star Trek but I could see it. I will say to anyone else that reads this, ME 1 feels really old and janky at this point. I got through it and enjoyed the story, but the gameplay was an unpleasant experience. ME 2 and 3 do a lot better in that regard, but then you have to get disappointed by the end of 3… so…
Highly recommend the Culture Novels by Iain M Banks. They’re not necessarily family friendly due to some adult themes and moments, but diplomacy, exploration and intrigue are the main focuses with a bit of action sprinkled in.
I haven’t seen Battlestar Galactica mentioned here. Great sci-fi show, although there is pretty much no alien life to speak of. Instead it’s a juggling act between humans and the robots they created, in space. I’d almost say it’s a long-form version of Blade Runner, where the robots actually beat humanity and forced them to run from Earth for survival.
If you like reading leftist utopian sci-fi, it doesn’t get much better than The Culture series by Iain M. Banks. It gets dark though!
If you want something that’s in the vein of episodic sci fi and is family friendly, try find Seaquest DSV.
In that same vein again, i would recommend Andromeda as it was created by Gene Roddenberry but the lead was Kevin Sorbo who had gone full maga mode, so maybe pirate that one 😁
Edit: did you also watch all of Stargate Atlantis & Universe?
Watched Atlantis but not Universe. It was on another streaming service and we read it got canceled relatively quickly. Still worth a try?
I enjoyed it. It’s a different vibe to the others but still enjoyable. A lot of human drama and tensions
