The Best One Season Sci-Fi Shows 

Something like Firefly is probably just given a lifetime achievement award for this sort of list and ineligible for competition.

Earth 2 was another good show that had only one season. I wish it could be revived or rebooted.

Odyssey 5 had huge potential

One rarely mentioned, but had huge missed potential was the BBC's ambitious 'Outcasts.' A fairly slow burn that centred mainly on the interpersonal relationships, but then dropped a massive cliffhanger ending at the end of the season.

I have seen it since it was first aired (about 30 years ago), but I was a fan of Earth 2. I think it only had one season

Great list. I would also mentions "Invasion," a 1997 ABC TV series which told the story of the aftermath of a hurricane in which water-based creatures infiltrate a small Florida town and begin to take over the bodies of the town's inhabitants. It was a sort of so=low burn "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and had a creepy, paranoid air.

The original Something is Out There mini-series was pretty good, but is obviously of its time now. The BBC's Invasion: Earth with Fred Ward and Anton Lesser was great.

Two words - The Middleman. So full of pop culture references that each episode has a guide. It was on ABC Family, so noooobody saw it. It’s comfort food TV. I like the theory that Almost Human depicts the future of 80s action movies, where everything defaults to over the top violence. For vintage, one-season sci-fi, try Men Into Space from 1959/60 and the *wildly* German Space Patrol Orion, which beat Star Trek to the punch. Men Into Space is actually accurate based on what they thought at the time, and follows the space program as it builds towards a manned Mars mission.

Absolutely loved Briscoe!

A sci-fi TV show that absolutely everyone on RU-vid overlooks is 'Missions' possibly because it is in French, English, and Russian. Also, the Americans in the show are not necessarily the 'good guys' or even the main characters.

Strange Luck, VR5, Earth 2, if you do a part 2.

VR.5. It might not have been completely great and certainly hasn’t aged well technology wise, but a lot of people I’ve talked to who saw it have said they loved it (in fact, the fans got together and almost got Fox to make a film to wrap up the story, but it didn;t make it past the scripting stage). I myself do also. I wish there was an official DVD release, but the closest thing to watching the show is the entire series from recorded VHSes of the broadcast via RU-vid uploads or on the Internet Archive, or for the hard to find VHS release of the show.

Oddly enough, I agree with all these except for "Defying Gravity." I never heard of it. I'll have to watch it now. 🤓 Some comments about the other shows. Almost Human - It was shown out of order? Maybe that's why I lost interest after 4 episodes. I'll have to re-watch it. The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. - Great series. I got the DVD years ago. Favorite line "Thanks for the donut, Dunkin." Crusade - A good follow-up to Babylon 5 except it had a giant space pee-pee as the spaceship. 😉 Caprica - "All the marketing had the actress naked with an apple." That is my strongest memory of that show!

Thanks for the list. gonna check it all out!!!!

Max Headroom.

I wonder if the 2005 series Invasion should get an honorable mention. I know the 2008 series The Middleman definitely should.

Dresden files. Threshold.

The River

Debris is high on my list. If anyone caught it while it was on air, consider yourself lucky. I was disappointed when it got cancelled. I even joined a Facebook group dedicated to the show. Something I've never done before 😂

surface was good plus lake bell

Surface was a tragic loss. It was just getting good. Of course You really should have mentioned Threshold. One season and cut off in it's prime. Had BIG names like Carla Gugino, Peter Dinklage, Catherine Bell, Brent Spiner, Charles Dutton and many others. GREAT show that never got any follow through.

Does anyone remember Syfy's "First Wave"? Great potential about alien invasion using the prophecies of Nostradamus. Wish it would come out on Blu-Ray!

Lolll. The upside down iPhone at 9m 17s.

Journeyman looks interesting. I saw Kevin McKidd in Rome but nothing else. (Rome was a great historic fantasy if that also appeals.)

Almost human is one of those 10 season super shows we could've had.

Debris was the show people slept on.

Almost human was amazing.

Two of my favorites are John Doe and Dresden Files. However, I don't know if they are Sci Fi or Fantasy.

Nowhere man.

Spacehunter and Spacehunter Redux short lived sci-fi series Spacehunter is actually an excellent show. The same cast came back and redid the series as Spacehunter Redux about 10 years later.

Travellers and Dark Matter (2015), even if the latter did manage 3 seasons.

Loved surface

I’d add five more: Earth 2 Charlie Jade The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne Threshold Ascension

If you want a more action focused prequel to BSG 04 I highly recommend the turn-based strategy game BSG: Deadlock.

No one has mentioned the Crossing as far as I can tell.

Hypernaughts was a good one season show.

I loved Brisco County Jr. Bruce was great! What catagory would you put the one season of, The Lone Gunmen? Space: Above And Beyond, was a masterpiece. One live action series I watched here was, Patlabor, about police mecha, made in Japan, and is based on both a manga, and anime. Take care, and all the best.

Time tunnel (I think though, it lasted 2 seasons)

Space:1999 should have only had one season . Buck Rogers in 25 th century too.

Caprica leant too far into teenage drama to be interesting. Brisco County Jr was great fun, but needed more Steampunk.

Almost human, definitely. It was fairly obvious it was shown out of order, which kind of sucks. The onscreen chemistry between urban and ealy was absolute perfection. Defying gravity, not so much. Made it maybe to the second episode before i dropped it altogether. Boring doesn't even come close to how bad that show was. Caprica, again, not a particularly good series. It contradicts too much of the BSG '03 story. Briscoe county jr, that will always get a 'hell yeah' from me. it was goofy, shlocky, and totally unhinged at times. Firefly, Had the exact same problem as Almost human, episodes aired out of order, bouncing time slot, etc. As for whedon being 'cancelled', meh, nothing stops another writer from picking up that gauntlet. Sadly Ron glass(shepherd book) passed away, so we could never get the band back together. Not to mention, they killed a few characters in the movie, so it just wouldn't be the same. Flashforward, never watched it, wasn't particularly interested in the premise. SAAB, another, hell yeah. With modern tech, this could be an amazing show to reboot. Crusade, yet another show that also got aired out of order, and was honestly kind of meh. Don't really think the original idea would have saved it either. Surface, didn't even know that one existed. Journey man, that one i'm a bit on the fence about. It was basically a quantum leap knock off. Not in a particularly bad way, but it wasn't that great. Still find it kind of funny that it ended similarly to quantum leap. A couple shows that i'd personally have liked to see more seasons of, New amsterdam(2008) and Forever. Both shows involve 'immortal' characters and them trying to figure out how to not be anymore.

Any production company that is dumb enough to bring a Sci-Fi show to Fox or allow them to buy airing rights deserves what they get at this point. From miserable time slots, to shifting which day the show airs sometimes every week and rearranging to episode order, the show is guaranteed to tie a gruesome death after no more than 2 seasons with most not even making it a full season. Seriously, the only 'Sci Fi' ish series to last any length of time on Fox was the X-Files, and well, Fox didn't have anything to replace it with so kept it around.

What about Space Rangers? 🤔

Life on Mars

Night Sky

😊😊😊😊great

For the UK (and if you like classic Dr Who/Blakes 7 wobbly sets) "Star Cops" (awful title and probably blowing the budget on Justin Hayward's theme song didn't help). ...and of course the BBC version of Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (if only for the brilliant animated narration sequences)

😢

I'm going to add a (possibly unpopular) shout out to Netflix's live action "Cowboy Bebop".

I'm sorry, but I remember Caprica, no one liked it. While the posters that few saw may have had the nude image, the commercials were pretty were pretty clear. I recall many people on the forums at the time saying it was boring and stale, and didn't give people the space battles which was the only reason anyone actually watched Battlestar. recall, the new reboot has basically thrown out that version of BSG. The final season of the main show was even considered a flop. In fact I recall, everyone hated the main female character, I forget the exact reasons, but they hated her.