10 Best SciFi Series That Tragically Lasted Only One Season

10 Best Sci-Fi Series That Tragically Lasted Only One Season

Sci-fi television can offer fans the best in genre entertainment, but many new series fight to get traction, and a few end after just one season.

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Science fiction TV is a thriving, huge genre for fans, but it is also littered with shows that never had a chance to build a fanbase. For every Star Wars or Star Trek series, there are dozens of shows in the space opera subgenre that no one has ever heard of.

Many of these series might not have been that good in the first place, but there are some sci-fi shows that fans loved that never made it past one season for one reason or another. These include shows from fan-favorite creators, some that ended up revived years later in other formats, and others that fell victim to network changes.

10 Firefly – Available On Hulu

Joss Whedon proved himself with the hit fantasy series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which aired for seven seasons and was a critical and fan favorite. However, Whedon wasn’t able to find as much success after that. Even with shows that fans loved, networks cut Whedon’s legs out from under him more often than not.

With Firefly, he created a science fiction movie set in space, but with a Western aesthetic. The problem is that the show aired out of order, so fans ended up confused and lost, and the network canceled Firefly after one season. Thankfully, it returned as a movie that wrapped up the storylines.

9 The Prisoner – Available On Tubi

In 1967, a British science-fiction TV show aired that had a complicated and interesting storyline. Patrick McGoohan starred as Number Six in The Prisoner, and the series had a strange mix of thriller and sci-fi tropes, creating something entirely different.

The series began with a government worker quitting his job and trying to leave the country before someone knocks him out and abducts him. He wakes up on a coastal village, monitored with high-tech security systems. The themes surrounded individualism vs. collectivism and the one-season series ended up remade over 40 years later as a miniseries.

8 Dark Skies – Available On Tubi

Dark Skies arrived on NBC in 1996, a UFO conspiracy series that only lasted for one season with 20 episodes. The series followed the success of The X-Files and even featured a similar tag line: “History as we know it is a lie.” The series had the investigators learning that aliens manipulated moments in history in their goal of conquering Earth.

The real-life figures involved included John F. Kennedy, J. Edgar Hoover, and Jim Morrison. NBC canceled Dark Skies before the end of the first season, not giving the producers the chance to end it with some closure.

7 Battlestar Galactica – Available To Buy On Apple TV

It seems hard to believe that a science-fiction property as popular as Battlestar Galactica only lasted for one season in its original format. Released in 1978, just one year after Star Wars hit it big in theaters, the idea was that this could be a huge success for television fans along the same lines.

With a great cast, including Lorne Greene, Dirk Benedict, and Richard Hatch, as well as memorable aliens in the Cylons, it left a lasting memory on anyone who watched it at the time. It ended up only lasting one season for 24 episodes. Luckily for fans, a spinoff came in 1980 and a Battlestar Galactica reboot in the 2000s that lasted for four seasons.

6 The Event – Available To Stream On NBC

In 2011, Nick Wauters created the science fiction series The Event, which aired on the network for one year and 22 episodes. Blair Underwood shared the lead as the President of the United States in the series that involved extraterrestrials living on Earth.

The series showed how the United States government detained many of the extraterrestrials for 66 years since their ship crashed, while other members ended up assimilating into society. When the government wants to find and detain all of them, a political battle begins.

5 Misfits Of Science – Currently Not Available To Stream

Misfits of Science is mostly forgotten by most fans outside of those who were of the right age when it premiered on NBC in 1985. One year after she achieved fame thanks to an appearance in a Bruce Springsteen music video, Courtney Cox joined the cast of the science fiction series Misfits of Science.

The comedy sci-fi series featured a research scientist who puts together a team of superpowered people in the name of science. The series only lasted for 16 episodes and one season.

4 The Cape – Available On Peacock

In 2011, The Cape arrived on NBC. The series stars David Lyons as a police officer who quits the police force when a mysterious villain kills the police chief. He is then left for dead when he ends up at a tanker explosion caused by the killer.

The officer lets everyone think he died and puts on a cape and starts to try to fight crime as a vigilante, attempting to bring down the new crime lord that wants to privatize the police force for his own protection. The series ended up canceled and the series finale only aired on NBC’s website.

3 Alien Nation – Available To Rent On Prime Video

In 1988, the movie Alien Nation ended up as a decent box office success at the time, with James Caan and Mandy Patinkin starring as police officer partners, one a human and the other an alien. Its success convinced Fox to make it into a TV series with new actors in similar roles as the movie.

The series only lasted for one season and 22 episodes. It saw a UFO crash into the Mojave Desert, its inhabitants on the run from an alien overlord. They assimilate into Earth and soon join society, including taking roles in the police force.

2 Birds Of Prey – Available To Buy On Apple TV

A decade before the Harley Quinn Birds of Prey movie, the DC Comics superhero team arrived on television. In 2002, the female superheroes hit The WB with Ashley Scott as Huntress, Dina Meyer as Oracle, and Rachel Skarsten as Black Canary. The show also featured future Criminal Minds star, Shemar Moore.

The three women protected a Gotham City abandoned by Batman. The series only lasted for one season with only 13 episodes. However, it also remains known for the fact that a woman named Harleen Quinzel appears as one of the masterminds, the first live-action appearance of Harley Quinn.

1 Swamp Thing – Available On CW Seed

When DC Universe was making comic book TV shows, it had massive success with Titans and critical success with Doom Patrol. With Swamp Thing, critics also fell in love with the series, but DC Universe canceled it when the first episode aired.

The streaming service ended up allowing it to play out for a shortened season, and eventually had it air on The CW, where it gained ever more fans. Despite this, when HBO Max took over the DC shows, it brought in Titans and Doom Patrol and left Swamp Thing dead in the water with just one season.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/best-sci-fi-tv-shows-ended-after-one-season/

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