Most Scifi fans I have ran into can pretty quickly rank the four stars –BattleSTAR Galactica, STAR Trek, STARgate, and STAR wars, but what lesser-known or less-prestigious shows hold a special place in your heart?
Space: Above & Beyond. I thought it had some interesting ideas that were never given a chance to be fully explored.
Babylon 5. It's probably up there as #5 in your top 4, tbh.
Planet of the Apes. 1970s movies and TV series.
Definitely Farscape. A very weird but very good show. Ben Browder did a great job playing the lead role and it's a shame he hasn't done anything like it since.
Fringe is an excellent show. It begins really episodic, like old school Outer Limits and early X Files. But by third season you're knee deep in a mind-bending larger story arc that absolutely rocks. The finale stands as one of my top 3 series closers. It expertly closes out the show with deep character resolution. And the show as a whole doesn't fall prey to the Lost Mystery Deficit. Mysteries are resolved, and there's great callbacks in final season to the mysteries of season one and two.
Furthermore, the cast is excellent. Joshua Jackson. John Noble pulling off Walter White levels of excellent acting and character change (you'll recognize him as Denethor from Lord of the Rings), and heck, Leonard Nemoy is in it.
If you love sci-fi, you can't go wrong with Fringe.
You could try Sliders, but the 90s corniness might turn you off.
As a kid, I was obsessed with the nickelodeon remake ofThe Tomorrow People but it doesn't stand up very well
Then there's Dark City and Gattaca for some more late 90s sci fi that I feel was bigger back then but no one really references anymore, but I think they are worth a view.
If you count it as sci-fi, the HBO adaptation of "His Dark Materials" seems to have gotten basically zero attention in the US but was really quite excellent.
Also the original "The Prisoner." (the remake with Ian McKellen was meh)
As for movies, Primer (2004) is one of my favorite. The first movie of its director (Shane Carruth), filmed with a ridiculously low budget of $20 000. It's hard science applied to time travel.
Be warned that this movie requires at least 2 or 3 viewings to really understand its story. Yes, it's that complex.
I loved Altered Carbon. Also, if you guys like anime, Psycho-Pass was really cool. If you like slow paced but atmospheric shows with a lot of connecting events and don’t mind watching a show in another language (German), then I would really recommend Dark.
Red Dwarf.
It's goofy. It's campy. It's sometimes terrible.
But it grows on you and by the time you are done through season 2 you love the show and only want more. And oh yes there is more, much more.
I think I'm the only person to ever watch all of Andromeda. It was not my favourite show, but there was something comforting whenever i was watching it. Maybe it just reminded me of the old Hercules, but in space.
Dunno how lesser-known were Dark Matter and Killjoys but these are probably my favorite non-Star, non-Firefly, non-Expanse shows. I did also like S1 of Altered Carbon and Raised by Wolves
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. At the time, I couldn't understand why everybody preferred that boring FBI monster show with the monotone lead actor.
If you haven't seen it yet, check out the movie Coherence (2013)! It's one of my favorite sci-fi movies. The actors were taken aside and given certain direction but were never given a full script, so every time you see them arguing or trying to figure out what's happening or surprised by something, it's all genuine.
Here's the synopsis but don't read anything else about it before you watch: [Synopsis: Strange things begin to happen when a group of friends gather for a dinner party on an evening when a comet is passing overhead.]
It's free if you already have Amazon Prime. A fantastic sci-fi puzzle to solve (similar to Primer in that way but very much its own thing).
In the spirit of the question (not picking the most common ones), I'd say Sanctuary was good. I think it was very (very...) low budget (everything is green screen) but the stories were great. There are a lot of fantasy elements but I think it's very scifi.
It's beautifully sleezy sci-fi fantasy and not nearly enough people know about it. I caught it on Netflix about 10 years ago but I think you can watch it on youtube now free with commercials.
Highly recommend to any fans of sci-fi, but especially if you loved stuff like Farscape and Red Dwarf.
Also shout out to 'Avenue 5'. Hilariously dark sci-fi comedy that HBO criminally underpromoted. Also 'Other Space'.
For a long time my answer would've been Doctor Who - I was an original Who fan who got hooked on PBS in the 80s and kept the candle burning in the 90s and early 2000s with books and Big Finish audio dramas. Now that it's back and more popular than before though, I don't know if it'd really count as "lesser known" like it used to, so for that criteria I'd have to say... Blake's 7
I really enjoyed Dark Matter. It got a little wild as the story went on, but the premise was very good, and I enjoyed a lot of the characters. (Especially the Android)
Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone. It's a solid example of 80's scifi, post-Star Wars and pre-Matrix. A little cheesy, a little Mad Max-y. And Molly Ringwald still makes me laugh.
Space: Above and Beyond. It was a short-lived show on FOX about a group of space marines that are pressed into service against an alien menace, but not everything is as it seems. The show was a a bit of a mashup between Aliens, Blade Runner, and Starship Troopers, and it was awesome. If there was ever a show that needed a remake, it's this one.
A couple of others I haven't seen here that I loved:
Almost Human - Cut short, but had so much potential. :'(
Foundation - Adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. So far it's incredible, and the way they're stretching the story it could be 6-7 seasons.
The 100 - hear me out - It's teen drama at first, in a sci-fi setting. This one reminds me of Orson Scott Card; focusing on how people behave in a futuristic sci-fi setting, not necessarily heavy on the setting. It was goofy, dramatic, sometimes cringe, and has huge plot holes - but damnit it was entertaining and jumps the shark soo many times.
Serial Experiments LAIN. It's a 13 episode anime, in a "future" where everyone is connected to "The Wired" via wireless devices. For a 1998 anime, it is highly prophetic. It even predicts the idea of people having completely different identities in real life then they have online, and does a great job musing on the blurry line between the internet and the real world.
I was mad obsessed with Dollhouse and Fringe. It felt like both ended way too soon, but at the same time they didn't outstay their welcome as so many shows do.
Farscape has been covered, so to bring up something that definitely hasn't been mentioned, Charlie Jade. A Canadian/South African co-production from the 2000s about three parallel Earth versions of Cape Town colliding. Awesome show, but I don't think I've ever met anyone who knows it.
Firefly will never not be my favorite. Truly before its time... imagine how many seasons it would have run for if it were made today and on a different network...
It would be Netflix's Lost in Space for me. Love that show. It's got such a well-written plot and great characters, I'm so sad that not many people have seen it. It's only three seasons too.