The passage highlights the exceptional period for science fiction on television in the 2000s, featuring top-tier animated and live-action productions that defined the genre for the decade, while also discussing the standout shows of each year.
The 2000s were an exceptional time for science fiction, particularly on the small screen. From cartoons like Samurai Jack to classic live-action masterpieces like Battlestar Galactica, the decade saw the release of several of the genre's best outings of the 21st century.
Furthermore, every year of the decade had a standout, a particularly well-liked show that defined that year's sci-fi scene. Whether it's aimed at kids or at adults, whether it's animated or live-action, and whether its sci-fi elements are on the lighter or the heavier side, the best sci-fi show of every year of the 2000s can also be counted among the best sci-fi shows of the 21st century, period.
Creative, vibrant, and taking place in some of the most fascinating universes the genre has ever seen, these are true modern classics. 10 'X-Men: Evolution' X-Men: The Animated Series needs no introduction. Almost universally considered one of the most perfect superhero shows in history, it showed the world what hugely entertaining wonders the titular team could achieve on the small screen.
Three years after its conclusion, right at the tail end of the 20th century, came X-Men: Evolution, which portrays the X-Men as teenagers rather than adults. Getting to watch these iconic characters struggle and learn to control their mutant powers opens the door to some of the most compelling character development that the animated superhero genre has thus far seen.
Combine that with the many interesting reinventions of the X-Men mythos, the vibrant animation, and the top-notch voice acting, and you get a nostalgic gem that has aged just as well as X-Men: The Animated Series has. 9 'Samurai Jack' The way Genndy Tartakovsky blends genres in Samurai Jack deserves to be studied. Though undeniably a time-travel-based sci-fi show, this 2000s classic mixes those technological elements with a story heavy on the fantastical, mythological, neo-noir, and cyberpunk samurai elements.
It's perfect for those who prefer science fiction that constantly breaks the genre's many molds. The animation? Some of the most colorful, stunningly fast-paced, and experimental that the genre has ever seen. The action?
Every bit as imaginative as it is fluid and stylish. The story? Minimalist, atmospheric, and thematically sharp. In other words, there's virtually nothing about Tartakovsky's magnum opus not to love, as it's one of the best animated shows of the last 25 years. 8 'Firefly' There are a few single-season sci-fi TV shows that are masterpieces through and through, but Firefly reigns supreme among them.
It's easily one of the most notorious examples of a genre show canceled way before it had gotten a chance of proving itself, because this Joss Whedon creation found its voice right from the get-go—and what a fun, complex, irresistibly entertaining voice it is. Firefly is the queen of space Westerns, anchored by its incredibly well-written story and one of the strongest ensemble casts of any sci-fi show in history.
The premise always provided enough material for the narrative to keep viewers engaged, but what really kept them hooked was the characters. Firefly is proof that no matter how creative, fresh, original, and technically masterful a sci-fi show is, if it has well-written characters, those characters will inevitably end up stealing the show. 7 'The Venture Bros' The Venture Bros is one of the best Adult Swim shows ever, a cult classic that's among the network's longest-running original series in terms of years.
Over the course of its 15-year and seven-season run, the show remained one of the funniest, most stylish, and best-written animated shows for adults on television. Eight years after its conclusion, it's still as enjoyable as it was back in 2003. It's a brilliant slacker comedy that parodies and also offers lots of insightful comments on specific subsections of male nerd culture. It's well-written, well-animated, and a consistent blast of fun from start to finish.
The way it deconstructs pulp science fiction and exposes the tropes layered underneath the genre's conventions is the stuff that sci-fi fans' dreams are made of. 6 'Battlestar Galactica' Battlestar Galactica is a show whose reputation precedes it, one that's often considered one of those sci-fi shows that are perfect from start to finish. Strongly serialized, thematically and tonally powerful, and full of political and philosophical nuances that make it one of the most mature science fiction series of the 2000s, it's a classic that took the premise of the cheesy 1978 version of the story and turned it into one of the most hard-hitting sci-fi tales ever to hit the small screen.
It's gritty and character-driven, and it has some of the most compelling high stakes of any series in its category. Even in spite of its admittedly controversial conclusion, it has managed to age like fine wine as one of the most beloved outings the genre has ever offered. Layered, realistic, and emotional, it's soft science fiction at its modern best. COLLIDER Collider · Quiz Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive?
The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix 🔥Mad Max 🌧️Blade Runner 🏜️Dune 🚀Star Wars TEST YOUR SURVIVAL → QUESTION 1 / 8INSTINCT 01 You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one. APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it.
BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns.
Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 2 / 8RESOURCE 02 In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires. AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them.
BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity.
DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 3 / 8THREAT 03 What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of. AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid.
No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing.
EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 4 / 8AUTHORITY 04 How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do.
Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to.
Some things are worth the risk of being seen. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 5 / 8ENVIRONMENT 05 Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are. AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters.
BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand.
EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 6 / 8ALLIANCE 06 Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are. AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose.
BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities.
I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 7 / 8MORALITY 07 Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of. AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen.
Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed.
I know which ones they are. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 8 / 8PURPOSE 08 What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers.
Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot. REVEAL MY WORLD → Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In… Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for.
This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for. The Resistance, Zion The Matrix You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things. The Wasteland Mad Max The wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break.
That's you. Los Angeles, 2049 Blade Runner You'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely. Arrakis Dune Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards. A Galaxy Far, Far Away Star Wars The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 5 'Doctor Who' Since it has been on the air since 1963, Doctor Who is technically the longest-running sci-fi show in history, but worthy of mention is the hiatus that the show took between 1989 and 2005. It was that fateful year, right in the middle of the 2000s, that saw Russell T Davies' revival of the series for the BBC, and it was in its modern rendition that Doctor Who really cemented its reputation as a global landmark of science fiction history.
With some of the best stories, best monsters and aliens, and definitely best incarnations of the Doctor that the franchise has ever seen, the 2000s version of Doctor Who is an easy pick as the best, most groundbreaking, and most influential show of 2005. What was already one of the most timeless high-concept sci-fi television shows had ever seen transformed into a perfectly smart, fun, and campy-in-all-the-right-ways sci-fi spectacle for the era of prestige TV. 4 'Life on Mars' The criminally underappreciated British TV show Life on Mars centers on a 2006 detective who, after a mysterious car accident, is transported back in time to 1973.
What ensues is one of the most perfect mystery shows ever made. Inspired by the Twilight Zone episode"A Stop at Willoughby," it's a masterpiece of a show that works equally well as a police procedural, a mystery sci-fi drama, and a period piece. Brilliantly blending 1970s nostalgia with undeniably modern elements of surrealism, time travel, and high-stakes detective work, it's a meticulously constructed series with surprising emotional depth.
Funny, exciting, inventive, and dramatic, it's an ideal watch for people who think that time travel stories are impossible to tell without having a myriad of plot holes. Life on Mars will prove them wrong. 3 'Gurren Lagann' The 2000s saw the release of many exceptional anime series, many of them science fiction. As far as 2007 went, it had Gurren Lagann, one of the best anime shows to binge-watch in one week.
This is one of the strongest and most charismatic mecha anime shows of the 21st century, sci-fi turned into pure escalating adrenaline, and surprisingly profound philosophy. Subscribe to our newsletter for deeper sci-fi insights Discover more by subscribing to our newsletter: curated takes, recommended watches, and deeper context on 2000s sci-fi TV and related genre highlights. Subscribe to expand your watchlist and understand what makes these shows stand out.
Get Updates By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. It's a must-watch for people who find the idea of a sci-fi show where the plot keeps rising and rising to the point of reaching an almost unbelievably gargantuan scale intriguing.
By constantly raising the stakes without ever losing its delightful air of optimism and sincerity, Gurren Lagann proves that being over-the-top can actually work to the benefit of a sci-fi show of this scale. 2 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars' Animated sci-fi is a category all of its own, and it was one that saw the release of some masterful shows over the course of the 2000s. This included Genndy Tartakovsky's Star Wars: Clone Wars from 2003, no longer considered canon.
Five years after that came the still-very-canon Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which somehow managed to surpass the gold standard that had already been set by Master Tartakovsky. It's not just one of the best Star Wars shows ever, but one of the best animated shows ever in general.
Like any anthology series, it had its fair share of dull episodes over the course of its run, but the top-tier quality of its best story arcs always made up for any missteps. The Clone Wars enriches the Star Wars mythology tremendously, but it's also a blast of fun for people who have never visited the galaxy far, far away. 1 'Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood' The 2000s closed things off with what still remains the highest-rated anime TV show ever on IMDb: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, the second animated adaptation of Hiromu Arakawa's Fullmetal Alchemist manga series.
It's the kind of anime masterpiece that will never get old, one of the most exciting and visually timeless modern classics in the sci-fi genre. The world-building is flawless, the constant action sequences are irresistibly fun, the themes are complex and well-developed, and the pacing of all 64 episodes flows remarkably well.
We're talking about one of the most perfect syntheses of sci-fi, fantasy, and philosophy that audiences have seen at any point during the 21st century, and that's why Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is both the best sci-fi show of 2009 and one of the best of the 2000s as a whole. Like Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Action Adventure Fantasy Sci-Fi Shonen Release Date 2009 - 2010 Cast See All Powered by Expand Collapse
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