Interstellar, which came out in 2014, includes some classic sci-fi tropes but also takes some bold risks thanks to Christopher Nolan’s vision. The story, which is partially based on science that is as real as it can be, follows a crew of astronauts who travel through a wormhole searching for a new home for mankind, which is on the brink of a destructive famine.
WhileChristopher Nolan’s careeralready included sci-fi thanks toThe PrestigeandInception, not to mention the fantastical elements of the Dark Knight trilogy,Interstellarwas a more traditional science fiction movie in many ways. Incredibly well-received upon its release,Interstellarhas established itself as one of one of thegreatest sci-fi moviesof all time. Since it fits perfectly within its genre,the elements that makeInterstellarso compelling can be found in a great variety of other stories, from movies to television shows.
Firefly
Cast
Firefly is a science fiction television series set in the year 2517, focusing on the crew of the spaceship Serenity. As humans inhabit a new star system, the renegade crew, led by Captain Malcolm Reynolds, navigates conflicts and alliances while pursuing their own interests across lawless territories.
Fireflyis a household name within the sci-fi genre despite its incredibly short run—only a single season with fourteen episodes. Still,the series garnered incredible success and has ascended to the status of cult classic, with a dedicated fanbase that keeps the story alive even more than twenty years after it was first released.
The show is set in the year 2517 and followsthe crew of the spaceship Serenity, who come from all sorts of walks of life and who try to work together to make a living in the frontiers of their star system. Each of the nine characters is ultimately looking for something different, but their permanence aboard the Serenity turns the ship into a microcosm of humanity like all kinds of “boat media” usually do. Perfect for sci-fi lovers and for those who particularly enjoyed the dynamics between Cooper, Amelia, and the rest of theEndurancecrew inInterstellar.
Silo
In a dystopian future, men and women reside in a vast underground silo governed by strict regulations, believed to shield them from the hazardous world above. The series delves into the complex social order within the silo and the mysteries surrounding their subterranean existence.
Silo, based on the book series of the same name by author Hugh Howey, is a relatively new entry in the world of television sci-fi but one that has already left its mark to the tune of wildly positive reviews.Selois set in an unspecified futurewhere a community of humans lives in a giant underground silo, which is supposedly the only thing keeping them all safe from a deathly “outside”.
WhileSilotakes place in an incredibly different setting thanInterstellar—one underground, the other mostly in space—they share some tropes that are true sci-fi staples and can be found, one way or another, in all the stories that fall within this genre.Both shows also follow a main character that soon discovers the truth about a situation that they’ve always taken for granted—Matthew McCounaghey’s Cooper inInterstellarand Rebecca Ferguson’s Juliette inSilo.
Love, Death & Robots
Love, Death & Robots is an anthology series released in 2019, presenting a collection of animated stories curated by Tim Miller and David Fincher. Each episode explores diverse genres, featuring terrifying creatures, unexpected twists, and elements of dark comedy.
Love, Death & Robotsis a unique anthology series that spans a wide variety of genres, from horror to comedy to science fiction—with each episode relating to at least one of the three concepts in the show’s title.Love, Death & Robotshas three seasonsso far, for a total of thirty-five episodes unevenly divided between the three, with a fourth one to come at a yet unknown date.
The first Volume ofLove, Death & Robotsconsists of eighteen episodes, while Volume II and Volume III have eight and nine episodes each.
If you likedInterstellar’s robot companions TARS and CASE, then you might enjoy “Three Robots,” the first episode of Season 1, wherethe titular three robots wander through the remains of a long-destroyed city centuries after the fall of humanity, marveling at the traces of human life they encounter along the way. Those same three robots return in the first episode of Season 3, “Three Robots: Exit Strategies,” where they continue their investigation on the final days of humanity.
3 Body Problem
3 Body Problem is a Netflix original series from Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, along with Alexander Woo. Based on the novel of the same name by Liu Cixin, 3 Body Problem centers on a detective who joins forces with a group of scientists after an unknown force begins killing scientists around the world.
3 Body Problemis one of the sci-fi revelations of 2024, the latest adaptation of the incredibly popularRemembrance of Earth’s Pastbook series by Chinese author Liu Cixin.At the core of the story is the encounter that a group of scientists all over the world have with a mysterious alien civilization, something that obviously changes the course of human history. A premise similar to that of Interstellar, where Cooper travels through a wormhole that scientists believe has been put just beyond Saturn by an incredibly evolved species of beings who can manipulate time.
The story of3 Body Problemthen continues with several scientists reporting phenomenons that defy the laws of physics, and some of them soon come in contact with an alien civilization known as the San-Ti.These so-called Trisolarians live on a planet that the three-body problem makes almost inhabitableand are plotting to move and take over Earth.
Fallout
Set 200 years after an apocalypse, Fallout follows residents of luxury shelters as they re-enter a post-nuclear world. Confronted with a bizarre and violent landscape, the series explores the stark contrasts between their sheltered existence and the harsh realities of the outside universe.
Falloutis based on the video game of the same name and was another successful 2024 release, earning a total of seventeen nominations at the 76th Emmy Awards.The story is set in a post-apocalyptic future where humanity lives in underground Vaults while the rest of the Earth has been turned into a wastelandwhere resources are hard to come by and ferociously fought over.
The flavors of sci-fi inFalloutandInterstellarare considerably different, but they do have some common traits. There’s the fact that a scarcity of resources is a key element of the worldbuilding for both stories, for starters, as it is in many other sci-fi universes. Then there’s the familial emotional tension, withFallout’smain characterLucy looking for her father through the wasteland just like Murphy never really stops waiting for Cooper inInterstellar.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation follows Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew aboard the USS Enterprise NCC-1701D as they embark on interstellar explorations, seeking out new worlds and civilizations.
TheStar Treknarrative universe probably needs no introductions.Star Trekcontributed to making sci-fi the genre it is today and is pretty much a pillar of pop culture, with a great variety of stories spanning several years and several crews of the fictional United Federation of Planets. Created byStar Trekideator Gene Roddenberry,Star Trek: The Next Generationacts as the immediate sequel toThe Original Series.
The Next Generation Is Star Trek’s Most Binge-Worthy Show, But Only If You Follow 1 Rule
Despite airing in the late 1980s and early ’90s, Star Trek: The Next Generation is perfect for binge-watching (with one significant caveat).
The show takes place onthe USS Enterprise-D, named after the iconic starship manned by Captain Kirk and First Officer Spock. Its crew, led by Patrick Stewart’s Captain Picard and Jonathan Frakes’ Commander Riker, is busy exploring the galaxy’s Alpha and Beta quadrants, encountering all manners of creatures and adversaries during its travels.The Next Generationis sci-fi at its most classicaland something that Interstellar definitely took inspiration from.
Dark
Dark is a German science fiction thriller focusing on four families in a small town impacted by the disappearance of a child. As they search for answers, they uncover a web of interconnected secrets, revealing complex temporal and familial relationships spanning multiple generations.
Darkis a German series that became quite the phenomenon during its three-season run, earning praise left and right for its complex themes and brilliant technical side. The story is set in a fictional German town, where the disappearance of a child sets in movement a sinister chain of events that lead the show’s main cast of characters to uncover a generations-long conspiracy that would lead to an Apocalypse.
30 Best Quotes From Netflix’s Dark
Dark, the first German series produced by Netflix, brought a lot of complex mysteries and the most profound quotes on time and fate.
It might seem likeInterstellarhas little to share withDark, butboth stories rotate around one key storytelling element, time travel and all that derives from it from alternate realities to loops. Both shows also utilize a wormhole as the “device” that makes time travel possible. InInterstellar, the wormhole Gargantua is located just after Saturn and is believed to have been put there by a species of five-dimensional beings, while the wormhole inDarkis located in a complex system of underground tunnels under the local nuclear power plant.
Foundation
Foundation is a science fiction film that follows a band of exiles on a crucial journey to save humanity and rebuild civilization as the Galactic Empire collapses.
Foundationis loosely based on the book series of the same by sci-fi pillar Isaac Asimov, even though the show takes many liberties when it comes to the source material’s characters or plot. Still, the result is one of the best sci-fi shows of recent years, filled with complex characters and intricate policies. Just what one would expect from a show set in a space empire that has been ruled for centuries by the same man, cloning himself over and over again.
While the tone ofFoundationis pretty different from that ofInterstellar—the former being pure space opera while the latter is still somewhat grounded in realism—they both have the same driving force behind their plots, which is actually a pretty evergreen trope when it comes to sci-fi.In both stories humanity is poised on the brink of catastrophe, something that urges scientists in both narrative universes to strive towards finding a solution before it’s too late.
For All Mankind
Imagine a world where the global space race never ended - For All Mankind is a thrilling “what if” take on history that explores what would have happened in the race to the moon between the Soviet Union and the United States, as well as the space programs and the race’s effects on the astronauts and their families in the aftermath. The Apple TV+ series hails from Ronald D. Moore and stars Joel Kinnaman as a NASA astronaut. For All Mankind also features historical astronauts like Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong.
For All Mankindis sci-fi that is more in the vein ofInterstellarthan other titles on this list, a story still grounded in realism even though it then evolves in impossible directions. WhileInterstellarlooks to a relatively close future,For All Mankindgives its audience an insight into a possible alternative pastwhere not only did the space race never end but where the Soviet Union managed to be the first to put a man on the Moon.
In this alternative version of history, Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was the first man on the Moon. Leonov really existed, and he really was the cosmonaut selected to land on the Moon before the Soviet space program canceled the mission.
The show starts in 1969 when Soviet cosmonauts land on the Moon first and so deal a terrible morale blow to NASA.The United States then doubles its efforts in catching up, both technologically and socially, with each ofFor All Mankind’s four seasons showing where the race is at after a ten-year gap—so the Eighties, the Nineties, and the 2000s, with season 5 expected to take place in the 2010s.
The Expanse
The Expanse is a sci-fi series set in the distant future where humanity has spread out across the solar system, but the alliances between the three most potent governing bodies have reached a state of the cold war. In the series, a mixed crew finds themselves at the center of a dangerous intergalactic conspiracy that threatens to bring war to the colonized worlds.
Based on the book series of the same name by James S.A. Corey,The Expanseis one of the best examples of modern sci-fi done in the most classical of ways, with humanity living beyond the borders of its home planet but dealing with the same problems it has always dealt with for most of its history. Humanity which is divided into three main powers—the United Nations of Earth and Luna, the Martian Congressional Republics, and the Outer Planets Alliance, made up of colonies scattered in the asteroid belt and on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn.
The show, which is a great pick for fans ofInterstellar, has a wide cast of characters, all with their own motivations that will inevitably be revealed to be interconnected. There’s Christen Avasarala, a member of the United Nations Security Council who navigates the galaxy’s complicated politics; detective Josephus Miller investigating the disappearance of rich socialite Julie Mao; ship’s officer James Holden who comes into possession of an advanced Martian gunship together with his crew.
