Science fiction series are among the most popular offerings on TV. Some series gain cult following or international fame because they engage imagination or use aliens, other planets, and fantastical stories set in the far future to comment on current events.
Some shows have become unstoppable by offering continuous reboots and continuations. For example, after Star Trek was rebooted as Star Trek: The Next Generation, a dozen other series followed. Similarly, the rebooted version of Doctor Who is still going strong 20 years later, and the franchise will soon celebrate its 61st birthday. There is no reason that other science fiction series from the past can’t be rebooted, and there are several that should be brought back as soon as possible.
Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone has been rebooted in the past without as much success. During the 1980s, the new version of the show redid several classic stories as well as added stories of its own, but the consensus was that it did not work without Serling, who had already passed away.
However, the new Twilight Zone was ahead of its time. Science fiction and horror anthologies are popular today, as evidenced by the success of American Horror Story and similar shows.
The best thing about The Twilight Zone was Serling’s ability to use science fiction to make pointed comments about problems such as scapegoating and racism. These types of stories are needed more than ever in 2025, so if a new version focused on creating original stories instead of new versions of Serling’s classics, it could become just as popular.
The new version of Quantum Leap was considered a revival rather than a reboot. It featured a new protagonist who used modern technology to enable him to move between the present and the past, and his actions in the past had a direct effect on the present — something which did not happen in the original.
The revival was disappointing to many fans because of these changes, but the emotional reactions to it only prove that audiences are hungry for a real reboot of Quantum Leap. A version of the series that stuck closer to the original plot would likely be very popular and would allow the showrunners to tell interesting, complex, and timely stories.
Red Dwarf was a British sci-fi comedy that became popular on both sides of the Atlantic. Its core premise is about an accident that caused only one member of a ship to survive, thousands of years in the future, along with an annoying hologram of his commanding officer and a human that evolved from a cat that was snuck on board. The show had some of the best sci-fi-oriented humor since Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and for this reason, Red Dwarf is considered one of the best sci-fi shows of the 1980s.
A new version of this series would offer a welcome respite from the heaviness of current events. It might also revitalize interest in science fiction shows in general, as comedies like this can spark interest in the genre.
Sliders was an innovative series that explored the concept of multiverses long before it became a popular trope. It was centered around a group of five travelers who used a wormhole to slide between parallel universes while searching for a route back to the one they originally came from.
This series has a lot in common with Doctor Who. The sliders couldn’t control what universe they ended up in because the technology was broken and couldn’t zero in on the place they wanted to go. They often visited past or future societies while trying to get home, creating some fun episodic sci-fi storytelling.
Doctor Who’s popularity demonstrates that the time is perfect for an updated version of Sliders, which would feature similar tropes but an original premise. Additionally, a new version might be more compelling than the original because modern technology could offer improved special effects to make the series seem more real. NBC considered the idea of a Sliders reboot in 2019, and it is high time for that to become a reality.
Firefly is often at the top of lists of shows that fans feel were canceled way too early. This innovative series featured a group of people in the year 2517 who had survived losing a civil war and were pioneers in space. The series addressed political and social issues found in current society; despite a strong cult following, it was canceled after only 11 episodes.
The theme of pioneers and renegades fighting against a global alliance of superpowers is more relevant than ever, and Firefly continues to be a popular series despite ending over 20 years ago. Thus, a reboot could be extremely successful.
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