The 1990s were a dominant decade for science fiction on television, with the Star Trek franchise alone responsible for several of the genre's most popular series and Paramount restoring it as the preeminent small-screen sci-fi brand. Other networks tried to ride that wave or chase the next “X-Files.” A growing number of networks, premium cable options and syndication opportunities helped create room for inventive series, while early CGI, genre mashups and audiences ready for more complex themes and character arcs shaped what those shows could do. The ranking includes only series whose majority of episodes aired in the decade and takes into account both their reception at the time and their lasting cultural impact.
At No. 15 is The Outer Limits revival, which began airing on Showtime in 1995 and ran for seven seasons and 100 episodes. The original 1963 series had been quickly canceled because of poor ratings; the revival benefited from premium cable's ability to push content further and set a template for sci-fi anthology series in the 2000s and 2010s. No. 14, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, debuted on Fox Kids in 1993 and became controversial among some adults even as it captured its target audience, sparked a toy craze and inspired the 1996 Arnold Schwarzenegger Christmas film “Jingle All the Way.” Creators Haim Saban and Shuki Levy combined footage of American teenagers with action footage from the Japanese series “Zyuranger,” creating a serialized superhero fantasy that introduced many children to a style of action show they had not seen before.
No. 13, Beast Wars: Transformers (1996–1999), was an early adopter of computer animation from Mainframe Entertainment, the studio behind “ReBoot” two years earlier. Its animation has aged poorly, but its writing has held up better: the series expanded Transformers lore, treated the robots as serious dramatic characters and built serialized arcs, with the episode “Code of Hero” widely considered a franchise high point. No. 12, SeaQuest DSV (1993–1996), was created by Rockne S. O'Bannon and produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television for NBC. It envisioned humans colonizing the sea by 2018 and was pitched as “Star Trek” underwater, focusing on ecological and geopolitical conflicts. Later seasons moved toward supernatural, extraterrestrial and mythological elements, and star Roy Scheider described Season 2 as “total childish trash” via the Orlando Sentinel. The first season earned cult status, and the show was among the first ambitious enough to use CGI alongside Star Trek and “Babylon 5.”
No. 11, Millennium (1996–1999), was Chris Carter's follow-up to “The X-Files.” Lance Henriksen starred as Frank Black, a criminal profiler able to see inside the minds of murderers, who investigated crimes for the Millennium Group, a secret society with hidden plans tied to the impending year 2000. The series blended science fiction with occult horror and became a foundational entry in serial-killer crime thrillers. It was canceled after three seasons, with its story ending in a Season 7 episode of “The X-Files.” No. 10, Quantum Leap (1989–1993), earned 32 Emmy nominations, including multiple nods for outstanding drama series and for Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett, and won three straight Emmys for cinematography. The NBC time-travel drama used its body-swapping premise to explore real-world issues with social consciousness, but declining ratings from the third season onward led to its cancellation and a finale still regarded as one of the most controversial.
No. 9, Aeon Flux (1995), grew out of shorts on MTV's Liquid Television and became Peter Chung's one-season series that set a new standard for adult animation. Its art style remains timeless, and its themes explored romance, state fascism, personal morality and political identity in a sci-fi spy-thriller framework. After cancellation, its legacy was affected by a 2005 live-action adaptation, but it is now remembered as a landmark in animation and cyberpunk television. No. 8, Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001), aired on UPN and followed a Starfleet crew lost in space and forced to collaborate with rebels to get home. Kate Mulgrew's Kathryn Janeway became the first woman to anchor a Star Trek series as its captain; Paramount reportedly thought that would be the show's undoing, but it ran seven seasons and more than 170 episodes. Robert Picardo's The Doctor and Jeri Ryan's Seven of Nine were surprise breakouts, and the series' best episodes stand alongside the franchise's most celebrated installments. No. 7, Batman Beyond (1999–2001), was the first DC animated series written around a character original to the DC Animated Universe. It centered on high-school-aged Terry McGinnis, whose high-tech suit gave him superhuman strength, durability and flight, while an older, out-of-commission Bruce Wayne, voiced by Kevin Conroy, helped elevate the show into a mature exploration of legacy.
No. 6, Babylon 5 (1993–1998), was developed by J. Michael Straczynski after “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and adopted the structure and pacing of what is now called prestige TV before HBO's defining dramas were produced. The ambitious space opera had half the budget of its Trek competitors but used practical-effects makeup, bold costumes and advanced CGI space sequences to maintain immersion. Narratively, it proved sci-fi television could carry protracted political story arcs and complex character development, helping bridge the genre from “The Outer Limits” and Star Trek to “Foundation,” “The Expanse” and streaming-era Star Trek series. No. 5, Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995–1996), was Hideaki Anno's 26-episode TV Tokyo series and became an inflection point for anime. It paired mecha action and fluid animation with psychological storytelling, focusing on the flawed characters' mental states amid increasingly apocalyptic stakes, and influenced later works such as “Attack on Titan.”
No. 4, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993–1999), is described as possibly the most underrated Star Trek series. It subverted the franchise's established formula by keeping its Starfleet crew grounded on a space station in volatile territory, forcing the show to interrogate assumptions—particularly that war should exist only on the periphery of a Star Trek story. The tonal change did not land for every Trekkie, but streaming has made it easier to appreciate as an early prestige sci-fi series in the same vein as “Babylon 5.” No. 3, Cowboy Bebop (1998–1999), is Shinichirō Watanabe's 26-episode series about a crew of struggling bounty hunters. It drew on cyberpunk fiction, Hollywood Westerns, kung-fu epics, antihero crime dramas and animated sitcoms, all held together by a jazz-infused score. Its rich character writing balanced the seductive escapism of the characters' lifestyle with psychological tragedy, making it one of the decade's most stylistically cohesive sci-fi shows.
Sources: TVLine.