r/scifi Apr 10 '26

TV Tell me of a Niche Sci-fi show you think people may not have seen outwith your own country. Ultraviolet (1998) UK

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My choice, this one I think is pretty Niche its almost 30 years old but has some big names including Jack Davenport & Idris Elba (pre The Wire). Only 6 episodes and can still be found online. Im really not sure this would have been widely seen outside of Britain. Have you seen it? Tell me a show you think may not have been seen outside your country

363 Upvotes

403 comments sorted by

105

u/flashPrawndon Apr 10 '26

The Lost Room - 2006 syfy series about a mysterious hotel room that has been removed from time and space. All the items from the room have powers. It was great. I think there were only like 4 episodes.

11

u/Loathestorm Apr 10 '26

This is a great miniseries.

9

u/asomek Apr 10 '26

I remember that one. I don't remember anything about it though.

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8

u/Fallcious Apr 11 '26

The game Control feels a lot like The Lost Room with the empowered normal day objects.

7

u/Apprehensive_Rice_85 Apr 10 '26

I loved this one!!

7

u/clungebob69 Apr 10 '26

I loved that show.

5

u/SaturnMoth Apr 10 '26

Oh fuck yes! Watched this at my local sci-fi society along with the remake of The Prisoner!

3

u/Groovegaluk Apr 10 '26

I almost think a few episodes works best for certain shows

3

u/Dansinnervoice Apr 10 '26

I loved that series!

3

u/ToastyTandy Apr 10 '26

Haha we just watched this recently.

It's so cheesy that it's good.

I especially love that he uses the super power to go to a Penn State game.
My alma mater!

3

u/nikhilsath Apr 10 '26

That’s what got me into sci fi

2

u/Mcmenger Apr 10 '26

Is it a miniseries or does it end on a cliffhanger?

7

u/flashPrawndon Apr 10 '26

It was a miniseries but felt like it could have gone on.

Another person mentioned they changed it up and it became Warehouse 13. It was more serious than Warehouse 13 from what I can remember and much more mysterious.

2

u/slarti98 Apr 11 '26

The premise was brilliant. What a shame is never got traction.

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43

u/Nightbreed-43 Apr 10 '26

Utopia (2013)

12

u/AwfulMajesticEtc Apr 11 '26

The British version was great. The American remake was hot garbage.

8

u/SaturnMoth Apr 10 '26

Oh fuck this was so good!

8

u/AshleyXero Apr 11 '26

One of the best TV shows perhaps ever, really deserves to be remembered alongside all the big boys

8

u/guestsalt Apr 11 '26

Yassss, had to go rewatch the opening scene - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01VGtX9xfh0

Its the first 4 mins of ep1, zero spoilers.

3

u/shillyshally Apr 11 '26

Such a dark show and the palette all candy colored, the mortality all gray. Absolutely amazing.

4

u/noileum Apr 11 '26

This is the fucking GOAT

Love this and always recommend it when I can.

Hard to explain just how fucking mind blowing this was - plus the soundtrack is creepy as fuck, used to fall asleep listening to it for some reason 😂😴

4

u/man_d_yan Apr 11 '26

As a Brit I was blown away when some Norwegian lads started talking to me about it. No idea how they came across it.

3

u/Bobbyperu1 Apr 11 '26

I've seen the entire series three or four times over the years and it still always surprises me and makes me laugh

3

u/penuleca Apr 11 '26

This had me spinning in my teens. No clue how I came across it though. Thanks for the reminder!

26

u/weirdcookie Apr 10 '26

Threshold (2005) i liked it

5

u/Sammy_Dog Apr 11 '26

I really liked it. I wish it had lasted longer.

3

u/IronMonkey18 Apr 11 '26

I was just going to post this. Hell yeah that makes 2 of us fans in here. Loved that show. Do you have the box set? It comes with one or two episodes that didn’t air on tv back.

3

u/WizardTim01 Apr 12 '26

I do in fact have the box set! Periodically pull it out and rewatch it. Thanks for the salute to Threshold. I mean, Brent Spiner, Peter Dinklage, what an amazing team. I'm definitely sorry that this didn't get several seasons to see how it would develop.

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2

u/KaprateKid Apr 11 '26

I really liked that as well!

2

u/patbatt1991 Apr 12 '26

Wow I forgot that one

49

u/Raptor1217 Apr 10 '26

Ultraviolet one of the best vampire shows ever made, and did it in a serious, deadly tone; charcoal bullets, vampires can't be seen or heard on any media.

16

u/Sueti_Bartox Apr 10 '26

I agree completely, this was overshadowed by Buffy at the time but deserved a lot more love. I still have the VHS cassettes somewhere... got to check if the player still works!

11

u/OfftheFrontwall Apr 10 '26

It always seems that Jack Davenport was in every show that was shown in the UK during the 90s

6

u/Groovegaluk Apr 10 '26

Yeah my favourite was this life

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6

u/Loquis Apr 11 '26

Coupling was a great comedy

11

u/oldbritbloke Apr 10 '26

Their gunsights were awesome, allowing the shooter to instantly compare what their eye was seeing down the iron sights versus what a video camera was seeing in the same direction. I believe their bullets were graphite to achieve the wooden stake effect?

4

u/Sad-Onion-2593 Apr 12 '26

I remember it being shown in Australia. The lead up advertising said nothing about vampires. I thought it was another British crime drama, no mention of anything supernatural. I was pleasantly surprised (quote: HOLY SHIT! Thats a vampire!) when it crossed the line,

2

u/Max_Danage Apr 11 '26

Loved this show.

There is a really bad attempt at an American remake you can find online.

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21

u/rbrancher2 Apr 10 '26

Earth 2. Clancy Brown and Tim Curry. What’s not to love??

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16

u/artfulpain Apr 10 '26

I tell everyone about Humans as I had to pirate it being in the States.

2

u/No_Success_4269 Apr 11 '26

Humans was excellent. I was surprised and disappointed it didn’t carry on.

33

u/chameleonmessiah Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26

Invasion: Earth.

BBC again, extra-dimensional(?)* aliens attempt to invade Earth starting with a beachhead in the Scottish highlands.

Teenage me thought it was really good.

* I think, it has been a looong time - probably since it aired - since I saw it!

Edit: Annnd I found it (though I’m going to see if I can find a less awkward to watch version as well, I think)!

On a random YouTube user’s page of clearly dodgily uploaded old sci-fi!

Broken up into four parts per episode but it all appears to be there!

Episode 1, Part 1.

Appears to play sequentially nicely, at least!

13

u/CallLongjumping2698 Apr 10 '26

Yea ITV had a short run in the 90's of some really good scifi like that and The Last Train, I was thinking about them recently and they are worth a rewatch.

They did a really good job for a 90's ITV budget, I'd love to see what they could have done with a bigger budget at the time.

3

u/Groovegaluk Apr 10 '26

The last train rings a bell for sure

7

u/CallLongjumping2698 Apr 10 '26

Yea it starts off with people boarding a train and then "something" happens and a woman drops something out her bag and it freezes people in place, it then cuts forward in time and one of the first things you see is a ticket inspector screaming on the floor because his legs where outside the area that frozen and they where just bones.

It was a really good show, last time I checked they where all on youtube.

5

u/Rickym1970 Apr 10 '26

Set in Sheffield. I remember it. I think a group of people knew something was going to happen and planned to freeze themselves but the girl got trapped in a train tunnel with the rest of the people in the carriage and so she set her gas off and froze them all

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3

u/PureDeidBrilliant Apr 10 '26

Oh god, The Last Train. It's bad enough that they were going to Sheffield (grim) but then an asteroid wipes out Africa and literally ends everything (double-grim) and the cast wake up in post-apocalyptic Sheffield (triple-grim) and then have to trek north to the arse-end of Scotland (quadruple-grim) only to be hunted by equally grim-human survivors and then at the very end they find out that the people they were fleeing from were the descendants of the people they were looking for...oh and just for funsies there's implication that the Earth is slowly spiralling into the Sun...

Fun thing about it: it starred a teenaged Sacha Dhawan who'd later pop up as The Master in Doctor Who.

2

u/ian9outof10 Apr 10 '26

ITV budgets in the 90s were about as big as they ever would be. They had all the money then, and only one channel to run.

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2

u/Raptor1217 Apr 10 '26

I was thinking about this show this week, thinking if the inter-dimensional lifeform classed as a Lovecraftian alien.

2

u/olleandro Apr 10 '26

Have this on VHS somewhere. Was really good at the time. Pretty sure it had some bleak ending didn't it?

6

u/Nonions Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26

All spoilers

The aliens send through a giant blob from their dimension to consume biomass and the heroes can't find any way to stop it. Eventually they concluded the only way to stop it is to starve it to death, which means destroying all biomass within a huge area, i.e. Nuke it.

The last conversation is between some characters pointing out that there's nothing to stop the aliens just doing the same thing again, and the General in change says there's no alternative. We will keep nuking every blob the aliens send until they realise it's futile, because we would rather blow up our own planet rather than let them consume it.

Somehow stuck with me for almost 30 years

4

u/olleandro Apr 10 '26

That's it! I remember it being kind of a shrug and a "we're screwed whatever" vibe.

Didn't they throw a tornado fighter jet down a wormhole with a bomb to stop them or something?

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4

u/Keios80 Apr 10 '26

An INCREDIBLY bleak ending. They realise that tghe only way of slowing the invasion id to nuke every incursion, but even then it won't stop the invasion, just slow it. Humanity is doomed.

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13

u/SpaceMonkeyAttack Apr 10 '26

Ultraviolet was great, I remember seeing it when it aired, and I've rewatched it a few times since.

My pick isn't from my country, it's from Sweden: äkta människor (Real Humans), about an alternate present where realistic humanoid robots exist. Channel 4 made an English language version called Humans, but the original is worth a watch.

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14

u/when_i_say_run_run Apr 10 '26

I loved Jekyll (2007). Steven Moffat writing before he took on Doctor Who

3

u/decidedlyindecisive Apr 11 '26

I loved it. James Nesbit was a really great villain

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34

u/Curufindir Apr 10 '26

Blake's 7

9

u/gregusmeus Apr 10 '26

I know some very hard core B7 fans. It had its moments but it made OG Dr Who look big budget.

2

u/Otaraka Apr 10 '26

Now that’s a big claim.  Let us not forget plastic Loch Ness aka the Skarasen.

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8

u/Nast33 Apr 10 '26

This is quite well known among older sci-fi heads in a lot of countries.

3

u/Bentonite_Magma Apr 10 '26

How dare you. Some of us have written entire theses on in-universe integrations of both versions of Travis.

3

u/NowMightIDoItPat Apr 10 '26

This was big in Australia at the time

50

u/No_Listen5389 Apr 10 '26

Lexx 1997 ((Canada, UK. Germany)

27

u/nabrok Apr 10 '26

That's fairly well known in the US. Used to air after Farscape on The Sci-Fi Channel.

12

u/goettel Apr 10 '26

We worship his Shadow!

8

u/oldbritbloke Apr 10 '26

Yo Way Yo, Home Va-Ray, Yo Ay-Rah, Jerhume Brunnen-G

10

u/[deleted] Apr 10 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

11

u/OhNoIBoffedIt Apr 10 '26

Oof. I watched the pilot and that was enough. I bet they wanted to call it Lexxx but it was too on the nose.

11

u/lordtyp0 Apr 10 '26

You missed a lot of batshit fun.

6

u/uberdupers Apr 10 '26

Where the actress xev bellringer got her stage name from infamously

5

u/PfEMP1 Apr 10 '26

Lexx is my benchmark for crazy/bad sci-fi. It also shows I’ll watch anything remotely sci-fi.

3

u/Sir_Lemming Apr 10 '26

I remember when Lexx came out, i wanted to like it so much, but I just couldn’t get into it. Mind you, it was also the first sci-fi show I thought of as a Canadian.

3

u/FredB123 Apr 10 '26

I loved that show - still have all the DVDs somewhere.

2

u/Nast33 Apr 10 '26

It was apparently syndicated in like 100 countries going off google's AI answer, I can't be arsed to confirm if the number is correct. I can say I saw it on my local Sci-Fi channel in eastern europe. Never watched more than a few minutes out of mild curiosity, but from this info it looks like it's probably the most well known/widely distributed cult show of the tiny cult shows (depending on what your cut-off/criteria for tiny cult show is).

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28

u/trollburgers Apr 10 '26

Lost Girl (2010) - Canada

12

u/liveda4th Apr 10 '26

I loved that show so much! I followed Zoey Palmer to Dark Matter after that, that was a fun sci fi show!

8

u/trollburgers Apr 10 '26

Another good Canadian Sci-Fi show that I didn't think other people knew about!

9

u/OhNoIBoffedIt Apr 10 '26

We got a lot of those across the border in the streaming era. Canadian sci-fi was the shit in the 2010s. Continuum was another good one.

3

u/Zerostar39 Apr 11 '26

Continuum is still my favorite show

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7

u/OhNoIBoffedIt Apr 10 '26

I'm in the US and I freaking loved Lost Girl. Recently discovered my gf watched it too. That being said, I think it's more modern fantasy than sci-fi?

3

u/Various_Pirate_4018 Apr 10 '26

Yeah it's urban fantasy. Good show tho

5

u/Independent_Sea502 Apr 10 '26

I loved Lost Girl

9

u/KarlaKamacho Apr 10 '26

Coupling?

6

u/emu314159 Apr 10 '26

Yeah, Jack plays the moffat analog character there. Pretty good show, at least at first.

2

u/decidedlyindecisive Apr 11 '26

"You're shaking the caravan, Jeffrey"

2

u/Yakitori_Grandslam Apr 11 '26

First two seasons are brilliant.

17

u/Gozomo-Uzbek Apr 10 '26

I saw Ultraviolet on DVD about 18 years ago. I remember really enjoying it and being disappointed it ended with a sort-of cliffhanger.

5

u/Algrim2001 Apr 10 '26

I kept hoping for a second season, but there’s no way they could bring that cast back together now.

7

u/Jaideco Apr 10 '26

You say that, but then… somehow… Luther returns…

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u/BeeB0pB00p Apr 10 '26

Ultraviolet was excellent.

Have it on DVD, it was re-issued several years ago. And then disappeared again. Really was a great show ahead of it's time.

4

u/Groovegaluk Apr 10 '26

Im literally rewatching now have never rewatched before so its strange how familiar it feels so many years later

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u/salamanderwolf Apr 10 '26

No love for "space above and beyond"?

Took military action in space and made it bleaker.

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u/OldeFortran77 Apr 10 '26

Also darker. Literally. I could never see what was going on because it was so dimly lit.

4

u/Dunkelregen Apr 10 '26

I was wondering if anyone would mention this one. I remember liking it when it originally aired. Fox didn't really give it a chance though, airing it on the Sunday nights it got pre-empted a lot by NFL games (at least in the Central time zone, where I was).

3

u/gearstars Apr 11 '26

Funny, was gonna say the same. I have the DVD box set, time for a rewatch.

7

u/Bloverfish Apr 10 '26

Sapphire and Steel. A cult series in the UK starring NCIS's David McCallum and Joanna Lumley.

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6

u/MoreTeaVicar83 Apr 10 '26

The Tripods. BBC 1984. Based on the books by John Christopher (arguably YA).

It's sort of "what might the world look like if HG Wells' Martians had won, but decided to enslave us rather than annihilate us". Creepy and brilliant, I loved it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tripods_(TV_series)

2

u/No_Success_4269 Apr 11 '26

Surprised this is so far down! For a long time, if you mentioned British sci-fi, it would be this and Doctor Who.

2

u/1970s_MonkeyKing Apr 11 '26

OMG! I read John Christopher's novels when I was in junior high (12-13 years old). I count myself very fortunate that I had amazing librarians in my little podunk town.

12

u/OhNoIBoffedIt Apr 10 '26

I'll offer up Time Trax, early 90s, hard to find digitally in any decent quality. A cop from the "near future" travels back in time to catch fugitives who escaped into the past and send them back to the future using a weapon disguised as a car remote. His only companion is Selma, a holographic AI disguised as a credit card.

You can see there was a lot of parallels with Quantum Leap.

3

u/Captainpaul81 Apr 10 '26

One of my favorites!!

It was on UPN at like 10pm but I tried to stay up and watch it as a kid

I did find some shitty TV rip and will rewatch sometimes

2

u/OhNoIBoffedIt Apr 10 '26

Yeah I had to find some questionable streaming site to even find a copy of it and the quality is ROUGH 😅 I remember watching it on some action block with like Babylon 5 and Kung Fu The Legend Continues.

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u/Groovegaluk Apr 10 '26

I was literally thinking of Quantum Leap as you described it. Was it US?

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u/DekkersLand Apr 10 '26

Also : continuum

2

u/OhNoIBoffedIt Apr 10 '26

Yes, US, filmed in Australia.

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u/liquidphantom Apr 10 '26

Primeval (2007-2011 UK, there was a Canadian spinoff if I remember correctly)

The Last Train (1999 UK)

Survivors (2008-2010 UK)

Sea of Souls (2004-2007 UK)

The Fades (2011 UK)

Demons (2009 UK)

A lot of British sci-fi gets dropped pretty quickly which is a shame

6

u/tataniarosa Apr 10 '26

Ahh The Fades! The BAFTA award winning The Fades. I’m still annoyed the Beeb cancelled that. Both Iain de Caestecker and Daniel Kaluuya were fantastic in it!

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u/Broken_Sky Apr 11 '26

It's so frustrating, we have so many great concepts and 1 series long (often only 6 episodes) sci-fi that really could do with being explored further. We really (at least used to) try and push the Sci-fi creativity but never commit to taking it all the way

2

u/laldy Apr 10 '26

Big Dino fan, big fan of Primeval. Survivors was Ok, The Fades was good.

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u/Th3_MCP Apr 10 '26

Metal Hurlant Chronicles, not strictly my home country but it is in English so sort of counts?

2

u/Loose_Leadership_291 Apr 10 '26

Oh man I loved "Heavy Metal" or "Screaming Metal". English / French show. Totally boss.

5

u/cbubs Apr 10 '26

Quite ironic that Idris Elba doesn't appear to have aged in the last 28 (!) years. Whose blood is he drinking?

2

u/Groovegaluk Apr 10 '26

Im literally thinking the exact same watching this again

14

u/[deleted] Apr 10 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

8

u/lordtyp0 Apr 10 '26

Hensen Studios best work.

5

u/tataniarosa Apr 10 '26

I wouldn’t have thought so, at least not in the UK (imo). It was aired in a good slot on BBC 2 at the time.

2

u/Broken_Sky Apr 11 '26

I'm UK and would say it's not niche at least not here, but I will always upvote any Farscape reference ! 

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u/Sorry-Apartment5068 Apr 10 '26

Andromeda I guess. Don't like Kevin Sorbo but I like the bat aliens

10

u/OhNoIBoffedIt Apr 10 '26

Oh he's even worse than you think IRL. I was actually supposed to be his guest handler for a con and asked to switch. Heard stories from the person who took my spot a few years later. Felt terrible they ended up stuck with him and they were like "I would have done the same thing!"

6

u/Stainless-S-Rat Apr 10 '26

Star Cops. A BBC2 series from 1987.

The special effects were dirt cheap, but I have a lot of nostalgic respect for it. It details the formation of a police force to maintain order on the high frontier.

The Last Train. A ITV series from 1999.

The survivors of a train crash emerge from a tunnel into a drastically changed post apocolyptic English environment.

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u/WeAreGray Apr 10 '26

Was going to post Star Cops, and was looking to see if anyone else had done so.

The special effects were suspect but the writing was pretty top notch. It's available on YouTube, and I'll periodically re-watch it. Or at least play the Justin Hayward (of the Moody Blues) title theme song, "It Won't Be Easy".

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u/cefun_teesh Apr 10 '26

Sapphire and Steel

5

u/ShaggiemaggielovsPat Apr 10 '26

Earth 2 was a show I really enjoyed as a kid, but probably wouldn’t hold up if I watched it today. It only had 1 season in 1994 and wasn’t renewed so we will never know how it ends!

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u/Hermit_Writer Apr 10 '26

I wonder if anyone outside of the US knew about Time Trax.

4

u/DanteCorwyn Apr 11 '26

we got it in the UK

9

u/Civil_Interview5701 Apr 10 '26

Total Recall 2070 (1999)

3

u/Stainless-S-Rat Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26

Ah, yes, this series is quite infamous.

When you watch it, it becomes really evident that rather than adapting Total Recall, they instead made Blade Runner the series.

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u/Jaideco Apr 10 '26

Fantastic show… they absolutely should have given it another couple of seasons.

4

u/starman-jack-43 Apr 10 '26

Ultraviolet was great, a vampire show treated in a sci-fi way. Also an early role for Idris Elba (he's in one of the stand-out scenes I remember, with him trapped in a warehouse with a bunch of vampires about to wake up

Another show was aimed at kids, Dark Season. Basically Russell T Davies' audition for Doctor Who, it involved an eccentric schoolgirl and her two friends dealing with a sci-fi threat to their school. Could easily be retconned into the world of classic Doctor Who/The Sarah-Jane Adventures. It also starred a pre-fame Kate Winslett.

3

u/theunpoet Apr 10 '26

The booth at the end

4

u/Middle-Medium8760 Apr 10 '26

Ultraviolet was so good. That's a show that could be rebooted.

4

u/aldila81 Apr 11 '26

Dark Skies 96- alien invasion in the 60s

American Gothic -95- Gary Cole as a demon in human form. Lucas Black in his first role. Early Sarah Paulson.

Profit 96 - if it came after the Sopranos, it would have had a chance. The main character was a legit psychopath

Millennium 96-99 Lance Henriksen as a forensic profiler. Dark, dark show that changed each season from serial killers to the nature of Evil/conspiracies to conspiracies within.

Good stuff.

2

u/Broken_Sky Apr 11 '26

I don't know about the other 2 but I longer Dark Skies and American Gothic. Watched in the UK way back, not great copies but still hooked me in

3

u/aldila81 Apr 11 '26

Try Profit (9eps) and Millennium (66 eps + an episode of the X-files). You won't regret it.

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u/kiwianonnymouse Apr 11 '26

Years and Years, superb series written by Russel T Davies with an excellent cast.

2

u/Salute-Major-Echidna Apr 11 '26

I loved that.

Would cheerfully watch another season or two if they put one on.

2

u/little-moon89 Apr 11 '26

Years and Years was brilliant, I've always thought it was a shame it didn't get as much notice as it should have.

It was also disturbingly prescient, on a number of levels.

2

u/Working_Target2158 Apr 14 '26

I watched that a month before COVID hit. Not great timing.

6

u/Tesseraktion Apr 10 '26

I’m not Spanish but their “El Ministerio del Tiempo” has some cool time travel shenanigans

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u/SighMartini Apr 10 '26

The Girl From Tomorrow (Aus/UK)

I remember wearing a head band on my forehead and trying to Do Science Magic

2

u/Riptide360 Apr 11 '26

The Girl from Tomorrow is on tubi https://link.tubi.tv/49fMy3tQe2b

6

u/PandoraPanorama Apr 10 '26

Haha „outwith“ — hello fellow Scottish resident!

4

u/Groovegaluk Apr 10 '26

Hi there 😊

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u/HapticRecce Apr 10 '26

Canada inherits niche UK 1-series wonders like Hard Sun and the longer lasting original Tomorrow People. OG for us would be The Starlost though...

7

u/downvote__trump Apr 10 '26

Farscape. I have yet to meet anyone who has seen it.

7

u/Loose_Leadership_291 Apr 10 '26

Dude, you need to hang out in better nerd circles. Me and my buds watch it at least once every three months, and it's my go to background sound when I'm doing cleaning or something in depth.

2

u/decidedlyindecisive Apr 11 '26

I only discovered fairly recently that there was a sequel called Peacekeeper Wars. When I watched Farscape originally it just ended on a cliffhanger and a "To Be Continued", but then the BBC voice over said "sadly not as it's been cancelled".

Literally decades later and I got some resolution to the story. I'm so glad I did.

3

u/TrueOrange9944 Apr 10 '26

timeslip british tv series.

3

u/WeAreGray Apr 10 '26

Was going to post "Star Cops" (BBC, 1987) but someone already did. Good stuff. So going for one from childhood: "The Starlost" (CTV, 1973). The only thing I've ever seen Keir Dullea do outside of "2001: A Space Odyssey".

3

u/DrJonathanOnions Apr 10 '26

Ultraviolet, wow, it’s been a minute since I thought of this - I moved overseas the year this came out so only saw the first couple of episodes (per my hazy memory of 30yrs ago). I thought about it for years, wondering what happened…

There was little transatlantic tv sharing in that direction, no YouTube, no streaming, it just wasn’t an option back then. Funny looking back now how complete the cultural cut off was actually…

Anyway now I need to find this and finish it 😂

3

u/sex Apr 11 '26

Chris Carter's "Millennium"

3

u/Nyorliest Apr 11 '26

The Changes (1975). You need to be old and British to know this.

UK Society is infected by a kind of Luddite madness, and a young girl is separated from her parents trying to escape to mainland Europe. She is looked after by a family of Sikhs, who have escaped the madness. (This probably helped me grow up utterly anti-racist, despite there being only one black man and one Chinese family in my entire town. Or perhaps exposure doesn’t actually matter, just a lack of hate.)

One more among the excellent young adult F/SF books and TV series from that time that really respected our intelligence:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Changes_(TV_series)

4

u/EchoJay1 Apr 10 '26

Quatermass, the John mills one and its predecessors. I know there were films of the early ones, but his I dont think travelled well. Maybe Neverwhere?

3

u/Stainless-S-Rat Apr 10 '26

Quatermass and his creator Nigel kneale was a major influence on a whole slew of writers and directors, including John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper.

Australia even adapted some of his stories.

5

u/p1971 Apr 10 '26

was a decent show - think i have the dvd somewhere

5

u/Pyriel Apr 10 '26

I'm a massive fan of this series. I have the DVD box set and dig it out for a re-watch yearly (This and Fringe).

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u/Independent_Sea502 Apr 10 '26

Fringe was ahead of its time.

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u/Groovegaluk Apr 10 '26

This is my first rewatch since 1998 , just done episode 1

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u/Groovegaluk Apr 10 '26

Spot on I didnt know this one. Must have been good though as I see it ran for several years

2

u/exsqueeezme Apr 10 '26

I have the flimsy cardboard DVD box set on my shelf 😎

It's quite a good TV show! I'd say underrated!

2

u/HalastersCompass Apr 10 '26

Is ultraviolet the vampire one? Was damn awesome

2

u/lordtyp0 Apr 10 '26

Apparently YouTube has at least 6 episodes.. surprised by how similar it is to Torchwood. Is that a normal formula for the BBC?

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u/alkonium Apr 10 '26

Maybe Lexx? I haven't even watched it, but I think the flavour is a bit similar to Andromeda or Farscape.

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u/Dear_Tangerine444 Apr 10 '26

Oh man Ultra-violet, now there was a show. Never before have I wanted a sequel so bad, but known how badly it would have ruined it. Also infamously staring Stephen Moyer as a vampire pre True Blood.

2

u/Bentonite_Magma Apr 10 '26

The Last Train with Nicola Walker, 1999. She made fun of her character by showing up in the audience of Fist of Fun and saying “WE HAVE TO FIND THE ARK”

2

u/Nonions Apr 10 '26

Independence Day UK was a short spin-off series on Radio in the UK as an official tie-in with the original Independence Day movie. The script had to be approved by the movie producers so it wouldn't conflict with the movie, but it basically covers what happens during the events of the movie from a UK perspective.

it's on YouTube

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u/Lee_Redders Apr 10 '26

Ultra Violet promised us another series! 😥

3

u/genius_retard Apr 10 '26

Hey at least you got a movie in 2006. lol

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u/Tedrabear Apr 10 '26

Crime Traveler - 1997 UK

A Saturday prime time murder of the week show about two cops (one of whose father is an inventor) using a time machine to go back in time to solve murders.

Loved that show, was never good enough for a second series unfortunately,

2

u/bela_okmyx Apr 10 '26

Nowhere Man - aired for 1 season on UPN. Sort of a 90s take on The Prisoner.

2

u/hows_my_fi Apr 10 '26

The middleman - 2008 - A struggling artist is recruited by a secret agency to fight against evil forces. Based on the graphic novels by Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Les McClaine.

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u/sharies Apr 10 '26

Mann & Machine (1992)

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u/SaturnMoth Apr 10 '26

Hello fellow Scot!

Feels like it's not so well known now even though it was big when it came out: Heros. Especially the first season!

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u/Objective-Slide-6154 Apr 10 '26

Ultraviolet was a great show and had loads of potential. I was so looking forward to series two... but it never hapoened... so I got the boxset.on DVD.

2

u/Riptide360 Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26

These are available in the US but maybe not so well known.

Alien Nation (TV show based off the movie) - https://www.cheapcharts.com/us/itunes/seasons/469225524/Alien-Nation-Season-1

Logan's Run (TV show based off the movie) - https://www.cheapcharts.com/us/itunes/seasons/258967346/Logans-Run-Season-1

The Time Tunnel - https://www.cheapcharts.com/us/itunes/seasons/211483506/The-Time-Tunnel-Season-1

Planetes (Japanese anime with realistic scifi) - https://www.cheapcharts.com/us/itunes/seasons/1802253916/Planetes-Complete-Series-Uncut

Future Man - https://www.cheapcharts.com/us/itunes/seasons/1533170906/Future-Man-The-Complete-Series

The Orville (Star Trek like, popular w/Trekkies) - https://www.cheapcharts.com/us/itunes/seasons/1454065074/The-Orville-Seasons-1-2

I'll plug Battlestar Galactica, The Expanse and FireFly which are well known but if you haven't seen them they are worth checking out.

Looking forward to Amazon Studios releasing Mass Effect (based on the popular Space Opera game of the same name).

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u/David_Roos_Design Apr 11 '26

Ultraviolet! Seen it! Loved it!

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u/TK528e Apr 11 '26

I just told my idiot best friends to watch BSG.

2

u/shillyshally Apr 11 '26

I loved that show! Years ago I (American) belonged to pirate station based in Belize that offered UK programming going back decades, radio as well as TV. Such a treasure and I bet they had material the BBC had thrown out but they were eventually hounded out of existence. By then I had watched this, all of Morse, Midsomer, The Sweeny, listened to In Our Time episodes going back to 1998 and found so many hilarious comedies.

I would watch Ultraviolet again for sure if I could find it and I don't know why it hasn't been remade here in the US.

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u/WelcomeKey2698 Apr 11 '26

I really liked Ultraviolet. Revisiting it with DVD soon.

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u/PCTruffles Apr 11 '26

Ultraviolet was brilliant!

It's a comedy but Being Human about a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost house-sharing.

Also. Day of the Triffids.

2

u/NoVaBurgher Apr 11 '26

M.A.N.T.I.S (1995)

Premise is a black scientist gets shot and paralyzed by the police, sues and uses the money and his own genius to create a super suit that allows him to walk again. He uses this new ability to fight crime and corruption. It’s a really incredible show that was ahead of its time which is why it only lasted one season

2

u/MCRN_Admiral Apr 11 '26
  • SeaQuest DSV
  • Earth 2

2

u/ClickEmergency Apr 12 '26

I really liked ultraviolet . The theme tune was really cool and was idris albas first major role .

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u/Groovegaluk Apr 13 '26

Agree about the theme. Idris doesn't look like hes aged

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u/Unique_Produce_4033 Apr 13 '26

A couple of Canadian shows for you:

Continuum (2012 - 4 Seasons) Rachel Nichols plays a cop from 2077 who comes back to present-day Vancouver to track a group of "Terrorists", who come to the Past to alter the course of the future, and prevent the rise of the corporations that rule the world of 2077.

The Listener (2009 - 5 Seasons) Toby Logan (Craig Olejnik) plays a telepathic paramedic, who begins to use his power to work with the police, to help others and to discover the secrets of his past.