Television series

Doctor Who

Name: Doctor Who
Genre: Drama, Adventure, Science Fiction
Released: 2005
Cast: Matt Smith, David Tennant, Karen Gillan, Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman

A blue box, one alien with two hearts, and the whole of time and space to get lost in. Nearly two decades of the revival now, cycling through Doctors, companions and tones — cosy one week, genuinely frightening the next. It's family adventure with real ideas underneath, built for anyone who wants wonder without cynicism.

TVMaze rating

8.3

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Star Trek: The Next Generation1987

Same faith in curiosity over violence, same episodic crew-solves-a-problem structure, but filtered through calm optimism rather than chaotic wit. A gentler, more procedural cousin.

But Slower pacing, boxier effects, and the first two seasons are famously rough going.

Farscape1999

An ordinary human flung into a genuinely alien universe, with puppetry, prosthetics and imagination standing in for budget. Weirder, darker, and more serialised than Who at its most inventive.

But Tonally jagged — slapstick and trauma sit uncomfortably close, and the mythology gets dense fast.

Firefly2002

A ragtag crew, a battered ship, banter as a survival mechanism — the same found-family warmth Who trades in, transplanted to a scrappier, dustier future.

But One season and a cancellation cliffhanger that never gets resolved on screen.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Quatermass and the Pit1958

This is where the show's whole grammar — Britain under quiet alien siege, solved by a clever outsider — was invented, decades before the blue box existed.

Black-and-white BBC serial where an ancient alien menace is unearthed beneath London — eerie, cerebral, and one of the direct ancestors of everything Doctor Who does with buried horror under ordinary streets.

But Stagey, slow by modern standards, and the production values are exactly what you'd expect from 1958.

Sherlock2010

Same writers' room DNA — quickfire dialogue, structural cleverness, a hero who talks his way out of everything. If you love the show's wit, this is where some of it came from.

But Later seasons lean hard into puzzle-box showmanship at the expense of character.

Good Omens2019

Tennant again, but playing a demon who'd rather have a nice cup of tea than end the world. Whimsical, cosy, very British apocalypse comedy.

But It's fantasy-comedy, not adventure sci-fi — a different rhythm and lower stakes.

Red Dwarf1988

British sci-fi's other long-runner: cheap sets, big ideas, and jokes fired at a machine-gun pace. Proof the genre and comedy have always shared a bed here.

But Broad sitcom humour and visibly dated effects won't suit everyone.

His Dark Materials2019

BBC fantasy on a grand scale — parallel worlds, a fierce young lead, and genuinely thorny questions about faith and free will underneath the adventure.

But Heavier and more melancholy, with a slower, more literary pace than Who's.

Stranger Things2016

Kids on bikes chasing wonder and dread in equal measure, with the same sense that ordinary places hide extraordinary danger. Nostalgic, propulsive, easy to binge.

But Scarier and gorier than Who ever gets, with less of its optimism.

The Umbrella Academy2019

Time travel, a deeply dysfunctional found family, and apocalypses treated as an inconvenience rather than a tragedy. Genre mashup with real heart underneath the noise.

But Darker humour, more violence, and a sprawling ensemble that dilutes focus.

Cosmos1980

Swap the sonic screwdriver for a spaceship of the imagination and you get the same pitch: the universe is vast, old, and worth falling in love with.

Carl Sagan's own time-and-space odyssey, no fiction required — the same hunger for scale, wonder and 'just imagine' that the Doctor performs, delivered as fact by a man in a turtleneck.

But It's a documentary with 1980s pacing and graphics — patience required, no companions, no jeopardy.

Xena: Warrior Princess1995

Same engine — a powerful traveller dropping into different eras and genres each week to fix things — but stripped of restraint and played almost entirely for gleeful excess.

A near-immortal hero rockets through history and myth episode to episode, righting wrongs with wit, camp and the occasional wildly inappropriate needle-drop — Who's structure turned up to eleven and drenched in glorious cheese.

But Broader, campier, and far less interested in coherence than in a good chakram throw.