Obscure Sci-Fi
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Farscape is one of my favourite series, and apperantly quite obscure. It may be pretty awkward in the beginning, but trust me, watch all of it. Especially the 3th and 4th seasons are brilliant.
A Scanner Darkly: Film adapted from the book by Philip K. Dick. As a fan of the novel, I was impressed by the accuracy of the film and the respect they gave the source material. Basically, it's set about 20 minutes into the future and revolves around the culture surrounding the drug Substance-D. The main character is a narc, taking the drug to maintain his cover and slowly losing his mind to it.
Life On Mars: Having seen both, I prefer the American version, and it just came out on DVD. Trippy series about a cop who gets shot and finds himself in 1973. The accuracy of the time period coupled with the very odd time-warpy elements make this a great series. And though it was canceled, they at least gave it a real conclusion.
Jericho: Another TV show canceled before its time. This one revolves around an after-the-end scenario. With nuclear weapons detonated on American soil, the town of Jericho is literally cut off from the outside world. It's mostly about the people and what they have to do to both survive and piece together what happened to their world.
Gattaca: I don't really consider this obscure, but I'm still surprised that many people have never heard of it. It's set in the future and deals with the ethics and consequences of genetic engineering producing "designer babies."
Life On Mars: Having seen both, I prefer the American version, and it just came out on DVD. Trippy series about a cop who gets shot and finds himself in 1973. The accuracy of the time period coupled with the very odd time-warpy elements make this a great series. And though it was canceled, they at least gave it a real conclusion.
Jericho: Another TV show canceled before its time. This one revolves around an after-the-end scenario. With nuclear weapons detonated on American soil, the town of Jericho is literally cut off from the outside world. It's mostly about the people and what they have to do to both survive and piece together what happened to their world.
Gattaca: I don't really consider this obscure, but I'm still surprised that many people have never heard of it. It's set in the future and deals with the ethics and consequences of genetic engineering producing "designer babies."
Dark Star.
Commedy, but still the original truckers in space style movie, written by the guy who wrote Alien a few years later.
Solaris and THX 1138 are worth a watch too.
Commedy, but still the original truckers in space style movie, written by the guy who wrote Alien a few years later.
Solaris and THX 1138 are worth a watch too.
[a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_1999]Space 1999![/a] sure it's set 10 years in the past..
Oh you didn't want something amazingly funny because it's so stupid?
Oh you didn't want something amazingly funny because it's so stupid?
See if you can find a film called eXistenZ (I think it's on Hulu). One of the very few examples of "biopunk."
Star Trek had comedy?
i'm goign to say the 4400 was pretty good for a sci-fi series that hasn't been mentioned
i'm goign to say the 4400 was pretty good for a sci-fi series that hasn't been mentioned
Unintentional, hell yes. I mean come on, just look at Kirk, or whenever they address sexual topics in The Next Generation.Xyphon said:
Do you mean serious SF that is very serious or making a point? If so, the 1960-70s is probably your Golden Age.
"Doomwatch" was a British SF series about pollution and the environment (from the 1970s!). Some of these are relatively well known, but you could look at films like "The Andromeda Strain", "Westworld", "Soylent Green", "Phase Four", "THX1138", "Fahrenheit 451", "Silent Running", "2010". If you dare sit through the very, very, heavyweight Russian stuff like "Stalker" or the original "Solaris", go for it. The original version of "Rollerball" is pretty good.
* * *
If you just want non-comedic, obscure SF that's just entertainment, I know a few old, mostly British TV series. Bear in mind British SF tends to mean low production costs, so they often look pretty shoddy in comparison to US stuff of the same period.
There are obvious classics like "UFO", "Space 1999", "Blake's 7" or "Sapphire & Steel" (the last actually for children's TV but well worth a look). In both TV and film, check out the Quatermass stuff. There was a good modern-day vampire thing that only ran for one series of 6 episodes or so called "Ultraviolet" (nothing to do with the recent movie). "The Prisoner" is a massive classic, and probably SF, although hardly obscure. Maybe not so well known now, there was the US TV series "V".
There's some other little-known TV stuff of variable quality like "The Tripods", "Day of the Triffids", "The Invisible Man" from the 80s, but I'd leave them until last.
"Doomwatch" was a British SF series about pollution and the environment (from the 1970s!). Some of these are relatively well known, but you could look at films like "The Andromeda Strain", "Westworld", "Soylent Green", "Phase Four", "THX1138", "Fahrenheit 451", "Silent Running", "2010". If you dare sit through the very, very, heavyweight Russian stuff like "Stalker" or the original "Solaris", go for it. The original version of "Rollerball" is pretty good.
* * *
If you just want non-comedic, obscure SF that's just entertainment, I know a few old, mostly British TV series. Bear in mind British SF tends to mean low production costs, so they often look pretty shoddy in comparison to US stuff of the same period.
There are obvious classics like "UFO", "Space 1999", "Blake's 7" or "Sapphire & Steel" (the last actually for children's TV but well worth a look). In both TV and film, check out the Quatermass stuff. There was a good modern-day vampire thing that only ran for one series of 6 episodes or so called "Ultraviolet" (nothing to do with the recent movie). "The Prisoner" is a massive classic, and probably SF, although hardly obscure. Maybe not so well known now, there was the US TV series "V".
There's some other little-known TV stuff of variable quality like "The Tripods", "Day of the Triffids", "The Invisible Man" from the 80s, but I'd leave them until last.
It's obscure in the US as well. It was a wacky show, and it doesn't air anymore I don't think.Charley said:
See "Cube", "Code 46", both versions of "Solaris" (Russian version is called "Solyaris"), "Stalker", "Sunshine", "2001"(it's not obscure, but lots of young people haven't seen it), "Voyage to the Planets and Beyond", Moon (just came out).
Start there and see what you like. All should be available on DVD, minus Moon which just came out a couple moths back in theaters.
Start there and see what you like. All should be available on DVD, minus Moon which just came out a couple moths back in theaters.
Equilibrium is a very good sci fi film. Also, does Red Dwarf count as a sci fi? Or obscure? Cause its humour is most certainly intentional, and as far as I can tell its only popular in Britain 
edit: nevermind, I just re-read your requests, scrap Red Dwarf its not what your looking for >_<
edit: nevermind, I just re-read your requests, scrap Red Dwarf its not what your looking for >_<
How you would define serious and obscure, I don't know.
Brazil, Gattaca, Contact, Clockwork Orange, Children of Men, eXistenZ, Silent Running, The Day the Earth Caught Fire.
Brazil, Gattaca, Contact, Clockwork Orange, Children of Men, eXistenZ, Silent Running, The Day the Earth Caught Fire.
