3 underrated 1970s sci-fi TV shows you should watch

Even though it was beginning to make a splash at the box office, science fiction was still relatively rare on TV in the 1970s. One reason for this is that the budget is not enough to make the show attractive.

However, if you were really looking for it, there were some great sci-fi series from the 1970s that laid the groundwork for everything that came in the decades that followed. These series helped establish what a sci-fi story could be on TV, and many shows are still indebted to them today.

Blake’s 7 (1978)

A bleak, dystopian series about a group of misfits who attempt to take over a totalitarian state. blake 7 It seems like it’s the antidote to cynical, British star wars, The series has many of the same characteristics as that film, albeit on a much smaller scale, and has a dry wit that makes it feel completely different.

If you like your sci-fi dipped in acid, this is the series for you. It doesn’t have any of the trappings of a traditional sci-fi story, and that’s part of what made it so compelling. Few science-fiction stories to date have dared to be so realistic and bleak.

Blake’s 7 C’sIt will be streamed on BritBox via Prime Video.

Space: 1999 (1975)

Despite its 1970s name, Space: 1999 Takes a more grounded approach to science fiction. Set on a futuristic moon that gets launched into outer space, the show ran for two seasons and was hugely influential on what followed.

Although Space: 1999 While it’s fictional, it’s based more firmly on real science than many of the shows on this list. At its core, this is a really entertaining survival series about a group of people in dire circumstances. Like many sci-fi shows of this era, Space: 1999 There were also British. That side of the pond was very much into sci-fi TV at the time.

Space: 1999 Streaming for free on Amazon Freeway.

Battlestar Galactica (1978)

You’re probably familiar with the seminal sci-fi series that bears the same name as this series, as well as the reboot battlestar galacticaThe best episodes, but very few people have taken the time to watch this one-season show that was the inspiration for its more successful successor. The premise of the show is exactly the same, following a crew of the last remaining humans as they battle a race of artificial intelligence intent on wiping them out.

The show’s budget was obviously much lower than that of its successor, but battlestar galactica So intricately written and nuanced that it laid the foundation for one of the most important sci-fi series of all time.

battlestar galactica Can be rented or purchased on Prime Video.