Every genre of television has something interesting and unique to offer the world, but there are very few pockets of creativity that allow writers and producers to get quite as creative as science fiction. Science fiction is a world where anything that a person can conceive of can be reality, so while sci-fi is often regarded as a niche genre it is one of the most fruitful and interesting television genres around.

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When it comes to any TV series, it's pretty typical that the show has to grow on it's own and find it's legs as the series goes on. However, there are rare TV shows that have a pilot that is so astounding that the audience is hooked from day one. So here are 10 of the best sci-fi pilots in the history of television.

Firefly

One of the hardest parts of creating a compelling pilot is that they have to get an audience fully invested in a story in an hour and a half at most. But Firefly not only did that, it managed to fully establish the show's history and it's future in one double-dose, extra long episode.

We're initially introduced to Mal and Zoe in the battle of Serenity Valley, and we come to learn that this battle and war has been lost. Now the pair, along with the rest of the appropriately named Serenity spaceship crew, are scavengers and scoundrels just trying to survive and avoid any entanglements with the shady Alliance government.

Lost

Matthew Fox as Jack Shepherd in Lost Dharma logo

Lost unfortunately seemed to get, well, lost as the show went on and the story became more convoluted. The creators of the series clearly wanted to do something bold and unusual with the show, and they succeeded in doing that, even if every part of the show didn't always work.

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However one thing about Lost is completely undeniable. The pilot episode of the series is one of the greatest pilots ever made. It's not just one of the best sci-fi pilots either, it's one of the best pilots, period. The bizarre and surreal opening sequence is unforgettable, and honestly the majority of the opening episode is feature film quality.

Dark Angel

Jessica Alba as Max in Dark Angel

There are many TV shows in the annals of television history that were canceled before their time, and Fox's Dark Angel was definitely one of them (it seems that they have a habit of ditching awesome science fiction shows prematurely).

But the series premiere of this show about a young woman who was a genetically engineered super-soldier who escaped the shady government agency that created her when she was still just a kid was fantastic. It was co-written by sci-fi legend James Cameron, and this movie-length pilot feels more like a real movie than like a TV series.

Stranger Things

Stranger Things season 1 Eleven experiment

From the moment it was released, Stranger Things became one of the biggest hits in Netflix history. And from it's pilot, it's not hard to see why.

This science fiction series modeled itself after classic 80s movies and TV shows, and it's hard to think of any other TV show or movie that has managed to capture that beloved nostalgia as perfectly as Stranger Things did.

Stranger Things made everyone want to be a kid again, and it's pilot episode established a taut mystery while introducing a cast of characters that the audience fell in love with within the hour.

The Handmaid's Tale

No one would think science fiction and immediately think The Handmaid's Tale, but this sci-fi series has gone so far out of it's way to ground itself in a reality that actually feels like it could be real that it has truly transcended it's sci-fi categorization.

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But this bizarre dystopia is thankfully still fictional, and Gilead's obsession with propagating the human race through enslavement of fertile women is more of a cautionary tale about only realizing the threat of radicalism when it's already too late. And the series premiere of this groundbreaking show does an excellent job of encapsulating those themes.

The Walking Dead

Rick Entering Atlanta in The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead is undeniably one of the best science fiction horror shows ever made, and even though it has had some highs and lows throughout it's 10 year run it's still hard to forget how incredible the series premiere really was.

TWD did very well for AMC right out of the gate, and it's not hard to see why. Watching a comatose Rick Grimes wake up into a world that has completely fallen apart took the audience on this wild ride right along with him, and it's commitment to translating the graphic novel so well made it one of the most visually stunning TV pilots of all time.

Orphan Black

Orphan Black Community of Dreadful Fear and Hate 1

Orphan Black is undeniably one of the best science fiction TV shows ever made, and a lot of it's success rode on the back of the incredibly talented and chameleonic actress Tatiana Maslany.

The series about a group of clones who discover each other's existence and discover that they are all a part of an extremely illegal and immoral experiment. And the entire show is a wild ride, but there are few better twists in TV history than watching Sarah Manning see her doppelganger throw herself in front of a train, and it was clear from that moment that Orphan Black was going to be something different.

The Mandalorian

The Mandalorian holding a blaster and taking cover

Ever since Star Wars was first released, the dream of a potential Star Wars live action TV show was on the table. But no one could have expected that it wouldn't happen until Disney+ came out with The Mandalorian, and no one could have expected that it would do quite so much justice to the Star Wars universe.

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The introduction of Mando, a bounty hunter in the same vein as Boba Fett, was a thrilling adventure in it's own right. But absolutely no one was expecting for the show to close out with the literal cutest character of all time, baby Yoda.

The Twilight Zone

Night Gallery, Rod Serling

Throughout the annals of sci-fi television history, there really aren't any shows that can compare to The Twilight Zone.

This long running anthology series pushed the boundaries of thought and imagination, and each individual story told in the show was better than most of what any sci-fi series has to offer throughout it's entire run.

But the pilot episode of this landmark series, titled "Where Is Everybody?" got the show off to a smashing start and made it clear that The Twilight Zone was a series unlike any other.

Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica Ship

It's honestly hard to say which Battlestar Galactica pilot counts as it's real pilot, however the initial miniseries that was made was amazing enough that the network decided to transform it into an actual television series, and the first episode of that television series was fantastic as well.

In the world of ultra gritty TV shows that we exist in today, it would still be seen as a pretty bold move to start off your series with the extermination of the entire human race. But that's exactly what Battlestar Galactica did, and this intense sci-fi drama never let up it's pace from that moment on either.

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