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Exploring the final frontier...

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Any Trekkie knows that James Kirk was preceded as captain of the Enterprise by one Christopher Pike. The latest Star Trek series, arriving May 5, puts the spotlight on Pike’s time aboard Starfleet’s finest ship, with Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, and Rebecca Romijn reprising their recent turns as Pike, Spock, and Number One. Paramount+

Star Trek: Picard

Patrick Stewart’s 2020 return as the beloved Enterprise captain Jean Luc-Picard was somewhat overlooked. It has found its bearings in the recently released Season 2. Paramount+

Battlestar Galactica

An early-2000s reboot of a 1978 Star Wars knockoff, this project unexpectedly became one of the best sci-fi series of all time. Robots have driven humans to near-extinction, and the survivors have fled into space on a motley array of ships. Peacock

The Expanse

A solar system colonized by humans and governed by a future-gen United Nations may suggest another Star Trek rip-off, but The Expanse has an aesthetic all its own and an excellent story recently wrapped up after six action-packed seasons. Amazon Prime

Lost in Space

Netflix’s reboot of the campy 1960s sci-fi series bears, fortunately, little resemblance to the original. This Robinson family is knocked off course in a universe animated by top-notch special effects, including an awesome version of the family robot. Netflix

For All Mankind

This series offers an althistory version of the space race in which the Soviets were first to the moon. It can get clunky. But the effects are fantastic, and the plotting often provocative. Apple TV+