Sci-fi from the 80s evokes imagery of big hair, tinfoil robots, and neon laser beams but that certainly isn't the case. Well, sometimes it is, but that's what makes it fun to look back on. As the world raced towards the new millennium and special effects started to become better and more accessible, the fascination with science fiction began to be translated onto the small screen at a greater and more diverse pace.
While the impact of 80s sci-fi shows is undeniable with shows like Quantum Leap and Star Trek: The Next Generation shaping modern sci-fi serials. However, many shows from the decade haven't had the dues they deserve.
Amazing Stories
The Steven Spielberg-created anthology series Amazing Stories had a run of 45 episodes from 1985 to 1987. Every episode featured a different story, often with a morality message, set in a different bizarre situation. The series had everything, body swap episodes, possessed toupees, and a hungry creature called The Greibble and had more great episodes than bad. Anthology shows in the sci-fi and horror vein were popular around this time with Tales From The Dark Side and Tales From The Crypt also being popular around the time the show aired.
Amazing Stories stood out due to the quality of the directors and stars attached to each episode and due to the impressive special effects, both practical and CGI. Amazing Stories was revived in 2020 for Apple TV but failed to capture the spark of the original.
Alien Nation
Based on the 1988 film of the same name, Alien Nation tells the story of aliens, known as Newcomers, that have arrived on Earth and are integrating into society. Set up as a procedural cop show, the story follows human Detective Matt Sikes and his partner Newcomer Detective George Francisco as they navigate their different customs and expectations of life and crime in their day-to-day life.
The show was an allegory for racism and bigotry, highlighting social issues and disparities between minorities and those in charge. The Newcomers themselves are escaped slave laborers who crashed on Earth after escaping from the Overseers who forced them into servitude. Alien Nation was ahead of its time and balanced social issues a lot better than even some shows today.
Terrahawks
Created by Gerry Anderson, the man behind Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, Terrahawks is terrifying to look at. Puppets are creepy at the best of times but the Terrahawks cast tips the scale into frightening. Set in 2020, the distant future, an organization known as The Terrahawks is created to battle alien forces that are intent on waging war on Earth. Led by Zelda, the alien forces have a battalion of monsters at their command and will stop at nothing to destroy all humans.
Despite some puppets being nightmare fuel, Terrahawks carried with it a lot of humor. Many of the characters aligned with the Terrahawks have bird-related names such as Katie Kestrel, Mary Falconer, and Lieutenant Hawkeye. The alien forces weren't safe from stupid names either as Zelda's child was called Yung-Star and her sister was named Cy-Star.
Max Headroom
In a future ruled by television networks, Matt Frewer plays tv reporter Edison Carter who uncovers more than his network bosses would like him to know. When Carter is hit by a motorcycle, his consciousness is uploaded to a computer to discover the extent of what he learned, and the character of Max Headroom is created. Throughout the series, Carter continues his exposure of corruption and subterfuge at the top as Max helps from cyberspace, usually by offering a witty quip but also sometimes going off and finding helpful information.
At the time of its release, Max Headroom didn't fare well in the ratings, only lasting 2 short seasons. Since then, however, the show has been lauded as the first cyberpunk tv show and the character of Max Headroom has become synonymous with anti-establishment movements, including the infamous signal hijacking in 1987.
Day Of The Triffids
.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5)
Day of The Triffids was a 6 part limited series that aired on the BBC in 1981 based on a novel of the same name. People across the world watch a meteor shower, not knowing that it will soon cause most of the population to become blind. Those lucky enough to have avoided the blinding find themselves not only fighting each other but also genetically engineered plants called Triffids. The Triffids were being bred and farmed for their oil, despite being poisonous and carnivorous, and with humanity blinded they have escaped, and they are hungry and potentially angry.
Like much of the fiction produced around this time, especially in the UK, the series focused on a post-apocalyptic society trying to rebuild itself and the evils that men are capable of. Genuinely still a tense thriller to this day, Day of The Triffids is generally regarded as the ultimate adaptation, superseding both the 1962 and 2009 adaptations.