10. John Doe (2002) (FOX) 

Dominic Purcell is John Doe, a man who literally comes fallen from the sky, naked. He has no personal memory but he knows everything about everything else, it’s like you are searching your web browser for answers, he can explain to you just as easy as Google can. He also is intelligent and inquisitive enough to understand and use much of that knowledge. He works together with the police, after they have begun trusting him, he gets frustrated about his own situation at times. This was genuinely a strong show, in my humble opinion, is this still Purcell’s best TV role. I was furious back then when I learned it was cancelled, so many good shows get axed while fluff keeps getting renewed year after year.

9. Crusade (1999) (TNT)

From the creator of Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski, the spin-off show Crusade, airing on the TNT network. Well before the first season started, it already was cancelled. I won’t go in to why, but even though it was cancelled it still brought in good numbers for TNT apparently. Syfy (Sci-Fi Channel) wanted to buy the show but no longer had any budget to spend. Such a shame because granted, it was not yet great but you can say the same for the first bunch of Babylon 5 episodes. It had a good cast, a good captain and the overall stories were quite okay. I am convinced that Crusade would have made its mark had it been given the opportunity to continue beyond the first season. Only the music was awful, a shame Christopher Franke was not on board for the music.

8. Primeval: New World (2012) (SPACE/SYFY)

Perhaps too many of you find this is a surprise but I really love the concept dating back to the original Primeval series. This is a Canadian show, a good cast, some familiar ones, for instance Nial Matter (Eureka), Sara Canning (Vampire Diaries), Miranda Frigon, Crystal Lowe and others. Guest starring, you might even say recurring because he comes by two episodes is Connor Temple character (Andrew Lee Potts) from the original series. Some interesting other recurring characters: Dr. Fridkin (Lexa Doig), Colonel Hall (Louise Ferreira). Problem is with the show that even though this has a parent show, it is British, so there needed to be some introduction episodes, some standard ‘monster of the week’ episodes, because not everyone was familiar with the parent show. But towards the end of the first, and what turned out to be final season, the episodes became really exciting, strong episodes which built on the story-arc of the series and the final episode is just fantastic. It was all to no avail, but for me this will always be a favorite!

7. Dark Skies (1996) (NBC)

As an answer to The X-Files, NBC came with Dark Skies, starring Eric Close, who became one of the most busiest TV actors after this. Later in the season Jeri Ryan (7 of 9 in Voyager), also became a regular character. This truly had potential and the creators had planned five seasons and like we now see on For All Mankind, each season of Dark Skies would also consists of approximately a decade. At the time I think this was unheard of! It starts in the 1960’s and the final season would start around the year 2000 or 2001. I really would have liked to have seen this, I think the premise itself is probably even more interesting than The X-Files. Regrettably Dark Skies was cancelled, we only got 20 episodes. There is some resolution because the creators knew before airing of the final episode that they were about to be cancelled, so a voice over of Eric Close’s character John Loengard gives somewhat of closure, not satisfactory of course but at least it is something.

6. Defying Gravity (2009) (ABC)

Defying Gravity is yet another favorite of mine, a show that has been missed by many I think, in part because it was advertised as ‘Grey’s Anatomy in Space’. Yes, there are relationships, romance, but there is also some good storytelling, a strong cast, alien objects and yes, set on a spaceship. I personally really enjoyed the show, and as always, towards the end of the season, what became the series finale, it really starting to get really good, with some intense drama, the story-arc which was burning on heavy thrusters here. You can say, why wasn’t this from the start? Well, in my opinion, it was good from the beginning, but a show like this has to built up its momentum, you have to have the ‘get to meet’ episodes, learning to know them. It is more than logical, in my opinion. Another nice thing you get to see in this show is that we get to see two time lines, the present day one, when the crew is flying through our solar system and the period when the astronauts where in training. It got 13 episodes, it was cancelled after 9 episodes. ABC didn’t seem to believe in this project, almost no advertising, and what they did was bad. Syfy was also interested but because ABC already aired two episodes, Syfy could no longer brand it as their own.

5. Invasion (2005) (ABC)

Another travesty is the cancellation of Invasion! Coming right after Lost, Invasion started to air in September 2005. It is basically a story about an alien invasion by slowly changing and ‘updating’ the population to an human/alien hybrid. Again, a stellar cast, intense drama, a heavy story-arc and most of the time oppressive storytelling, which, in my opinion in this case works very well. I also noticed this with another invasion show, Colony with Josh Holloway. It was cancelled because of ratings, which usually is the case. One of the actors Tyler Labine, also put out a statement about how disappointed he was about the cancellation and that he did not understood it. According to him, internal politics was probably also a reason for its cancellation. To this day it remains a favorite of mine, I would rather have 6 seasons of Invasion that 6 seasons of Lost, but it is what it is, another show cancelled prematurely. It ends on a cliff-hanger, still, I recommend watching this.

4. Threshold (2005) (CBS)

Like Invasion and Surface, Threshold also was a new show in the fall of 2005. Carla Gugino as the lead character as Dr. Molly Anne Caffrey, when U.S. Navy discovers an extra terrestrial object which briefly appears near a ship in the Atlantic ocean, Caffrey assembles a team of experts to investigate this and other alien sightings. An impressive cast besides Carla Gugino: Brent Spiner, Brian Van Holt, Peter Dinklage, Rob Benedict and Charles S. Dutton. A dream cast for a TV series I would think. I thought it was a great piece of SCI-FI, it was built up well and there already was a plan for two more seasons. Created by Bragi F. Schut, writers like Brannon Braga, Mike Sussman, David S. Goyer. I was sure this was going to be a hit, it had so many pros for it to become a success. When the initially ratings weren’t what CBS were hoping for, it was put in the Friday night death slot, it withered and died and was officially cancelled after 8 or 9 episodes. 13 episodes were produced. Shut learned of it’s cancellation and gave the show some form of conclusion in episode 13 which they were filming while the news came. Such a shame, still makes me angry till this day.

3. Space: Above and Beyond (1995) (FOX)

In the middle of shows like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Babylon 5, The X-Files and Star Trek Voyager, came Space: Above and Beyond. Totally different from the previous mentioned, if there is a comparison, I think it would be with the reimagined Battlestar Galactica from 2003. Humans are at war with an alien race called the Chigs. Warned by the alien race, humans still created colony on a planet in Chigs jurisdiction. On the contrary to Star Trek or Babylon 5, many fights were fought on planets in hand to hand combat, not only space battles but also war on the ground, like you also see in the later Battlestar Galactica. This definitely was different. It used the same CGI as Babylon 5 did at the time. It too had a story-arc, it had interesting ‘races’ called Silicates and invitro’s. The S:AAB universe was set-up well and was expanding during it first and only season. It got cancelled after 22 episodes and the final episode ends on a major cliff-hanger which indeed sucks. There have been rumors for a while now about a reboot and I wouldn’t mind going back to that universe, preferably with the original creators at the helm but that will most likely too good to be true.

2. Almost Human (2013) (FOX)

With Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. by far the best new show that came out of the fall 2013. This was supposed to be a big fat hit from the start! A show with Karl Urban and Michael Ealy, created by J.H. Wyman. It is just mind boggling that the ratings failed on this show, it was near perfect! Urban’s character Detective John Kennex is partnered with a older model android, Dorian, an android that was decommissioned at first because of his empathetic circuits that supposedly make him more easy to relate to, but the software in him can be a little nutty at times. Back then it was competing with The Following with Kevin Bacon for a second season renewal. Almost Human lost the fight with that overrated show. Stopped watching that predictable show after a few episodes. Of course, The Following was not as expensive to make than a futuristic cop show, and that is, in my humble opinion, the reason The Following was granted a new season instead of Almost Human. But Almost Human should not have even need to come in that position, why did it fail, why was nobody watching after the pilot episode? I believe it got enough buzz, ratings for the pilot episode were more than okay. I have to say it again, it truly boggles my mind how things sometimes work in TV land, so much potential!

1. Firefly (2002) (FOX)

Really obvious of course that Firefly is the number one. This is perhaps the biggest crime in TV history, the cancellation of Firefly. I watched it from the very early start when it was released, I didn’t find it afterwards, I was there from the beginning. A cast so perfect, this was just amazing how these characters made the show work perfectly, everything fell into place with this show, in only 14 episodes! It takes 2 seasons with most other TV shows. Problem was back then, I’ve read this often, that people only began to find it when it was already cancelled. FOX had a gold mine on its hands, but they did what they almost always do with genre TV shows, cancel it too prematurely. I think for sure I could make a Top 25 for prematurely cancelled genre shows from FOX. In this two-part blog there are 8 FOX shows. We Firefly fans were lucky to get a movie out of it, Serenity, but we just wanted a second season and more, many more seasons. Still, we now adore Firefly but truthfully, we don’t know of course if the level of these 14 episodes could be maintained over the course of several seasons, we will never know and therefore Firefly is and will always be a show with even more potential than all the other shows I’ve just written about in these two blogs.

Shows missed the Top 25:

• Now and Again (1999) – I am ashamed but I have never seen Now and Again! I have it on my to watch list for 2026 (2027), so it is highly possible this show would be in the Top 25 because I hear very good things about it.
• Galactica 1980 – Obviously the first season was mostly terrible, accept for the season finale. The finale is the only reason I would consider this on this list because there was a possibility Dirk Benedict would return fully or as a recurring character. I would definitely have liked to see that.
• Logan’s Run (1977)
• The Nevers (2021)
• Nowhere Man (1995)
• Intelligence (2014)
• The Event (2010)
• Flash Forward (2009)
• DayBreak (2007)

Final Word:

This was my Top 25, as I said in the very beginning, if a show is on spot 18, 19 or 20, it can be easily swapped when my mood is different or when I just saw a rewatch of one of these shows. Top 10 is a bit more a certainty, but even there, I suppose things can change after a rewatch. Still this is it for 2026 for me regarding the season one wonders. In a few weeks time I will also create a top 25 for shows which have been prematurely cancelled after its first season. I hope you enjoyed this blog and if you want to share your season one wonders top 25, please me and the other readers know in the comment section below.