There’s a new doctor in the house. Ncuti Gatwa has taken over the role of the Doctor on Doctor Who, which has led to a flurry of excitement about the first Black actor to take on the role. If you’re all caught up on Doctor Who, though, and eagerly anticipating each new installment, you may be looking for something that’s in a similar vein and will help you while away the weeks between episodes.
We’ve collected three sci-fi or sci-fi adjacent shows that have a lot in common with the good doctor. Doctor Who is one of the most influential sci-fi series in the history of TV, and each of these shows pulled different elements from that show. Here are three great sci-fi shows like Doctor Who you should check out.
The Magicians (2015-2020)
Arguably a little bit more fantasy than sci-fi, but The Magicians takes all of the best lessons from Doctor Who and runs with them. The show is a bit like a riff on Harry Potter, and follows a group of magicians who attend a magic school that operates like a graduate school.
From there, the series veers off into dozens of different fascinating directions, while remaining endlessly creative and compelling. Thanks to a core group of characters who are all fun to watch, the show will win you over, even if you’re not always totally sure what’s going on.
The Magicians is streaming on Netflix.
Legends of Tomorrow (2016-2022)
Even more than The Magicians, Legends of Tomorrow feels almost like a straight riff on Doctor Who. The show follows a group of superheroes who are tasked with preventing villains from destroying time itself. While the show’s first season is a little too self-serious, it leans hard into whimsy in subsequent seasons, and wound up being one of the most fun shows that was a part of The CW’s Arrowverse.
Featuring a constantly rotating cast of superheroes and villains, the show was a great alternative to Marvel during the years when that studio was at its most dominant.
Legends of Tomorrow is streaming on Netflix.
Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009)
While Battlestar Galactica is a little more serious than the previous two shows, its sci-fi elements are among the most fascinating in recent TV history. The show follows a small band of survivors who attempt to take on the Cylons, the robots who have all but wiped out humanity.
Although Battlestar Galactica was ostensibly about the survival of humanity, it was also about the politics of the era in which it aired. It was a show about the nuances of your enemies, and in spite of its relatively low budget, it managed to become something of a phenomenon, so much so that it is still discussed more than a decade after it last aired.
Battlestar Galactic is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
