Good shows come and go, shows that grab our attention and even change the way we view the world if the writing is just right. But sometimes a good show comes along, only to abruptly get the axe and leave it's fans with a painful case of metaphorical blue balls. The reasons for the abrupt cancellations vary from show to show: sometimes it's bad ratings, and other time's it's FOX. Below is a short list of some of the best sci-fi shows that have unceremoniously had the plug pulled on them.

Much love and many thanks to Jono, Kippur, and Nari for their help.

The List:

15 - 11  |  10 - 6  |  5 - 1 

15. Jericho

When a rural Kansas town finds itself suddenly cut off from the rest of the world after a mysterious and catastrophic event, it's citizens struggle to survive not only the various things thrown their way but also each other. Political intrigue, a great ensemble cast, and a heavily dystopian atmosphere make this arguably one of the most interesting shows on television now.

Cancelation: Strangely, CBS didn't seem to see it that way. After one season, complete with an intense cliffhanger, the station decided that it's low ratings were more than enough reason to cut the show. The reason this show isn't higher on the list is that in an awesome show of strength, the series' fans petitioned and managed to convince the execs at CBS to give the show a second chance (only the fourth time in all the station's history where fans were able to do so). However, it's once again in danger of being cancelled after it's second season again for low ratings. Only time will tell if we'll see the whole story of Jericho and it's citizens.

14. Mystery Science Theater 3000

Alright, we all know the story here. A man and his robot buddies are subjected to some of the most terribly B-movies planet Earth has to offer. To alleviate their suffering, the trio make running commentary throughout the film, and had wacky misadventures during breaks from the movies.

Cancelation: Okay, yeah, so suuure the series actually had an eleven year run and even a feature film to its credit. But you tell me that the fact it hasn't been on the air for nearly nine years now hasn't left a big old empty spot in your very soul. NOT TO MENTION that Comedy Central, in fact, gave the show the axe halfway through it's seventh season. Fortunately, the Sci Fi channel picked it up and the series lived on for three more wonderful years. Then they axed it too... Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster for Cinematic Titanic!

13. The Lone Gunmen

A spin-off of the much loved X-Files, the short lived series featured the oft times inept yet hard nosed trio of conspiracy theorists who, on more than a few occasions, actually knew what they were talking about. It was a more light-hearted version of the X-Files, and sadly... that's all it would ever be.

Cancellation: The series lasted a total of fourteen episodes before FOX dropped the show due to ratings. But the crew didn't suffer in the least, having made more than a few appearances on it's mother-show, including the video game and feature film. Guess the world just wasn't ready for their brand of paranormal justice.

12. Harsh Realm

Another series developed by Chris Carter, the guy who brought us the X-Files and The Lone Gunmen; Harsh Realm was a short lived series set in a post-apocalyptic New York City... sort of... First airing in late 1999, Harsh Realm loosely played off of societies techno-phobia by telling of a world where the US government has set up a virtual world, nearly identical to our own, and thrust mostly unknowing 'players' to run survival scenarios. It's basically a big video game. A sad, scary, all too real video game.

Cancelation: Only three of it's nine filmed episodes aired, making it the most short lived series on this list. But it is definitely not without it's cult following.

11. John Doe

The series opened with a hunky muscle man lying naked in a forest, only to wake and run through said woods and jump off a cliff into the ocean. Needless to say, it was an interesting show. John Doe, occasionally referred to as Tommy, was a man who knew everything about anything-- except who he was, or anything about himself. Quickly becoming a local celebrity and an unofficial prodigy detective, he also came under the watchful eye of the nefarious group called the Phoenix Organization, and thus followed by intrigue, adventure, and heart ache.

Cancellation: This show suffered from what I like to refer to as 'The FOX Treatment.' Following the series' premier FOX kept jumping the show from time slot to time slot, making it difficult for fans to find and even more difficult to gain new fans. Not to mention an unannounced hiatus part way through the season. But like any show worth it's weight, the story gained momentum as it went on and ended it's first season with the bane of my very existence; a high intensity cliff hanger. Because of it's low ratings (due to the FOX treatment, presumably) the station pulled the plug on the second season, leaving all questions left unanswered. Unless you read the wiki on the show.

Tune in next time for numbers ten through six!

Good shows come and go, shows that grab our attention and even change the way we view the world if the writing is just right. Below is a short list of some of the best sci-fi shows that have unceremoniously had the plug pulled on them before their time.

Much love and many thanks to Jono, Kippur, and Nari for their help.

The list so far:

15. Jericho

14. Mystery Science Theater 3000

13. The Lone Gunmen

12. Harsh Realm

11. John Doe

The List: 

15 - 11  |  10 - 6  |  5 - 1

10. The Pretender

Jarod is a man who can do anything and be anyone, a genius who can learn anything; except who he really was, or where his family is. Kidnapped as a child by a nefarious organization called The Centre (because everything evil has a British flair), he was raised to develop his unique ability of being a 'Pretender.' As an adult he learned that the Centre's use of him was less than noble and had cost the lives of many people; so he escaped and made a vow to right every wrong he was able to. Along the way he would learn of everything he had missed growing up, such as love, friendship, and ice cream. But it was not an easy path for our sexy naive genius as The Centre's best operatives were always on his trail, never ceasing.

Cancellation: Until NBC decided four seasons was enough of a chase. Due to low ratings, and possibly the repetitive story-line (hey, I loved the show but I'm not saying it had the most original plot lines), the station opted out of a fifth season. Fortunately for the show's fans, Turner Network Television-- TNT-- picked up the series for syndication and produced two telemovies: The Pretender 2001 and The Pretender: Island of The Haunted. Unfortunately both ended with unresolved endings, going as far as to leave MORE questions than they had begun with, and TNT decided enough was enough. The creators of the series vow that they have the third and final part of the story written, but no one has been willing to finance the venture to date. Oh well.

9. Seven Days

A secret faction of the US government reverse-engineered some technology found at the Roswell UFO crash site, and use it to send a cocky son of a bitch backwards in time seven days. Only backwards, and only for measures of national security. The show was a fun melting pot of government conspiracy, action, and all-American (and Russian) snark. Great combination, right?

Cancellation: Eh... Turns out, not so much. Though the series started off with middling reviews at best, it quickly garnered new fans and went on for three seasons until eventually dying out. Even the series' fans argue that the writing began to fall in on itself toward the end, but nevertheless it had been a fun show while it lasted.

8. Journeyman

A San Franciscan journalist discovers one day that he has the rather annoying ability to travel through time to try and change the fate of others; sort of like Quantum Leap, minus Al and Ziggy. The biggest difference, though, between the shows is that while Sam of Quantum Leap was relatively unaffected personally by his travels, Journeyman's Dan still has to deal with his confused and upset wife, and being a good father. While randomly disappearing all the time. Oh, not to mention his ex-fiancee whom he thought was dead is ALSO a traveller, and everyone around him thinks he's crazy. It's a big ball of FUN for good ol' Dan!

Cancellation: So, of course, it would only make sense that nobody would watch it. Due in large part to low ratings, NBC decided thirteen episodes was enough for the series and decided not to option for a full season. Some might argue that the Writer's Guild strike might have had something to do with it as well, despite all thirteen episodes having been produced long before the strike began. But, I guess, we'll never really know.

7. Dark Angel

Human/Animal hybrids exist, and they're all up in your government being crazy awesome super-soldiers. Now imagine it's 2009 (I know, a stretch) and an electromagnetic pulse destroys everything we depend on to live throwing the US into utter turmoil (seriously: no American Idol, or eBaumsworld?), but affording these super-soldiers a chance to escape their detention to try and live normal lives. Max "X5-452" Guevara is one of those people, and with the help of her friends and allies-- like the sexy Logan-- she evades recapture, and eventually brings down the organization that's after her... only to find an even greater enemy.

Cancellation: You know, this show had a really strong fan base even through it's second season. So it's kind of a wonder why FOX decided to option out of the third season. Oh right, I know why. 'CAUSE THEY'RE FOX! But, here's the clincher. Do you happen to know what it was FOX dropped Dark Angel for? I'll give you a hint; it was Firefly. That's right! Firefly, a show that can be argued as being the biggest cult show from modern times. So, in a way, FOX only half-screwed up. Just half.

6. Angel

We all probably already know of the Buffy spinoff: Vampire-with-a-soul (tm) moves to Los Angeles to start life anew and, with new friends and old, vows to clean the city of all it's mystical woes. For the first four of it's five seasons on air, Angel was just a private detective struggling to make his way in LA; but in it's fifth and final season he found himself the head of the reputedly evil law firm Wolfram & Hart, sort of shifting the feeling of the series. Suuuure they brought the ever bitchy Spike into the series, but somehow things just felt... off.

Cancellation: Angel wrapped up just a season after it's compatriot Buffy, and I think Whedon himself put it best when on a post at the Buffy'verses fansite The Bronze Beta he compared to the end of Angel as a "healthy guy falling dead from a heart attack." And when you watch the very end of the last episode and it's epic level cliffhanger (intentional, even) it just might make you drop dead as well. From the awesome! Still, makes one sad to see the show yanked like that...

Good shows come and go, shows that grab our attention and even change the way we view the world if the writing is just right. Below is a short list of some of the best sci-fi shows that have unceremoniously had the plug pulled on them before their time.

Much love and many thanks to Jono, Kippur, and Nari for their help.

The List so far:

The List:

15 - 11  |  10 - 6  |  5 - 1 

5. Dead Like Me

Once upon a time, eighteen year old burnout George Lass had a fateful encounter with a toilet seat from space; ultimately ending in her death, and the beginning of her unlife. Recruited into the ranks of the Grim Reapers, George was not only forced to cope with death from this new alarming perspective, but learn to grow up and make her way in the world. What makes this show even more bad ass were the dual storylines going on. Not only do we watch George grow as a Reaper, along with her relationships with her co-Reapers, but we also get the unique perspective of witnessing her family cope post-mortem. Unique is probably the best word to use to describe the series. No other series on this list has as nearly an original story to tell.

Cancellation: So, considering it's fanbase and superbly well written story, why exactly would Showtime cancel it after only two seasons? Well, according to Brian Fuller-- creator of the show, and fellow doorQ-at-heart, who left after the first season-- Showtime's parent company, MGM, got their sticky little fingers into the whole thing and performed a literary back-alley operation. Fuller talks in an interview about MGM's lack of professionalism as it pertained to the series, and forced the writers to abort important storylines and take the show in different directions than originally intended. One such storyline aborted was George's discovery that her father was, in fact, gay-- even going as far as to make a fairly obvious point of the intention in the show's pilot.

But what was worse about the cancellation was that the series was really making some hefty story developments all the way until the end of the second season. Like many of the shows on this list, several loose ends were left... well, loose. But here's the good news. MGM is currently in post-production on a direct-to-DVD movie set two-years after the last episode aired. And to show that all is truly not lost, there seems to be the promise in the air that with enough DVD sales Showtime will pick up the series for at least a third season-- an unprecedented four years after it's initial cancellation. Click here to watch a teaser-trailer.

4. Farscape

His name is John Chrichton, an astronaut. A radiation wave hit his experimental space craft and sent him through a worm hole and into the hands of some of the most batshit insane aliens you can imagine. In true form, John immediately becomes the enemy of a crazy general of the most powerful military in the known-- and unknown-- universe. Through it's four seasons on air the too-hunky-for-his-leatherpants Chrichton battled enemies, fell in love, learned some rad new curse words, and learned how to cohabitate with animatronic puppets. 

Cancellation: There was a lot of controversy around the cancellation of Farscape. Vivendi Universal, Sci-Fi channel's parent company at the time, decided that a) the series was beginning to get too expensive to produce each week, b) that the story telling was so tight that it was difficult for new viewers to follow the show without first having to watch the rest of the series, and c) ratings were just plum too low. Well, that last bit turned out to be a, er, faulty presumption at best. See, the way Sci-Fi's rating system worked was that rather than seeing the actual ratings for the episode after it aired, they instead would compared some other random numbers (presumably pulled out of their ass) to the ratings from the previous year and... well, the logistics get kinda fuzzy, but somehow it meant that ratings were theoretically too low. But like some theories, it was faulty and the fans called BS on Sci-Fi and Vivendi's shenanigans.

To make up for their flub from dropping the series right at a high point (and probably to stop the massive amount of hate mail that ensued from the fan's counter-strike), Sci-Fi managed to find backers for a four-hour miniseries to tie up all the loose ends. Due to the success of the miniseries, a webisode series is now in the midst of pre-production at and seems to take place some time after the end of the miniseries. Watch this space in the future when more news comes of this.

3. Futurama

What do you do when you accidently cryogenically freeze yourself, wake up a thousand years into the future and find yourself surrounded by a strange and terrifying new world filled with customs and creatures the likes of which you've never seen? Well, if you're from New York you shrug it off and get a job as a delivery boy. This show, the only animated series on the list, was far and away one of the most popular and loved TV series' in modern times; and for good reason. Using humor and camp, the show did what so many others have tried and failed at; reflecting today's society without being hoighty toighty. With it's varied characters and personalities, it tackled a lot of other subjects viewers have been brow-beaten with so much in recent past, yet did it in a completely new and hilarious way; subjects like race, sexuality, nationality, and even things like science and art. And with people like physics professors and people with multiple PhD's on the writing staff, it's not too surprising when you think about it.

Cancellation: But remember everybody, what station was Futurama being aired on? Say it with me now. FOX! If you can't tell, FOX is not my favorite station in the world. So what happened exactly? Well, quite frankly, it really WAS just FOX being irresponsible with a hit show. During it's fourth season airing, new episodes suddenly became erratic, often times bumped in favor of airing sports programs in the shows stead. Eventually, after seeing no profit or ratings from the series FOX decided to stop purchasing new episodes of the series and, subsequently, cancelled the series. Cartoon Network soon swooped in and bought syndication rights from FOX, where the show quickly had a ratings boom even in it's near-midnight slot. FOX soon realized the mistake they had made.

In 2007 Comedy Central bought syndication rights after Cartoon Network's contract ended, and along with FOX called for four straight-to-DVD movies to be created. In an even niftier move, they're planning on airing the movies as new episodes starting March 23rd of this year. Nearly five years after it's last episode aired. Sweet!

2. Firefly

It's 2517, and Earth-that-was is now but a memory for the people trying to survive a new universe, and the harsh political climates that come with it. The Alliance, a hybrid of today's US and Chinese governments and cultures (presumably the food kicks ass), have since succeeded in squelching their would-be opponents-- affectionately (or scornfully) known as the Browncoats-- during a bloody civil war that ended with several moons and planets becoming uninhabitable, and generally making life a crap-shoot of sorts. The crew of Serenity are just another group of people trying to live life under the radar of the Alliance; dealin' and stealin' just to make ends meet. But after the ship inadvertently takes on a few 'wanted' individuals-- and wanted for undignified reasons-- their adventures, and dangers, take a turn for the more exciting. This heavily character-driven story combined the two oft times opposing genres of Westerns and Sci-Fi, stripped 'em down, and unleashed it's brand of shiny grittiness on an unsuspecting world. Not to mention it's cast is comprised of some of the shiniest people-- male and female.

Cancellation: FOX. Again. Their first offense was airing the episodes out of order, thus forcing audiences to jump headlong into a story without the much needed background and character development that the series needed for the beginning. As stupid as it sounds, this isn't an entirely uncommon practice for networks to do; trying to lead with what the network heads see as their strongest foot forward. Unfortunately for Firefly this most certainly worked against them by confusing the audience. Their second offense was preemptively dismissing the series due to initial low-ratings, despite raving reviews and an immediate strong fan-base.

When the series went to DVD, though, FOX quickly learned that despite only airing eleven of the show's fourteen episodes the fan base had grown exponentially. DVD sales soared-- steadily even until now--  thus prompting FOX and Universal to respond by producing the feature film Serenity which not only further prompted DVD sales on the show, but brought in oodles of money from ticket sales and subsequently DVD sales of the movie. It also brought in a ton of more fans that, while the story as now 'technically' brought to a hearty close, has people calling out for more. Fans have even gone so far as to create Can't Stop The Serenity, a yearly showing of the movie to help raise money for Whedon's favorite charity Equality Now. Unfortunately, outside of the occasional comicbook series and a bounty of non-canon fan fiction, it appears that the story is at it's official end. And yet still every day it seems another Browncoat is initiated. Also, how many movies can boast that they're a permanent entertainment fixture in a real ruttin' space shuttle?

1. Star Trek: The Original Series

Space... the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Or were, rather. And be glad of it! This is the grand daddy of modern sci-fi television. Sure you've got your Lost In Space's and your Buck Rogers', but this was the one that helped usher the genre into what it is today. By boldly going where no scifi show has gone before, and banging a new species every week for three seasons; It's moderately diverse cast (hey, it was the sixties) was but the first crew in a long series of space explorers who's exploits would make Earth the beacon of hope and prosperity, and the total party destination of the known (and unknown) universe. It also helped to bring many sci-fi staples together under one roof, such as teleportation, warp-speed, and automatic doors. Seriously, it was a paradise of sci-fi.

Cancellation: Not only is Star Trek the grand daddy of sci-fi TV, but it's also the Grand Imperial PooBah of cancelled TV. Going into it's third season the show was hit with a major setback by being placed into NBC's "death slot" and having it's financing cut back severely. The quality of the show, of course, began to lack as they were forced to cut more and more corners just to stay afloat. By the end of the third season the ratings were low enough for NBC to pull the plug on the series altogether. But... how, then, did it become known to be the iconic series we know it as today? Fans, that's how.

In an unprecedented move, a letter writing campaign-- the first of it's kind-- was begun by the fans of the series. After the show began syndication (read: repeats) the fanbase grew much wider, and the outpouring of support grew with it. Soon after the network obliged the fans with Star Trek: The Motion Picture (originally planned to be the pilot for an unrealized series Star Trek: Phase II), and now ten movies, six TV series', numerous comics books and games later-- with a new Star Trek movie about to start production forty-two years after the series began-- we can comfortably call Star Trek the winner when it comes to abruptly cancelled sci-fi shows.

Honorable Mentions (read: shows that should have been included, but weren't thought of until too late):

Early Edition, Sliders, Millennium, Stargate: SG1, The 4400, Tru Calling