It's definitely not lesser known, but my favorite is The Expanse.
I would do unspeakable things for more stories set in the Expanse universe. The TV series should at least get another season or two in order to catch up to the last two books and I think it would be great if the authors/showrunners could explore some of the side plots more fully.
I really liked the last two books. I thought I wouldn't care after the time jump but I was super wrong. I liked the show but I loved the books.
It's happening! The story directly after the show and in between the 20+ year gap to the next book is now being told in the new comic book series. The Expanse: Dragon Tooth furthers the story of where we last left off. I'm planning to get the whole volume after all the issues release.
Also, if you haven't checked into it yet, The Expanse video game from Telltale is a prequel with Cara Gee returning to once again be the voice of Camina Drummer!
Farscape.
Look upward, and share the wonders I've seen.
Farscape definitely deserves a spot in the greatest sci-fi’s of all time.
Space: Above & Beyond. I thought it had some interesting ideas that were never given a chance to be fully explored.
Babylon 5. It's probably up there as #5 in your top 4, tbh.
Planet of the Apes. 1970s movies and TV series.
Space: Above & Beyond was also a classic network bait and switch where they were X-Wing pilots until the budget ran out, then they were the A-Team in space.
Yes, yes, something about "every Marine a rifleman" but still, teenage me was underwhelmed.
Babylon 5. It's probably up there as #5 in your top 4, tbh.
For anyone considering watching it for the first time, I strongly recommend the Episode Guide. B5 came out in a unique time, where techy people were on usenet, but the wide internet wasn't a thing yet. The writer J. Michael Straczynski was on Usenet discussing the show and answering questions, and the episode guide integrates that, so you can read along after each episode for an idea of the questions that came up at the time and his answers, without spoilers.
Definitely Farscape. A very weird but very good show. Ben Browder did a great job playing the lead role and it's a shame he hasn't done anything like it since.
He did though, he was on Stargate until 2007! Also, he's 60 now, so I doubt he's taking on a lead role in a sci-fi as his same goofy self again.
Galaxy Quest! I don't know if it counts since it's parody, but it's hilarious and well-made.
I will go for the oddball answer. The Outer Limits. The originals and the later ones. The episodic short story format works very well for me.
Anthology series are seriously underrated. Remember the Ray Bradbury Theater?
Fringe is an excellent show. It begins really episodic, like old school Outer Limits and early X Files. But by third season you're knee deep in a mind-bending larger story arc that absolutely rocks. The finale stands as one of my top 3 series closers. It expertly closes out the show with deep character resolution. And the show as a whole doesn't fall prey to the Lost Mystery Deficit. Mysteries are resolved, and there's great callbacks in final season to the mysteries of season one and two.
Furthermore, the cast is excellent. Joshua Jackson. John Noble pulling off Walter White levels of excellent acting and character change (you'll recognize him as Denethor from Lord of the Rings), and heck, Leonard Nemoy is in it.
If you love sci-fi, you can't go wrong with Fringe.
You could try Sliders, but the 90s corniness might turn you off.
As a kid, I was obsessed with the nickelodeon remake ofThe Tomorrow People but it doesn't stand up very well
Then there's Dark City and Gattaca for some more late 90s sci fi that I feel was bigger back then but no one really references anymore, but I think they are worth a view.
City of Lost Children is super weird but you can't deny the aesthetic is unique.
Winner of best movie with stupidest climax goes to Sunshine
If you count it as sci-fi, the HBO adaptation of "His Dark Materials" seems to have gotten basically zero attention in the US but was really quite excellent.
Also the original "The Prisoner." (the remake with Ian McKellen was meh)
It is definitely much better than the movie. I still haven't finished it, but it's a fun break from other interests from time-to-time.
Westworld season 1 is still one of the best seasons of science fiction television ever, in my opinion of course.
I didn't care for anything that came after personally, but season 1 was absolutely amazing.
As a star Trek fan, The Orville. It takes a bit to get its footing, but season 2 and 3 are great. I hope it gets renewed for a 4th.
As for movies, Primer (2004) is one of my favorite. The first movie of its director (Shane Carruth), filmed with a ridiculously low budget of $20 000. It's hard science applied to time travel.
Be warned that this movie requires at least 2 or 3 viewings to really understand its story. Yes, it's that complex.
I think it was 8 viewings for my tired brain.
Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/657/
I loved Altered Carbon. Also, if you guys like anime, Psycho-Pass was really cool. If you like slow paced but atmospheric shows with a lot of connecting events and don’t mind watching a show in another language (German), then I would really recommend Dark.
Defiance was amazing, it's clear SciFi was spending a bunch of money on it, which ended up getting it killed.
I have a real soft spot for Raised by Wolves. It's so weird in all the right ways.
Andromeda holds a place in my heart that it probably doesn't really deserve. Definitely full of cheese, and the character of Dylan Hunt is awful.
I'll probably still always love it, mainly because it came out when I was a kid.
Red Dwarf.
It's goofy. It's campy. It's sometimes terrible.
But it grows on you and by the time you are done through season 2 you love the show and only want more. And oh yes there is more, much more.
It's not really less-prestigious, and I am not really a sci-fi fan, but Contact.
Maybe a bit of recency bias creeping in here but the first season of Severance was spectacularly good. Really hope they can keep that quality up.
Given the amount of people I recommend it to who have never heard of it I think this definitely counts as "lesser-known".
In the spirit of the question (not picking the most common ones), I'd say Sanctuary was good. I think it was very (very...) low budget (everything is green screen) but the stories were great. There are a lot of fantasy elements but I think it's very scifi.
Dark Matter was amazing. Farscape was almost perfect, in my opinion. Finally, Firefly was astounding in its short time.
All are worth checking out.
Dunno how lesser-known were Dark Matter and Killjoys but these are probably my favorite non-Star, non-Firefly, non-Expanse shows. I did also like S1 of Altered Carbon and Raised by Wolves
If you haven't seen it yet, check out the movie Coherence (2013)! It's one of my favorite sci-fi movies. The actors were taken aside and given certain direction but were never given a full script, so every time you see them arguing or trying to figure out what's happening or surprised by something, it's all genuine.
Here's the synopsis but don't read anything else about it before you watch: [Synopsis: Strange things begin to happen when a group of friends gather for a dinner party on an evening when a comet is passing overhead.]
It's free if you already have Amazon Prime. A fantastic sci-fi puzzle to solve (similar to Primer in that way but very much its own thing).
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. At the time, I couldn't understand why everybody preferred that boring FBI monster show with the monotone lead actor.
I think I'm the only person to ever watch all of Andromeda. It was not my favourite show, but there was something comforting whenever i was watching it. Maybe it just reminded me of the old Hercules, but in space.
No, Firefly doesn’t count as lesser-known.
awww :(
Less Prestigious would be Flash Gordon; utterly camp and very fun. DIVE!
As my username suggests- I love 'Lexx'.
It's beautifully sleezy sci-fi fantasy and not nearly enough people know about it. I caught it on Netflix about 10 years ago but I think you can watch it on youtube now free with commercials.
Highly recommend to any fans of sci-fi, but especially if you loved stuff like Farscape and Red Dwarf.
Also shout out to 'Avenue 5'. Hilariously dark sci-fi comedy that HBO criminally underpromoted. Also 'Other Space'.
Off the top of my head, Fringe, but that's not really lesser known. On more thought, Earth: Final Conflict and Primeval.
I wouldn't say it's my favorite, but I liked Humans (2015).
I also like several Black Mirror episodes, but I think those are "well known".
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