10 Most Devastating Sci-Fi TV Episodes of All Time, Ranked

When you watch a science fiction show, you're normally there to see how technology has interwoven itself with human society, and how this brings out the good, and the bad of humanity. That ability to tell highly emotional stories—whether through The Twilight Zone bringing the genre into the mainstream or Arcane fusing steampunk with social struggle—drives this ranking of the heaviest sci-fi TV episodes.

The list opens with Foundation's pilot, "The Emperor's Peace," a premiere that came out swinging and established a jaw-dropping world while grappling with the tension between religion and science, anchored by performances from Jared Harris and Lee Pace. Love, Death + Robots' Season 1 entry "The Witness" uses a non-linear, looping narrative in which witness and killer swap places to explore the cycle of violence in vivid, unsettling fashion.

science fiction, sci-fi tv, twilight zone, arcane, steampunk, foundation, emperor's peace, the witness, jared harris, lee pace