100-Episode Sci-Fi Masterpiece On Netflix Is Like Doctor Who But Weirder

Published Sep 14, 2026, 10:02 AM EDT

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.

Although there are a lot of DC TV shows to choose from, one sci-fi show now available to stream on Netflix is a rare series that makes even Doctor Who seem reserved. There are a lot of sci-fi shows for viewers to watch in the 2020s, thanks in large part to the rise of streaming services. Logging into Apple TV alone leaves viewers with a choice between the ambitious alien drama Invasion, the Asimov adaptation Foundation, the Monsterverse spinoff Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, the Blake Crouch adaptation Dark Matter, and the dystopian thriller Silo.

Speaking of dystopian thrillers, fans of the subgenre could also watch Paradise or The Handmaid’s Tale and its spinoff The Testaments, and that’s just on Hulu. Netflix has the cyberpunk dystopian thriller Altered Carbon, the anthology series Black Mirror, the trippy Japanese survival thriller Alice in Borderland, and the acclaimed anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and this is still just within the dystopian sci-fi sub-genre.

With all this variety, it can sometimes be tough to work out what to watch next. For some viewers, the hard, dark side of sci-fi, focused on realistic tech and grounded plots, can sometimes feel over-explored. This is one reason that the BBC’s long-running serial Doctor Who is so perennially popular, since the campy series blends elements of fantasy, romance, comedy, and horror into its goofy, soft sci-fi story. However, there is a DC series on Netflix that makes even the wackiest episodes of Doctor Who seem reserved, and its name is Legends of Tomorrow.

The CW’s DC series Arrow proved a hit for the channel in 2012, although the show didn’t immediately become a sensation the size of Supernatural. Arrow did, however, become popular enough to spawn the Arrowverse, with The Flash debuting in 2014 and Supergirl beginning a year later. In 2016, Legends of Tomorrow expanded the Arrowverse further, but the show’s first season had a relatively inauspicious debut.

Focusing mostly on Arthur Darvill’s Rip Hunter and his attempts to defeat Casper Crump’s nefarious villain Vandal Savage with the help of an unlikely crew of lesser superheroes, Legends of Tomorrow seemingly had all the ingredients of a killer superhero ensemble series. However, the first season wasn’t as polished as The Avengers nor as offbeat and quirky as Guardians of the Galaxy, falling instead into a bland no man’s land of conventionality.

Then something changed. As the show continued, Legends of Tomorrow started to take itself a lot less seriously, and the show became stronger for it. In a move that was mirrored by later superhero shows like The Umbrella Academy and Doom Patrol, Legends of Tomorrow gradually grew sillier and sillier, with Gorilla Grodd eventually showing in the college dorm room of a young Barack Obama to try and kill him as early as season 3.

Image via MovieStillsDB

If that plot description sounds notably absurd, it should be noted that events like this were par for the course in Legends of Tomorrow, and each new season of the series saw its critical reception improve as the show abandoned its self-serious origins and slid further into absurdity. Like Doctor Who before it, Legends of Tomorrow had an impressive ability to balance the show’s colorful silliness with real emotional stakes, meaning its seven-season run wasn’t just a cartoonish romp.

Legends of Tomorrow arrived at a time when everything from the movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to Zack Snyder’s Justice League to Netflix’s Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and The Punisher were all adding more grit and edge to superhero stories. Even the wild Prime Video satire The Boys was much more gory and gritty than it was funny and ridiculous. As such, before later DC adaptations like Doom Patrol and Peacemaker borrowed this approach, Legends of Tomorrow wisely managed to stand out when the Netflix show borrowed Doctor Who’s sillier, more playful style of sci-fi.

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  Boyd Ferguson

  Lieutenant Cadwalader

• Cameron Bancroft

  Mr. Blake