The Best Sci Fi on TV that you're Probably Not Watching...But Should (MSN)

[Brian Damage]

"The 4400" (USA)

The USA network's most successful foray into territory dominated by corporate little brother Sci-Fi Channel began life as an alien-abductee mini-series with a superhero hook and a terrestrial time-travel twist. In just a few seasons, the series took its key themes -- alienation, prejudice and an almost biblical sense of destiny in the hands of 4,400 gifted humans -- and wound it into political conspiracies and battling ideologies. This is a show where the only thing scarier than a telekinetic terrorist is a military contractor who wants to turn him into a guinea pig in a weapons research lab. Caught between the warring factions are a pair of Homeland Security agents (Joel Gretsch and Jacqueline McKenzie) torn between duty and conscience, and a gifted healer (Patrick Flueger) dedicated to helping mankind while protecting his own kind against a hostile government. Billy Campbell co-stars as the corporate millionaire-turned-visionary guru who helps turn the 4400 into a kind of cult with a holy mission. He brought last season to a close with a dramatic blast across the bow of human evolution: He let everyone unleash their latent powers and discover their inner 4400. You don't need to see the future to realize that the new season will be interesting. Watch for Mahershalalhashbaz Ali to finally take his place among the most powerful of the 4400.

[Brian Damage]

"The Dead Zone" (USA)

Anthony Michael Hall is Johnny Smith, a man who awakens from a six-year coma with the power to see both the future and the past with merely a touch, in this inspired spin-off from Stephen King's novel and David Cronenberg's film adaptation. Every week seems to bring a new mystery or investigation Johnny's way, an opportunity for imagery that is quite dynamic for a budget-conscious cable series. But the dramatic foundation of the series is an apocalyptic vision tied to opportunistic, thoroughly corrupt Congressman Greg Stillson (Sean Patrick Flanery), who slithers through the series consolidating his power while even shadier forces pull the strings to his advancement. The complex relationships of the series (Johnny's son, born while he was comatose, is being raised by his onetime fiancée and her husband, a man who becomes a close friend) are remarkably mature. For five seasons, this smartly developed series seems to have flown under the radar of most TV critics, but fan loyalty has rewarded it with a sixth season ready to crank up the apocalyptic fever. Combined with the new season of "The 4400," it gives USA a potent paranormal Sunday-night combination.

[Brian Damage]

"Kyle XY" (ABC Family)

As with practically every TV series that has a prominent "X" stamped in the title, there's a hint of "X-Files" in this sci-fi-inflected coming-of-age family drama by way of young adult conspiracy thriller. Teenage pinup fodder Matt Dallas is the enigmatic Kyle, who enters the show as a blank slate (almost literally -- he doesn't even have a belly button) with a genius IQ and superhuman abilities. Imagine a younger brother to Clark Kent from "Smallville" who just landed on the planet and has to learn everything from scratch in the womb of suburbia. All the while a mysterious operative keeps him under surveillance for reasons that aren't clear until the first season draws to a close. The show is made for the ABC Family network, so its frank exploration of adolescent life and teen sexuality may come as a surprise, no matter how sensitively it's done. But echoing through Kyle's life lessons is his realization that he's different from everyone else; he aches to know who he is and where he came from. That secret forms the conspiratorial dimension of the series, and the second season promises to share those mysteries and give Kyle a sibling. I'm guessing we're in for a decidedly Cain-and-Abel kind of family dynamic.

[Brian Damage]

"Doctor Who" (Sci-Fi)

After a 26-year run and seven different actors in the titular role (eight, if you include Paul McGann), plus a 15-year break from the air (not counting the 1996 TV movie), the BBC revived and rebooted the British cult sci-fi series with a hip, dynamic new Doctor (Christopher Eccleston), a live wire of a "companion" (Billie Piper) and an energetic new approach that is far more stylish and visually dynamic than the old low-fi series. This incarnation -- made over by Russell T. Davies -- isn't your father's "Doctor Who." Davies has jettisoned the serial format for a more traditional structure, instead weaving story elements throughout the seasons and slowly winding them together in climactic episodes, but it's no less clever or fun-loving. And don't worry, he's retained some iconic elements of the original series: the Daleks, the Cybermen and the Police Public Call Box that hides the Doctor's TARDIS (that's his combination spaceship and time-travel device, for those of you making your first appointment with the Doctor). David Tennant took over the role of the rogue Time Lord for its second season, manning the TARDIS with almost childish glee (the man could use some Ritalin), and the third season brings a new companion for the Doctor, med student Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman).

[Brian Damage]

"Eureka" (Sci-Fi)

Federal marshal and divorced dad Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson) gets a different kind of culture shock when he's appointed sheriff of an offbeat Pacific Northwest burg that isn't found on any map. Eureka is a secret government think-tank town populated by maverick inventors and budding Einsteins. It's a place where the local mechanic (Joe Morton) is, in fact, a rocket scientist. Think "Picket Fences" by way of "Misfits of Science," a madcap Mayberry of impulsive prodigies, with Carter as a sardonic Sheriff Andy whose sassy, trigger-happy deputy could eat Barney Fife for breakfast. More than just a frustrated authority figure, Carter plays straight man to an entire community of eccentric geniuses and the voice of common sense in a place where everyone dreams big but doesn't always think the consequences through. This Sci-Fi Channel original series is more whimsical than the usual fare, which is part of its charm, but there is also a conspiratorial undercurrent thanks to a seductive psychotherapist (Debrah Farentino) with her own agenda. The second season should reveal a few more of her secrets.

[TJL]

Good list. Doctor Who and Eureka are great shows. I'm glad new episodes are coming soon.