Star Trek is its own gravitational force. Since the 1960s, it has been the gold standard for smart, optimistic, big-idea sci-fi about strange new worlds and stranger civilizations. Very few shows have ever come close to matching Trek's mix of imagination and cultural footprint. But if you have watched every episode of every series and still want more warp jumps, there are a handful of space shows that hit similar notes without feeling like knockoffs.
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5) Dark Matter (2015-2017)
This one flew under the radar for a lot of people, which is a shame. It opens with a classic hook: a crew wakes up from stasis on the starship Raza with zero memory of who they are. Then the kicker lands — they were actually a team of criminal mercenaries. Across three seasons (before it was canceled), the show becomes a character-focused space caper about identity, second chances, and deciding who you want to be when your past is a mess. If you want a ship-based story with moral gray areas and weekly adventures, this scratches the itch.
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4) The Expanse
Call it what it is: one of the true masterpiece sci-fi series of the 21st century. Over six seasons, this sprawling space opera earned raves and a fiercely loyal fan base by treating politics, physics, and people with equal seriousness. It is not a one-to-one substitute for Trek — the tone is grittier and the worldview more fragile — but it absolutely feels like a spiritual successor in how ambitious and forward-thinking it is. It shows just how far TV sci-fi has evolved.
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3) The Orville
No mystery here: this show wears its influences right on the uniform sleeve. Built as a sincere love letter to The Original Series and The Next Generation, it borrows the classic weekly-mission format and mixes in more jokes and a lighter touch. It never hit the same commercial highs as some of its peers, but if you want that old-school Trek vibe — optimistic stories, ethical puzzles, crews hashing things out on the bridge — The Orville delivers with a wink and a lot of heart.
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2) Firefly
One of TV's all-time most frustrating cancellations. The initial run was short, but the show stuck the landing with a devoted following that kept it alive in other formats and kept new stories coming in one form or another. The vibe is space Western more than fleet-and-federation, but the crew dynamics, found-family energy, and rough-around-the-edges frontier storytelling will click with a lot of Trek fans. Brief, beloved, and still the subject of many 'what if' conversations.
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1) Battlestar Galactica (reimagined)
Outside of Trek, this is the other modern heavyweight in the space-TV pantheon. The reboot takes the original premise and scales it up into a full-blown, big-ideas war-and-survival saga that feels truly epic. It is frequently cited among the greatest sci-fi shows ever made, and it earns that label — sharp writing, bold swings, and the kind of worldbuilding that gets under your skin. If you somehow missed it, this is one of the best ways to recapture that awe-and-wonder feeling Trek fans chase.
Bottom line: nothing replaces Star Trek, but these five come the closest to scratching the same curiosity-driven, starship-hopping, character-first sci-fi itch — some lighter, some heavier, all worth your time.