10 forgotten sci-fi shows you can stream for free right now on Roku

Don't sleep on the Roku channel for some deep cut sci-fi, my friends.

We’re in a delightfully weird little renaissance for free streamers, which are beefing up their digital content shelves with lots of older, generally forgotten TV shows and movies that aren’t really in high demand anymore — but are often still well worth watching for fans.

To that end, I was curious to dig around in the free streaming vault of the Roku channel (yes, Roku is a streaming platform for TVs and streaming devices — but it also runs its own surprisingly successful free streaming service with a bunch of random stuff buried in there). Thankfully for sci-fi fans, there’s a lot of cool stuff in there.

So, let’s dig in.

Haven

This mystery sci-fi series was a bona fide hit on SYFY back in the 2010s. Loosely based on the Stephen King story The Colorado Kid, the show was basically a Twin Peaks-y small town mystery with supernatural powers and plenty of questions asked and answered across its five-season run. It had a stacked cast with a ton of chemistry, led by Emily Rose, Lucas Bryant and Eric Balfour.

A great show that has largely been memory-holed over the past decade or so.

The Outer Limits

Basically a darker, sexier, twisted version of The Twilight Zone — The Outer Limits (the 1995 revival of the 1960s anthology of the same name) — ran for seven seasons and more than 150 episodes throughout the late 1990s and into the early 2000s on Showtime and SciFi Channel (it became a fan favorite running in re-runs on SciFi Channel for years).

It featured a ton of fun sci-fi faces across its run, including Mark Hamill (Star Wars) Amanda Tapping (Stargate SG-1), Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool), Kirsten Dunst (Spider-Man), Robert Patrick (Terminator 2) and a whole lot more.

Continuum

I will always sing the praises of this little-watched sci-fi time travel series to anyone who will listen. A Canadian co-production that ran on SYFY as an original series, followed a cop from the future who travels back in time to stop criminals trying to alter the timeline to change the future. It gets into all the fun, messy questions of time travel and fate — and star Rachel Nichols absolutely steals the show.

It was also renewed for a final season that wraps up the story beautifully.

The Triangle

A remnant of that era back when the SciFI Channel would take big swings with high-concept miniseries, this one was all about the Bermuda Triangle. It had genre A-listers behind the camera, written by a team including Rockne S. O’Bannon (Farscape) and Dean Devlin (Stargate), and starred Sam Neill, Eric Stoltz, Catherine Bell and Lou Diamond Phillips.

It was a big, wild, fun sci-fi miniseries — and one most folks have forgotten about completely since its release in 2005.

Relic Hunter

Curious what a low-budget, 1990s-style Tomb Raider knockoff might look like starring Tia Carrere? Well, then wonder no more. This short-lived, first-run syndicated series was basically a paint by numbers spin on Tomb Raider in live action. Carrere played a professor who trots around the globe, hunting down mysterious treasures.

Is it corny? Sure. But it’s also a fun adventure from the end of that throwback syndication era. The kind of show they simply don’t make anymore.

Lexx

I’m a fan of forgotten sci-fi shows, and even I forget about this one from time to time. Lexx ran for four seasons on the SciFi Channel in the late 1990s and early 2000s, right around the time the network was still flying by the seat of its pants figuring out what kind of original shows it wanted to be making. It was a dark, funny, sexy and just incredibly weird sci-fi adventure.

Think Farscape vibes… but somehow even weirder.

Sanctuary

This SYFY original series premiered in 2007, and proved to be Stargate SG-1 fan favorite Amanda Tapping’s second act after her stint in the Stargate franchise came to an end. The show started as an experimental swing as a web series, and once it proved a hit, SYFY snagged the rights and turned it into a proper fantasy adventure show.

Tapping starred as a scientist who studies and protects all kinds of weird and wild creatures and beings. The series is also remembered as one of the first to be shot almost entirely on green screen. It’s aged a bit wonky all these years later, but does make for a unique look even now.

Tin Man

No, it’s not Wicked. It’s something far quirkier. This updated spin on the Wizard of Oz concept starred an absolutely bonkers cast including Zooey Deschanel, Alan Cumming, Neal McDonough, Kathleen Robertson and Richard Dreyfuss. It premiered in 2007 as a SYFY original miniseries, was a monster ratings hit, and reportedly cost $20 million to produce.

And… was largely forgotten after that. But want to go back and enjoy this unique, steampunk spin on the world of Oz? It’s well worth a trip.

Farscape

Okay, I’m cheating a bit with the “forgotten” moniker on this one. Farscape remains, easily, one of the greatest sci-fi shows ever made. It was the show that put the SciFi Channel on the map as far as a destination for original content, and created one of the most ambitious worlds this side of Star Trek or Star Wars. Its use of mixed puppetry created a look that is still uniquely weird and timeless even now, and told of the coolest stories ever cooked up.

If you’ve never seen it, it’s a must watch. If you have seen it? Well, it’s always a good time for a rewatch. Especially for free.

The Dresden Files

This short-lived, 2007 adaptation of Jim Butcher’s dark fantasy book series was largely a hit with critics and fans — but failed to garner enough audience support to survive beyond one short season. It starred Paul Blackthorne as the wizard/private investigator Harry Dresden, as he looks into supernatural mysteries and cases.

On paper, it seemed like the perfect kind of show that would survive and thrive on SYFY. But the ratings told a different story and it was axed after just 12 episodes.