"This year's best science fiction was more earthbound than cosmic. There were coming-of-age sagas, miserable women on missions to save the Earth, Patton Oswalt playing a Vulcan, and Lee Pace looking more and more like Jesus. They also reflected many of our recent anxieties back at us: the dangers of A.I. and surveillance, the rise of authoritarianism, and the need for hope and resistance in the face of both."
"Alien: Earth wasn't as much of a you-betcha success as Noah Hawley's equally ambitious Fargo, but there's still a lot to love. There's a new wave of eldritch creepy crawlies to terrorize the tech CEO overlords and newly minted child cyborgs. But the show is at its best when Timothy Olyphant's silver-foxed Android faces off against Babou Ceesay's relentless cyborg enforcer."
Science fiction in 2025 leaned earthward, favoring coming-of-age sagas, stories of women undertaking bleak missions to save the planet, celebrity cameos, and evocative casting choices. Many works examined contemporary anxieties, foregrounding the dangers of A.I. and mass surveillance, the rise of authoritarian political forces, and the simultaneous need for hope and organized resistance. Several high-profile projects remained unreleased at deadline, underscoring the abundance of new material arriving that year. Notable entries ranged from eldritch techno-horror that pits androids and cyborg enforcers against each other, to maximalist space operas that remix a director's signature themes, to revitalized franchise television.
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