Geektown Awards – Best New & Returning Sci-fi
Now we get into the real geeky stuff with the Best New & Returning Sci-fi series. In previous years, we put both sci-fi and fantasy together, but there has been so much excellent genre tv in the last twelve months, we’ve now broken them into separate categories. Here is what you voted for.
Best New Sci-fi Series
Nominees: Halo, Season 1 – Paramount+, Severance, Season 1 – Apple TV+, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Season 1 – Paramount+, Star Wars: Andor, Season 1 – Disney+, Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Season 1 – Disney+, The Book of Boba Fett, Season 1 – Disney+, The Lazarus Project, Season 1 – Sky Max, The Peripheral, Season 1 – Prime Video
Bronze: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Season 1 – Paramount+
Silver: Star Wars: Andor, Season 1 – Disney+
Winner: Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Season 1 – Disney+
Much as ‘Star Trek’ tried to fight back, I think it was somewhat inevitable this was going to be a battle of the ‘Star Wars’ series. Whilst critics have praised ‘Andor’ for its grittiness, our voters went for nostalgia, handing the top spot to ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi‘.
The series begins 10 years after the dramatic events of “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith” where Obi-Wan Kenobi faced his greatest defeat – the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, who turned to the dark side as evil Sith Lord Darth Vader.
The series saw Ewan McGregor, reprising his role as the iconic Jedi Master alongside Hayden Christensen in the role of Darth Vader. Although the show was not exactly what many expected, we did get an awesome confrontation between Kenobi and Vader, along with the introduction of Vivien Lyra Blair putting in a wonderful performance as the young Leia Organa.
Best Returning Sci-fi Series
Nominees: For All Mankind, Season 3 – Apple TV+, Raised By Wolves, Season 2 – Sky Atlantic, Star Trek: Picard, Season 2 – Amazon Prime, Snowpiercer, Season 3 – Netflix, The Orville: New Horizons, Season 3 – Disney+, War of the Worlds, Season 3 – Disney+, Westworld, Season 4 – Sky Atlantic
Bronze: Westworld, Season 4 – Sky Atlantic
Silver: Snowpiercer, Season 3 – Netflix
Winner: Star Trek: Picard, Season 2
With no ‘Star Wars’ series to get in the way, it was season two of ‘Star Trek: Picard‘ who took the top spot here, despite some tough competition from the final season of ‘Westworld’, and the penultimate season of ‘Snowpiercer’.
The series features Patrick Stewart reprising his iconic role as Jean-Luc Picard, which he played for seven seasons on ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’, and follows this iconic character into the next chapter of his life. Season two took the legendary man and his crew on a bold and exciting new journey: into the past. Picard enlisted friends both old and new to confront the perils of 21st-century Earth in a desperate race against time to save the galaxy’s future – and face the ultimate trial from one of his greatest foes… Q.
Season two was a marked improvement on season one, and the upcoming third and final season sets to be something really special. Premiering Friday, 17th February 2023 on Prime Video UK (Parmaount+ in the USA), this last outing reunites most of the original Next Generation cast for one final adventure.
