Recommend a less-known scifi movie/series

[HeavenShallBurn]

Space: Above and Beyond (unfortunately cancelled after just one season)

Second this, that was a good SF series.

B5 is anything but less well known but in any SF thread it deserves to be mentioned.
BattleTech: The Animated Series isn't well known but my fondness for classic BT may be clouding my opinion.
Dark Skies if you like X-Files you'll like Dark Skies, which is almost more X-Files than X-Files
Earth 2 great series, very unconventional, loved it

 

[jdrakeh]

I believe that Season 1 of Blake's 7 is now available in DVD, so that's a definite must-have. Also, see Sapphire and Steel, which is both terribly obscure and wonderfully bizarre.

 

[Dracomeander]

Slight correction for Hand of Evil. The series was called John Doe.

Umbran is right that Witchblade was great for the first season.

Another series I liked that I doubt is available starring Yancy Butler was called Mann & Machine.

A series I liked that got burned before being fully resolved but was good while it lasted was Brimstone.

 

[Darkwolf71]

Crusade is ok.
Invasion Earth (BBC) was good too.
Starhunter 2300 was enjoyable.
V, V: The final Battle, and V: The Series. I've always loved those.

If you don't mind sub-titles, The Princess Blade and Versus are great Asian sci-fi.

Firefly. Of course, by now, I'm sure everyone who likes sci-fi has seen that, but it deserves mentioning.



Of course some of the already mentioned. Space: Above & Beyond & The Lost Room deserve re-mentioning.

 

[Rackhir]

Invasion Earth (BBC) was good too.

I thought it was excellent, but very dark and depressing.

Ultraviolet (UK Miniseries) - No relationship to the more recent Milla Jovovich movie. Excellent mini-series about a cop (Jack Davenport - Coupling, Pirates of the Caribean) who is dragged into a special force devoted to combating "Code V"s (the word vampire is never used).

She Creature - Despite the cornball title and cheese cake cover, it actually is the movie that captures the feel of an HP Lovecraft story better than anything I've seen that was actually based one one of his stories.

Bubba Ho-tep - Elvis (Bruce Campbell) and JFK battle an egyptian mummy in a nursing home. Every bit as wacky as it sounds.

Gamera Trilogy - The first movie is hands down the best Kaiju (Giant Monster) movie ever made. Excellent story and damm near Hollywood grade special effects. The second movie isn't quite as good, but is still quite enjoyable. The third film wraps things up and while it's still not quite as good as the first film it does have some terrific moments.

The Blood of Heroes - A rag tag band of "Juggers" play "The Game" in a post-apocalypse world. They pick up a new player and decide to go for a shot at the big times. Joan Chen and Ruger Hauer at the hight of their "game". One of the few movies I've ever wanted to stand up and cheer at the end of.

Dead Heat - Very funny Zombie movie from the late 80's. Joe Piscapo and his partner try to stop crimes being committed by zombies. When Joe gets zombified can they find out who's behind this?

 

[Blackrat]

Wow. So many answers in one night. Seen many of those. Some I had even forgotten. And many I hadn't even heard of. Got lots of good ideas now. Definetly need to check out these: Neverwhere, Miracles, Space: Above and Beyond, Invasion Earth, Starhunter 2300, Gamera Trilogy. Thanks everyone.

Need to address some of the answers.
B5: Yeah, no scifi thread is complete without mentioning this. My favourite scifi universe. However I deliberately left this out in the first post since it is anything but less-known.
Witchblade: Seen it, liked it.
Brisco County: Darn, I had completely forgotten this. Uber-cool .
Joe Doe: Hated it. Don't know why but I found it extremely boring.

 

[trancejeremy]

The Omega Factor - a short lived British TV that was something of the forerunner of the ex-files (though focused more on psychic powers). On DVD from A&E

If you like time travel shows, there is Time Tunnell and Voyagers. Both very similar premises to Quantum Leap, but set in wider periods of time. And "Voyage Under The Sea" is sort of like a 60s version of Seaquest, has a lot of science fiction elements. It's pretty cheesy at times (and I swear, one character, Kowalski, has gotten killed at least 4-5 times on the show), but not bad

As for movies, how about 12:01

It's a premise somewhat similar to Groundhog Day, expect it's got a scientific explanation (sorta). Not a great movie, but cute. (Another movie with a similar premise, is "Slipstream", which I thought was okay. Sci-Fi channel shows it once in a while though)

 

[Hand of Evil]

B5 has some 'new' movies out on DVD.
Farscape (tv)
Brimstone (tv)
Good vs Evil (tv)

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Try to figure out if you can get "Raumpatroullie Orion" / "Space Patrol Orion?". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raumpatrouille)
It's a German sci-fi TV series that aired around the same time as the original Startrek series. It's old, black & white, and an electric iron as part of the command console, so what's not to love?
Some of the concepts are a bit dated today (but the same applies to TOS or Blake7), but it's definitely interesting to watch.

I really wish there will come a time where it is "rediscovered", and reimagined or continued like Startrek or Battlestar Galactica was. (There was a recut of the series into a movie, but that unfortunately didn't lead to a revival)

Oh, and I second 12:01 as a good recommendation.

 

[Dioltach]

Ages ago, I saw a pretty good sci-fi flick called Star Wars (nice and easy to remember, I always thought). About a young guy who has to go rescue a princess who is being held prisoner in a giant space station. He didn't kill the BBEG at the end of the movie, so I always figured there'd be a sequel.

I seem to remember that one of his companions was a giant orang-utan that fired laser guns. How awesome is that?