Was Stranger Things’ Ending Really The Worst? Ranking 5 Controversial Sci-Fi Finales
“The Rightside Up” may not be the most-debated sci-fi finale of all time.
The Stranger Things finale has come and gone. And it's fair to say that reactions have been mixed. While some fans and critics thought it was a decent wrap-up to the series, others felt it was a by-the-numbers, somewhat tame conclusion. The Rotten Tomatoes score for the episode is a solid 82 percent, but the debate among fans is still raging. Was this the best way to wrap up a series? The worst? Just fine?
The truth is, series finales are hard — just ask Seinfeld fans. But when we look specifically at the series finales of science-fiction TV shows, there are certainly moments that were just as controversial, if not more controversial, than Stranger Things Season 5. Here are five sci-fi series finales that range from debatable to despised.
5. Smallville (2011)
Clark becomes Superman...finally.
Beginning in 2001 and running for 10 impressive seasons, Smallville impressively managed to keep to its “no tights, no flights” rule, which was part of the initial pitch from creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. Though Clark Kent (Tom Welling) had begun a life as a crime fighter as a character called “the Blur,” it wasn’t until the final episode that he flew as the Superman we all knew and loved. In a sense, Smallville had no choice but to end on this note, finally giving audiences what had only been teased for 10 years. And yet, by doing exactly what the show resisted doing for so long, Smallville, in a sense, betrayed its basic premise. To be clear, this finale isn’t bad at all, but like the Stranger Things finale, it seemed to be controlled by an inevitable fate of external expectations, rather than its own internal sensibilities.
Smallville streams on Hulu.
4. Babylon 5 (1998)
Babylon 5’s finale, “Sleeping in Light,” aired well after it was filmed.
Is it really fair to include Babylon 5 on this list? Isn’t B5 one of the best serialized sci-fi TV shows ever? Well, yes, B5 is incredible, and for its time, it was groundbreaking in terms of just how much serialization creator and primary writer J. Michael Straczynski was able to pull off in a show that was constantly in threat of cancellation, or had actors leaving for a variety of reasons.
What makes the finale of Babylon 5 less than perfect? Oddly, not the episode itself, but rather all the rest of the fifth season that led up to this point. Famously, or at least famously to B5 fans, the series finale was filmed as part of Season 4, because at the time, it seemed that B5 was going to be canceled for good. So, although “Sleeping in Light” takes place 20 years after the events of the main series, the tone feels very much of Season 3 and Season 4, and slightly detached from the vibe of Season 5. Essentially, when B5 was picked up by TNT for the fifth and final season, “Sleeping in Light” was shelved as the Season 4 finale and saved. But, in between that time, Claudia Christian had departed the cast, meaning that her return as Susan Ivanova in the finale was somewhat jarring. In short, there’s nothing wrong with “Sleeping in Light” per se, but it's hard to entirely square it with Season 5, and thus, there’s more suspension of disbelief required than usual with a series finale.
Babylon 5 streams on the Roku Channel.
3. Battlestar Galactica (2009)
Saying goodbye to Apollo and Starbuck has never been easy.
Easily one of the best science-fiction shows of the 21st century, Battlestar Galactica changed the way we discuss and think about big franchise reboots. Without a doubt, this series should still be considered the gold standard for not just modern space opera, but a perfect model for how old-school canon from an existing sci-fi IP can be used smartly and creatively. In short, BSG eclipsed the 1978 original series very quickly and was the most popular sci-fi TV series while it was airing on the SyFy Channel from 2003 to 2009.
And yet the three-part finale, “Daybreak,” still causes a lot of fan headaches today. The ragtag fleet finds Earth, but it's not really during a moment in time we would expect. A ton of flashbacks early on create retroactive context that both does and doesn’t work. And, of course, major questions — including how Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) came back to life — are not addressed to everyone’s satisfaction. It’s a perfect finale that is also deeply flawed, and fans will almost certainly never get over it.
Battlestar Galactica is available to rent on Prime, YouTube, and elsewhere.
2. The Prisoner (1968)
Patrick McGoohan and his doppelganger in Episode 6 of The Prisoner, ahead of the finale, which was Episode 17.
Like many sci-fi series finales, the iconic series The Prisoner was the victim of an impending cancellation with little warning. The primary mysteries of the show, including the nature of the Village and where Number 6 (Patrick McGoohan) has been imprisoned, were suddenly the focus of the show’s finale, “Fall Out.” On top of that, the character of “Number 1,” who had never been glimpsed, was suddenly revealed in the finale.
Did it all work? In many ways, the joy of The Prisoner was the fact that the show didn’t give us any straight answers, which was also the metaphysical point of the narrative. Relative to other sci-fi series about folks being trapped in strange, small towns, The Prisoner stands apart as making the enigma of the series not a puzzle to solve, but rather, a mood for the viewer to marinate in. Today, WandaVision is probably the spiritual successor to The Prisoner. And, the finales of both of those shows fell into the same trap: explaining too much of what we actually never wanted explained.
The Prisoner streams on Tubi.
1. Star Trek: Enterprise
Jonathan Frakes as Riker in "These are the Voyages..."
There should be several, several spaces between the other TV series finales on this list and the finale of Enterprise. While Star Trek shows generally have a very mixed batting average when it comes to finales, Enterprise is specifically controversial because a huge portion of its series finale was hijacked by another TV series, The Next Generation. The premise of the series finale, “These Are the Voyages...” presents the final mission of the NX-01 Enterprise as a holodeck program that Riker (Jonathan Frakes) is running during the events of a TNG Season 7 episode, “The Pegasus.” In real life, it had been over 10 years since that Next Generation episode aired, meaning the 2005 appearance of Riker and Troi (Marina Sirtis) as though they were simply their 1994 selves stretched credibility.
On top of that, the basic problem with this conceit as a series finale is obvious: The presence of the TNG framing, combined with the omnipresent role of Riker treating the story as a holodeck simulation, removed the tension from the story. Enterprise’s status as a prequel in the distant past of Trek suddenly became more of a burden than ever before: If this is ancient history to our beloved Riker, why should we care? (Frakes has gone on the record many times about his regrets about being part of this finale.)
Overall, none of this was anyone’s fault, really. The finale of Enterprise represented the end of an 18-year run of new Star Trek TV shows that began in 1987. And so, “These Are the Voyages...” was an attempt to say goodbye to an entire huge swath of Star Trek on TV. It was a noble valentine created for fans, which sadly, just didn’t work.
