Nobody ever sets out to make a sci-fi TV show without wondering if they can live up to unrealistically high expectations that come with the genre — high production elements like CGI, futuristic looking set design, etc. But some of these shows just can't even meet basic expectations and end up falling flat.

TERRA NOVA

The first show in this list is a bit unfairly singled out, but with an interesting concept that involved time travelling to the past to establish a human colony to survive a post-apocalyptic future, and a big name like Steven Spielberg attached as executive producer, it was a glaringly bad foray into the genre.

Dislikable characters with bland motives that all essentially boiled into the same protecting family reason, notorious use of CGI every episode to show off dinosaurs (very hard on a TV budget), and a lot of plot holes, the show was a bit doomed as it went on.

MANIMAL

A frequent sight on worst TV show lists, Manimal is a lot more deservedly on this list than Terra Nova. The show featured a detective who could shapeshift into animals to help solve cases, except it was always the same two creatures, a hawk and a panther.

Slightly redeemed in the sense that Oscar-winning SFX artist Stan Winston designed the transformations, but then you remember most of the time they didn't even show them. Wasted right there.

BIRDS OF PREY

In an era saturated by superhero TV shows, particularly DC-based projects like those on the CW, and the upcoming ones planned for DC's own streaming service, Birds of Prey might've potentially been a welcome project to the lineup.

Unfortunately, it arrived far too early, in a time when superhero shows lacked clarity and vision, and were all but true to their source material in name only. In 13 episodes, it ended up cancelled – sad considering a concept of a strong female-trio-led superhero show would've attracted great praise today.

GALACTICA 1980

The year before, ABC cancelled fan favourite Battlestar Galactica. Fans promptly took to writing in letters to ask for a revival, something uncommon then unlike now, which prompted this spin-off's creation. Unfortunately, in the name of cutting costs, it'd end up meeting doom after just 10 episodes.

Discarding much of the original cast that made it good, and setting the story in a different time period from the original, it wasn't what fans wanted. Amusingly, Battlestar Galactica would get rebooted in 2004 to become one of the most well known sci-fi shows on TV.

SWAMP THING

Stiff costume that made movement look weird, bad convoluted writing, terrible effects and a lot of bad acting just made Swamp Thing nothing like the hit movie that spawned it, or even tried to replicate the tone of Alan Moore's comics.

Amazingly, 72 episodes of it were made over 3 years, but it's widely regarded now in cult status as just really bad.

Nuhan B. Abid is someone who actually thinks puns and sarcasm are top class forms of humour. Tell him that 'sar-chasm' is TOTALLY the best thing ever at nuhanbabid@hotmail.com