10 Underrated Sci-Fi Performances That Deserve More Recognition

Some of the best sci-fi performances can be overshadowed by the fact that sci-fi is an exciting genre full of spectacle. With so much to look at and an entirely new world to understand, many regular sci-fi actors are extremely underrated. That said, the best sci-fi shows of all time are more than just interesting visuals and world-building.

Playing some of the greatest sci-fi TV characters of all time can get an actor a cult following in the sci-fi hall of fame, like the main casts of Firefly and Star Trek. That said, other actors have given great performances that have unfairly been forgotten, but this is sometimes due to their own phenomenal work on other TV shows.

Anna Torv

Fringe

Fringe has often been compared to both The X-Files and Lost, as it is about government agents investigating the paranormal under a set of increasingly weird circumstances. The strangest episodes of Fringe are truly unpredictable, featuring everything from body horror to bizarre hallucinations. As a counterpart to all this, Anna Torv gives a fantastic and more subtle performance.

Torv plays Olivia Dunham, an FBI Special Agent with horrors in her past. She is able to convey deep emotion through the smallest facial expressions and her performance earned her four consecutive Saturn Awards for Best Actress on Television. While Torv’s skill was essential to Fringe‘s success, she is now best known for Mindhunter, in which she also plays a detective character.

Aaron Paul

Black Mirror

Almost every episode of Black Mirror stands on its own, giving viewers very little time to get to know the characters. When an actor is well known for a different performance, like Aaron Paul’s in Breaking Bad, it can be even harder to separate the actor from the character. However, Paul’s episode “Beyond The Sea” is one of the best episodes of Black Mirror.

Paul plays Cliff Stanfield, an astronaut who virtually visits his family on Earth but finds himself sharing them with another astronaut. Cliff is much more restrained than Breaking Bad‘s quotable and fiery Jesse Pinkman, and most of his pain and turmoil is kept beneath the surface. This presented a great opportunity for Paul to showcase his range in his best performance since Breaking Bad.

Gemma Chan

Humans

There have been many famous robots with human elements in sci-fi, with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 Terminator arguably overshadowing all the others. That said, Gemma Chan’s performance in the dystopian TV show Humans is also one of the best and most heartbreaking. Humans is set in a near-future world with humanoid robots called “synths,” whose existence sparks both fear and violence.

Humans is one of Gemma Chan’s best TV shows, and she plays Mia, a synth who becomes more human over time. Mia switches from a cold and clinical personality to a much warmer one and back again. The performance is both sympathetic and chilling, depending on the situation. Chan makes even a robotic-sounding phrase into an emotional plea, making her fate one of sci-fi’s saddest.

Toby Onwumere

Sense8

Many sci-fi shows involve characters changing their bodies, like Doctor Who and Altered Carbon. However, a much harder job is changing an actor between seasons, without a shapeshifting element to the story, and yet this is what the makers of Sense8 had to do with Capheus. Aml Ameen left Sense8 due to creative differences, and Toby Onwumere took over the role of Capheus.

Sense8 is about a group of eight strangers who share a consciousness, and the van Damme-loving bus driver Capheus was extremely popular. Onwumere’s introduction was masterful, with a friend mentioning his “new look,” and he seamlessly stepped into the role from there. The transition between actors was neither jarring nor uncomfortable to watch thanks to Onwumere’s spot-on interpretation and portrayal of Capheus.

Burn Gorman

The Expanse

Many episodes of The Expanse are considered to be masterpieces thanks to the show’s epic story, high-budget special effects, and its attention to scientific detail. While fantastic, the actors’ performances have often been overshadowed by the phenomenon surrounding The Expanse, and none of these has been more underrated than Burn Gorman’s portrayal of the ruthless killer Adolphus Murtry.

Murtry was not a regular character, but he stole every scene that he was in, thanks to Gorman. He could have easily become a two-dimensional “bad guy,” but Gorman’s calmness makes him appear almost reasonable before revealing his true nature. Virtually everything Murtry does seems to carry an undercurrent of resentment at the planet, and he was fascinating to watch.

Christina Hendricks

Firefly

Firefly‘s iconic con-woman Saffron was one of the show’s most memorable side characters. She was an expert at playing a vulnerable and sweet young woman before revealing her more mercenary nature, which only Inara could spot. At the time the show aired, Christina Hendricks’ performance in her two episodes was regularly praised, but it is rarely talked about now.

Part of the reason is Joss Whedon’s fall from grace and subsequent aging of Firefly, which does not always hold up to modern scrutiny. However, a greater part is the career of Christina Hendricks herself. Her most famous role is arguably Joan Holloway, the office manager in Mad Men, for which she won a Golden Nymph Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama TV series.

Bryan Cranston

The X-Files

Bryan Cranston gave a career-defining performance as Walter White in Breaking Bad after being best known for his comedic role in Malcolm in the Middle. However, Cranston got the Breaking Bad role thanks to The X-Files episode “Drive,” in which he played Patrick Crump, a racist man who takes Mulder hostage. The episode was written by Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan.

Crump is an unpleasant man, but he gains some sympathy from both Mulder and the viewer for the psychological torture that he is suffering thanks to a government antenna near his home. This multifaceted portrayal impressed Gilligan so much that when he was looking for an actor who could humanize an antagonist, he thought of Cranston for the role of Walter White.

Justin H. Min

The Umbrella Academy

Image via Netflix

It is hard for an understated character to stand out in a show involving superpowers, larger-than-life personalities, and a sentient chimpanzee. This is the problem facing Justin H. Min, who plays Ben Hargreeves in The Umbrella Academy. Ben is not a major character in the first two seasons, only appearing as a sarcastic ghost, but he has one of the most heartbreaking scenes of all.

Ben is confirmed to have died in the original timeline, but in a later timeline, he sacrifices himself for Viktor. The scene is a quiet moment in such an action-packed show, and when Ben requests to simply be hugged, it is one of the saddest scenes in The Umbrella Academy. With so much else going on, Min’s performance has not received the credit it deserves.

Titus Welliver

Lost

Lost has one of the best ensemble casts in a sci-fi TV show, with most of the cast getting a chance to stand out at some point. Titus Welliver appears in just three episodes of Lost, but he steals every scene that he is in as the mysterious Man In Black. Welliver has a talent for playing villains and complex characters, overshadowing this role.

Welliver is most known now for playing the titular detective Bosch, as well as the villainous Jimmy O’Phelan in Sons of Anarchy. Lost‘s The Man in Black is later revealed to be the show’s overarching villain, and he has similar characteristics to Welliver’s better-known roles. The relatively small performance in Lost gives us a glimpse of Welliver at his best, despite being largely forgotten.

Alice Wetterlund

Resident Alien

D’Arcy Bloom is one of the best and most tragic characters in Resident Alien. As a former Olympic skier whose career was cut short by an injury, she constantly forces herself past her limits, becoming a danger to herself. Her struggle with appearing confident and outgoing while fighting her lack of self-esteem is one of her biggest character arcs in the show.

Alice Wetterlund’s portrayal of D’Arcy would most likely have got much more praise if Resident Alien was not a comedy. Wetterlund has put an incredibly emotive and painful history into a character who has often been the comic relief in the show. As Wetterlund’s background is in comedy, Resident Alien has proven that she can give a fantastic performance as a complex sci-fi character too.