Gadge's signiature gave me this idea... Being a child of the 80s and growing up in a sci-fi household we saw just about everything that came out. Many of which I don't remember. Most of which have horrible special effects to today's standard. But the stories were great. So my question is:

What are some of your favorite, lesser-known sci-fi from the 1980s? Any format goes; TV, movie, anime, etc.

I'll start:

The Last Starfighter

Captain EO

Flight of the Navigator

The Last Starfighter was a great movie.

Although Cheesy, Ice Pirates was fun as well.

Flash Gordon had one of the best soundtracks. So did the Transformers movie, the cartoon.

Also there was Tron, Star Trek WoK and so many it's hard to remember them all.

Cocoon

Starman

Batteries not included

Enemy mine

Moon 44

2010

Outland - I liked that one quite a bit, as it was basically High Noon; IN SPACE!

Enemy mine

That was a great movie.

Star Wars.

None of you guys said it. Shame on you. Shame.

Also Thundercats. I suppose it qualifies as sort of a Fantasy / Sci-Fi Hybrid.

Enemy mine

That was a great movie.

I second that.

I forgot all about Batteries not Included. I loved it as a kid. It's one of those that I want to see again but I'm worried that my memory of it is better than it actually is.

Blade Runner(GOAT)

Dune(my namesake)

Aliens

Predator

Terminator

Mad Max 2-3

ET

Star Trek 2

Akira+dozens of other great anime

80's were arguably Sci-fi's prime.

House. I know its more of a horror movie but it had a story line that was more in depth than most movies of the time. The effects do not hold up.

I watched Flash Gordon last night. I was surprised to learn that it was released AFTER Star Wars. It really highlighted how ahead of its time SW was.

Cartoons: Ullysees 31 was a favourite, Mysterious Cities of Gold, Astroboy, G-Force, Voltron, Thundercats, Transformers, Sky Commanders. Also have a give an honourable mention to Thunderbirds.

Movies: Never-ending Story, Dark Crystal plus many others already mentioned .

Little surprised no one has mentioned robotech yet.

Lost in Space (TV)

Flight of the Navigator

Alien series

Old Doctor Who, (Tom Baker)

Battle Star Galactica

and

STARWARS

Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future - **** gritty for a childrens series

Max Headroom - this is with Blade Runner the Trope Codifier for Cyberpunk in visual media in my opinion...! .

Captain Power Digitization complete!

Enemy Mine is one of those under the radar stories that end up being very influential. That story has been copied in so many series, at least every Star Trek since.

Wargames is on the verge of being forgotten. I wonder how far it helped inspire Skynet though.

Star blazers...

Rode my bike home everyday after school to catch Star Blazers, Battle of the Planets, and Speed Racer. Anyone ever see Time Bandits? I don't know if A Clock Work Orange would fall into Sci-fi?

Totally flattered to inspire a thread!

For me 80s sci fi was largely toy related.

Started off with Action Man (uk gi joe) who had a 'space rangers' range (that oddly featured a repackaged 'rom' space knight.

Then stuff like micronauts and fisher price adventure team space stuff (with some wierd see thru green aliens i had for christmas one year!)

Obviously star wars stuff too.

Later on my obsession was with a toy called 'starcom' that was pretty successful in the UK but bombed in the US.

I also remember 'britains' making these die cast and plastic modular space ships... the humans had yellow and red ships with gravity ball cockpits and domed helmets, the bad guys had 'kawizaki' green space ships (same components, just different colours) with the same bodies cast in black but with wierd red heads rather than human heads with domes.

Anyone else remember them?

Film wise i think it was stuff like 'last starfighter', ET, and of course in the UK we all grew up with the amazing

DR WHO

But we ususally hid behind the sofa for most of it!

Oh some of the films mentioned i also watched and loved, particularly terminator , mad max 2. Also less well known films like the gundam live action, robojox etc

Just remembered another in the realms of cheesy but fun, although if I watched it again I'm not sure the fun part would survive.

Megaforce.

With the main characters name being Ace Hunter it just screams 80's.

Im surprised Ace hunter isnt a new xwing pilot for S&V... after 'talonbane cobra' nothing would surprise me.

I would add V and V: The Final Battle, there was Battle Beyond the Stars, Ice Pirates was great, Buck Rogers was my personal fave

Battle of the planets, whilst technically from the 70's I was not watching it until the 80's. It may have been the case that we did not get in Oz until the 80's.

There was also

MASK

ZONE RIDERS

and of course

SABER RIDER

My personal favourites were

GALAXY RANGERS (as especially in German the dialogues were written very clever and almost Whedonesque)

BRAVESTAR (which was pretty gritty and multilayered for an 80s Cartoon series with a toy franchise)

Some great stuff here guys! I'm going to have to start watching all these I've never seen. My wife is going to hate me for the next two months.

Owing to the events of today: They Live.

I have to add though, that I am SO gald to see other mentioning Captain Power. It was a show, with gimmicky toys, but they didn't leave it there. They wrote a REAL show, with a serious plot, and I loved it, because it didn't treat us like kids.

Gandahar (aka Lightyears) is an awsome french scifi animated movie, by the same guy as Fantastic Planet, but not nearly as tripped out. Iirc Isaac Azamov wrote the intro and worked on the english adaptation.

Orin the Legend of Starchaser is, um, interesting. It's an aquired taste. Imagine if Heavy Metal (Metal Hurlant) did Star Wars. It's almost a total rip off, but a lot darker and more adult at points. Every Star Wars fan needs to see it.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (the BBC version) is great and extremely low budget.

I think every thing else I like from 80s scifi has already been listed.

My Stepmother Is An Alien

Earth Girls Are Easy

Flash Gordon

Howard The Duck

Critters

Spaceballs

Weird Science

Killer Klowns From Outer Space

No, but seriously...

Aliens

Blade Runner

Predator

Robocop

Terminator

Mad Max

Brazil

Dune

Repo Man

The Thing

Escape from New York

1984

The Philadelphia Experiment

Trancers

Innerspace

Outland

The Running Man

D.A.R.Y.L.

Explorers

E Bloody T

Tron

Short Circuit

Steel Dawn

Videodrome

Scanners

Swamp Thing

Akira

Tetsuo: The Iron Man