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  • I'm glad that other posters have given you a broad sample of content, and nice to see a young person chime in. I've never used the parental info on IMDB, but relied on Common Sense Media for some guidance. It's tough to make recommendations based solely on age, not knowing you limits as a parent, etc. But with that said, I'll offer a little parental input on some (my daughter is 11, but she's also the third kid, sooo...).

    Previously mentioned things:

    • Doctor Who - man, I wish Jodie Whittaker had gotten better writing. Rosa was a cool episode to share with my daughter. Matt Smith's run would be my pick for younger folks. Some scary elements, but tame.
    • The Hunger Games - yes! As long as you don't mind all the killing. Highly recommend the books at that age too.
    • The Martian - I loved it and I think it's a good suggestion. I just wonder about the appeal to that age.
    • Ready Player One - fun, easy, excellent popcorn flick. My son watched it over and over.

    Ones I haven't seen in the thread:

    • Firefly - Reavers are a bit scary for kids, and you'll probably need to explain Inara's job as a "Companion," but so good.
    • Jumper - Teleportation, man! Another good read at that age, too.
    • The Maze Runner - First movie was good, family said subsequent ones were not. Can't speak to the books, but they were certainly popular.
    • Men in Black - all fluff, but still a fun movie.

    And finally, I'll close with several 80s picks that tend to skew a bit younger :

    • E.T. - duh.
    • The Explorers - kids building their own space ship. Goes off the rails in the 3rd act.
    • Space Camp - kids accidentally get shot into space and have to be real astronauts.
    • Flight of the Navigator - the kids liked this more than I expected.
    • The Last Starfighter - play game, be hero.
    • Inner Space - honestly haven't seen this in 30 years, but loved it when I was young.
    • Enemy Mine - human and alien stuck in a cave have to overcome their hatred.

  • The OG 1950’s The day the earth stood still.

    More drama than run-and-gun sci-fi; but it’s a classic for a reason. And with what’s going on in Russia still poignant today (it’s a criticism of Mutually Assured Destruction)

    Also Babylon 5; it takes a few episodes to finish the world building but it gets very good. (Also probably has 2 of the best portrayals of strong female leaders in tv scifi. deleen is scary sometimes. And Ivanova is… Ivanova)

    If you like bab5, Star Trek DS9’s first season ripped off JMS’s early show Bible for b5, so it has very similar themes

    There’s also the star gate franchise; and Sanctuary (which isn’t sci-fi per se, but stars Amanda Tapping- captain carter in sg1. Give it some grace it started as a low budget web serial.)

    • I was pretty hooked on Babylon 5 from the start, and I can’t say the same for series like Star Trek: TNG! To me the world felt pretty fleshed-out and cohesive really early.

      I actually need to pick Babylon 5 back up, I can struggle with watching series consistently, even ones I like.

      I might be in the minority but I watched The Day the Earth Stood Still twice in my twenties and thirties and I found it almost impossibly slow. I’m not used to the pacing of old movies, so that might be part of it.

      But I also was expecting more of a science fiction movie than a social drama. It has a robot on the cover. Haha!

      I watched it the second time to understand what I didn’t see the first time, and realized it’s just not for me. I can’t remember my particular complaints other than the pacing, which might be fine if the kid is used to it.

      • Good grief, Picard annoys me.

        Sisco is the best Captain, fight me.

        As for the day the earth stood still… fair enough. It is a different pacing, and social drama were the core of SF in the 50’s. (Same with fantasy, well the fantasy that’s not just a romp in the sheets.)

        It was my uncle who got me hooked- I was like 5 or 6 when I found his VHS collection of Star Trek and secretly binged it. (Or tried to. Got trouble with tribles when he came up for something, told me to rewind it while he made some popcorn. I miss him. Any how when bab 5 came out… we’d run up the long distance phone bill geeking out about each episode. (And that should tell you how good it was- because it aired opposite DS9 and we were skipping DS9 for it.)

  • You've gotten plenty of suggestions, but I'll launch an oddball one out, just in case.

    Does your daughter already consume fanfic based on her favorite movies/television? "Young teen" is the prime age to start getting into fanfic on one's own. I, and my entire friends' group, were writing/reading up a storm at that age.

    If she does like fanfic, maybe offer her the original book form of Ender's Game. It has several sequels that never got made into movies. Likewise, if you end up watching the Expanse and like it, it started as a book series, and there's a few books that didn't get turned into the show.

    There's a LOT of excellent sci-fi out there that's written that will never get made into movies or television because A) it's not suitable for a visual medium because it's too "thinky" or "in your head" which makes it difficult to film or animate, or B) It's too new/cutting edge/weird for movie/television studios to risk putting lots of money on.

    So if she's already exploring the written medium as an ancillary way to get more content around existing movies/shows, perhaps offer some books in the genre? Most cutting-edge sci-fi shows up in books 10-20 years before it hits movies/television. So if she likes the sci-fi for the "cutting edge cool idea" aspect of it, there's usually more to chew on on the lit side of things--both in quality and quantity.

    Martha Wells' Murderbot series is very popular, and although the name suggests otherwise, I wouldn't flinch at giving it to a 12 year old to read. It's honestly tamer than Ender's Game (the book at least), where those kids are flat-out murdering/crippling one another in the book. Murderbot, in contrast, doesn't really like murdering all that much.

  • Check out some Star Trek like Strange New Worlds or Deep Space Nine, you don't have to understand much about Star Trek to enjoy it

  • Star trek Strange new worlds. Foundation. Pantheon. Any of the new starwars series.

  • I haven’t seen anyone else recommend Prospect (2918).

    I think your daughter might really enjoy it because the lead role is a young female, played by Sophie Thatcher, and it has a terrific far-future, hard SF vibe and great production values for an indie feature. Also the ubiquitous Pedro Pascal is very good in it as well. Killer sound track too.

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