Star Trek Creator’s Overlooked Sci-Fi Series Streaming Without Netflix 

What is Earth: Final Conflict about, exactly? The plot centers on a group of aliens known as the Taelons who come to Earth and offer highly advanced technology that transforms the planet into a paradise free of everything from disease and pollution to war and violent conflict. To some, all of this is a little too good to be true, which is why a resistance group forms in order to reclaim the planet–and the future of humanity–back from alien influence.

The way that Gene Roddenberry got involved with Earth: Final Conflict is, as his creation Spock would say, “fascinating.” Back in 1969, Star Trek: The Original Series was canceled, and as far as its creator knew, the franchise was dead and never returning. Accordingly, he went on to develop scripts and pilots for other ventures, including something he called Battleground: Earth.

That’s the show that would eventually become Earth: Final Conflict, and Roddenberry had sketched out a rough idea of a show featuring aliens who peacefully came to Earth instead of invading it. 20th Century Fox wanted to create a pilot for Roddenberry’s show, but he couldn’t work on it at the time because his schedule had gotten increasingly hectic. This was mostly due to his work on the Star Trek feature films, and after their success, his work on the spinoff series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Sadly, Gene Roddenberry passed away in 1991 before he could ever bring Battleground: Earth to life. However, his widow (the great Majel Barett-Roddenberry, a Star Trek icon in her own right) began working on the project in the mid-90s. Eventually, it got a name change to Earth: Final Conflict so that audiences wouldn’t confuse it with future film (and future box office stinker) Battlefield Earth.

The characters in Earth: Final Conflict are pretty different from the ones in shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation. The main character, Commander Boone, is a paranoid cop turned bodyguard for an important alien. This puts him in a perfect position to become a double agent for the resistance, the kind of sneaky role that Captain Picard could never pull off for a prolonged period.

In its heyday, Earth: Final Conflict got very mixed reviews. The show was actually canceled by the CTV network after season two, but it was picked up by The New Net afterward and ran for a total of five seasons. Generally, most sci-fi fans agree that it’s not as good as good as Star Trek, but it’s certainly worth a watch for anyone who is a Gene Roddenberry completist.

Of course, you can make up your own mind about Earth: Final Conflict easily enough. The show is now streaming completely for free on Tubi, where (albeit with ads) you can watch the controversial series from beginning to end. If nothing else, this might help fill the void in fans’ hearts after the surprise cancellation of Star Trek shows Discovery and Lower Decks.