Which of these 11 epic fantasy/sci-fi shows will emerge triumphant in 2024?

3. Fallout (April 12, Amazon Prime Video)

Even a few years ago, if you'd told me that a video game adaptation would in the running for best show of the year I'd have laughed you out of the room. But after The Last of Us -- based on the Naughty Dog video game of the same name -- actually was the best sci-fi/fantasy show of 2023, I'm not so sure. So I'll go into Fallout, based on Bethesda's popular role-playing games, with an open mind.

Fallout takes place in a post-apocalyptic version of the United States where mutants, religious zealots and horrific creatures roam the world. Our hero is Ella Purnell, who's lived her entire life in an underground bunker where remnants of humanity have subsisted in relative comfort for centuries while the outside world crumbled. She must now venture into that world. What drama and comedy await?

The Fallout video games tell dramatic stories, but they also have a wicked sense of human. The TV show will have to get that balance right. I'm still skeptical -- not least of all because the whole thing is being managed by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, best known for making one great season of Westworld and three more increasingly lame ones -- but I'm happy to get proven wrong.

4. Doctor Who season 14 (Spring 2024, Disney+ and BBC)

So far we've talking about new shows. What about an old favorite? It doesn't get older than Doctor Who, a sci-fi classic that has been running in some form more or less consistently since the 1960s.

Doctor Who is such a regular fact of TV life that I was tempted to leave it off this list; after all, what can it do at this stage to attract fans who weren't already interested? But there's a new lot of energy around the upcoming season. There's a new leading man and lady in the form of Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson, plus the return of showrunner Russell T Davies, who presided over some of the show's best seasons of its modern era. This might just be another season of Doctor Who come and gone, or it might be an exciting rebirth for a franchise built on rebirths. It's in the ring.