Psychic group sex sessions, gay time travelers & more queer sci-fi to stream this weekend

Netflix’s limited series Bodies is a twisty crime drama in which a body is found in the same place in four different time periods. The show also has a surprising and beautiful gay romance, which we won’t spoil here. This week’s streaming picks are all science fiction series with decidedly queer bents.

Read on for queer science fiction shows to stream this weekend.

Torchwood

A spin-off of the much more wholesome BBC series Doctor Who, Torchwood stars out actor John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, who leads a team of alien-hunting operatives. Jack is a sexually fluid time traveler who has traveled to Earth from the future. Torchwood goes wild with its time travel, with a much more mature and nuanced take on the Doctor Who formula. The irresistible Jack has a great love story with Gareth David-Lloyd‘s Ianto through the first few seasons, but there’s also a high body count—the bad kind—so get ready to sob multiple times and don’t get used to your faves! We can only hope that some version of Captain Jack returns in the upcoming season of Doctor Who, which is set to star queer actor Ncuti Gatwa as the new lead.

Now streaming on Max.

Paper Girls

Based on the comic book series by Brian K. Vaughan, this one-season wonder follows a group of paper girls in the 1980s who are unwittingly enveloped in an adventure across time and space. But the real heart of the show is the coming-of-age journey the girls are on, including KJ (Fina Strazza), who struggles with her sexuality until she meets her older self—an out and proud young woman with a girlfriend. KJ’s journey is poignant, smartly told and makes us yearn for a second season. We also, of course, recommend reading Vaughan’s terrific comic book series for more of these characters.

Now streaming on Amazon Prime Video

Sense8

Did you know? There’s more to this wild Netflix show than group sex scenes! This series, created by the trans Wachowski sisters (known for the incredibly queer-coded Matrix movies), follows eight disparate people all over the world who have a psychic connection. In between helping each other deal with their own separate problems, the eight “sensates” are hunted by the Biologic Preservation Organization, who have dark plans for them. Multiple main characters are queer, and in multiple episodes the characters take a break from their sci-fi troubles to have an insanely hot psychic sex sesh. Just go with it.

Now streaming on Netflix.

Star Trek: Discovery

This series, a prequel to the original Star Trek show, is the first time the franchise has featured gay characters outside of the reboot film series. Out actor Anthony Rapp plays Paul Stamets, an engineer who is in a relationship with the USS Discovery’s chief doctor, Hugh Culber (out star Wilson Cruz). Star Trek: Discovery has gone through a lot of change in its four seasons, but has stayed queer throughout. Unlike the other shows on this list, Star Trek: Discovery will return for another, final season in 2024.

Now streaming on Paramount Plus.

The Kicker

In season 3 of RuPaul Drag Race, the queens are tasked with creating a trailer for a science fiction film, From Earth to Space. The ladies have some fun, but we’ll let you decide how well they did on this challenge.