Battlestar Galactica here.
Its such a different kind of sci-fi, one where man is running from their own creations, forced to turn on themselves and slowly shrug off (or desperately cling to) everything that makes them human vs. their own machines, who have motivations and goals of their own.
Its a really good way to bring desperation and determination into games that are otherwise a little flippant about stakes.
I can see how its not everyone’s cup of tea. From what I understand of the tone Adam is trying to hit it does not really match. I included it because the world building in it is very interesting, especially the evolution of the belter language .
For example ( from the site I linked above)
Belter language is accompanied by several physical idioms, due to the need to be able to communicate while wearing space suits.
My preference for sci fi in general sums down to very few subjects, (beside star trek and star wars, big movies etc)
If the crew were talking about Guardians of the Galaxy and Fifth Element I guess that the show would include a big amount of alienraces,speed of light travel,intergalactic universe and supernatural abilities(?).
A sense of save the world, good guys vs evil with humor involved in the show?
It FEELS a bit like a hacked Stars Without Numbers that is less about factions and more about induvidual prowess if that makes sense? The crew are members of an organisation of superheroes taking contracts by alien governments to whatever they want and it´s up to the crew to decide if it goes by their moral or not, also antiheroes etc…
I miss Stargate SG-1 ;(
Of course there’s also a bunch more, although there used to be this small obscure show called Swan Song, don’t know if you’ve heard about it. You should check it out it’s pretty cool.
Jesse can be the Great Prophet who leads them to the Promised Land of Fiji, the land flowing with Beer and Curry! Sam can be Rimmer because he’s the only person who can be serious lol.
No, bad idea. Funny to think about it, but that was basically Swan Song lol.
Has anyone mentioned the Honor Harrington series? A bit hierarchical, but at the same time it was a fantastically rich setting. There’s a trilogy I got around here somewhere about three deepspace colonies reuniting with Earth and a resultant Human civil war(a severe paraphrasing that doesn’t do the series justice but it’s the least spoiler-y description I can think of giving it). Umm, wait, I found it. Humanity’s Fire(series name) by Michael Cobley. First book is Seeds of Earth.
Other than that, maybe Ashes of the Empire by David Weber? I spent too much time concentrating solely on Warhammer 40,000 so I’m kind of left out of the loop for mainstream sci-fi.
Although Talon of Horus by Aaron Dembski-Bowden could be a good source of inspiration for a random group of people thrown together in the middle of space.
Samourai Jack, It’s a melting pot of genres true. But that’s the first thing that comes to my mind. The spike like skyscrapers, the red neon hellish vibe of the capital, the cartoonish aliens, the non-sens tech 
District 9 , I know it’s more of a thriller sci-fi but I could totally see the theme come up in the show !
Elysium, AKA what happen when a planets die with unbalanced ressources distribution
Blade Runner, for the obvious reason (even if it’s more distopia driven, the vibe is here)
Avatar (“This low gravity’ll make you soft. And when you get soft, Pandora will eat you and shit you out dead with zero warning.”)
Children Of Men, again more of the distopia type but still a great movie
Video-game-wise there is Titanfall, Dead Space, the Bioshocks and maybe Dungeon of the Endless ? Even if there is no real lore it’s still a thing
Book-wise … Well the classic but if this is for a show I’d say the The Caves of Steel with Elijah Baleyi ^^
I know I’ve mentioned it in the past but Jodorowsky’s Dune, while a documentary, has some awesome art design visuals and space opera concepts.
Something I didn’t see mentioned yet - Rick and Morty. I guess the inspiration you could draw from that is the campy, self-aware high-concept stuff. Playing around in a multiverse could be particularly entertaining, which in itself could lend to some comic book-esque shenanigans.
French comics 
1 Enki Bilal
An artist, his style is just unique ! His crayon/paint style will just blow your mind. His most known serie is the Trilogie of Sokolov wich had a short movie adaptation.
2 Moebius (AKA Jean Giraud)
Known for the great “Incal”, the western comic “Blueberry” and “XIII”. Many artists from around the world have cited Giraud as an influence on their work. Giraud was longtime friends with manga author and anime filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki.
3 Less known : Pierre Christin (Valérian and Laureline) & Philippe Druillet (Lone Sloane)
I’m honestly surprised no one has mentioned Babylon 5. A lonely group of humans operating the last trading post with alien civilizations and a story that slowly unfolds to reveal an ancient threat secretly manipulating the younger races to go to war with each other.
Bablyon 5 has tons of neat aliens, space wizards, ancient monks, time traveling and of course Zathras.
Another series that popped into my mind after listening to the podcast was Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. A very strange comic about a dystopian future where people have been driven underground and dinosaurs have returned to the earth. It’s not very sci fi but the strange mix of technology and ancient creatures (and Pokket as a mechanic) kinda struck a chord with what the team was talking about.
There was also Andromeda (which I didn’t watch, but looked interesting)
Oh, and there is this marble of german TV… “Raumpatrouillie Orion”
It has english subtitles…
I’m pretty sure @AdamKoebel and many others would get a nice giggle out of it 
Please watch the bar scene from episode 1 at 10:10… the dance in the background is hilarious 
Andromeda was kind of weird. Man out of time trying to rebuild his government because he thought it was utopian, but then it ended with him fightig the space devil if I remember right.
NOW I got to watch that…
After listening to the session 0 on Patreon I think something like what I saw in the trailer for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets matches the kind of feel you guys are going for as far as fantastical and weird Sci-Fi.
I’d also like to repeat everyone suggestion of Farscape, the characters are great and the creatures are usually more alien then you usually see if Sci-Fi tv shows.
Also @Darkvlagor’s suggestion of Samurai Jack is excellent as well, specifically from what I remember I would look at the first episode.
Anime is probably a good place to look as well since they get away with a lot of stuff because of the medium. Thinks like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Oh also Dead Leaves, so basically anything by Trigger.
Man I loves the inspiration process for creating new campaigns, its almost the best part really.
Highly recommend reading the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons series as inspiration. There are four books: Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion and The Rise of Endymion and together they include a large variety of science fiction topics. There’s time travel, strange alien creatures, space battles, AI and lots of different planets and cultures. The first book is pretty much The Canterbury Tales in space, the second one finishes the story of the first book neatly and the third and fourth books takes place a few hundred years after the original story.
I’ve never read that series but I will definitely have to look into it.
Yeah, I think what worked for Farscape was that usually shows kind of have all this backstory about how everything is already established and blah blah blah. Farscape was pretty much from Crichton’s point of view; everything is new, weird, wonderful, and terrifying, and everyone has to explain it to him. Heck, he’s a literal rocket scientist and the general, basic science that everyone around him takes for granted just blows his mind.
I think that’s also what worked for Star Trek Voyager too because it was all “new frontier” in a very literal sense.
Which is a massive contrast shows like Andromeda, Firefly, Star Trek TOS/TNG/DS9/Enterprise because they all had a developed backstory that you then as a player were supposed to figure out by piecing random one-liners(like how the Borg were kinda introduced the same time as the Romulans in TNG, but weren’t seen for like another two seasons I think), so on the one hand, it was still somewhat new and fantastical, but it didn’t carry that “first guy to plant a flag here” feel that I think Farscape had. That might just be me. Granted, Farscape did fall into that trope of Sci-Fi/SyFy shows where eventually there’s just an ultimate big bad guy/situation that has to be solved with a big bad weapon, but I don’t think that did too much damage to the charm of the overall show. Also, Harvey was the boss. I miss him.
Even thoe its a near new tv show… “the expanse” even with only one season on air has proven to be very interresting. There is allrdy alot of info about the world and how everything works in terms of factions and more. Would love to see a rollplay show that was in that universe.
good old Freelancer was pretty good, Dune series had some good concepts, the halo books did a good job with the genocidal invasion feel. Art wise sparth is scifi god… I could continue, but I should really go to bed.
There is this cool SciFi show, called ‘Swan Song’. Great stuff, I heard it’s also on hiatus right now, so maybe you could contact the original makers to start something in that universe.
(do I need a sarcasm shield, or can I trust you guys with that one?)