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THROUGHOUT the history of television, science fiction has fared far better than fantasy. Its place in the mainstream was cemented by Star Trek and Doctor Who, not to mention more recent masterpieces like Battlestar Galactica. It is only in the past decade that we have seen a fantasy series become a true cultural phenomenon, thanks to Game of Thrones. No other show in the genre has had such an impact.

That might be about to change. August’s biggest hit was Netflix’s The Sandman, a stunning adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s comic book series, which follows the uber-goth demiurge Morpheus as he seeks to regain power over his dream realm. In September and October, two fantasy juggernauts have been battling it out for our collective attention: in the red corner, we have Amazon Prime Video’s , a series as hotly anticipated as it is poorly titled; in the blue corner, there is HBO’s House of the Dragon, a prequel to Game of Thrones that carries on its legacy of courtly scheming and conspicuous wigs.

Despite my minor gripes, I have enjoyed all of these shows and am looking forward to upcoming fantasy releases, from magical epic to the return of . Fantasy television has never been so prominent, nor so promising. But why has the genre’s small-screen renaissance only come now? And will sci-fi fans be left out in the cold for long?

The whims of streaming service owners and executives may be at play here, at least in the case of The Rings of Power. Amazon chairman Jeff Bezos once told staff that he wanted his very own Game of Thrones. With a £400 million budget behind this latest attempt, Bezos is driving a televisual arms race in which fantasy may be one more windmill to tilt at. Before long, surely every platform will have its own fantasy behemoth to fight in the streaming wars.

But perhaps I am being cynical. The massive budgets poured into TV in the past decade or so mean that fantasy realms once thought unfilmable can finally be realised in their full glory. That is something to be celebrated. And with much of the world engulfed by a plethora of crises – climate change, poverty, disease – it may be the best means to capture the scale of the existential threats facing us. Perhaps the genre is simply rising to meet this moment, casting the brightest light in the deepest darkness.

If you aren’t a fan of fantasy and are looking for sci-fi offerings to tide you over, fear not. Two months of Amazon Prime Video from 21 October will let you watch , an adaptation of William Gibson’s cyberspace novel destined to be the most discussed sci-fi series of the coming months. It will also give you access to The Expanse, set during a cold war between Earth, Mars and the asteroid belt, and counterfactual dystopia The Man in the High Castle. Paying for one month of Disney+ from 26 October will let you binge a plethora of Star Wars content, including Tales of the Jedi on its release and the spy thriller before its season finale.

The ambitious can take on Paramount+, which boasts 12 Star Trek series, including the currently airing third season of Lower Decks. And if these sci-fi delights aren’t tempting enough, you can live in hope of future adaptations: I would love to see Ursula Le Guin’s or Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson realised on screen. Here’s hoping.