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10 Standalone TV Episodes We Wish Would Become Spin-Off Series

Whenever a TV show becomes popular, people try to force spin-offs from it. Some work (Angel) and some fail (the back end of Caprica). But meanwhile, here are 10 dynamite episodes of science fiction and fantasy shows that could have spawned amazing spin-off series.

10. "Thank You" - True Blood

When the show ended, it's pretty safe to say that everyone was more upset about the loss of Pam and Eric than any other part of the True Blood universe. This is probably why the series decided to set this vampire couple up in a big, big way. At the conclusion you see Pam and Eric hawking their version of "New Blood" on the home shopping channel. They have built an empire, they are cheesy, respectable, but still run the S&M establishment and bar, Fangtasia. We want to see more of this. So much more of this. We want to see how Eric is coping with his newly found fame, how Pam is dealing with her responsibilities and public personas. And then we want flashbacks. Just give us more of these two dropping the f-bomb and ripping hearts, and we are so good.

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9. "The Angels Take Manhattan" - Doctor Who

This is an odd idea, but hear me out. At the end of "The Angels Take Manhattan" Rory and Amy are sent back to 1938 by a lone Weeping Angel. And they are stuck in the past forever. However, Rory went back before Amy and when she decided to leave the Doctor forever to spend the remainder of her days with Rory, the Doctor couldn't promise that she would find Rory right away (but the tombstone implies they eventually found each other). I propose a (sadly) Doctor free series of Amy and Rory bashing around in the past.

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First Amy would have to find her husband, then they would have to find jobs, a home, and establish a life. The two of them have a very special set of skills (and future knowledge) so together they would make one hell of a pair of cosmic private detectives. The people you call when you think your nanny may be an alien.

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8. "Frontierland" - Supernatural

Supernatural's Samuel Colt (the creator of the magical Colt gun that can kill anything) was awesome. This guy is ripe for his own period piece spin-off series. Hell he even BUILT the door that keeps the portal to Hell closed, let's hear about that story! Along with a few additional historically peppered angels and demons stories. Imagine Sleepy Hollow, without all the scenes set in the present day! Hey it's better than the Bloodlines idea.

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7. "Lower Decks" - Star Trek

This episode of Star Trek The Next Generation focused not on the top brass aboard the USS Enterprise but crew members a little lower on the totem pole. The shift in character focus also allowed for a shift in priorities. These guys weren't struggling with an intergalactic treaty or balancing peace, they were worried about peer reviews, promotions, and impressing their superiors. This allowed for a lot of great one-on-one crew member bonding and teachable moments with the main cast, but it was also nice to spend time with characters in a different part of the ship. Give us a Lower Decks spin-off series with hungry, fresh-faced go getters with everything to lose and everything to prove to their superiors! Think of the mistakes, the sexual encounters with other untethered youngsters and the major life lessons!

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6. "Task Force X" - Justice League Unlimited

Basically the closest we'll get to a real Suicide Squad series is JLU's take on the comic in their animated show. And what an episode it was. For those of you unaware of the premise from the comics the idea is this, supervillains on death row are offered last minute deals with the government to go on a suicide mission in exchange for their freedom. And the whole thing takes place from the villains' perspective, not the Justice League. It's funny, it's scary, there are aggressively mature plots to juggle and it's just a shame we never got to see more of this. We would watch more, just sayin.

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5. "Flooded" - Buffy The Vampire Slayer

This is weird idea but hear me out. I want a Trio miniseries that absolutely in no way changes the fabric or canon of the already established Buffyverse. Just following the story of how these three became friends, and exploring their relationship more as Warren slowly unravels.

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4."Beginnings, Part 1 & Part 2" - The Legend of Korra

Korra has a two-part episode where she meets Wan, the first Avatar. Wan is just infinitely interesting (as is his world set 10,000 years ago, when people lived atop gigantic sea turtles). The mastering and gathering of the many talents of an Avatar was so wildly fascinating that Wan really deserves his own series. We want to hang out more in his world, and see more footage of the watercolor style that accompanied this character.

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3. "The Snowmen" - Doctor Who

Doctor Who "side" characters Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, and Strax continually steal the show. And in the 2012 Christmas special these three proved that they had the chemistry and presence to captivate audiences when the Doctor was absent. In fact their banter sometimes even overshadowed the Doctor's jokes. And even though there was that delightful tease the BBC put out in webseries form, we would really love to see more of these three bashing around Victorian times fixing the world, one gigantic universe crack at a time.

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2. "Space" - News Radio

Ok this is a totally genius idea that io9 commenter Ben Grimm suggested and we can't agree more. While we will never be able to re-capture the majesty that was News Radio, why not attempt to create something inspired by it? The banality of working talk radio in space? The premise of this episode was simple — the NewsRadio gang jumped forward and imagined what life would be like as a radio station in space. But with the same office politics and drama. Just make sure to keep the Trek nods and silly scifi homages, or else we walk.

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1. "Smile Time" - Angel

Don't care how it happens — we just want an Angel puppet show spin-off.

BONUS ROUND:

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"Alex Annie Alexis Ann" - Supernatural

Another Superatural spin-off we would totally watch is all out Jody. Now that Jody is taking care of Annie, we would like to see where this self-aware totally kick ass lady goes in her life. And yeah that just totally reminded us of the X-FILES vampire episode which we would kind of want to be mixed up with Jodi and made into a cool low key, vampire meets ass kicking sheriff series. Work with it.

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Gif via Supernatural wiki.

Special thanks to Cyriaque Lamar, Lauren Davis and Ben Grimm's suggestion back in this previous post.