Science fiction
TV and movie scifi, that is. When good SF sneaks onto television, it tends to give low-forehead TV executives an uneasy feeling that they don't understand what's going on, which is the truth, so they tend to cancel it at the first plausible pretext.
- FireflyFans.net
http://www.fireflyfans.net/
Wikipedia
IMDb
Serenity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_(film)
IMDb
- Firefly was a fun 2002 crossover scifi/Western show by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse) that was canceled by boneheads at Fox after a dozen episodes. Then about a zillion people bought the series on DVD. The feature film Serenity premiered in 2005.
- Doctor Who
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/
Wikipedia
IMDb (1963)
IMDb (2005)
Outpost Gallifrey fan site
http://www.gallifreyone.com/
- The Doctor came back, and that's a good thing.
- Babylon 5
http://www2.warnerbros.com/babylon5/
Wikipedia
IMDb
The Lurker's Guide
http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/lurker.html
- I enjoyed Babylon 5 very much. It's about the only TV SF I can think of with spacecraft that move like real spacecraft. The series, movies, and other spin-offs have been published on DVD at various times, including one version with the whole five-year series in one box. The one box per season version was re-published in 2009, so that's what you're most likely to find on the shelf right now.
- Farscape
http://www.farscape.com/
Wikipedia
IMDb
- A fun 1999-2003 cable series and 2004 mini-series, about a present-day astronaut who accidentally travels through a wormhole. Two members of the cast ended up on Stargate after Farscape was suddenly cancelled.
- Thresholdhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threshold_(TV_series)
IMDb
- A 2005 alien-invasion show I liked, with Carla Gugino and Brent Spiner; cancelled by CBS after ten episodes.
- Stargate
http://stargate.mgm.com/
Wikipedia
GateWorld fan site
http://www.gateworld.net/
- I rather like these shows; not as clever as Next Generation, but kinda fun.
Stargate the 1994 movie with Kurt Russell and James Spader started it, then
Stargate SG-1 (1997) was the first TV series, followed by
Stargate Atlantis (2004), and something I haven't seen yet called
Stargate Universe, starting in Fall 2009, with a whole new cast.
Star Trek
Summer 2005: no new Star Trek on television for the first time in eighteen years. Dyed-in-the-wool Trek fans refer to this situation as "stranded."
Or at least that was my attitude in 2005. Four years later in mid-2009, of course, we had something of a potential reboot of the Star Trek phenomenon, in the fun blockbuster movie, with brilliant re-casting of the familiar original characters Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, and Chekhov. My take on it: after forty years, five TV series, and ten feature films, the original Star Trek canon had gotten so complicated that Hollywood could no longer find writers with enough hair on their chest to write real Star Trek. So now maybe they've started over* with the alternate-reality scenario in that 2009 movie.
Of course, there's still no Star Trek on TV, except for syndication, mostly Next Generation and The Original Series, in my market anyway.
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Movies
- XI: Star Trek (2009)
http://www.startrekmovie.com/
Wikipedia
IMDb
- Out on DVD since November 2009. Lots of fun, except for the totally over-the-top use of lens flares, in my opinion.
- X:
Nemesis (2002)
Wikipedia
IMDb
- The most visually stunning of the Star Trek films prior to 2009.
- IX: Insurrection (1998)
Wikipedia
IMDb
- VIII: First Contact (1996)
Wikipedia
IMDb
- Enterprise follows a small Borg ship back to the late 21st century. Picard's crew, and some Vulcans who've never seen humans before, get a taste of some backwoods Montana culture, including Roy Orbison on Zephram Cochrane's really loud jukebox.
- VII: Generations (1994)
Wikipedia
IMDb
- In which the movie torch was passed from the original series cast (Kirk) to the Next Generation cast (Picard).
- VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
Wikipedia
IMDb
- V: The Final Frontier (1989)
Wikipedia
IMDb
- IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
Wikipedia
IMDb
- Kirk and friends take an old beat-up Klingon bird-of-prey back to 1980's San Francisco.
- III: The Search for Spock (1984)
Wikipedia
IMDb
- II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Wikipedia
IMDb
- I: Star Trek:
The Motion Picture (1979)
Wikipedia
IMDb
TV series
- Enterprise (2001-2005)
Wikipedia
IMDb
- This Paramount/UPN series with Scott Bakula as captain was set in the 22nd century, a hundred years before Kirk and Spock, and before the founding of the Federation. I liked it a lot, especially before they "fixed" it, but it didn't do well in the ratings.
- About Voyager: "I enjoy all things Star Trek, but I am bothered by the fact that they are lost in a sector of space that has no Klingons, Romulans or Vulcans. That's like moving Beverly Hills, 90210 to a trailer park. This has 'Management Decision' written all over it."
Dilbert, Scott Adams
- Voyager (1995-2001)
Wikipedia
IMDb
- I thought this one was a major disappointment, although I liked the characters, and the look of the ship.
- Deep Space Nine (1993-1999)
Wikipedia
IMDb
- My favorite Trek series, although some found it too dark, and I must admit it got pretty wierd the last season.
- The Next Generation (1987-1994)
Wikipedia
IMDb
- Sometimes called "the thinking man's Star Trek."
Enterprise-D was the best-looking of all the ships, I think.
- Star Trek (1966-1969)
Wikipedia
IMDb
- The famous original series with Shatner and Nimoy.
tlhIngan Hol
- Klingon Language Institute
http://www.kli.org/
- An actual full spoken and written Klingon language was invented; the stuff the Klingons snarl in Trek episodes actually has meaning.
- Wikipedia: Klingon language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klingon_language
- Google tlhIngan Hol
http://www.google.com/intl/xx-klingon/
- The Google search engine in Klingon, believe it or not.
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