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Now that the trailer for the seventh "Star Wars" movie is out, you can imagine the anticipation among the millions of fans of the film franchise. And why not? The six "Star Wars" films have been enormous successes: they have grossed over $2 billion domestically at the box office, spawned scores of books, comic books and merchandise (how many kids have their own light saber?) and made household names of characters like Darth Vader, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker. They've also been the worst thing ever for the science fiction genre.

Fifty years ago this Thanksgiving the crew of the starship Enterprise walked in front of cameras for the first time and began filming on a new sci-fi show that would make television history: "Star Trek". But the results of the day's filming weren't seen in their intended form for more than 20 years -- and the legendary show nearly didn't make it to the screen at all. The brainchild of former bomber pilot and police officer turned television writer Gene Roddenberry, "Star Trek" was planned to be a utopian sci-fi show featuring a diverse crew exploring the galaxy. It began...

Who doesn't love a dinosaur flick? Well, paleontologists have a few fossil bones to pick with Jurassic World, the latest in a line of dinosaur movies that once bragged about its scientific credibility. The trailer for the new movie, a reboot of the popular 1990s Jurassic Park franchise, was released Tuesday and has already been viewed more than 14 million times on YouTube. Like the original movie, Jurassic World takes place in an island safari park, where tourists visit living dinosaurs cloned from ancient DNA—until one hybrid monster goes rogue. Despite global fervor among fans, dinosaur scientists are not thrilled...

All (good) things must come to an end, as the omnipotent, yet enigmatic, interstellar character Q pointed out to the crew of the USS Enterprise during a particularly harrowing flight. As in Gene Roddenberry-created science-fiction epics, so it is in the world of pop cultural podcasting, which is why this month marks the conclusion of my nearly year-long professional collaboration with my good friend Todd Seavey. Even though Todd is leaving for bigger-and hopefully more lucrative-endeavors, the Perry portion of Seavey and Perry on Culture will persist, as I cycle through a diverse cast of witty anarcho-capitalists willing to plumb...

Jurassic World, the fourth film in the Jurassic Park series, is scheduled for release on June 12, 2015. Colin Trevorrow is the director and Steven Spielberg is one of the executive producers. The official trailer has been released and you can watch it here. More links: WikipediaIMDbWhy did Steven Spielberg invent a new dinosaur for Jurassic World?Official SiteUK SiteNewsFacebookTwitter Of course, many of the dinosaurs depicted in the Jurassic Park series lived in the Cretaceous period rather than the Jurassic period.

The Oscar-nominated "Memento" writer says "everyone would benefit from reading" the sci-fi trilogy HBO and Warner Bros. TV are teaming to produce a series based on Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" trilogy that will be written and produced by "Interstellar" writer Jonathan Nolan, multiple individuals familiar with the project have told TheWrap. Nolan, who is already working with HBO on "Westworld," has been quietly developing the project for the last several months. He recently tipped his hand to Indiewire, which asked him, 'what's the one piece of science fiction you truly love that people don't know enough about?'

If you feel a disturbance in the Force, it’s millions of voices suddenly crying out the new title of Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens. The reveal comes as the movie finishes its final day of shooting (with many more months of post-production to come.)

If modern physics is to be believed, we shouldn’t be here. The meager dose of energy infusing empty space, which at higher levels would rip the cosmos apart, is a trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion times tinier than theory predicts. And the minuscule mass of the Higgs boson, whose relative smallness allows big structures such as galaxies and humans to form, falls roughly 100 quadrillion times short of expectations. Dialing up either of these constants even a little would render the universe unlivable. To account for our incredible luck, leading cosmologists like Alan Guth and...

The world's crops are being devastated. People face mass starvation. The earth is dying. A team of scientists sets out on an interstellar journey to find a new planet for the people of earth. From Wikipedia:Interstellar is a 2014 science fiction film directed by Christopher Nolan. Starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, and Michael Caine, the film features a team of space travelers who travel through a wormhole in search of a new habitable planet... Interstellar premiered on October 26, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. Commercially, it is scheduled for a limited release in North America (United States and...

Happy National Read a Book Day! Celebrate with these essential sci-fi classics. Space, dystopian futures, robots, technology, aliens . . . what is there not to love about science fiction, a genre that stretches the imagination and offers a glimpse into what lies in a galaxy and time far, far away? Now that you've indulged on the most compelling, classic epic fantasy series, it's time to switch gears. Onward, futurists! We recruited our own POPSUGAR editors to help compile the ultimate list of geeky reads. And this week, we're showcasing the best sci-fi narratives, with all the traditional elements of...

Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey is just about to enjoy a digitally restored limited U.K. theatrical release. And to celebrate, here's a lovely new trailer.

One of my favorite little moments in the very entertaining new “Star Trek” movie comes when the young James T. Kirk activates the computer system of a car he swiped for a joyride, and the Nokia logo comes up. It’s nice to see Nokia’s still in business in the twenty-third century. Such simple touches help to humanize the Star Trek universe, which had drifted a bit too far from recognizable human experience for audiences to fully engage with its characters. The presence of a good old-fashioned corporate logo in the new movie put me in mind of a long-ago, free-wheeling,...

It’s been 30 years since James Cameron made his name with a futuristic sci-fi actioner starring ex-bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger, inspired by his own nightmare vision of a murderous mecha-skeleton. Shot for $5.6 million in 1984, The Terminator changed everything for Cameron and his fellow Roger Corman disciple and producer Gale Anne Hurd. The two have since carved their own influential paths – Cameron with Aliens, Titanic, and his $2.7 billion Avatar franchise, Hurd with AMC's ratings juggernaut The Walking Dead. And they're still proving that original ideas can be profitable in spite of Hollywood’s "fear-based" decision-making, while keeping a polite...

It's Banned Books Week! But people are trying to keep great books out of libraries and schools every hour of every day, year round. And often, people's reasons for challenging these titles are really, really... outlandish. Here are 12 SF and fantasy books that people have given incomprehensible reasons for banning.

Zack Snyder gave us a gritty, black-and-white glimpse of the new Batmobile back in May, and now, thanks to some people on Instagram who happen to be near the shoot, we're now starting to get a good look at the entire vehicle. The new photos show Batman v. Superman's Batmobile parked against the side of the road — where it's clearly a lot bigger than the average car.

Earlier this month, two fan conventions came to London: Nine Worlds and the World Science Fiction Convention, commonly know as Worldcon. Worldcon is in its 72nd year, a huge old dinosaur (or perhaps an aging dragon) of science-fiction fandom. This year more than 10,000 people paid for memberships, which included entrance to the annual Hugo Awards. The official guests of honor were revered science-fiction and fantasy authors, editors, and illustrators, all of whom were in their 60s and 70s. Nine Worlds was smaller, younger, and catered to a more varied crowd including comics, TV, and fanfic followers. But since both...

"The New Breed" is an episode from the first season of The Outer Limits revival series. It was originally telecast on June 23, 1995. It stars Richard Thomas. It is a cautionary tale about an experiment that goes too far. From the Wikipedia article: Dr. Stephen Ledbetter makes a technological and medical breakthrough when he creates a type of tiny machine, known as nanobots, capable of curing any disease or imperfections in the human body. Watch on HuluWikipedia (contains SPOILERS)IMDb (contains SPOILERS) The running time of the episode itself is 44:28 but there are commercials which add to that time.

An effort is underway to honor one of Waukegan's favorite sons, the late science fiction pioneer Ray Bradbury. Waukegan Public Library Executive Director Richard Lee said nearly all the details remain to be worked out beyond the basic idea -- a realistic statue or bust of Bradbury, who wrote evocatively of the fictional Green Town, a recognizable stand-in for his hometown. lRelated A history of Waukegan The effort echoes the push for a statue memorializing another Waukegan legend, comedian Jack Benny, a radio and early TV star honored with a downtown statue in 2001.

A new, unprecedented bill passed by California’s State Senate on Thursday will encourage public schools to teach students about the historical significance surrounding Barack Obama’s status as the first African-American president of the United States of America. Assembly Bill 1921 passed with a 30-1 vote, according to the Associated Press. It was introduced by Assemblyman Dan Holden (D-Pasadena). Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) says the bill would require the Instructional Quality Commission (which facilitates much of California’s Common Core framework) to consider teaching students about Obama’s election within the context of past voter discrimination, the AP notes. Sen. Joel Anderson...

In these days of seemingly weekly science fiction blockbusters (which are usually SF in name only… they're actually just big gun actioners that take place in the future) and the hype that surrounds them, it's easy to forget that once such films were the low man on the totem pole. Stuff fit for kids and juveniles but not serious adult audiences. Thus, in past decades, except for a few A list films like Them and The Day the Earth Stood Still in the 1950s and Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green, and Logan's Run in the '60s and '70s, many...