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From the whiz-bang and cheesy to the far-out and prematurely cancelled, sci-fi and TV have had a nice run. We locked ourselves in the basement with several milk crates of VHS tapes, laser discs, and back issues of Starlog to come up with the top 50 science-fiction television shows.

Ahmed Best, the actor who played the first computer generated character in the franchise, revealed that Michael Jackson approached director George Lucas in hopes of taking on the Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace role with the help of prosthetics and makeup similar to that of his "Thriller" video. After meeting Jackson backstage at a concert with Lucas and co-star Natalie Portman, Best said, "George introduced me as 'Jar Jar' and I was like, 'That's kind of weird.' Michael was like, 'Oh. OK.' I thought, 'What is going on?'" ... Although it's up to speculation whether or not Jackson's...

'Being a fan of Star Trek has given me a life', claims 69-year-old Steve Doman. The devoted trekkie has spent 14 years transforming his remote Colorado cabin into a Star Trek shrine complete with Klingon and Federation-themed rooms. Steve has spent a staggering $30,000 on the renovation project - which started as a winter hobby - and says there is still plenty of work to do.

OK the time has arrived. Art Bell returns to American radio in two hours. Tonight.

The first teaser for the new "X-Files" reboot offers a quick glimpse at the reboot along with some nostalgia and the assertion that "the truth is in there." While we've seen a few behind-the-scenes shots from the set of the forthcoming "X-Files" reboot, heard about Gillian Anderson's challenge in "waking up" Scully and even seen David Duchovny tear up over the "fantastic script," we haven't seen much in the way of a preview of the six-episode series due to air on the Fox network in January. Tuesday, with the release of the first official teaser for the show, that doesn't...

Shortly after completing their first movie, in 2004, Kerry and Kevin Conran received an invitation from George Lucas. The Star Wars mastermind would be hosting a summit at Skywalker Ranch, his production facility-cum-small town in San Francisco, gathering some of the most forward-thinking people in the movie business to discuss the future of film. James Cameron was there, as were Robert Zemeckis and Brad Bird. The brothers were newcomers, but that day they were treated as peers; each of their fellow directors told the Conrans how impressed they were with what they’d accomplished. Their work, they were told, was way...

We're exclusively premiering the new trailer for Syfy's miniseries "Childhood’s End," which just debuted at Comic-Con on Saturday morning. Get a good look at what Arthur C. Clarke’s sci-fi novel will look like in real life, right now. Set in a world that's already been conquered by aliens, this trailer actually shows the big "first contact" moment. "There’s no need to be afraid," says the alien voiceover. "We've come to help mankind. We are not conquerors."

Tonight's second feature is a classic bit of dark science fiction from the 1970s. Astronaut and pilot Tony Cellini (Gianni Garko) is in the throes of what most people on Moonbase Alpha believe is a mental breakdown. The only survivor of a disastrous mission that wrecked his career some years before, Cellini is once again claiming the existence of an impossible alien creature, one that Cellini is obsessed with destroying...

A Monday piece in IO9 contained some revelations about the upcoming sequel to 1996’s “Independence Day,” which is entitled “Independence Day: Resurgence.” 20 years after the great alien invasion flattened many of Earth’s largest cities and killed untold millions of people, the world is still united in building up its defenses against a return engagement. These defenses apparently include a moon base.

A former child actor who starred in one of the “Star Wars” movie prequels faces charges after leading South Carolina deputies on a high-speed chase. Colleton County Sheriff’s Sgt. Kyle Strickland said Sunday deputies on Wednesday arrested a 26-year-old man they confirmed through a former talent agent was Jake Lloyd. He played young Anakin Skywalker in the 1999 movie “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.”

One day in the 1970s, George Lucas screened a rough cut of his new movie, Star Wars, for his influential Hollywood friends. And almost none of them liked it. The plot seemed incomprehensible, the made-up fantasy names absurd. Director Brian De Palma, who had just had a big hit with Carrie, made fun of everything about the film, including Princess Leia’s hairstyle: “Hey, George, what were those Danish rolls doing in the princess’s ears?” Almost 40 years later, De Palma is mostly making low-budget movies, and the most-anticipated film of the year is Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the first...

I’m not sure if I’ll see Jurassic World but if I do, it will likely be for the reasons summed up by New York Post film critic Kyle Smith:

Lots of Star Wars fans hate marketing-friendly Ewoks from Return of the Jedi with a passion (related: lots of Star Wars fans apparently hate everything that is good in life) and were likely holding out hope that Warwick Davis’ return in The Force Awakens didn’t necessarily mean that Ewoks would be back. But they’re about to be disappointed: new promotional materials indicate that Davis will reprise his role of Wicket the Ewok.

Star Trek legend Nichelle Nichols suffered a mild stroke last night at her home in Los Angeles, according to a statement on her official Facebook page. "She is currently undergoing testing to determine how severe the stroke was," the statement read. "Please keep her in your thoughts." Nichols, who is 82 years old, earned her place in both Star Trek and entertainment history with her portrayal of Uhura in Star Trek: The Original Series and the six TOS feature films. She's also been a constant, joyous presence at Star Trek and sci-fi conventions all over the world. Additionally, Nichols achieved...

Harlan Ellison is still an angry young man, except he'll be 81 on May 27. He has used this anger, fueled by childhood anti-Semitism, throughout his extraordinary career as a writer of speculative fiction. This year saw the publication of his 116th and 117th (so far) books: The Top of the Volcano, a collection of his awardwinning short stories, and a graphic novelization of his original script for "The City on the Edge of Forever," widely considered the best Star Trek episode ever written. Although Ellison's hundreds of published stories contain a wealth of Jewish characters, his most complex creation...

Yup, spaceships again. Between Star Citizen, the new Halo, the new Star Wars, a couple of key mods for Sins of a Solar Empire that I keep up with and have done some voice work on, and Destiny, my mind has been buzzing with them. I’m a huge nerd who thinks of things in my free time like “if I were a shinigami what kind of Zanpakutō would I have?” and “I wonder if I’d rather be a ranger or a mage” and “ff I were a Jedi in the New Jedi Order, what kind of ship would I have?”...

It appears that ‘Star Trek Beyond‘ may be the title of the upcoming Star Trek film, lucky number 13 in the franchise. As far as the storyline is concerned, the title suggests that the new film will venture farther out into the galaxy than we have seen in the previous two Abrams films, as co-writer Simon Pegg has been hinting at for some time now.

A small clique of left-wing publishers, editors, writers, and fans have controlled the Hugo for years, and they are threatening to make sure the winner of this year’s Hugos are all “No Award.” Yes, “No Award” is a valid vote; it’s a shame that’s not an option in political elections. Larry Correia, Brad Torgerson, Vox Day, and all of the other “Puppies” supporters set out to demonstrate that the Hugo process was politicized and broken. They said that if authors were nominated who didn’t “fit the mold,” who weren’t approved by the ruling faction, they would be blacklisted, ostracized, insulted,...

J.J. Abrams, the director tasked with bringing Star Wars back to the top of the crowded franchise heap, has always been happy to borrow. When he set out to make a new Star Trek and drag that moribund cinematic franchise back into blockbuster territory, he cheerfully swapped in some very familiar visual language to help it over the hill. Early on in the film, James Kirk (Chris Pine), nursing a desire to transcend his farmboy life, rides a motorcycle to see the U.S.S. Enterprise being built at a shipyard, and gazes up at it longingly. Star Wars fans would connect...

Voiceover by Luke Skywalker? Cameo by gray-haired Han Solo? Another cameo by the black Stormtrooper? Not gonna lie. I plotzed.