Sci Fi is a great genre, but like any other it is just a vehicle to tell a great story and/or convey a great message. Just finished watching the first three seasons of Battlestar Galactica, and it constantly used Sci Fi as a vehicle to explore the questions of what it means to be human and the theme that it is not enough just to survive, one must preserve the conditions that make us worthy of living. Edgar Rice Burroughs similarly uses the notion of alien races and a different planet to explore the theme of constant war over diminishing resources on a dying planet; the concept of racial differences and how for John Carter it didn't matter if you were green, red, white, black, or yellow- it was the content of your character not the color of your skin; and the natural results of Communism being a degraded existence filled with loathing for your fellow beings, the separation of families to evince total loyalty to the State; and the value of kindness to animals.
