Even as more women are becoming astronauts and getting to pilot the space shuttle, science fiction has shown tons of women taking the helm. Here are some of the most awesome, in no particular order:

Lady Sharrow in Against A Dark Background by Iain M. Banks

We don't get to see combat specialist Sharrow doing that much piloting in this book — but when she does take the controls, she makes it count. The one sequence where she does some fancy flying is one of the best moments in the book.

Carolyn Fry from Pitch Black.

I don't know how I managed to forget her — I actually had her on my list, and had grabbed this cool pic of her in advance. She manages to bring a dead ship down in spite of incredible odds — and sure, she tries to jettison her passengers. But she's just being sensible, after all.

Sue Parsons from Virtuality

As with Sharrow, Sue Parsons spends most of her screen time doing other things — mostly, like all the other characters on this show, bickering and freaking out about virtual reality nightmares. But when she does actually get to handle the Starship Phaeton's controls — watch out. She does an incredibly complex series of maneuvers while giant bombs are going off in her wake. Makes all the drama totally worth it.

Jenna, from Blake's 7.

This smuggler is the best pilot around — there's no competition, except maybe that arrogant twerp Del Tarrant. Jenna manages to take the controls of the Liberator, the most super-advanced ship in space, and master them almost immediately. And she's able to take it on manual and do some fancy flying, on occasion.

Saint-Emxin from Battle Beyond The Stars.

She's a mean Valkyrie fighter pilot, who more than holds her own in the movie's crucial Star Wars-inspired firefights. Han Solo not only couldn't pull off her headgear, he also couldn't outfly her. (I almost included Padme Amidala in this list, since she pilots a ship in Attack Of The Clones — but could Amidala really hold her own against Saint-Exmin? I think not.)

Tak from Invader Zim.

The "hideous new girl" shows up hoping to do a better job of invading Earth than Zim, and she has the ability to hypnotize humans into doing her bidding — but she also pilots her own ship.

Faye from Cowboy Bebop

Faye is an awesome fighter pilot, and even held her own in a dogfight with Spike. Runner-up status also goes to space trucker V.T., aka Victoria Terpsichore.

Carol "Foe Hammer" Rawley in Halo.

She does some pretty nifty flying as the pilot of Pelican transport Echo 419 on the UNSC Pillar of Autumn. She specializes in doing lots of missions involving hostile insertions and rescues, making her stand out from the rest.

Ana Khouri in Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds.

This assassin joins the crew of the Nostalgia For Infinity, intent on killing one of the crewmembers, but then two different digital entities fight over control of her, and thus of the ship. Also a killer pilot is the ship's de facto captain, Illia Volyova.

Mary Raven from Ignition City.

This grounded space pilot journeys to Earth's last spaceport, Ignition City, to find out what happened to her dad, in this new comic by Warren Ellis and Gianluca Pagliarani. Space-jockey Mary Raven is determined to find out what happened to her dad, and she won't leave Ignition City until she gets some answers.

Lt. Shane Vansen from Space: Above And Beyond.

According to this site, she's "one of Earth's most celebrated pilots," piloting the SA-43 Hammerhead space fighter into battle.

Corp. Ferro in Aliens.

Okay, sure, she gets killed after speaking only a couple lines of dialogue. But she has cool sunglasses, and she manages to put the ship down through a lot of turbulence.

Carmen Ibanez in Starship Troopers.

Many of the badass pilots in this movie are women, and Carmen (Denise Richards) is the most memorable of them. She's a pilot in the SICON fleet, who pilots the drop ship, and even helps on the ground when things get rough.

Col. Wilma Deering in Buck Rogers In The 25th Century.

She doesn't just look good in a slinky jumpsuit, or boogieing next to Buck — Wilma's an ace fighter pilot in her own right, and a lot of episodes see her flying off solo to deal with the bikini-clad menace of the week.

Aeryn Sun in Farscape.

She's a formidable fighter generally, but she's also a former Peacekeeper pilot, and some of her best moments involve her taking the helm of a ship — like the season two finale, when Crichton is flying away with Scorpius' mind controlling him, and Aeryn chases after him in her own ship.

Yoninne Leg-Wot from The Witling by Vernor Vinge.

We don't actually get to see much of her piloting skills, since she and her companion Ajao Bjault get stranded on the planet full of telekinetic aliens early on. But she does turn out to be resourceful, and despite being unattractive by Earth standards, she helps win over the "witling" of the story's title, Prince Pelio.

River in Serenity.

Okay, so Serenity's real pilot is, and always will be, Wash. But you can tell, at the end of the movie, that River is gearing up to be a pretty great pilot in her own right. And in the series of movie sequels that unspool in my daydreams from time to time, she's piloting the ship all the time.

Manda in Burning The Ice by Laura J. Mixon.

Manda CarliPablo's stigmatized because she's the only colonist on a barren gas giant who's not a twin or triplet — her other clones died before they were "born" — but her isolation turns out to be a good thing, as she becomes the best pilot in the colony and explores the unexplored regions of this new world — discovering an alien race along the way.

Turanga Leela from Futurama.

Despite being captain, she's also always ready to take the helm of the Planet Express ship, and her lack of three-dimensional vision doesn't seem to interfere with her amazing piloting skills.

Jaina Solo from the Star Wars expanded universe.

The daughter of Han Solo and Princess Leia didn't just inherit her mom's Force powers — she also became a kick-ass pilot, like her dad. She flew the Millenium Falcon on a few occasions. When she got caught flying the Merry Miner, an unarmed mining ship, during the Yuuzhan Vong war, she managed to dodge the aliens' attacks until help arrived. And then she became one of the New Republic's most valued starfighter pilots.

Captain Beka Valentine from Andromeda.

Thanks to everyone who suggested adding her — Beka Valentine is, among other things, the Andromeda's first officer and pilot, taking advantage of her better-than-human reaction times and strength.

Tanni from Mutineer's Moon by David Weber

Here's the key sequence:

"And," MacMahan added gently, "Tanni will be your pilot."

"What?!"

"Tanni will be your pilot," MacMahan repeated mildly. "I'm speaking now as the commander of a military operation, and I don't have time to be diplomatic, so both of you just shut up and listen... we can't afford anything but our very best pilot behind those controls. You're good, Colin, and your reaction time is phenomenal even by Imperial standards, but good as you are, you have very little experience in an Imperial fighter.

Tanni, on the other hand, is a natural pilot and the youngest of our Imperials, with reaction time almost as good as yours but far, far more experience. The overall mission will be under your command, but she's your pilot and you're her electronics officer, or neither of you goes."

Kathryn Fairly in Space Camp.

A group of teenagers get to go aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis during a test-firing of its engines. But the mean android named Jinx decides to — what else — jinx them by making the space shuttle blast off for real. They're stuck in orbit, without enough oxygen to get home. And Kathryn (Lea Thompson), who was struggling with the "multi-axis trainer" that's required for shuttle pilots, manages to ace the real-life situation that simulator creates: a flat spin after the shuttle's reorbit burn. She brings that bird down safe and proves she's an awesome pilot.

Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica.

As I said before, these are in no particular order — but if they were, Starbuck would be #1 in any list. She's clearly the best pilot among Battlestar's flyboys and -girls. Adama always refers to her as his best pilot, and she pushes herself harder than anyone else. Kat may have tried to challenge Starbuck's impressive kill rate, but she never really had a hope.

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown. Special thanks to Pete Gofton, Brian Williams, Erin Souza, Ira Wile, Jordan Hoffman, Austin Grossman, Ekaterina Sedia, and @soapboxx on Twitter.

The issue starts right in with an unconscious Buck Rogers being held captive by the aforementioned giant alien amoebas, the Ganymedians from (you guessed it) Ganymede. They're planning to absorb (ie, eat) him, but as it turns out, Buck was only playing dead, because it seems that, much like Chuck Norris, he doesn't sleep; he waits.

As it turns out, Commander Deering and a blond woman named Wynona (who may have briefly suggested that she's Buck's daughter, but don't quote me on that) are monitoring the mission, having sent Buck in as what he describes as "our 'Hail Mary' passage." And this blond, blue-eyed, five-o'-clock-shadowed Hail Mary goes in, guns blazing and fists flying. His internal monologue is a little John Wayne, a little John McClane, and a whole lot 21st century guy playing space cowboy four hundred years in his own future. It's exactly what you expect and it somehow fits the whole fighting lime-green blobs situation Buck's gotten himself into.

This situation, however, seems to be the sort that requires a bit of self-sacrifice on Buck's part, and we're left wondering if he's all right or not. Although, because I notice I've compared him to Chuck Norris, John Wayne, John McClane, all in the span of two paragraphs, I'm pretty much betting that he'll be all right.

Then again, the issue does end with: "This is The End . . . But for the Thrilling Beginning, Read Buck Rogers #1!" Good bit of advice. And if you're looking for the sort of alien-punching, cowboy-talking Buck Rogers action that this issue promises in the comics to come, I'd recommend giving it a look.

Written by Scott Beatty, art by Carlos Rafael. Color by Carlos Lopez. Buck Rogers #0 is on sale now.

Quite what those giant slugs and weird amoeba-like things Buck is fighting are, I'm not sure, but at only a quarter, it won't cost you too much to find out.

Buck Rogers #0 is released today.

The first issue of the series - Buck Rogers #0 - is actually a 25-cent preview of the series proper, allowing curious readers a cheap way of sampling what the future holds for the revived hero. Series writer Scott Beatty previewed the series, and the preview, to Newsarama.com:

Buck's not the same old laconic square jawed hero. He wants to see new places. He wants to experience all the universe has to offer. He's full of ideas and keeps a journal so that he doesn't forget anything important. In many ways, he's a stranger in a strange land in his own time, so sling-shooting him into the future isn't quite as bad for him as it would be for someone less inclined to see the potential in finding himself a half-millennium forward in time. Buck assumes that technology has caught up with his own fabulist ideas. That may not necessarily be the case... Earth hasn't exactly "evolved" in 500 years. There have been some technological upgrades, but the planet has been through some harsh times. Buck is an oddity because he's allegedly from the past. He's hard-pressed to prove that idea. But he arrives at a crucial point in time and makes some tough choices others are unwilling to make. And he deals with a problem that he may have inadvertently failed to prevent in the first place. If I say any more I risk spoiling the conceits of the opening arc...

While Beatty promises appearances from many familiar faces in the opening storyline - including Colonel Wilma Deering - he's got some bad news for those expecting the return of Twiki:

Biddi-biddi-biddi-no.

Buck Rogers #0 is released in May.

Back to the Future: Barrucci and Beatty on Buck Rogers [Newsarama.com]

Cawley stresses the project isn't a fan film, because it's a fully licensed production with professionals behind the camera and in front of it. But at the same time, the project, which may start streaming online as early as fall 2010, is very much in the spirit of Cawley's earlier fan films, in terms of referencing earlier works. Cawley's working on the script for the first episode now, but apparently it'll retell the classic Buck origin: he's a World War I airplane pilot, who gets caught in suspended animation until the 25th century, where he battles fantastical enemies.

The production will have a "retro-contemporary" look using modern techniques like CG to reproduce the look of the original comics. Cawley told TrekMovie: "We will be using the technology we have today, to present The Original version of The First Sci-Fi Hero ever! Previous filmed incarnations never really captured the original Buck from the comic strips, which is what we aim to do." He'll keep all the elements of the original storyline, including the "atomic disrupter pistol," the Earth Defense Directorate and Buck's friends Dr. Heuer, Wilma Deering and her brother Buddy Deering. And villains, including Princess Ardala and Killer Kane.

Buck will be played by Buddy Rice, who played James Kirk's gay nephew Peter in a recent Phase II storyline. Both Rice and Cawley stress this won't be for camp value.

We could be about to see a Buck Rogers explosion, what with a new comic series on the way and a Frank Miller-helmed movie supposedly still in the pipeline. But the Cawley webseries might hit before the Miller movie (if it even still happens), and garner more attention than a comics series. I'm happy to see anything that brings more prominence to space opera on film, since the visual genre has lagged behind the space opera book genre in recent years. But I'm wondering why space opera always has to look retro, especially with J.J. Abrams' Trek going back to an old-school version of the future as well. [TrekMovie]

The problem isn't that I have no faith in Frank Miller to be the man who updates Buck for a 21st century audience (Although, now that you come to mention it, I'm not sure that I do), but that I don't think that you can successfully update him. Even moreso than his brother in awesome/stupid name space herodom, Flash Gordon, everything special about Buck Rogers seems such a 20th century idea that I'm not sure what, beyond name recognition, would make people want to update the series as is.

To start with, there's his name: "Buck"? Who's seriously called Buck in this day and age? The era of heroes with ridiculous names has, much to my sadness, passed; now we prefer our heroes to have more realistic, common names like "Nathan Petrelli," "John Connor" or "Buffy Summers" (Okay, maybe that last one's a throwback). Gone are the days when Buck, Flash or even Adam Strange could wander around our subconsciousness without ridicule, or at least writers trying to explain away the name in an awkward and unconvincing manner.

And, if anything, the name of his love interest has dated so much more: "Wilma Deering" was something that sounded like the set-up for a punchline that never came even when I was seven years old, and I was a naive and easy to dupe seven year old. Would any actress really want to play a character with that name today? And if not, will we see some lame updated version take its place? "My name's Wilma - but you can call me Willow." Or maybe she'll be an alien: W'Ilma De'ering, perhaps?

(In general, many of the names from Buck Rogers have dated appallingly. Could anyone really get away with calling an alien race "Mongols" now, for example? Or a space pirate "Black Barney"? Even later additions to the series, like the 1980s TV show's C3-P0/R2-D2 hybrid "Twiki" sounds like it came from the end of a writer's coke binge at Studio 54. What is it about this particular character that brought out the worst in writers?)

More importantly, the idea of Buck waking up in the 25th century seems curiously quaint now. It seemed more of a milestone when he was created - It's 500 years away! Half a millennium! - and there's something just... well, less impressive for him to find himself "only" 400 years later, for some reason. You could, of course, keep the 500 year mark, but then he becomes "Buck Rogers In The 26th Century" which doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

And yet, I can't deny that there's something irresistible about the basic, original, Buck concept - which is why I'd like to see someone try to do something that didn't just reboot a franchise, but start from scratch altogether, with all new characters. Give someone who isn't stuck in the past (Hi, Frank) the basic pitch of "a fighter pilot falls into a coma and wakes up five hundred years later in a world at war with aliens" and let them go wild. No Wilma, no brainy scientist Dr. Huer and definitely no Twiki, but something new, a world that's as alien and unfamiliar to us as it is to not-Buck (Seriously, that name has to go. Even ironically).

There's so much potential in the idea at the root of Buck Rogers that's completely buried under all of the Buck that we know. It'd be nice if someone who's taking on one of the revamps could just throw away everything that doesn't work - up to and including the name of the title character - and make it shine for a new audience.