BEST:

Spot, Data's Orange Tabby Cat from Star Trek: The Next Generation
Who: Data's number 1 friend that didn't wear a Devo-esque visor on his face.
Why he's awesome: He's probably one of the only cats in the universe that has an infinitely advanced AI at his beck and call.
Bonus points: Anything that pisses Riker off is a big plus in my book.

Willis the Bouncer from Robert Heinlein's Red Planet
Who: A sound mimicking furry ball that every kid should have as a friend.
Why he's awesome: In a 1960's era future, when a dog just won't cut it, the only way to really impress the kids at school is with an alien that doubles as a soccer ball. And here's a clip from the Fox miniseries adaptation.

R2D2, Star Wars
Who: The yin to C3PO's (annoying) yang that brings logic and light to any situation through a series of flickering lights and bleeps.
Why he's awesome: He's a moving trashcan that manages to be more likeable than most of the Star Wars palz extended cast.

Porthos, Captain Archer's Beagle from Enterprise
Who: Easily one of the more tolerable characters on Enterprise. Mostly because he didn't talk.
Why he's awesome: He's a beagle! How can beagles not be cute? Also, I feel like after the unfortunate Scotty related transporter incident, he deserves a nice memorial.

Ampersand, Y the Last man
Who: The world's ending, every man is dead, you're an aspiring escape artist pining away for your lost girlfriend and you're all alone. What do you do? Have crazy monkey antics with your favorite jungle friend with a punctuation mark as a name.
Why he's awesome: Not to spoil too much, but he may or may not be humanity's key to getting the XY's back in action.

Lockjaw
Who: Marvel's own alien bulldog and member of the non-human branch of the Avengers.
Why he's awesome: He's super strong, can eat anything and once latched onto the Thing.

Dog the Robot from Half Life 2
Who: Alyx Vance's No.1 go to robotic buddy who helps when your path is blocked by other dimensional beings or just wants to play fetch with your grav gun.
Why he's awesome: He's a giant robot with the personality of a dog. Do you need more?

Pen Pen, from Neon Genesis Evangelion
Who: A genetically altered super smart penguin that lives with Misato Katsuragi during the Angel apocalypse.
Why he's awesome: While the series has moments of intense despair and darkness, you can always count on jerky, anime humor involving naked people and penguins to brighten your day.

K-9 from Doctor Who
Who: Dr Who's multi-generational robotic canine companion.
Why he's awesome: He's gotten a series of spinoff stories and was even parodied on South Park.

Nibbler from Futurama
Who: Nibbler is part of an ancient race of Nibblonians who protect the universe from giant glowing brains that make everyone stupid. Er, Stupid-er.
Why he's awesome: He can eat about 1,000 times his body mass to, uh, produce dark matter.

Gaspode, from Terry Prachett's Discworld series
Who: A talking dog with human intelligence that attempts to bring "Hollywood" to Discworld.
Why he's awesome: He's an endless source of snarky remarks and regularly uses his speech to manipulate humans when he needs food.

CJ-7
Who: A puff ball with a body that guaranteed to produce family friendly fun times.
Why he's awesome: CJ-7 can help you repair torn relationships with certain parental figures and bring people back from the dead.

Einstein, Doc Brown's dog from Back to the Future
Who: You might be under the impression that a certain Family Ties alum might be the Doc's best time traveling friend in this series, but you'd be wrong. This adorable little terrier follows Doc whenever her goes.
Why he's awesome: As long as you ignore the craptacular animated television series, Einstein is always cute, helpful and never obnoxious.

Ein, Cowboy Bebop
Who: A super brained corgie that gets stranded on the Bebop.
Why he's awesome: Although they never really get into it in the series, Ein is a "data dog" that possesses super intelligence that allows him to answer phones and steer cars.

Bubastis, Ozymandias' lynx from Watchmen
Who: When you're a super genius David Bowie impersonator with the world at your fingertips what do you do next? You create a genetically engineered psychedelic colored lynx as a companion.
Why he's awesome: He takes one for the team for the sake of furthering an evil plan for his master.

Gizmo, Gremlins
Who: The main furry faced protagonist of the Gremlins series.
Why he's awesome: While I'm pretty much a fan of all the gremlins, I can't deny the greatness that is Gizmo channeling his inner Rambo.

Seymour from Futurama
Who: Seymour is a part of one of the most tear jerking episodes of Futurama involving Fry recounting the story of the most loyal dog that ever lived.
Why he's awesome: Did you see the last scene? He's the most loyal dog that ever lived! Also, we can rest easy knowing that alternate timeline Fry gave Seymour a great life.

Bronx from Gargoyles
Who: Bronx is the dog version of the Manhattan gargoyle clan. During the whole series you only see one other gargoyle beast, but unlike Budeka, Bronx gets a whole episode devoted to him befriending an Amish kid.
Why he's awesome: Gargoyles are already pretty high on the cool supercreatures scale, but add a dog personality to the mix, and you've got gold.

Roach from WALL-E
Who: They weren't lying when they said that after the world ended there would be nothing left but cockroaches. Fortunately, the end of the world also gave them charming personalities!
Why he's awesome: Making me want a roach as a pet is an epic win in my book.

Kevin and Dug from Up
Who: Kevin is a rare, brilliantly colored giant bird that Carl and Russell accidentally find in Paradise Falls. Dug is sweet golden retriever with a collar that allows him to talk.
Why they're awesome: It takes a lot to make slapstick giant birds funny, but Pixar does a magnificent job. And Dug? He's exactly what I imagine an actual talking dog to sound like. SQUIRREL!

WORST:

Tribbles from Star Trek
Who: Fuzzy, purring little meat pets that take over the original Enterprise.
Why they suck: Pets rocks were bad enough, why would they think that a massively multiplying furry pet rock would be better?

ALF
Who: Alien puppet that takes over a really lame sitcom in the 80's. If ever you want to torture someone without the use of waterboarding, show them and episode of ALF… or Small Wonder.
Why he sucks: Look me straight in the eye and tell me you didn't scream in horror when you saw that clip.

Snarf, Thundercats
Who: A fat alien cat that ends every sentence with an annoying "snarf!" sound.
Why he sucks: Is he a lizard or a cat? I'm going to go with meth induced demonic lovechild.

Teddy from A.I.
Who: An animatronic intelligent Teddy Rucksbin from the future that accompanies David in a search for the Blue Fairy.
Why he sucks: Ok, now I understand that some people might take issue with Teddy's position on the worst list but he's a toy that's alive. That's pretty much the worst nightmare of most 8-year-old kids. And me.

Slimer from Ghostbusters
Who: A green ghost that terrorizes the Ghostbusters team by covering everything in slime.
Why he sucks: For those of us born in the mid 80's and watched the Ghostbusters cartoon first, we expected to see cool ghost antics when we finally saw the movie. Instead, we were greeted with a grotesque blob that was pretty evil.

Div-x from Penny Arcade
Who: You might remember the Sony Dix-X player, an ahead of its time technical marvel.
Why he sucks: According to Penny Arcade Comics, he's a foul-mouthed drunk that's teetering on the edge of killing us all.

Pets from Children of Men
Who: When the world's gone infertile, people turn to animals to provide comfort in the end of humanity.
Why they suck: I have nothing against the animals in Children of Men, personally, but seeing all the dogs, cats and birds cluttering people's homes can be an ominous image.

Selacious Crumb from Star Wars
Who: He's a little fox-lizard thing that hangs out with Jabba the Hut and laughs at all his lame jokes.
Why he sucks: Everybody hates the skinny jerk in the corner with the stupid laugh.

Gleek from Superfriends
Who: The alien monkey pet of the Wondertwins.
Why he sucks: Usually if he was featured in Superfriends, you could count on him popping out to end the episode on a lame joke.

Independence Day Dog from Independence Day
Who: If you're like me then you probably laughed at the idea of a ball of flame chasing a golden retriever down a tunnel.
Why he sucks: Was it really necessary to have a slow motion explosion behind a dog? And wouldn't all that heat ultimately cook them all in that storage locker?
Then Again:...he's immune to explosions. And that's pretty cool. Dodging fire like that, he's like a canine Neo. Maybe he should have been best?

Space Buddies
Why they suck: I'll just point you in the direction of this.

Queequeg, X-files
Who: A Pomeranian adopted by Dana Scully and eaten shortly after by the legendary Big Blue.
Why he sucks: He was found snacking on his previous owner.

Krypto
Who: Superman's dog. Enough said.
Why he sucks: I hate pet versions of superheroes. Also, why does he need a cape?

Muffit from the original Battlestar Gallactica
Who: Caprica used to have a variety of tracker dogs but sadly, none of them survived the Cylon attack. Instead a group robotic dogs are created to replace them.
Why he sucks: Is he an ewok? A fuzzy, metallic gremlin on meth? You decide.

MAD Cat from Inspector Gadget
Who: Dr. Claw's chortling fat feline.
Why he sucks: He's the quintessential evil cat meant to taunt the hero. Plus Dr. Claw regularly beat the crap out of him and he seemed to be ok with that.

Frank the Dog from Men in Black
Who: An alien stool pigeon using the guise of a small pug.
Why he sucks: He made me remember "Who Let the Dogs Out" existed.

Gir, Invader Zim
Who: Invader Zim's mentally disturbed robot helper that was given to him as either a joke or sabotage. Probably both.
Why he sucks: Yeah, yeah Gir is really cute, but he's amoral, evil and would gladly watch you die a fiery death while bursting into a fit of giggles.

Astro, The Jetsons
Who: The Scooby Doo knockoff of the 21st century.
Why he sucks: It might have worked with the Scooby Gang, but there's only room for one charismatic dog with a speech impediment ‘round these parts.

Lamar, Half Life 2
Who: The neutered headcrab that resides in Dr. Isaac Kleiner's laboratory.
Why he sucks: Crabs are rarely a good thing. Head crabs are a double whammy of bad.

Joshua from Dark Angel
Who: A transgenic dog-man with an affinity for painting and crappy comedic timing.
Why he sucks: There was only one good thing that came out of season two of Dark Angel and that rhymes with Smensen Shackles.

Honorable Mention: Blarp from the Lost in Space remake.

Tosca's calculations paint a picture of ancient Mars that'd be a nasty place for young life to try and grow up in, but not all researchers are throwing in the towel yet. From yesterday's ScienceNOW article:

"Tosca et al. are making some very good points," writes planetary geochemist Jeffrey Kargel of the University of Arizona, Tucson, in an e-mail, but "they carry it too far." Perhaps early exploration has been drawn to the most saline and therefore most obvious sites, he writes, missing more hospitable places. Microbiologist Kenneth Nealson of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles also holds out hope for life. Faced with greater challenges, martian life may have evolved even better ways to cope with salty water than Earth's microbes have devised. "Keep on following the water" is the message, say these optimists—and the Phoenix lander is doing just that. Within weeks, it will be analyzing far younger and presumably far fresher water in the martian arctic.

Source: Science

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• The first five missions to Mars were all Soviet flyby attempts, and all of them failed for reasons ranging from "radio failure" to "spacecraft broke apart." Still, it's impressive that they managed so many attempts within only two years in the early 60s.
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• The first US mission was also a failure when Mariner 3's shroud failed to jettison, leaving it without solar power. It remains to this day in a solar orbit. Mariner 4 ended up being the first successful mission to Mars in 1964 when it was able to return 21 images from a flyby. The ship continued operation until late 1967, when it ran into a micrometeoroid storm which caused severe alterations in trajectory and communications. It was lost forever in December of 1967.
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• We weren't able to orbit the planet for seven more years until Mariner 9 became the first satellite to successfully orbit the planet, barely beating the Soviets by a couple of months. The spacecraft used up its supply of fuel for adjusting trajectory, and was turned off a year later in 1972. Surprisingly, the satellite remains in a steady orbit around the planet, at least until 2022 when it should plunge into the atmosphere.
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• Numerous attempts at flybys and orbit resulted in both Soviet and US satellites exploding on launch, crashing back to Earth, or heading deep into the Atlantic Ocean. It would be a bit spooky encountering the remains of Mariner 8 in murky waters off the coast of Puerto Rico.
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• However, not being content to just fly past the planet or orbit it and send back images, plans were made to begin landing objects on Mars that could send data back to us. The Soviet Mars 2 achieved orbit back in 1971, but the Lander portion of the mission didn't go quite so well, and it crashed onto the surface of the planet. However, it has the dubious distinction of being the first manmade object to reach the surface of Mars.
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• The US Viking MIssions to Mars were some of the most successful Mars explorations ever launched. Viking I was launched in 1975, and after a 10 month journey to the red planet, it was successfully inserted into orbit. Then on July 20th 1976, the Viking Lander was launched from the ship, and landed on the planet and continued to operate for over six years. It was accidentally deactivated in 1982 when ground control sent a faulty command that caused the Lander to overwrite its own antenna pointing software, and all contact was lost. It still sits, alone and waiting, on the surface of the planet.
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• Viking 2 was launched a few months after Viking I, but its batteries failed early, and it was shut off in 1980. It's harder to think of a more lonely image than the two Viking Landers sitting abandoned on the face of Mars.
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• The Soviet Union tried again to launch Mars missions in the late 1980s, still stinging from the general failure of their Marsnik program from the 1960s, and the Mars program of the 1970s. However, both Phobos 1 and Phobos 2 suffered critical failures. Phobos 2 was lost when its transmitter failed to turn back on (it was shut off when the spacecraft was taking photos), and Phobos 1 was lost when a command sent from Earth left out a single character and caused the ship to go into a spin from which it never recovered.
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• The United States decided to return to Mars in 1992 with the Mars Observer. However, that ship was lost just three days before it was to be inserted into Mars orbit, and no one knows what happened to it. Theories state that there was an explosion in a propellant line, although we'll never know for sure.
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• The Russians tried again in 1996 with Mars 96, a ship based on the Phobos designs, but it failed to exit the Earth's atmosphere, and the ship crashed off the coast of Chile.
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• The US also decided to try again that same year with the Mars Global Surveyor which successfully orbited the planet and returned images for ten years. In 2006 it was determined that the vehicle had gone into "safe mode," and NASA officially ended the mission in January of last year.
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• NASA also had much success with the launch of the Mars Pathfinder, and its Sojourner Rover, which became the first Martian Rover. It was able to transmit 16,500 images in three months, although we lost contact with it in 1997, and NASA officially shut it down in 1998. Interesting fact: the landing zone for the Pathfinder was designated the Carl Sagan Memorial Station, in honor of the man who said beelyuns, a billion times.
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• Japan decided to get into the race for the red planet in 1998 with the launch of Nozomi (Japanese for "Hope"), although it failed to achieve the proper trajectory, used too much fuel, and was damaged by severe solar flares. Although the ship didn't achieve its mission, it remains operational in solar orbit.
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• One of NASA's most massive failures came in 1998 when it launched the Mars Climate Orbiter. This was the famous ship that burned up in the Martian atmosphere, due to the fact that a technician at Lockheed Martin had used Imperial measurements instead of the Metric system. Ouch.
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• NASA launched the Mars Polar Lander a year later, and it suffered a severe failure moments before landing on the planet. Although it supposedly crashed to the surface, attempts to locate wreckage have failed, and it remains lost. Spooky, eh?
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• NASA also tried to launch two probes in the Deep Space 2 mission in 1999 that would penetrate the surface of Mars, but they were never heard from once they slammed into the surface. Nothing like angering the red planet, is there?
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• In 2001 NASA launched the 2001 Mars Odyssey, named after 2001, A Space Odyssey, and it remains in action to this day, with its current mission extended to September of this year.
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• In 2003 NASA launched the Mars Exploration Rovers Opportunity and Spirit within a month of each other, and they both remain in operation to this day. In fact, Spirit was just narrowly saved from being shut off. Last summer, both rovers endured dust storms on the planet that blacked out the sky and nearly forced them to run out of power due to their separation from the sun, but they both lived through it.
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• The European Space Agency also launched the Mars Express in 2003, which was a mission in two parts: the Mars Express Orbiter, which is still in use today, and the Beagle 2. The Beagle 2 was an ambitious lander that failed to make contact after it was supposed to land on the planet, and was declared lost in 2004.
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• NASA launched the Phoenix last August, as part of the Mars Scout Program, and it is due to touch down on Mars in May of this year. It'll use a robotic arm to dig into the polar terrain, and try to find out the mystery of Martian water. Namely: where the hell did it all go?
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• There are many more Mars missions planned for the next two decades, including another NASA rover, this one three times bigger than Spirit or Opportunity, and another try by the Russian Phobos design team, the first since 1996. No one can resist the pull of Mars.
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First of all, here's a brief chronology of the Mars movie boom:

1999: Escape From Mars. A made-for-TV movie from UPN. Five astronauts journey to Mars in the second decade of the 21st century. They must deal with corporate greed and inferior computer components, plus their own demons.

2000: Red Planet. Okay, this one isn't quite as serious. Humanity stars seeding Mars with algae that's supposed to create a breathable atmosphere. But then the algae vanishes, and a team led by Carrie-Ann Moss goes to investigate. It turns out Mars now does have a breathable atmosphere, but it also has evil aliens and a killer robot.

2000: Mission To Mars. This may have been the most serious attempt to date at portraying the real conditions on Mars, based on the images that were available at the time. The first crewed mission to Mars gets lost, but there's one survivor. So Gary Sinise and pals rocket off to Mars, only to run into trouble as well. In the end, they enter a giant white mausoleum with breathable air, and the movie falls apart when they meet a cute alien who tells them that Martians seeded Earth with life:

2000: Mars And Beyond. An early Web series, on the Cyber Sci-Fi Network, Mars And Beyond was written by former Star Trek: The Next Generation producer Herbert Wright, also known as the "father of the Ferengi." (Not something I would brag about.) It's 2014, and a team of astronauts is sent to Mars. Officially, their mission is just to explore, but unofficially they're there to answer the question: "Are we alone?"

Ghosts of Mars (2001). I almost left this one out, because in some ways it's a throwback to the old pulpy Martian movies, and it depicts a Mars that's long been settled, like Total Recall and other earlier movies. Mars has been terraformed, and you can breathe the atmosphere without a spacesuit. At the same time, director John Carpenter did make an effort to depict a semi-realistic Mars, using tons and tons of red food dye to make the gypsum-mine location look Martian enough and trying to make the sets look as though the Martian winds had battered them. Plus he had a local holy man bless the set before filming. That has to count for something. Plus it has Reavers, before Joss Whedon put them in Firefly.

2002: Lost On Mars. This sounds pretty horrific, and I'm determined to hunt down a copy now. The first ever astronauts land on Mars, to investigate a strange energy reading. They discover that Mars once held intelligent life, and then they find a device that sends them spiraling back in time THREE BILLION YEARS to a barbarian empire that once ruled Mars. With, like, swords and things. They get captured by the movie's director, wearing a barbarian costume. And then it veers off into matriarchal Martian barbarian politics. Turns out there's a sequel, and they're both coming out on DVD soon.

2002: Stranded aka Náufragos. A Spanish movie, Stranded stars Vincent Gallo as a member of an expedition that crashes on Mars. It's shot in a documentary-like style and tries to depict the Martian landscape realistically. The humans discover the remains of an ancient Martian civilization, complete with an area that has breathable air. And they find out they can eat the ancient lichens on Mars, allowing them to survive until they can be rescued.

Where did the Mars-movie trend come from in the first place? The fact that NASA was prepping a much-publicized push to send orbiters and rovers to Mars may have helped inspire film-makers. (NASA also sent up some craft during the 90s, but they were lost on arrival. Also, as Moria points out, the 1990s was a high-water mark for Mars novels, including Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars trilogy and Greg Bear's Moving Mars. The development process for the Mars movies of 2000-2001 probably started in the mid-1990s.

So what ended the Mars movie fad? Well, the fact that it was a fad probably had something to do with it. Just like the asteroid-on-course-for-Earth movie fad, this one had to end. But the fact that more real data, and realistic images, were going to start coming back from Mars may have helped as well. The 9/11 attacks, and the start of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, may have changed the focus of movies in development, away from exploration and towards war. (But that probably wouldn't have had an impact until a few years later.) There's also the fact that none of these movies did that well: Mission To Mars, grossing around $68 million in the U.S., may have been the biggest, but Red Planet only made $18 million as compared to its $75 million budget.

People tuning into ISS action will also see the Russian Orlan, a suit which has been in continuous use since 1977. Now that the Cold War is over, the two former superpowers can fight about whether it's better to outfit its astronauts in retro-70s gear, or retro-80s. Here are the dirty details about the contestants on the ISS' next top space suit.

•The EMU is of course white, and white looks great with those Reeboks that have suddenly come back into style. Score one for the EMU, which takes an early lead.

•However, the EMU is time-consuming to put on and infamously requires the Maximum Absorbency Garment (MAG), or space diaper, and we all know what prolonged wearing of one of those leads to. Potentially high humiliation factor forces us to deduct half a point from the EMU, which is still ahead by 0.5, because the Orlan has ZERO points. BUT...

• The Orlan-M model, by contrast with the EMU, is entered via a rear hatch: you just step right in and close the back door, pop your head into the helmet and head for the airlock! Unfortunately, it looks as if you're climbing inside something that runs on steam like this one (above). But what the hell, let's give the Orlan a point for ease of entry.

Orlan inches ahead by a slim half-point margin!

•Both suits are hard-soft hybrids, which means that they're easier to move in than the earliest generation of hard-shell suits. They are not, however, a significant advance over the Apollo-Soyuz designs. That will come when we start to see the next generation of skintight unpressurized suits, the snakey Hedi Slimane kind (below) that Val Kilmer and Benjamin Bratt wore in and that Tom Sizemore bulged out of in the surprisingly not-completely-sucky Red Planet. This one is a tie.

Orlan is still in the lead!

•All Russian space tech looks like hell and might get you killed at any time, but it lasts forever. Russian Space Agency design is rugged yet dangerous. Thus, the Orlan adds a point for the thrill factor.

Orlan 2.5, EMU 0.5. C'mon EMU, catch up!

•Each EMU sports $40,000 custom-made gloves. The Orlan, as one might expect, contains no bespoke elements. One point to the EMU for each glove, which means we're now tied.

Tiebreaker: You're a space tourist on the International Space Station. It's time for your $7 million space walk. You can choose between the EMU and the Orlan. Which will it be?