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Television shows are like sports teams: Sometimes they just have an off season. (And sometimes they just dive down a terrible hole and get trapped forever.) When a science fiction or fantasy show has a terrible no-good year, it's especially noticeable, because the fantastical plot devices get dumber and the world-building gets sloppier. More »
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Aliens who come to Earth inevitably get hooked on our human vices. It's just a natural law of the cosmos. And sooner or later, every extraterrestrial wants to smoke. It's a filthy habit, but just barbaric enough to seem fascinating. More »
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Remember when David Duchovny said way back when that a third X-Files movie was in the works? Now his co-star Gillian Anderson seems to be following suit. More »
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Just because science fiction has a low budget, doesn't mean its alien creatures need to look silly or ho-hum. Here are 10 low-budget alien spectaculars that blew our minds. More »
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With his recent appearance on Doctor Who, Mark Sheppard cemented his place as science fiction's greatest character actor. But we've been loving Sheppard for years...and we assembled this video of every last one of his scifi roles to prove his awesomeness. More »
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Whether you're on the side of good or evil, you must respect a sick lair. If there's one thing that brings superheroes, supervillains, and intrepid government employees together, it's an appreciation for a secure, well-equipped base of operations. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5787473&view=rss&microfeed=true John Shiban wrote some of the most acclaimed X-Files episodes, and then went on to work on Smallville, Supernatural, Star Trek: Enterprise and the upcoming Torchwood: Miracle Day. He also has worked on Breaking Bad from its second season onward. More »
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The philosopher Plato once posed the Allegory of the Cave in his work, The Republic. He thought that, if prisoners spent all of their lives chained in a cave and facing a wall, their only experience would be watching the shadows on that wall. They never understand that there are things beyond that wall. The philosopher, however, is freed from that cave and can begin to understand the nature of actual reality. This may look like stoned sophomoric wonderings with some bragging tacked on at the end, but it laid the groundwork for a lot of science fiction premises. There are plenty of minor conspiracies and cover-ups in the world, but some go beyond minor plots and conceal the fabric of reality. Have a look at all the agencies, societies, guilds, and collections of friends that like people to be kept chained up in a cave. More »
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Is there anything scarier than a garbage monster? If you even survived a trash-monster attack, you'd have to take one continuous shower for a week to feel clean afterwards. Plus some garbage monsters contain a lot of rusty metal. More »
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There are always couples who don't get along. Usually they're fighting about money or who has the most annoying friends. Add clones, robots, and the occasional intergalactic war, and suddenly that couple really has something to fight about. More »
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A good opening credit sequence can be more memorable than the TV program it introduces. Luckily, science fiction shows are rife with sleek, quirky, and flat-out bizarre show intros. Here are over 30 of the best. More »
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Sebastian Shan explains how he played Captain America sidekick Bucky Barnes. J.J. Abrams offers a couple more hints about Star Trek and Super-8. Plus more Hobbit casting news, and Steven Moffat shuffles the order of next season's Doctor Who episodes. More »
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For tomorrow night's abduction-themed Supernatural episode, the show came up with fresh opening credits in the style of the X-Files. Check out the grayscale creepiness! Then watch the episode, written by Ben Edlund, the man who gave us mudder's milk. More »
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We've all grooved to William Shatner's "singing." But the history of science-fiction novelty records is much bigger, and weirder. From Weird Al's tribute to Yoda to Wonder Woman covering Toto, there have been many bizarre discs that celebrated science fiction. More »
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As the fall TV season starts up, shows are resolving their agonizing summer cliffhangers — but for some unlucky shows, that resolution never arrived. Here are the most frustrating "cancel-hangers," cliffhanger endings for shows that got cancelled too soon. More »
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The best science fiction and fantasy television hooks you with endless suspense... including hair-raising cliffhangers. But only the greatest cliffhangers can make you throw your remote at the screen, and keep you wondering for weeks. Here are the 20 awesomest. More »
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There's still only one way to bring a new person into this universe. Many science fiction/fantasy stories have featured the drama of childbirth... and some have done it better than others. Here are the best and worst SF/fantasy childbirth scenes. More »
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Even if you're a massive science fiction fan, there are probably still some great shows you've yet to discover. But for massively long-running shows, where to begin? Here's our guide to how to start watching twenty classic science fiction shows. More »
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Science fiction has ruled television for over 50 years, but some shows have brightened our screens and supercharged our brains more than others. Here are the 20 science fiction shows that everybody interested in the genre should see. More »
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The writers of the next season of Doctor Who's more grown-up spinoff, Torchwood, have been announced... and they're some of our favorite televisual geniuses, including former Buffy, House and Supernatural writers. More »
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Tonight's conclusion of the already epic Eureka/Warehouse 13 crossover is just scratching the surface of science fiction's greatest TV crossovers. You may not believe some of what we're about to tell you about actually happened...that's why we brought video evidence. More »
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The X-Files meets the blood-thirsty vampires from 30 Days of Night, written by the guitarist from Tool! We've got the first pages from this insane crossover comic from Wildstorm. Check out Scully and Mulder dealing with extreme gore. More »
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One thing ensures that fans of a book series, TV show, or movie will remain legion long after new material has faded. Just one thing separates Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Firefly from Lost, The X-Files, and Buffy. More »
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A defining thread of modern scientific thought is skepticism, the tendency to question accepted ideas until evidence is found to confirm or reject them. But what do skeptics do in worlds of magic, aliens, and other matters fantastic? More »
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Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are developing a new TV show based on Gene Roddenberry's scrapped android-angst show The Questor Tapes. Bland, preachy and insipid, Questor doesn't seem like a good template... unless it's true Tim Minear is on board. More »
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When Lost returns next month, you'll be seeing lots of familiar faces turning up... including a few you might have forgotten. But does Lost have the biggest cast of recurring characters of any science-fiction show? The answer might surprise you. More »
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Graphic designers are facing off as they re-envision pop culture. Something Awful turned some of our favorite video games into graphic book covers. Olly Moss did the same with more games. Now another artist has turned to television for inspiration. More »
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The busier you get, the more stuff you forget, and navigating that mental clutter can be worse than steering through an asteroid field. Luckily, lots of intrepid galactic heroes have faced faulty memories, and created some handy techniques for remembering. More »
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So, the world probably won't end in 2012, but that's the date for plenty of imagined apocalypses. We look at the various ways the world ends (or at least radically changes) when the Mayan Long Count Calendar runs out. More »
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Hope you've been saving up your pennies for this week's comic haul: There's an impressive amount of new releases that you'll want to take home and cherish for at least the next seven days. Yes, these are Comics We Crave. More »
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It's hard to have faith in ABC's remake of alien-Trojan-horse show V. Paradoxically for a show about aliens who inspire unquestioning love and loyalty, it's been questioned constantly. But there's still hope, and you should still tune in tonight. More »
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Why do we step inside the dreams of science-fiction heroes so often? We're already in the future, or on an alien world, so why take an extra leap into the world of the unreal? Here are some theories. More »
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Casting slides reveal more of Thor's divine helpers. Witness more Colonial destruction from BSG: The Plan. More pictures show Summer Glau inside the Dollhouse, and Smallville's Justice Society gets three new members. Plus 2012, Inception, Supernatural, Eclipse, and Doctor Parnassus. More »
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This week Stargate Universe shoves campy space comedy in the back seat for an ultra-violent premiere. But will you remain a loyal Gater? Sarah Palin becomes president on Supernatural, and Brian Austin Green makes his shirtless Smallville cameo. More »
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We're still a week away from watching Megan Fox snack on schoolboys in Jennifer's Body. In the meantime, we're serving up a list of the other women in science fiction who hunger for human flesh. More »
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Gillian Anderson has been talking about appearing in a third X-Files movie, but does that mean that we should expect more of I Want To Believe's Scully/Mulder love story? Possibly not, if a particular rumor turns out to be true. More »
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Just because science fiction has a low budget, doesn't mean its alien creatures need to look silly or ho-hum. Here are 10 low-budget alien spectaculars that blew our minds. More »
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With some networks offering mixed signals about their futures with science fiction, we may increasingly rely on cable for compelling television about the future. Fortunately, HBO is stepping up, developing two new science fiction series with X-Files alum Frank Spotnitz. More »
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Is there life after death? Maybe, if you're wired. After all, death is just a failure of storage media. Science fiction is full of people who've died in meatspace, only to live on in cyberspace. Here's our inventory of cyber-Heaven. More »
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Good news for V fans: former Angel showrunner Jeffrey Bell has signed on as showrunner for the highly anticipated remake of the alien drama on ABC. So stop worrying that this is just Scott Peter's 4400 with a new skin. More »
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