Favorite Sci-Fi (if you must, Fantasy as well) Universes?

[Lettow77]

Firefly and Starcraft's korpulu sector, for the South..IN SPESS factor.

the grim darkness of the 41st millenium was always cute, as well.

[Syt]

I have to agree that Star Trek TOS and TNG were originally not about the universe, but for fun sci-fi stories. Some of them The earlier seasons of both series all raised good moral questions (TNG more so than TOS) - where does life begin? Is it ok to judge strange cultures? How to communicate with races wholly alien to you? TNG even had a good show about terrorism in a surprisingly unbiased show that had parallels to Northern Ireland or Israel (well, not wholly unbiased, Starfleet says in the end, "Screw you, we will not get involved in your petty infighting."). On top of that they offered good drama when they wanted.

That aspect was mostly lost when TOS turned into "culture of earth's past of the week" in season 3 and TNG turned into a soap opera about Family Worf and Data's Pinocchio complex some time during season 5 and 6.

[Caliga]

I have to admit the holodeck episodes of TNG and VOY annoyed me quite a bit.  Kinda the opposite of the X-Files, where the episodes dealing with the overarching plot annoyed me, and I much preferred the monster-of-the-week episodes.

[Syt]

I have to admit the holodeck episodes of TNG and VOY annoyed me quite a bit.  Kinda the opposite of the X-Files, where the episodes dealing with the overarching plot annoyed me, and I much preferred the monster-of-the-week episodes.

Or in DS9 where they took a break of the Dominion War (or whatever crisis was going on) to pull an Oceans 11 style caper on the holodeck in the Las Vegas casino sim.

[Caliga]

I always wondered if the cast insisted on the holodeck episodes as a tool to help them avoid being typecast.

[Siege]

Our little discussion in Star Trek started me thinking (cue groaning); what are your guys'es favorite Sci Fi universes?

I like real history.
I dig most periods in history.
Aside from that...

Fantasy:
- Middle Earth
- Song of Ice and Fire

Sci-Fi:
- Stargate SG1/Atlantis
- Fallout
- Terminator
- 1633 Ring of Fire
- X-men
- Heroes
- Homeworld
- Wing Commander
- Independece War
- Galactic Civilizations
- Alpha Centaury

[DontSayBanana]

I always wondered if the cast insisted on the holodeck episodes as a tool to help them avoid being typecast.

Which only worked for Brent Spiner, who's always been a damned good character actor, anyway.

Dwight Schulz... not so much. 

[grumbler]

I always wondered if the cast insisted on the holodeck episodes as a tool to help them avoid being typecast.

  Never thought of it that way, and you may be right.  For myself, I never watched a re-run or DVD episode of a holodeck or Q or Luaxana Troi episode in any incarnation of Trek.  Not worth the lifespan spent.  YMMV.

[Razgovory]

I realized I'm not really enamored with any fantasy setting or universe.  My nerdom is failing.

[Josquius]

I always wondered if the cast insisted on the holodeck episodes as a tool to help them avoid being typecast.

I've always thought along those lines too. They're thespian wank episodes that let them show their range.

[Caliga]

I always wondered if the cast insisted on the holodeck episodes as a tool to help them avoid being typecast.

  Never thought of it that way, and you may be right.  For myself, I never watched a re-run or DVD episode of a holodeck or Q or Luaxana Troi episode in any incarnation of Trek.  Not worth the lifespan spent.  YMMV.

Q episodes = we couldn't think of a clever way to end this sub plotline so... POW, DEUS EX MACHINA 
Lxwana Troi episodes = hi, I'm Gene Roddenberry's wife, and I'm bored.  Give me airtime PLZ 

[DontSayBanana]

Q episodes = we couldn't think of a clever way to end this sub plotline so... POW, DEUS EX MACHINA 
Lxwana Troi episodes = hi, I'm Gene Roddenberry's wife, and I'm bored.  Give me airtime PLZ 

Lwaxana was good in precisely one episode of TNG and one episode of DS9. Other than that, yeah, she seemed kinda pointless.

Q ... I'm a big John de Lancie fan (it was a shame that Legend tanked), so I've got to give Trek cred for springboarding him, but I absolutely hated Q right from the get-go. I'm amazed TNG made me into such a Trekkie, when they kicked off the series with an impossibly overpowered character who could only serve deus ex machina roles.

[Neil]

I always wondered if the cast insisted on the holodeck episodes as a tool to help them avoid being typecast.

It wouldn't be surprising after seeing what happened to the original cast.

Of course, it didn't help them much.

[DontSayBanana]

It wouldn't be surprising after seeing what happened to the original cast.

Of course, it didn't help them much.

See above. It only worked for Brent Spiner and Patrick Stewart, who were already pretty well-established as character actors.

[Neil]

Lwaxana was good in precisely one episode of TNG and one episode of DS9. Other than that, yeah, she seemed kinda pointless.

Really?  What episodes were those?  I can't think of a single episode she was in that wasn't bad.

Q ... I'm a big John de Lancie fan (it was a shame that Legend tanked), so I've got to give Trek cred for springboarding him, but I absolutely hated Q right from the get-go. I'm amazed TNG made me into such a Trekkie, when they kicked off the series with an impossibly overpowered character who could only serve deus ex machina roles.

I enjoyed Q's interaction with the crew in TNG, but his appearances outside TNG were disastrous.  de Lancie and Stewart worked well together, but Brooks just didn't have the same chemistry and Janeway was intolerable.