So you’ve got some very big dreams of destruction to fulfill, and shopping around for Death Stars is a little bit tricky. I mean, there aren’t many manufacturers, and there’s sort of a de facto monopoly on who gets to own one… it’s hard for your average Joe Supervillain to get his hands on the kind of weapon. And hey, we might be mad scientists, but that doesn’t mean we’re all mad inventors, right? But fear not, my ambitious world-conquering friend. Superweapons are actually a lot easier to come by than you’ve probably been led to believe. Giant lasers aren’t the be-all, end-all of earth shattering kabooms. So here are 4 sci-fi technologies you might not have realized double as great superweapons (in order of difficulty to obtain, not destructive force).

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It might be Christmas Day here on Earth, but for our favorite characters out among the stars, Earthly holidays are far from the only ones. After all, these hundreds of alien species have to have their own alien holidays, right? It’s not like there’s a Klingon Santa out there… any more (I’m sure we can blame that on Duras, too). Some space travelers, like the Doctor, still make time for Christmas–even if we wish they wouldn’t. But for the rest, we’ve got these, 4 alien holidays from sci-fi.

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Typically in our sci-fi confrontations, every alien race is pretty much on equal footing technologically, giving the appearance that they evolved more or less contemporaneously. But once in a while, we get glimpses of aliens that are much, much older than any others in the setting–our Precursors, typically, although whether they’re worthy of the title is often up for debate. These aliens have tech that’s practically equivalent to magic compared to what everyone else is wielding, and often times fighting over their leftovers is a major plot point. We rarely get to see them in their heyday, but when we do, they’re incredible. Here are 4 of these ancient alien civilizations, among the oldest in their settings, who really had some amazing abilities, some of whom remain a formidable presence to this day.

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First contact with an alien species is a tricky situation to deal with. When handled well, these aliens could become humanity’s greatest allies, helping us to take our place on the galactic stage. When handled poorly, humanity might wind up looking for a new home, if we’re particularly unlucky. And of course, that all assumes these aliens have shown up with peaceful intentions–there’s always the possibility that it’s a trick to take over slowly, or there’s cultural differences that can lead to major misunderstandings.

For the sake of this list, we’ll think of this as the aliens coming to us, but a lot of these points are just as effective in a Star Trek situation where we’ve gone out seeking new life and new civilizations.

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In the highly episodic sci-fi series of yesteryear, a new planet was around every corner. But what that really means is that last week’s adventure is all but forgotten by the time they get there. Which is a real shame, because sometimes the aliens they ran into on these only-seen-once worlds were actually really cool. Hell, some of them could’ve really changed the game, whereas others… well, let’s just say the plot would be destroyed if they hung around. These could be among the most unusual aliens on TV, but they don’t have to be standouts in the weird department to earn a spot on this list. Even a fascinating society that might’ve been worth further exploration could qualify. So, here are 4 alien species whose handful of appearances sell short how interesting they could have been.

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A few weeks ago, we looked at four of the biggest shake-ups to the status quo; for better or worse in-universe, things were never quite the same after those moments, even though it was almost always for the best from a narrative perspective. History has these kinds of days, too, and September 11th, 2001 was one of those moments for the real world (and indirectly, for our fiction as well). So this week, in honor of that, we’re going to turn to the sadder side of things, looking at 4 of the big tragedies that turned these sci-fi universes into the worlds we know and love. These things can disrupt the status quo, like the Wolf 359 example from before, but they don’t have to; often, they’re backstory elements that explain why the universe on screen is different from ours, or they occur in the first episode. And much like how tragedies can shape the course of the future in real life, so too are fictional worlds shaped.

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Defiance moved into its third season by making some huge changes to the status quo. Some turned out way better than expected, while others were more of a letdown. With the finale feeling like it may very well be the end of the series, how did Defiance shape up overall? New storylines, new characters, even a new race of Votans… but was it well executed, or did many things end up being rushed to fit this apparent finale?

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With an even more final-feeling finale than last year’s, Defiance puts an end to the Omec threat once and for all by having everyone work together for once. Look at that, it only took a potential extinction-level event to get our characters off each others’ throats!

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All the Omec wake up and invade, and all the building of trust and hope for Trek-like peace ideals are thrown to the wayside. I guess we shouldn’t have expected anything else, eh?

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Nolan is taken to South America and found guilty of murder.

…Just kidding. Did you really think Nolan would be held responsible for his actions? Then you haven’t been watching the same show I have. Sigh… nope, a bunch of easily avoided mistakes happen and we lose one of the good things about this season. Somebody wake up Sukar, time to go soul-spelunking in the underworld!

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