This month’s edition returns to a show that had its moment in the Obscure Sci-Fi Primer spotlight just a few months ago. Like so many other Fox shows, Space: Above & Beyond was canceled before it had a chance, after being yanked around by the network for a few months. From the start, the creators had hoped the show would last at least 5 seasons, which in and of itself is a pretty common desire for showrunners (5 seasons times 22 episodes equals 110 total, enough to secure syndication, which in the 90s is where the big money came from). And while this show is hardly a well-planned out 5 year arc like Babylon 5, the creators, James Wong and Glen Morgan, did have some plans for Space: Above & Beyond season 2 sketched out before the show was canceled (and even discussed the possibility of a theatrical continuation). So let’s dig in and find out where this very military show might have headed had it continued.

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Not a lot going on this week, but I’ll share what I saw. Like this picture of Jason Momoa as Aquaman. But he’ll always be Ronon Dex to me.

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Merchandising, as we’ve touched on before, is one of those things that makes a huge amount of money for these massive franchises. Most of the time, that’s fine, because it gives fans and kids alike figures of their favorite characters. Once in a while, they’ll take famous or popular scenes and base whole playsets and other such things off of them. And sometimes, the people making the merchandise get a little desperate for ideas. Then they turn to scenes that never, ever should’ve been made into toys. That’s how we end up with headscratching toys like these, based on 4 scenes completely inappropriate for toys.

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It’s that time again: the Subjectively Obscure Sci-Fi Primer is here to introduce you to our next little-known sci-fi series. This month’s subject is the cyberpunk-esque series TekWar, based on a series of novels by Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner. Naturally, that means Shatner has a role in the show, but it was 1994 and he was a little past the action hero days by then. Set in 2045, TekWar is a cop show (Shatner originally thought of it as “TJ Hooker in the future”). It started off as a series of TV movies, four in all, before being adapted to a single-season series. While the show didn’t last long, TekWar spawned a franchise of sorts and has comics running even now. We’re going to look at both the TV movies and the series for this, as they share the same cast (and may or may not be in continuity–I’ll get to that later).

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The week of Valentine’s Day brings us some huge Marvel news, some big developments in other ongoing stories, and the possibility of returning characters in several different series. Plus, some things that aren’t series! Remember when those were a thing? standalone movies?

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With Valentine’s Day tomorrow, and carrying on our theme from last week, I thought it’d be nice to honor those couples who are really shown to have a great relationship. Whether that relationship blossomed before our eyes on screen, went through dozens of horrible obstacles, or just came together through a shared need, these couples show that sci-fi romance doesn’t have to happen only at the end of the story, nor does it have to be a shallow “Hero’s Reward” sort of thing. So here are four couples that both earned and proved their love.

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In between the cries of “it’s 2015, I was promised a hoverboard,” it might be easy to forget that certain technologies actually did sprout from sci-fi like that. Science fiction is unique among literature in this regard, in that its fans can go on to shape the world to be more like the fictional ones that they love. Ideas that were once conceived of as cool plot devices are now everyday items. But what makes sci-fi so great at moving people? And why are only certain sci-fi tech pieces appearing on the scene, while others (like the aforementioned hoverboard) languishing on the sidelines? Let’s dive into the topic of defictionalization to find out.

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This week in TV sci-fi news, February starts us off with a movie release, although you’d be better off thinking twice before running to the theater. Plus, things finally start to open up in regards to Star Wars. And of course, our usual metric shitload of Marvel news.

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It’s February, and that means it’s the season of love. Apparently. And while romantic relationships between characters are ubiquitous in Hollywood movies and TV series, some of them are better at establishing these relationships than others. Because after all, it’s not enough to just have your characters jump each others’ bones. There’s gotta be some development, hints and feelings and dashed hopes, all leading up to the big hook-up. Sometimes they just say screw it, and that’s how we end up with these, 4 of the least developed relationships in sci-fi’s small screen history.

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Time for another new experiment here at RetroPhaseShift. I’m going to take a whack at disassembling some of the overly common tropes in sci-fi (or dare I say it–cliches). For our first entry, we’re going to go with the crazy robot/AI trope, looking at where it came from, how it has effected the genre in the time since, and possibly even its effects on the real world. Let’s get into the teardown, shall we?

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