2005. Man! This thread is nearly 20 years old! I've never seen that happen. You're not going to like my answer. I wouldn't answer if it weren't for my user name. I have never liked science fiction or fantasy to read or watch. I find it predictable, unoriginal, and just silly. Now, that's just an opinion, I'm not judging anyone. As a kid I hated the original Star Trek. Wouldn't watch it. When I was 12 I stopped watching television all together (except for what I would see others watching) and became an avid reader. When Star Wars came out it was obviously a phenomenon but I lived out in the country and my folks never took us to movies. We were workers. They kept us working to keep us out of trouble while they worked. I did manage to see the movie years later and it was okay. I read the book for Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back and I liked those. So I guess my answer, even though not a fan, is Star Wars.
I do like Frank Herbert's Dune series (my favorite all-time secular read) and Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (my second favorite) so even though I don't usually like the genre there is that. Also The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit. Both the films and books. Especially the LOTR films. Hated the Dune movies but loved the Si-Fi channel's miniseries.
What is interesting to me is the spiritual and even religious elements that often are used in science fiction.
Also - paradoxically, I suppose - is the fact that I've been working on a science fiction story (the perpetually unfinished novel) for a number of years on various websites I've owned. The storyline has evolved over time, but it's basically about an atheist turned android who posthumously explores spirituality when digital access to an extraordinarily huge amount of data is now available to him as an android.
Similar to the one Star Trek Next Generation I've seen and absolutely loved.
I, Borg. Talk about the spiritual parallels in my universe with that one!
Hugh is a radically different individual in terms of Borg, much like I see myself in religious terms. I'm a skeptical independent thinker. As an atheist for 27 years I saw the religious as very Borg-like. Like Hugh when he becomes an individual, I don't fit in anywhere. Hugh's statement, "I am Hugh" is also interesting in that theologically there is this nonsensical religious misinterpretation of the Biblical phrase "I am." Often mistaken as a name, it is actually God's own self designation. (Exodus 3:14) He will be what he must be, he will become known in whatever capacity necessary. The term was a common one, and different than Jesus saying that before Abraham, he was, meaning he existed prior to Abraham, indeed before the creation of the heavens and earth.
When I came here I wanted to use the name Data, which I had recently used on a few other forums. But it was taken here so the next closest thing I could think of was Hugh. Data is meant to relay "just the facts" in my theological and uniquely practical approach to spirituality. Data from the Star Trek Next Generation similarity is merely coincidental.