Science Fiction Reads

A new nation has arisen from the ashes of the Romulan War: the United Federation of Planets, an unprecedented union of diverse species cooperating for the good of all. Admiral Jonathan Archer--the former captain of the Earth starship Enterprise, whose efforts made this union possible--envisions a vibrant Federation promoting galactic peace and a multispecies Starfleet dedicated to exploring strange new worlds. Archer's former crewmates, including Captain T'Pol of the U.S.S. Endeavour and Captain Malcolm Reed of the U.S.S. Pioneer, work with him to secure that bright future.

Yet others within the Federation see its purpose as chiefly military, a united defense against a dangerous galaxy, while some of its neighbors view that military might with suspicion and fear. And getting the member nations, their space fleets, and even their technologies to work together as a unified whole is an ongoing challenge.

When a new threat emerges from a force so alien and hostile that negotiation seems impossible, a group of unaligned worlds asks Starfleet to come to its defense, and the Federation's leaders seize the opportunity to build their reputation as an interstellar power. But Archer fears the conflict is building toward an unnecessary war, potentially taking the young nation down a path it was never meant to follow. Archer and his allies strive to find a better solution . . . but old foes are working secretly to sabotage their efforts and ensure that the great experiment called the Federation comes to a quick and bloody end.

Originally produced as a motion picture in 1968, 2001 changed the nature of science fiction films.

At the Dawn of Man, a group of hominids encounters a mysterious black monolith that is alien to their surroundings. A hominid discovers the first weapon, using a bone to kill prey. The bone is tossed in the air and it's a 21st century spacecraft hovering over the Earth, skipping ahead millions of years in technological development only to imply that man hasn't advanced very far at all psychologically.

U.S. scientist Dr. Heywood Floyd travels to the moon to check out the discovery of a strange object on the moon's surface: a black monolith. As the sun's rays strike the stone, however, it emits a piercing, deafening sound that fills the investigators' headphones and stops them in their path.

Cutting ahead 18 months, impassive astronauts David Bowman and Frank Poole head toward Jupiter on the space ship Discovery, their only company three hibernating astronauts and the vocal, man-made HAL 9000 computer running the entire ship. When the all-too-human HAL malfunctions, however, he tries to murder the astronauts to cover his error, forcing Bowman to defend himself the only way he can. Free of HAL, and finally informed of the voyage's purpose by a recording from Floyd, Bowman journeys to "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite," through the psychedelic slit-scan star-gate to an 18th century room, and the completion of the monolith's evolutionary mission.

With our time on Earth coming to an end, a team of explorers undertakes the most important mission in human history: traveling beyond this galaxy to discover whether mankind has a future among the stars.

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, & Jessica Chastain

Captain Kirk and the crew of the Starship Enterprise explore space and defend the United Federation of Planets. Fan favorite episodes from season one include the iconic "Where no man has gone before", the epic Gorn fight in "Arena", "The city on the edge of forever", and "Space Seed" which introduces the ruthless villain Khan.

Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy & DeForest Kelley.