Play the ‘Retro Sci-Fi’ TV Crossword

The panic over the 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds, a fictional account of an alien invasion that many thought was real, was evidence of how passionate we can be about our sci-fi stories. It was also evidence of how much, to borrow a phrase from The X-Files, we really want to believe! TV naturally followed in the ’40s and ’50s with its own sci-fi shows and, ever since, TV has not stopped indulging our fantasies for the fantastical and the otherworldly. Sci-fi favorites from the ’60s, like Doctor Who and Star Trek, are still being produced today. In fact, Trek’s galaxy of TV and movies continues to expand as much as the natural universe. The Twilight Zone, the science fiction (and horror!) anthology hosted by Rod Serling, will always stand at the top of TV’s list of all-time classics. But let’s not forget the less heady sci-fi stories, a lot of which we caught on Saturday mornings or as syndicated after-school shows years after their primetime run. The special effects weren’t great, but the stories were always a great adventure. Land of the Lost, Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. And sci-fi was good for a lighter touch, like Buck Rogers, or even outright comedy, like My Favorite Martian. I for one am looking forward to the next new Quantum Leap episode. —Michael Fell, Editor-in-Chief of TV Guide Magazine