Andromeda

A drop-dead gorgeous black man kicks ass on a space ship several galaxies and millennia away, his braids flying in slo-mo as Wagner's Die Fliegende Hollander howls in the background in time to his blaster shots.  Later, he quips, "they were playing Wagner: I haven't had that much fun in six months!" 

What's not to like?

The scene is from an earlier episode of Andromeda, a Gene Roddenberry created space opera currently showing on the Sci-Fi channel.  Now, Roddenberry passed away almost fifteen years go, so how could he have created a show that started airing in 2000?  Presumably this was a one-page treatment that Majel dug out of his filing cabinet at some point and thought, "this would make a better series than Earth: Final Conflict, especially if we can get Kevin Sorbo."  Well, she was right. 

Andromeda is still in production five years after it began, and seems to have a long, complicated, and not easily understood plot line involving different universes where things are similar but not quite the same.  If you're like me, and you watched the first few episodes, then tuned in again in the 4th, you're entirely lost.  That's why it's helpful that the series is now coming out on DVD.  I'm going to have to get that one of Keith Hamilton Cobb (as Tyr Anasazi) in the aforementioned Flying Dutchman episode.  I mean, a show that has an entire group of human beings subscribing to the philosophy of Nietzsche has got something going on!

Well, I suppose the Nazis might qualify, but let's not go there.  :)