The Great Galactic Civilizations Travelogue
by George Petros

As an author and critic I’ve been fortunate to have traveled throughout the known universe.

For example, I visited the home planet of the Klingons, as seen on Star Trek. How many people can say that? And, I visited several planets controlled by the Romulans, as seen on Star Trek. I’m one of the few humans to have visited the capitol planet of the Borgs, as seen in Star Trek. My favorite travels in the Star Trek universe were to the planet Vulcan, home of Mr. Spock.

I traveled extensively throughout the Empire as seen in Star Wars, and witnessed the Empire’s suppression of Jedi. On the way home from there I visited the primary planets of the Padishar Empire, including a spice-tasting excursion to the planet Dune, as seen and read about in Dune.

I was lucky enough to spend a night on the planet once ruled by The Krells, as seen in Forbidden Planet. I had lunch on the planet controlled by The Zanti, as seen in The Outer Limits. I was a guest of the great ruler of the terrible Metalunans, as seen in This Island Earth.

I saw the civilizations of the aliens in Predator, the aliens in the TV series Alien Nation, the aliens in Independence Day, the aliens in Carl Sagan’s Contact, the aliens in L. Ron Hubbard’s Battleground Earth, the aliens who ate humans on The Twilight Zone episode “To Serve Man,” the aliens in Alien, and the aliens in The Day The Earth Stood Still.

I saw the civilization of the aliens in the TV series Battlestar Galactica. The civilization of the aliens in the TV series Space: 1999. The civilization of the aliens that recur throughout Kurt Vonnegut’s work. The future human civilization in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. The future human civilization in Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. The future human civilization — Elois and Morlocks — described by H.G. Wells in The Time Machine. The future human civilization in Planet Of The Apes. The future human civilization in Larry Niven’s Ringworld series and Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld series. The civilizations of Mars, as described by H.G. Wells in The War Of The Worlds, Edgar Rice Burroughs in Pelucidar, as well as those in Mars Attacks, Mars Invades, and My Favorite Martian. The civilization of the aliens who visited Earth and mated with pre-humans to create our present race, as speculated by many fringe visionaries. The civilization of the Grays, who confound present-day UFOlogists and conspiracy buffs, and perhaps abduct select humans, as seen in The X-Files, Signs, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, and many books and magazines. And, various empires and cultures described in comics, anime and video games, as well as the folkloric civilizations of Atlantis, Mu, and Inner Earth. The civilization of the aliens who piloted all the flying saucers seen in 50s movies. The civilization of the aliens who were reported in UFO sightings. The future human civilizations described in various post-apocalyptic stories and movies such as The Time Travelers, Planet Of The Apes and Zardoz. The civilization of the aliens in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The folkloric civilizations of the solar system, such as those of the tenth planet as well as those of Earth’s twin planet that orbits the sun opposite us. The civilizations of the moon, as described by H.G. Wells in First Men In The Moon and in other sci-fi stories. The civilization of Emperor Ming in Flash Gordon. The subatomic civilization of artificial intelligence in Tron. The civilization of Superman’s home planet Krypton. The civilizations of the aliens in The Fifth Element, Cloverfield, Arrival, District 9, Avatar, and the future machine-intelligence civilization seen in the Terminator movies.

And finally, my favorite: the civilization of candy-eaters described in the movie Willie Wonka And The Chocolate Factory.