I noticed that many of pop culture’s most memorable sci fi spaceship crews come from shows and games made in the 90s and 2000s. “Star Trek: Voyager”, “Babylon 5”, “Farscape”, “Firefly”, “Battlestar Galactica”.
All these were influences in the creation of a series of video games called “Mass Effect”.
Although not nearly as well known as those anime also gave us a lovable spaceship crew.
Were the Apollo and the Space Shuttle program not only responsible for inspiring generations of young people to become scientists and engineers but also inspired a generation of sci fi creators to make space oriented fiction?
Did the optimism of the 90s contribute to this? Were we more excited for the future in the 90s?
I don’t think there was any more fascination in the 90s than previous decades. If anything, I’d say the 60s and 80s had the most with the 70s being a lull in between once the moon landings were in their later phases and done. 80s brought the Space Shuttle. In the 60s and part of the 80s a large number of people would gather around TV and watch launches/landings. By the 90s most folks were yawning and saying, “Oh, was that today? How’d it go?” Not much has changed now.
It all started with Sputnik (late 50s).
Space movies and shows go a long way back, way before actual space travel. Fascination in them is nothing new. Without looking, I think the 60s likely started the “rush” on those too.
In the 90’s, people were interested in futuristic shows as we approached the millennium, and, often referenced the movie. Hence the original question^.
As a long-standing Trekkie, I agree that interest in space & space travel goes a lot farther back. I also saw the original uncut version of 2001 in a theater way back when. (The movie originally was 160 minutes long with an interminably long ape scene at the beginning – everyone in my family hated it.).
But I think that what happened in the 90’s was a matter of film-making technology - CGI became more widely available, easier & less expensive to work with. It’s just that it became possible to make a sci-fi tv show or movie where the all the graphics looked plausible and convincing. I mean, in the 60’s we had Star Trek and Lost in Space – but everything looked hokey and definitely earth-bound, no matter the premise of being on different planets.
Also, Battlestar Galactica isn’t about space, it’s about the post-9/11 world and what terrorism does to humans(and other political issues linked to that trauma/era.)
