A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, rock was the exclusive domain of rowdy rebels, art-school dropouts and people who, at the very least, imagined themselves far, far too cool to give a wookiee's ass about science fiction, let alone take the time to rock out to it. Times have changed, though, and, once again, the geeks win. Science Fiction, once literature's embarrassing stepchild's proven itself on the literary stage. Now if only the music inspired by it could get going.

Sure, sci-fi lurked around in the rock world for years, from David Bowie's famous Ziggy Stardust phase to that man from Mars who eats cars, guitars and bars from Blondie's "The Rapture." It's had chance to be specific, though, and blatantly name-check some of the genre's best franchises.

Song: "Doctorin' the Tardis" by The Timelords (1988)
Inspired By: Doctor Who
Beyond the Stars: The Timelords were an alter-ego offshoot of The KLF, who briefly took the name to release their mashup of the Doctor Who theme music and Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll (Part Two)," peppering the song with occasional samples of Dalek voices in an acid-house tribute to the world's longest-running sci-fi television series. Inexplicably, it topped the British pop charts shortly after the single was released. And it did it all without a sexy travelling companion or a sonic screwdriver!
Geek Factor: Moderate. The KLF's acid-house legacy is enough to overcome the memories of those famously low-budget special effects from the British series.

Song: "Chewbacca" by Supernova (1993)
Inspired By: Star Wars
Beyond the Stars: The pop-punk trio's ode to the most famous wookiee in any galaxy surfaced in Kevin Smith's directorial debut, Clerks, but never made it onto a Supernova album, merging sludgy grunge guitar and bass tones with nerd-rock humor. When CBS tried to appropriate the name Supernova for a reality series of its own, the trio successfully sued the network to keep the name from going over to the dark side.
Geek Factor: Minimal. Clerks and George Lucas put wookiee love on the map.

Song: "What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)" by Information Society (1988)
Inspired By: Star Trek
Beyond the Stars: Information Society's debut single broke out into the clubs in 1988 thanks largely to a pile of samples yanked from classic Star Trek episodes. The song's title stems from a line spoken by Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) whose panache much eclipsed the band's use of hooks; Dr. McCoy (Deforest Kelley)'s voice also added to the trekkie furor. Thanks to a connection through fan Adam Nimoy, Leonard's son, the act was able to clear the considerable hurdles needed to clear the samples.
Geek Factor: Considerable. Neither vintage synth pop or Star Trek is too helpful in impressing the ladies. Trust us.

Song: "Flash!" by Queen (1980)
Inspired By: Flash Gordon
Beyond the Stars: When director Michael Allin revamped the classic Flash Gordon comic strip for the silver screen in 1980, he ramped up the camp value to rival the Batman television series. Special effects, acting and the storyline was terrible. Naturally, he tuned to Queen for an equally silly score, and the band delivered the synth-heavy pseudo-operatic theme song so bad it's even scarier than Ming the Merciless.
Geek Factor: Impressive. The camp value of the film doesn't distract from the crap value of Queen's phoned-in performance.

Song: "To Tame a Land" by Iron Maiden (1983)
Inspired By: Dune
Beyond the Stars: When the band asked Dune author Frank Herbert for permission to name the song after his magnum opus, they were denied and the author's lawyers threatened to sick the sandworms on the metal act. Still, the tune stands as an epic metal ode to Paul Maud'Dib, Arrakis and the spice. Maiden also managed to pen "The Prisoner" and "Stranger in a Strange Land" about other Sci-Fi classics.
Geek Factor: Moderate. The seven-minute track still outshines David Lynch's ho-hum adaptation of the film to screen. And it totally shreds.

Song: "Godzilla" by Blue Oyster Cult (1977)
Inspired by: Godzilla, duh
Beyond the Stars: Is it any wonder punk was able to sweep across the cultural landscape so easily when bands like Blue Oyster Cult were getting down with odes to Japan's favorite radioactive monster? Although the band, sadly, spares us mention of any cool Godzilla spinoffs -- Mechagodzilla kind of deserves his own song, when you think about it -- the Cult somehow wrangled an insanely, annoyingly catchy hook to mentally replay every time you watch the giant monster fuck up Tokyo. Watch all 28 installments of the film series, and, if you're lucky, the song will finally be out of your head.
Geek Factor: We're talking Blue Oyster Cult and Godzilla here. It's up there.

Song: "Get The Girl, Kill the Baddies" by Pop Will Eat Itself (1992)
Inspired by: Total Recall
Beyond the Stars: Grebo-dance-industrial wild men PWEI was never afraid to let its geek flag fly, sampling Twilight Zone theme music, Alan Moore's reading of The Watchmen, The Warriors and referencing Batman all on This Is the Day, This is the Hour, This Is This (1989, RCA). Three years later on The Looks or the Lifestyle, it'd yank a line out of the Arnold Schwarzenegger flick for its title and chorus. Total Recall itself was an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale." Total Recall was referenced once more on Looks, name-checking Doug Quaid, Schwarzenegger's character in the flick.
Geek Factor: Monumental. Tracing the lineage from an obscure Dick short story to a film to an intergalactic punk-rock hip-hop tune is no small feat.

Song: "Neuromancer" by Billy Idol (1993)
Inspired By: William Gibson's Neuromancer
Beyond the Stars: The Internet was merely the domain of the super-duper computer geeks when Billy Idol jumped headlong in the sprawl of Gibson's cyberpunk works. Inspired by the dystopian future of burned-out urban areas, Japanese economic domination of the planet and a computer network that links everything in the world, Idol took Gibson's '80s ideas and retooled them for early '90s alt-rock for his conceptual Cyberpunk album, which, among other things, penned a song in tribute to the titular artificial intelligence cowboys of Gibson's cyberpunk classic.
Geek Factor: Sadly, "Neuromancer" holds up about as well as Gibson's other brush with mainstream culture, 1995's Johnny Mnemonic. Geeks only.