h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Apart from the exemplary(-ish) human behaviour, Science fiction space stations are always clean and tidy (unless there has been a fight in the last 20 minutes, but those blast marks wipe off surprisingly easy). Comparing to the ISS there is a world of difference. ISS is sort of clean visually (in a used sock drawer kind of clean) and everything is tied down, but I wouldn't call it tidy.

My son just bought himself a lego space station consisting of a central ring with eight interchangeable pods, that also combine as a space bus. Not sure if I would design the vegetable pod with a canopy that opens into deep space though. I would expect zero gravity pumpkins to float around...

Agreed on all counts!

In 'Babylon 5', there's a part of the station called Downbelow. And it is really grungy. And there are these carrion eaters... 'we haven't found anything they won't eat yet...'

Only the senior officers and VIPs get real water in their showers, everybody else has some other system. There's a section for non-oxygen-breathers - for everyone else's convenience, there are gas masks available at the entrances.

I liked that kind of attention to detail. People live there. People make messes.

And they DON'T get all their decorations at Pier 1 Imports. On DS9, somebody had a set of candle holders...we looked from the screen down to our coffee table...yep, same ones.

You wouldn't want to mix the atmospheres for the oxygen breathers and the methane breathers, especially in the vicinity of smokers (or any point of ignition really).

Despite studio interference and a main cast that kept unexpectedly changing, this series is wonderfully coherent and works beautifully, with the 1,000 year cyclical backstory giving extra depth.

How could you have missed it 30 years ago?

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Because I was working 6 jobs at a time and hardly ever watched television. I had to catch up on all the shows later.

I used to be lucky to see the occasional episode of 'Night Court' before bed...

Fair enough, 'Night Court' isn't a programme I'd heard of before.

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I venture to think you'd enjoy 'Night Court'. It's pretty off-the-wall.