While most people go out on Friday nights, there are some who have to just crash in their rooms after a long week of working on papers, tests and projects for classes. It may be hanging out with friends in the residence halls, popping in a good movie into the DVD player or even turning on that tube to watch a few Friday night television shows.

It’s almost become a tradition in my family, between my father and I, to watch the Friday night lineup of science fiction shows. I grew up watching shows like this. It all started with “Star Trek” and then it moved onto other shows like “Andromeda” and “Farscape.” But on these Friday nights, it’s all about SciFi Fridays on the SciFi Channel.

It starts off with the new or reruns of “Stargate SG-1.” Then we get our fill of the new “Doctor Who.” Finally it’s onto “Stargate Atlantis.”

Now, I may not be at home in St. Charles with my family watching them, but I can still enjoy them from the comfort of my own room. It’s all a matter of making a simple phone call to the folks and discussing each week’s three hours of aliens and more.

OK, you can call me a science fiction geek, but it is something I enjoy and something I like. Science fiction is in my blood. I cannot deny how much I love the genre. Aliens are so cool.

Science fiction may involve some of the worst low-budget effects, but that’s what makes science fiction. Also, there are more than six different storylines ranging from time travel and time loops to clones. In one episode of “SG-1” called “Window of Opportunity,” which is one of my favorites, two of the characters slipped into a time loop and ended up doing some crazy things like hitting golf balls through the Stargate. Imagine Richard Dean Anderson in knickers with a Calloway golf bag by his side. The same goes for the episode of “Star Trek” “Cause and Effect,” the Enterprise blows up four times over the course of an hour.

The shows have their funny moments, and they have their sad moments. Despite the action and the adventures, the writers of these shows manage to slip in sarcastic words and funny moments that send you rolling on the floor laughing. These are the moments I cherish. What is really funny is when the rest of the new episodes of “SG-1” and “Atlantis” aired back at the beginning of the year, my father joked with me and said he could hear me laughing 300 miles away.

But, there are some I do not like in “Babylon 5” when after five seasons, the writers of the show ended it on an unhappy note-blowing up the space station. In “Farscape,” the writers ended the show after four seasons with a cliffhanger. Later, all the unanswered questions were answered in a four-hour miniseries. You don’t stop a show like that and leave everyone hanging.

Science fiction is a way of life. You may not want to admit it, but if you have seen one show, you could admit it was pretty cool.