The story -- about a giant robot from space who must choose to overcome the darker forces in his programming -- turns out to have allegorical significance, thanks to recent events.

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And that look always seems to get dated, whether it's danger, Will Robinson, you know, like the funny-looking robot in "Lost in Space" or whether it's, you know, Buck Rogers of the '70s.

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He wants to live forever, have the option to escape to outer space or an oceanic city-state, and play chess against a robot that can discuss Tolkien, because these were the fantasies that filled his childhood imagination.

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NASA's slice of the pie includes a plan that would improve detection of near-Earth asteroids, send a solar-powered robot ship (like the NASA concept above) to capture one of the space rocks and tow it back to a stable orbit near Earth, where researchers could study it up close.

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