@Vexxarr: Thankee kindly, but there's no need to be rude. In fact, that thought hadn't even occurred to me, innocent waif that I am. The Freudians would call that "projection", you know. ;)

@Chip Overclock: Belated but sincere thanks! :)

That's the second biggest Fisher-Price toy I've ever seen!

P.S., also Airplane! Yes, the whole damn movie.

No, it isn't.

Yeah, the lip-reading app alone would make it a must-buy!

@corpore-metal: Well, considering that Cold War tensions got us to the Moon in less than a decade, that's pretty optimistic—thanks!

@Ghost_in_the_Machine: I'm with ya there, brother. I was born in 1960, and had the great good luck to have a Mom who read science fiction. I even remember some of the later Mercury flights! (One of the weirdest things for me was seeing Isaac Asimov on TV for the first time, commenting on the Apollo missions, and…

Leaving party politics aside, the short answer is, we won the Space Race. It really was all about beating the Godless Commies to the Moon; science and exploration were always secondary. In the absence of grand spectacle public apathy set in, and anything without a military application was cut to the bone. The robotic…

So, "So Long, And Thanks For All The Ultraviolence?"

@KnaveOfDiamonds: You will probably hate me for this link, I didn't know they were currently unavailable! (I want one, dammit!)

Not quite as heavy, but obligatory:

It always made me a bit sad whenever Logan or someone destroyed a Sentinel and it would make that "SQUEEEEEAWWWRKXXX!!!" sound.

So, if you were really, really scared, I suppose you'd freeze, blush and cry while every hair on your body stands on end and you gush sweat from every pore. Then evacuate from every orifice, laugh and pass out.

I'm pretty sure it's Prospero and his daughter Miranda from The Tempest.

@Discodave: Well, she was one of the more interesting Frisians on the list (there was also the last Governor of New Denmark and the guy who started the Mennonites, if you were interested). But I'm willing to take your word for it and say Harold Bluetooth. Apparently I'm the last, best hope of Britain and a Kryptonian…

@Grglstr: I typed "Watchful Crown" into Bing (what the hell, why not?) and got Mike Oldfield live in London—that's close to Leicester, relatively speaking. At least you got a random YouTube video out of it! :)

@Discodave: Bravo, Sir, well-played! Though I couldn't find you a Frisian monarch even with Wikipedia's help. I don't suppose you'd settle for Mata Hari?

@shan164: Oh. That's all right, then! Good show with being conveniently located, Loyal Vassal! (But it's Sire, with an "e" at the end. E. G. Marshall had similar trouble, I recall.)

@Gonne: And of course, The X-Files itself can be seen as a continuation of Kolchak: The Night Stalker (the episode starring Darren McGavin was quite a clever tip-of-the-hat, I thought).