I love it when Future Space People smoke plain old cigarettes. It may not be scientifically sound, but it makes a heck of a lot of sense. Cigarettes are not just cigarettes; they symbolize the protagonists’ ennui.

Smoking is not just killing yourself; it’s killing time. It’s a habit you pick up for lack of something better to do. There must be long, uneventful stretches aboard the spaceship in 3022, just like there were in the Nostromo (that is, before the characters get to the point where they’d rather be bored than dead).

The Pangea space station refuels spacecraft bound for Earth's fir... read the rest.