Top Ten Planets

This week I'm doing an extra Top Ten post for SciFi Month. I thought I would take a look at some planets in science fiction. Which planets out there would I want to explore? There are so many, but here I've narrowed it down  and some of the reasons why I think they would be awesome to visit.

Yavin IV - introduced in the first Star Wars movie and the site of the Rebel base. The Rebellion took up residence in an old Massassi temple, and in the Star Wars Extended Universe books I believe Luke Skywalker formed a Jedi academy there or something. I haven't read EU books so I only know sketchy details of those.

Dagobah- I think there are a lot of secrets hidden on the swampy world of Dagobah- after all Yoda chose this place as his refuge. We get a few hints during Luke's time there that not all is as it seems on that world.



Altair-4 Perhaps the wildest planet of all would be Altair-4 from the classic Forbidden Planet. A mysterious force running loose on the planet, a terrifying id monster personifying the baser impulses a long vanished race, unstoppable and invisible- what's not to like?

Here's a cool scene where Dr. Morbius shows his visitors the Krell wonders- the great underground city/ machine that runs constantly and can make any thought a reality.



Tatooine. Home of Luke Skywalker, jawas and Jabba the Hutt. And the infamous Mos Eisley spaceport.






Coruscant. the capital of the Empire, formerly of the Old Republic- the most important planet in the galaxy? Imagine the sheer scale of this immense city- planet, all the things to see.



Cloud City on Bespin. A tibanna mining colony and the site of Luke Skywalker's first encounter with Darth Vader.




Barsoom- the Mars of the John Carter books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. A world of ocher sea bottoms and decadent cities, of barbarian hordes and airships.

Retro Venus. Perhaps a gleaming spaceport are the only signs of human civilization on such a world, but who knows what adventure could be found in the swampy interior, or in a ruined city festooned with vines shimmering in the humidity, or even beneath the waves of a storm tossed Venusian ocean?