Space opera buffs meet

Fans and academics studying the cult science fiction TV series Battlestar Galactica will gather at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College on July 28 for the first academic conference on the series. Organiser Ewan Kirkland, lecturer in media studies at BCUC, said: "The show combines thriller, space opera, war film and docu-drama, raising questions about the nature of humanity, governance, desire, technology and religion." The US series is set in a future where mankind has been nearly obliterated by cyborgs that evolved from human technologies.