It also borrows just as heavily from Galactica, with its mysterious alien race.

FORBES: Spielberg's Falling Skies Not So Original

Jonathan Brown, 50, of Furzton spent 12 years learning the fictional language of the alien race from Star Trek films.

BBC: 'Klingon' helps Milton Keynes man deal with dyslexia

Partisan paranoia: Finally, a new poll found that absurd conspiracy theories are sadly alive and well in the USA. These range from the self-evidently absurd (an alien race of lizard people secretly run the world) to old chestnuts like the moon landing was faked.

CNN: Podcast: Kim's tantrum--with nuclear weapons

Exhausted after cycling 1, 259 miles in 83 hours as part of an endurance challenge called the Race Across America, he becomes convinced that the motorhome carrying his support team is actually an alien spacecraft, and that his team's pleas for him to come inside and get some rest are merely a cunning pretext to get him to co-operate with a spot of alien probing.

ECONOMIST: A medley of aliens and conspiracy theories