Hello from the shit who DID say Battlestar Galactica! Just wanted to make a comment on race in SciFi. I don't think it's fair to say that portrayal of racial stereotypes doesn't count in SciFi because the characters' culture doesn't posses the same American stereotypes. SciFi is, after all, largely created from American ideas and tends to centre around taking what we have and expanding it to explore what might be, what could have been, and what may yet be, which is of course going to rely heavily on American ideas of what IS. I DO, however, see a problem with race in SciFi, and that is that in the making of far too many SciFi shows, even with casts that are quite diverse, the POC's tend to play aliens.

Off the top of my head: the Klingons, Guinan (she wasn't human, right? It's been too long) and Tuvok from Star Trek. Teal'c, Ronon and Teyla from the Stargate Shows. Tyr from Andromeda. Even in Battlestar Galactica, four POC's spring to mind (Dee, Sharon, Tory and Simon) and three of them are Cylons. So, even in shows that portray POC's positively, they're still cast as the ones who are different, outsiders, not like the "normal" white humans.

Exceptions: Martha Jones from Doctor Who and Torchwood. Zoe from Firefly. LaForge from Star Trek TNG... That's actually all I can think of right now, but I'm sure there are more.

Sorry for using your comment to springboard onto my own personal soapbox!