I've always been a sci-fi nerd. Growing up, Star Trek was on every Wednesday evening, without fail, and subsequently recorded onto VHS for the archives. We also had Babylon 5 on a Sunday, and a whole load of other franchises sprinkled throughout the week. My bedroom ceiling was covered in model kits of different generations of the Enterprise, while other models also were displayed about the room. We had 'making of' books, spin-off comics and old sci-fi novels on the bookcases. No doubt about it, we loved our sci-fi, and still do.
I've also been a techy-tinkerer and was thinking of a one-page webtool to build. Some kind of countdown would be interesting, but to what? Then I was reminded of being told in 2015 that the date that Marty McFly and Doc Brown in Back to the Future travelled to the future had now passed! How many other 'future' sci fi dates have already passed, and how many can we look forward to, or NOT look forward to if they were real? Sci Fi Countdown was born!
The idea is simple, you pick a franchise, then an event from that franchise, then watch the timer on the homepage tick towards or away from that date.
As I looked into where fictional dates were placed on a timeline I went down a bit of a rabbit hole, especially considering how people thought the future might look from our past. Some predictions of technology and culture were pretty close to where we are or are heading, others were wildly off the mark. As of writing, we obviously still haven't set foot on another planet, but we're pretty darned close with VR to having our own holodecks!
To make the site stand out a bit more, I treat each franchise timeline as if they are actual future history (Or past), and give a bit of information about each event we countdown to in that franchise. I try to be 'accurate' with the dates, sourcing canon events, dates explicitly stated or inferred in the media that they are from, but where dates aren't 100% confirmed, taking from fansites and blogs, I've tried to be transparent. There are some franchises that I have thought of adding but unfortunately they do not have any verifiable dates attached to them, stating just 'some time in the future'. I've avoided those and stuck with only franchises that have hard dates, such as shown onscreen, in the script notes or in novels.
When a story provides a full date, I use it verbatim in UTC. If only a year is known, I anchor to the start of that year and mark the entry as approximate in the text. I avoid guessing specific times unless the canon is explicit. I cross-reference on-screen dialogue, official guides, and widely accepted reference notes. Continuities can differ between editions and cuts, and if sources conflict, I choose the clearest on-screen placement and keep wording spoiler-safe. If you spot an error, please contact me.
This is a fan-made site, built by a nerd, and not affiliated with any studio, publisher, or rights holder. All trademarks and copyrights belong to their respective owners. I aim to keep the site updated and added to regularly, as a database of dates and a chronology of events, when time allows. Enjoy, and thanks for visiting!