2006 was a difficult time for lovers of science fiction. There seemed no possibility of ever seeing of another good Star Wars movie; geeks still reeled from the second loss of their beloved Firefly; Enterprise, always disappointing, was now also cancelled, leaving the airwaves devoid of new Trek for the first time in twenty years; the revamped Doctor Who had not been seen in America by any but the most hardcore torrenters. And, though we didn't know it at the time, the one bright light in the sci-fi sky, a remade Battlestar Galactica, would eventually turn out to have been be all about God.

But in those dark days, one upstart band of geeky stripteasers called Pinchbottom brought a new hope, taking a risk no other burlesque show at the time dared take: they spliced their love of Science Fiction to their love of taking off clothes. Before there existed such a word as “nerdlesque,” back when the sci-fi reference acts needed to be dug out of the back of the closet, and when you couldn’t get a geek to come to a burlesque show if you paid him in vintage action figures, these risqué rebels launched bump and grind into the great beyond with Pinchbottom’s NAKED PLANET.

Over the last 20 years since, Porkpie Productions has presented several science-fiction themed scripted burlesque shows, four of which are collected in the script collection The Future of Burlesque, three of which are currently available for production.