Star Trek: The Next Generation turns 20 this year, and I'm working on a special documentary for the obligatory DVD box set. It's been really fun and cool to look at the impact TNG has had over the last two decades, in consumer products, actual science, and science fiction in general.

Yesterday, I flew up to Seattle to tour the Science Fiction Museum, and talk with a couple of their curators about Star Trek, and Gene Roddenberry's induction to their Science Fiction Hall of Fame later this year.

The SFM (try not to see FSM when you read that, and you'll get a sense of what it was like to be me yesterday) was founded by Paul Allen and Jody Patton in 2004, and contains all the things you'd expect to see in a museum dedicated to Sci-Fci: a recreation of The Day The Earth Stood Still's Gort, props from Star Trek, Buck Rogers, and the original Battlestar Galactica, concept art from classic films and television series, and the definitive collection of Star Wars action figures, on loan from one of the luckiest guys in the world.

The whole place feels magical, without any of the commercialism we've come to expect from installations like Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas (in fact, their gift shop could have a lot more books and DVDs and collectibles in it, but if it did, it would actually be unseemly, I think) and though I was there for just a few hours before I had to get on a plane and come back home, I made sure I took some time to walk around the place (which was closed, and opened up just for our shoot) blurting out "OH MY GOD THAT'S SO COOL!" and "DUDE!" every few feet.

There were costumes from Blade Runner, an original hand-written manuscript of Neal Stephenson's and lots and lots of robots – including the original B9 robot from Lost In Space, which has a conversation with Robbie from Forbidden Planet, using sampled dialog from their respective shows. There was also the Captain's chair and two costumes from the original Star Trek, as well as a model of the sets they built all the way back in 1966 to help block shots and explain to the studio and network exactly what the inside of the Enterprise was going to look like.

While it was truly thrilling to see artifacts from the final frontier and beyond, the museum was more than just a collection of cool things: it was an affirmation of why I and so many other people around the world love science fiction, and why science fiction, whether written by Jules Verne in 1864 or directed by Ridley Scott in 1982, endures with a relevance that transcends generations.

The main floor of the museum is divided into narrative sections that illustrate various SF themes, like Cyborgs, THEM!, nanotechnology, and "What if . . . ?" While I walked around these different areas, I noticed that, regardless of when a story was written or filmed, it reflected the time in which is was created. War of the Worlds, written by H.G. Wells in 1898, was, according to Isaac Asimov, an indictment of colonialism, sort of a hot-button topic of the day. Others say it was a commentary on the creeping modernization of the world by this new fangled steam-driven technology, and Welles' fear that the pastoral simplicity of his country would be lost as a result. While some readers would just experience the fantastic story and heart-pounding battle for survival against the invading Martians, others could see a deeper meaning, as Asimov did. If you look at the first season of the new Battlestar Galactica, it's clearly all about 9/11 . . . or maybe it's just a cool space opera. We don't have to work too hard to see what Make Room! Make Room! -- which was made into the film Soylent Green -- is all about, and 1984 and Brave New World are as horrifyingly relevant today as ever. When my wife and I watched Children of Men (an absolutely magnificent film, by the way) she turned to me about an hour into the movie and said, "This is scary, because it's so plausible." She was referring, of course, not to the infertility, but the surveillance and xenophobia . . . predicted and written about by George Orwell nearly sixty years ago.

These are but a few examples of the real power that science fiction has to address current events in a context that's safe and acceptable for most audiences, while speaking very seriously about them to others. They illustrate why SF endures and resonates with casual and hardcore fans. Whether it was written one hundred years ago, or just published last month, SF can give us warnings about the future, hope for the future, or just blissful escape from the present, into fantastic worlds that are light years away – but as close as our bookshelves.

So where does Star Trek fit into all of this? How does Star Trek's relentlessly optimistic, Utopian vision of the future fit into the larger SF cannon? Why does Star Trek appeal to such a broad audience across cultures and generations? The answer came to me when I asked one of the museum's curators about Gene Roddenberry's induction into the Hall of Fame.

Star Trek, she told me, is arguably the most important and significant science fiction franchise in history, because it brought science fiction into the mainstream. It was, she said, sort of a "gateway drug" for potential SF fans, and helped lay the foundation (she said this without any intentional pun, but I sure heard it) for all the great SF that's been on television and in movies since. As the creator of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry deserved a place next to Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen, and other SF luminaries.

I've always been aware of Star Trek's legacy, and I've always been proud to be part of it, but until she said those words to me, and put Star Trek and Gene into that context, I didn't realize just how grand and important it was, and just how lucky I am, as an actor, but mostly as a geek, to be part of it. While it wasn't the first mainstream science fiction series, it was the first one that realized the potential science fiction has to inspire while it entertains.

I've often thought that Firefly was the best way to introduce normals to the world of science fiction, but after my trip through the museum yesterday, maybe Star Trek is a better – or at least just as good – place to start. If you get a chance to take a normal to the Science Fiction Museum, I highly recommend it. If you spend your quatloos wisely, you may just walk out with One of Us.

Wil Wheaton is not a robot. He's just a geek.