Poland has one big contribution to science fiction literature, and he is Stanislaw Lem. Most known for Solaris, Lem has also written many other standing contributions to science fiction: Indestructible, His Master's Voice and Cyberiad come to mind. And then there are the adventures of space pilot Ijon Tichy.
Lem's Ijon Tichy short story collection Star Diaries and full-length novels The Futurological Congress and Peace on Earth are good examples of sci-fi at its best: they are thought-provoking, clever, and most of the time brilliantly funny. You've really not read a time travel story before you get to meet more Ijon Tichys from different days than you can count, arguing and fighting over who has to do what to save himself/themselves from a time vortex. And schizophrenia pales aside an Ijon Tichy who finds his left side of the body battling the right side because his brain halves have been separated. Et cetera, et cetera.
"Ijon Tichy: Raumpilot" (Space Pilot Ijon Tichy) is a short TV series loosely based on Lem's original Ijon Tichy space adventures. All in all, the Ijon Tichy novels provide lots of good source material for a TV series. The good news is that all this insanity has been quite nicely transferred to the little screen with "Ijon Tichy: Raumpilot". Sure, there are many shortcuts as the episode length is only 15 minutes (and thats the bad news: not enough of it). On the other hand, the episodes are compact and the obviously low budget has been offset with extensive CGI usage, hilarious aliens, fast pace, and, perhaps above all, good direction and deadpan acting.
The only real problem as I am writing this is that it seems to be impossible to get one's hands on non-German language versions (I mean subtitled, not dubbed, which should be defined a crime against humanity). However, if you speak even tourist Deutsch, have a look at this series. You cannot lose more than a few euros and six times fifteen minutes of your time.
To the makers of this series: please make more. And subtitle it in at least English. If the quality remains, I promise to buy it all. You know as well as I do that The Stanislaw Lem Ijon Tichy Well(tm) isn't nearly dry yet.
