In 2006 I had the chance to design a physics course for students not majoring in scientific fields. I chose to shape the course around science fiction, not as a source for quantitative problems but as a means for conveying important physics concepts. I hoped that, by encountering these concepts in narratives, students with little or no science or math training might become more comfortable with them. I also thought the stories might provide the ideas with a context that would enable students to remember them more clearly than if they were reading a physics textbook.