In the race for the San Fernando Valley congressional seat, victory may hinge on whether voters are looking to Earth or to the stars.

Jerry Doyle, the Republican candidate for the heavily Democrat district, is better known to the science fiction crowd as the actor who played irascible security chief "Michael Garibaldi" on the legendary television space opera Babylon 5.

Although his campaign doesn't flaunt his relationship with the show's fans -- preferring to concentrate on the issues -- Doyle's years on the fictional space station hover in the background.

With that out of the way, Doyle unveils a standard right-wing platform that hits most of the Republican high notes, strengthening the "neglected" military, cutting taxes and federal spending and -- especially exciting for California's 24th District, which includes parts of Ventura and Los Angeles Counties -- fighting traffic congestion.

He's also running on the space ticket.

Doyle calls himself "a friend of those wanting mankind to look beyond our small planet." If elected, he promises to "push NASA to develop practical plans" not only to go back to the moon but to send humans to Mars.

"Mars offers so many answers to questions about the nature of mankind’s future off of planet Earth and provides a valuable platform to understand our universe," his platform reads. "It has geological value and scientific promise. Our spirit for exploration and scientific understanding must be fulfilled."

Doyle, who received a degree in aeronautics before becoming an actor, also exhorts NASA to abandon its "faster, cheaper" policy to concentrate on "better" missions.

"The money we spend on exploring the cosmos and unlocking the mysteries that confront us should be used effectively through quality, not necessarily quantity," he said. "I will encourage NASA to build and launch quality probes and satellites to make sure we lose fewer of our space vehicles."

In return, he will seek a larger budget for the space agency.

Doyle's endorsements range from Babylon 5 co-stars Melissa Gilbert, Tracy Scoggins and Bruce Boxleitner -- himself a longtime friend of space exploration efforts -- to Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Kevin Grazier, who helped plan the Cassini-Huygens probe.

By contrast, the incumbent points to a more terrestrial set of friends including firefighters, teachers and the Sierra Club.

Now in his second term of office, Democrat Brad Sherman emphasizes an environmental platform, focusing on earthly issues while Doyle looks to space.

Sherman achieved a perfect League of Conservation Voters score in 1999, voting consistently for pollution cleanup and conservation. He also supports labor and women's issues -- two areas on which the Doyle campaign remains largely silent.

Interestingly, Doyle isn't the first space-minded candidate the Republicans have thrown at the 24th District, a seemingly impregnable Democrat bastion for two decades.

Two years ago, Sherman defended his seat from Randy Hoffman, former president and CEO of satellite systems manufacturer Magellan Systems.

Last winter, the California GOP reportedly "begged" Jeff Baxter, longtime guitarist for the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan, to take on Sherman. Defense advocate Baxter's bid never materialized, but his brief theoretical campaign had one key policy plank, and it was a space-oriented one -- satellite defense.

The voters are likely to look earthward. Congressional Quarterly rates the race a "safe Democratic" win in 2000.

As Sherman put it in an interview with the Washington Post, "I'm not sure that Babylon 5 aficionados are an overwhelming percentage of the electorate."