Babylon 5

I take it she was into TNG? I think that you could get anyone who remotely likes science fiction to dig TNG by starting with the "Best of Both Worlds" two-parter and moving backwards once they are hooked.

I have also found the two-parter that could get a lot of people hooked on Dr. Who. Watch the series 2, episodes "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit".
Tennant actually gets to show his real acting chops and the writing/concept is fantastic. Unfortunately, unlike TNG, you will be watching the two best episodes and everything else is pretty unimpressive, even if Tennant is trying his best to redeem the show.

 

Going from memory, Janeway is almost like a parody of a proper nuanced character. It always cracked me up to see MST3K make fun of her in a sketch.

I can see what your saying about Dune, but I feel it is more like a story from Shakespeare (minus the transcendently amazing English) than actual Islamic history (which I'm studying at the graduate level right now).

 

Cool think about B5 is that it was a 5 year show with the whole plot planned from the beginning. No Dues Ex Machina to wrap up a convoluted plot line. It wasn't a dream and they weren't all dead

 

Frank Herbert is my favorite author. I've read all his stuff, except the White Plague.

His son finally wrapped up the Dune saga. Only took them 15 books A cool epic that spans 25,000 years. The first book (Dune) is tough to get through the first 1/3, but then it gets really good. Read at least first trilogy. Read the read is you like the story line, there's lots of books set int he Dune Universe.