DYI sci-fi?

So I've been kicking around pitching a sci-fi game to my Wednesday night group. Back in April Goblinoid Games announced it had acquired rights to the old sci-fi game Starships & Spacemen and that it intended to release a Labyrinth Lord/Mutant Future compatible version sometime in the future. Since then I've really grown into the idea of doing something space operatic.  I've been on a bit of a Star Wars kick at home, rewatching the original trilogy for the zillionth time and going back through the few comics I own.  And this whole Gliese 581g thing is pretty much an open invitation to every game everywhere to start a new outer space campaign.

And it occurs to me that it was really dumb to wait for someone else to put a book in my hand.  My thinking now is to start with Labyrinth Lord as the base, then add a brain-dead simple skill system swiped from either Terminal Space or Star Frontiers and mix with the pretty straightforward spaceship rules from X-Plorers (which I don't think you can buy new right now, as Brave Halfling is working on a new edition with sweet-ass Pete Mullen art).  Then run something with space exploration and laserbeams instead of dungeon exploration and laser beams.

Of course, the other route to go for crazy space action is to follow through on my threat to run some Encounter effin' Critical with this bunch.  Some of them strike me as a little new system shy, though.  That's holding me back.  Hopefully we can discuss it before we dive into tonight's adventure.  Maybe they don't want to go into outer space at all.