Christian Holub is a writer covering comics and other geeky pop culture. He's still mad about 'Firefly' getting canceled.

It's true that fear is the mind-killer -- but a laser blast from a giant robot can also be pretty lethal.

HBO's upcoming prequel series Dune: Prophecy is set to explore the history of author Frank Herbert's sci-fi universe, including something that's never been seen on screen in any of the multiple movie adaptations of Dune -- namely, the war against "thinking machines" that took place tens of thousands of years before the birth of Paul Atreides.

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In Herbert's books (as well as those of his son Brian Herbert, whose Sisterhood of Dune with coauthor Kevin J. Anderson is a major inspiration for Dune: Prophecy), this conflict is more commonly referred to as the Butlerian Jihad. That's a term that can distinguish Dune readers from fans who just enjoy the movies, since it is not used in the latter.

By his own admission, director Denis Villeneuve wanted to focus on the Bene Gesserit in his Dune and Dune: Part Two, so didn't have much time for other intergalactic factions like the human computers known as Mentats. Viewers only briefly see House Atreides' resident Mentat, Thufir Hawat (Stephen McKinley Henderson), roll back his eyes to make a massive mental calculation once in Villeneuve's first film. The scenes Henderson filmed for Dune: Part Two were ultimately left on the cutting room floor.

But the whole reason there are "human computers" in the Dune universe in the first place is because the actual computers were all destroyed in a massive war! Viewers of Dune: Prophecy will see glimpses of that war in the opening moments of this Sunday's premiere episode.

The actual show is set years after the end of the Butlerian Jihad, but its lingering shadow hangs over the proceedings.

"The characters in our series exist in the shadow of a war against thinking machines and artificial intelligence, which had basically enslaved or subjugated humankind for an enormous period of time," Dune: Prophecy showrunner Alison Schapker tells Entertainment Weekly. "And in rising up, going to war, and ultimately defeating the machines, humans also came to a brink of their own extinction. There were casualties on planetary levels, and that does something to individual psyches. Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson in their books really make clear that when it took that much loss of life to have humans basically free themselves, people's notions of what their role is and what sacrifice means has just really been put on the line in a species-level way."

The focus of Dune: Prophecy is the early years of the Bene Gesserit. The Sisterhood, who maintain genetic databases for all the universe's noble families and make plans measured in centuries, would not exist if not for the war against the machines.

"The Benny Gesserit are one of multiple organizations and institutions that are ascending to fill the power vacuum that's been left by machine technology being destroyed," Schapker says. "In various ways, these sorts of institutions are pushing the boundaries of what it means to be humans so that they can perform tasks that once were performed by machines."

The Mentats are also one of those post-machine organizations, and another is the Spacing Guild, whose Navigators use a certain mind-altering spice to calculate hyperspace travel routes without the aid of computers. So yes, even 10,000 years before the original Dune story, the spice (and the only planet where it can be found) will still be an important factor in galactic politics. See more when Dune: Prophecy premieres Sunday, Nov. 17, on HBO.