Category: sf

The A To Z Of SFF: S Is For The Survivalist

What would survival in a post-oil society be like? As life slips back into an agrarian, hard-scrabble existence, how can we find meaning or even happiness? How much do we have to lose before we lose our essential humanity?
Stephen Fingleton’s cult psychodrama The Survivalist takes on these questions and weaves a taut story of uneasy trust and betrayal from the tangled threads. A film to admire, and one that gives you a lot to think about…

For a more informed take on the film, check out director Stephen Fingleton in conversation with Stuart Wright on the excellent Britflicks podcast…

http://www.britflicks.com/Podcast/23938

The Survivalist is out now on Blu-ray, DVD and VOD.

The A To Z Of SFF: F Is For Forbidden Planet

Rob, Clive and Curiosity celebrate a landmark piece of SF in the shape of the 1956 classic, Forbidden Planet. Widely recognised as a formative text in the creation of Star Trek, and influential in the production and sound design of Star Wars and many other examples of filmed and TVSF. If you like the fiction of sciencey, you need to be all over this film.

Worst name for a starship ever, though…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y4crGU7dkg

The A To Z Of SFF: S Is For Star Trek: Beyond

A five year mission. A villain with a secret past. A warrior princess. A crew without a ship. A family without a home. Faced with a situation like this, there’s only one way to go… and that’s BOLDLY.

Join Rob, Clive and Curiosity as they fire up the warp engines and engage… in a discussion on the merits of 2016’s Star Trek: Beyond.

Spoilers, needless to say, are in abundance. Alert Condition Red for that, yeah?

Oh, and we like the Rihanna track that plays over the end credits.

The A To Z Of SFF: K Is For Kinda

Kinda, unfairly, has a reputation as one of the worst episodes of Davidson-era Doctor Who, largely based on the slightly duff effects at its climax. OK, sure, the ‘terrifying embodiment’ of the villainous Mara is pretty poor by today’s standard…or any time, frankly.
But, as Rob and Clive make clear, there’s a hell of a lot more to Kinda then one ten-foot-tall rubber snake. Cycles of life and death, good and evil, peace and war. A satirical take on colonialism. And some eerily effective dream sequences, that still have the power to un-nerve us even now. A deeply atypical episode of Fifth Doctor goodness. Join our gestalt mind and discover more…

http://dai.ly/x7vwgg

The A To Z Of SFF: T Is For Trials And Tribble-ations

 

Star Trek: Deep Space 9 is often thought of as the darkest of the franchises, but it had its lighter moments. Take the 20th Anniversary commemorative episode, a goofy, utterly delightful celebration of everything that makes the show such a beloved SF benchmark for so many people.

It’s got time-travel, Terry Farrell in THAT dress, a proper cantina fight and an exploding Tribble! What more could you want?

Hey, if you have Netflix, you can check out Trials And Tribble-ations right snecking now! If not, here’s a taster…

The A To Z Of SFF: W Is For The Women Men Don’t See

 

A classic piece of short SF, and a landmark story in all sorts of ways. Join Rob and Clive as they look at this dark parody of masculinity, which comes to some pretty brutal conclusions about the role and future of women on this planet.

We recommend you read the story before listening to the podcast. Check it out here.

Rollerball: The Harmony Of Havoc

As a follow-up to our A To Z piece on Rollerball last week, friend of the blog and avid Rollerball fan Chris Rogers approached us with a piece that digs into the themes and visual style of the classic SF movie. We’re delighted to present it, in full Multivision.

Continue reading Rollerball: The Harmony Of Havoc

The A To Z Of SFF: A Is For Alternative 3

There is a history under the history you think you know. A history where the space race never ended. Where Mars was explored back in the early 60s. Where the elite are preparing to evacuate a world dying in the face of catastrophic climate change.

Join Rob, Clive and Curiosity as they explore the secret conspiracy known only by the codename Alternative 3…

Those of you with appropriate secure clearance codes (level A323 and above) have access to the full briefing.

https://youtu.be/gmNFzBVKqyE

 

The A To Z Of SFF: M Is For Midnight Special

 

Jeff Nichol’s masterful SF road movie gets the once over from Rob and Clive. Do they embrace the mystery, or does the film maybe leave a little too much unexplained? One thing’s for sure… it’s a hell of a ride.

 

Clive mentions Alex Roman’s short film The Third And The Seventh as an influence on the climax of Midnight Special. Check it out below. It’s a beautiful thing.

The A To Z Of SFF: A Is For A.I. Artificial Intelligence

 

A.I was planned and prepped by Stanley Kubrick, then taken over by Steven Spielberg after the auteur’s untimely death. The resulting film is a strange mix of the two director’s signature styles, and even now it polarises opinion. Rob and Clive take a detailed look at the film, its themes and the inhumanly excellent performance of Haley Joel Osment.

Let’s go in search of the Blue Fairy…

(we apologise for the state of Rob’s voice. The space lurgy has him in its snottily-tentacled grasp…)