Tag: SF

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: S Is For A Sound Of Thunder

In which Rob fanbois so hard over Ray Bradbury that he nearly breaks something.
Seriously, though, A Sound Of Thunder is a formative SF text, and hence very worth of a one over from the Curiosity Crew. Just stay away from the movie, ok?

Once again, we believe you should read the story before you listen to the podcast. Not such a hard grind when it’s this good…

Start here, please.

 

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.

The A To Z Of SFF: H Is For Hard To Be A God

Over a decade in the making. Three hours long, black and white, an uncompromising political allegory and treatise on the dangers of anti-intellectualism.
Sounds like a laff riot, right? But Aleksei German’s Hard To Be A God has a lot to offer, if you’re prepared to put in the effort. Let Rob and Clive be your guides through a visit to Arkanar…

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: Story Of Your Life

Let’s talk about some proper SF, with a nose around Ted Chiang’s Nebula-Award winning short story Story Of Your Life. If you want discussion on the challenges of living in a deterministic universe or Fermat’s Theorem of Least Time, then do we have a treat for you!

If not, don’t worry, we’ll be back to the zap guns and little green men soon enough.

 

 

Hey, if you want to read the story in question, lucky you! Check it out here (If you like it, we do urge you to buy the collection of stories in which it’s housed for yet more head-mangling goodness).

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…)

 

The A To Z Of SFF: Attack Of The Ion Storm! (Part 2)

 

HOLY SMOKES! CycloMedia is getting worse, and the situation becomes ever more desperate for our hapless duo. As the ship is lashed by energetic particles, the question has to be asked… could this really be the end for the Ulysses?

Rob and Clive review:

Attack Of The Crab Monsters
The Atomic Submarine
Arena
The Astronaut’s Wife
Abraxas, Guardian Of The Universe

The A To Z Of SFF: A Is For Alien3

 

Controversy on the Ulysses, as Rob confesses a sneaking admiration for David Fincher’s bleak take on the Alien franchise. Can Clive talk him back to his senses, or does our noble astrogator have a point?

One thing’s for sure: this time, it’s personal.

 

The A To Z Of SFF: A Is For Aldiss

 

The Grandmaster of Science Fiction. Not just prolific but absurdly talented, Brian Aldiss is a Great British Author in every sense of the word. Rob and Clive celebrate the man and his work: not just as writer, but editor, artist and advocate for SF in all its forms.

If his work is good enough for Kubrick and Spielberg, it’s good enough for us!

Here’s a look at the film version of his deeply odd conjoined-twin punk opera, Brothers Of The Head. A strange and very English piece of work.