“The Time Traveler’s Wife” is a story that asks: what would your life be like if you kept on travelling in time, not with a machine, not with intent, but accidentally and randomly. Henry experiences random journeys into his past and future since his childhood, and as part of this process, meets his (eventual wife)…
“Seconds” is a thriller and science-fiction (of sorts), directed by John Frankenheimer (known for “The Manchurian Candidate”, “Birdman of Alcatraz”, and “Ronin”) and starring Rock Hudson. It tells the story of an older man in a life he doesn’t like, having a mid-life crisis. He is approached by a mysterious company that offers him a…
“The Word for World is Forest” is a science-fiction novella by Ursula Le Guin. It was written during the Vietnam War, and clearly shows the author’s views of that situation, and the harm it was doing, to the natives and the invaders alike. This story discussed colonialism, the environment, imperialism, racism. It holds up a…
I have to say, I am rather fond of found footage movies. You need to go into these with the presumption that all characters you are about to see are going to die (there are exceptions to this rule, but they’re rare) but they can be fun and creepy to watch. There is always the…
“Galapagos” tells the story of the end of civilization and the evolution (or devolution) of humanity into a form more in keeping with the environment. The general premise is that it is humans and their big brains that are the root cause of what’s wrong with the world. The plot of this novel is fairly…
Back in the day, television was broadcast live, and in 1954 the BBC aired a television adaptation of “1984”. The screenplay adaptation from Orwell’s novel was done by Nigel Kneale (best known for his creation of the Quatermass character and stories). You can find this version of “1984” on YouTube – the condition isn’t great…
“The Martian Chronicles” is what is known as a ‘fixup’ novel ie a novel comprised of a series of short stories that were originally written and published separately. (Apparently Bradbury was surprised when it was suggested to him that he had, in fact, already written a novel, he just had to put it together.) The…
There are a lot of debates about the definition of science fiction. There are many different opinions on good and bad movies, and a million ‘best of’ list articles on the internet. I won’t presume to call this a list of best films. This will be a list of science fiction films I have seen…
“The 27th Day” is a science fiction movie set during the Cold War. An alien visits Earth and abducts five people (temporarily) to his spaceship. He tells them he has chosen them as a representative sample of the various people of Earth and gives them each a small container which has capsules that can kill…
Based on the first half of the novel “Dune” by Frank Herbert, this film follows the hero Paul Atreides, from his coming to the planet Arrakis with his family, until the attack by their enemies which leaves Paul’s father dead and Paul and his mother as fugitives with the desert-dwelling Fremen. Arrakis is the only…
Eclectic Assemblage 