Science Fiction

Lando's got some explaining to do...

Register now for the upcoming Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction: London, Nov 9-12, 2023

facepalm Fans in the U.S. will need to also have Max and BritBox subscriptions if they want access to the entire series.

Matthew Perry, who died Saturday at age 54, is beloved for playing Chandler Bing on the NBC sitcom “Friends.”

But he nearly didn’t take the famously funny role.

In 1994, Perry was virtually unknown and, as he said on a 2015 episode of “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” he had “no money.” He needed a gig.

“So I called my agent and said ‘You’ve got to get me any job, any job you can,’” Perry said.

The agent found him one — a bizarre ABC comedy pilot called “LAX 2194,” about, of all things, airport baggage handlers of the future.

A science fiction/science fact review of Three Miles Down by Harry Turtledove, the fictionalized version of the Hughes Glomar Explorer expedition 50 years before the OceanGate Titan tragedy.

My new science fiction/science fact article for Science Robotics is out on why deep ocean robotics is hard. Especially when trying to bring up a sunken submarine 3 miles underwater, which the CIA actually did in 1974. It’s even harder if you’re trying to bring up an alien spaceship- which is the plot of Harry Turtledove’s new sci-fi novel Three Miles Under. It’s a delightful Forrest Gump version of that 1974 Hughes Glomar Explorer expedition. Though the expedition was 50 years before the OceanGate Titan tragedy, the same challenges exist for today’s robots. The robotics science in the book is very real, the aliens, not so much.

One of our most eclectic — and prolific — modern filmmakers, the Oscar-winning director of Traffic, Contagion, and Logan Lucky has worked in every genre and at every budget level, whether he’s crafting high-gloss heist pictures (Out of Sight, the Ocean’s trilogy), neorealist experiments (Bubble), or paranoid thrillers of a modern persuasion (Unsane, Kimi). Since first emerging into the rough-and-ready ’90s independent film scene with Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Soderbergh has proven himself an agile, compelling presence inside and outside of the studio system. And, having averaged one film or series a year since reemerging from a short-lived hiatus in 2017, including both conspiracy-thriller miniseries Full Circle and sci-fi comedy web series Command Z in the past six months alone, he shows no signs of slowing down.

Not for nothing but SyFy is doing nothing but horror content right now - I get that it's Halloween but it's literally in your name: SCIFI /rant

#scifi

Shows about time travel are as old as well... time. But there's only one that's had thirteen different actors play the same lead character Doctor Who. And now we know when the Fourteenth Doctor will make their debut- hang on. He looks familiar...

That's right, to celebrate 60 years of our favourite Timelord, David Tennant is back in the TARDIS. I could not be more excited, especially as he will be teaming up with Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) once again. Worryingly, I've officially reached the age where my childhood is classed as nostalgic

But enough about me, if you don't have a TARDIS you need me to tell you when the three specials with the dream team will air, and strangely enough for Who fans, where.

Despite its massive failure, the first attempt at adapting Frank Herbert’s Dune to the big screen made it possible for one of the most iconic science-fiction films to come out. Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune promised to be one most ambitious and artistic sci-fi movies ever filmed. Jodorowsky, a director with a very powerful artistic vision, had gathered a dream team to make a ten-hour-long film. However, it was also one of the biggest failures in cinema history as it never got actually made. There are many stories around the film's production and the people involved in it, but the one regarding the creation of another iconic script is certainly the best.
In 1974, French producer Michel Seydoux reached out to Alejandro Jodorowsky and asked him to direct an adaptation of the novel Dune. Driven by his extravagant and artistic personality, Jodorowsky's vision was more than ambitious. Among other important people, Chris Foss and Jean Giraud were in the art department, Pink Floyd was in charge of the music, and Salvador Dalí and Orson Welles were part of the cast. Additionally, Dan O'Bannon, who had already co-written John Carpenter's Dark Star, was the visual effects supervisor. Although the movie was canceled and turned out to be "The Greatest Film Never Made", this gave Dan O’Bannon the opportunity to develop a different script.

A safety panel highlighted the urgency of safely deorbiting the International Space Station (ISS) after it retires in 2030, warning of a catastrophe if the spacecraft were to make an uncontrolled reentry through Earth’s atmosphere.

NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) urged the space agency to develop a space tug to deorbit the ISS, saying that the deorbit vehicle is “not optional,” according to Space Policy Online.

“The day will inevitably come when the Station is at the end of its life—and we may not be able to dictate that day—it is inconceivable to allow the Station to deorbit in an uncontrolled manner,” ASAP Chair Patricia Sanders said during a briefing at the panel’s third quarter meeting on Thursday. The ISS is “simply too massive and would pose extreme hazard to populations over a broad area of Earth. This needs to be resourced and resourced now if we are to avert a catastrophe.”

We've long assumed that aliens will be like us, but there's every reason to think they are instead a form of unfathomable AI, says the UK astronomer royal Lord Martin Rees.

The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet is the sixth feature from Ana Katz, who is prolific as a director, and even more so as an actor, and is perhaps her most formally adventurous. As with the meteorite, Katz employs rough sketches crafted by production designer Mariela Rípodas (at times animated in rudimentary fashion) to get across moments too painful or too costly to shoot or create with VFX. These hand-drawn segments feel in harmony with the film’s unassuming charm. Co-penned with Gonzalo Delgado and shot by five different cinematographers, Katz’s most recent piece of unconventional cinema captures profoundly thought-provoking reflections in a succinct and unsanctimonious vessel, which makes it all the more praiseworthy. The nagging pup the title alludes to ultimately symbolizes that within us that propels us to strive for something soul-nourishing during our limited time here.

Although The Dog Who Wouldn't Be Quiet premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2021 to a warm reception, the movie is currently unavailable to stream, rent, or buy in the United States. It enjoyed a brief run on Mubi but has since lost to the vertiginous and unforgiving content churn that rarely favors idiosyncratic international titles. Hopefully, like its protagonist, the movie will find another chance at being properly discovered stateside soon.

Joining the ranks of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s failed Dune adaptation, Saturation 70 is a pop culture curiosity that, more or less, only exists in the imaginations of those who care about it. However, whereas Jodorowsky’s sci-fi epic became a documentary that animated his extensive production notes, Saturation 70, a psychedelic sci-fi epic starring Gram Parsons and Brian Jones’ five-year-old son, is getting a book. Announced on Kickstarter last month, Saturation 70: A Vision Past Of The Future Foretold, an art book that compiles what little information we have about the lost film, seeks to provide the most comprehensive look at Saturation 70 ever.

That’s easier said than done. Unfortunately, the only footage that still remains are a promo reel and a showreel of scenes from the movie. Working with director Anthony Foutz, co-author Chris Campion spoke to the remaining cast and crew and culled together surviving set photos and footage to give readers a sense of what this thing would have been.
Saturation 70 has quite a pedigree, too. In addition to Parsons and Jones’ son, Julian Jones-Leitch, the film features Michelle Phillips from The Mamas And The Papas and Nudie Cohn, the inventor of that rhinestone-heavy rodeo ware, Nudie Suits. Budgeted at $1 million, the movie featured special effects by 2001: A Space Odyssey effects-wizard Douglas Trumbull.

Welcome to hell. Sorry, I meant Venus. Some say it's Earth's twin. But this world is nothing like home. And you're about to experience this scorching hot landscape firsthand.

Transcript and sources: https://whatifshow.com/what-if-you-spent-5-seconds-on-venus/

The 2000s were a great time for science fiction. Thanks to The Matrix closing out the 90s, studios were more willing to give the green light to stories about science gone awry, leading to favorites such as A.I. Artificial Intelligence and Paprika, as well as superhero hits like Spider-Man 2, X2, and Iron Man.

With so much good stuff out there, it’s no surprise that some really good movies would pass by audiences. Sometimes, these movies simply got buried by higher profile and more popular works. Sometimes, they were rejected by audiences disturbed by their audacious or disturbing ideals.

For anyone who wants to catch up on some sci-fi movies they have missed, here are ten great overlooked entries from the start of the millennium.

George Lucas and the release of Star Wars in the 1970s unintentionally set a precedent for how almost every single piece of sci-fi media would depict space combat. Small spaceships fighting each other above in the atmosphere is synonymous with the genre, but does the science support this World War II style of dog-fighting in SPACE?

Gkids has acquired North American rights to Mars Express, the French animated feature from first-timer Jérémie Perin, which was an official selection this year of both Cannes and Annecy.

The acquisition comes following Gkids' local distribution of the film The Rabbi's Cat, which Perin helped develop. His sci-fi noir will hit theaters in its original French language and a new English dub in 2024, following a domestic release in France this November.

A 2D/3D hybrid that recently had its U.S. premiere at Animation is Film Festival in Los Angeles, Mars Express watches as private detective Aline Ruby and her android partner Carlos Rivera are hired by a wealthy businessman to track down a notorious hacker in the year 2200. On Mars, they descend deep into the underbelly of the planet's capital city where they uncover a darker story of brain farms, corruption, and a missing girl who holds a secret about the robots that threatens to change the face of the universe.

For those of you new here, we're all about celebrating the amazing universe of Gerry Anderson, the legendary creator of Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Space: 1999 and so much more. So buckle up and get ready for an interstellar journey!

The Viper is a series of one-man space superiority fighters developed and operated by the Colonial Fleet in the early years of the 1st Cylon War. The origins of the Viper lie with the Caprican Air Force Viper jet, which was in service for some time before 58 BCH. It is presently unknown if the spaceborne iteration which fought in the Cylon War was another series of craft with the same name, but the Mark II was in service by the midway point of the war. This craft was, like the battlestars it launched from, designed purposely to be as low-tech as possible to thwart the Cylons' computer hacking capabilities. The similarly-designed Mark III entering service by 1958, two years before the war's conclusion.

We ran our last crowdfunding campaign in 2021, and the result was our “lucky” season 13, featuring thirteen new episodes, thirteen new shorts, the returns of most recent host Jonah Heston and original host Joel Robinson, and the introduction of a new host with Emily Connor. We also built the Gizmoplex, our very own independent streaming platform, so that we no longer need to depend on networks to keep the show alive.

So why are we doing another crowdfunding campaign? That’s simple. The world needs more MST3K. Doesn’t it give you a thrill that this scrawny movie riffing puppet show is about to enter its 35th year? That’s because of you, our faithful fans: you keep us going. We brought it back with you, the MST3K community. As long as you all want more episodes, we will keep making them. And… we’ll now be hosting our crowdfunding campaigns right here on MST3K.com!

Gift a movie fan with this LEGO® Icons Dune Atreides Royal Ornithopter building set for adults, featuring 8 iconic characters from the movie

In an era of lost science fiction, 'Space: 1999' dared to be different. Here's why it's worth another look, and why it bridged the era of Star Trek and Star Wars.

Stephen and Edward Chiodo reveal film's original ending, revisit Christopher Titus's first role and tease a potential sequel.

Once effectively banned, Chinese science fiction has exploded into the mainstream, embraced by the government and public alike –- inviting scrutiny of a genre that has become known for its expanding diversity and relative freedom.- 'Spiritual pollution' - Historically, science fiction has had a turbulent relationship with Chinese authorities -– it effectively disappeared during the Cultural Revolution and then was banned as "spiritual pollution" in the 1980s.

The Empire may be infamous, but that doesn't mean there aren't some major plot holes and unanswered questions about them. The likes of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Andor have subtly tried to patch things up, but these attempts haven't always been successful. Here are the most egregious questions about the Empire