The wee plastic armies being dragged by fishing line rather stands out in the age of the flat panel screen.

There's a shot of Patrick Stewart charging into battle holding a Pug dog...did I imagine that?

Also of note: Jodorowsky's Dune, which would have been bonkers if half of what's in the doc is to be believed.

Tempy wrote:

The Glasgow Metropolitan Elite

Still none the wiser, but it’s got quite a ring to it.

Dark Star is amazing. Proper sci-fi.

I liked Dark Star, but also liked all six original Dune books.

I do like genre mashes - so have a soft spot for Outland as "High Noon in Space". Connery is great casting for the role.
In a similar vein, Lockup is cheesy but I love the "Escape from New York in Space" vibe, plus I'm gay for Guy Pierce.

Lynch's Dune is my favourite Lynch.

Forgot about Outland - that was a good 'un.

Dan O'Bannon used his pet alien sub plot in Dark Star to create the Alien script. Apparently he noticed that the audience reaction even to the whimsical Dark Star sequence wasn't what he though it was (was expecting more laughs - but got some tension instead) and reckoned he was onto something,

I read a fair bit of Ray Bradbury when I was young. Enjoyed that.

I still believe the short story serves the genre best though.

"Predestination" is a good adaptation of my fave scifi short, Heinlein's "All You Zombies".

Thinking about sci fi that isn't all space lasers Primer is an excellent film.

I adore Sci-Fi. Literature, flicks, artistry. Lap it up. 

Literature. Philip K Dick's work is sublime. The sheer amount of inspired ideas he came up with was astounding. He wrote so many great novels but I think his real strength was in his short stories. He had an amazing ability to set up a believable tale with decent characterisation in a few pages and leave you with a sense of wonder at the end of it. Some of his predictions were really astute (as with Arthur C. Clarke) and his collected short stories would be a definite desert island want. 

J.G. Ballard is another master of the sci-fi arts. Thing with Dick and Ballard is that so many of their scenarios seem possible and it's that hook that gets me every time. Ballard was expert at describing the dark side of human nature that's always just bubbling away under the surface. He realised that society was never too far away from anarchy. Wheatley seems to have nailed the tone of High Rise, if this trailer is to be trusted.



Just as an aside, a chap has recreated High Rise through Lego. He's also done similar for Infinite Jest.
Brick High Rise

I loved the Banks' Culture novels, the Hugh Howey Wool trilogy (very Fallout), Lucifer's Hammer, Riddley Walker and much more. It annoys me when literary snobs look down on the genre and there does seem to be an element of ignorance towards it. Some of the best literature I've read over the last 5 years could be seen as sci-fi. The Road was heart-breaking but powerful. Dave Eggers 'The Circle' did what a load of great sci-fi does - offered a believable warning of the path that humanity currently trundles along. The episodic nature of World War Z and Robopocalypse benefited from the ever-changing narrative focus to present an effective dystopian read. China Mieville and Chris Beckett are home-grown talent amongst the world's best. We're in the midst of a couple of superb trilogies - Anne Leckie's Ancillary series and Dave Hutchinson's Europe in Autumn series. And Emily St John Mandel's Station Eleven was a sublime post-apocalyptic novel which deserves to be read by anyone interested in the genre. Could spend all day writing about who I love from the traditional to the more recent but it is great to see that 'established' fiction writers have embraced the medium and been celebrated for that - Attwood, Ishiguro, Dvid Mitchell etc.

I know it's been mentioned previously, but I'm increasingly of the opinion that Children of Men is my favourite film. I use it quite a bit in my teaching and it's a fantastic film on repeated viewing. The level of detail is great, the dystopian realism is on point, it's well acted by all the cast (hmmm , possibly Sid aside) and it manages to present the warm side of humanity while society and order are totally breaking down. From the Quietus advert and the windscreen digital read out to the jingoistic propaganda and fascist politicising, it all seems, well, believable. That this could happen. As mentioned by others, the cinematography is superb and some of the tracking shots are utterly captivating. Clive Owen plays the role of his life and it's a film that leaves you thinking.  I'm desperate for a Criterion edition as the forecasted extras would be brilliant. Not sure if The Prestige would qualify as Sci-Fi, but that's another film I could rave about for ages. 

Contact was one of the first sci-fi films to be released on DVD and this scene alone is worth the ticket. 


As for other Sci-Fi films the usual lot are favourites - Blade Runner, Moon, Ex Machina, 12 Monkeys, Gattaca, Alphaville, Sleeper, Dark City, The Man in the White Suit, 28 Days Later, Hardware, Battle Royale, La Antena, They Live, 5th Element, la jetee, Her and load sod other trashy films I enjoyed when I was growing up. 

I will probably cut Sci-Fi films a bit of slack that offer an intriguing, engaging or interesting view of the future. I love Barbarella, even though it's ultimately camp, kitsch nonsense. When I was 15, my aunt caught me and my friend watching it and thought we were watching a porno (the Fonda undressing scene). Red faces for a few years at family dos as she'd told the rest of the family. 

Didn't mean to ramble on for so long, but that was an enjoyable half an hour typing that up.

Also, I've not seen Contact but little snippet really twisted my noggin.

I'm okay with that selfishness though as it's been his dream to join the crew since he was a child. And being a dreamer I'd do the same too.

I love that Bollockoff manages to fit a spoiler into every single post he makes. Wuv.