While the stars may be the eventual destination of much science fiction, the first goal of two of the fathers of science fiction was closer and eminently more practical: the Moon. In their imaginations, both Jules Verne and H G Wells went there in De la Terre à la Lune and The First Men in the Moon, published in 1865 and 1901 respectively, classic works that have both been revisited in the past years, one in a new adaptation, the other in a revision of a historic work regarded as the first ever science fiction film.
It took reality until 1969 for reality to catch up with those fictional lunar excursions, and it was in the celebrations of the fortieth anniversary of the Moon landings that the BBC’s 2010 adaptation of H G Wells’ novel was commissioned, and now we have another reason to celebrate, with the release of the restored version of Le Voyage Dans la Lune, Georges Méliès’ ground breaking 1902 short film inspired by Jules Verne’s novel, with a new soundtrack supplied by the appropriately otherworldly French electronic music duo Air.
Sixty years on from their heyday, Hammer are fondly remembered as the hallmark of quality British horror, yet their output largely consisted of costumed potboilers constrained by the prevailing morality of the time, and much of their output is badly dated, particularly their limping creations of the seventies. Relaunched in 2007, they have ventured into new territory with the American set remake Let Me In, but with their highest profile release to date they have returned to the traditional period ghost story and confirmed their ability as slick purveyors of quality for a modern audience.
From Blair Witch through Paranormal Activity to Troll Hunter, "found footage" has become a become the genre of choice for low budget filmmakers seeking to make a splash, reflecting the ubiquity of cameras, from CCTV to Iphones, from You Tube to entire careers based on reality television shows. Wes May reports on Chronicle, feature directorial debut of Josh Trank from a screenplay by Max Landis, son of director John Landis, which combines the style with teenagers with superpowers, asking whether this is in the same league as the similarly themed show Misfits, or whether this footage should have remained lost?
First generation Trekkies such as myself (and I proudly scorn the Trekker label) know only too well how shamelessly Paramount-as-was kept putting out old wine in new bottles over the years. I long ago gave up keeping track of the number of times Trek has been repackaged and reissued in all its incarnations, but one glaring omission from the conveyor belt has been the lack of The Next Generation and its successors on blu-ray.
From his first published science fiction story just over two decades ago, Alastair Reynolds has marked a vast territory across the Milky Way and beyond as one of Britain’s most prolific, consistent and acclaimed science fiction writers, with five novels in the Revelation Space universe and three standalones, Century Rain, Pushing Ice and Terminal World, plus almost forty short stories. With a background in physics and astronomy, his style is hard science fiction informed by cutting edge knowledge of the latest theoretical developments and their practical applications, given wing by a wild and devious imagination coupled with a precise and commanding voice.
Now in the middle of its fourth (and possibly last) season, Fringe is the brainchild of JJ Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the men behind Lost and the recent successful 'reboot' of the Star Trek franchise. Produced by Fox, a network not known for its long-term commitment to quality science fiction given its cancellation of Firefly and Dollhouse amongst others, Fringe has beaten the odds so far and reached a fourth full-length season despite a change in timeslots and a steady decline in domestic ratings. If web reports are anything to go by, this series may well be its last sci-fi venture, despite its loyal core audience.
The last weekend of February, Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th, Glasgow's Grand Central Hotel, adjoining the Central train station, will be playing host to a celebration of all things science and science fiction, focusing on all things Martian, planned to coincide with "the 30th ante-anniversary of the Chinese first landing on Mars."
In the late nineteenth century, spiritualism was the new rage, spreading across America on the back of the Fox sisters, Maggie and Kate, who claimed that they could communicate with the spirit world via messages coded in the rappings they heard. A decade later Ira and Willie Davenport began touring America before turning their attention to Europe, and in this new theatre production based on that period, Glasgow based visual narrative company Vox Motus ask the question – what would a person have to be running from before they would choose this life, subsisting on the need for closure of the grief stricken, risking the disgrace of exposure with every performance?
Though a decade passed between Alastair Reynolds publishing his first short story, 1990’s Nunivak Snowflakes in 1990 in Interzone and his first novel, Revelation Space, the past decade has more than made up for that initial hesitance, with a major novel almost an annual event, leading up to his tenth, Blue Remembered Earth, launching a new trilogy. He was good enough to take time out to talk to Geek Chocolate about his past and future work, his inspirations, and keeping up to date on science.
The problem with science fiction is the science. We can only see as far as the horizon, and the art of the storyteller is to describe what is beyond, to make the unknown exciting or enticing, to warn us of the dangers, yet with access to no more knowledge than that available to any of us, they are armed only with their imagination to enable them to extrapolate the present to a logical future point.
