Science Fiction and Fantasy
So big, it needs it's own room.
Science, flights of fancy, sword and sorcery, myths and legends



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The literary genre of science fiction began with Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, first published in 1818, that gothic tale of a doctor bent on cracking the secrets of life with his technology, and in the process bringing pieces of dead flesh from several different people back to life.

The world of science fiction is broad, starting with those gothic tales, growing through the days of pulp fiction, the days of B-movies, the fantasical views of the future and always showing the best and worst of who we are. Science fiction, technically, is a story whose basis rests on a scientific or technological concept which may not exist or yet be proven to be true.

Closing in on 200 years of development, humankind has often seen science fiction become science fact. While technology may not re-animate a completely dead person, technology has helped people live longer, resuscitate people who are on the bring of death, and helped bring forth new life. We have seen inventions from Jules Verne's fictions appear - submarines, airships and space craft to the moon. Star Trek from the 1960's showed us computers and storage, heralding the 3 1/2 floppy disk, and holographic data storage.

As an avid reader and tv/movie watcher, science fiction has always been my favorite genre, maybe because it brings together knowledge and logic with bouts of creativity to dream about what we could do with technology.

Two series which remain of steady interest and influence in my life are Dr Who and Star Trek. Star Wars had a life-changing impact on my life when it was released in 1977 - gone were thoughts of becoming an archeaologist and the world of dinosaurs (although peaked again somewhat by Jurrasic Park), and while I have always enjoyed Darth Vader as an icon and avatar of evil, it has always been the TARDIS and the Enterprise which have carried me to many places in the universe, not to mention becoming a moral and behavioral standard.

The people of both series faced challenges, didn't take "no" for an answer, and found solutions. They accepted diversity, they sought out new places, people and things. They showed courage and compassion, and while not perfect, they did the best they could.



I grew up watching Creature Double Feature on Saturday afternoons, much to my parent's dismay, and there I found my fascination and attraction to the world of monsters, aliens and robots. Dracula became my favorite supernatural villan, Godzilla my favorite larger than life monster, and HAL9000 and Colossus the computers i wanted for myself.

Books and magazines opened up realms and worlds of possibility. Worlds of sand, water or just air. Spaceships which never moved, or never stopped. Aliens who weren't always the villans, and humans who always were. Challenge. Intrigue. Triumph. Loss. Power. Achievement. Intelligence. These shaped who I wanted to be, showed me what could be if I tried, and shared insights beyond my experience.

Flash Gordon serials with cliffhanger endings.

When worlds collide and when the earth stood still.

Fantastic voyages and forbidden planets.

Time machines and heading back to the future.

Cyberpunk, big brother and the future gone wrong.

Getting lost in space, finding UFOs, voyaging to the bottom of the sea, and living in the land of giants.

People were invisible, super, prisoners, lost, and searching.

And who am I now because of this?
I want the toys - batmobile, Jupiter2, B9, K-9, Robby, TARDIS, Enterprise, Nautilus, KITT, jetpacks, anti-grav...
I want to travel - Gallifrey, Krypton, Pern, Arrakis, RAMA, Bajor, Utopia Planetia, Monster Island, parallel universes...
I want to share the adventures - Atlantis, tax-utat, key to time, area 51...
I want conversations - the Doctor, Picard, Janeway, Dumbledore
and I have - the courage to try something new, the drive to be and do my best, the knowledge that I don't have all the answers, the desire to learn...


20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Published in 1870, this is one of the stories by which I am most captivated and which retains a special place in my heart and mind. My first exposure to it was the Walt Disney film, released in 1954, with James Mason as Captain Nemo, and a brilliant, fascinating design of the submarine by Harper Goff. Once I had seen it, I wanted to own the Nautilus, I wanted to be Captain nemo, I wanted to build an underwater city and live there. It's still of interest, all those things, although the closet I've come to any of them is learning how to swim but not scuba dive, I've bought various Nautilus models, and I think I like outer space more than inner space these days.

Like so many science fiction stories, the technology makes the story possible, but it is not a story just about the science, but more about human behavior, thoughts, feelings, intentions, desires and drama. Appearances and first impressions are not always what they seem, preconceptions are challenged, and by the end, there might even be changes in who we are.

With 20K, ideas and current ways of thinking are constantly challenged and shown to be false or lacking. First a sea monster is attacking ships - no, wait, it's a (comparatively) high tech submarine! One of our ships is being attacked - no, wait, it seems we really are the Bad Guys. Man can only live on land - no, wait, the seas can produce food and materials as well as or better than on land. Captain Nemo is mad - well, maybe, but he is also a genius, a leader, and just another person. He is a person who has suffered at the hands of enemies and determined not only to gain some sense of revenge and justice, but to make things better for everyone.

The Disney movie holds up well after 50 years, its two TV remakes in the late 1990s were interesting but not as grand - Ben Cross and Michael Caine played Captain Nemo, both had changes to the original Verne story line, one had a probably more realistic if boring submarine design, the other was very creative and looked like an armored horse-shoe crab.

With the changes in technology and societal expectations in our entertainment, there are some things to be forgiven in the movie, like some long singing scenes, and some long quiet visual scenes meant to be explanatory through watching instead of being told, but overall, it's still a wonderful movie. It has everything, except maybe romance, unless we include romance of the sea. It has a cool ship, a secret base, a trip to Atlantis, fist fights, fights against nature, fights for survival, fights against ideology, exploration, learning, challenges... it's just way cool. Go see it now - tape, laserdisc, or dvd.

Jules Verne Bibliography
GARMT DE VRIES' JULES VERNE COLLECTION
Jules Verne Collecting Site
North American Jules Verne Society

march 2004, disneystore.com, 1/96 model of nautilus
Quake's Collection
Quake's Collection images
Quake's Collection Divesuite
Maertens Sci Fi Study
David Campbell's Nautilus
Building a Nautilus Model
Remote Control Subs
Yahoo Nautilus Link
Chris Chulamanis
Michael Crisafulli
Michael Crisafulli 2
Michael Crisafulli 3
Verne's Nautilus
20K freeware game
Starship Modeler
Nautilus Screen Saver
Nautilus Model Kit
Sub Committee
Nautilus screen saver
SubConcepts Nautilus kit
VRML Link
31 Inch Nautilus Review
Federation Models
Euro-Disney - Paris Nautilus Review
Wikipedia Nautilus Link
Game Review
Disney 1/96th Nautilus message
FX Models
Vulcania
Movie sets - Nautilus
Building a model Nautilus
Custom Replicas
20K
William Babington's Nautilus
Engel RC Model
Nautilus Drydocks
Bjorn Lundberg's RC Model



Metropolis, a silent black and white film from 1927 by Fritz Lang, is a classic Romeo and Juliet tale, of physically and mentally separate upper and lower classes, managers and workers, above ground skyscrapers and below ground warrens, brains versus brawns. And each side realizes in the end that there needs to be a melding of heart and mind, of brains and brawn.

From the DVD review:
To this day, virtually every clich� of fantastic cinema � robot menace, dehumanizing architecture, science as adversary � can be traced to "Metropolis." Lang may not have been the first to film the battle between mechanization and humanity, but that he presciently foresaw it as a new wrinkle in the eternal conflict between the haves and have-nots. Nearly a century later, that battle still wages on.

There are several very good scenes in the movie, and which I enjoy is when the false Maria goes to Yoshiwara's "House of Sin", and dances. For special effects, it is low tech, but it is still captivating and I love the whole art deco look.

Another item, among many, in this film which continues to amaze me is the Robot transformation scene. I think it looks good today, and today's special effects wouldn't improve on it much, and for 1927, I think it is just spectacular.

Augusto's Met site
Metropolis info
DVD review
Jeff's Metropolis
Mark's Research paper



Lost in Space, Irwin Allen's 1965 TV series, started out as a somewhat serious show about a family sent into space as the vanguard of colonizing a distant planet. That idea lasted a few shows, maybe even for the first season. But then it changed, and by the end it had become an entertaining, fairly fun, throroughly camp, almost silly show.

It was still a family show, about a family, but the adventure was gone, really, the science pretty much non-existant, and the focus turned from "the family" to three of the whole group - the genius son, the family robot and the originally sinister turned coward villain.

It could have been a bit like Star Trek in a family atmosphere, a lost family Robinson, trying to still make it to their destination, meeting new races and species along the way, trying to communicate with home, still with a not-to-be-trusted stowaway. And if the series were remade today, that format could still work. Can you imagine if the WB network got a hold of it and gave it the Buffy/Smallville treatment? Hmmm, that has possibilities.

Interest in the show waxed and waned cyclically in the last 40 years. The show held its own in its second year against new sci fi upstart, Star Trek. Once the show was canceled, public and publicized interest seemed to come and go. There must have been enough interest at some point, though, as the new movie was made in the late 1990's. Too bad it didn't have a great storyline.

Interest does continue, however, phrases from the show are part of America's pop culture, people build replica's of the Robot, and Bob May, the man inside the Robot (But not the voice) shows up regularly at sci fi conventions.

LIS Official Site
LIS Australia
Irreverent LIS Guide
Irwin Allen News Network (2002)
LIS Memories
Mary's LIS site
Lost in Toys
Promised Planet
Rodney's LIS site
Robinson Family Bios

Build a B-9
B-9 Robot Web
B-9 Builders Club
Jeffbot
B9 Builders Club
Robot Builders Network
The Magnetic Lock
Bob May's Home Page
Michael Davis's Robot Information Page
Steve Tanner's B9 Site
Roy's B9 Site
Phil's B9 Robot
Bob Knill's B9 Site
Kevin Gasman's B9 Page
Brad Edmonds' B9 Site
Mike Joyce's B9 Site
Greg Logue's B9 Site
Mark Thompson's B-9



U.F.O, another series from Gerry Anderson, aired in 1970, depicting 1980s Earth under invasion from aliens, apparently by a dying race seeking to harvest human organs to extend their own lives. The show had some (but not much) hip technology on their side - big mobile tank units, a submarine with a rocket powered aircraft attached, and a lunar base with attack ships. The chief, Ed Straker, was a military man posing as a film studio executive. Above ground, the studios did make movies, below ground, as we would watch his office sink like an elevator, was the control center for Shado, the Supreme Headquaters Alien Defense Organization.

A few years ago, I managed to get all 26 episodes off eBay, and now they are available again on DVD, and it was an interesting trip backwards in time. Part of it was seeing how people view the future, how would we deal with an alien invasion, what was the whole story premise and how did the show reflect the culture at the time.

I found that, compared to today, drinking and smoking was much more prevalent on screen. Future life, at least 15-20 years in the future, wasn't all that different, except the convenient travel to the moon. And while the aliens were invading, neither side really had strong points. Alien ships seemed to arrive one at a time, maybe two, but not in a fleet, no mothership, no apparent base in outer space. The Earth force didn't seem to have much to fight back with either - a few land tanks, one submarine and three spacecraft armed with a small nuclear bomb.

Still, I suppose the show was more about the intellectual side of the invasion and how people dealt with it. How did Straker, and early alien attack victim, and others deal with the secret knowledge of teh invasion and their work to keep the world safe? How did Straker deal with the staff and get things done. How did people who knew something was going on and who were determined to reveal the cover up proceed. how did feelings change when an alien saved the life of a dying man on the moon whose airline had been punctured? Why did moon staff have purple hair? (The explanation is that their anti-static shampoo for use on the moon turned their hair purple)

How would this show be remade today? Probably more technology, more science, more action, more interaction between Shado forces and the aliens, hopefully more subtle plans by the aliens requiring weekly puzzle solving and detective work by Shado. If it were american-made, it would be all about the action, forget the brain-stuff. Although, if the WB got it, maybe Paramount, it could be OK. Still, it started as an English show, and typically had some decent focus on storyline and making people think instead of shoving mindless visual drivel at the viewers.



UFO Image Library
Starship Modeler
Sixties City - UFO
Dinky UFO
Monsters in motion
UFO
Fanderson.org
Shado
UFO
Star Trader
Chris Bishop
Chris bishop Trading page
UFO
UFO
Supermarionation MSN Group
UFO
Moonbase '99 (Italian)
SHADOBase Alpha
UFO-- Streaming audio and video
SHADO:UK (IU)
FANDERSON
The FAB-UFO List Archive
The S.H.A.D.O. Library and Archives and U.F.O.
ufoaspects
The SHADO Library
Entropy Express Flyers



The 1953 War of the Worlds movie starring Gene Barry started out originally as the 1898 H.G. Wells novel, which became the Oct. 30, 1938 Mercury Theatre Broadcast radio drama by Orson Welles (which many listeners thought was real, scaring them into actions of panic, fleeing their homes, and for some in Grover's Mill, NJ, taking their loaded shotguns out to confront the aliens in person. There are also reports of people resorting to suicide rather than face the alien's murderous advances). There was also a follow up TV series in 1988 which was based on the premise that the aliens hadn't died out but had gone into hibernation and were now out and about, integrating their cells into a human host and taking over control.

It was the movie version which captured my interest, or more specifically, the alien ships. it was the basic alien invasion story, arriving in what seemed like a meteor storm, then locals coming across the aliens, aliens rolling out more forces, military forces trying to bea thtem back, madness and mayhem, blah blah blah. After more than 50 years of alien invasions, it was still a decent story, and a good movie, but there were so many other similar stories.

But the ship, that was cool. Triangular body with a stem on top that looked a little like a flared atttacking cobra snake. and all of it glowing green at the corners. And the sounds special effects were great, especially the Probe. OK, I'm odd, but i really liked it.

Study Guide
WOTW book text
WOTW radio
WOTW
WOTW Info
WOTW Trailer
WOTW Pics
WOTW LinMovie 2
WOTW Movie
WOTW Links
WOTW TV
WOTW themes




Colossus: The Forbin Project
(also now the name of the software used by the insurance industry to estimate claim payouts)
A movie about a new USA computer meant to handle and co-ordinate everything. In time it links up and upgrades, and essentially takes over, a similar but slower Russian computer. Eventually, Colossus decides it can ensure humanity's best interests better than people and completely takes over the world.

Planet of the Apes - a series of films which first follows a group of astronauts who seem to speed through some cosmisc phenomena, landing on a planet filled with intelligent apes. Humans are the less intelligent creatures and are treated as pets and lab animals. By the end of the first film, it seems the astronauts aren't as far from home as they thought.

DUNE - Frank Herbert's tale of religious and polition intrigue, manipulation and war, set against a vast desert planet, giant worms, betrayal, a messianic prophecy and the ponderings of free will in following one's destiny.
Dune
Dune Messiah
Children of Dune
God Emperor of Dune
Heretics of Dune
Chapterhouse: Dune

Dune Genesis

The Butlerian Jihad
The Machine Crusade
The Battle of Corrin

House Atreides
House Harkonnen
House Corrino

Future Novels -
HUNTERS OF DUNE
SANDWORMS OF DUNE
THE ROAD TO DUNE - a compendium of never-before-published chapters from DUNE and DUNE MESSIAH, and original stories and a short novel written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.

World of Dune
Wikipedia - Dune
DUNE - Official Website


Flash Gordon - the comic strip, the 1930's movie serials, the campy 1980's movie, all about the athletic Flash Gordon, rocketing off to the planets of Mongo and Mars in order to save the Earth from destruction.

Space:1999 - another series from Gerry Anderson who did UFO and Thunderbirds. In this, a nuclear waste dump on the moon explodes and the moon is pushed wildly out of orbit, careening through the galaxy.

Blake's 7 - another wonderful sci fi series from England, a group of prisoners escape their prison ship, take over a derelict spacecraft and become rebels fighting against the tyrany of the Federation. Great space ship design, great sarcasm and wit, greatly entertaining.

Superman - comics strips, tv shows, cartoons, movies, books, action figures and just about every other type of memorabilia. The sole survivor (depending on the version being read and when) of another planet, Kal-El is rocketed by his parents to Earth where he'll be safe. He also happens to develop superhuman powers along the way...

I, Robot - a series of books beginning with this title by Isaac Asimov in which he states the three laws of Robotics, ensuring that robots are helpers not enslavers.

Battlestar Galactica - a 1970's TV show, and a Sci Fi channel remake in 2003, about a physically distant branch of humans whose numbers are being decimated by a race of robots/androids. The survivors of the ongoing attacks flee in a motley collection of ships, following a myth of another colony who settled on a planet called Earth.

The Matrix - a movie trilogy whose premise is that the world people see around them is nothing but a computer generated virtual reality. The "real" world is one dominated by sentient machines who use humans as batteries to run their own world. "The One" has arisen to challenge this world order.

Quark - a short lived mid-70's sit com starring Richard Benjamin about a space trash hauler and his crew. Some of it was quite funny.

The Invisible Man - 1970's show starring David McCallum, formerly of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Taken - a Sci Fi shannel mini series about a decades long experiement by aliens, seemingly to create a human/alien hybrid

Automan - a one season tv show about a computer scientist who creates a sentient solid holographic man - an automatic man - starring Desi Arnaz jr and Chuck Wagner.

Inherit the Stars - a book quadrilogy by James Hogan about an ancient race of alien giants who leave a few traces of their journies on Earth's moon. Also see SF Book.com




Sci-Fi Channel
R2 Builders Club

Some images from: Textures

First Floor
Foyer Kitchen Living Dining Conservatory Greenhouse Garden
Media Game SciFi Collectors Library Gallery Computer Workout
Tower Lab Crypt Secret Garage Office Outside

Second Floor
Spirituality Power Gay Crafts Work Egypt
Bedroom Geneology HTML Tower Castle Misc
Family Mike Danny Randy
Jon Michael Garth Mark

Last updated on October 7, 2004
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