Imagine Star Trek designed by Stanley Kubrick and inhabited by a plethora of familiar (or soon to be familiar) British actors, led by three American TV stars. It's a SF show that mixes big imaginative concepts with foam machines and alien babes in tight costumes. It looks amazing, with one of the most iconic spaceships that ever flew across the small screen. And for a while, it was one of the biggest SF series on TV. The Moon has escaped orbit and gone warping across the galaxy. Each episode...

Seasons greetings! Stingray is the iconic children's television series that captured the imagination of Sixties viewers. Created by the legendary Gerry and Sylvia Andersonthis pioneering show set new standards for their Supermarionation process, as well as being their first in colour. The series follows the adventures of the crew aboard the futuristic submarine known as Stingray, designed for undersea exploration and defense. Led by the valiant Captain Troy Tempest, his partner Lieutenant...

A fascinating curio from producer Gerry Anderson's peak period, made in between seasons one and two of Space: 1999 and featuring many personnel from that programme. The spaceship Altares, with a photon drive capable of accelerating it to the speed of light, leaves an Earth-orbiting space station. The Altares crew, two families of trained specialists, journey at light speed to Alpha Centauri, experiencing time-dilation. After launching several satellites to transmit information on the...

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham is one of the best known science fiction novels in Britain. For many viewers, the 1981 BBC adaptation remains the best and closest version. The series follows the story of Bill Marsden, a farmer living in a post-apocalyptic world after a meteor shower has rendered most of the population blind. The disaster also allows a species of mobile carnivorous plant called Triffids to escape and multiply. Bill is a young man who has retained his sight due to...

Chocky was a science fiction novel by John Wyndham, the final one published in his lifetime (1968). It tells the story of an 11 year old boy named Matthew, who begins to exhibit strange behavior and abilities that concern his parents. They learn that Matthew has an imaginary friend named Chocky, who is actually a highly advanced alien being with a mission to help humanity. Yet the alien knows enough about humanity to know that if people discover the truth, Matthew's life will be in danger...

It wouldn't be claiming too much to say that George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984 is one of the key books of post-war Britain and its influence is still with us today. Big Brother, newspeak, double-think, thought police, are all concepts used in politics and social media. However, the book might not have broken into the mainstream without the help of a BBC television adaptation in 1954. It created controversy in the newspapers and even the Houses of Parliament, whilst gripping the nation at a...

Who hasn't dreamed of stepping into a time machine and whizzing off to an exciting historical destination? Dominick Hide certainly has, but he's under strict instructions to only observe from the air, never land, never get involved. But Dominick is insatiably curious about the wild heady world 1980 and his long lost ancestor, so one night he does touch down, stepping into a romantic adventure with a beautiful shop owner called Jane. How long can keep up his illegal adventure? What will be the...

Season 2 kicks off with E4's seemingly little remembered comedy drama about extra-terrestrial immigrants - The Aliens. UK in the near future and humanity has made its first contact with alien life. Instead of changing the world, the survivors of a crashed spacecraft from the 1970's have become Britain's latest despised underclass. Heavily policed, carrying out menial jobs and being forced to live in a walled ghetto called Troy. Lewis is one of the border guards and shares the common...

Outcasts followed the trials of humanity's first, and it would seem, last colony on a new planet. A new frontier of hope for a better world, but dogged by human weaknesses of the oldest kind. A major new BBC adult science fiction series for the 21st century. At least that was the pitch. Kudos were one of the coolest TV companies around, with dramas like Life on Mars and Spooks under their belt. Writer and producer Ben Richards had made his name with the latter and had recently written cult...

Des Kinvig's small world is turned upside when he discovers one of his customers, sexy Miss Griffin is in fact an alien from Mercury, fighting a secret war with the Xux. Is he really the only man who can help her save the Earth? Or is he just a desperate fantasist who's been listening to his UFO-mad friend Jim Piper for too long? Nigel Kneale, creator of Quatermass, writer of TV classics such The Stone Tape, 1984, and Beasts, took an unexpected turn into situation comedy for 1981's Kinvig....

Deep space explorers encountering strange new dangers. Mutant powers hidden among us. Futuristic societies with surprising moralities. Cutting edge technology bringing unexpected dilemmas for the people who use it. Created by the pioneering television producer Irene Shubik and featuring some of the leading talents on television on both sides of the lens, Out of the Unknown remains one of the BBC's best science fiction series. Drawing on stories from SF masters such as Isaac Asimov, Ray...

The tourist season is over and Inverdee Island is closing down and preparing for the winter. But when the body of Shelia Anderson is discovered, seemingly torn apart by a killer with inhuman strength, the islanders must join together to fight something terrifyingly unknown. Broadcast only once in 1981, The Nightmare Man has achieved cult status as rare but expertly made piece of primetime SF/Horror from the BBC. Looking into the roots of this drama and Child of Vodyanoi, the original novel...

It's just another day in Sheffield, everyone going about their own affairs, when suddenly the unthinkable happens - a nuclear strike. When the survivors scrabble out of the rubble, that is just the beginning of a waking nightmare, as modern society quickly crumbles into starvation and suffering. The BBC2 TV play Threads was a television landmark that is still as powerful today as it was in 1982. Written by Barry (Kes) Hines and directed by Mick Jackson before he went to Hollywood, it is a...

Mankind is busy colonising the solar system. Space stations in orbit, a busy moonbase, and pioneers on Mars. A new frontier however brings new opportunities for crime: industrial, political and personal. That's where the International Space Police Force (ISPF) come in, known sardonically as the Star Cops. Now career cop Nathan Spring has been reluctantly sent into space to shake up the volunteers and turn them into a real police service. Created by Chris Boucher, writer for Blake's 7 and...

Somewhere in the world, sometime in the future where television is the only growth industry, star reporter Edison Carter is on the track of hot new story about a new kind of advertising, unskippable, unavoidable and for many people - fatal. When boy genius Bryce sets a lethal trap for him, Edison is left in a coma, but a copy of his mind is about to become something unique - the world's first computer generated lifeform - Max Headroom! Catch the wave with us back to 1985 when for a few...

When retired photojournalist Steve Blake sees a man die in a car explosion, then meets the same man the next day apparently unscathed, it is the beginning of a terrifying journey. The thread leads Blake and a woman called Melissa Gates to the mystery of the disappearance of Sweet Hope beneath the sea, a village whose population was miraculously rescued that night by Constable Philip Gates. Or were they? After a horrific discovery underwater, Steve and Melissa realise they have uncovered a...

The rogue planet Medusa arrives in our solar system. Beneath its surface is an advanced alien civilisation where woman rule and men are slaves. Adam and Shem steal a space yacht and travel to Earth, a paradise where it is rumoured that men are in charge and women obey. Hot in pursuit are Security Chief Octavia and Councillor Fulvia, Adam's owner. A space adventure series, a satire on the battle of the sexes, a SF parody, or a seriously intended rival to Gerry Anderson's Century 21...

Earth 2089. A time of peace and contentment thanks to the benevolent rule of the Tripods, huge machine beings who "cap" teenagers to make them productive adults. Yet, Will Parker believes there is something very wrong with the world, and together with his cousin Henry, sets out on a quest to find the legendary Free Men and ultimately topple the Tripods. At its time it was the biggest SF production ever mounted by the BBC. Yet two years in it was unceremoniously cancelled, leaving its...

In the near-future (2020!) post civil war Britain is ruled by a military dictatorship - The Knights of God. A young man called Gervaise becomes a key player in both the resistance and the plans of the fanatical Prior Mordrin. We journey back to the Eighties to take a critical look ITV's post-apocalyptic teatime adventure series, which featured an impressive cast and budget. Why did it remind us of Harry Potter? What motivates the Knights? How do these characters get around the country so...

At the beginning of the space age, a plucky band of scientists and children launch into adventures on the Moon, Mars and Venus. They are - Pathfinders in Space! UK television has created some of most influential, imaginative and scary science fiction in the medium's short history. Take a journey into some of the lesser known regions with Very British Futures. We begin with the ABC 1961-62 teatime drama series created by Sydney Newman, the television pioneer who would later devise Doctor Who...

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