The A To Z Of SFF

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story tells the story of the brave rebels that stole the plans to the Death Star and led us into the opening crawl of Star Wars: The Episode Four. Is it a story that needed to be told? Let's just say that Rob and Clive... disagree. Strap in. Frank exchange of views ahead.

Kim Newman's Anno Dracula books are wild, freewheeling takes on alternative history that that gleefully mash together fictional and historical figures to tell the story of a word where Dracula is real. A meta-fictional treat for anyone that likes their pulp. Rob and Clive certainly do...

After the Doctor saves the day and vworps off in the TARDIS, very little thought is given as to what happens next. Until now, that is. YA spinoff Class pits a ragtag group of mismatched youths left in charge of a rift in space-time against alien threats. Nothing like a DW retread of the Buffyverse, then... To be fair, Class is smarter and much more watchable than the setup suggests. Join Rob, Clive and Curiosity as they check out the pilot episode!

A dose of grimy 90s cyberpunk from director Richard Stanley that'll leave you feeling like you need a shower. Great practical effects, some creative gore and a heavily-encrusted aesthetic makes this a retro pleasure. But there's  a controversy at he heart of the film, that led to an unexpected credit nod from a couple of 2000AD writers. Let Rob, Clive and Curiosity give you the lowdown...

The last Marvel movie of 2016 is a fun, psychedelic romp through the origins of the Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Stephen Strange! Join Rob, Clive and Curiosity as they explore the world, the performances and whether or not we've found the last one of those pesky Infinity Stones...

The last of our Spooky SFF episodes celebrates a gritty slice of New York noir that twists and turns into a highly freaky slice of horror-tinged SF. From acclaimed low-budget film-maker Larry Cohen, this is a film that takes virtue from the lack of money. Cohen favours invention and good writing over special effects Sturm und Drang. A meditation on identity, religion and family, God Told Me to is a powerful piece of work that really stays with you. A fitting end to our exploration of the horrific side of SFF!

Onwards with Spooky SFF month, as we discuss a massively influential slice of hauntological freakiness: Nigel Kneale's terrifying The Stone Tape. It ticks all the boxes: 70s setting, shot on video, Radiophonic Workshop soundtrack. A sharply empathetic performance from Jane Asher helps to elevate this story, but the whole thing is deeply unnerving and still bloody scary. This is what happens when you try to solve the science behind hauntings... Includes the first instance of a new term from Rob: cathode-punk.  

We continue Spooky SFF month with the bizarre gore-drenched fantasy-horror The Sword And The Sorcerer. It's a formative experience for both our futurenauts for various reasons (including a parental ban from Clive's mum and dad). Master of exploitation Albert Pyun's first movie, it features changes in tone rapid and extreme enough to give you whiplash. From swashbuckling to sadism, this movie has it all!

It's October, which means Curiosity is skewing spooky. This month our over-excitable alien chum is feeding Rob and Clive titles with an extra layer of creepyplasma. We start with Tobe Hooper's Lifeforce–a deranged slice of Quatermass-style oddness with added nudity, exploding corpses and weapons-grade scenery-chewing. This one has to be seen to be believed, and even then you won't believe what you're seeing.

No, we're not talking about the 70s Michael York/Jenny Agutter film. Rather, we're taking a look at the source material–the William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson novel. An entirely different, much darker but much more cinematic prospect. And frankly, it's a lot more fun. We believe the time is right to reconsider this cracking, pulpy take on a society that has shrugged off its humanity in favour of youth.

What would survival in a post-oil society be like? As life slips back into an agrarian, hard-scrabble existence, how can we find meaning or even happiness? How much do we have to lose before we lose our essential humanity? Stephen Fingleton's cult psychodrama The Survivalist takes on these questions and weaves a taut story of uneasy trust and betrayal from these tangled threads. A film to admire, and one that gives you a lot to think about...

A parable on the sacrifices even the most utopian societies have to make. Does Ursula LeGuin's acclaimed story dig into a deeper truth...or is it simply stating the obvious? Worse, is it suggesting that the best we can do when faced with atrocity is walk away? Rob and Clive try to unpick this most knotty of threads, only to find themselves more deeply tangled than before... 

It was inevitable that the Curious Crew would talk about a Studio Ghibli film at some point. And what better example than there be than Miyazaki's adaptation of Diana Wynne-Jone's novel? An explicitly anti-war film that absorbs, refracts and re-projects the source text (already a thing of beauty) into a rare and remarkable piece of fantasy fiction. If you've never seen a Ghibli film... start here!

One bad day. That's all it takes to turn you from a normal citizen into a psychopath. Or at least that's what The Joker would have you think. In Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's massively influential The Killing Joke the nature of evil is explored, along with the cyclical nature of catch and release at the heart of the relationship between the Bat and The Clown. Rob, Clive and Curiosity take on one of the comic scene's more controversial reimaginings and find that joke isn't funny anymore.

Rob, Clive and Curiosity celebrate a landmark piece of SF in the shape of the 1956 classic, Forbidden Planet. It's widely recognised as a formative text in the creation of Star Trek, and influential in the production and sound design of Star Wars and many other examples of filmed and TVSF. If you like the fiction of sciencey, you need to be all over this film. Worst name for a starship ever, though...

A five-year mission. A villain with a secret past. A warrior princess. A crew without a ship. A family without a home. Faced with a situation like this, there's only one way to go... and that's BOLDLY. Join Rob, Clive and Curiosity as they fire up the warp engines and engage... in a discussion on the merits of 2016's Star Trek: Beyond. Spoilers, needless to say, are in abundance. Alert Condition Red for that, yeah?

Kinda, unfairly, has a reputation as one of the worst episodes of Davidson-era Doctor Who, largely based on the slightly duff effects at its climax. OK, sure, the 'terrifying embodiment' of the villainous Mara is pretty poor by today's standard...or any time, frankly. But, as Rob and Clive make clear, there's a hell of a lot more to Kinda then one ten-foot-tall rubber snake. Cycles of life and death, good and evil, peace and war. A satirical take on colonialism. And some eerily effective dream sequences, that still have the power to unnerve us even now. A deeply atypical episode of Fifth Doctor goodness. Join our gestalt mind and discover more...

Star Trek: Deep Space 9 is often thought of as the darkest of the franchises, but it had its lighter moments. Take the 20th Anniversary commemorative episode, a goofy, utterly delightful celebration of everything that makes the show such a beloved SF benchmark for so many people.  It's got time-travel, Terry Farrell in THAT dress, a proper cantina fight and an exploding Tribble! What more could you want?  

In which Rob fanbois so hard over Ray Bradbury that he nearly breaks something. Seriously, though, A Sound Of Thunder is a formative SF text, and hence very worth of a one over from the Curiosity Crew. Just stay away from the movie, ok?

A classic piece of short SF, and a landmark story in all sorts of ways. Join Rob and Clive as they look at this dark parody of masculinity, which comes to some pretty brutal conclusions about the role and future of women on this planet.