Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*

The Doctor, the Daleks & the 1960s

As usual there are spoilers ahead!  You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky.  If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. https://www.patreon.com/everyscififilm This episode we track the birth of one of the longest running franchises. Dr Who was first broadcast in 1963 and with the help of some exterminating aliens a film was produced just a couple of years later. I speak to my wonderful Whovian guests about the origins, the hallmarks and the 1960s context of the infamous Doctor including the colourful and shiny 1960s feature films.  Paul Booth is a professor of Media and Pop Culture with a special interest in fandoms on which he has written extensively. He is co-editor of the book Adventures Across Space and Time: A Doctor Who Reader.  Lee Arnott is the co-host if the Problematic Gaze podcast. He is a social historian who is currently researching the the social history of Britain since the 1960s through the lens of Doctor Who. Although Australian composer Ron Gainer wrote the music for Dr Who it was Delia Derbyshire at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop who produced the theme.  You can see the Delia Derbyshire clip I mention on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsRuhCflRyg Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:41The BBC origins of the series 04:45 The first episode, changes and differences on the big screen 09:40 The Daleks and Dalekmania 13:20 WW2, Nazis and nuclear fears 19:37 More Daleks 23:33 The Doctor 27:33 What is canon 29:21 The Companions 35:13 The Tardis 38:05 Design 42:02 (The best ever) theme tune 45:46 Legacy 49:22 Success and favourite doctors 53:04 Recommendations Recommendations:  Lee recommended The War Game (1965) and Paul recommended the book Dr. Who & The Daleks: The Official Story of the Films by John Walsh.     NEXT EPISODE! Next episode we will be discussing the 1965 French New Wave science fiction film Alphaville by Jean-Luc Godard. It is easy to rent on main streaming platforms as well as other places in the US including Mubi and Kanopy. To find the film in your region you can visit the Just Watch website.

First Men in the Moon: From HG Wells to 1964

As always there are spoilers ahead! You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky. If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. https://www.patreon.com/everyscififilm First Men on the Moon was written by HG Wells and serialised in The Strand Magazine beginning in 1900. The book was published in 1901 a year before Georges Méliès kicked off science fiction cinema with La Voyage dans la Lune in 1902. (You can learn more about that film in episode number 2 The First Science Fiction Film Ever.) Then in the swinging 60s as the space race was heating up a collection of brilliant sci-fi filmmakers go together to make a story about a Victorian British scientist going to the moon with his anti-gravity material Cavorite! And yet even the amazing Ray Harryhausen stop motion special effects were not enough to make this film a success. My amazing guests break down the origins and outcomes of this mid-century oddity. Keith Williams is a Reader in English Literature at the University of Dundee where he runs the science fiction programme. He has a special interest in the pre 1945 period and is the author of the book H.G. Wells, Modernity and the Movies. Matthew Rule-Jones is a senior lecturer in film studies at the University of Exeter and author of the book Science Fiction Cinema and 1950s Britain: Recontextualising Cultural Anxiety. At 6:09 Keith is about to explain the contraption that Robert William Paul was planning based on HG wells Time Machine. I interrupt him as we've covered this in two episodes priot. You can access more information about that on episode 37 The Time Machine: HG Wells' Legacy in 1960s Sci-Fi at timecode 23:07 or in episode 9 The Invisible Man Exposed at timecode 38:29. Chapters 00:00 Intro 02:23 HG Wells, selenites and Georges Méliès Trip to the Moon 06:57 Balancing act: Producer Charles Schneer vs Writer Nigel Kneale. 12:44 Box Office flop 15:12 Dreams of Empire and international cooperation 19:40 Steampunk sensibilities 22:26 The backdrop of the Space Race 26:58 Bedford and Cavor 33:20 Ray Harryhausen 37:50 NASA and the moon landing 41:12 Ant colonies and sci-fi 46:42 Legacy 50:10 Recommendations Recommendations: The First Men in the Moon (2010) The Stone Tape (1972) available to view on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHgcpzzZspw NEXT EPISODE! The next episode will feature two films: Dr Who & the Daleks (1965) as well as Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966). These films are available to buy or stream on mainstream platforms like Apple and Prime as well as subscription services. The Just Watch website is a good resource for finding where films are available in your region.

Missed Episode, Medicine & Metropolis

I am very sorry but I have been unwell this past week. (But I am on the mend!) Multiple visits to the hospital mean that although I have the next episode recorded I have not been able to edit it. I've heard many podcasts serve up older episodes in this circumstance. Maybe an annoyance to those who have already heard all the episodes but for those who haven't since it is 2026 it's probably a good opportunity to watch Metropolis (1927) as this year is the year it was set. I have two remarkable and engaging academics speak about it. Sonja Fritzsche is a professor of German Studies and an author/editor for many books about science fiction. She has taught courses on science fiction, utopia and Metropolis. Noah Isenberg is a film historian and best-selling author. He is a professor at the University of Texas and editor of the book Weimar Cinema: An Essential Guide to Classic Films of the Era. This episode was originally released in April 2024 and was episode 5 of the podcast.  I will hopefully be back in great health soon and the new episode on First Men in the Moon will be edited for release in two weeks.

Dr. Strangelove: Cold War Comedy & 1964 USA

As always there are spoilers ahead! You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky. If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. https://www.patreon.com/everyscififilm In 1958 the Peter George novel Red Alert was published about the dangers of nuclear war. A few years later when Stanley Kubrick was looking to make a (serious) film about the topic he was recommended the book. Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was the resulting film. The film takes aim at military strategy, rhetoric and the people involved to give us one of the most famous satires in cinema. It would be quite easy to double the length of this episode, but we've tried to fit as much as we can into the hour with my two remarkable guests. Mark Bould is a professor of Film and Literature at the University of West England, Bristol. He has written/edited extensively about science fiction cinema. Rodney F Hill is a Professor of Film at the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication at Hofstra University and has written extensively about film. This is the article I mention by Eric Schlosser: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/almost-everything-in-dr-strangelove-was-true Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:12 Source material 03:12 The threat of Lumet's Fail Safe 05:35 Herman Kahn, winnable nuclear war and the doomsday machine 08:25 Nazi scientist Wernher von Braun and Operation Paperclip 13:55 Nuclear policy and the Cold War 17:23 Doomsday comedy 25:51 Masculinity, techno-eroticism and bodily fluids 33:21 Peter Sellers 38:04 1960s satire boom 40:11 Production design of Ken Adam 41:25 Music 43:27 The changes to the film 46:32 Legacy 54:34 Recommendations Recommendations: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Fail Safe (1964). NEXT EPISODE! Next episode we will be talking about First Men on the Moon (1964). The film is based on the HG Wells novel and features stop motion animation by Ray Harryhausen. It is is available to stream and rent from Apple. The Just Watch website can give you a list of where the film is available in your region.

What is Afrofuturism?

Time for another detour! An introduction to Afrofuturism with two magnificent guests. You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky. If you would like to be a patron of the podcast it would be greatly appreciated! You can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. https://www.patreon.com/everyscififilm The symbol mentioned in the podcast a few times is the Sankofa symbol which is a recurring symbol in Afrofuturism. It represents the idea that there are things that you go back for (and things you leave behind). You can read more about it on this wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sankofa Julian Chambliss is a scholar and a professor at Michigan State University. He is the author of multiple books including Mapping Afrofuturism: Understanding Black Speculative Practice Ytasha Womack is a filmmaker, cultural critic and author of the books Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture and The Afro Futurist Evolution: Creative Paths of Self Discovery. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:18 Afrofuturism origin story 08:04 Afrofuturism and science fiction 11:44 Retro Afrofuturism: Of One Blood by Pauline Hopkinson 16:37 The diaspora and Afrofuturism 19:53 Dance and the individual as a nexus of time and space 23:24 Ancestry in Afrofuturism 25:32 Moving away from dystopia: Slavery as apocalypse 29:55 Optimism for the future 33:03 Holistic utopias and protopia. 35:43 Mystical frameworks 38:15 Alternative realities and the multiverse 41:38 Theory, practice and interconnectedness 46:21 Recommendations Recommendations: The Afro Futurist Evolution: Creative Paths of Self Discovery by Ytasha Womack (I would also thoroughly recommend her book Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture.) Agharta by Miles Davis Blake; or The Huts of America: A Tale of the Mississippi Valley, the Southern United States, and Cuba by Martin Delany Space is the Place by Sun Ra Lee "Scratch" Perry George Clinton Mothership Connection by Parliament Pedro Bell and Overton Loyd Beyond the Black Panther exhibition at MSU Rise podcast by Julian Infinitum by Tim Fielder NEXT EPISODE! Next time we'll be talking about Dr Strangelove or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and love the Bomb (1964)! You can watch the film pretty much anywhere and it is readily available to buy or rent online from many platforms. I would also recommend watching Fail Safe from the same year because it is excellent, affected the production of Dr Strangelove and due to their similarities.