Science Fiction 101

Fifty years ago, schoolboy Phil was knocked out by a British science fiction TV show, the post-apocalyptic SURVIVORS. Created by Terry Nation - who also created DOCTOR WHO's recurring enemy the Daleks and BLAKES SEVEN - SURVIVORS ran for three seasons. Today, Phil has persuaded Colin to take a first look at this sometimes harrowing (but ultimately life-affirming) cult classic, and together they discuss some selected episodes from the series. If you check out the show notes, you'll find direct links to the episodes we've been watching, so you can watch them, too. Find the show notes at https://101sf.blogspot.com/2025/08/surviving-survivors-episode-58-of.html

Colin and Phil decided to challenge each other with books, stories and films that they thought the other hadn't read or seen. The result is some suggestions for reading and watching that we'd like you all to consider. These aren't necessarily the best science fiction around, but they are all items we greatly enjoy and heartily recommend. We hope you enjoy our suggestions every bit as much as our robo-butler enjoys serving them up to you. For more information, including links to many of the items we discuss, check out the shownotes at https://101sf.blogspot.com/2025/07/serving-suggestions-episode-57.html

What on earth does science have to do with science fiction? Is SF fiction about science? Is it fiction that takes a scientific approach to fiction? Without getting into the tedium of multiple possible definitions of science fiction, Colin and Phil explore what they expect of something labelled "science fiction". What you can expect is a rambling conversation that touches on philosopy, physics, logic, time travel, and much more. We also have our usual quiz, and our dash through the past, present and future of our favourite genre. For more information, check the show notes at: https://101sf.blogspot.com/2025/07/science-andor-fiction-episode-56.html

Every year, we review the short stories shortlisted for the famous Hugo Awards. It's our way of keep abreast of trends in the field of science fiction without having to read a ton of longer works! All of the shortlisted stories are available online for free - for links to all of them, checkout the shownotes: https://101sf.blogspot.com/2025/06/reviewing-hugo-short-stories-episode-55.html So why not take a look at the stories for yourself, and see if you agree with Colin's and Phil's assessment? Also in the episode we have our usual features: a quiz (about SF movies), and our recommendations of past/present/future science fiction.

Sometimes the podstreams just cross, and this episode is a prime example. When Colin suggested reviewing It Came From Outer Space, the classic 1953 science fiction movie created by Ray Bradbury, it was right up Phil's alley - and so this episode is also going out (slightly modified) as part of his Bradbury 100 pod! The discussion ranges from Bradbury's contribution to the screenplay to the quality of the 3D, and takes in your humble hosts' views on whether or not screen creatures should be revealed or concealed. For more information, check out the show notes at: https://101sf.blogspot.com/2025/05/it-came-from-outer-space-episode-54.html

Flow (2024) is an extraordinary film - Latvia's most successul of all time, and winner of the Oscar for Best Animated Film. Colin and Phil discuss whether it counts as science fiction (of course it does!), and what makes this delightful movie tick. If you haven't seen the film, we think we give you enough of flavour of it for the discussion to make sense, and hopefully to inspire you to watch it. We also have a cat/SF quiz, and our traditional round-up of recommendations of past/present/future science fiction. Find the full show notes on our website: https://101sf.blogspot.com/2025/04/go-with-flow-episode-53.html

Discovery of a buried skull turns a London building site into a palaeontological dig. Until, in a geological layer that's five million years old, a bomb is found. Send for Professor Quatermass! Quatermass and the Pit (1967) - aka Five Million Years to Earth in the US (1968) - is the best and most successful of the British science-fiction horror film series, based in turn on a TV series from a decade before. Colin and Phil examine it from all angles to see what makes it tick. We also have a fiendish Q-uiz, and our usual round up of past, present and future SF recommendations. For more information, check out the show notes at: https://101sf.blogspot.com/2025/03/mind-gap-professor-quatermass-episode-52.html

We once claimedTintin: Destination Moon was science fiction, because an animated white dog accompanied an animated human to the moon on a rocketship. Now we outrageously extend the concept as we explore the sci-fi worlds of another animated dog/human partnership: Wallace & Gromit! If you've been living in another solar system these past thirty-six years, you may not be aware of these plasticine pals, but it's our job to bring you up to date as we examine the SF chops of every one of the Wallace and Gromit movies, coming bang up to date with the Oscar-nominated recent releaseVengeance Most Fowl. For more information on everything covered in this episode, head to the shownotes on our blog:https://101sf.blogspot.com/2025/02/cracking-sci-fi-episode-51-of-podcast.html

It's another one of our (made-up) time-honored traditions: reviewing a current science fiction magazine. We usually do this once a year, to keep on top of current SF trends - and also to compare & contrast current magazines with the SF magazines of the past. Last time, we went back 50 years to review ANALOG. This time, we're bang up-to-date (almost) with a very recent issue of the same magazine. Analog is the longest-continuously-running SF magazine, having been around under various titles since the 1930s! What will make of Analog's longstanding reputation for "hard SF" ? How does the magazine stack up against its wholly online competitors such as Clarkesworld and Uncanny? How does it stack up against its former self? No quiz this time, but we finish off with our usual round-up of recommendations of past/present/future science fiction. For full shownotes, check out our blog at: 101sf.blogspot.com

In time-honored tradition, for our December episode we go hurtling back in time to review a science fiction magazine from the past. Get your flares, platform shoes and ghettoblasters ready as we head back to...November 1974. We're picking on Analog magazine, just because we've never reviewed it before. And it's only the longest-continuously-running SF magazine in existence. It started in 1930 as Astounding Stories, was renamed Analog in the 1960s, and continues under that name to this day. As we join it in 1974, it's in the early years of the editorship of Ben Bova, and is beginning to modernise. If you'd like to browse through the issue with us, you can download it as a PDF from this link. And don't forget the shownotes, which you can find at 101sf.blogspot.com

It occurred to us that although we have discussed many specific books on the show, we've never devoted an episode to the idea of the book - those papery, texty things that Stephen King has described as "uniquely portable magic". So in this episode, we address the various ways in which books can be enjoyed and consumed, and discuss ten (or eleven) questions on the subject of books. We also have a book-adjacent quiz, and our usual round up of recommendations of past, present and future SF. For links and shownotes, check out our web page: https://101sf.blogspot.com/2024/11/uniquely-portable-magic-episode-48.html

It's fifty years since the TV series of Planet of the Apes debuted, enlivening the childhood of millions around the planet of the humans. Phil and Colin enjoyed the show as kids, but now undertake a celebratory rewatch, reviewing the adventures of Virdon (the blond one), Burke (the dark-haired one), and Galen (the hairy one). We also have a Planet of the Apes quiz, and our usual round up of recommendations of past, present and future SF. For full show notes, check out our blog at 101sf.blogspot.com

August 2024 saw the World Science Fiction Convention, held in Glasgow, Scotland. Phil stayed at home, but intrepid traveller Colin crossed a continent and an ocean to experience his first Worldcon. Find out how he got on - and how Phil and Colin somehow managed not to meet, despite both being in England at the same time... Also in today's show, a special quiz from friend of the podcast Peter Kuskie (last seen in episode 11), and our usual round up of all good things science fictional. For more details, and links to items mentioned in the pod, look for the shownotes at: https://101sf.blogspot.com/2024/09/conventional-wisdom-episode-46-of.html

The first women to appear (as "soloists") on the ballot for science fiction's Hugo Awards were Zenna Henderson and Pauline Ashwell, in 1959. (Catherine L. Moore had appeared on an earlier ballot, but for a collaboration with Henry Kuttner.) Fearing that Henderson and Ashwell might be drifting into obscurity, Colin and Phil set out to review their Hugo-nominated novelettes: Zenna Henderson's "Captivity" - find it here: https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v014n06_1958-06_PDF/page/n3/mode/2up Pauline Ashwell's "Unwillingly to School" - find it here: https://archive.org/details/sim_astounding-science-fiction_1958-01_60_5/page/8/mode/2up We also have the obligatory fiendish sci-fi quiz, and our usual round-up of recommendations of past/present/future SF. For full show notes, check out our blog - https://101sf.blogspot.com/2024/08/zennas-people-and-paulines-lizzie.html

We're back - and it's the time to review this year's Hugo-nominated short stories! The Hugos are the awards given by members of the annual World Science Fiction Convention (whose numbers this year will include our very own Colin, who will be attending the worldcon in Glasgow). Also in today's episode, we have a quiz. Sort of. See if you can get it before Phil has a clue what's going on... And there's our usual round up of SF past, present and future. For the full show notes, check out our blog: https://101sf.blogspot.com/2024/07/hugos-where-i-goes-episode-44-of-podcast.html

We're back, with an episode about the great British SF writer John Wyndham. On many occasions we've found ourselves talking about his books - such as The Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos - but now we attempt to do them justice with a closer look. For the full show notes, visit our blog at 101sf.blogspot.com

Time for another regular episode of the podcast, and this time we have more interview goodness from the Hugo- and Nebula-winning SF writer Robert J. Sawyer. We had so much fun talking to Rob about his new novel The Downloaded (see episode 40) that we decided to gather up the more general parts of our discussion into a separate segment. So here you will hear talk of Planet of the Apes, science fiction conferences, and much much more. We also have a mostly Star Trek quiz, but with a few Star Wars questions thrown in to trip Phil up. And the usual recommendations of past/present/future SF. For more detail, check out the show notes at: https://101sf.blogspot.com/2024/05/off-on-tangent-more-interview-fun-with.html

This is a bonus episode of Science Fiction 101, in which we abandon our quizzes and throw our past/present/future items out the window, and just give you a straightforward interview. It's all about staging a science fiction film festival! Our guest is Russ Repp, who is responsible for the mammoth, eight-week, science fiction film festival currently happening in Portland, Oregon, in the city's remarkable OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry). Russ talks us through the history of the festival, and lets us in on the secrets of how a sci-fi film festival is programmed. Full information on the OMSI Science Fiction Festival (which continues until late May 2024) can be found here: https://omsi.edu/exhibits/sci-fi-film-fest/ Even if - like Phil - you're nowhere near Oregon, this is still a fascinating tale of how a festival is put together. Next episode, we'll be back to our usual format, but we hope you enjoy this little bonus!

Time for a new episode of the podcast. This time Colin and Phil meet the Hugo- and Nebula-winning author Robert J. Sawyer, to discuss his new novel The Downloaded. You may recall we reviewed the Audible Original full-cast audio version of The Downloaded a couple of episodes ago (you can find it here). We were keen to find out how the book version differs from the audio version, so we invited Rob onto the show to discuss. And what a discussion it is! Also in this episode, we have listener responses to our "to be a fan" episode, and our usual ramble through the past, present and future of SF. For the full show notes, check out our website at 101sf.blogspot.com

Are you a science fiction fan? Possibly, or why else would you be listening to this podcast? Phil and Colin ponder what it means to be a fan, and whether there are are specific rules for entry into fandom. We also have our usual quiz, and our past/present/future discussion. For full show notes, check out our website at https://101sf.blogspot.com/