I just thought I’d follow up on the question I asked the other day: The film Soylent Green (1973) makes a clear reference to the greenhouse effect and global warming. When was the first clear reference to anthropogenic climate change (related to industry, gasoline powered vehicles, etc.) in science fiction? At first, I thought the […]

Read more "Soylent Follow-Up"

You know, I just realised something new! In one of Spock’s most famous mind melds in the Star Trek episode “The Devil in The Dark”, he melds with a Horta, which is the odd shaggy silicon based life form featured therein. Crying out, essentially in the voice of the Horta, Spock says “Devils!” referring to […]

Read more "No Kill I"

Of course, the most memorable aspect of the 1973 sci-fi film, Soylent Green, is that the eponymous “tasteless crud” is , well, errr….ehem…made out of people and not plankton (as claimed). Yum!  But I noticed while recently re-watching the film that the conditions of the Earth at that time (the year, we are told, is […]

Read more "Soylent Green is Hot"

Yesterday I began speaking of Martin Landau’s contributions to science fiction and started with his performance in the Outer Limits episode “The Man Who Was Never Born” (he also gave a decent, though less memorable, performance in “The Bellero Shield” and, by the way, was also in at least two rather forgettable Twilight Zone episodes) […]

Read more "Martin Landau and Space: 1999"

Martin Landau’s acting career never was really completely finished before he died, though it perhaps culminated in his winning the Oscar for his role as Bela Lugosi in the 1994 film, Ed Wood. His many other accomplishments are too numerous to mention here, so I will focus on what I feel were his best sci fi […]

Read more "Martin Landau’s Best Sci Fi"

I’ll follow up with a full retrospective of Martin Landau’s contributions to Sci fi and what I believe were some of the best moments (whether or not they were good science is also something we can discuss) in the next few days. But I wanted to express my sadness on his passing and offer condolences […]

Read more "Goodbye, Martin."

Well, I think everyone’s seen it in sci fi and even other genres. Our hero gets himself into a real pickle. In fact, he might even meet his end. But the show must go on! How do we get out of this? Well. The story ends up being just a dream, or an illusion set […]

Read more "Life is but a Dream"

Perhaps I should be happy that the US President seemed to care enough about space that he actually signed a executive order reestsblishing the space council that existed for some years with the vice-president at the helm. But I have doubts about a few elements here. I don’t know if the president cares or was trying […]

Read more "To Infinity and Beyond"

There have been many changes in astrophysics over the last few years. For instance, we “lost” our nineth planet when Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet. Then astronomers believe there might be a nineth planet after all, but larger and further away than Pluto (essentially, the planet Perceval Lowell was looking for 100 years ago […]

Read more "When Good Hypotheses Break Bad"

There has never been a confirmed radio signal (or any other type of signal) from an intelligent alien civilization.  However, in 1977 a strong  and sudden signal was detected by the “Big Ear” radio telescope in Ohio and prompted that day’s observer, Jerry Ehman, to write in his famous “Wow!” comment on a computer printout […]

Read more "Wow! or Huh?"