A history of the most underrated British science fiction of the 1970s is, largely, just a history of British science fiction of the 1970s. It gets a bad rap. Think “1970s British Sci-Fi” and your mind will be flooded with associations of dodgy special effects, less-than-perfect gender politics, and so much knitwear. That, and a certain time traveller with a predilection for scarves and jelly babies.
But the truth is the 70s was a golden age for British science fiction stories with ideas and ambition, completely unrestrained by any concept of production values. While even the most pedestrian attempt at modern science fiction telly feels it has to go toe to toe with the MCU’s latest CGI eyeball-blaster, a year after Star Wars was on our screens the Doctor was still routinely facing off against dressed like this, and it was better for it.
Blake’s 7 (1978 – 1981)
Stream on: Itvx...
But the truth is the 70s was a golden age for British science fiction stories with ideas and ambition, completely unrestrained by any concept of production values. While even the most pedestrian attempt at modern science fiction telly feels it has to go toe to toe with the MCU’s latest CGI eyeball-blaster, a year after Star Wars was on our screens the Doctor was still routinely facing off against dressed like this, and it was better for it.
Blake’s 7 (1978 – 1981)
Stream on: Itvx...
- 1/5/2024
- by Louisa Mellor
- Den of Geek
Nigel Kneale, creator of the cult science fiction serial Quatermass, has been commemorated by a brand new set of stamps from his native Isle of Man.
The set of six Kneale Archives postage stamps is available from the Isle of Man Post Office and covers his career right from his beginnings in the theater, and his 1949 anthology Tomato Cain and Other Stories, to his iconic science fiction work, including the dystopian The Year of the Sex Olympics (1968), ghost story The Stone Tape (1972), and horror anthology Beasts (1976).
Naturally, Quatermass looms large (although it’s confined to a single stamp). The influence of the six-part Quatermass Experiment (1953), Quatermass II (1955), and Quatermass and the Pit (1959) – and their Hammer adaptations – can be seen in everything from Doctor Who to Stephen King.
Jane Asher, who has a small role in 1955’s The Quatermass Xperiment before going on to star as Jill Greely in 1970’s The Stone Tape,...
The set of six Kneale Archives postage stamps is available from the Isle of Man Post Office and covers his career right from his beginnings in the theater, and his 1949 anthology Tomato Cain and Other Stories, to his iconic science fiction work, including the dystopian The Year of the Sex Olympics (1968), ghost story The Stone Tape (1972), and horror anthology Beasts (1976).
Naturally, Quatermass looms large (although it’s confined to a single stamp). The influence of the six-part Quatermass Experiment (1953), Quatermass II (1955), and Quatermass and the Pit (1959) – and their Hammer adaptations – can be seen in everything from Doctor Who to Stephen King.
Jane Asher, who has a small role in 1955’s The Quatermass Xperiment before going on to star as Jill Greely in 1970’s The Stone Tape,...
- 5/3/2023
- by James Hoare
- The Companion
Ryan Lambie Nov 2, 2016
Before Arrival there was Charlie Sheen in The Arrival. Ryan takes a look at an unusual 90s sci-fi film...
When it came to sci-fi movies, 1996 was a crowded year: at the high end of the budget spectrum we had the invasion movies Independence Day and Mars Attacks; towards the middle we had John Carpenter's disappointing Snake Plissken sequel Escape From La, while Rutger Hauer starred in the cheap and cheerful Crossworlds and the brilliantly titled Omega Doom.
Throw in the startlingly botched Island Of Doctor Moreau, Star Trek: First Contact and Stuart Gordon's fun sci-fi oddity Space Truckers, and you have a busy 12 months in genre movies. Somewhat lost in the static was The Arrival, a nifty genre thriller which had the misfortune of coming out just a few weeks before the bigger, splashier Independence Day. A more modest and quirkier movie than Roland Emmerich's invasion flick,...
Before Arrival there was Charlie Sheen in The Arrival. Ryan takes a look at an unusual 90s sci-fi film...
When it came to sci-fi movies, 1996 was a crowded year: at the high end of the budget spectrum we had the invasion movies Independence Day and Mars Attacks; towards the middle we had John Carpenter's disappointing Snake Plissken sequel Escape From La, while Rutger Hauer starred in the cheap and cheerful Crossworlds and the brilliantly titled Omega Doom.
Throw in the startlingly botched Island Of Doctor Moreau, Star Trek: First Contact and Stuart Gordon's fun sci-fi oddity Space Truckers, and you have a busy 12 months in genre movies. Somewhat lost in the static was The Arrival, a nifty genre thriller which had the misfortune of coming out just a few weeks before the bigger, splashier Independence Day. A more modest and quirkier movie than Roland Emmerich's invasion flick,...
- 10/31/2016
- Den of Geek
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From Quatermass to The Year Of The Sex Olympics, the voice of classic British screenwriter Nigel Kneale is still resonant and exciting...
Conflict drives drama. What people want and how they set out to get it makes for the best entertainment: Chief Brody wants to make Amity Island a safe place for his kids; Indiana Jones wants to find the Ark of the Covenant; Mark Watney wants to survive on Mars, A giant shark, a bunch of Nazis, and a planet without an atmosphere respectively stand in their way.
But conflict isn't only a device from which to hang big action sequences. The tension between ideas can make for brilliant drama - the kind of film and television that you think about for years afterwards - and one of the best screenwriters for this conflict of ideas was Nigel Kneale.
Kneale was born in 1922 in Barrow-in-Furness and,...
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From Quatermass to The Year Of The Sex Olympics, the voice of classic British screenwriter Nigel Kneale is still resonant and exciting...
Conflict drives drama. What people want and how they set out to get it makes for the best entertainment: Chief Brody wants to make Amity Island a safe place for his kids; Indiana Jones wants to find the Ark of the Covenant; Mark Watney wants to survive on Mars, A giant shark, a bunch of Nazis, and a planet without an atmosphere respectively stand in their way.
But conflict isn't only a device from which to hang big action sequences. The tension between ideas can make for brilliant drama - the kind of film and television that you think about for years afterwards - and one of the best screenwriters for this conflict of ideas was Nigel Kneale.
Kneale was born in 1922 in Barrow-in-Furness and,...
- 10/19/2015
- by simonbrew
- Den of Geek
Feature Philip Tibbetts 18 Jul 2013 - 07:00
To mark its 60th birthday, Philip salutes the Quatermass series, the grandfather of Doctor Who and mainstream UK sci-fi...
This year sees the anniversary of an iconic sci-fi show, perhaps one of the most important in British TV history. Pioneering in both writing and production, the show left an indelible heritage to the genre that will outlast even this diamond anniversary: Quatermass is sixty years old.
Professor Bernard Quatermass, leader of the British space programme, first appeared on the 18th of July 1953. Quatermass’ name – with its unusual surname and forename reference to the astronomer, Bernard Lovell – was intended to provide a sense of “awe and magnitude” to his character. In The Quatermass Experiment, the professor deals with the return of a manned space mission where the sole survivor transforms into something alien. This story only partially survives and was re-made live by the BBC...
To mark its 60th birthday, Philip salutes the Quatermass series, the grandfather of Doctor Who and mainstream UK sci-fi...
This year sees the anniversary of an iconic sci-fi show, perhaps one of the most important in British TV history. Pioneering in both writing and production, the show left an indelible heritage to the genre that will outlast even this diamond anniversary: Quatermass is sixty years old.
Professor Bernard Quatermass, leader of the British space programme, first appeared on the 18th of July 1953. Quatermass’ name – with its unusual surname and forename reference to the astronomer, Bernard Lovell – was intended to provide a sense of “awe and magnitude” to his character. In The Quatermass Experiment, the professor deals with the return of a manned space mission where the sole survivor transforms into something alien. This story only partially survives and was re-made live by the BBC...
- 7/17/2013
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
Interview Seb Patrick 17 Jul 2013 - 07:04
With The World's End out this week, Edgar Wright talks to us about Spaced, Hot Fuzz, Shaun Of The Dead, and ending the Cornetto trilogy...
Over the last decade, Edgar Wright has gone from being the kind of geek who obsessed about other people's movies, to the kind of geek whose movies other people obsess about. You all know the story by now: Spaced begat Shaun Of The Dead begat Hot Fuzz, establishing him as one of filmmaking's hottest directing talents, with an astonishing eye for visual flair and attention to detail.
Having stepped away from his regular collaborations with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost to make kinetic 2010 comics adaptation Scott Pilgrim Vs The World – not to mention the long-in-gestation Ant Man project for Marvel – Wright has now re-teamed with his partners in crime for The World's End, the final chapter in their so-called...
With The World's End out this week, Edgar Wright talks to us about Spaced, Hot Fuzz, Shaun Of The Dead, and ending the Cornetto trilogy...
Over the last decade, Edgar Wright has gone from being the kind of geek who obsessed about other people's movies, to the kind of geek whose movies other people obsess about. You all know the story by now: Spaced begat Shaun Of The Dead begat Hot Fuzz, establishing him as one of filmmaking's hottest directing talents, with an astonishing eye for visual flair and attention to detail.
Having stepped away from his regular collaborations with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost to make kinetic 2010 comics adaptation Scott Pilgrim Vs The World – not to mention the long-in-gestation Ant Man project for Marvel – Wright has now re-teamed with his partners in crime for The World's End, the final chapter in their so-called...
- 7/16/2013
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
Beginning with a live TV broadcast in 1953, the Quatermass specials and movies were a high point in British sci-fi. Mark takes a look back…
The British television landscape was a very different place in 1953. ITV had yet to start broadcasting, and a second channel by the BBC was still more than ten years away. Also, although television was already a very popular medium for the citizens of the Unites States, the UK populace in its more austere post-war period was slower to embrace the expense of a television set, when a perfectly serviceable wireless set would meet their entertainment needs.
All that, of course, changed with the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in June of 1953. Although still very much an extravagance, more and more people justified the cost of a television as it was their personal invite to the historical event, and the total viewing public almost doubled within a twelve month period.
The British television landscape was a very different place in 1953. ITV had yet to start broadcasting, and a second channel by the BBC was still more than ten years away. Also, although television was already a very popular medium for the citizens of the Unites States, the UK populace in its more austere post-war period was slower to embrace the expense of a television set, when a perfectly serviceable wireless set would meet their entertainment needs.
All that, of course, changed with the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in June of 1953. Although still very much an extravagance, more and more people justified the cost of a television as it was their personal invite to the historical event, and the total viewing public almost doubled within a twelve month period.
- 7/27/2011
- Den of Geek
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