SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 7 December 2025
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for what we mean by Science Fiction; here for the masthead; here for some Statistics; here for the Acknowledgments; here for the FAQ; here for advice on citations. Find entries via the search box above (more details here) or browse the menu categories in the grey bar at the top of this page.
Site updated on 1 December 2025
Sponsor of the day: The Telluride Institute
Stoppard, Tom
Working name of Czech-born playwright and screenwriter Tomáš Straussler (1937-2025), in the UK since 1946, the Stoppard surname being acquired from his stepfather when his widowed mother remarried in 1945. His early dramatic work was characterized by extravagant wit and wordplay, and an Absurdist application of logic to surreal or insane situations. Following the broadcast of several Radio plays, his ...
RoboCop
1. Film (1987). Orion. Directed by Paul Verhoeven. Written by Michael Miner, Edward Neumeier. Cast includes Nancy Allen, Ronny Cox, Robert DoQui, Miguel Ferrer, Daniel O'Herlihy, Kurtwood Smith and Peter Weller. 102 minutes. (Director's cut 103 minutes.) Colour. / In a Near Future Dystopian Detroit – almost as though RoboCop's makers were aware of the calamities which ...
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Film (1986). Paramount. Directed by Leonard Nimoy. Written by Steve Meerson, Peter Krikes, Harve Bennett, Nicholas Meyer, based on a story by Nimoy and Bennett. Cast includes the lead players from the Star Trek television series, along with Catherine Hicks. 119 minutes. Colour. / Returning to Earth on their captured Klingon spacecraft to stand trial for exceeding orders in various ...
Slavnikova, Ol'ga
(1957- ) Russian author whose Near Future Satire, 2017 (2006; trans Marian Schwartz 2010), set one century after the Russian Revolution, depicts in exorbitant terms the costs of rampant "freedom", including naked capitalism at its most exploitative, Disasters looming from unchecked Climate Change, ...
Phillips, Rog
Working name of US author Roger Phillip (not Phillips as often cited) Graham (1909-1966), a prolific contributor to the sf magazines of the late 1940s and 1950s, often writing as by Craig Browning; married to Mari Wolf 1950-1955. His first story was "Let Freedom Ring!" in December 1945 for Amazing Stories, which, along with its companion magazine Fantastic Adventures, remained his most regular ...
Nicholls, Peter
(1939-2018) Australian editor and author, primarily a critic and historian of sf through his creation and editing of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [see below]; resident in the UK 1970-1988, in Australia from 1988; worked as an academic in English literature (1962-1968, 1971-1977), scripted television documentaries, was a Harkness Fellow in Film-making (1968-1970) in the USA, worked as a publisher's editor (1982-1983), often broadcast film and book reviews on BBC Radio from 1974 and ...