SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 20 January 2026
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 19 January 2026
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
von Däniken, Erich
(1935-2026) Swiss author of a series of purportedly nonfiction books, beginning with Erinnerungen an die Zukunft (1968; trans Michael Heron as Chariots of the Gods? 1969), which, based on a mass of often suspect and internally inconsistent data, argues that the Earth was visited by at least one Alien spacefaring race before and at the dawn of historical time; thus, for example, the Great Pyramid of ...
Adams, Scott
(1957-2026) US author and cartoonist best known for the Dilbert strip published from 1989, which when at its best superbly (in terms of concept and accuracy of Satire rather than quality of drawing) satirized contemporary office life and corporate incompetence. As with most ambitious modern comic strips, it segues frequently into sf and fantasy tropes – such as Robot office workers, wish-fulfilling ...
Space School
UK tv serial (1956). Produced by Kevin Sheldon. Written by Gordon Ford. Cast includes David Drummond, Matthew Lane, Donald McCorkindale, John Stuart and Julie Webb. Four 25-minute episodes. Black and white. / The producer of this Children's SF serial was also behind such earlier British sf serials as The Lost Planet (1954). In Space School, a group of children live in an artificial satellite ...
Quantum Leap
1. US tv series (1989-1993). Universal/MCA for NBC. Created and produced by Donald P Bellisario. Supervising producer Deborah Pratt. Directors include David Hemmings, Aaron Lipstadt, James R Whitmore, Gilbert Shelton, Christopher Welch, Joe Napolitano, Michael Watkins and Michael Zinberg. Writers include Bellisario, Pratt, Beverly Bridges, Paul Brown, Chris Ruppenthal, Scott Shepherd and Tommy Thompson. Cast includes Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. Five seasons to May 1993; 95 ...
Saturn [magazine]
US Digest-size magazine. Published by Robert C Sproul as Candar Publishing Company. Edited by Sproul with editorial consultant Donald A Wollheim, who actually selected the stories and assembled the issues. Five issues March 1957 to March 1958 (but see below for later incarnations). / Considering some of the contributors, there was surprisingly little of interest in the magazine: Harlan ...
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 ...