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Monday 20 April 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 14 April 2026
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Watson, Ian
(1943-2026) UK teacher and author who lectured in English in Tanzania (1965-1967) and Tokyo (1967-1970) before beginning to publish sf with "Roof Garden Under Saturn" for New Worlds in 1969; he then taught Future Studies for six years at Birmingham Polytechnic, taking there one of the first academic courses in sf in the UK; he became a full-time writer in 1976, publishing around 200 short stories since 1969 at a gradually increasing tempo and with visibly ...
Dark
German tv series (2017-2020). Netflix/W&B Television. Created by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese. Directed by Baran bo Odar. Written by Odar and Friese. Other writers are Martin Behnke, Daphne Ferraro, Ronny Schalk and Marc O Seng. Cast includes Karoline Eichhorn, Dietrich Hollinderbäumer, Louis Hoffmann, Oliver Masucci, Andreas Pietschmann, Maja Schöne, Christian Steyer, Jördis Triebel and Lisa Vicari. 26 episodes of 44 to 73 minutes. ...
Startopia
Videogame (2001). Mucky Foot Productions. Platforms: Win. / Startopia is a God Game set on a series of derelict space stations which the player must rebuild after an interstellar war. The developers had previously been part of Peter Molyneux's Bullfrog Productions (BP), and the design is much influenced by such non sf Molyneux games as ...
Young Einstein
Film (1988). Serious Productions. Produced and directed by Yahoo Serious. Written by Serious and David Roach. Cast includes John Howard, Odile Le Clezio and Serious. 91 minutes. Colour. / In an Alternate History 1905, Albert Einstein (Serious), a young Tasmanian apple farmer, discovers that E = mc2 (see Nuclear Energy), splits the beer atom, meets and is loved by Marie Curie (Le Clezio), has his ...
Dernier Combat, Le
Film (1983; vt The Last Battle). Films du Loup. Directed by Luc Besson. Written by Besson, Jolivet. Cast includes Jean Bouise, Pierre Jolivet and Jean Reno. 92 minutes. Black and white. / Made by Besson (later one of the best-known French directors of his generation) when only 23, the arty but vigorous Le Dernier Combat is low-budget and photographed in black-and-white Cinemascope, and has no dialogue at all. A young man (Jolivet) in an unspeaking ...
Langford, David
(1953- ) UK author, critic, editor, publisher and sf fan, in the latter capacity recipient of 21 Hugo awards for fan writing – some of the best of his several hundred pieces are assembled as Let's Hear It for the Deaf Man (coll 1992 chap US; much exp vt The Silence of the Langford 1996; exp 2015 ebook) as Dave Langford, edited by Ben Yalow – plus five Best Fanzine Hugos ...