SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 5 June 2023
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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 3 June 2023
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Riders to the Stars
Film (1954). Ivan Tors/United Artists. Directed by Richard Carlson. Written by Curt Siodmak. Cast includes Richard Carlson, Martha Hyer, William Lundigan and Herbert Marshall. 81 minutes. Colour. / Granted, the premise behind this film is absurd – that a safe passage through Earth's atmosphere requires some sort of mysterious coating, found only on meteors, requiring scientists to dispatch astronauts into space in order to scoop up meteors that ...
Devilman Crybaby
Japanese animated webseries (2018). Based on the Manga Devilman by Go Nagai. Science Saru. Directed by Masaaki Yuasa. Written by Ichirō Ōkouchi. Voice cast includes Ayumu Murase and Kouki Uchiyama. Ten 25-minute episodes. Colour. / Two boys grow up together: one, Ryo Asuka (Murase) is a compassionless Social Darwinist; the other, Akira Fudo ...
Berna, Paul
Pseudonym of French author Jean-Marie-Edmond Sabran (1908-1994), prolific in various genres, who also wrote as Joël Audrenn, Bernard Deleuze and Paul Gerrard; of his many books for children as by Paul Berna, the most famous is the non-fantastic Le cheval sans tête (1955; trans John Buchanan-Brown as A Hundred Million Francs 1957). Of his several tales of sf interest, the Threshold of the Stars sequence – comprising ...
Turn-On
US tv series (1969). George Schlatter-Ed Friendly Productions. Created by Friendly and Schlatter. Writers included Albert Brooks. Cast included Tim Conway (guest host), Teresa Graves, Ken Greenwald and Maura McGiveney. One episode. Colour. / A hapless effort to duplicate the success of George Schlatter's sketch comedy series Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In (1968-1973), Turn-On is widely regarded as the worst disaster in American television history. A few stations ...
James, Rowland
(1885-? ) UK author of a Future War novel, While England Slept (1932), featuring the relatively benign Invasion of the UK with the aid of a gas which causes Amnesia but does not kill, while simultaneously making the population receptive to a new Religion. [JC]
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 ...