SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 17 February 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 16 February 2026
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Unknown World
Film (1951; vt Night without Stars). Lippert Pictures. Produced by Irving Block (credited as I A Block) and Jack Rabin (credited as J R Rabin). Directed by Terry O Morse (credited as Terrell O Morse). Special effects by Block, Rabin, Willis Cook and Menrad von Muldorfer. Written by Millard Kaufman. Cast includes Victory Jory, Bruce Kellogg, Marilyn Nash and Otto Waldis. 74 minutes. Black and white. / Dr Jeremiah Morley (Killian) is convinced that the world is heading towards a ...
Zajac, Gord
(? - ) Canadian screenwriter and author who began publishing work of genre interest with "Second Skin" in Challenging Destiny for May 1997. In his gonzo Military SF novel, Major Kamage (2010), set two decades after an unspecified War, an unreconciled veteran of the conflict, and his disbanded cohort, must save the soft new world, which is at ...
Second Hundred Years, The
US tv series (1967-1968). Screen Gem Television for ABC-TV. Produced by Bob Claver, Richard M Bluel. Directors included Gene Reynolds, Russ Mayberry, Jud Taylor. Writers included Stan Cutler, Skip Webster. Cast includes Monte Markham, Frank Maxwell and Arthur O'Connell. 26 30-minute episodes. Colour. / This sf comedy series was in the vein of similar efforts of the era such as My Living Doll (1964-1965), and ...
Time Machine, The
1. Film (1960). Galaxy Films/MGM. Produced and directed by George Pal. Written by David Duncan, based on The Time Machine (1895) by H G Wells. Cast includes Sebastian Cabot, Yvette Mimieux, Rod Taylor and Alan Young. Morlock designs by Pal (uncredited). 103 minutes. Colour. / Unlike Pal's earlier Wells adaptation, War of the Worlds ...
Rutley, C Bernard
(1888-1956) UK author, mostly of Children's SF; several of his Lost Race tales, some clearly influenced by H Rider Haggard, are of interest. They include the Honor Lang sequence, beginning with The Ring of Nenuphar (1943), which climaxes in China. He also published several singletons, including The Golden Mirage (1938), which focuses on treasure; ...
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 ...