SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 16 March 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 9 March 2026
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Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future
Canadian/US tv series (1987-1988). The Landmark Entertainment Group/Mattel/Ventura Pictures, Inc. Syndicated. Created by Gary Goddard and Anthony Christopher. Developed for television by J Michael Straczynski and Mark Scott Zicree. Directors include Otta Hanus, Jorge Montesi and Douglas Williams. Writers include Gerry Davis, Larry DiTillio, Michael Reaves, Straczynski, Marv ...
Doctor X
Film (1932). First National/Warner Bros. Directed by Michael Curtiz (1888-1962). Written by Robert Tasker, Earl Baldwin, based on a play by Howard W Comstock and Allen C Miller. Cast includes Lionel Atwill, Preston Foster, Lee Tracy and Fay Wray. 77 minutes. Original prints two-strip Technicolor; later black and white. / A series of cannibalistic murders committed when the Moon is full is investigated by reporter Lee Taylor (Tracy) and medical expert Dr ...
Automation
The idea that mechanical production processes might one day free mankind from the burden of labour is a common utopian dream, exemplified by Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward, 2000-1887 (1888) and its modern counterpart, Mack Reynolds's Looking Backward from the Year 2000 (1973). But the dream has its nightmarish aspects, as hinted at in the manufacture and display of ...
Freeman, Mrs A M
(? -? ) US author, active from the 1870s, whose Daughters of Cain in the Land of Nod: A Satirical Romance (1893) is a Lost Race novel in which a matriarchal Utopia, based on strong Feminist arguments, is discovered in Africa. Gender roles are reversed. Religion is deprecated. [JC]
Richepin, Jean
(1849-1926) Algerian-born poet, playwright and author, in France from an early age, some of whose plays, like La Belle au bois dormant ["The Sleeping Beauty"] (performed 25 December 1907 Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt, Paris; 1908 chap) with Henri Cain (1857-1937), were fantasy. Over the course of his career he published several fantasies of the grotesque and contes cruels (see Decadence) such as those assembled in his first book, ...
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 ...