SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 25 May 2022
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.
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Furney, Elliott E
(1848-1914) US medical doctor (based in St Louis, Missouri), inventor and author, whose Culture, a Modern Method (1891) applies techniques that might a century later be described as Genetic Engineering with Lamarckian implications, with the Invention of a process by which unhealthy cellular material is recast and rejuvenated; further experiments, where animals are – perhaps surgically – modified into servitors able to obey orders, are suggested. [JC]
Pollotta, Nick
Working name of US author Nicholas Angelo Pollotta (1954-2013), most of whose work in sf and other genres was under pseudonyms or House Names, including James Axler, Jack Hopkins and Don Pendleton, but who began publishing sf with Illegal Aliens (1989), with Phil Foglio providing extensive illustrations for this comic novel about a street gang in New York which hamstrings the attempts of Aliens to manipulate our planet. The Satellite Night series, beginning with Satellite Night News (1993) as ...
Small Wonder
US tv series (1985-1989). Metromedia Productions, 20th Century Fox Television. Syndicated. Produced by Howard Leeds, Budd Grossman, Jean Hester, Bruce Taylor. Directors included Peter Baldwin, Linda Day, Leslie H Martinson. Writers included Dick Christie, Donald Ross, David Silverman. Cast includes William Bogart, Tiffany Brissette, Dick Christie, Alice Ghostley, Edie McClurg (first season only), Marla Pennington, Emily Schulman and Jerry Suprian. 96 30-minute episodes. Colour. / Howard ...
3rd Rock from the Sun
US tv series (1996-2001). Created by Bonnie and Terry Turner. Producers include the Turners, Bill Martin, Mike Schiff, Marcy Carsey, and Caryn Mandabach. Directors include Terry Hughes, Robert Berlinger, and James Burrows. Writers include the Turners, Martin, Schiff, Christine Zander, and Bob Kushell. Cast includes Jane Curtin (Dr Mary Albright), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Tommy Solomon), Kristen Johnston (Sally Solomon), Wayne Knight (Officer Don Orville), John Lithgow (Dick Solomon) and French ...
Couvreur, André
(1863-1944) French medical doctor and author who used his professional knowledge in the creation of the Caresco sequence – comprising Le Mal Nécessaire (1899; trans Brian Stableford as The Necessary Evil 2014) and Caresco surhomme; ou le Voyage en Eucrasie (1904; trans Brian Stableford as Caresco, Superman 2014) – whose protagonist, the Mad Scientist Dr Armand Caresco, infects French society in the first volume (there is an anti-Semitic subtext) with his tendency to vivisect ...
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 and one Semiprozine Hugo for his self-produced news magazine, Ansible (which see). His one ...