SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 15 January 2025
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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Monty Python's Flying Circus
UK tv series (1969-1974). A BBC production. Produced by Ian MacNaughton. Created, starring and written by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. Other regular actors included Connie Booth, Carol Cleveland, Neil Innes (final series) and Ian MacNaughton. Four series comprising 45 episodes of 25-30 minutes. Colour. / The anarchic/surreal ...
Maitland, Edward
(1824-1897) UK author and Theosophist (see Theosophy) whose speculative Utopia By and By: An Historical Romance of the Future (1873 3vols), set several hundred years in the future in Africa, takes an unusually optimistic view of the likely effects of Technology (irrigating the Sahara), is much interested in social theory, imagines several varieties of marriage and foresees a somewhat limited ...
Froese, Edgar
German musician (1944-2015), most famous as part of Tangerine Dream. Froese released a number of solo albums, all instrumental electronica, although most with a distinctive science-fictional feel to them. Epsilon in Malaysian Pale (1975) creates aural landscapes, possibly otherworldly, out of mellotron tones, pulsings, whirrings, dronings and other electronic noises. Many subsequent albums (for instance the four-volume Ambient Highway ...
Jungle Hell
Film (1956; vt Jungle Boy). Medallion Television/Taji Mahal Productions, Inc Produced and directed by Norman A Cerf. Written by Cerf from his story. Cast includes David Bruce, Robert Cabal, Naji, Sabu, Ted Stanhope, K T Stevens and George E Stone. Narrator: Sabu? Makeup by Harry Thomas. 78 minutes. Black and white. / Near Mysore, India, the young nephew of Sabu the Jungle Boy (Sabu) suffers mysterious burns from strange rocks. Sabu has the youngster taken to Dr Paul Morrison ...
Sword, The
US rock band formed in Austin, Texas in 2004, active until 2022. Initially lumped in with stoner rock bands of the period, by the time of their concept album Warp Riders (2010) they had moved in a more traditional heavy metal direction. This spirited but somewhat unvarying record, with good riffs and monotonous vocals, is set on the fictional planet Acheron, and tells of the archer Ereth, who is banished from his tribe, discovers a mysterious orb, meets various archetypal figures ...
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 ...