SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 29 April 2025
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 28 April 2025
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Broderick, Damien
(1944-2025) Australian author, editor and critic; he had a PhD in the semiotics of fiction, science and sf with special reference to the work of Samuel R Delany. He edited four anthologies of Australian sf: The Zeitgeist Machine (anth 1977), Strange Attractors (anth 1985), Matilda at the Speed of Light (anth 1988) and Centaurus: The Best of Australian Science Fiction (anth ...
Ikin, Van
(1951- ) Australian academic, editor and author who began publishing sf stories with "The Living Water" for Pocket Man in 1968, and published short work with some frequency for the next two decades. In 1977, he founded Science Fiction: A Review of Speculative Literature, which he edited until 1997. He also edited three anthologies: Australian Science Fiction (anth 1982), which ...
Science Fiction Theatre
US tv series (1955-1957). ZIV/WRCA-TV. Produced by Ivan Tors with associate producer (uncredited) Norman Jolley. Hosted by Truman Bradley. Technical adviser Dr Maxwell Smith. Writers included Peter R Brooke, Doris Gilbert, Tom Gries, Lee Hewitt, Lou Huston, Ellis Marcus, Stuart Jerome, Norman Jolley, Charles Smith, Hendrik Vollaerts and Arthur Weiss. Two seasons, 78 25 to 26-minute segments. First season colour, second season black and white. / This ...
Balchin, Nigel
(1908-1970) UK author, industrialist and wartime scientific adviser to the Army Council; married (1933-1951) to Elisabeth Ayrton. From the beginning of World War Two his fictions specialized in the creation of psychologically and physically crippled "competent men", as in The Small Back Room (1943), and were plotted around scientific problems at the verge of sf; A Sort of Traitors (1949), in particular, nears new territory as its ...
Cole, Allan
(1943-2019) US Television scriptwriter – with more than 100 credits to his name – journalist and author; his sf screenwriting includes three episodes of the series The Incredible Hulk (1977-1982), two of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979-1981) and six of Defenders of the Earth ...
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 ...