The random witterings of Jonathan Morris, writer.

Sunday 26 January 2020

Space Adventure Part 2


I’ve updated my list of every SF film I’ve seen. Changes in bold.

1926
Metropolis
1933
King Kong
1936
Things to Come
1951
The Day The Earth Stood Still, The Man in the White Suit, The Thing, When Worlds Collide
1953
Invaders from Mars, It Came from Outer Space, War of the Worlds
1954
20,000 Leagues under the Sea, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Them!
1955
The Quatermass Xperiment, This Island Earth
1956
1984, Earth versus the Flying Saucers, Forbidden Planet, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Plan 9 from Outer Space, X The Unknown
1957
The Abominable Snowman, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Quatermass 2
1959
Journey to the Centre of the Earth
1960
The Little Shop of Horrors, The Time Machine, Village of the Damned
1961
The Day the Earth Caught Fire
1962
Doctor No
1963
The Damned, The Birds, The Day of the Triffids, La Jetee
1964
Children of the Damned, Doctor Strangelove, The First Men in the Moon, Goldfinger, The Last Man on Earth
1965
Alphaville, Dr Who and the Daleks, Thunderball, The War Game
1966
Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD, Fahrenheit 451, Fantastic Voyage
1967
Barbarella, Casino Royale, Privilege, Quatermass and the Pit, The Terrornauts, You Only Live Twice
1968
2001-A Space Odyssey, Charly, Planet of the Apes
1969
The Bed Sitting Room, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Zeta One
1970
The Andromeda Strain, No Blade of Grass
1971
A Clockwork Orange, Diamonds are Forever, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, The Omega Man, Percy, Silent Running, Solaris, THX 1138
1972
Doomwatch, Slaughterhouse Five
1973
The Final Programme, Phase IV, Sleeper, Soylent Green, Westworld, Zardoz
1974
The Cars That Ate Paris, Dark Star, The Little Prince, The Man with the Golden Gun, The Stepford Wives, The Terminal Man, Young Frankenstein
1975
The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Rollerball
1976
At the Earth’s Core, The Big Bus, Futureworld, The Killer Bees, Logan’s Run, The Man Who Fell to Earth
1977
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Demon Seed, Empire of the Ants, The Island of Dr Moreau, The Glitterball, The Spy Who Loved Me, Star Wars
1978
The Boys from Brazil, Coma, A Hitch in Time, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Pirahna, Superman, The Swarm, Warlords of Atlantis
1979
Alien, The Black Hole, Mad Max, Meteor, Moonraker, Star Trek, Starcrash, Time After Time
1980
Altered States, The Apple, Battle Beyond the stars, The Empire Strikes Back, Flash Gordon, Saturn 3, Scanners, Superman II
1981
Escape from New York, Galaxy of Terror, Mad Max 2, Outland, Piranha II, Time Bandits
1982
Airplane II, Blade Runner, ET, The Wrath of Khan, The Thing, Tron, Videodrome
1983
Krull, The Man With Two Brains, Never Say Never Again, Return of the Jedi, Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone, Superman III, War Games
1984
1984, 2010, The Brother from Another Planet, Dune, Ghostbusters, Gremlins, Night of the Comet, The Philadelphia Experiment, Repo Man, Search for Spock, Starman, Terminator
1985
Back to the Future, Brazil, Cocoon, Creature, Lifeforce, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Morons from Outer Space, Weird Science
1986
Aliens, Biggles: Adventures in Time, Critters, The Fly, Howard the Duck, Invaders from Mars, Short Circuit, Star Trek IV
1987
Batteries Not Included, Innerspace, Predator, RoboCop, The Running Man, Spaceballs
1988
Akira, Earth Girls Are Easy, Moonwalker, They Live
1989
The Abyss, Back to the Future II, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Ghostbusters II, Slipstream, Star Trek V
1990
Back to the Future III, Gremlins 2, The Handmaid’s Tale, Hardware, Total Recall
1991
Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, The Rocketeer, Star Trek 6, Terminator 2, Wedlock
1992
Alien 3, The Lawnmower Man
1993
Jurassic Park
1994
Stargate, Star Trek Generations
1995
12 Monkeys, The City of Lost Children, Congo, GoldenEye, Judge Dredd, Screamers, Tank Girl
1996
Barb Wire, Crash, Independence Day, Mars Attacks!, Star Trek: First Contact
1997
Contact, Cube, Event Horizon, The Fifth Element, Gattaca, The Lost World, Men in Black, Starship Troopers
1998
Dark City, Pi, Sphere, Star Trek: Insurrection
1999
eXistenZ, Galaxy Quest, The Matrix, Muppets from Space, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
2000
Pitch Black, Unbreakable
2001
AI, Donnie Darko, Jurassic Park III
2002
28 Days Later, Equilibrium, Impostor, Minority Report, Solaris, Spider-Man, Star Trek: Nemesis, Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, Signs, The Time Machine
2003
Paycheck, Terminator 3, Timeline
2004
The Butterfly Effect, The Day After Tomorrow, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I, Robot
2005
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Robots, Serenity, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, War of the Worlds, Zarutha
2006
A Scanner Darkly, Children of Men, The Fountain, The Host, Southland Tales, Superman Returns, V for Vendetta
2007
28 Weeks Later, I Am Legend, The Mist, Next, Sunshine
2008
Cloverfield, Iron Man, The Clone Wars, WALL-E
2009
2012, Avatar, District 9, Frequently Asked Question About Time Travel, Moon, The Road, Star Trek, The Time Traveler’s Wife
2010
Despicable Me, Hot Tub Time Machine, Monsters, Never Let Me Go, Tron Legacy
2011
The Adjustment Bureau, Attack the Block, ConIn Time, Limitless, Paul, Source Code, Super 8, Thor
2012
Cloud Atlas, Dredd, The Hunger Games, John Carter, Looper, Prometheus, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Total Recall
2013
About Time, Continuum, Elysium, Ender’s Game Gravity, Her, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Oblivion, Pacific Rim, Snowpiercer, Star Trek Into Darkness, The World’s End, Under the Skin, The Zero Theorem
2014
Coherence, Divergent, Edge of Tomorrow, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Giver, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay 1, Interstellar, Left Behind, Lucy, The Maze Runner, Noah, Mr Peabody & Sherman, Predestination, Space Station 76, Transcendence
2015
Advantageous, Insurgent, EX Machina, High Rise, Hot Tub Time Machine 2, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay 2, Jupiter Ascending, Jurassic World, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Tomorrowland
2016
10 Cloverfield Lane, Allegiant, ARQ, Arrival, Ghostbusters, Independence Day: Resurgence, Star Wars: Rogue One, Star Trek Beyond
2017
Blade Runner 2049, The Humanity Bureau, Star Wars: The Last Jedi
2018
Annihilation, The Cloverfield Paradox, Mortal Engines, Mute, Star Wars: Solo
2019:
Farmageddon, Io, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, The Wandering Earth

Still left to see:

1958
The Fly
1959
On The Beach
1964
Fail Safe
1966
Seconds
1968
Je T’aime Je T’aime
1969
Marooned
1970
The Forbin Project
1971
Quest for Love
1974
It’s Alive
1975
A Boy and His Dog, Death Race 2000
1977
Capricorn One, The People That Time Forgot
1979
The China Syndrome
1980
The Final Countdown,
1982
Halloween III
1984
Dreamscape, The Last Starfighter, Runaway
1988
Alien Nation
1989
Millennium
1991
Naked Lunch
1994
Timecop
1995
Waterworld
2004
Primer
2005
Sky High
2008
Death Race
2009
9, Outlander, Splice
2011
The Collapsed
2012
Lockout
2013
The Congress
2014
The Anomaly, Time Lapse
2015
Chappie, Predestination
2016
Capsule, The Darkest Dawn, Spectral
2017
The Endless, iBoy, Revolt, Stasis, Upside Down
2018
Anon, Kin, Level 16, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Occupation, Replicas, The Shape of Water, Tau, White Chamber
2019
Ad Astra, I Am Mother

Thursday 23 January 2020

Don't Stop Movin

Yesterday, while I was off on a long walk to Basingstoke, Big Finish released my latest Doctor Who story, Chase the Night. It features the fourth Doctor Who, as portrayed by Tom Baker, along with Romana (Lalla Ward), Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) and K-9 (John Leeson). The adventure is set during the ‘E-Space’ excursion of Season 18 and features Jane Asher (!!!) in its guest cast.


I’ve blithered on about the story’s inspirations elsewhere, in Big Finish’s Vortex newsletter and Doctor Who Magazine, and if you buy the story you may find me blithering even more in the bonus features. So I’ll refrain from blithering here too; it’s a fast-paced, thrilling ‘hard’ science-fiction adventure, intended to be as authentic to the era as possible while also doing a few things differently. I think I did a great job with the script; sometimes with these things they end up falling short of your ambitions, just because great ideas don’t always pan out into great stories no matter how hard you work on them, but in this case I think the idea took flight and ended up even better than expected.

The announcement of the release can be found here and it can be ordered here.

Saturday 11 January 2020

It Always Comes As A Surprise


 I have three bits in the new issue of Doctor Who Magazine, available now from all good newsagents and as a kind of deluxe special edition from WH Smiths.


My three bits; the answers to last issue’s Christmas quiz, the 27th instalment of The Blogs of Doom (some people thought it had been dropped; sorry!) and an article on the ten greatest Master reveals. It’s to tie in with recent events in the TV series; except, I didn’t know this when I wrote it. I just thought the magazine was celebrating 49 glorious years of the Master or had uncovered a new interview with Roger Delgado or something. I don’t question these things! The other challenge with writing about the ten greatest Master reveals is that there are only really four or five of them; every ‘surprise’ appearance of the Master during the Pertwee era was blown by the character being listed in the Radio Times. Looking back at it, I kind of wish I’d mentioned The Mutants somewhere, as I am convinced the build-up to the arrival of the Earth Council Investigator in part five is there to make viewers think it’s gonna be the Master.