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

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.

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.