Where do the years go?

The programme on BBC2 last night about Sci Fi was really interesting; it's a 4 part series. I missed the first half and I can't get iplayer to work to watch the first half [which has reduced me to tears ]. I hadn't realised how interested I used to be in Sci Fi, and how much a part of my life it has been. It all started with Pathfinders in Space when I was @ 10 and moved on to Dune and Hitchhikers Guide etc.

Tegan thanks for the recommendation will try and find it on Iplayer. Sorry you can't get it.

I think it started at 9:45 BBC2. I'd been planning to watch it all day..I could kick myself!

Do you think you could access the programme through your computer Tegan? I often watch or listen to programmes that way.

I can only watch iplayer through the computer but even that isn't working. I've got a horrible feeling my computer has got a virus of some kind.

NanKate as soon as I saw the title, Day of the Triffids, it reminded me of reading the book. Then I remembered when, late 60's!

I'm going to try and catch up with that Sci Fi series - it sounds interesting.

I wonder if they'll mention A for Andromeda. I couldn't resist watching it but it terrified me.

Loved DOTT but I'm not a Sci fi fan unless you count early Star Trek watching with my then new husband-35 years ago. He still loves the old Sci Fi but not what he calls the new computer game stuff.

Agus I too read DOTT and The Midwich Cuckoo which were both turned into films/ tv series. The author wrote some great sci fi novels.

Eloethan I too loved and was frightened of A for Andromeda. I think Julie Christie played one of the main roles.

I enjoyed the H G Wells film The Time Machine as well.

I still read modern books like this which they now called Dystopian. The series I find fascinating now is called The Enemy by Charlie Higson. I warn you they are very bloodthirsty but absolutely fascinating. The are set in a world where all the adults are struck down by a nasty disease and the children have to learn to survive and avoid being attacked by the adults. The children hole themselves up in places like The War Museum, The Tower of London, Buckingham Palace. Warning these books are not for the feint- hearted.

What was interesting, in the bit I did manage to watch was how much that was in Hitchikers Guide is now normal and everyday; ie did he foresee the future or did he invent it? [the same could be said of most Sci Fi writers, I guess]. The man who wrote Battlestar Galactica [I think it was that one]was a Mormon, and was based on his peoples' search for a homeland. I loved the Dune books when I was young. And Arthur C Clarke.

I read almost everything by Isaac Asimov back in the 80s and a great deal of Arthur C Clarke. More recently, I've read all the sci fi books by Iain M Banks (Iain Banks in his 'straight' fiction). These are highly inventive, dealing with alien civilizations, particularly one known as 'The Culture' where humanoids live a luxurious lifestyle in a manufactured world, controlled by 'minds'. Sadly, since the author's untimely death, there will be no more of these ingenious novels.

Oh how I agree with you *NAN ,*time does seem to flash by, I cannot believe I will have been married for 44 years in January !

I loved this the first time round - not least because John Duttine was a bit of alright!

Nonu it will be 44 for us next October - we must have been child brides.

Rockgran I saw a picture of JD taken a coupled years ago and sadly he is a bit porky now. His wife Mel Martin still looked good. Do you remember her in 'Love for Lydia' ?

We went to see Interstellar the other evening and I was really disappointed with it and thought it ridiculous. It has been compared, amongst other films, to 2001, but - despite all the fancy effects - I don't think it is in the same street. The rest of the audience seemed similarly underwhelmed.

My brother and I used to say to our father in the 1960s that he was obsessed with the second world war. Now I'm slightly older I can see that the war ended only 15 to 20 years earlier, whereas 15 to 20 years ago was 1994 to 1997, not a long time ago at all. I feel bad now, because when the war started he was 13, and he lived in the east end of London. It surely made a huge impression on him, and sadly, I never talked with him about it. He's been gone since 1988, I missed my chance.

I did most of my SF reading in the 1950s - magazines like Astounding and the catchily titled Street & Smith's Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

That was before all the Sword and Sorcery stuff came along. Isaac Asimov contributed articles - even L Ron Hubbard's nonsense about 'Dianetics' that eventually led to his 'Scientology' movement.

Remember Quatermass? As Saturday reappears every couple of days now and June was a few weeks ago, I'm sure The Triffids and Quatermass were about 10 years ago.
Wasn't television dire in the beginning (that was roughly 25 years back)? Remember Andy Pandy and Muffin the Mule's strings all showing?

By your reckoning I am only 33 apricot, which makes two of my DC older than me.
That could be a science fiction story!

I have a feeling that the original Quatermass was in 1954 because I was 14 and ill in bed, not allowed to get up and watch it.

Original Quatermass Experiment, Summer 1953. I remember hiding behind a chair watching it. Would love to see the original again.

Must have been Quatermass and the Pit that I wasn't allowed to watch. When the earlier one was on, I was only 12, so was probably sent to bed with a good book.