Science Fiction 101

This episode was intended to be a grab-bag of different topics, but we inadvertently dug up a show with a strong theme: translation! We start off with a review of the hot-off-the-presses free magazine  Small Planet , which discusses issues around translated science fiction. Even if you didn't know you were interested in languages and translating, you will be after you've heard our discussi...

It's awards season again, so Colin and Phil hunt out this years short story Hugo nominees: the six best stories from the science fiction and fantasy field in the running for the prestigious award from the World Science Fiction Convention. We also have a Hugo quiz, courtesy of friend of the show, Emmanuel, and our usual run through of recommendations of past, present and future SF. For more informa...

We're back. Waaaaaayyyy back, at the birth of science fiction. Or should that be "scientifiction"? We're celebrating 100 years of Amazing Stories , which was the world's first ever science fiction magazine. Join us as we romp through the magazine's debut issue from April 1926! That historic first issue is online, so please follow along and give it a skim. Find it here: ht...

This time we react to a fascinating article from Strange Horizons , which claims that all SF writers are... historians! You can read the article here: https://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/non-fiction/why-all-science-fiction-and-fantasy-writers-are-historians/ Related to this topic, we also read a delightful historical SF short story by David Brin, "A Professor at Harvard". Find it here:...

This time on Science Fiction 101 , we take some trips down memory lane to revisit classic time travel movies. We mostly focus on the Back to the Future series, but also a couple of wildcards: Primer (2004, Colin's pick) and Peggy Sue Got Married (1986, Phil's pick). We also have a listener quiz, and our usual round-up of recommended SF past, present and future. For the full show notes, vis...

Traditionally on Science Fiction 101 , we follow up our "old magazine" review with a review of its modern counterpart - and this year is no exception, as in this episode we cast our eyes over a very recent issue of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, dated Nov/Dec 2025. No time for a quiz this time (shock horror!), but it will return in our next episode. But we do make time for our usual round-up o...

We're back! With our annual trek into the archives to read an old science fiction magazine, to see if and how our field has changed over the decades. This time we time-travel to 1982, where we pick up the February 15th 1982 issue of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine . If you'd like to read along with us, you'll find the entire issue online courtesy of Luminist , here: https:/...

Back in episode 57, Colin and Phil recommended books and movies to each other. Now they act on those suggestions, reporting back with their findings. Will Phil appreciate Alan Dean Foster's Prism? Will Colin believe that you can journey to the Far side of the Sun? Join us as we travel by Toynbee Convector* *batteries not included For more detail on the items covered in today's show, check...

Join us for a trivia quiz bonanza! Joining the show today is Colin's co-host-from-another-podcast, Seth Heasley. Seth administers a deadly science fictional quiz! Phil is quaking in his sci-fi Moon boots. At the time of recording, Colin and Seth had just returned from this year's World Science Fiction Convention, held in Seattle. So in this episode, they give their behind-the-scenes perspe...

Fifty years ago, schoolboy Phil was knocked out by a British science fiction TV show, the post-apocalyptic SURVIVORS. Created by Terry Nation - who also created DOCTOR WHO's recurring enemy the Daleks and BLAKES SEVEN - SURVIVORS ran for three seasons. Today, Phil has persuaded Colin to take a first look at this sometimes harrowing (but ultimately life-affirming) cult classic, and together the...

Colin and Phil decided to challenge each other with books, stories and films that they thought the other hadn't read or seen. The result is some suggestions for reading and watching that we'd like you all to consider. These aren't necessarily the best science fiction around, but they are all items we greatly enjoy and heartily recommend. We hope you enjoy our suggestions every bit as m...

What on earth does science have to do with science fiction? Is science fiction about science? Is it fiction that takes a scientific approach to fiction? Without getting into the tedium of multiple possible definitions of science fiction, Colin and Phil explore what they expect of something labelled "science fiction". What you can expect is a rambling conversation that touches on philosop...

Every year, we review the short stories shortlisted for the famous Hugo Awards. It's our way of keep abreast of trends in the field of science fiction without having to read a ton of longer works! All of the shortlisted stories are available online for free - for links to all of them, checkout the shownotes: https://101sf.blogspot.com/2025/06/reviewing-hugo-short-stories-episode-55.html So why...

Sometimes the podstreams just cross, and this episode is a prime example. When Colin suggested reviewing It Came From Outer Space , the classic 1953 science fiction movie created by Ray Bradbury, it was right up Phil's alley - and so this episode is also going out (slightly modified) as part of his Bradbury 100 pod! The discussion ranges from Bradbury's contribution to the screenplay to the qualit...

Flow (2024) is an extraordinary film - Latvia's most successul of all time, and winner of the Oscar for Best Animated Film. Colin and Phil discuss whether it counts as science fiction (of course it does!), and what makes this delightful movie tick. If you haven't seen the film, we think we give you enough of flavour of it for the discussion to make sense, and hopefully to inspire you to wa...

Discovery of a buried skull turns a London building site into a palaeontological dig. Until, in a geological layer that's five million years old, a bomb is found. Send for Professor Quatermass! Quatermass and the Pit (1967) - aka Five Million Years to Earth in the US (1968) - is the best and most successful of the British science-fiction horror film series, based in turn on a TV series from a...

We once claimed Tintin: Destination Moon was science fiction, because an animated white dog accompanied an animated human to the moon on a rocketship. Now we outrageously extend the concept as we explore the sci-fi worlds of another animated dog/human partnership: Wallace & Gromit! If you've been living in another solar system these past thirty-six years, you may not be aware of these plas...

It's another one of our (made-up) time-honored traditions: reviewing a current science fiction magazine. We usually do this once a year, to keep on top of current SF trends - and also to compare & contrast current magazines with the SF magazines of the past. Last time, we went back 50 years to review ANALOG . This time, we're bang up-to-date (almost) with a very recent issue of the same magazi...

In time-honored tradition, for our December episode we go hurtling back in time to review a science fiction magazine from the past. Get your flares, platform shoes and ghettoblasters ready as we head back to...November 1974. We're picking on Analog magazine, just because we've never reviewed it before. And it's only the longest-continuously-running SF magazine in existence. It started in 1930 as A...

It occurred to us that although we have discussed many specific books on the show, we've never devoted an episode to the idea of the book - those papery, texty things that Stephen King has described as "uniquely portable magic". So in this episode, we address the various ways in which books can be enjoyed and consumed, and discuss ten (or eleven) questions on the subject of books. We also have a b...

It's fifty years since the TV series of Planet of the Apes debuted, enlivening the childhood of millions around the planet of the humans. Phil and Colin enjoyed the show as kids, but now undertake a celebratory rewatch, reviewing the adventures of Virdon (the blond one), Burke (the dark-haired one), and Galen (the hairy one). We also have a Planet of the Apes quiz, and our usual round up of recomm...

August 2024 saw the World Science Fiction Convention, held in Glasgow, Scotland. Phil stayed at home, but intrepid traveller Colin crossed a continent and an ocean to experience his first Worldcon. Find out how he got on - and how Phil and Colin somehow managed not to meet, despite both being in England at the same time... Also in today's show, a special quiz from friend of the podcast Peter Kuski...

The first women to appear (as "soloists") on the ballot for science fiction's Hugo Awards were Zenna Henderson and Pauline Ashwell, in 1959. (Catherine L. Moore had appeared on an earlier ballot, but for a collaboration with Henry Kuttner.) Fearing that Henderson and Ashwell might be drifting into obscurity, Colin and Phil set out to review their Hugo-nominated novelettes: Zenna Hend...

We're back - and it's the time to review this year's Hugo-nominated short stories! The Hugos are the awards given by members of the annual World Science Fiction Convention (whose numbers this year will include our very own Colin, who will be attending the worldcon in Glasgow). Also in today's episode, we have a quiz. Sort of. See if you can get it before Phil has a clue what's...

We're back, with an episode about the great British SF writer John Wyndham . On many occasions we've found ourselves talking about his books - such as The Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos - but now we attempt to do them justice with a closer look. For the full show notes, visit our blog at 101sf.blogspot.com