I’ve been a science fiction fan for well over half a century. Long before I could read I watched science fiction.
My dad was routinely what’s called an “early adopter”. He was the first lawyer in St. Louis to use a dictating machine, to buy an electric typewriter, or to own a copier. Had he lived I’m quite sure he would have used word processing as soon as word processing machines became available and would have loved personal computers.
He bought a television before I was born. I still remember that first television. It was one of those big, tube-filled boxes with a little round nine-inch screen.
And I watched the earliest TV science fiction programs: Captain Video (a program with such low production values that it made the old 1930s serials look like high tech) and Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. I have vivid memories of them.
Shortly thereafter the few St. Louis stations, starved for content to fill air time with, began showing those old 1930s serials—Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon—in the after school time slot. I was enthralled.
Science Fiction Theater, hosted by B-movie actor Truman Bradley, ran from 1955 to 1957. It was pretty high tech—the first season was shot in color. It’s been a half century since I’ve watched any of these programs but my recollection is that it was what is called “hard” science fiction, sticking pretty close to science.
The Twilight Zone in contrast was “soft” science fiction, frequently veering into fantasy. It had the virtues of solid acting, good direction, and fabulous writing. That’s why it’s borne the test of time. The original Twilight Zone is still the gold standard for anthology programs.
I remember watching the very first The Outer Limits program: “There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission…”. I loved it. Having some of the best writing in any television science fiction program helped. It remains my all-time favorite television science fiction program (Star Trek TNG was solid, too) and I think it’s rather clear that it inspired a good deal of the television and movie science fiction that followed it. Is there any question that the episode Soldier inspired James Cameron’s Terminator?
I was in college when Star Trek premiered. It followed Wild, Wild West. An entire dorm of guys crowded into a rec room around a single television set. I didn’t miss a single episode in its first run. It’s a bit hard to explain its fascination now but, remember, nothing like it had ever been shown on network TV.
I couldn’t stand the original Battleship Galactica or Buck Rogers. I don’t know if that’s because I got bigger or the programs got smaller. Maybe some of both. I did like Space: 1999, though. I suspect that Barbara Bain and the original Rudi Gernreich-designed costumes helped.
Nowadays television is full of science fiction programming. Nowhere is Sturgeon’s Law (99% of everything is crap) so evident. But once upon a time science fiction television was rare and exotic and exciting. At least it was to me.
There’s the difference in our ages. We students went to the common room to watch Saturday Night Live.
“Nowadays television is full of science fiction programming.”
Except on the SyFy channel. Somebody asked a few months ago why the folks at that channel hate science fiction. It canceled Caprica and Stargate Universe. It’s the Walgreens of TV scifi, in my estimation.
BTW, check this out The stars of modern SF pick the best science fiction. I was suprised to see only one of Clarke’s books mentioned (The City and the Stars — admirable choice, and a book that one of the best critics of Blake thought magnificent. Blake, hmm, well, not surprising, then). I would have listed Childhood’s End, myself. And Zelazny’s Lord of Light. You’d think with all the wonderful scifi books written over the years, there’d be more good scifi on the screen than there is or has been.
My family never watched Star Trek. But the Outer Limits and the Twilight Zone were must see TV.
My last caused me to wonder — can anyone name a science fiction film based on a science fiction book? I’m excluding the Marvel comic things and the graphic novel things. And The Tempest.
Firefly might be my favorite Science Fiction tv show, with Star Trek: TOS a close second. I’m more a fan of more fantasy-based science fiction, like Lost and the X-files. Though I’m also reluctant to watch any show that requires me to follow it week-after-week, which seems like the trend.
sam, Farenheit 451. I think some of Bradbury’s other books were adapted for t.v. movies (Martian Chronicles) or horror films (Something Wicked this Way Comes).
2001 was written concurrently with the movie.
I, Robot count?
I haven’t read him, but Philip K. Dick has a record of movies.
I need to write his name on my wrist next time I go to the library.
I plan on getting to movies in a follow-up post.
Lots of Jules Verne (From the Earth to the Moon, Journey to the Center of the Earth, etc.), H. G. Wells (Things to Come, The Time Machine, etc.), Philip K. Dick (Total Recall, Blade Runner, Screamers), Edgar Rice Burroughs (The Land That Time Forgot, At the Earth’s Core).
Bradbury (mentioned above). Forbidden Planet was a novel before it was a movie (based on The Tempest).
Charles Finney’s The Circus of Dr. Lao (which I love) was adapted into a mildly entertaining movie.
Asimov: I, Robot
Heinlein: Destination Moon, Starship Troopers
Boulle: Planet of the Apes
Harrison: Soylent Green
Matheson: I Am Legend (various versions)
Wylie: When Worlds Collide
I could go on.
Frank Herbert’s Dune also comes to mind.
Yes, yes, and yes to Dave and PD. I was just at the gym, and most of that came back to me. Look forward to Dave’s post on the movies.
“2001 was written concurrently with the movie.”
Actually, 2001 was based on one of Clarke’s short stories, The Sentinel. The original The Day the Earth Stood Still was based on another short story (can’t recall the author), Farewell to the Master (Punchline: Klattu character to reporter: “But you misunderstand. Gort is the master.”)
Off on a bit of a tangent, I read Dune in serialization in Astounding. I am astonished that so few people seem to recognize that it is loosely adapted from the life of Mohammed. It was obvious to me when I read it.
Another tangent. I thought the pilot and first season (the pilot in particular) of Lexx were among the most creative science fiction I’ve seen on television. It deteriorated rapidly.
Yet another digression. Janis:
If you do start reading Philip K. Dick, by all means start with The Man in the High Castle, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and Ubik first. Later works get a bit, er, murky.
I like Dick’s early work but even then I had a problem with his work that I’ll write about some time. It’s something that extends from novels to movies and TV for me. The way I usually describe it is that actors’ personalities come across the footlights to me. The more personal problems a performer (or writer) has, the more difficult I find reading or viewing his or her work.
It’s why I don’t care for Marilyn Monroe, for example. Her obvious psychological problems are overwhelming to me.
In the case of Philip K. Dick, I think it’s pretty obvious that he had serious mental problems from an early age.
Thank you, sir.
Agreed.
FWIW, there was a report last year that Ridley Scott has taken on a four-hour BBC miniseries production of Man In the High Castle:
http://exonero.org/?p=1869
That could be very interesting….
Another digression — speaking of the Scotts, Ridley and Tony have done a documentary on Gettysburg for the History Channel (scheduled for May 30). Here’s the trailer (interesting use of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill”, by a band named Placebo.
@sam, not completely off topic. I don’t know how many times I’ve turned on the History Channel and found science fiction:
The true story of big foot, area 51, the loch ness monster . . .
People running around haunted buildings with night vision goggles . . .
Anything mentioning the Knights Templar, Nostradamus . . .
I hunted down the Philip K. Dick books after the movies started appearing. I was blown away, and and was going on about his genius when my friend says “yeah, I used to drink beer with him.”
Pretty funny, they used to meet at a bar a mile from my house.
Can anything be better than those firecracker fuse/sparklers on the back of plastic rocket ships in Flash Gordon? No way. Made your mind work.
Twilight Zone – awesome.
Outer Limits? I was young enough to be scared….
All theatre of the mind.
Maybe its why Star Wars and all that just flat left me cold.
Anybody remember the sci-fi parody, Quark?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_(TV_series)
I remember liking it as a kid, but don’t remember much else.
I also liked Logan’s Run, which I just now discovered was based upon a movie, based upon a book.
Can’t let this thread go without mentioning the greatest homage to cheesy 50s movie scifi evah– the inestimable Mystery Science Theater 3000. That show had the best one-line summation of the entire genre (a genre I grew up watching and loving): “What kind of a shithole planet is this?” (I think the line was delivered as the crew watched one my favs, This Island Earth.)
I liked Quark. I remember that I thought Ficus was funny, beyond that, details have faded.
Without the internet, I wouldn’t be able to truly confirm my memory of seeing tv series based upon Westworld and Planet of the Apes. Indeed, they existed, as did Quark, which I wouldn’t have remembered otherwise.
“Outer Limits? I was young enough to be scared….”
I remember being scared just from the paintings in “Night Gallery.” They may have been scarier than the story being set up.
You need to do a list of best and worst movie adaptations of sci-fi books. Let me nominate A Boy And His Dog for the worst list. I should also note that you missed the longest running series of all, Dr. Who. Talk about low budget special effects.
Steve