Sci-Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder (A BFI Compendium): 1

Plot

Sci-Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder charts a course through the other worlds, future visions and altered states of sci-fi film and television, taking us from the magical invention of early cinema and onwards past the flying saucers, forbidden planets and Martian invaders of 1950s Cold War sci-fi and the adventures in space and time of Doctor Who. We journey deep into the virtual realities of cyberspace and through the nightmarish visions of future dystopias, meeting advanced artificial intelligences, biological mutations and alien lifeforms, and on to the special-effects-laden, galaxy-spanning entertainments of today. Through a range of lavishly illustrated new essays Sci-Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder shows how sci-fi is as much about ideas as spectacle, and how it expresses our sense of fear and wonder like no other genre.