ABSTRACT

British Science Fiction Cinema is the first substantial study of a genre which, despite a sometimes troubled history, has produced some of the best British films, from the prewar classic Things to Come to Alien made in Britain by a British director. The contributors to this rich and provocative collection explore the diverse strangeness of British science fiction, from literary adaptions like Nineteen Eighty-Four and A Clockwork Orange to pulp fantasies and 'creature features' far removed from the acceptable face of British cinema.
Through case studies of key films like The Day the Earth Caught Fire, contributors explore the unique themes and concerns of British science fiction, from the postwar boom years to more recent productions like Hardware, and examine how science fiction cinema drew on a variety of sources, from TV adaptions like Doctor Who and the Daleks, to the horror/sf crossovers produced from John Wyndham's cult novels The Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos (filmed as Village of the Damned). How did budget restrictions encourage the use of the 'invasion narrative' in the 1950s films? And how did films such as Unearthly Stranger and Invasion reflect fears about the decline of Britain's economic and colonial power and the 'threat' of female sexuality?
British Science Fiction Cinema celebrates the breadth and continuing vitality of British sf film-making, in both big-budget productions such as Brazil and Event Horizon and cult exploitation movies like Inseminoid and Lifeforce.

chapter |15 pages

Introduction

The strange world of the British science fiction film

chapter 2|15 pages

‘We're the Martians now'

British sf invasion fantasies of the 1950s and 1960s

chapter 3|9 pages

Apocalypse then!

The ultimate monstrosity and strange things on the coast...an interview with Nigel Kneale

chapter 4|18 pages

Alien women

The politics of sexual difference in British sf pulp cinema

chapter 5|13 pages

‘A stiff upper lip and a trembling lower one'

John Wyndham on screen

chapter 6|11 pages

Trashing London

The British colossal creature film and fantasies of mass destruction

chapter 8|15 pages

Adapting telefantasy

The Doctor Who and the Daleks films

chapter 9|10 pages

‘A bit of the old ultra-violence'

A Clockwork Orange

chapter 11|16 pages

Dream girls and mechanic panic

Dystopia and its others in Braziland Nineteen Eighty-Four

chapter 12|12 pages

‘No flesh shall be spared'

Richard Stanley's Hardware