Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*

Every single sci-fi film ever. Almost.
Award-winning podcast producer and sci-fi film enthusiast Ayesha Khan volunteers for the task. Her continuing mission: to explore strange old films, seek out the experts, and to boldly bring them to you.
We will begin our journey with an episode dedicated to finding out what science fiction actually is.
Then we move to Paris, 1902, to watch and discuss the first sci-fi film ever: Le Voyage Dans La Lune.
Occasionally we will take some detours to hear some fascinating people discuss their favourite sci-fi film. Episode three features Stanford neuroscientist, best-selling author, and the host of the Inner Cosmos podcast David Eagleman. He tells us why The Creator (2023) made it straight to the top of his list.
Join me in watching a film and then hearing some clever, heavily decorated connoisseurs release knowledge torpedos. For us! For posterity!
If you're joining in, I would love to hear from you. For feedback, comments, or queries leave me a message at https://www.speakpipe.com/everyscififilm
The podcast launches on March the 31st 2024.

Unlike most episodes there are no film spoilers ahead!
For full detailed show notes please click the episode on this page and scroll down.
This episode we take a huge jump back to the end of the 19th century and a side step to science fiction literature rather than film.
Robert Duncan Milne is a lost pioneer of science fiction literature. Milne’s work had largely vanished despite a book drawing attention to him in 1980. Born in Scotland in 1844 he died in San Francisco at the dawn of the 20th century. During his time in San Francisco he worked as a journalist as well as writing science fiction short stories.
In the many stories Milne wrote he included themes of time travel, alien life, teleportation, cryogenic preservation, remote surveillance and much much more.
My fantastic guests today have spent many years researching and compiling Milne’s work and trying to discover as much as possible about his life and work.
The Experts
Keith Williams is a Reader in English Literature at the University of Dundee where he runs the science fiction programme. He has a special interest in the pre 1945 period.
Ari Brin completed her Masters at the University of Dundee where she began her PhD research which focuses on the life and work of Robert Duncan Milne.

The book that Ari and Keith have been working on will be released in January 2025. It is available for pre-order for the ungodly price of £117 in the UK or $175 in the USA. We all hope a cheaper, consumer friendly version will be released in the future.

Shownotes:
00:00 Introduction
01:59 Why was this pioneer’s work lost?
03:21 Milne’s contemporaries and the topics he wrote about
06:57 The promising young man who vanishes from Scottish society
12:32 San Francisco: an exciting literary hub in the late 19th century
14:18 Milne’s excessive drinking and the Keeley cure
19:27 Milne’s journalism and how it fed into his fiction
22:20 The Great Moon Hoax of 1835
25:51 Milne, Wells and visions of the future
33:17 The death of Milne and his work
36:32 Keith and Ari’s book and the crazy price
NEXT EPISODE!
WE ARE IN THE 1950s!!!!! It is an exciting but overwhelming time so please bear with me.
The next film we will be speaking about The Thing From Another World (1951). You can find out where you can watch it on Just Watch: https://www.justwatch.com/
It is available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play and other outlets. If you are in the USA I believe you can watch it for free (with ads) on Tubi.

As with all episodes of this podcast there are spoilers ahead!
For full detailed shownotes (without character limits) you can choose this episode on the watch page here and scroll down.
I would love for you to join in by watching the film Just Imagine which is available here.
If you would like to share your thoughts on the film or the episode you can do that on Instagram.
Description
How did the US make a lighthearted, musical rom-com in answer to the grand German dystopia of Metropolis?
Just Imagine was made by David Butler who was hot off the success of another musical: Sunny Side Up (1929).
Just Imagine was released in November of 1930 a little over a year after the Wall Street Crash. Sound had become commonplace in movie theatres and musicals were drawing in the crowds. Just Imagine had a budget of approximately $1.1 million.
The film is set in 1980. Unsurprisingly there are no synth bands or shoulder pads. There is, however, a glorious retro-futuristic glimpse into what the vision of the future looked like for the people of 1930. The film is very different to its big budget predecessors Aelita Queen of Mars and Metropolis. Just Imagine is a light-hearted, musical rom-com and offers very little anxiety about technology or the future. I had considered titling the episode 'Just Imagine Being Optimistic About the Future!'. Luckily I have procured some heavyweight experts to explain how techno-optimism was par for the course in the machine age USA.
The Experts
Jay Telotte is a Professor Emeritus of film and media studies at Georgia Tech. He has written extensively about film history for decades including many books and articles on science fiction cinema. He wrote the article Just Imagine-ing the Metropolis of Modern America in 1996.
Lisa Yaszek is back with us! She is Regents' Professor of Science Fiction Studies at Georgia Tech, has written/edited multiple books on science fiction and teaches Just Imagine as part of a futurism, fashion, and science fiction design class. She was recently received the SFRA Award for Lifetime Contributions to Science Fiction Scholarship.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro to the show and guests
01:41 The perfect storm for a musical rom-com sci-fi
04:55 Musicals
08:19 Science Fiction
10:26 Swedish accents, gender and the other queen of Mars
15:10 Optimism, World's Fairs and technocracy
19:53 The futurists and fashion
24:26 Visionary tech hits and misses
28:50 Good and evil of sci-fi fashion
31:47 The death of the big-budget futurist film
33:27 Visual legacy: Flash Gordon, Frankenstein & Buck Rodgers
35:29 Sci-fi musical Vs sci-fi horror
37:34 Conclusions
40:07 Recommendations
NEXT EPISODE!
We will be speaking about the 1933 original King Kong! The film is available to buy or rent on many streaming channels. You can check the 'Just Watch' website to get details on where.
You can also watch the film here.

We're doing things a little differently this episode. There are still spoilers ahead!
Frankenstein is considered by many people to be a solid first choice for the first science fiction novel. (Before you start jumping up and down in disgust, yes, there are many stories from the 1600s and even ancient tales which are considered to be strong contenders for the first written sci-fi story. That does not take away from the influence of Mary Shelley.)
In 1816 the teenager* went on holiday to Switzerland and came up with the character of Frankenstein and his monster which would then develop into a novel titled Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Over 200 years later there are still films being made based on the characters from the book.
In this episode, we touch upon James Whale’s 1931 Frankenstein film but look at the origins of the story, examine why its monster has such a long lasting legacy, and why these stories resonate with us still.
For full detailed shownotes please click the episode at www.everyscififilm.com/watch and scroll down.
The experts
Roger Luckhurst is a Professor at Birkbeck, University of London. He specialises in literature, film and cultural history from the 19th century to the present. He has written many books and numerous articles on science fiction, horror and the Gothic.
Sarah Artt is a Lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University. She has taught courses on Frankenstein in film and literature and co-led a 3 year project titled The Age of Frankenstein which examined the origins and legacy of the story. Her book Quiet Pictures comes out in May 2024.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction, thank you and guests
02:08 The origin of the monster
04:51 Mary Godwin: not your average 19th century girl
06:22 The monster is still with us
10:16 Mary Shelley as the monster: my hackneyed take
14:23 The ultimate goth princess
15:02 Knowledge and punishment
16:37 The horror film genre
20:12 Frankenstein’s monster: a child of revolution!
23:16 Why we love monsters
29:58 James Whale and the Bride of Frankenstein
31:38 Godzilla, B movies and pod people
35:50 The Stepford Wives
39:18 The slave becomes the master
40:08 Burning cross, lynching and the mob
42:59 Conclusions: class, prejudice and eugenics
46:06 Recommendations
Next episode
The next film we will be covering is Just Imagine (1930). Is is a musical, rom-com sci-fi set in 1980. You can watch it here: https://archive.org/details/JustImagine_201701
*Correction: I wrongly say at 02:37 that Mary Shelley is 16 or 17 years old when they arrive at Villa Diodati but she is 18.

As with all episodes of this podcast there are spoilers ahead!
You can watch Aelita Queen of Mars (1924) here. For full shownotes visit the watch page for this episode on the website: https://www.everyscififilm.com/watch
Lenin, the leader of the Russian revolution and the new soviet Russia declared “cinema is for us the most important of the arts”. He recognised the power of film to reach a wide range of audiences and its potential as propaganda. The country was struggling as was its film industry which was nationalised in 1919.

In the first half of the 20th century Russia has been through a world war, a revolution and a civil war which ended in 1923.
Some months later the words “Anta Odeli Uta” started appearing in the press and distributed leaflets. The words are from Aelita Queen of Mars which was Soviet Russia’s first big film. A film they hired acclaimed pre-revolutionary film director Yakov Protozanov to make. This film was intended to make a big impact, to be popular and be a beacon of the new emerging soviet Russia. Although the film was a commercial success, communist critics were harsh in their verdict.
The film has a mishmash of themes which make for confusing viewing. Part communist propaganda (oppressed Martian workers rise up against a cruel king), part romantic drama (jealousy and obsession), part social commentary (corrupt government officials and bumbling policemen) amongst many other things.
Luckily we have two heavyweight scholars to help us rein in the confusion.
The experts
Denise Youngblood is Professor of History Emerita at the University of Vermont. She is a specialist on the history of Russian and Soviet cinema from 1908 to the present. She has written extensively on the subject, including seven books and numerous articles and film reviews. Denise has a PhD from Stanford and was one of only three Americans who studied Soviet film history at VGIK (the Soviet state film institute in Moscow) during Soviet times.
Rachel Morley is Associate Professor at UCL's School of Slavonic & East European Studies where she is also co-chair of Russian Cinema Research Group. She has published widely and presented papers on Russian film.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to show and guests
02:43 The pre-revolutionary master returns
07:01 Where is the communist propaganda?
13:00 Anta Odeli Uta and the critics Vs fans
18:34 Is the protagonist meant to be unlikable?
23:12 Women: past, present and future
28:34 The working class
32:17 A vision of the future: costumes and set design
35:22 Russian sci-fi after Aelita: Stalin Vs Khrushchev
38:38 Aelita: a warning to Soviet filmmakers
40:53 Did Aelita inspire Fritz Lang’s Metropolis?
43:12 Protozanov’s future
44:27 Stalin’s restrictions on the film industry
48:02 Conclusion
NEXT EPISODE!
Fritz Lang’s Metropolis is next! It is considered by many to be one of the greatest films of the silent era. You can watch it here at the internet archive or here on YouTube. Or you can check here for UK or here for US options. DVDs of the film are also available
(There are many versions of the film due to editing, lost footage and restorations. There is also a 1984 Giorgio Moroder version with an 80s soundtrack!)