Red Harvest was the first full-length book by Dashiell Hammett, the godfather of the American crime novel. Adapted from a four part serial in the crime magazine Black Mask, It’s a tremendously – and often surprisingly – hard hitting novel; … Continue reading ‘Red Harvest’ by Dashiell Hammett
Time Bandits changed my life. No, scrub that Sunday supplement bullshit; it didn’t really, but it did barge into me at an early age and jostle me in a direction that I’d probably have found anyway, only not as quickly. … Continue reading All the Dreams I’ve Ever Had (And Not Just the Ones About Time Bandits)
This is a Doctor Who story that I wrote in early 2016, less than a year before the series explored similar superheroic themes in ‘The Return of Doctor Mysterio’. Hope you enjoy it and take it in the humorous manner … Continue reading ‘With Great Power…’ by Paul Ferry
I was only 3 years old when Series 10 of Doctor Who was first broadcast and yet it feels like an old friend, partly because it has been very well served for repeats over the years. The Three Doctors and … Continue reading On the Third Day: Doctor Who Season 10 Blu-Ray Review
There have been lots of ‘unofficial’ sequels to H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. So much time has passed since the Godfather of Science Fiction single-handedly invented the alien invasion sub-genre in 1898 that many authors have adopted a … Continue reading ‘The Massacre of Mankind’ by Stephen Baxter
I dug up this piece, originally intended as the first part of a sprawling history of British Sci-Fi on film and television for the original run of Strange Skins magazine, and thought it might be of interest. Please excuse any … Continue reading A History of British Sci-Fi on Film and Television – Part One (1895 to 1955)
With the BBC currently filming a new version of Worzel Gummidge, starring Mackenzie Crook as the beloved scarecrow character from the classic series of children’s books written by Barbara Euphan Todd, there are inevitable comparisons with the fondly remembered early-80s … Continue reading The Forgotten Scarecrow: Worzel Gummidge Turns Detective
Originally published in Strange Skins 2013 #1 Sometimes, mythic historical characters are so vividly drawn in the public consciousness that they are believed, against the best evidence, to have actually existed; Robin Hood is a good example. More rarely, a … Continue reading Baron Münchhausen: The Truth Behind History’s Greatest Liar
In 1992, science fiction author Harry Harrison teamed up with esteemed cognitive scientist Professor Marvin Minsky to write a techno thriller about artificial intelligence and the possibilities of direct machine communication with the human brain. The Turing Option is now widely overlooked as a part of Harrison’s canon, yet it’s an astoundingly prescient look into the future that, in many of its predictions, puts the work of techno thriller giants such as Michael Crichton and Robin Cook to shame. Although it misses a lot of the important developments that would take place in the 25 years since its release, its … Continue reading ‘The Turing Option’ by Harry Harrison and Marvin Minsky
Originally published in Strange Skins 2013 #3 Who-oo-oo-oo is Dr Who? Where is he from? What does he do? These are the questions posed by Frazer Hines on his 1968 ‘hit’ record Who’s Doctor Who. A question to which the … Continue reading The Other Dr. Who
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