A recent edition to the ZZZFROMHELLZZZ channel on Youtube are three hour-long documentaries related to Science Fiction. The first, Profits of Science Fiction: Arthur C. Clarke, centers on Sci-Fi visionary Sir Arthur C. Clark, the revered science fiction writer responsible for some of the most iconic stories of the genre. The landmark novel 2001: A Space Odyssey was his most famous work, but Clarke also contributed to the concept of satellite technology and its use in telecommunications. Twenty years after his essay on satellite technology was published, Intelsat I was launched. The second documentary, Prophets of Science Fiction: Philip K. Dick, focuses on the mind of the seminal author best known for his short stories and novels. Nine films have been adapted from his work, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, Paycheck and Next. His work typically explores technology’s impact on human consciousness, the protagonists in his literature often times struggling with separating reality with its high-tech duplicate.
Lastly in Pioneers of Television: Science Fiction we’re treated to a look back at the innovators of some of the genre’s most famous television shows. The creators behind watershed Sci-Fi series like Lost in Space, Star Trek and The Twilight Zone all attempted to combine both entertainment with subject matter that questioned contemporary issues in humanity. Race relations, gender equality and war were common topics throughout Stark Trek‘s life cycle — of course taking place in the early ’60s when these were highly debated issues in the public forum. Series founder Gene Roddenberry is generally heralded as one of the most inventive science-fiction writers to date, someone who overcame great odds simply getting the show on network TV. It of course went on to become a cult classic with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy leading the cast as Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock, birthing a virtual universe of other shows, animated series, films and books in the decades after the original Star Trek ended in 1969. Created by Irwin Allen, Lost in Space was another space exploration-focused series, loosely based on the novel The Swiss Family Robinson and most known for its iconic robot and the meddlesome, quixotic Dr. Smith. Another of the landmark series that came out in the late ’50s and lasted until the early ’60s was The Twilight Zone, an anthology that absorbed the works of sci-fi literary greats like Charles Baumont and Richard Matheson. Rod Sterling created the series and unlike other sci-fi shows at the time, scripts were set in familiar contemporary surroundings. There are many who consider all 152 episodes to be classics.
The “Arthur C. Clarke” video below, with the other two docs in the series after the Jump…
via Nerdcore
