Why Most Space Art Looks Fake (And How I’m Trying to Fix It)
So there I was, probably three years ago now, scrolling through some concept art for yet another Mars colonization project when it hit me –...
Sci-Fi Culture
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How Box Office Bombs Become Genre Legends: A Film Editor’s Take on Cult Sci-Fi
You know, there’s something almost perverse about how the sci-fi films we treasure most today were absolute disasters when they first hit theatres. I’m talking...
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When Dystopian Movies Stop Feeling Like Fiction and Start Feeling Like Previews
So there I was last Tuesday night, couldn’t sleep again, ended up putting on *Children of Men* for probably the tenth time this year. Something...
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The Science Fiction Fan Theories That Made Me Question Everything I Thought I Knew
What happens when you’ve spent <a href=”https://dystopianlens.co.uk/from-dystopia-to-utopia-how-sci-fi-uses-the-future-to-reflect-our-present-day-hopes-and-fears/”>forty years</a> designing real spacecraft? You find yourself analysing and deconstructing every piece of science fiction you come across....
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When Sci-Fi Stopped Being Fiction and Started Being My Job Training
Something strange happened to me recently. I’ve been working in game testing for a while now, and I find myself playing the games I grew...
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The Problem with Tidy Endings in Our Broken Worlds
When I walk into a theatre and see a post-apocalyptic story being told in some new form (whether it’s a blockbuster or a low-budget indie),...
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When Sci-Fi Breaks Our Hearts: Characters Who Got Screwed Over by Their Own Stories
I’ve been teaching science fiction to teens for well over a decade and I can honestly say they’re far harsher critics when it comes to...
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Why Time Travel Stories Stopped Being Fun (And Started Making Me Think Too Hard)
You know, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this subject – probably too much time as a retiree thinking about fictitious time machines....
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How Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner Taught This Engineer to Appreciate Science Fiction as Art
It was 1983 and my wife rented the movie Blade Runner on VHS – at that time video rental stores were relatively new and renting...
