Forty Years of Real Spacecraft Taught Me Why Hollywood Space Travel Makes Me Cringe
It’s been forty years since I began working on real spacecraft propulsion systems and forty years that Hollywood has been twisting physics to suit space-faring...
Themes & Analysis
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Why Hollywood’s Aliens Keep Making the Same Bad Real Estate Decisions
You know what really grinds my gears after forty years in aerospace engineering? How Hollywood aliens never make good tactical decisions. I spend my days...
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Why I Keep Reading Dystopian Sci-Fi Despite Rolling My Eyes at Every New One
Look, I have a confession to make. Whenever someone tells me they just finished yet another dystopian sci-fi novel, I involuntarily grunt and whine something...
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The Tangible Magic: Why I Still Choose Practical Effects Over Perfect CGI
It’s a feeling I get whenever I open up my dad’s paperback copy of Dune and read it. Turns out the same thing is true...
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I Miss Video Stores More Than I Thought I Would: What Streaming Did to My Love Affair with Sci-Fi
I still remember thumbing through the Science Fiction section at Hollywood Video one Friday night when I was seventeen years old. It was 2003, I...
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Why Modern Sci-Fi Movies Are All Flash and No Substance
I spend my days cutting film. Literally cutting strips of film, with scissors. Doing this shit for over twenty years has given me some insight....
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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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Why We Keep Coming Back to Rain-Soaked Streets and Neon Dreams
Look, I know what you movie folks think when I say I’m “into cyberpunk” right now. You’ll eye-roll me when I bring up Blade Runner...
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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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Why VHS Was the Golden Age of Sci-Fi Discovery (And Streaming Will Never Match It)
Last week I was cleaning out my garage, and I stumbled on a box of old VHS tapes I’d forgotten about under a stack of...
