Flow (2024) is an extraordinary film - Latvia's most successul of all time, and winner of the Oscar for Best Animated Film. Colin and Phil discuss whether it counts as science fiction (of course it does!), and what makes this delightful movie tick.

If you haven't seen the film, we think we give you enough of flavour of it for the discussion to make sense, and hopefully to inspire you to watch it.

We also have a cat/SF quiz, and our traditional round-up of recommendations of past/present/future science fiction.

Find the full show notes on our website: https://101sf.blogspot.com/2025/04/go-with-flow-episode-53.html

Discovery of a buried skull turns a London building site into a palaeontological dig. Until, in a geological layer that's five million years old, a bomb is found. Send for Professor Quatermass!

Quatermass and the Pit (1967) - aka Five Million Years to Earth in the US (1968) - is the best and most successful of the British science-fiction horror film series, based in turn on a TV series from a decade before. Colin and Phil examine it from all angles to see what makes it tick.

We also have a fiendish Q-uiz, and our usual round up of past, present and future SF recommendations.

For more information, check out the show notes at: https://101sf.blogspot.com/2025/03/mind-gap-professor-quatermass-episode-52.html

We once claimedTintin: Destination Moon was science fiction, because an animated white dog accompanied an animated human to the moon on a rocketship. Now we outrageously extend the concept as we explore the sci-fi worlds of another animated dog/human partnership: Wallace & Gromit!

If you've been living in another solar system these past thirty-six years, you may not be aware of these plasticine pals, but it's our job to bring you up to date as we examine the SF chops of every one of the Wallace and Gromit movies, coming bang up to date with the Oscar-nominated recent releaseVengeance Most Fowl.

For more information on everything covered in this episode, head to the shownotes on our blog:https://101sf.blogspot.com/2025/02/cracking-sci-fi-episode-51-of-podcast.html

It's another one of our (made-up) time-honored traditions: reviewing a current science fiction magazine. We usually do this once a year, to keep on top of current SF trends - and also to compare & contrast current magazines with the SF magazines of the past.

Last time, we went back 50 years to review ANALOG.

This time, we're bang up-to-date (almost) with a very recent issue of the same magazine. Analog is the longest-continuously-running SF magazine, having been around under various titles since the 1930s!

What will make of Analog's longstanding reputation for "hard SF" ? How does the magazine stack up against its wholly online competitors such as Clarkesworld and Uncanny? How does it stack up against its former self?

No quiz this time, but we finish off with our usual round-up of recommendations of past/present/future science fiction.

For full shownotes, check out our blog at: 101sf.blogspot.com

In time-honored tradition, for our December episode we go hurtling back in time to review a science fiction magazine from the past. Get your flares, platform shoes and ghettoblasters ready as we head back to...November 1974.

We're picking on Analog magazine, just because we've never reviewed it before. And it's only the longest-continuously-running SF magazine in existence. It started in 1930 as Astounding Stories, was renamed Analog in the 1960s, and continues under that name to this day. As we join it in 1974, it's in the early years of the editorship of Ben Bova, and is beginning to modernise.

If you'd like to browse through the issue with us, you can download it as a PDF from this link.

And don't forget the shownotes, which you can find at 101sf.blogspot.com

It occurred to us that although we have discussed many specific books on the show, we've never devoted an episode to the idea of the book - those papery, texty things that Stephen King has described as "uniquely portable magic".

So in this episode, we address the various ways in which books can be enjoyed and consumed, and discuss ten (or eleven) questions on the subject of books.

We also have a book-adjacent quiz, and our usual round up of recommendations of past, present and future SF.

For links and shownotes, check out our web page: https://101sf.blogspot.com/2024/11/uniquely-portable-magic-episode-48.html

It's fifty years since the TV series of Planet of the Apes debuted, enlivening the childhood of millions around the planet of the humans. Phil and Colin enjoyed the show as kids, but now undertake a celebratory rewatch, reviewing the adventures of Virdon (the blond one), Burke (the dark-haired one), and Galen (the hairy one).

We also have a Planet of the Apes quiz, and our usual round up of recommendations of past, present and future SF.

For full show notes, check out our blog at 101sf.blogspot.com

August 2024 saw the World Science Fiction Convention, held in Glasgow, Scotland. Phil stayed at home, but intrepid traveller Colin crossed a continent and an ocean to experience his first Worldcon. Find out how he got on - and how Phil and Colin somehow managed not to meet, despite both being in England at the same time...

Also in today's show, a special quiz from friend of the podcast Peter Kuskie (last seen in episode 11), and our usual round up of all good things science fictional.

For more details, and links to items mentioned in the pod, look for the shownotes at:

https://101sf.blogspot.com/2024/09/conventional-wisdom-episode-46-of.html