#science-fiction

#science-fiction

When Quentin Farmer was getting his startup Portola off the ground, one of the first hires he made was a sci-fi novelist. The co-founders began building the AI companion company in late 2023 with only a seed of an idea: Their companions would be decidedly non-human. Aliens, in fact, from outer space. But when they asked a large language model to generate a backstory, they got nothing but slop. The model simply couldn't tell a good story.

"Third Planet, a comic book and sci-fi superstore, is celebrating its 50th anniversary in November. TJ Johnson opened the store in 1975."

And now we live in an era in which a chatbot can write a passable sonnet, it is perhaps surprising that there hasn't been a huge shift in how film-makers approach this particular corner of sci-fi. Gareth Edwards' The Creator (2023) is essentially the same story about AIs being the newly persecuted underclass as 1962's The Creation of the Humanoids, except that the former has an $80m VFX budget and robot monks while the latter has community-theatre production values.

Death is everywhere in video games, but it's rarely something we're asked to think much about. It's something to escape or inflict onto others, marking the end of your run in a roguelike or a goal to reach for in a competitive shooter. What's explored much less often is what's left behind, in the form of grief, memories, and physical remains, all of which in real life require careful handling and reflection.

In the latest show from "Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan, the crime genre gives way to a bewildering mix of science fiction and noir. Soaked in obvious inspirations from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" to less obvious expressions of James Ward Byrkit's "Coherence," Gilligan's new Apple TV+ series begins with Best-Selling author Carol Sturka ( Rhea Seehorn) reading the latest novel of her best-selling book series to a crowd of fans.

There is a literal s**t-ton of movies that carry the name " Frankenstein" in their titles. From the most faithful adaptations of Mary Shelley's original novel to in-name-only, bargain-basement cheapies, there has been no shortage of motion pictures ready to glom onto the property, going back to the earliest days of cinema. But occasionally one emerges that is actually offbeat and decent enough to warrant additional attention.

"Her voice is as familiar to me as my own," says Theo Downes-Le Guin, youngest child of hugely influential Portland author Ursula K. Le Guin. "That voice is inside my head while I'm reading." Most aren't so fortunate, even if they feel at home in Le Guin's Earthsea and Hainish universes. Before her death in 2018, Le Guin was unanimously regarded as the leading light of American science fiction.

"Tron: Ares" powered up the box office grid in the top spot this weekend, but Disney's third entry in the sci-fi franchise fell short of expectations. Despite some favorable reviews - including a three-out-of-four-star one from The Associated Press - the new "Tron" film starring Jared Leto, Greta Lee and Jeff Bridges earned $33.5 million, according to Comscore estimates on Sunday. The big-budget project, reported to cost around $150 million, arrived 15 years after "Tron: Legacy" opened to $44 million before grossing more than $400 million globally.

Love and Deepspace has a surprisingly complex science fiction story in which the main character, a woman named and customized by the player, is a "deepspace hunter" who fights creatures called Wanderers, but she also, unbeknownst to her, has been reincarnated multiple times. In all these previous lives, she has met the game's five love interests, and unlocking memories from those past iterations is one of the biggest draws of the game because they not only delve into the game's broader mysteries,

A sci-fi fable, The Motion, is a heated debate on animal testing that slips down a kaleidoscopic rabbit hole where the audience equipped with voting cards becomes an accomplice. Shotgun Players' Artistic Director Patrick Dooley directs the world premiere from the Bay Area playwright Christopher Chen, an Obie Award winner. Shotgun Players The Motion, starts Sept. 13, Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Tickets online or at (510) 841-6500 ext. 303. Pay-what-you-can tickets and special pricing available.

In the sixth episode of Strange New Worlds Season 3, the famous spaceship from Doctor Who is tangled with the USS Enterprise, signifying a cross-franchise Easter egg.

"Butler's stories reckoned with chattel slavery, climate catastrophe, and fascism, and were deeply attuned to West African culture and the American civil-rights movement."

Highlander blends science fiction, fantasy, and romance with a Queen soundtrack, presenting an absurd premise where immortals duel throughout history in a beheading battle royale.

There is no solid landmass. What we believed to be small islands are, in fact, algae-like structures that float at the surface of the oceans.

Brazil opens with a bureaucratic error. A fly gets stuck in a typewriter, changing the surname of Archibald Tuttle to Archibald Buttle, a misprint on a form that dictates the government forcibly detain a suspected terrorist (Tuttle) but instead leads to the arrest of an entirely innocent man (Buttle). If the inciting events of our great science fiction films have been hostile aliens, seductive robots, and reckless technologies, Terry Gilliam begins his with a humble typo.

The city has been flattened, the backs of its bridges broken, but is slowly coming back to life.

In 'Predator: Badlands,' a young Yautja named Dek, portrayed by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, becomes the protagonist, marking a departure from the franchise's traditional storytelling.

"The nuns would teach you a lesson, said my mother."

The eight-episode series is set in 2120, where corporate interests are competing to unlock the key to human longevity, possibly even immortality.

The 1960 version of The Lost World contains no recognizable dinosaurs, which makes it a bizarre oddity in sci-fi cinema, unlike its subsequent counterparts.

The only realistic way human beings could colonise planets beyond our solar system is if they spent their lives travelling and committed their children and grandchildren to the same fate.

The Expanse 3-Book Box Set is selling for only $20, offering fans a chance to acquire the first three novels of this acclaimed series affordably.

Apple's adaptation of Martha Wells' novels about a depressed and anxiety-ridden killing machine offers brisk, funny episodes that are easy to binge-watch. With its light tone, it contrasts with the show's existential themes. The finale of its first season will be released on July 11, allowing ample time for new viewers to catch up.