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Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*

Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
Author: Ayesha Khan
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© 2025 Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
Description
The Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever* podcast looks back at more than a century of films, beginning in 1902 and working towards the future. Each episode focuses on a film, director or theme and brings in experts to discuss the history, politics, and influences. Join sci-fi enthusiast Ayesha Khan as she travels through time and space, encounters aliens, and battles authoritarian regimes all from the comfort of your home planet. Released every two weeks
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30 Episodes
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For this bonus episode I’ve teamed up with the excellent History Daily podcast. Very exciting! History Daily tells fascinating stories of what happened “on this day” in history with a new episode every weekday. The early 1950s in the USA stand out as not just a time of economic prosperity but also one of paranoia. The country faced the fear of the atomic bomb, the Red Scare and a moral panic around juvenile delinquency. (Teenagers were new and unpredictable!) During this time Jose...
You can find the podcast on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky. The Worst Film of All Time by The Worst Director of All Time. So claimed the 1980 book The Golden Turkey Awards by Michael and Harry Medved regarding the film Plan 9 from Outer Space and director Edward Wood Jr AKA Ed Wood. But this very title is one of the reasons behind the revival of the film and of Ed Wood. The film has issues with continuity, set design, dialogue and a coherent ‘Plan 9’ but something about the film a...
Description As usual there are spoilers ahead! I would love to know what you make of the ending of this film if you watched it. Best place to do that is on social media. Threads, Instagram and Bluesky. 1957 USA seems like a country on the brink of huge social change. (Of course, I say this with the benefit of hindsight and with a deep affection for the decade that was just around the corner.) But so many of the events of the year are an indication of what’s to come. Th...
As usual there are spoilers ahead! Description Forbidden Planet (1956) is a somewhat overlooked 50s classic. Although it often fails to make lists of the greatest sci-fi films of all time it has come across often in my written research and when speaking to guests. It’s a film that not only seems to excite avid fans of sci-fi cinema but also influenced some of the genre’s heavy hitters like both Star Wars and Star Trek. A costly, slick, colourful movie which takes a break from the red s...
As usual there are spoilers ahead! You can follow the podcast on social media: Instagram, Threads and dipping my toes into BlueSky a little too. Description Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) spawned many remakes over the years, each rendition reflecting the anxieties of its time. The original film is one of my absolute favourites with a variety of potential meanings for a mid-century USA grappling with what it means to be American. My heavyweight sci-fi guests help to unravel the...
As usual there are spoilers ahead! For the full show notes without character limits you can head to the website here. You can follow the podcast on Instagram and Threads although I am also trying to join in on BlueSky a bit. (It's a bit weird though.) Description Godzilla was released in 1954 in Japan it has gone on to become one of the longest standing movie franchises and began the Kaiju film tradition. Directed by Ishiro Honda, produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka with special effects ...
The end of 2024 is nigh! You can follow the podcast on Instagram and Threads although I am also trying to join in on BlueSky a bit. (It's a bit weird though.) Welcome to an end of year special! A compilation of some interesting parts of conversations from the podcast in 2024 that were edited out. I edit the podcast down to a more digestible length but this means I often lose parts of conversations that are really fun or insightful so here is a collection of those. I also wanted to give a...
As usual there are spoilers ahead! For the full show notes without character limits you can head to the website here. Description Them! (1954) is the 6th film we are covering from the 1950s. Hollywood is beginning to realise that sci-fi is a money making genre! The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms from the year before was a big hit for Warner Brothers and Them! followed suit. Another nuclear monster but this time it’s giant ants! Them! was the very first big bug feature and is often considered the ...
As usual there are spoilers ahead! For the full show notes with no character limits you can visit the website. Description Creature from the Black Lagoon released in 1954 is in many ways the epitome of 1950s science fiction cinema. Jack Arnold (director), William Alland (producer) and Richard Carlson (the leading man) were all people who has become associated with the increasingly popular genre. It also has a beautiful and stylish Julie Adams as the heroine, scientists on a mission and of ...
As with all episodes of this podcast there are spoilers ahead! Earlier this year I approached a brilliant theoretical physicist about whether she would like to come on the podcast to speak about her favourite science fiction film but instead she wanted to speak to me about the science of the film Interstellar (2014). I apologise in advance for my own level of understanding of physics which is a mix of decades old lessons in school, a tiny handful of pop science books and a number of scien...
As always there are spoilers ahead! If you want to read the full show notes you can click the episode on this page and scroll down. Description Are we sick of alien invasion films? I certainly hope not! Although this one is a little different as the aliens just want to leave. It Came from Outer Space (1953) was directed by Jack Arnold who would make a name for himself in the 1950s as a director of many sci-fi films. Although the script was written by Harry Essex the treatment for the fi...
As always there are spoilers ahead! If you want to read the full show notes you can click the episode on this page and scroll down. Description: After the classic film The Day the Earth Stood Still we move forward to 1953 and yet another Alien invasion. This time the aliens are definitely not looking to be friends. The War of the Worlds was written by HG Wells and published in 1897 in Pearson’s magazine. There have been many adaptations of the text including the famous radio play from Ors...
As usual there are spoilers ahead! If you want to read the full show notes you can click the episode on this page and scroll down. The Day the earth Stood Still was released in 1951 just like The Thing from Another World. And just like that film The Day the Earth Stood Still is based on a story from Astounding Science Fiction magazine. The flying saucer craze of 1947 has obviously made its impression on Hollywood and The Day the Earth Stood Still delivered a seamless sleek futuristi...
As always there are spoilers ahead! For the full show notes with no character limits you can click the episode on the website watch page here. Description: We are finally in the 1950s! The Golden Era of science fiction cinema. Although the 1950s are known for may B Movies The Thing from Another World was produced (and possibly directed) but the very famous Howard Hawks and came from RKO which was a big name studio at this time. This film capitalised on the growing appetite for science ...
Unlike most episodes there are no film spoilers ahead! For full detailed show notes please click the episode on this page and scroll down. This episode we take a huge jump back to the end of the 19th century and a side step to science fiction literature rather than film. Robert Duncan Milne is a lost pioneer of science fiction literature. Milne’s work had largely vanished despite a book drawing attention to him in 1980. Born in Scotland in 1844 he died in San Francisco at the dawn of th...
As with all episodes of this podcast there are spoilers ahead! For full detailed show notes (without character limits) you can choose the episode on the watch page here: https://www.everyscififilm.com/watch This is a special crossover episode with The Lorehounds podcast. To learn more about The Lorehounds and their extensive coverage of multiple TV series you can visit their website here. Description It has been 45 years since the first Alien (1979) film released in the cinema receiving...
Be warned: There are some potential spoilers ahead. Neither of us have watched Alien: Romulus yet but there is a lot of talk of the franchise and what we are expecting of the new film including a very clever theory from David which could be a spoiler. This is a bonus episode which is part of my first ever crossover podcast! Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever* is joining The Lorehounds podcast as both are a little too excited about a certain franchise. Alien (1979) is 45 years old this year a...
As with all episodes of this podcast there are spoilers ahead! For full detailed show notes (without character limits), including the titles of the films mentioned or shown, you can choose the episode on the watch page here: https://www.everyscififilm.com/watch Description: The idea of the ‘mad scientist’ has been with us for a very long time. In the early 1930s science fiction (and horror) films proliferated with the trope. Metropolis (1927) had already had the remarkable Rotwang who wa...
As with all episodes of this podcast there are spoilers ahead! For full detailed shownotes (without character limits) you can choose the episode on the watch page here. If you would like to watch the Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers film serials they are available on YouTube. (Warning: the serials are repetitive and there are three Flash Gordon serials and one Buck Rogers!) The 1980 Mike Hodges Flash Gordon film is available to rent or buy at an array of outlets including Apple TV. Althoug...
Whilst researching the Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers film serials of the 1930s I was delighted to find far too much information about the pulp and comic book origins of these heroes. So we are taking a detour to speak with people who really have their heads wrapped around this topic. For full shownotes for this episode without character limits you can visit here. We will be talking about Flash Gordon (and a little about Buck Rogers) in the next episode. Scroll down to get more information on...
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