sci-fiworlds

[sci-fiworlds]

Ghost Hunters - Episode 5 - The George Inn

DVD Synopsis:

“The George Inn is an 18th Century drinking house, in a small town in the North of England. It was the site of one of the most hair-raising tales of haunting and exorcism. And at the end of it all, buried in the cellar, we find the ring that bears the ghost’s identity.”

While more skeptical researchers attribute paranormal occurrences to natural causes like hallucinations caused by ultrasound or electromagnetic pollution, the more open-minded paranormal investigators generally subscribe to three main theories. Two of these possibilities – that ghosts are either 3D psychic recordings or manifestations of the human mind's telekinetic powers – have been explored previously in this series. However, the George Inn haunting might provide the strongest evidence in the Ghost Hunters series for the most straightforward theory: that ghosts are exactly what psychic mediums claim they are – the spirits of the deceased, or evidence of life after death.

The case takes an intriguing turn with the discovery of a bereavement ring in the cellar, engraved with the name "Robert Clay" and the date "1786". Later, during a séance, psychic mediums claimed to have communicated with a spirit who identified himself as Robert Clay, stating that he had killed two children and buried them in the pub's cellar, where two gravestones were reportedly found. Further research revealed that two children did indeed go missing around the time Robert Clay supposedly lived, although no record of the individual himself could be found.

This is a classic case of unfinished business. The alleged spirit still fearful of being found out continues to guard the pub's cellar even after his death, perhaps trapped by his own guilt for his terrible crimes. It was speculated that prominent families would write out family members who had brought disgrace to their name, which would explain why references to the Clay family were found but not a Robert Clay from circa 1786.

One last thought. While this haunting is location-based, rather than individual-based, the former owner Tom appears to be a lightning rod for phenomena. While most of the other witnesses only see things move on their own, or hear strange mumbling that sounded more like old machinery than the voice of a person, Tom actually sees and hears the ghost, just like you would see and hear a normal person.

Why would this be? Are some people more psychic than others? To use an analogy, are most people basically psychically colorblind or hearing impaired? An idea that was once suggested to me by another paranormal writer was that ghosts could be best understood as a form of psychic bacteria that can attach themselves to suitable hosts and use them to sustain themselves by draining people of their energy and using their imagination and memory to select a form to manifest into. Clearly, some kind of psychic link had been created between Tom and the ghostly stranger.

But here's an alternative explanation. Tom was the one who discovered the bereavement ring, and he also knew about the graves that had been found. Could this entity have downloaded this information from Tom's mind and used it to assume the persona of Robert Clay? Perhaps this spirit actually believes it's the ghost of this man who died in 1786, but the whole story of the murders and connection with Robert Clay was created by Tom's unconscious mind and then absorbed by this psychic bacteria to transform itself into this ghost. Like a method actor who becomes so convincing that they forget it's just a show and become the character they're portraying. This raises intriguing questions about whether many ghost sightings are actually just the psychic projections of the living. In light of this possibility, our initial premis that the George Inn haunting provides strong evidence for life after death may not be the only explanation. Instead, the truth may lie in a more complex interplay between the entity, Tom's subconscious, and the location itself.

[sci-fiworlds]

Ghost Hunters - Episode 4 - Spirits of Bodmin Moor

DVD Synopsis:

“Bodmin Moor is in the far West of England. It is a place of mystery and intrigue with associations that go far back in history, to King Arthur and beyond. We learn of the extraordinary paranormal events experienced by some people who live in the area. Some, in fact, who believe they have actually encountered King Arthur himself”

This episode begins with a detailed description of an eyewitness who believes he encountered the ghost of King Arthur on Bodmin Moor. The witness described seeing a medieval knight in full armour, reminiscent of the classic Hollywood version of the mythical King of the Britons. However, if King Arthur existed at all, it would have been in the 5th or 6th century, long before the medieval period associated with knights in shining armour. A paranormal researcher suggests that the witness might have seen a ghost from a later period, but I think an alternative explanation is possible. The witness's own knowledge of the King Arthur myth associated with Bodmin Moor and Cornwall could have influenced the apparition's manifestation, shaping it to fit their expectations. This isn't just a case of folkloric influence or cultural conditioning, where the brain filters the experience through a lens of cultural familiarity. Instead, it's possible that the witness's expectations played a more fundamental role in shaping the apparition, similar to the observer effect in physics, where the act of observation can change the outcome of an experiment.

The episode also explores the idea that the granite rock in Cornwall and the large number of standing stones could act as a lightning rod attracting or amplifying paranormal activity. Ley lines, which are believed by paranormal researchers to be paths of concentrated spiritual or mystical energy that crisscross the Earth, may play a role in this phenomenon, with many standing stones strategically built along these lines according to psychics. Granite's unusual properties, such as piezoelectricity, where it can generate an electric charge under mechanical stress, are noteworthy. Let's speculate that the electrical charges generated by the granite could interact with the human brain's electromagnetic fields, potentially altering brain activity patterns or enhancing sensitivity to subtle energies. Furthermore, let's speculate that granite might also interact with the spiritual energy associated with ley lines in a similar way as electrical energy, amplifying or resonating with this energy to create a unique environment that fosters extraordinary experiences, perhaps making people more psychic or increasing their receptivity to non-physical realities.

Let's speculate more here that our ancestors built the standing stones as a means to harness this energy and create a bridge between our reality and a non-physical layer of reality. The mythical entities that emerge from this interaction may be a side effect of the supercharged human consciousness, taking on forms that our ancestors expected and understood. If true, it could raise fantastic possibilities such as: that our ancestors built these structures to tap into and manipulate the fabric of reality, perhaps to communicate with other forms of consciousness or even to transcend the limitations of the physical world. This raises fundamental questions about the nature of human consciousness, the structure of reality, and the purpose of ancient stone structures found around the world, often associated with ancient deities and mystical energies. What is the connection between these ancient sites and human consciousness? Is their purpose to tap into the deeper fabric of reality? And are the ghosts seen around sacred sites like Bodmin Moor echoes of our forgotten past, perhaps a side effect of a lost science of the mind developed by our ancestors?

[sci-fiworlds]

Ghost Hunters - Episode 3 - The Phantom Schoolmaster

DVD Synopsis:

“In a village on the outskirts of London, many years ago, a school burned down. In recent years, there have been reports of strange happenings in buildings built on the site. We follow a trail of clues that leads us directly to the master of the burned-down school.”

When I watched this episode originally in the 1990s, it could have been my first time hearing about Ouija boards, also known as spirit boards, used to contact ghosts. As well as the paranormal, I have always had an interest in Ancient Egypt, where the Ouija Board or at least something very similar was used to communicate with the afterlife, which was taken as real as bricks and water to the ancient Egyptians, who would spend their whole lives preparing for the next life, often at great expense to themselves in terms of the costs of building tombs etc.

The Bible warns against such communication in Leviticus 19:31: "Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them." And while my mother claims not to believe in the Bible, she isn’t half afraid of the Devil, and repeatedly told me many times growing up never to mess around with Ouija boards or anything like that. I remember her telling me if I ever brought one into the house she would burn it. This wasn’t a game. It was dangerous to mess around with things you didn’t understand, and I believed her… especially after considering the rest of this episode in which both Christian priests and Spiritualist mediums warn of the dangers of trying to satisfy curiosity unprotected. Often the information communicated to the living by the spirits is very good and beneficial, but after winning your trust, mischievous spirits begin giving false information deliberately to cause harm. False claims like your “brother is having an affair with your wife” it is alleged by the priest was communicated in one seance, before the troublesome spirit board was taken outside and burned. More troublesome are the claims that such attempts at communicating with the other side is like opening a door to any stranger and once crossed over bad spirits can refuse to leave and make your life a misery.

For all those reasons, despite my belief that paranormal phenomena are real and desire to understand what is causing them, I never messed around with a Ouija board until I was well into my twenties, and in my entire life have only used a Ouija twice. Both times I insisted on saying a short prayer for protection, and took it all very seriously as to not offend the spirits. The first time was when I attended a ghost hunt at Swansea Museum. Nothing much happened. But more recently I was talked into using an Ouija board again in an attempt to get to the bottom of some strange happenings at a friend’s house. Lights would dim for no reason, and objects would disappear and then turn up somewhere it made no sense for them to be. The glass moved, and we repeatedly received the word “red” which we interpreted as a name, for what seemed to be a child spirit. One of many. Ultimately, nothing was resolved, but it was all very interesting nonetheless…

Then it began. For the next two to three weeks. Exactly the same phenomena that my friend had experienced seemed to follow me home. Objects disappeared and reappeared in impossible places – my remote control, pen, keys, and wallet. My belt vanished, leaving me to spend the day adjusting my trousers. When I came home, my belt was hanging in my cupboard, exactly where I had looked before leaving – seemingly impossible, but it happened. Perhaps my imagination was running away with me, but it was enough for me to ask “Red” to “please go back home now, I have a lot to do and can’t have things disappearing all the time.” After that, whenever anything disappeared, I wouldn’t acknowledge it, and like a child, whatever it was got bored and moved on. Whether this was the spirit of a little girl, or just my imagination running wild after the excitement of playing with paranormal fire, I don’t know. But it was enough to reaffirm my caution about using Ouija boards.

[sci-fiworlds]

Ghost Hunters - Episode 2 - Spirits of the Civil War

DVD synopsis:

“Civil Wars are a time of deep social unrest, when brother fights brother and father fights son. The Battle of Marston Moor was one of the bloodiest battles in the English Civil War. The heart of King Charles’ army was hacked to bits, and then the hundreds of dead were shovelled into mass graves on the battlefield, that were never marked or consecrated. Many modern visitors to the battlefield have reported encounters with 17th Century soldiers. And, as we reveal, many similar encounters have occurred on the sites of the great battlefields of the American Civil War.”

Other than hallucinations caused by ultrasound and similarly mundane explanations, most paranormal investigators basically subscribe to two main schools of thought on what could explain the seemingly unexplainable sightings of long dead soldiers still fighting battles that ended centuries ago.

The first, of course, is that "ghosts" are exactly what psychics have always claimed they are: the disembodied spirits of the dead.

The second is that the phantom soldiers are some kind of 3D psychic recording of past events, or, to think of it another way, a paranormal echo of human consciousness after death.

To understand this think of when you hear an echo of your own voice. This isn’t actually you still making the sound, it is just a type of audible reflection. Perhaps similarly the mind can leave an echo or reflection of itself after death on the physical environment. This isn’t the dead person exactly, but there is a cause and effect relationship between the deceased and paranormal phenomena witnessed. To what extent these entities are self aware isn’t clear.

On the one hand different witnesses report these battlefield ghosts doing the exact same thing, in the same order and in the same location, seemingly trapped in a loop. Much like a home movie being played from start to finish, over and over again, with no deviation.

However, psychic mediums in other episodes of the series claim to make contact with apparitions from other battlefields, and are able to substantiate these claims by giving names, dates and other information that can be substantiated by historical research later. These “conversations” between psychics and “spirits” in which such information is passed on does suggest that ghosts are at least partly conscious and self aware, even if this is only in a limited way. Real memories and emotions are there, but these appear to be snapshots of important experiences in the deceased person’s life. But how could this happen?

Because hauntings are often associated with historical events such as battles, which would have triggered extreme levels of anxiety, fear and anger in hundreds of people before they died together in a short period of time, it has been suggested that intense primitive emotions can trigger such psychic recordings or echoes on the physical environment.

The extreme emotions of the people that died somehow generating an energy that is absorbed into physical objects like underground stones or the bricks of buildings.

So what witnesses are seeing when they see the ghosts of Civil War soldiers are actually the memories of people that died during or shortly after the battle that have been absorbed into the environment.

[sci-fiworlds]

Ghost Hunters - Episode 1 - Legends of the Legionnaires

The first episode is also my personal favourite because it deals with apparitions from my favourite period in history, the Roman Empire, while also exploring the Stone Tape Theory as an alternative explanation for hauntings in old stone buildings.

Here is the synopsis on the back of the DVD cover:

“The Romans occupied Britain for over 400 years. Many thousands of Roman legionnaires or soldiers lived out their lives and were buried on these islands. Two of the greatest Roman camps were at York in the North, and at Colchester in the East. This episode tells two quite remarkable stories of modern encounters in close quarters with the long departed legionnaires; close enough to see their mud bespattered uniforms and their unshaven chins!”

The episode begins with a witness giving his account of seeing Roman soldiers walking through walls. He includes an odd detail of the apparitions missing their lower legs and feet. As if they were walking on the old Roman road which was only partly exposed. The apparitions, showed no interest in the witness at all, as if he wasn’t there. The description this plumber by trade gave of the Roman soldiers equipment and uniforms matched exactly what Roman and mercenary soldiers based in Britain would have been wearing almost 2000 years ago. The episode then considers the Stone Tape Theory as a possible explanation for this and similar hauntings which appear to be recordings rather than sentient spiritual beings.

The Stone Tape Theory owes its name to a BBC ghost story for Christmas called ‘The Stone Tape’ written by Manx writer Nigel Kneale. Like Kneale’s ‘Quatermass And The Pit’, which suggested that poltergeist activity could be explained by mankind’s psychic abilities rather than spirits, ‘The Stone Tape’ also combined science with the supernatural.

The TV play revolves around a group of scientists who move into a new research facility: an allegedly haunted Victorian mansion. Curious, they investigate the alleged “ghost” but soon determine that it is really only a psychic recording of a past event somehow stored in the stone walls of cellar: a “stone tape”. Believing that this discovery may lead to the development of a whole new recording medium, which they were originally brought together to find in the first place, they throw all their knowledge and high-tech equipment into trying to find a means of playing back the stone tape recording on command.

But how could any information be stored in stonework? We use inanimate matter to store information every day, DVD and older VHS tape recordings are an example of this. Crystals can also be used to store digital information much like a DVD. And from a physicist perspective crystals are made of silicon like other stones, so why shouldn’t stone buildings be able to store other forms of information like psychic energy? (If such mental impressions exist).

This explanation might also provide the answer to another popular problem in the paranormal: why is it that some people see full-blown solid apparitions whereas others only see transparent figures, shadows or, worse, nothing at all? Again like a conventional video tape perhaps the older a “Stone Tape" recording gets the more the sound and picture quality suffers.

Alternatively, of course, perhaps a better explanation opened up by the theory might be that some people may simply make better psychic video players than others. Maybe an important point to make here is that according to the theory, the ghost or recording is seen (perhaps "played" might be a better term here) internally inside the minds of the witnesses rather than in the outside external physical universe. Therefore, depending on the sensitivity of the witnesses, it's quite possible that several people might experience the same encounter very differently depending on how psychic the individual is. Some people may see apparitions in living colour whereas others only see a humanoid figure in fuzzy black and white. Perhaps some people can never see or experience anything paranormal because they have a psychic form of colour blindness.

The idea that ghosts might really be some kind of psychic tape recording rather than the spirits of the dead might not be desirable to some die-hard researchers who believe ghosts offer us proof of life after death. Although, the two ideas are not mutually exclusive, it's possible that there could be more than one type of "ghost" each representing something very different. However, if ever proven the theory would raise perhaps almost equally important questions about the true nature of consciousness and the human mind.

Logically, the only way such a psychic recording could be made and replayed would be if there was some kind of direct connection between the human mind and inanimate stone. There would have to be some form of telepathy between two "minds" (for lack of a better word) suggesting that inanimate matter might have some form of highly primitive consciousness or awareness.

[sci-fiworlds]

Ghost Hunters

Broadcast between 1996 and 1997 on the Discovery Channel in the UK, ‘Ghost Hunters’ is probably the most thought provoking paranormal series ever made for television. This was a scientific documentary series and not reality television, which focused on the experiences of ordinary people living in 1990s Britain who had experiences they couldn’t rationally explain. The four series attempted to explain these experiences by seriously considering the simple question if paranormal phenomena is real, what does it mean for the scientific understanding of reality? Is a new “science of the mind” required so that science can explain what is happening and offer a complete world view without paranormal gaps of understanding?

For many years this gem of a series was part of my daily routine. Two episodes would be broadcast on the Discovery Science channel every evening, followed by a UFO focused series. I had always been interested in anything odd or unexplained but it was Ghost Hunters that persuaded me that the mind could possibly survive bodily death, and that this doesn’t need to be a religious belief. It is simply part of the processes of the wider physical universe which we don’t have an explanation for…yet.

I have managed to obtain two DVD boxsets that include the entire series between them. I plan to make this series part of my daily routine once more. Every day I’ll watch one episode and share my immediate thoughts on it.

Some of the theories and phenomena I will be writing about include the Stone Tape Theory, Demonic Possession, Black Magick, Time Slips, Crisis Ghosts, Poltergeists, and Quija Boards.

Anyone who wants to watch along can find the entire series in one omnibus video uploaded on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/aTs3NU8FTIQ?feature=shared

[sci-fiworlds]

I've been looking into poltergeist cases a lot lately. In particular, I am interested in psychokinesis (PK) effects. Objects apparently moving on their own. There is an ongoing debate among paranormal investigators about whether this is caused by non-physical entities (spirits) or by the unconscious human mind of the witnesses themselves.

It was recently reported that the central stone in Stonehenge came from 465 miles away in Scotland, and not Wales as was previously thought. Wales would have been difficult enough, but Scotland before Roman roads and deforestation, and up and down hills: how could people living around 4,500 years ago have transported such massive stones?

If you take poltergeist cases and apparent psychokinesis seriously, then it is a small stretch from there to thinking maybe in ancient times our ancestors could control this now unconsciousness rare ability, and used psychokinesis effects to move large stones over great distances. Perhaps this knowledge, or even genetic trait, was largely lost following a natural disaster. Gradually being chipped away further over thousands of years by war and persecution, like the Roman extermination of the Druids and the later witch trials in England.

While rare in day-to-day terms, poltergeist phenomena are the most common type of "ghost" reported today. Highlighting this fact is the above video, which to my surprise features a family experiencing a poltergeist haunting in a house in my home city of Swansea, Wales, back in the 1960s, before films like "The Exorcist" popularised the paranormal in ordinary backdrops, instead of grand castles or far away countries.

[sci-fiworlds]

Alien Abductions In Sci-Fi

Last Halloween I rewatched some of the scariest films I remember from my childhood about the alien abduction phenomenon. I shared my thoughts about these films on Facebook and thought those social media posts were thoughtful enough to record on this blog.

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INTRUDERS

Tonight’s film is ‘Intruders’ based on the late Budd Hopkins’ book about cases of alleged alien abduction. It is terrifying because it is based on experiences that people actually believe happened to them… and I’ve got no reason to disbelieve them… though it raises complex questions about what the word “real” actually means… can something exist without being physical, and therefore not have to obey the normal laws of physics that govern the physical universe? Is there a non-physical world that has its own separate laws? Are these alien abductions an example of these two linked but separate realities colliding? Is human consciousness a kind of bridge allowing this? These are some of the questions I will be considering as I take a look at some of the films and classic literature in this sub genre of UFOlogy.

THE UFO INCIDENT

Next up on my Alien Abduction filmography list is ‘The UFO Incident’, a 1975 television film based on the bestselling book ‘The Interrupted Journey’ written by John G. Fuller. It documented the Betty and Barney Hill alien abduction case, the first widely publicised UFO close encounter of the fourth kind.

While I believe that the accounts of alien abduction experiencers are legitimate because of the large numbers of witnesses experiencing the same thing. The large numbers, perhaps as many as 5% of the population are alleged to be abductees, also makes me question if this is a physical phenomenon or not. In other words do these accounts of alien abduction represent “nuts and bolts metallic spacecraft” piloted by “flesh and blood” alien beings who have travelled to Earth from another planet in the physical universe, or, is something else happening? 

The lack of physical evidence had led me to conclude that although “real” in the sense that the experiences were not delusions or imaginary, that alien abductions must be a paranornal or non-physical phenomenon? In other words that a real external intelligence is interacting with human consciousness but no one is physically taken onboard an alien spacecraft. That alien abductions have more to do with ghosts and demons than extraterrestrials was my conclusion.However the Hill abduction makes me want to rethink this conclusion for two reasons. One the famous “Star Map” Betty Hill recalled being shown onboard the UFO, which she drew and was discovered after years of research to (potentionally) match the postions of real stars, Zeta I and II Reticuli. 

The second reason is the dress Betty was wearing on the night of the alleged  alien abduction. Betty claimed under hypnosis that a large needle was inserted into her stomach, according to the alien beings this was a pregnancy test. Stains on the dress Betty was wearing in the region where the needle was allegedly inserted is evidence that something physical happened to the Hills.

Whatever the phenomenon of alien abductions represents, it appears to be able to move between the physical world and the metaphysical world in a similar way to how we can travel between land and sea.

One last note. Even if you are sceptical about alien abductions, ‘The UFO Incident’ is an excellent film, telling a very real love story. It would just as easily be a good choice for a Valentine’s film as a Halloween film and stars James Earl Jones (Voice of Darth Vader) who just recently passed away. 

COMMUNION 

Probably the first Alien Abduction film I ever saw. I remember my dad having an audio book of the original book written by Whitley Strieber, read by Planet of the Apes actor Rodney McDowell, this was probably the first time I was ever scared by something being read from a book. 

Watching the film again and having recently read the new edition of the book, it is clear to me that the encounters are not always (if ever) in the physical world. Instead they occurred in a dreamworld. But these are no ordinary dreams as they have a real physical impact such as injuries. Also other witnesses report having similair experiences in the 1980s before series like the X-Files popularised stories of alien abductions. 

SETI are currently looking for radio signals from extraterrestrials in far away solar systems. Perhaps we are receiving messages from them, but not in the form of radio signals. What if the aliens can communicate via sending signals directly into the human mind? Perhaps using human imagination and expectations based on our folklore and popular culture to take form in dreams. Perhaps even using the human nervous system to create sensations like pain that can cause physical injury.

QUATERMASS AND THE PIT 

Perhaps the best ancient astronaut film. Before Erich von Däniken wrote Chariots of the Gods and popularised the idea that ancient aliens visited Earth in the past, Nigel Kneale got there first in Quatermass and the Pit. Originally a six part television series on the BBC it was later remade as a film by Hammer Studios and given the title “Five Million Years To Earth” for its American release.

While not an Alien Abduction film, the backstory is that ancient aliens abducted primitive apemen five million years ago, experimented on them to increase intelligence and the result were early humans. 

Ridley Scott referenced this film in the film commentary on the blu ray release of Prometheus, an ancient astronaut film that borrows far more ideas form Nigel Kneale’s script than the books of Erich von Däniken. The 3D holograms seen in the Engineer spaceship in Prometheus echoing a scene in Quatermass and the Pit where a “ghost” is seen by a soldier (offscreen) in the alien spaceship.

Considering that there are nearby stars which are much older than sun, it is possible that intelligent life evolved on planets orbiting these stars milllions of years before life started on Earth. Statistically it is more likely that aliens could have visited Earth in the remote past and gaps/leaps in mankind’s decelpment from apes to modern humans could be explained by alien engineers experimenting with human DNA. We are currently splicing DNA from plants and animals together. So why not? After all, until Charles Dawin’s Theory of Evolution the accepted explanation for most of human history for mankind’s existence was that the “Gods”, which became “God” in the later monotheist religions, created humans in their own image. So the concept that beings from the sky/stars created mankind is actualy an ancient one. 

RONEY: Quatermass - it’s a pentacle.

QUATERMASS: What? 

RONEY: Those marks. One of the ancient cabalistic signs. They were used in ancient magic(k).

From ‘Quatermass and The Pit’ (BBC, 1958-59). Later remade and adapted into ‘Five Million Years To Earth’ (Hammer Films, 1967)

DOCTOR WHO - THE DAEMONS

Doctor Who’s unofficial remake of Nigel Kneale’s ‘Quatermass and the Pit’ and my personal favourite Doctor Who story. I think this must have been my first exposure to the Ancient Astronaut Theory that Ancient Aliens have been helping humans develop for the last 100,000 years or more.

Perhaps the most interesting concept borrowed by the Doctor Who writers from Nigel Kneale’s script is the concept that Magick (yes with a “k” on the end to differentiate the real power to manipulate reality from magic, which is simply a conjuring trick) could be developed into an advanced  science with practical applications.

Eyewitness accounts of odd symbols resembling Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs on wreckage/debris from alleged UFO crashes like the one at Roswell in 1947 are well known inside the UFO field. What if instead of writing these were occult symbols? What if instead of using physics to travel through space the aliens have developed an alternative science based originally on what we would call magick? 

Chemistry is an example of a science that began as a pseudo science. The treating of illnesses with magical potions. This was the beginning of treating illnesses with specific drugs to remedy a particular disease or other health problem. 

There is a certain amount of theatrics involved with cases of alien abductions. Why would the aliens want to scare the people they are abducting? The aliens should be capable of tranquillising the subjects of their experiments, so that they would have no distress or memory at all of anything happening. The way we do with animals, for instance, if a large and dangerous zoo animal needed to be seen by a vet.

It is widely believed in paranormal research circles that poltergeists feed off human fear and anger, and that the best thing to do if you are experience such a haunting is to simply ignore it until the poltergeist runs out of energy effectively. Could the aliens seen in abductions be using similar paranormal energies generated by negative human emotion to travel between different dimensions? Perhaps a non-physical realm where the laws of physics do not apply, making interstellar travel possible?

One last thought … it is suggestive that the alleged covert group set up by the US Government to study the alleged UFO wreckage found at Roswell in 1947 was called Majestic 12 … as in Magic or Magick 12. 

HAWTHORNE: Oh, you could go on all day and all night showing us pretty pictures. I mean, horns have been a symbol of power ever since

DOCTOR: Ever since man began? Exactly. But why? All right, Captain Yates, the curtains. Now creatures like those have been seen over and over again throughout the history of man, and man has turned them into myths, gods or devils, but they're neither. They are, in fact, creatures from another world.

BENTON: Do you mean like the Axons and the Cybermen?

DOCTOR: Precisely, only far, far older and immeasurably more dangerous.

JO: And they came here in spaceships like that tiny one up at the barrow?

DOCTOR: That's right. They're Daemons from the planet Daemos, which is?

JO: Sixty thousand light years away on the other side of the galaxy.

DOCTOR: And they first came to Earth nearly one hundred thousand years ago.

From ‘Doctor Who: The Daemons’ (BBC, 1971)

FIRE IN THE SKY

Probably the scariest of the Alien Abduction films, ‘Fire In the Sky’ is based on the alleged (the other witnesses passed lie detector tests) experiences of Travis Walton as described in his book ‘The Walton Experience’. If not for this case I would probably separate cases of alleged alien abduction and the UFO sightings into two distinct and separate types of phenomena, one involving “nuts and bolts” physically real but unknown aircraft. And the other real only in that it involves something (possibly intelligent) external affecting (possibly communicating) with the human mind. In the case of the latter, whatever it is using popular culture, folklore and religious beliefs to construct a lucid dream so real that it can cause physical injury on the experiencer.

…However, unfortunately it isn’t that easy to separate UFO sightings and alien abductions, and Travis Walton’s experience perhaps best documents why.

Walton was seen being struck by an energy beam from a UFO by multiple witnesses. It was clearly a physical object not a dream or hallucination. 

Perhaps then the UFO occupants can choose between many different communication channels to make contact with humans, much in the same way we decide between having a face to face meeting, or making a phone call or arranging a Microsoft Teams or Skype meeting. The only difference being that the UFO occupants can use consciousness itself as a communication channel when face to face encounters are not necessary or possible. 

ROSWELL

Docudrama about Major (Later Lieutenant Colonel) Jesse Marcel, who in 1947 was the Intelligence Officer for the 509th Composite Group (509 CG), a bomb group of the United States Army tasked with the operational deployment of nuclear weapons. And in 1947 still the only such operational group at that time. It was the 509th that conducted the atomic bombings in Japan that ended the Second World War. Let that sink in for a moment. This group was about as elite and as important to defence as it possibly gets. 

Now consider this … it was the Major Jesse Marcel who as the Intelligence Officer of the 509th was the first army officer to investigate an alleged “Flying Disk” crash in Roswell, New Mexico in July 1947. And after seeing the wreckage confirmed it was wreckage from a flying saucer. This story was then realised to the press and went viral around the world, including the major British newspapers like The Times!

… Then the next day… the United States Army apologised and said it was all a big mistake… it was just a weather balloon. How anyone could possibly believe that someone with the background and position Marcel had could possibly make such a mistake boggles the mind. The story becomes even more ludicrous when you realise th at following this alleged mistake of comic proportions Marcel was promoted. It just doesn’t make any sense.

About 30 years later Marcel and dying, he finally broke his silence and confirmed it was not a weather ballon. It was what he originally said a “flying saucer”, a term which since 1947 had become synonymous with alien spacecraft. And the United States Army was forced to admit that the weather balloon story was indeed just a cover story as Marcel claimed. The new official account was that what was recovered was a giant sized, high altitude Mogal survaliance balloon, part of a top secret project to spy on Russia and determining if that had developed their own Atomic Bomb (which they finally did two years later in 1949). For me this still doesn’t make sense. A balloon is a balloon, no matter how big or top secret it is. I think I was about ten when I first heard this story in the 1990s, since then the offical story has just grown even more hard to believe. Nonsense about 6ft tall crash test dummies from the 1950s being confused with child sized dead aliens seem in the 1940s. Now people from a military town can’t tell the difference between dummies and dead aliens? 

I don’t believe it. I’ll believe Marcel.  Just think about logically, if it wasn’t for the implications, I don’t think anyone could possibly believe the ballon story.

ALIEN

My favourite film. On the documentary that accompanies the DVD realease, the director Ridley Scott explains that the complex lifecycle of the Alien creature was based on real parasitic wasps, who inject their embryos into caterpillars which paralysis their host until the lava are ready to burst out. Combined with the “used future” look that Ridley Scott borrowed from the writer Dan O'Bannon’s first film ‘Dark Star’, the complex life circle of the alien gives the film a sense of realism lacked in the B movie space monster films of the 1950s that ‘Alien’ owes much of it’s film DNA to.

Another seed of reality that would go I noticed by most filmgoers in 1979 was the location of the alien planet in the film, Zeta II Reticuli system. The same star system where the humanoid “grey” aliens responsible for the Betty and Barney Hill abduction in the 1960s allegedly originated from.

Weirdly, the life circle of the fictional alien in the film in some ways echoes the bizarre reproductive experiments reported by alleged alien abductees under hypnosis in the real world. These experiments involve the hybridisation of humans with aliens, using human women as incubators before the unborn hybrid is removed and finishes gestating in an artificial womb onboard a UFO. Such bizarre stories are easily the most fringe and controversial aspect in an already fringe enough topic… but the stories are consistent.

Assuming these stories reflect something that is a physical reality and are not an attempt to communicate using symbolism via visions and dreams, what do these accounts potentially tell us about the greys and their motives for abducting people? 

Could it be that like the fictional alien in the Ridley Scott film, the greys can only reproduce by fusing their own DNA with that of another species and using this other species as a host to gestate their offspring? 

Zeta II Reticuli system is estimated to be twice as old as our own sun. Any potential life originating from there then, could potentially be twice as old as life on Earth, which could include intelligent life. Any intelligent life that left their home planet millions of years ago could possibly evolve to make hybridisation with other species possible. It would be the fastest way to adapt to the environment of a new planet and also avoid the fate of the Martians in HG well’s novel ‘The War of the Worlds’, where the Martians all died from exposure to Earth’s microbes that they had no immunity to. 

THE FOURTH KIND

The Fourth Kind is a disturbing film to watch, but very interesting. If aliens are travelling from other solar systems to Earth, it is impossible for them to be coming in nuts and bolts spacecraft travelling slower than the speed of light. UFOs are seen too often and seem to be reacting to current events on Earth too quickly. For example the first Atomic Bomb was detonated in 1945 and within two years in the same region flying saucers turn up, seemingly investigating our nuclear weapon tests. If these objects came from another solar system they would need to be at least approx 4 light years away. Meaning it would take a radio signal at least that time to reach our nearest neighbouring solar system. Then travelling at light speed take another four years to get to Earth. That’s eight years total. As UFOs were being seen in 1947 (and earlier) in the American Southwest and were seemingly interested in nuclear weapons, it would seem to indicate they could send signals and travel faster than light to get here two years after the first Atomic Bomb test.

While travelling faster than light is impossible in our physical universe, other universes could potentially have different laws of physics that allow objects to travel faster than light.

So if such a parallel universe existed it could be used as a kind of cosmic motorway. The only problem is how could an object travel between parallel universes?

Arthur C. Clarke famously said: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Could aliens be using what we would call magick (yes with a “k” to differentiate real magick from fake magic conjuring tricks) to open portals into other dimensions? This might sound absurd, but a lightbulb would appear to be magical to someone who had no knowledge of electricity. I’m only suggesting that there might be something to magick which could potentially be developed into another science one day. Perhaps a science of the Mind or Consciouness. 

With this in mind it is interesting that one of the aspects of real world alien abduction mythology which is highlighted in the film is the phenomenon of alleged screen memories. These are distorted memories of real events subtly altered either by the sub consciouness mind to make the memories accessible without driving someone insane, or, perhaps artificially altered by the aliens encountered during abductions to hide their activities. Put simply instead of remembering an alien, abductees remember other mundane things instead in their place. In the film the aliens are replaced in the memories of the protagonist by an owl, something which is widespread in real abduction accounts. Which is interesting because the owl has long been an important symbol in ancient religions. The owl was associated with the Ancient Greek godess of wisdom Athena. And even today owls are still allegedly ‘worshiped’ in outlandish rituals by the quasi secret group the Bohemian Club.

It could simply be that the large black eyes of owls lend the creatures to being good standins for the black eyed grey aliens mostly associated with abductions. But an alternative explanation could be that owl and other esoteric symbolism is somehow being used to generate somekind of energy or power (for lack of a better similarly as this psychic power may not  be energy in the scientific sense of the word that can be measured) which is used to phase in and out of our physical universe in ways we don’t yet understand.

In 2000 Guardian newspaper journalist Jon Ronson and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones secretly filmed the “Cremation of Care” mid summer ceremony conducted at the secretive Bohemian Grove. Watch The Secret Rulers of the World - episode 2 which was shown on Channel 4.

[sci-fiworlds]

Reflections on Ancient Astronauts in Prometheus

Ridley Scott's highly anticipated Alien prequel Prometheus promised to answer the questions Alien fans had been asking about the origins of the famous Xenomorphs since the release of Alien in 1979. Unfortunately, cinema goers will have to wait for the sequel as the film asks more questions than it answers. Audiences might have gotten some tentative answers about the evolution of the Alien, but they were left wondering about mankind's own origin. We can, however, look to other films that have explored the ancient astronaut theory to find some possible answers.

In a viral video released to promote Scott's return to the universe of space jockeys and chest-bursters, a young Peter Wayland, the founder and CEO of Weyland Corp, gives a presentation at the TED conference in the year 2023. During his talk the corporate chief lists mankind's greatest discoveries and inventions, culminating with the creation of "cybernetic individuals" who we're told in just a few short years will be indistinguishable from us. "We are the Gods now", Weyland boasts at the end.

The TED 2023 video sets up audiences for the events of Prometheus, in which in 2090 a human crew are sent to LV-223 to investigate the theory that humans were created by an unknown extraterrestrial species thousands of years ago.

Oddly paralleling the UFO research, after the opening credits two archaeologists discover a cave painting in Scotland of a star map that resembles the one drawn in real life by Betty Hill after recalling her alien abduction experience from 1961. This might just be a coincidence, however, Marjorie Fish has interrupted the Betty Hill star map as showing the double star system of Zeta Reticuli, which is the same star system where the Prometheus crew journey to in search of mankind's creators. Although, the name of the solar system is never stated in Prometheus, it is mentioned by the character Lambert in the original Alien.

The biggest problem with Prometheus is that the purpose the alien "engineers" had for creating humans is never revealed, although we are told they intended to wipe out all life on Earth before they either changed their minds or were interrupted at the last minuet. The closest we get to an answer as to why the "Gods" created mankind is when Mr Weyland's android son David asks one of the crewmen why did humans create artificial humans like himself. The answer "because we could" is as disappointing as it is scary.

The ancient astronaut theory, of course, is nothing new, especially in science fiction. Before Eric Von Daniken's 1968 best-seller Chariots of the Gods? popularised the theory that Earth had been visited by extraterrestrials back in pre-history, science fiction writers like Arthur C. Clarke and Nigel Kneale were exploring this idea in fiction.

In 2001: A Space Odyssey, the film begins with a tribe of apemen being visited by a mysterious black monolith. After touching the alien object the apeman tribe begins to develop new skills and intelligence. This is shown by the apeman leader Moon-Watcher picking up a bone and using it as a club. In a documentary about the making of 2001 to mark the film's 30th anniversary, Arthur C. Clarke explained that he and the director Stanley Kubrick had intended the strange artifact to be a kind of teaching machine: "The Monolith was essentially a teaching machine. In fact our original idea was to have something with a transparent screen on which images would appear, which would teach the apes how to fight each other, how to maybe even make fire. But that was much too naive an idea. So eventually we just bypassed it with a device which we didn't explain ... but they just touched it, and things happened to their brains, and they were transformed."

Clarke also explains in the same documentary the meaning of the famous scene when Moon-Watcher throws the bone weapon he invents into the air and the scene shifts to a satellite orbiting Earth in the year 2001. According to the inventor of the communications satellite, the spacecraft orbiting Earth is a nuclear weapon. The message being that the same intelligence that gave humans the ability to go into space can also be used to destroy ourselves before we journey into outer space.

Apemen were also the target of ancient alien manipulation in Nigel Kneale's third Quatermass story, Quatermass and The Pit. Originally a six part story broadcast live on the BBC between December 1959 and January 1958, the story centres around the discovery of a mysterious "unexploded bomb" at an archaeological dig in London. Found near the remains of apemen with unusually large skulls, the object is in fact a Martian spaceship that had been sent to Earth to return several apemen to the planet after they had been augmented. Going one step beyond 2001, the reason the aliens had for altering the apemen is given in Quatermass and The Pit. With their own race doomed by an environmental cataclysm on Mars, the aliens intended the apemen to be their successors. In the words of Quatermass: "It would be a way of possessing the Earth. Only a colony by proxy, but better than leaving nothing at all behind."

Another interesting parallel between Clarke's 2001 and Nigel Kneale's Quatermass and The Pit is that that the increased intelligence of the apemen has potentially catastrophic results. In 2001 the very first tool Moon-Watcher creates is used as a weapon to club another apeman to death, and millions of years later mankind uses its intelligence to put nuclear weapons in orbit. Paralleling this, Quatermass and The Pit begins with Professor Quatermass condemning a government plan to put similar weapons in space. Might this have been the reason for the "engineers" in Prometheus wanting to wipe us out, were they afraid of what humans might do once they began to develop more sophisticated weapons than bone clubs? In Ufology the explosion of the first atomic bomb in 1945 is often suggested as a reason why aliens might be visiting Earth, but if Scott's "engineers" had similar concerns about the course human technology was taking towards destruction, then why then didn't they go ahead with their planned annihilation of all life on Earth?

Again a possible explanation might be found in Kneale's Quatemass and The Pit. In that film the reason the aliens are unable to finish their colonisation of Earth is because the Martians, obsessed with a hatred for nonconformity and anything different, wipe themselves out in a race war first.

Prometheus ends with the archaeologist Elizabeth Shaw and the decapitated head of the android David setting course for the home world of the "engineers". Will they find a dead planet with only hints of the civilisation that once existed there in the proposed sequel to the prequel? We will have to wait for Scott to finish his long awaited Blade Runner sequel, another film that asks questions about the nature of God, to find out.

Whether any of these films are some form of UFO disclosure or disinformation effort, or simply the product of imaginative minds... I'll leave that for another column, though.

READ RICHARD THOMAS'S SCI-FI WORLDS COLUMN FOR BINNALL OF AMERICA

[sci-fiworlds]

A Sci-Fi Worlds Interview with Lance Parkin

Richard Thomas: Just want to start by saying thanks for giving me and the Sci-Fi Worlds readers the time to answer these questions. It's really appreciated, so thanks.

I first became a fan of Doctor Who after my dad bought me the VHS video release of Genesis of the Daleks when I was about five or six I think. After that I started watching the Doctor Who repeats on UK Gold. How did you first become a fan of the series and did you have a particular favourite adversary and/or story growing up?

Lance Parkin: I've been a fan longer than I remember. I vaguely remember the pterodactyl in Invasion of the Dinosaurs. The first story I've got vivid memories of is Pyramids of Mars. I've always been startlingly uncritical about Doctor Who. I love it all. 'My' Doctor Who is Tom, Lalla and K9, my favourite era is the Rebecca Levene Golden Age of the New Adventures, I adore the new series.

Richard Thomas: With the advent of blogs it's probably easier than ever for someone to begin writing. How did you start your writing career and how has it evolved over the years?

Lance Parkin: Virgin took new writers for their Doctor Who range, so I had a go and it worked. It's as simple as that. I wrote a couple of sample chapters for a Doctor Who novel called Just War and sent them in and I got commissioned and the book got published. Then they wanted a follow-up, then another, then another, then another, then Gareth Roberts invited me to become a storyline writer on Emmerdale and, three years after my first book, at the age of 27, I was a full-time writer. I sort of knew I was lucky, but I didn't really understand it at the time. After Emmerdale, I tried out for a couple of TV shows, but my heart wasn't in it. It's impossible, I think, for a British television viewer of good conscience to sit in the place they make Holby City without having Operation Valkyrie fantasies. So I reached a plateau with my writing a few years ago. I made a (fairly modest) living from being a writer, and that's pretty good going, but I was being hired by the same people who'd always hired me. Don't get me wrong: I'm extremely grateful to all the opportunities all those people have offered. About half the stuff I've done is Doctor Who related. I love Doctor Who, adore it, and the new series opened up new challenges, but I was aware I needed to step things up a little.

Last year, I finally sat down and decided to write an original novel and try to get an agent. I'd tried this a couple of times before, but nothing ever worked out. This time, I started on a book, an historical novel, that just wasn't clicking. So I started a short story called Fixing Jesus, a completely different thing, wrote that in a day or two and realised I'd written the first chapter of a novel. After that, things happened surreally fast. I wrote to a few agents, sending them the first few chapters of Fixing Jesus and most of them were very keen. For some reason, I'd done something that just clicked. One agent in particular, though, really understood the book, better than I did. That was Jessica Papin at Dystel and Goderich. I reworked the book pretty much from top to bottom (apart from that first chapter, which is just about word-for-word the way it was as a short story) and she agreed to represent me. So I'm up off my plateau. I have Fixing Jesus doing the rounds, and hopefully that'll be picked up by someone, I'm also just about to sign a really exciting, really big non-fiction deal I can't talk about yet. After that, I think it'll probably be back to the historical novel. In terms of blogs and being published … it's easier than ever to be published. It's harder than ever, I think, to be paid to write. The price of printing and distribution is so much lower than it used to be, and small presses can sell books over the internet. But that's always going to be to a limited audience. The major publishers are also making savings where they can, and that's often by not being as generous to writers, either upfront or for things like ebook rights. I don't believe in the death of print or that people are going to stop reading books. I do think that publishers have a challenge with all the free content on the internet – both the original stuff and the pirated stuff. I think it's most acute with non fiction. Those old-style episode guidebooks have just gone, now. People don't buy glossy 'making of a movie' books, they just watch the bonus DVD disc. Why buy a travel guide when you can just use your phone to find stuff? I rather grandly see myself as a novelist now, and I think novels are pretty safe. They're still great value for money as an entertainment product.

Richard Thomas: Aside from Doctor Who I see on your website you've also written about the second best science fiction series ever broadcast: Star Trek. What are some of your favourite episodes from the original series and why do you think two sci-fi shows from the 1960s (Doctor Who and Star Trek) continue to be so wildly popular even today?

Richard Thomas: If you were ever approached to write a Doctor Who/Star Trek crossover how do you think you would go about it?

Lance Parkin: I think it would be really difficult. It would be very easy to wallow in how wonderful it was to see the characters meet. Who needs a good story when you can just see Matt Smith arguing with Patrick Stewart or Chris Pine or whoever? What more do you need than Amy in one of those little classic Star Trek uniforms (complaining about how long the skirt is, presumably)? The thing with crossovers is that one of them always gets to be senior partner. It's very tricky to see a Who/Trek crossover that isn't basically Doctor Who taking the piss. Paul Magrs' book The Blue Angel is a great example, and a great book. Or, flip it around and the Doctor just becomes another guest star who shows up on the Enterprise then goes away again. My theory's always been that the Borg were a conscious attempt to do a Doctor Who in Star Trek – all the other alien races are all rival powers you can negotiate with. The Borg are basically just monsters out to exterminate, and that makes it very hard for the Federation to deal with them. At the same time … well, the Doctor would have sorted them out in ten minutes because he knows they're allergic to gold or something. I quite like the idea of the Enterprise stumbling across the Doctor doing something monumentally genocidal to the Daleks at the end of a story and Kirk or Picard stepping in to stop him, and the Daleks going 'thanks, we're just a race of peaceful explorers, I don't know what his problem is', and just telling the Federation what they want to hear while they line up their plan to capture the ship. Throw those two sixties versions of the future at each other – Kennedy era optimists v nuclear war mutants.

Richard Thomas: Your "A History" is easily the most complete chronology of the events of the Doctor Who universe ever printed. Where did the idea to do a complete chronology of the series and its various spin-offs (audio adventures, comic strips, novels etc.) come from and what were some of the biggest difficulties?

Lance Parkin: Well, it started out as a fan production that just covered the TV series. Virgin picked it up, and to be honest the reason the books are in that version is that it would have been far too short if they weren't. That was when there were something like seventy books, and a hundred and fifty TV stories. The last version, the Mad Norwegian one, has about a thousand stories in it and I was very grateful Lars Pearson helped me write that edition. The trick with the book is simple: Lars and I just list the facts. The Beast Below says that Earth in a thousand years is ravaged by solar flares, Cold Blood says the Silurians emerge then to live in harmony with humanity. Do those things match up? No. Are there ways of reconciling that? See the footnotes for some ideas. Their facts are more important than my theories.

Richard Thomas: You've written several novels including one of the very last past Doctor adventures, The Gallifrey Chronicles. Do you have a favourite novel you've written and who or what do you think has been your biggest influence as a author?

Lance Parkin: I'm never entirely satisfied, I am proud of just about everything of mine that's been published. There are bits in all of them I really love, bits in all of them I wish I could have another go at. If I was going to hand something of mine to someone, it would probably be Warlords of Utopia or The Eyeless. Possibly The Infinity Doctors. The first third of Father Time is pretty special, I think, the second third's not too shabby, the third third … has its moments. I think, technically, I've got better as a writer over the years. I also think that it's not just a matter of technical stuff. I read a lot. Influential? That's always a tricky one to answer, these things are rarely a straightforward cause-and-effect thing. In terms of the Who stuff, Terrance Dicks, Paul Cornell, Gareth Roberts and Kate Orman, all of whom are brilliant. There's a whole bunch of headline name authors who I love and must have been influenced by – Douglas Adams, Philip Pullman, Borges, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Michael Chabon, Iain Banks. I'm a big fan of Ken Macleod, Stephen Baxter and Nicholas Christopher.

Richard Thomas: If the BBC ever revived the past Doctor range do you have any ideas for new novels?

Lance Parkin: I always found the past Doctor books tricky, and the only two I did, Cold Fusion and The Infinity Doctors, cheated. I love my Doctor Who DVDs but I never really saw the point of trying to recreate that in book form, or the attraction of trying to reimagine it. There's a market for it, obviously, and there's obviously that nostalgic appeal. It's the same mentality as cosplaying, I think, the appeal exists in the skilled and forensic reconstruction of something pre-existing. I admire the people who can do it, to an extent, I just don't have that urge myself.

Richard Thomas: You've also written some excellent audio plays for Big Finish. Whose idea was it to do a Davros story that explored the characters genesis, and what do you think it is about the Davros character that resonates with audiences so strongly even today?

Lance Parkin: The Big Finish people always gave me pretty detailed briefs. Davros was part of a short series about notable villains, and Gary Russell told me to delve into Davros' origins. The thing I brought to the table was my belief that Davros was almost certainly a complete git well before his accident. I think fan wisdom before that was that the accident transformed him, hardened him. In my story it does to an extent, but it turns him into this mythical, immortal creature. Before that, he's a horrible human being, doing horrible things to the people around him.

The Daleks are Nazi toddlers, Davros is a sort of Nanny Hitler. The odd thing is that we never really see him in command of the Daleks, not in that Ming the Merciless, Palpatine kind of enthroned way. He skulks in a basement in most of them. I'm not sure what resonates, to be honest. He's visually very distinctive, obviously. I think part of it is that he's constantly plotting against the Daleks, and they're plotting against him.

Richard Thomas: The second edition of "A History" doesn't cover the most recent appearance of Davros in Journey's End, any thoughts on why the Davros we see looks like the Genesis era Davros (plus robotic arm) and not the Emperor Dalek seen in Remembrance of the Daleks? (Other than that Davros looked better.)

Lance Parkin: Well, the robotic arm is obviously the replacement for the one he loses in Revelation of the Daleks, so there's a nod to continuity there. I think the idea of Remembrance is that he's basically just the head in that Emperor casing, everything else has gone, but there's certainly room for the rest of him in there. So I don't see a huge problem. The Time Lords resurrected the Master, so it's only natural the Daleks would come for Davros (again).

Richard Thomas: Thanks Lance, hope we can do this again sometime. Feel free to tell readers where they can find your website and maybe contact you.

Lance Parkin: I've taken the plunge and joined Facebook, so people should feel free to get in touch with me there. I'm also building a website at https://lanceparkin.wordpress.com/

RAED RICHARD THOMAS'S SCI-FI WORLDS COLUMNS FOR BINNALL OF AMERICA

[sci-fiworlds]

We Are the Martians Now!

Back in 1959, British scriptwriter Nigel Kneale turned H.G. Wells' classic 'Martian Invasion' novel The War of the Worlds on its head with the concluding instalment of his landmark Quatermass trilogy: the hugely influential Quatermass and the Pit.

Back then, all science fiction about Martians or similar alien invaders could be broken down into essentially two basic storylines: either we go to them or else they come to us. And in his previous two outings for Professor Quatermass (The Quatermass Experiment and Quatermass II), Kneale had already exhausted both these avenues. However in Quatermass and the Pit, Kneale smashed both these molds and crafted a new third alien invasion scenario: they were here all along!

A full decade before Erich von Däniken's Chariots of the Gods, it was really Kneale who was the first to introduce a mass audience to the concept of "ancient astronauts" that visited Earth in the remote past and might have played a significant hand in mankind's genetic and cultural evolution. Readers not familiar with either Kneale or Quatermass can read my earlier column here. But to summarise the plot in Quatermass and the Pit, basically revolved around a five million year old plan to transform the Earth into a "colony by proxy" for a dying Mars.

In the tale, the Martians were facing a situation not at all that dissimilar to what many fear the Earth may be facing today: the imminent destruction of the Martian biosphere and the total extinction of all life on the planet. In Kneale's screenplay, the ancient inhabitants of Mars attempt to cheat this fate by using their advanced knowledge of genetics.

Kneale's Quatermass stories were just that, stories. But few students of the unexplained could fail to see the parallels not only with von Däniken's "ancient astronauts" but the alien abduction literature too. Referring, of course, to the concept of small insect-eyed creatures experimenting with human DNA and cross human-alien hybridisation.

One of the most important factors that seems to separate good science fiction writers from the truly great, seems to be their almost prophetic knack to somehow accurately predict future events or developments. Perhaps the best example of this being Jules Verne’s 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon that accurately predicted an American expedition to the Moon more than a century before the Apollo 11 landing. Another good example would be H.G. Wells’ 1936 film Things to Come that much more disturbingly foresaw the blitz of London in World War II . And, of course, Arthur C. Clarke is often credited as being the inventor of the communications satellite.

In his first non-fiction book, After the Martian Apocalypse, the late Mac Tonnies theorised about the possibility that an ancient Martian civilisation might have been responsible for anomalies on the red planet, most notably the so-called "pyramids" and "face on Mars." Given certain similarities between these alleged "monuments" on Mars and those of Ancient Egypt and the Americas: could it be possible that a prehistoric Martian colonisation might have indeed taken place? Also, given the reported three million Americans who believe themselves to be victims of alien abduction, might this colonisation effort still be underway in someway?

Such a scenario - or any involving Martians for that matter - might sound crazy but it would at least go some way to explaining mankind's preoccupation with the pyramids and Mars. The ancient Pharaohs could have chosen any shape for their tombs but they choose a pyramid design, why? Might this fascination with the pyramid shape have been programmed into our DNA, a racial memory of Mars?

Further, the famous Martian rocks that got huge press back in 1996 because they might contain fossilised evidence of extraterrestrial life, has led to the increasing popularity among mainstream scientists that life might have originated elsewhere in the universe (perhaps Mars) and caught a ride via meteorite (or other means?) to Earth. So perhaps the Quatermass hypothesis isn’t so outlandish after all.

Before he sadly passed away last year, Tonnies completed his second book, The Cryptoterrestrials, a book detailing his theories about the possibility that mankind might be sharing the planet with another indigenous race of humanoids. If he had lived, I had planned to ask Tonnies if he thought his Mars ideas and his cryptoterrestrial hypotheses might be compatible in some way, in other words, if Tonnies' cryptoterrestrials might indeed be a Martian proxy colony. Sadly I'll never get the chance now.

Ultimately, as with any paranormal thought experiment, we're left with more questions than answers. And it goes without saying that there is nowhere near the kind of proof that Professor Quatermass is confronted with, i.e. crashed Martian spaceships and dead alien bodies. Well not admitted to anyway. However, if the so-called "face on Mars" really is a face - instead of just a pile of rocks - then it appears to be a human face. Which would mean there would have to be a connection between ancient Mars and humankind. Maybe this is it.

In his recent appearance on BoA: Audio, Christopher Knowles speculated about the link between creativity and shamanism. Maybe in Quatermass and the Pit, Nigel Kneale managed to somehow cross this divide. Then again, maybe Kneale was just what he seemed to be: a damn good storyteller way ahead of his time with science fiction and speculation running through his vanes.

Either way, though, until mankind finally leaves the cradle of Earth orbit and takes their first tentative steps on the Martian surface (circa 2030), the Red Planet will continue to hold onto its secrets ... whatever they may be.

READ RICHARD THOMAS'S SCI-FI WORLDS COLUMN FOR BINNALL OF AMERICA

[sci-fiworlds]

A Sci Fi Worlds Interview with Nick Redfern

Last year, when I interviewed Nick Redfern in Sci-Fi Worlds, he'd teased that one of his next projects was Science Fiction Secrets, a book chronicling the bizarre crossover between the non-aligned worlds of Sci-Fi and the esoteric realms of UFOs, the paranormal and conspiracy theory. This past Fall, the book arrived and I knew it would be a great way to start the science fiction-esque year 2010 with a fresh interview with Nick to discuss his foray into the strange connection between sci fi and esoterica.

Richard Thomas: Just want to start by saying thanks for taking the time to do this interview.

The first thing I wanted to ask you about is 9/11. I remember, in one of your early appearances on BoA: Audio a few years back, you said you were skeptical about alternatives to the official government conspiracy theory that Osama bin Laden masterminded the attacks on the Twin Towers and Pentagon. In the book, though, you dedicate a whole chapter to the pilot for The Lone Gunmen (a spin-off to the popular X-Files series) which astonishingly seemed to predict almost exactly the events of 9/11 *(i.e. planes being hijacked and flown into the Twin Towers). In light of this information, and considering the time that has passed since the event, what is your current opinion on 9/11 and is "government sponsored terrorism" something you think you'll ever look more into?

Nick Redfern: I kind of liken the whole government angle and conclusions relating to 9/11 to be like their conclusions and official reports on the JFK assassination and Roswell: no conspiracy, and all very much explainable. Personally, however - and just like the Roswell and JFK reports - I think there are very big questions that still require answering about 9/11 that just don't sit well with the government's version of events. I wouldn't say I'll never do something about terrorism, but as there are so many good researchers already delving into this area, I think it would have to be something pretty substantial and ground-breaking - and that wasn't being done by anyone else - to make me get involved in that area. There are people far more knowledgeable than me digging into all this field already.

Richard Thomas: I know you now live in Texas, home of Alex Jones, Jim Marrs and the JFK assassination: what's it like to live in what many consider the heartland of "conspiracy culture" ?

Nick Redfern: Yeah, me and my wife, Dana, live in the city of Arlington, Texas, which is about a 25-minute drive from Dallas. Until the summer of 2008 - when we moved to Arlington from Dallas - we actually only lived about an 8-minute drive from the Grassy Knoll! As for what it's like here, well, you obviously get a lot of tourists visiting the Grassy Knoll, Dealey Plaza etc. But, when you live here - I moved here 9 years ago - and after visiting it a couple of times, you kind of just incorporate it into your everyday life. In other words, if I drive along the stretch of road where JFK was shot, I honestly don't now give it much thought any more - I'm more concentrating on watching the traffic and the crazy drivers! That's not to sound cold-hearted, but when you've seen it once or twice, well...you've seen it. It's so small too - I was amazed. You see things like the Zapruder film and it looks like a large, sprawling area. It's actually not though.

Richard Thomas: Regarding Science Fiction Secrets, I recently wrote an article about Dennis Wheatley for BoA, someone you cover in some depth in the book. I focused more on his black magic books rather than science fiction, but how much of what Wheatley wrote about do you think was really just fiction and how much do you think might have been inspired by fact?

Nick Redfern: Well, we can never really know the answer to that question for sure. But, I would say that it's very intriguing that as with Wheatley and several other people I mention in my book - such as Ralph Noyes and Bernard Newman - had ties to the secret world of officialdom, and then went on to write UFO novels, with cover-ups and conspiracies at their heart. So, I don't rule out the idea that some of these people may have uncovered UFO secrets during the time of their links with the government, and then went on to incorporate those same UFO secrets into a fictional setting.

Richard Thomas: One sci-fi classic surprisingly not discussed in the book is 2001: A Space Odyssey. For readers not familiar with the screenplay, it involves the discovery of a mysterious monolith on the moon, very strangely a similar "monolith" appears to be sitting on one of Mars' moons. The first chapter in your book deals with Mars mysteries, so what's your gut opinion on anomalies such as the Phoebus "monolith" and famous "Face on Mars"? Do you think intelligent life could have once lived on Mars and maybe colonised Earth or perhaps vice versa?

You can hear Buzz Aldrin talk about it and see it in this video, jump to about 6 mins in and watch from there.

Nick Redfern: Yes, I do think that there was more to Mars than meets the eye in the distant past. The late Mac Tonnies wrote an excellent and very balanced book on the whole Face on Mars controversy, called After the Martian Apocalypse. For me, Mac presented some very notable data suggesting that there may have been a very ancient Martian culture. And, if they developed space-travel, it's not a big leap to imagine a visitation to the Earth in the distant past.

Richard Thomas: Ridley Scott's Blade Runner is widely considered by film buffs as the definitive science fiction film, the script of which was largely based on Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? If you look at the film you'll see that it is lettered with what might best be described as "Illuminati symbolism" (as I covered in a previous column for BoA) what are your thoughts on this strange aspect of Blade Runner and why do you think the FBI were so interested in Philip K. Dick?

Nick Redfern: There's no doubt that Dick was a very paranoid man, and who saw a lot of conspiracy theories here, there and everywhere. That doesn't mean the conspiracy theories weren't valid. Rather, it means that he was so deeply into them that he quite often incorporated them into his work. As for the FBI, they watched him very closely because he claimed knowledge of a deep-underground, covert Nazi-type cabal that he believed was trying to influence people to its cause by infiltrating the world of science-fiction. In other words, he thought this group was trying to recruit science fiction authors who could spread the group's beliefs in a way that might allow impressionable people to be turned to their way of thinking.

Richard Thomas: Perhaps the film director with the most conspiracy theories surrounding them and their films, though, has to be Steven Spielberg. How much evidence do you think there is to support the rumours that Close Encounters and E.T. were both based on UFO "insider" knowledge?

Nick Redfern: There's no real, hard evidence. If there was, we wouldn't be asking the question now! But, there are a lot of rumours suggesting that elements of the US Government, military and/or intelligence world may have subtly promoted some key elements in both films.

Richard Thomas: Do you think Spielberg's UFO films or sci-fi series such as Chris Carter's X-Files might be part of some kind of official UFO Disclosure Project? If so, how old might such a project be? What are your thoughts on Bruce Rux's thesis that Orson Welles' infamous 1938 radio adaptation of the H.G. Wells classic The War of the Worlds marked the start of a UFO "education program" ?

Nick Redfern: I think it's possible, and I dig into this angle quite a bit in the book. Bruce Rux's theory is definitely an interesting one that deserves more attention. I'm not sure if this is all part of some planned official disclosure - after all, the Welles production is now 72 years ago, so it would have to be a very long operation! I think more likely is the scenario that at an unofficial level, there are people in Government that may have fed ideas to influential people in the science-fiction world, to see what the public reaction is, But, this seems to have been going on for decades; so that's what makes me think that maybe it's like some sort of periodic litmus-test to try and determine where people are at in their beliefs about alien life; rather than a program gearing up to a date and an end-game scenario.

Richard Thomas: Speaking of Wells in Science Fiction Secrets you explore the idea that the Soviets were inspired by Wells' novel The Island of Doctor Moreau to create an army of human-animal hybrids, what are the chances that such creatures were ever actually born and could these experiments be responsible for Bigfoot sightings in Eurasia?

Nick Redfern: Zero! As I note, this was a crackpot project, because gorillas and humans, or chimpanzees and humans cannot successfully mate, at all. It was a strange, surreal and odd project that actually had no hope of achieving any real, meaningful success.

Richard Thomas: H.G. Wells, of course, is famous for writing the first books about alien invasion, time travel and invisibility. However there's one sci-fi concept Wells isn't credited with and that's Star Trek style teleportation or matter transport. With Donald Rumsfeld admitting back in 2001 (on September 10th strangely enough) that the Pentagon was missing $2.3 trillion anything becomes feasible, do you think that teleportation might have been developed clandestinely and if so to what extent? Also what other science fiction type technologies (for example invisibility and time travel) is there evidence to suggest might have been developed in the black?

Nick Redfern: Yes, I think with black-budgets that all sorts of unusual projects have been worked on. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was a very black-budget alternative space-programme that is quite a bit in advance of what we know publicly about the space-programmes of various nations. I think also a lot of research has been done into invisibility and sophisticated areas of advanced camouflage. Personally, I think the idea that time-travel and teleportation have been successfully developed to where it's 100 per cent understood, functioning and controllable are still stretching things a bit.

Richard Thomas: Another figure that UFO conspiracy theories seem to follow is former member of the British Ministry of Defence Nick Pope. Back in the early 2000's, Pope, who used to work on the now defunct MoD UFO desk, wrote two fictional books (Operation Thunder Child and Operation Lighting Strike) that dealt with themes of alien invasion and UFO crashes. Do you think Nick was using his insider knowledge or is he just clever enough to make it look like he was, or might it be a case of both?

Nick Redfern: I think Nick obviously used a lot of his own personal knowledge of how the MoD works, and how the military works, to write an entertaining novel of alien invasion. I think it's fair to say that many people are split on whether the cover-up angles of the novel, and if the stories about alien bodies being taken to Porton Down etc are based on anything real, or just Nick incorporating widely-known allegations that were already prevalent in the UFO research community. I think Nick is probably very happy that people are still talking about the book, as a direct result of these scenarios and allegations!

Richard Thomas: Your follow-up book to Science Fiction Secrets is Contactees, which also came out this Fall. Tying these two subjects together, is there anything we can discern from the portrayal of contactees in science fiction?

Nick Redfern: Not really. Contactees is basically a study of the whole Space-Brothers movement from the early 50s onwards. I didn't really uncover anything to suggest a linkage between the official worlds secretly trying to infiltrate the sci-fi world in respect of Contactee cases. However, some people do believe that the 1950s film, The Day The Earth Stood Still was government-related in some way. And, admittedly, the main character in the film is very human-looking, as were the Space-Brothers. And, also as with the Space-Brothers, the alien - played by Michael Rennie - does offer warnings to the Human Race. So, maybe that's a science fiction film we should take a closer look at.

Richard Thomas: Where can people get a copy of Science Fiction Secrets and what else have you got planned for us in 2010?

Nick Redfern: People can get hold of Science Fiction Secrets at all good book-selling shops and on-line outlets too. I have 4 books coming out this year: a UFO book called Final Events; and Monsters of Texas (co-written with Ken Gerhard), Wild-Man and Mystery Animals of the British Isles: Staffordshire, which are all on my other big interest: cryptozoology.

Richard Thomas: Thanks again Nick !!

Nick Redfern: Cheers, Richard!

READ RICHARD THOMAS'S SCI-FI WORLDS COLUMN FOR BINNALL OF AMERICA

[sci-fiworlds]

A Sci Fi Worlds Interview with Lex Gigeroff: Lexx Co-Writer/Actor

Most of our readers have probably never heard of this very strange Canadian-German and later UK co-production, which is a shame, because Lexx has to be easily the most unique sci-fi series to hit our screens since the original (and best) Star Trek made its debut back in 1966. Not content to do yet another Gene Rodenberry rip-off series and bored by the endless (and often archaic) moralising of The Next Generation and Voyager, the Lexx writers (known as the Supreme Beans) created something totally different and very, very weird.

With its characteristically dark sets and black humour, and operating from the perspective "humans are a flawed species," Lexx was a revolutionary series. Its characters weren't on any spiritual quest to "better themselves" or "save the day," rather, they were motivated by the mundane things that motivate 99.9% of the human race: boredom, lust and hunger. Throw in "the Lexx," a Manhattan sized bioengineered insect craft and "the most powerful destructive force in the two universes" and you had something just as fun as the original Trek but just about as different as you can get too. I guess that's why Lexxicons lovingly still call it "Star Trek's evil twin."

Richard Thomas: First things first, thank you so much for giving the BoA readers the time to answer these questions. I'm a huge fan of Lexx and I'm sure that, after reading this, many of our readers will want to check it out too.

Lex Gigeroff: I had known Paul Donovan for a few years before Lexx, and he approached me about writing for the series after seeing a play I had written/performed in. Paul decided to go with a couple of virtually unknown writers (Jeff Hirschfeld & myself), because there was something in our approach that appealed to Paul's odd sense of humour.

Richard Thomas: In the DVD extras on the TV movie releases I heard you and the other writers say that Ridley Scott's Alien and John Carpenter's Dark Star were big influences. The longer story arcs and extensive CGI (not to mention the chief villain's name "His Shadow" ) might suggest Babylon 5 was at least a little influential too. Also Red Dwarf stars Craig Charles and Hattie Hayridge appeared in season four so I don't know if that series was a influence or not.

What were some of your other influences and are there any sci-fi shows you just hated and wanted to get away from? If so, why and what were you trying to do different with Lexx?

Lex Gigeroff: Dark Star and Alien were somewhat influential -- Dark Star for its anarchy, Alien for its production design. But I can categorically state that Babylon 5 had no influence whatsoever as we never watched it, and to this day I've never seen an episode. I liked Red Dwarf, but can't really say it was an influence. Monty Python had as much of a background influence as anything. We wanted to get away from the heavy, preachy, moralizing sci-fi of shows like Star Trek: TNG, which in my view took all the joie de vivre out of the original series. I've always been a big sci-fi fan - but I think my influences tend to come more from writers like Phillip K. Dick and the dystopian novels of J.G. Ballard, rather than the Heinlein-Clarke axis.

Richard Thomas: Lexx is often called Star Trek's evil twin. I can see why some fans might consider Lexx anti-Trek but personally I think in some ways Lexx is actually a lot closer to the 1960s series than any of Trek spin-offs are. I've heard Lexx creator Paul Donovan talk about being a fan of the original Star Trek so what are your thoughts on this? Were you trying to be a little like the original Star Trek or were you trying to be something completely different?

Also, are you a fan of the original series yourself and, if so, what are some of your favourite episodes?

Lex Gigeroff: There was a sense of fun in the original series, and I think we wanted to try and create three characters as distinctive as Kirk-Spock-McCoy with Kai-Stan-Xev (plus a robot head). I watched the show quite a bit when I was younger, and enjoyed some of its campier moments, i.e. The Squire of Gothos. I also liked the one with the weird head in the sky that turned out to be Clint Howard.

Richard Thomas: Back to Lexx. Given that the show and the ship were both named after you, did you have much input on developing the early mythology of the series, i.e. the Insect Wars, the two universes, cyclic time, proto blood, the Divine Order and, of course, love slaves?

Lex Gigeroff: I had a lot of input conceptually from the ground up, as the three of us really developed the concept and bible following Paul's general brushtrokes. A lot of the 'backstory' went in as a result of our collaboration with Showtime in the beginning, who seemed to want a lot of stuff about 'prophecies', etc. We were a little reluctant about going this route, as we feared it would lead down the rabbit hole of pretentiousness that we were trying to get away from.

I think looking back on it now the thing I'm proudest of is that Lexx wasn't really like anything else on television. Most shows are just rip-offs of other shows, but I think there was something different about what we were doing that made it hard to come up with a good comparison with others shows -- not that it isn't comparable in some aspects to other shows, it's just that we weren't following anyone else's model. So it was, I think, a little unique in that respect.

Richard Thomas: One of the things I love most about Lexx is that all four seasons look very different and distinct from each other, each introducing their own new chief villains: His Divine Shadow, Mantrid, Prince, Vlad, oh and Lyekka and her sisters. Where did the ideas for these head villains come from and do you have a personal favourite?

Lex Gigeroff: Who knows where ideas come from? I liked all our villains, but if I had to pick one I'd go with Mantrid, because there was something just otherworldly strange about Dieter Laser's performance.

Richard Thomas: Mantrid has to be my personal favourite too, the fact that there's so little left of him when we first meet him reminded me a little of my favourite Doctor Who villain, the crippled mad scientist and Dalek creator Davros.

Lex Gigeroff: I think we thought about bringing Dieter Laser back, but it wouldn't have been Mantrid exactly. As we liked to say, "death is never final", which was our excuse for bringing back actors we liked.

Richard Thomas: Lets take a step back a bit. I think out of the four two-hour TV movies the first one I Worship His Shadow is probably my favourite, I loved the holographic show trials and ridiculously severe penalties. What was your favourite of the TV movies and why?

Lex Gigeroff: Hmmm... I guess Eating Pattern for me, because it wasn't quite as burdened with having to deliver back story and setup. Plus I got to hang around as Rutger Hauer's sidekick. But I liked all four.

Richard Thomas: You actually made an appearance in I Worship His Shadow, playing the part of His Shadow's new host body. You appeared in a lot of other episodes too, the crazy surgeon in Tunnels and the sleazy porn director in Fluff Daddy were two of my favourites. What character did you enjoy playing the most in the series?

Lex Gigeroff: I was very happy to play the parts I did. I had the most fun with Dr. Rainbow in Tunnels, but I think my best performance, such as it was, came as the Bound Man in I Worship His Shadow.

Richard Thomas: Probably the most unique episode of Lexx has to be Brigadoom. I have to say I was really sceptical about the idea of a musical episode but it's become easily one of my favourites. Come to think of it there's an awful lot of singing in Lexx, the first episode even starts with the Brunnen-G battle song.

Where did the idea to have so much singing in the series come from and what did you think of it? Also, do you have a personal favourite Lexx song?

Lex Gigeroff: We knew from very early on that we wanted to do a musical, but we had to come up with a good angle on it, which in the end I think we did. I don't really have a favourite song. I sometimes sing Bog is the king of Pattern in the shower.

Richard Thomas: Season three's Battle and season four's The Game are another two of my favourites, I really enjoyed the competition between Kai and Prince in those episodes.

I could go on all day about the different episodes but other than the ones we've already discussed what do you think were some of the best episodes of Lexx?

Lex Gigeroff: I also really liked The Game, 769, Prime Ridge, Stan Down to name a couple. Twilight and Apocalexx Now have their moments as well.

Richard Thomas: A Midsummer's Nightmare is probably my least favourite episode, though, it's pretty funny. Are there any episodes you just dislike or wish you'd done differently in hindsight?

Lex Gigeroff: Sure. Lots of things could have been better if we'd had more time. But I don't have any regrets. Some episodes didn't work all that well, like the one you mentioned and, say, Patches in the Sky.

Richard Thomas: I think I'm right in saying Lexx ended the way you and the other writers always intended, the Lexx blowing up the Earth after four seasons, but not long after the final episode Yo Way Yo went out I remember hearing a rumour that a spin off series about Prince, Priest and Bunny was being planned. Was there any truth to this rumour at all or is this the first you've heard of it?

Lex Gigeroff: There was never any serious talk of a spin-off.

Richard Thomas: If Lexx ever did return for a fifth season or maybe even just a new TV movie, what do you think the story would be about? Would it still be set in the Dark Zone or would the Lexx crew find its way into the mysterious Other Zone? Would Kai be alive or dead? Would 790 fall in love with Stan? Would the bad carrots be back?

Lex Gigeroff: We could have gone back into the Insect Wars, I suppose. But on the whole we were satisfied with the way it ended. I'll leave it to Fan Fics to think up alternate story lines.

Richard Thomas: It's been nearly eight years now since the series ended, personally, I think Lexx has been a little underrated.

Lex Gigeroff: I don't think we had much influence, if any. I'll leave it up to others to suss out if we were ahead of our time or not.

Richard Thomas: Thanks again Lex, are you working on anything now and/or do you have any websites or anything else you'd like to plug?

Lex Gigeroff: My pleasure, Richard. It's always great to hear that folks enjoyed our strange little show. I've always got a couple of projects on the hop, and I'm trying to promote my new play, Conrad & Barbara - about Lord Conrad Black and his consort. I've also had a sports-comedy blog for some years which can be found at: www.theobgcommunique.blog.ca Cheers!

READ RICHARD THOMAS'S SCI-FI WORLDS COLUMN FOR BINNALL OF AMERICA

[sci-fiworlds]

A Sci-Fi Worlds Interview with Scott Burditt, Webmaster of Doomwatch.org

Created by Cybermen co-creators Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doomwatch is a largely forgotten cult hit that deserves better. The series centred around a scientific government agency (Doomwatch) responsible for investigating and combating new ecological and technological hazards to mankind. The groups' leader, Doctor Spencer Quist, riddled with guilt for his part in the Manhattan Project and the creation of the Atomic Bomb.

Richard Thomas: First things first, thank you so much for giving the BoA readers the time to answer these questions. I'm a big fan of Doomwatch and I'm sure that, after reading this, many of our readers will be too, so it's really appreciated.

I first heard of Doomwatch because of its connection to Doctor Who and a few years ago I was lucky enough to win a pirate DVD box set on eBay with all the existing episodes. What most impressed me about the series was that it wasn't so much Science Fiction as Science Fact: raising legitimate concerns about the dangers posed by unregulated developments in technology. With the advent of the internet, genetic engineering and stem cell research are problems that have only gotten more dangerous since the series went off the air.

How did you first become a fan of Doomwatch and why do you think the series is still so fondly remembered today, despite the fact that the BBC haven't released all the surviving episodes on DVD yet and there haven't been any reruns in years?

Scott Burditt: I first became a fan of the series in 2004. A friend of mine at the time had VHS copies of a series he thought I might like. I watched The Plastic Eaters and The Red Sky episodes over a couple of bottles of red wine and loved them (and the wine as well!). Always a good way to introduce someone to the series, I think. From that point onwards, I was hooked. I am lucky enough to have the UK Gold repeats of the programme and I even have the infamous untransmitted episode Sex and Violence. The show only ran for three series in the early 70's, so I am not surprised if people ask, "Doomwatch, what's that?" Those that did see it the first time round, never really forgot it. It achieved impressive ratings for it's first season as it really captured the public's imagination, capturing the fears of potential scientific disasters in the face of progress. It's a fascinating series and is fondly remembered for it's opening episode where a plastic eating virus causes a plane to melt in mid-flight and crash, shortly followed by another potentially fatal flight for Doomwatch's new recruit Toby Wren (played by the frighteningly young Robert Powell) who introduces us to the world of Doomwatch perfectly.

Richard Thomas: There are very few Doomwatch sites on the web and the few there are seem to be in a state of decay, so it was a pleasure to find yours. How did the website first come about and is there anything you're particularly proud of?

Scott Burditt: I set up the website for two reasons: the first was my shared frustration with yourself that there didn't seem to be an up to date website and the second is that I felt that a central location for discovering the series while being able to share views and opinions with others was long overdue. The BBC's Doctor Who is quite rightly well served on the internet and I felt something similar to the sites that fans have built for that series should also be done for this classic BBC TV series. Doomwatch.org is my first ever website and I was determined to build a new community for such an important series. I am most proud of the support I have received since the site was built. A lot of good people have come forward and helped me make this happen and hopefully new people will discover the series and also inquire as to why the BBC have not released it as yet on DVD.

Richard Thomas: Looking back on it, I think my personal favourite episode has to be In The Dark starring Patrick Troughton (the second Doctor) as a man trying to cheat death forever using technology. Sadly, though, he gradually loses his humanity, piece by piece, as he becomes more and more machine, becoming little more than a human head on top of a box of tricks. What is your favourite episode or moment from the series and why? Also do you have a favourite actor from the series?

Scott Burditt: Yes, In the Dark shows a frightening potential future in which people could end up, basically, as Cybermen. My favourite episode is The Web of Fear. The episodes opens with two minister's sweating in a sauna, how's that for a shocking start! The episode follows the outbreak of Yellow fever, spread by hundreds of blue coloured spiders carrying the disease. The scene where Ridge produces a feather duster to clear away cobwebs and the spiders in order to affect a rescue attempt of a fellow scientist is sheer class. Simon Oates (Doctor John Ridge) is on top form in this story. Ridge is definitely my favourite character in the series and it is so sad that he died earlier this year. His humour and personality, not forgetting his eye for the ladies proves to lighten the tone in the episodes he features in.

Richard Thomas: Sadly, like the black and white episodes of Doctor Who, most of Doomwatch was lost during the infamous BBC tape purges of the 1960s and 1970s. However, all is not lost as missing episodes of Doctor Who turn up from time to time. If you could pick one lost episode from each of the three seasons of Doomwatch to be found, which would they be and why?

Scott Burditt: From Season One, I think many Doomwatch fans would agree that the return of Survival Code would be most welcome! Mainly to fully appreciate the final episode of the season and the somewhat explosive departure of Robert Powell. Season Two is thankfully complete but a UK 625 line version of The Web of Fear would be nice, as good as NTSC to PAL conversion is you can't hope to match the original format. Season Three is a tough one, but I would choose Cause of Death, as this is potentially one of the most touching episodes of the much maligned Season 3, featuring the death of Ridge's father.

Richard Thomas: The creators of Doomwatch Kit Pedlar and Gerry Davis were, of course, also the original creators of the iconic Cybermen of Doctor Who. Personally, I'm a little concerned by what is called 'Transhumanism,' a growing movement advocating upgrading the human race via genetic engineering and similar advances in technology.

It's still a very long way off but I think there needs to be some kind of international law banning the creation of a Trans or Post-human (basically a Cyberman) as well as strong laws limiting the use of the technologies involved. What do you think Doctor Quist's thoughts on the matter would be?

Scott Burditt: This is a fascinating subject. I think, as a scientist, Quist would be fascinated with the concept, but he would be appalled with any execution of it. I am sure he would argue that nature and evolution should ultimately be allowed to decide man's future development. For a start, where do you draw the line? Would only the rich be the benefactors from this? Human's would effectively would make themselves extinct as a species. Kit Pedler thought up the Cybermen, one Summer, when he was out relaxing in the garden and I am sure no one would want to foresee a future where we live as cold unfeeling machines.

Richard Thomas: 'Transhumanism' might be a good topic for a revived series. Back in 1999, Channel Five tried to revive Doomwatch with a TV movie. Why do you think they failed and, if you were writing the pilot for a new series, what would you do different?

Scott Burditt: I think the Channel 5 TV Movie was a missed opportunity. The central plot concerning a man-made black hole was never going to connect with the audience in the same way that stories about drugs, surveillance technology or subliminal messaging did (and still do today). Although exploring the potential dangers in providing an alternative cheap source of power is very Doomwatch. Despite its decent production values and effective and eery music the story is quite frustratingly muddled and never really bothers to introduce the characters properly, so you end up not caring about them. You never get the sense that they are working as a team either. Some aspects, such as the talking super computer with Angels on strings completely jar with the viewer. I am currently working on a new story for the fanzine with our new writer Grant Foxon, where I have devised a new fan fiction story called The Plastic Rain, which is a direct sequel to Doomwatch's premier story, The Plastic Eaters. In it we see Adam (Our fictional son) of Spencer Quist following his father's footsteps despite a rocky start to his life and eventually the reformation of Doomwatch following the use of the Plastic Eating Virus by eco-terrorists. The story and contents are subject to change, but this is the main premise. Hopefully lots of scenes of melting aircraft, cars and bank cards will feature prominently as the virus accidentally affects members of the public during one of the attacks on government and corporate greed.

Richard Thomas: The original series certainly didn't suffer from a lack of original ideas: plastic eating viruses that can reduce an aeroplane to liquid muck, genetically modified rats that can outsmart a human being, and a plague carrying spiders with Yellow fever venom. What scenarios do you think could most effectively be reused for any revived series and do you have any ideas of your own for possible new ones?

Scott Burditt: There are simply loads, open up any newspaper, they are all there in the open, ready to use! Doomwatch lives on in print and on the internet. The news in general loves downbeat doom and disaster stories, so obviously the public must do too!

Scott Burditt: I think a new Doomwatch night on BBC4 would be fantastic. An updated documentary would be welcome and, even if they couldn't, stretch to a new episode of Doomwatch. I believe they could make a new story from the memories and recollections of Dr. Fay Chantry (featuring Jean Trend), possibly telling Adam Quist (our fictional son of Doctor Spencer Quist) of his fathers exploits and heroism, which would feature sections of the series seen as flashbacks. I will ask BBC4, but I suspect the answer will be no. The DVD release of the series has been mooted since 2006 and it still hasn't been scheduled. Apparently some research work has been done for a potential DVD release, but there are still some issues holding up a release.

Richard Thomas: Whatever the BBC plans are, I know you're planning to celebrate Doomwatch's 40th in style. How is work on the fanzine going and what are some of the things you have planned already?

Scott Burditt: As I mentioned before, "The Plastic Rain" will feature heavily. I am a great believer in fresh new content. As far as I know there has never been a fanzine produced for the series and I hope to provide a high quality glossy product that will also be available to order from the website. I will add interviews and stories as they are fed to me. It's quite exciting stuff!

Richard Thomas: Thanks again Scott. Tell our readers where they can find your website and get your forthcoming fanzine? It might be a good idea to let any potential writers for the fanzine know how to contact you too.

Scott Burditt: The website can be found at www.doomwatch.org If anyone would like to contribute to the fanzine or the website, you can contact me directly at info@doomwatch.org or personally at snhbuk@googlemail.com I will post up the information on the fanzine nearing it's completion date (should be ready for February 2010 in time for the 40th Anniversary) I hope people enjoy finding out about this fascinating series.

READ RICHARD THOMAS'S SCI-FI WORLDS COLUMNS FOR BINNALL OF AMERICA

[sci-fiworlds]

Outbreak! Predictive Programming and Sci-Fi Pandemics

It's this alarming accuracy and almost prophetic track record that should have even the most casual or sceptical of listeners more than just a little concerned about what Jones is now predicting for the next decade or so … a series of staged global pandemics and compulsory vaccinations. Each designer outbreak, and accompanying jab in the arm, deadlier than the last with the ultimate Illuminati Endgame of a worldwide population reduction of between 80 to 90%. This gigantic, almost pagan-like, sacrifice to Mother Earth that would put even Christopher Lee's Lord Summerisle (The Wicker Man, 1973) to shame. (Anyone who chooses to believe that a vaccination couldn't possibly be dangerous to your health should read this)

What more ... as if this apocalyptic future wasn't nightmarish enough already … Jones goes further, suggesting that we've all been secretly conditioned already, practically since birth, to accept this 21st century mass culling through predictive programming in sci-fi films and television shows. The idea being, of course, that if the species is pre-programmed via fiction to sub-consciously associate apocalyptic plagues, Third World Wars and yes European or even Global police-states with the future, then when these things finally do occur the masses will be more inclined to just accept them as the natural course of history and so fail to resist them. Absurd you say … maybe but that doesn’t make it wrong, people would have said the same thing about planes being deliberately flown into buildings … perhaps only time will tell one way or another.

However, given Jones' past successess … not to mention the current swine flu hype in the mainstream corporate media and the push to forcibly vaccinate everyone in the US, Britain and other countries … only a fool wouldn't at least consider that the documentary film maker could be right about this one too. There certainly isn’t any shortage of disturbing government/medical precedents that should give people reason for concern: the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment being perhaps the most damning, not to mention forcing US pilots to fly through radioactive mushroom clouds in the early Cold War and even contaminating New York City’s subway system with dangerous anthrax simulant in 1966.

Whatever the truth, though, global pandemics definitely seem to have been a regular stable of science fiction going right back to when the genre was first conceived. Remember, in H G Wells' ever popular novel The War of the Worlds (first published in 1898) it's a virus that, perhaps suspiciously, finally defeats the Martian invaders. You can read our previous article H G Wells and the New World Order for more thoughts on Wells and his writings.

Lethal viruses, of course, were also a major element of another famous British sci-fi writer, Terry Nation, the creator of the Daleks and the cult series Blake's 7. Several of Nation's scripts for television centered around the idea of a deadly new virus bringing civilization to its knees. Most notably, in Nation's 1964 Doctor Who serial, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, it's a mysterious space plague brought to Earth by meteorites that paves the way for the Dalek conquest of a severally weakened mankind.

Also, maybe a little disturbingly, despite the six part Dalek epic taking place sometime after 2164 the narration on the BBC trailer suggested the story took place in the year 2000! Oddly enough Tom Baker's incarnation of the Doctor later reaffirmed this date when interrogated by the evil Dalek creator Davros in 1975's Genesis of the Daleks. Further, in a classic scene between Baker and Davros the mad scientist even threatens to create a virus capable of destroying all life in the Cosmos. Cold and calculatingly whispering then madly ranting of the God-like power over life and death that would give him: "Yes. Yes. To hold in my hand, a capsule that contained such power. To know that life and death on such a scale was my choice. To know that the tiny pressure on my thumb, enough to break the glass, would end everything. Yes. I would do it. That power would set me up above the gods!"

It might sound a little ridiculous to suggest all this might have been an attempt to prepare the generation growing-up in the 1960s and 70s for a series of global pandemics today, but it certainly doesn't contradict the idea and, in an age where there were still only three channels in Britain, most of the country would be watching.

In 1975, the same year Genesis of the Daleks was first broadcast, Nation also revised the super pandemic idea for his popular series Survivors. As the series title might suggest, the cult classic followed the struggles of a small band of survivors in the wake of a mysterious pandemic that annihilates almost all of the world's population. Interestingly, if not even a little alarmingly, Survivors was remade by the BBC in 2008 which might lend some extra weight to the idea that we're all being prepared for something big coming down very soon.

In Hollywood, too, we certainly haven't seen any shortage of apocalyptic type films involving the outbreak of a killer virus or global pandemic these last few years. 28 Days Later and its sequel 28 Weeks Later, of course, being two of the most blatant examples. In fact you could include most, if not all, of the zombie and vampire sub-genre films. You might even include Children of Men. While the reason why humanity has become sterile by 2028 might never be explained, it ties in perfectly with the theme of population reduction.

It's Will Smith's 2007 film I Am Legend which has to take the prize for being the most worrisome though. Directly mirroring the dark warnings of the conspiracy theorists, in the film it's a new experimental vaccine that's responsible for the pandemic and resultant collapse of civilization in the first place. More troubling still, the Batman vs. Superman publicity poster seems to strongly hint at the film taking place in our real world in the not too distant future.

Perhaps we're just seeing patterns in things that aren't really there ... it's still too early to know one way or another. Regardless, though, people need to take the concerns of researchers like Alex Jones very seriously and do their own research before taking any vaccine rushed through by any government. Particularly in the case of here in Britain, where this is the same Labour government that lied to us about weapons of mass destruction. A lie that has killed over a million people now in Iraq, do we really want to let them stick a needle in our arm because they say it's safe?

READ RICHARD THOMAS'S SCI-FI WORLDS COLUMN FOR BINNALL OF AMERICA

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Alien Bad Guys: A Sci-Fi Worlds Top Ten

I originally intended to conclude my loose "paranormal trilogy" in this fortnight's Sci-Fi Worlds, but since the first two installments were featured in Room 101 I thought it best to save part III for there too. So instead, since I'm writing this over the Easter holidays, I thought I'd take it easy a little with a Sci-Fi Worlds Top Ten Alien Bad Guys instead. All just my opinion, of course. Maybe people could post their own top 10 on the BoA forum.

Romulans, Sontarans, Cybermen, The Dominion, Davros and the Daleks are just some of the baddies doing battle to claim top prize as our number one villain in the world of science fiction. Read on and find out ...

10) The Romulans (Star Trek)Homeworld - Romulus and RemusAffiliation - The Romulan Star Empire

Forget the Klingon Empire it was the Romulans who should have been the main protagonists during James T. Kirk's three year reign in the captain's chair. The violent and militaristic Vulcan off-shoots giving the original Enterprise crew one of their very best episodes (if not the best) when they made their début in Balance of Terror.

9) The Minbari (Babylon 5)

Homeworld - Minbar

Affiliation - The Minbari Federation

The Next Generation had its moments but Babylon 5 is the true successor to the original Trek, inheriting some of the best Original Series writers that so obviously influenced B5 creator J. Michael Straczynski.

More casual B5 fans are probably thinking "why are the Minbari in the list? Weren't they good guys?" Yes, for the most part in the series they were, but in the best of the TV movies In The Beginning (which tells the story of the Earth-Minbari War that took place ten years prior to pilot episode The Gathering) they come within a hare's breath of exterminating all humanity in their "Holy war" against the Earth Alliance.

8) The Sontarans (Doctor Who)Homeworld - SontarAffiliation - The Sontaran EmpireRobert Holmes is often celebrated in Doctor Who fandom as the very best of the classic series writers, writing all time greats like The Talons of Weng-Chiang, The Caves of Androzani and even the Master's début story the Terror of the Autons. However, it was Holmes' creation of the Sontarans that arguably had the biggest impact on the show. The cloned warrior race being the only Doctor Who monster to invade (on screen) Gallifrey, the Doctor's Homeworld.

7) The Cylons (Battlestar Galactica)Homeworld - Cylon HomeworldAffiliation - The Cylon EmpireCold and calculating. The war machines ruthlessly wiped out and conquered the Twelve Colonies of Mankind in less than 24 hours. What more could you want. (Read my Battlestar Galactica piece for more of my thoughts on the Cylons.)

6) The Borg (Star Trek)Homeworld - Unimatrix One, located in the Delta QuadrantAffiliation - The Borg CollectiveOne of those moments I was talking about above. The Borg saved The Next Generation and the whole Star Trek franchise from total extinction when they kidnapped and transformed Jean-Luc Picard into Locutus of Borg in The Best of Both Worlds.

Single-minded (quite literally, they have a group or hive consciousness) and utterly relentless in their quest for "perfection," this cyborg collective is the ultimate threat to the United Federation of Planets. In the words of the entity Q: "The Borg are the ultimate user. They're unlike any threat your Federation has ever faced. They're not interested in political conquest, wealth, or power as you know it. They're simply interested in your ship, its technology. They've identified it as something they can consume."

5) The Cybermen (Doctor Who)

Homeworld - Mondas (destroyed)

Other Planets - Telos - Planet 14 - Parallel Earth

Affiliation - The Cyber Empire

The original Borg. The Steel Giants from Mondas were assimilating humans before it was cool. Enough said.

4) The Alien, also called the Xenomorph (Alien franchise)Homeworld - unknown (first encountered by the crew of the commercial towing spaceship Nostromo on LV-426, Zeta Reticuli star system)Affiliation - noneThe most realistic looking extraterrestrial species ever shown on the big screen and perhaps the only truly terrifying one. The "Perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility … A survivor... unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality."

3) The Dominion (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

Homeworld - The Founder's home planet, located in the Omarion Nebula, Gamma Quadrant

Important Members & Allies of the Dominion- The Founders, aka The Changelings (the "Founders" and ultimate heads of the Dominion)- The Vorta (the Founders' cloned intermediaries acting as Dominion administrators, diplomats, command staff, and scientists)- The Jem'Hadar (the ultimate warrior race and shock troops of the Dominion)- The Cardassian Union- The Breen Confederacy

2) The Shadows (Babylon 5)Homeworld - Z'ha'dum, aka Alpha Omega 3 (destroyed)Affiliation - unknownAn ancient force of conflict and chaos, the very essence of evil. Shrouded in mystery and armed with technology a million years ahead of 23rd century Earth (not to mention the coolest looking ships on TV) the Shadows were easily the best alien race in what many consider the best space opera series ever made.

1) Davros and the Daleks (Doctor Who)

Homeworld - Skaro, aka D5-Gamma-Z-Alpha (destroyed)

Other Planets - 22nd Century Earth - Kembel - The Ogron home planet - Spiridon - Necros

Affiliation - The Dalek Empire

The post of supreme alien bad guys has to go to Davros and his ultimate achievement the Daleks. Brilliant but utterly lacking in conscience, without soul or pity, the mutant madman Davros created the Daleks in his own image. Programmed to "conquer and destroy" all other forms of life the metal monsters soon turned on their creator though and thus began their ethnic cleansing of the Universe.

Together, Davros and the Daleks are the ultimate Who allegory for evil. The only two Who villains to consistently have the Doctor on the ropes. The Dalek's conquering Earth not once but twice (at least) and even being responsible for the deaths of two of the Doctor's on screen companions. Not to mention the near extinction of the Doctor's own people the Time Lords.

[sci-fiworlds]

A Sci Fi Worlds Interview with Richard Freeman

Richard Thomas: Welcome back! Thanks for agreeing to do part II of this special two-part text interview. Part I for Room 101 got a lot of great feedback so I'm sure the BoA readers will be looking forward to this one.

Richard Thomas: Here here!

The two most successful monsters have to be the Daleks and Cybermen. What are some of your favorite stories featuring them and did you get goose bumbs like me when they finally faced off in Doomsday?

Richard Freeman: I always thought the Daleks were better than the Cybermen. Cybermen have no emotions and hence cannot be evil. Daleks are all that is worst about humanity boiled down into its most intense form. This with their totally inhuman form and tank like invulnerability make them very frightening. A Dalek kills for spite not logic. The best Cyberman story I think was the recent Rise of the Cybermen / Age of Steel. They finally looked like they could actually do some damage for once, rather than just looking like men in silver suits. Once again, of course, the woefully poor Star Trek ripped off another Doctor Who monster with their pathetic looking Borg. The Cybermen have been around since 1966 and would kick the Borg's collective arse! I loved Army of Ghosts / Doomsday. The return of the Daleks at the end of the first episode is my favorite cliffhanger in the show's history. The fight was a forgone conclusion though. We all knew who would win in a Dalek / Cyberman punch up. The bitchy banter between them was great!

Richard Thomas: One of the best remembered monsters of the black and white era has to be the Yeti robots of the Great Intelligence. Later in the series, the Loch Ness monster appeared in Terror of the Zygons. Personally I think this is great because it gets the young viewers interested in these topics, but as a cryptozoologist what are your thoughts on mixing fact with fiction?

Richard Freeman: Doctor Who, and the Jon Pertwee years in particular were my inspiration to become a cryptozoologist. The show was my first real exposure to monsters. I don't mind mixing fact with fiction as long as it is stated that it is fiction. I don't like 'mockumentories' that try to pass themselves off as real investigations. There have been a couple of really bad Loch Ness programs. One built up the idea of the monster as a prehistoric marine reptile then tried to make itself look clever by saying how such a creature could not live in Loch Ness. Ergo the program's message was that the monster, if it existed, had to be a plesiosaur. Plesiosaurs could not live in Loch Ness so there was no such thing as the Loch Ness Monster. This is bollocks. Nobody who has seriously studied the phenomena thinks the monster is a plesiosaur. The smart money is on some kind of huge fish possibly a giant eel.

As for mystery apes, I think the orang-pendek of Sumatra will be found first as its jungle habitat shrinks. These small, upright apes will often enter semi-cultivated areas near to villages. The mighty Yeti, in the vastness of its remote mountain forests, will probably escape discovery for quite some time.

As for a setting there could be many choices. I could base it around the Chinese legend of the Ying-lung, a winged dragon who killed the Chinese god of war (distorted memories of the battle with the Time lords). Or I could set it in modern day Japan as a tribute to the Godzilla films. Huge dragons rampage through Tokyo and create thought form servants that recall the yokai (ghosts and monsters of Japanese legend) such as the kappa, tengu, mouryo, oni, yunki-onna and so on. Or I could set it in rural England where a Wicker Man style cult worshiping a slumbering dragon plan to awaken it.

Richard Thomas: Two monsters rumored to be returning sometime soon are the Silurians and their aquatic cousins the Sea Devils, the original reptilian rulers of planet Earth. If you were writing their return story what would you do?

Richard Freeman: I would have the Tardis land in what the Doctor thinks is modern day London only to find that it is a tropical jungle full of dinosaurs. The Sea Devils and Silurians now rule the Earth and are doing a better job of it than humans!

Richard Thomas: While on the topic of Doctor Who's Earth Reptiles, what are your thoughts on Mac Tonnies' controversial cryptoterrestrial hypothesis?

Richard Freeman: I had never heard of the guy before you mentioned him. I have never bought the extraterrestrial hypothesis. The so-called 'aliens' are generally too humanoid looking to have evolved on another biosphere. If 'alien' encounters are objective events (and that's a big if) I think the creatures are coming through time or dimensions rather than from outer space. There seems to be a strange analogue with fairy lore as well.

Richard Thomas: That's probably the most likely scenario but I wouldn't rule out the idea that Mars might have been colonized by an advanced civilization millions of years ago. Kind of like the backstory to the Pyramids of Mars. Why not remind our readers again about your upcoming books and stuff.

Richard Freeman: I have two books out now, Dragons; More than a Myth? from CFZ Press and Explore Dragons from Heart of Albion. My new book The Great Yokai Encyclopedia; an A to Z of Japanese Monsters will be out later this year from CFZ Press. You can follow my cryptozoological expeditions at www.cfz.org.uk

Richard Thomas: Thanks mate, hope we can do this again sometime.

READ RICHARD THOMAS'S SCI-FI WORLDS COLUMN FOR BINNALL OF AMERICA