The Sci-Fi Files (1997)

The Sci-Fi Files is equal parts science history and science fiction, and that is how it should be. The two are inextricable in the ways they take inspiration from each other. And here, composed of clips from dozens of science fiction movies, and commented on in interviews with scientists and writers alike, is a four-part study billing itself as "The Definitive Four Volume History." "Children of Frankenstein" covers the influence and implications of Mary Shelley's book on SF; "Spaceships and Aliens" covers just that; "March of the Machines" covers devices and mechanisms; "Living in the Future" covers the relationship in SF between the here and now and the future that is its subject. On the science side, the film is bolstered by interviews with geneticist Steve Jones and physicist Lawrence Krauss. Of most interest to SF fandom, though, will be the interviews with novelists William Gibson, Brian Aldiss, Steve Baxter, Kim Stanley Robinson, Larry Niven, and Arthur C. Clarke. Narrated by Mark Hamill, whose voice is easy to listen to.