Science Fiction

• The Twilight Zone - Vol. 10 | DVD | (06/10/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  In 1959 screenwriter Rod Serling first opened the door to the "dimension of imagination" that is The Twilight Zone, a show quite unlike anything that had gone before, and better than much that has followed in its wake. This original and daring television series ran for a magnificent five seasons from 1959 to 1964 and still looks as fresh as ever, particularly on DVD. What distinguished the series (and still does) is the quality of the scripts, many of which were penned by Serling, but with significant contributions from veteran sci-fi authors and screenwriters such as Richard Matheson. Actors of the calibre of Robert Redford, Burgess Meredith, Lee Marvin and William Shatner gave some of their best small-screen performances, while an unforgettable main title theme by Bernard Herrmann and musical contributions from young turks such as Jerry Goldsmith underlined the show's attraction for great creative talent both behind and in front of the cameras. On the DVD: A neat animated menu with a winking eye guides the viewer "Inside the Twilight Zone", which consists of digests of background information on the individual episodes, as well as a general history of the show, a season-by-season breakdown and a potted biography of Serling. --Mark Walker

• Stargate S.G -1: Season 2 (Vol.7) | DVD | (28/08/2000) from £5.71   |  Saving you £2.27 (83.46%)   |  RRP £4.99

  The 1994 movie Stargate was originally intended as the start of a franchise, but creators Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin were distracted celebrating their Independence Day. Episodic TV treatment was the natural next step. Since neither Kurt Russell nor James Spader would be able to commit, it gave the producers licence to tinker with the cast and the universe they'd explore. Replacing the roles of Colonel Jack O'Neill and Dr. Daniel Jackson respectively are Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks. They're joined by Captain Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) and guilt-stricken former alien baddie Teal'c (Christopher Judge) to form the teacher's pet primary unit SG-1 With a seemingly endless network of Stargates found to exist on planets all across the known universe, their mission is to make first contact with as many friendly races as possible. Chasing their heels at almost every turn are the "overlord" pharaohnic Goa'uld--the ancient Egyptian Gods who are none too chummy after the events of the original film. The welcome notion of a continued plot thread sees offshoots that follow the reincarnation of Daniel's wife, Sam's father literally joining a renegade faction of the Goa'uld, and Jack in an unending quest to out-sarcasm everyone. There's something of The Time Tunnel to the show's premise, but amid a dearth of derivative look-a-likes, Stargate has held its own with stories that put the science fiction back into TV sci-fi. The first two episodes here (nos. 9 & 13) do not follow the previous Volume 6 chronologically. "Thor's Hammer" ought to be seen before Vol. 3, since this visit to Cimmeria presents an earlier chapter in Teal'c's problems at home and is the introduction to the Gate-building Asgard race. "Hathor" is likewise an essential early instalment by introducing the siren-like goddess who will continue to put Earth's men under her spell. Episodes 21 and 22 jump forward to finish Season Two: there's great fun to be had in "1969" and a time-travel plot that loops many aspects of the show's storylines together. The cliff-hanger finale, "Out of Mind", has O'Neill experience an Aliens-style awakening 79 years into his future. What the Hell happened? And why is he being asked so many questions about Earth's defences? --Paul Tonks

• Highlander - The Animated Series - Exodus / The History Lesson | DVD | (22/07/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Episodes are: 'Exodus' and 'The History Lesson'.

• Hack // Sign - Vol. 4 | DVD | (27/09/2004) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-6.99 (-35.00%)   |  RRP £19.99

  After the battle at the upside-down castle everyone but Tsukasa is returned to a regular field in 'The World'. Did Tsukasa die? What happened to him? Captured by a previously friendly unseen force Tsukasa reappears with parts of his memories thoughts and feelings missing. Is this really Tsukasa or just a copy of the character's data? The other players have their own problems as well - Subaru discovers that the Silver Knight have been hiding messages from her with the latest request by the System Administrator threatening to end with disastrous results!

• Fire & Fantasy: The Ultimate Dragon Collection (Sinbad The Persian Prince / Age of The Dragons / Rise of the Dragons, Wyvern) | DVD | (26/09/2011) from £12.91   |  Saving you £7.08 (54.84%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Sinbad: The Persian Prince:Fantasy action adventure transposing the ancient Persian legend of Sinbad the Sailor to the modern day. Adrian Sinbad (Patrick Muldoon) is a billionaire oil shipping magnate who must complete seven tasks in order to save the world from catastrophe after his flagship oil tanker is hijacked by Somalian pirates.Age Of The Dragons:Danny Glover and Vinnie Jones star in this fantasy adventure loosely based on Herman Melville's classic novel 'Moby Dick'. Captain Ahab (Glover) and his crew are joined by harpoonist Ishmael (Corey Sevier) in their hunt for the White Dragon, the merciless creature that killed Ahab's family when he was a boy and left him scarred and mutilated for life. As they close in on their quarry, Ahab's beautiful adopted daughter, Rachel (Sofia Pernas), must choose between her allegiance to her father's dark quest and her newfound love for the dashing Ishmael.Wyvern: Rise Of The Dragon:Sci-fi Channel fantasy horror B-movie in which a small town in Alaska is terrorised by a dragon-like flying reptile. Thawed from its ancient slumber by melting icecaps caused by global warming, the creature is soon wreaking havoc on the lives of town residents including truck driver Jake (Nick Chinlund) and feisty waitress Claire (Erin Karpluk).

• Stargate S.G -1: Season 5 (Vol. 25) | DVD | (23/09/2002) from £5.97   |  Saving you £-0.98 (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Stargate SG-1 is the TV spin-off from the 1994 big-screen movie. In the roles of Colonel Jack O'Neill and Dr Daniel Jackson respectively are Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks. They are joined by Captain Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) and guilt-stricken former alien baddie Teal'c (Christopher Judge) to form the primary unit SG-1. With a seemingly endless network of Stargates found to exist on planets all across the known universe, their mission is to make first contact with as many friendly races as possible. Episodes on this disc: "Meridian", "Revelations".It's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan all over again as Daniel Jackson decides the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, sacrificing himself for the greater good in "Meridian". The departure of Michael Shanks is both sudden and suspicious. His Season 6 replacement--Corin Nemec as Jonas Quinn--is quickly established too. So much intrigue will leave regular viewers puzzled, especially since this is only the penultimate cliffhanger to the year. "Revelations" are aplenty at the end of year five. Earth's seemingly all-powerful allies the Asgard show yet more chinks in their armour. The SG-1 teams' grief over Daniel is remarkably short-lived. And behind the scenes a change of US broadcast channels could mean anything might happen between now and next year. Is this the beginning of the end? --Paul Tonks

• Andromeda - Season 2 - Vol. 2 | DVD | (14/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Further Season 2 adventures with Dylan (Kevin Sorbo) and the crew of the Andromeda Ascendant...

• Hack // Sign - Vol. 5 | DVD | (15/11/2004) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-6.99 (-35.00%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In the year 2010 the most popular computer game is 'The World' an online multi-user roleplaying game created by CC Corporation. However something seems to have gone awry and the Wave Master Tsukasa is permanently logged into the game... The group seems to have disbanded! BT doesn't log on much and neither does Subaru. But soon the quest for the Key of the Twilight begins anew with Tsukasa taking Subaru to see the 'sleeping girl' only to discover her missing! Elsewhere Bear realiz

• Definitive Edition - I, Robot | DVD | (05/03/2007) from £12.13   |  Saving you £0.86 (6.60%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Will Smith stars in this sci-fi action thriller suggested by the classic short story collection by Isaac Asimov, and brought to the big screen by visionary director Alex Proyas ("The Crow").

• This Ugly Yet Beautiful World Vol.1-3 - Complete | DVD | (25/08/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  He met a beautiful girl. (And that's when things got ugly.) Takeru has a very special place in this universe. And he doesn't know how special until he meets a beautiful girl who falls from the stars. Hikari seems to have no memory of who she is (or for that matter where her clothes are). So Takeru takes her into his care. And that's when things get nasty. For Hikari is not like other girls. Her name may mean light but she has a dark history - and an even darker future. One that will change Takeru and his friends forever and show them all just how beautiful yet cruel this universe can be!

• Robotropolis | DVD | (05/09/2011) from £8.27   |  Saving you £7.72 (48.30%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A group of reporters are covering the unveiling of a new facility that is completely maintained by robot prototypes. When one of the robots catastrophically malfunctions the reporters find themselves fighting for their very survival.

• The Phantom Planet | DVD | (12/07/2010) from £6.73   |  Saving you £-1.74 (-34.90%)   |  RRP £4.99

  An invisible force from an asteroid draws an astronaut and his ship to the surface where the atmosphere shrinks him to six inches tall! He decides to help the other occupants battle against an invading race of monsters.

• Zathura / Jumanji | UMD | (26/06/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

• The Twilight Zone - Vol. 16 | DVD | (26/02/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  In 1959 screenwriter Rod Serling first opened the door to the "dimension of imagination" that is The Twilight Zone, a show quite unlike anything that had gone before, and better than much that has followed in its wake. This original and daring television series ran for a magnificent five seasons from 1959 to 1964 and still looks as fresh as ever, particularly on DVD. What distinguished the series (and still does) is the quality of the scripts, many of which were penned by Serling, but with significant contributions from veteran sci-fi authors and screenwriters such as Richard Matheson. Actors of the calibre of Robert Redford, Burgess Meredith, Lee Marvin and William Shatner gave some of their best small-screen performances, while an unforgettable main title theme by Bernard Herrmann and musical contributions from young turks such as Jerry Goldsmith underlined the show's attraction for great creative talent both behind and in front of the cameras. --Mark Walker

• Bubblegum Crisis | DVD | (09/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  The second instalment of the popular Japanese anime, Bubblegum Crisis 2 contains the fourth, fifth and sixth episodes of the eight original videos. In a devastated high-tech Tokyo of a Blade Runner-ish future, four beautiful women disguised by their heavily armed exoskeletons protect society from killer androids and from an ambitious corporation that tries to take over the world, while also having complicated personal lives. The cute teenager NeNe always has a crush on someone or other; flighty Linna has to fit her superhero life into a busy social schedule; and Priss has her career as a rock singer as well as a habit of feeling emotional. Only the austere Sylia is entirely in control of her life--so much so that she needs the others for a bit of productive chaos. In the episodes included they deal with a mysterious car that is riding down motorcyclists, help a tragic android who is vampirising citizens to feed a damaged friend and cope with attempts by an evil conspirator to frame them for mass mayhem. The stories rely rather too heavily on extended sequences of fast bikes and car racing, or mechanised bodysuits and big robots tearing each other apart, but the plotting can be subtle and the emotional scenes tense and fraught. Someone trying to get a sense of anime's strengths and weaknesses could do a lot worse than start here. On the DVD: the disc is presented in a visual aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and has a very loud Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack which presents every screech of tortured metal vehemently and every pounding anthem in the slightly pompous score. There are no extras apart from a very extended documentation of the credits. --Roz Kaveney

• Andromeda - Season 4 - Vol. 1 | DVD | (21/02/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Sci-Fi heavy-hitter Andromeda is back for a 4th season! This first volume contains the episodes: 1. Answers Given To Questions Never Asked 2. Pieces Of Eight 3. Waking The Tyrant's Device 4. Double Or Nothingness 5. Harper/Delete

• Close Encounters Of The Third Kind - The Reel Collection | DVD | (02/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Close Encounters Of The Third Kind is a mesmerizing movie about earth's encounter with spaceships and alien beings as experienced by one ordinary man.

• PROPHETS OF SCIENCE FICTION: Arthur C Clarke | DVD | (03/12/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  What once was just imagination is now real; what was once the distant future is now around the corner. The science of the future was strangely prophesied by a group of authors, illustrators, filmmakers and scientists whose dreams once may have deemed them renegades and mad scientists. 'Prophets of Science Fiction' is a biographical exploration of eight science fiction visionaries and how their early projections eerily predicted the future. Some sci-fi storytellers are content to merely predi...

• The X Files - Series 1 | DVD | (18/06/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Featuring a few tasty morsels from X-Files: Season 1! Ideal for people who want to give the unknown their first try. You won't be disappointed by the sci-fi thrills of The X-Files. And don't forget; the truth is out there...

• Star Wars: Episode IX - Der Aufstieg Skywalkers | DVD | (30/04/2020) from £12.27   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A