Science Fiction

• Doctor Who: The Curse of Fenric | DVD | (06/10/2003) from £6.99   |  Saving you £13.00 (185.98%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Doctor Who: The Curse of Fenric is one of the best of Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor adventures, a complex tale set around a naval installation on the North Yorkshire coast during WWII. The busy plot involves a Russian commando unit, a code-breaking computer, opening gambits in the Cold War, ancient Norse inscriptions concerning even more ancient evil, a new twist on vampirism, chess, global pollution and a creature from the end of human history. Key to all this is the theme of faith and a time paradox centred on Ace (Sophie Aldred), which ultimately turns out to be the resolution to mysteries that have haunted the Doctor’s companion all her life (they were first touched upon in 1987's Dragonfire, also written by Ian Briggs). The show was shot entirely on location and has above average production values, generating tension and exciting set-pieces even when the plot threatens to get lost in its own tangles. Nicholas Parsons complements McCoy and Aldred by turning in a strong performance as the local minister and the tale pays homage to such horrors as Plague of the Zombies (1966), Night of the Living Dead (1968), and John Carpenter’s The Fog (1980) and Prince of Darkness (1987) with aplomb. Sadly there would only be one more story, the disappointing Survival (1989), before the BBC put the Doctor into suspended animation. On the DVD: Doctor Who: The Curse of Fenric is presented in two versions on a truly remarkable two-disc set. Disc 1 contains the four original 25-minute episodes exactly as originally broadcast with stereo sound. Disc 2 offers a completely updated version of the Special Edition originally released on video in 1991. This 103-minute version is supervised by composer Mark Ayres and follows director Nicholas Mallett’s original cut. The episodes are edited like a feature film and incorporate approximately 10 minutes of extra story material. The picture has been regraded and the sound remixed into full Dolby Digital 5.1 by Mark Ayres using the original stereo sound elements and his music files. The result is a massive improvement over the original series' episodes. Disc 1 also includes an informative commentary with McCoy, Aldred and Parsons and an isolated score. There is the usual information text, scored photo gallery and subtitles for the episodes and the commentary. "Modelling the Dead" shows Sue Moore and Stephen Mansfield making the Haemovore masks; "Claws and Effect" shows the BBC Special Effects unit on location; also included are 20 minutes of highlights from the 1990 Nebula 90 SF convention with Aldred, Ayres, Briggs, Tomek Bork, Joann Kenny, Mansfield and Moore, while "Take Two" is a four-minute piece on the story presented by Phillip Schofield. Disc 2 also features "Shattering the Chains" (an excellent analysis of the show by writer Ian Briggs), "Recutting the Runes" (a fascinating interview with Mark Ayres on preparing the Special Edition) and a good interview with costume designer Ken Trew. --Gary S Dalkin

• Dark Crystal | DVD | (06/12/1999) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Jim Henson's fantasy epic The Dark Crystal doesn't take place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but like Star Wars it takes the audience to a place that exists only in the imagination and, for an hour and a half, on the screen. Recalling the worlds of JRR. Tolkien, Henson tells the story of a race of grotesque birdlike lizards called the Skeksis, gnomish dragons who rule their fantastic planet with an iron claw. A prophecy tells of a Gelfling (a small elfin being) who will topple their empire, so in their reign of terror they have exterminated the race, or so they think. The orphan Jen, raised in solitude by a race of peace-loving wizards called the Mystics, embarks on a quest to find the missing shard of the Dark Crystal (which gives the Skeksis their power) and restore the balance of the universe. Henson and codirector Frank Oz have pushed puppetry into a new direction: traditional puppets, marionettes, giant bodysuits, and mechanical constructions are mixed seamlessly in a fantasy world of towering castles, simple huts, dank caves, a giant clockwork observatory, and a magnificent landscape that seem to have leaped off the pages of a storybook. Muppet fans will recognise many of the voice actors--a few characters sound awfully close to familiar comic creations--but otherwise The Dark Crystal is a completely alien world made familiar by a mythic quest that resonates through stories over the ages. --Sean Axmaker

• Stargate S.G. 1 - Series 10 - Complete | DVD | (03/12/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £59.99

  Stargate SG-1 Season 10 is the final adventure for the team and the last instalment in the SG1 collection. It sees the SG-1 military squad undertaking missions across the universe through the Stargates encountering various alien creatures and cultures on their journeys as they set out on another mission to defend the earth from the unknown. Episodes Comprise: 1. Flesh And Blood 2. Morpheus 3. The Pegasus Project 4. Insiders 5. Uninvited 6. 200 7. Counterstrike 8. Memento Mori 9. Company of Thieves 10. The Quest - Part 1 11. The Quest - Part 2 12. Line in the Sand 13. The Road Not Taken 14. The Shroud 15. Bounty 16. Bad Guys 17. Talion 18. Family Ties 19. Dominion 20. Unending

• Night Watch/Day Watch | DVD | (28/01/2008) from £9.47   |  Saving you £15.52 (163.89%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Nightwatch: Embrace the day. Fear the night. With a centuries old truce beginning to break down the forces of light and darkness come to do battle in modern day Moscow... Based on the first of Sergei Lukyanenko's trilogy of sci-fi horror novels Night Watch is a groundbreaking new phenomenon the highest-grossing Russian film of all time! Daywatch: Like The Matrix Day Watch combines cutting-edge digital effects and mind-blowing action to create a stunningly original world. Only one thing stands between peace and Armageddon: the supernatural agents of Day Watch who fight to control the armies of light and darkness. When the son of a senior Day Watch officer turns to the darkness forces beyond the imagination are unleashed and the fate of the world hangs in the balance!

• The Fifth Element | Blu Ray | (06/06/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Ancient curses, all-powerful monsters, shape-changing assassins, scantily-clad stewardesses, laser battles, huge explosions, a perfect woman, a malcontent hero--what more can you ask of a big-budget science fiction movie? Luc Besson's high-octane film The Fifth Element incorporates presidents, rock stars and cab drivers into its peculiar plot, traversing worlds and encountering some pretty wild aliens. Bruce Willis stars as a down-and-out cabbie who must win the love of Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) to save Earth from destruction by Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman) and a dark, unearthly force that makes Darth Vader look like an Ewok. --Geoff Riley

• Quantum Leap: Complete Season 1 | DVD | (08/11/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £27.99

  ""Theorising that one could time travel within his own lifetime Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished... He woke to find himself trapped in the past facing mirror images that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al an observer from his own time who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to l

• The Day The Earth Stood Still | DVD | (20/04/2009) from £4.98   |  Saving you £18.01 (361.65%)   |  RRP £22.99

  A contemporary re-invention of the 1951 classic in which Keanu Reeves portrays Klaatu, an alien whose arrival on our planet triggers a global upheaval. Available to own on DVD and Blu-ray Monday 20th April, 2009

• Spider-Man Homecoming | Blu Ray | (20/11/2017) from £6.75   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens | DVD | (24/08/2020) from £3.57   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  As Kylo Ren and the sinister First Order rise from the ashes of the Empire, Luke Skywalker is missing when the galaxy needs him most. It's up to Rey, a desert scavenger, and Finn, a defecting stormtrooper, to join forces with Han Solo and Chewbacca in a desperate search for the one hope of restoring peace to the galaxy.

• Intergalactic | Blu Ray | (29/11/2021) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Intergalactic follows a crew of fierce female convicts who break free and go on the run. The year 2143. After sky cop Harper (Savannah Steyn) is framed for a crime, she is placed on board prisoner transport ship the Hemlock bound for an off-planet prison.

• District 9 | DVD | (28/12/2009) from £7.05   |  Saving you £12.94 (183.55%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Peter Jackson presents a stark vision of the not-too-distant-future as a race of alien visitors are corralled and contained within "District 9"

• Red Dwarf - Series XI | Blu Ray | (14/11/2016) from £13.85   |  Saving you £11.14 (80.43%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The Emmy-winning comedy returns for an 11th outing, with the original cast and a host of guest stars on board. The series sees two of the Dwarfers' dreams come true: Rimmer accidentally saves a Space Corp Captain and is promoted to Officer, while Cat takes time off from loving himself to fall in love with a female cat with a very big secret. Lister wakes up to discover a deranged droid has stolen his body parts and Kryten has a mid-life crisis and changes his body cover from grey to Ferrari red. With big laughs and dazzling effects, Red Dwarf XI continues on from the award-winning Red Dwarf X and recaptures the show's golden age.

• Stargate Atlantis - Season 5 - Complete | DVD | (10/08/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £59.99

  In this action-packed fifth season sparks fly when Woolsey becomes the new leader of the Atlantis team. Meanwhile McKay faces difficult personal challenges; Teyla must balance her roles as mother and warrior; Ronan's past returns with a vengeance and Keller finds peril then help from an unlikely source. A provisional relationship with the Wraith takes a shocking turn and new adversaries test the team's courage and resolve like never before.

• Bumblebee 3D - Turbine Collector Series #07 (Blu-ray 3D) | Unknown | (17/07/2025) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Boo, Zino And The Snurks | DVD | (21/03/2005) from £4.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (200.40%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Cartoon world creations Boo and Zino must team up with their sworn enemies, The Snurks, to save their cartoon fantasy world.

• Dark Angel | Blu Ray | (30/09/2024) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Surrogates | DVD | (01/02/2010) from £8.06   |  Saving you £9.19 (135.15%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A pair of FBI agents (Bruce Willis and Radha Mitchell) investigate a murder linked to a high-tech surrogate phenomenon that allows people to experience life vicariously through idealized robotic versions of themselves.

• Contact | DVD | (25/09/1998) from £7.19   |  Saving you £6.80 (94.58%)   |  RRP £13.99

  The opening and closing moments of Robert (Forrest Gump) Zemeckis's Contact astonish viewers with the sort of breathtaking conceptual imagery one hardly ever sees in movies these day--each is an expression of the heroine's lifelong quest (both spiritual and scientific) to explore the meaning of human existence through contact with extraterrestrial life. The movie begins by soaring far out into space, then returns dizzyingly to earth until all the stars in the heavens condense into the sparkle in one little girl's eye. It ends with that same girl as an adult (Jodie Foster)--her search having taken her to places beyond her imagination--turning her gaze inward and seeing the universe in a handful of sand. Contact traces the journey between those two visual epiphanies. Based on Carl Sagan's novel, Contact is exceptionally thoughtful and provocative for a big-budget Hollywood science fiction picture, with elements that recall everything from 2001 to The Right Stuff. Foster's solid performance (and some really incredible alien hardware) keep viewers interested, even when the story skips and meanders, or when the halo around the golden locks of rising-star-of-a-different-kind Matthew McConaughey (as the pure-Hollywood-hokum love interest)reaches Milky Way-level wattage. Ambitious, ambiguous, pretentious, unpredictable--Contact is all of these things and more. Much of it remains open to speculation and interpretation but whatever conclusions one eventually draws, Contactdeserves recognition as a rare piece of big-budget studio film making on a personal scale. --Jim Emerson

• La Chimera | DVD | (22/07/2024) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Star Trek: Nemesis | DVD | (11/08/2003) from £5.00   |  Saving you £14.99 (299.80%)   |  RRP £19.99

  On a diplomatic mission Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew are faced with a threat that could lead to the Earth's destruction, and Picard meets his most dangerous adversary yet.