Science Fiction

• Things To Come | DVD | (07/05/2007) from £13.39   |  Saving you £6.60 (49.29%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A global war begins in 1940. This war drags out over many decades until most of the people still alive (mostly those born after the war started) do not even know who started it or why. Nothing is being manufactured at all any more and society has broken down into primative localized communities. In 1966 a great plague wipes out most of what people are left but small numbers still survive. One day a strange aircraft lands at one of these communities and its pilot tells of an organisation which is rebuilding civilization and slowly moving across the world re-civilizing these groups of survivors. Great reconstruction takes place over the next few decades and society is once again great and strong. The world's population is now living in underground cities. In the year 2035 on the eve of man's first flight to the moon a popular uprising against progress (which some people claim has caused the wars of the past) gains support and becomes violent.

• The Astronaut's Wife | DVD | (24/04/2000) from £6.58   |  Saving you £13.41 (203.80%)   |  RRP £19.99

  An intriguingly creepy premise but failed execution marks The Astronaut's Wife, a stylish and ultimately bland thriller about a pretty, young woman whose pretty, young astronaut husband comes back from his most recent space mission a little... odd. Before that fated space trip, Spencer (Johnny Depp) and Jillian (Charlize Theron) were a sunny, happy couple with matching blonde hairdos and a predilection for romping in the sack from extremely clever camera angles. However, after a communications blackout brings Spencer and his partner back down to earth prematurely, things are a little... peculiar. Spencer's partner goes bonkers and has a heart attack; on top of that, the partner's wife takes a fatal shower with a plugged-in radio. Getting out of the space biz, Spencer accepts a job as a corporate exec in New York, and as a welcome to the Big Apple for his comely wife, he molests her at the company cocktail party. Soon enough, Jillian is pregnant, but as you might expect, this pregnancy (twins, don't you know) is a little... unusual. Writer-director Rand Ravich takes his sweet time getting from extremely obvious plot point A to even more obvious plot point B, stretching out the development particulars in mind-numbing, suspense-killing fashion. Even Joe Morton, as a sinisterly psychotic NASA official, can't liven things up--you know you're in bad thriller territory when the biggest scare comes from a light suddenly being switched off. Theron, sporting a Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby style haircut, sleepwalks beautifully through the movie, but she did this role much, much better in The Devil's Advocate. Depp, with a cornpone Southern accent, is about as realistic as his peroxided hair. Ravich does the viewer no favours with a hackneyed ending straight out of a B-grade paperback horror novel in which the most shocking moment is Theron's sudden emergence as a brunette. With Blair Brown as a jaded socialite who offers to help out Theron by providing do-it-yourself abortion pills, and a lovely Donna Murphy as the suicidal wife who figures it all out before everyone else. -- Mark Englehart, Amazon.com

• Independence Day | DVD | (26/02/2001) from £4.90   |  Saving you £18.09 (369.18%)   |  RRP £22.99

  In Independence Day, a scientist played by Jeff Goldblum once actually had a fistfight with a man (Bill Pullman) who is now president of the United States. That same president, late in the film, personally flies a jet fighter to deliver a payload of missiles against an attack by extraterrestrials. Independence Day is the kind of movie so giddy with its own outrageousness that one doesn't even blink at such howlers in the plot. Directed by Roland Emmerich, Independence Day is a pastiche of conventions from flying-saucer movies from the 1940s and 1950s, replete with icky monsters and bizarre coincidences that create convenient shortcuts in the story. (Such as the way the girlfriend of one of the film's heroes--played by Will Smith--just happens to run across the president's injured wife, who are then both rescued by Smith's character who somehow runs across them in alien-ravaged Los Angeles County.) The movie is just sheer fun, aided by a cast that knows how to balance the retro requirements of the genre with a more contemporary feel. --Tom Keogh

• Ghosts of Mars | Blu Ray | (30/01/2017) from £20.00   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars attempts a productive combination of SF elements (a largely terraformed Mars with its long-lost civilisation) and horror (mass possession that turns the victims into rampaging, self-mutilating monsters that kill and burn). A police-force detachment turn up in a mining community to collect a bandit, whose last heist was uncharacteristically violent, and soon find themselves under siege from rampaging hordes who used to be solid citizens. This is a fairly simple set of variations on stock Carpenter elements--a hybrid between Assault on Precinct 13 and In the Mouth of Madness. However, there is some powerful chemistry between Nastasha Henstridge's icy, drug-abusing police lieutenant and Ice Cube's bandit, Desolation Williams, made stronger by the lack of sexual tension. Other characters, such as Pam Grier's tough commander and Clea Duvall's nervous rookie, are more or less defined by plot functions; the mobs never become more than faceless, or facially distorted, anonymous menaces. This is one for die-hard Carpenter fans only. On the DVD: Ghosts of Mars on disc comes with Dolby Digital sound and its original widescreen ratio of 2.35:1. A sparky commentary by Carpenter and Henstridge is included, which is informative, but otherwise there are uninspiring documentaries on the musical score, the special effects and the difficulties of shooting at night in the Mexican desert, as well as filmographies and the theatrical trailer. --Roz Kaveney

• The Hobbit: Motion Picture Trilogy 4K (BOX) | Blu Ray | (03/12/2020) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Torchwood - Children of Earth | DVD | (13/07/2009) from £5.99   |  Saving you £19.00 (317.20%)   |  RRP £24.99

  An ordinary day becomes a world of terror as every single child in the world stops. A message is sent to all the governments of Earth: 'We are coming'. But as a trap closes around Captain Jack sins of the past are returning as long-forgotten events from 1965 threaten to reveal an awful truth. Torchwood are forced underground as the government takes swift and brutal action. With members of the team being hunted down Britain risks becoming a rogue state with the mysterious and powerful 456 drawing ever closer. Captain Jack Gwen and Ianto are helpless as events escalate until mankind faces the end of civilisation itself.

• Star Trek The Next Generation - Borg | DVD | (03/07/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  All the greatest episodes from the various Star Trek shows featuring the Federation's greatest ever enemy; the Borg! Episodes Comprise: 1. Regeneration 2. Q Who? 3. The Best Of Both Worlds (Parts 1 & 2) 4. I Borg 5. Descent (Parts 1 & 2) 6. Scorpion (Parts 1 & 2) 7. Drone 8. Dark Frontier 9. Unimatrix Zero (Parts 1 & 2) 10. Endgame

• La Brea: Season 3 - The Final Journey | DVD | (15/07/2024) from £24.90   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Time After Time | Blu Ray | (15/11/2016) from £26.67   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Quatermass - Chapters 1 To 4 / The Conclusion | DVD | (07/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  John Mills stars as the eponymous Professor in 1979s Quatermass, the fourth, final and best of the celebrated television science fiction serials. The Professors early adventures were 1950s TV productions, all made into cult Hammer films, including the excellent Quatermass and the Pit (1967). Here Quatermass, now an elderly scientist searching for his missing grand-daughter, finds himself facing a new alien nightmare in a convincingly bleak near-future Britain of urban decay, social collapse and unchecked violence. Written by Nigel Kneale, as were all the Quatermass stories, this was an intelligent extrapolation of 1970s industrial-strife-ridden Britain, a continuation of the apocalyptic British SF tradition of John Wyndham (The Day of the Triffids was serialised by the BBC two years later). Thanks to a generous budget sufficient to allow for an international theatrical version, the production values are impressively large-scale, and the naturalistic performances from a cast including Simon MacCorkindale, Barbara Kellerman and Brenda Fricker add greatly to the sense of reality. Best of all, John Mills brings tremendous class to an adventure which remains a rare example of serious, ideas-based adult TV SF. Director Piers Haggard (Pennies from Heaven) packs considerable tension and not a few scares into Kneales epic canvas. On the DVD: Quatermass is presented on three DVDs with two 50-minute episodes and perfunctory production notes on each of the first two discs. The 4:3 picture is good for a 1970s TV series, though there is some minor print damage. Sound is adequate two-channel mono. Disc 3 offers the 101-minute international theatrical version, called The Quatermass Conclusion. This version contains some slightly stronger, 15-rated material, and different credits. The disc also features an oddly presented but interesting 18-minute interview with Nigel Kneale which is centred on the original three Quatermass BBC serials. A 16-page booklet is informative and the packaging is among the most attractive to grace a DVD set thus far. --Gary S Dalkin

• Cloverfield | DVD | (09/06/2008) from £3.74   |  Saving you £16.25 (434.49%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A monster attacks New York and the ensueing carnage is told from the point of view of a small group of friends with a video camera.

• King Kong | Blu Ray | (05/12/2022) from £13.54   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The towering new 4K restoration of the 1976 event movie reimagining of the classic monster story, King Kong. Primate palaeontologist Jack Prescott (Jeff Bridges) sneaks aboard an expedition to the uncharted Skull Island, warning the ruthless oil executive Fred Wilson (Charles Grodin) against exploiting its resources with an ominous message about the roar of the greatest beast from previous doomed explorers. En route they rescue aspiring actress Dwan (Jessica Lange), the sole survivor of a shipwreck. Upon disembarking on the island they discover a strange primitive world of mystery and danger, where the natives live within the confines of a vast wall to protect them from the giant ape god, Kong. Dwan is abducted and offered as a sacrifice to the savage beast, before the crew rescue her and capture Kong to take him to New York. Wilson views him as a profitable Broadway attraction, but the ape has other ideas and escapes to rampage through the streets of the Big Apple. Product Features Deleted Scenes Interviews with: Barry Nolan, Bill Kronick, Scott Thaler and Jeffrey Chernov, David McGiffert and Brian E. Frankish, Jack O'Hallor, Steve Varner Original Trailer Audio Commentaries with Ray Morton, Rick Baker

• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier | Blu Ray | (05/09/2022) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  ! The fifth movie of the original motion picture saga looks better than ever on Blu-ray ™, boldly remastered from a 4K scan of the original film elements. The crew of the Federation starship Enterprise is summoned to Nimbus III to negotiate a kidnapping from a renegade Vulcan, who turns out to be a relative of Spock. Soon, they're set on a course for the center of the galaxy, exploring his obsessive search for a mysterious planet that could quite possibly be the source of all life. Special Features The Journey: A Behind-the-scenes Documentary Star Trek Honors Nasa Hollywood Walk Of Fame: James Doohan Starfleet Academy: Nimbus Iii Herman Zimmerman: A Tribute Original Interview: William Shatner Library Computer Plus Over 2 More Hours Of Additional Special Features

• Babylon 5: Season 3 | DVD | (10/11/2003) from £12.69   |  Saving you £42.30 (333.33%)   |  RRP £54.99

  Matters of Honour" launches the third series of Babylon 5 with the introduction of the White Star, a spacecraft added to enable more of the action to take place away from the static space station. Also introduced is Marcus Cole (Jason Carter) who, in another nod to The Lord of the Rings, is a Ranger not so far removed from JRR Tolkien's Strider. In "Voices of Authority" the show finds an epic scale as Ivanova seeks the mysterious "First Ones" for allies against the Shadows, and evidence is discovered pointing to the truth behind President Santiago's assassination. A third of the way through the series "Messages from Earth", "Point of No Return" and "Severed Dreams" prove pivotal, changing the nature of the story in a way previously unimaginable on network TV. Earth slides into dictatorship, the fascistic Nightwatch takes control of off-world security and Sheridan takes decisive action by declaring Babylon 5 independent. "Interludes and Examinations" presents the death of a major supporting character, while the two-part "War Without End" reaches apocalyptic dimensions in a complex tale resolving the destiny of Sinclair and the fate of Babylon 4 (dovetailing elegantly with the events of Year One's "Babylon Squared"), resolving a 1,000-year-old paradox and presenting a vision of a very dark future for Sheridan and Delenn. All this is trumped by the monumental "Z'ha'dum". In the preceding "Shadow Dancing", Anna Sheridan (Melissa Gilbert, Bruce Boxleitner's real-life wife) returns from the dead, no longer entirely human. In the mythologically resonant climax Anna invites Sheridan back to the Shadow homeworld with no hope of survival. Just as Gandalf fell into the abyss at Khazad-Dum, so Sheridan takes a comparable leap into the unknown on an alien world. On the DVD: Babylon 5, Series 3 presents all 22 episodes anamorphically enhanced at 16:9 for widescreen TVs. While not up to blockbuster movie standards these are the finest looking B5 discs yet. Likewise the remixed Dolby Digital 5.1 sound packs a considerable punch in the many action scenes while remaining clear and atmospheric throughout. Reasonable though unremarkable extras are in line with previous box sets, with detailed and informative commentaries by series creator J Michael Straczynski on episodes "Z'Ha'Dum", and the Hugo Award-winning "Severed Dreams". Actors Bruce Boxleitner, Jerry Doyle, Richard Biggs and Ed Wasser offer a more jokey and backslapping appraisal of "Interludes and Examinations". Introduction to Point of Return is essentially a six-minute trailer for the season, while Behind the Mask: Creating the Aliens of B5 offers make-up artist John Vulich, JMS, and producer John Copland reflecting on the creation of various races. Complementing this is a seven-minute look at Building a Better Narn. Designing Tomorrow: The Look of Babylon 5 focuses on the work of production designer John Iacovelli. Finally The Universe of Babylon 5 presents five short character profiles. The set offers an alternative French soundtrack and subtitles in English, English for the hard-of-hearing, French and Dutch. --Gary S Dalkin

• Doctor Who Shada LIMITED EDITION STEELBOOK | Blu Ray | (04/12/2017) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Delicate matter, slightly. It's about a book... Chris Parsons is happily engrossed in studying post-graduate physics at Cambridge, when one day he finds an old book, sitting on a dusty shelf in an ageing professor's library. Written in a language nobody can read and made of a paper that can't be torn, this is no ordinary book. And when it enters his life, everything changes for young Chris Parsons. Soon finding himself aboard an invisible space-ship, chased by monsters made of molten rock; aboard an alien prison on a distant planet and attacked by a horde of mind-control zombies. Chris also meets a strange man with a very long scarf who claims he can travel through time and space... in a police box. It's going to be a busy day for Chris Parsons. An abandoned Doctor Who classic is brought to life. Starring Tom Baker and written by Douglas Adams, this is Shada for a modern audience, with footage upscaled to high definition, and incomplete footage now completed using high-quality animation.

• Morbius (2 Discs - UHD & BD) | Blu Ray | (27/06/2022) from £19.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  One of the most compelling and conflicted characters in Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters comes to the big screen as Oscar® winner Ja

• Alien Encounter | DVD | (22/06/2015) from £21.58   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Titans: The Complete Series | Blu Ray | (22/07/2024) from £39.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  TITANS follows young heroes from across the DC Universe as they come of age and find belonging in a gritty take on the classic Teen Titans franchise. Dick Grayson and Rachel Roth, a special young girl possessed by a strange darkness, get embroiled in a conspiracy that could bring Hell on Earth. Joining them along the way are the hot-headed Starfire and loveable Beast Boy. Together they become a surrogate family and team of heroes.

• The Watch | DVD | (26/12/2012) from £4.73   |  Saving you £15.26 (322.62%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Four everyday guys come together to form a neighbourhood watch group to escape their humdrum lives. Little do they know that their town has been over taken by aliens posing as suburbanites and they have to save the day.

• Ironmaster (Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (14/01/2019) from £16.25   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  At the dawn of time, the discovery of the world s fi rst weapon unleashes primitive man s violent and cruel nature. After being exiled from his village, Ela (bodybuilder Sam Pasco in his only fi lm role), teams up with a group of fellow barbarians to help stop his power-hungry brother, Vood (George Eastman, Absurd), from his brutal quest for world domination. Experience the brutal evolution of mankind through the eyes of the notorious Umberto Lenzi, under the supervision of legendary producer Luciano Martino (Blastfi ghter), as he delivers a shocking, yet thoroughly entertaining, slice of B-movie fantasy. Ironmaster is presented in glorious HD for the fi rst time in the UK thanks to loin-clothed freaks at 88 Films! Extras: New Master Restored from the Original Camera Negative Working with the Masters: an interview with Antonello Gelleng and Giancarlo Ferrando Reversible Sleeve with original LA GUERRA DU FER artwork