Recent content by Viktor Kuprin

Tempus fugit ... Tempus fugit.Times flies, indeed. Four-and-a-half years since I last posted here at Kosmosflot. Fact is, I took a break from science fiction for many reasons. Witnessing John Ringo's raging melt down at Windy Con in 2008 was one. Reading John Scalzi's condescending words about...

A wonderful, unique show. But I found myself agreeing with Mal: no matter how I looked at her, Inara was just a high-paid whore. Calling her professional activities "courtesanship" didn't at all change the fact that she was a prostitute. A choosy one, sure, but still taking money for tricks. Was...

It was July 20, 1969, and Apollo 11's lunar module had landed on the moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin would take their first historic steps a few hours later. On the CBS TV network, Walter Cronkite was providing round-the-clock commentary and, if I remember correctly, Arthur Clarke was one...

Title: Road to the Stars Genre: Documentary, Science Fiction Director: Pavel Klushantsev Cast: Georgi Solovyov, Georgi Kulbush Release: 1958-06-04 Runtime: 49 Plot: This film consists of three parts. The first dramatizes the life of the founder of Soviet astronautics...

"The genre is overwhelmingly bleak," to quote Jetse de Vries. Many reasons are discussed, like how we now lack a shared vision of the future, excessive greed and untruthfulness being fostered as acceptable in corporate culture, ineffectivness of government and, especially in the USA, the...

B minus Way too many shots of Bilbo (Martin Freeman) mugging the camera. That got old fast. And stretching the story out into three films is just corporate-greedy. I, too, love the Rankin-Bass animated versions of The Hobbit and Return of the King. So many great voice actors but, sadly, it...

I'm happy that readers are still enjoying my WotW blog. Next to Ded Moroz, The Russian Santa, the WotW blog has been the most popular nonfiction I've ever written. Another detail that I omitted: Les Tremayne (General Mann in the 1953 film) also participated in what surely must be the greatest...

Your machines did. But your Alien Immunity Deficiencies were your doom, Marty. The presence of "earthlike" planets might boost the odds of alien life in the Drake Equation, but if the actual occurrence of life is very, very, very rare, then speculating about preparations for first contact is...

The trailer shows the classic mistake of bad CGI: objects moving way, way too fast. Notice that you can't see details of the zombies when they're piling up? It's a cost-saving measure: reduce the frame detail, less rendering, less computer time, less detail, use quick motion, but then it becomes...

Hmm, wish I could see the pics in this post. Dead links? Anyways, the Tsar Bomb was the subject of this flash fiction that I wrote a few years ago: MEETING VANYA I just finished reading Soviet Strategic Aviation in the Cold War by Yefim Gordon. In the book, Lt-Gen. A. A. Plokhov...

I can't help it, even though I once co-authored a book about Armenian food culture ... but when I read about people lusting for food, I always imagine morbidly overweight persons typing the messages. In some cultures (yes, outside of America), compulsive attention to food is considered boorish...

Here's my top 20, with a few titles that haven't shown up on anyone else's list so far. 1. 2001: A Space Odyssey 2. Robinson Crusoe on Mars 3. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954) 4. Forbidden Planet 5. War of the Worlds (1953) 6. Solaris (2002) 7. Blade Runner 8. Planet of the Apes...

Remember the Horta from Star Trek? The ISLAND OF TERROR silicates were kind of like smaller, silvery versions of the Horta. The giveaway clue was the mention of the unforgettable tree-drop attack. A very similar film was ISLAND OF THE BURNING DOOMED, a.k.a. ISLAND OF THE BURNING DAMNED...

I think the movie you're looking for is the 1966 British film ISLAND OF TERROR. It starred the great Peter Cushing and, one of my favorite British actors from the '60s, Edward Judd, who also starred in two classic science-fiction films: Ray Harryhausen's FIRST MEN IN THE MOON and also THE DAY...

Tony, Like you, I found Soderbergh's Solaris to be a wonderful film, probably the best science-fiction movie I have seen for many years. Perhaps because I'm old enough to have personally considered one of its themes, "What would you do for a second chance?", it touched me in a way most films...