![]() ![]() Viewed today – the only version available is Lucas and co-writer Walter Murch’s digitally spruced-up 2004 ‘Director’s Cut’ – its shaven headed-cast, chillingly benign language intoning state propaganda and oppressive widescreen palette of glacial whites make for genuinely unnerving viewing. The studio hated the result and the subsequent box-office debacle almost killed both their careers. George Lucas and his pal Francis Ford Coppola persuaded Warner Brothers to take a flyer on expanding George’s earlier student short into this Orwell and Huxley-influenced fable about free love and free will versus all-powerful totalitarianism. □ The 101 best action movies of all-timeĬast: Robert Duvall, Donald Pleasence, Maggie McOmie □ The 50 best fantasy movies of all-time □ The best sci-fi shows streaming on Netflix It’s sure to convert those few remaining holdouts. Don’t believe us? Check out our list of the 100 best sci-fi movies ever made. The best sci-fi movies deal as much with real-world issues as they do with interstellar conflict – it’s just that, in some cases, they may invent entirely new planets to discuss them. ![]() But the genre doesn’t just tell stories from long ago about galaxies far, far away. It’s hard to say if the geeks have taken over the entertainment industry or if the world at large has simply come to see the genre’s merits, but there might not be a bigger brand of movie than sci-fi around right now – in fact, it’s almost uncool not to be a fan these days.īut really, how could anyone in the third decade of the 21st century not appreciate science fiction to some degree? Sure, there are those who have an aversion to movies about alien cultures that inspire 4000-word theoretical treatises on fan forums. Read an interview with Ben Willbond and Laurence Rickard here.Dismissed for decades as the realm of nerds and shut-ins, the reputation of science fiction has undergone a dramatic makeover in recent years. We Are Not Alone is on Dave at 9pm tonight.Rarely has the subjugation of the human race been depicted so charmingly. But viewers will be drawn to the story and the diverse array of characters, with strong comedy cameos across the board, including Evelyn Mok as a taciturn IT geek, Rob Delaney as the ruler of what was America and Miles Jupp as the deposed Prime Minister. Outright jokes take second billing to the story, however, so it’s more smileworthy than laugh-out-loud. Though not in his league, there’s a touch of the Douglas Adams about the way quotidian concerns undermine the usually epic scope of sci-fi. A nice running gag is that they believe the hands up of surrender to be an Earth greeting. Jokes comes from the day-to-day decisions the alien Gu’uns have to make in controlling and working with the humans, as well as their ultimate outsiders’ viewpoint highlighting the absurdity of our behaviour. It’s easy to read We Are Not Alone as a satire on the British Empire, given its based on an invading force with an apparently gentle, ‘jolly good chap’ front backed with unbeatable military might, but any such points are lightly made. What side he chooses may eventually be down to pub owner Elodie (Georgia May Foote), whom he desperately wants to impress. In a cast of well-known comedy faces, relative unknown Declan Baxter does a fine job at playing the underachieving Everyman not wanted to get involved with this ‘new normal’ but ultimately having to pick sides between his alien paymasters and the human resistance movement, masterminded by former Defence Minister (Amanda Abbington). It says something about the likability of your cast when Mike Wozniak plays the bad guy.Īiding them run the country from the new capital of Clitheroe – the logical choice since it’s the geographical centre of the land mass – is hapless underling Greggs (Joe Thomas) and a human reluctantly recruited as the liaison with the native population, Stewart. However the highly-strung soldier Gordan would prefer a more militaristic approach. Placed in charged of Territory 78 – as the UK is now known, after nations got ranked purely in terms of size – is the inept politician Trater, played by Vicki Pepperdine, whose need to be liked means she’s always trying to ingratiate with the locals. ![]() It’s a great premise for a comedy, picking up after the point most alien invasion movies end to imagine just how the extraterrestrials might rule their new domain.Īnd they turn out to be just as useless at governance as humans, at least in the minds of We Are Not Alone writers Ben Willbond and Laurence Rickard – both of Ghosts fame – who have created this thoroughly engaging feature-length special. ![]()
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