cience fiction as a genre is an American invention. The legendary editor Hugo Gernback pulled together elements that already existed in such writers as H.G. Wells and Jules Verne and from them distilled a new form of literature. Since the founding of Amazing magazine in 1928, many other countries have added their voices to the genre chorus, and what at one time belonged to but one country long ago become an international phenomenon. Many countries have reinterpreted science fiction for themselves, in turn energizing it for the rest of us.
Of all these varied nations, the one that has evolved to publish the largest-circulation SF magazine in the world is the People's Republic of China. The print version of its monthly fiction magazine Science Fiction World—published since 1979 in Chengdu, the capital city of the country's Sichuan Province—boasts a circulation of over 370,000 copies per issue, a figure which beats the readership of any other SF magazine many times over. In addition, the company also publishes two other periodicals—a media magazine titled Amazing Files and an SF magazine for children, Flying.
As one would expect of such a vast SF empire, the Web site that supports it is also vast. Science Fiction World contains not only a great deal of fiction, but also news, movie reviews, book reviews, games reviews, a bulletin board and more. As I reviewed the site in Chengdu with Web master Lu Wei and the rest of the staff, I realized that in the comprehensive range of content it offers readers, Science Fiction World could almost be considered a Chinese-language Science Fiction Weekly. For those who can read Chinese, the site is a window on another culture's take on SF. And even for those who can't decipher the details, the site is still fun to explore, its depth standing as further proof that SF belongs to the entire world.
— Scott Edelman
Site of the Week—December 3, 2001
he Prisoner is virtually unique in the history of television. In a genre that copies itself constantly, the show has resisted any attempt to duplicate it. Short-lived, with only 17 hard-hitting episodes, it challenged viewers and told a powerful story about individualism versus conformity. Its hero, the nameless Number Six, attempted to escape from the mysterious Village where he was imprisoned, while the mysterious people who kept him there tried to break his spirit and learn his motives for resigning from his job as a government spy.
Now RetroWeb Classic Television and webmaster Kipp Teague offer a glossy fan page about the 1967 British SF series, with episode summaries, photographs, links to other resources and lots of information on the Portmeirion Hotel in Wales where the series was filmed. Quotes from the series creator and star, Patrick McGoohan, offer insights into the show's many ambiguities. An essay called "What's It All About?" sifts through the extensive speculation and research that have surrounded The Prisoner since its first airing, bringing the theories together in one cohesive summary of the program's dominant symbols and themes.
The data on this page is very nearly exhaustive, with screenplay excerpts of lost scenes and photographs of a prototype of the deadly and mysterious Rover device which prevented Number Six's escape. It covers everything (except perhaps the The Prisoner graphic novels): guest stars, DVD releases, trivia ... even versions of episodes that were edited differently in North America than in the U.K. With so much information on offer, visitors can feel assured that they might succeed in knowing all of The Prisoner's secrets ... even if Number Two never could pry them loose.
— A.M. Dellamonica
Site of the Week—November 26, 2001
hy not admit the truth? You don't walk around whistling classical music all day, snatches of operas or symphonies. Chances are, you're more likely to be caught recreating the catchy, hypnotic themes to many a television show of your nostalgic youth: Batman, perhaps, or Bewitched. After all, these programs represent our shared heritage of good times spent at the mass-culture fount, just as the works of Wagner or Strauss once did. One record label, TVT, made its fortune catering to the appetite for old theme songs. Now, however, if you wish to hear these pop soundbites you need not even queue up one of TVT's CDs, for digital files of many famous or forgotten television musical scores are available on the web at Themesonline.
Here you can zero in through a handy alphabetical index on such dear-to-your-heart shows as I Dream of Jeannie and The Invaders, The Powers of Matthew Star and The Prisoner, just to canvass two letters of the alphabet. And although I was disappointed not to see The Man from U.N.C.L.E. available, you can use the "suggest a theme" link to make your desires known.
But even better, you can hear material more ephemeral, such as the 1975 promotional spot for David McCallum's show, The Invisible Man: "Invisibility: it can be fun, and it can be frightening!" Or Max Headroom's 1987 "New Coke" commercial: "If you're drinking Coke, who's drinking Pepsi?" inquires the schizy A.I.
The RealAudio files load swiftly and offer good quality sound. Better quality, in fact, than might have issued from your old cloth-covered Magnavox speakers!
— Paul Di Filippo
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