On 5 August, the complete critically acclaimed Masters of Science Fiction anthology series will be released on DVD as a 2-disc set. The Masters of Science Fiction DVD contains the entire series—including the world premiere of the two episodes that were never aired! Originally broadcast last year on ABC, Masters of Science Fiction adapted short stories from some of the genre’s greatest practitioners, including Robert A. Heinlein, Harlan Ellison, Robert Sheckley, and John Kessel. Mark Dawidziak of the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote: “I’ve seen what may be the best futuristic anthology series since the glory days of The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. It’s called Masters of Science Fiction.” SFScope, too, was entranced by the shows, and you can read our reviews on these pages: “A Clean Escape”, “The Awakening”, “Jerry Was a Man”, and “The Discarded”.
Now, in partnership with Big Honcho Media, SFScope is giving away ten copies of the $29.97 DVD set. To enter for your chance to win the DVD of what we called “good, intelligent science fiction television”, simply comment on a recent article on the site (anonymous comments, though always accepted, may cause your entry to be ignored—make sure you give us your e-mail address when you comment, so we can contact you if you win). If you really don’t have anything to say, click the “Contact Us” link at the top of any page, and send us an e-mail saying that you want to be entered to win the Masters of Science Fiction DVD. We’ll randomly pick two winners from all the comments and e-mails we receive by Friday 7 August, another two winners on 14 August, and then three winners on 21 August, and the final three on 28 August. Comment as many times as you like (though only one entry per person will be taken each week); if you’re e-mailing, one per week is sufficient.
In addition to the four aired episodes, the two unaired episodes, which are on the DVD, are:
“Watchbird”, based on a story by Robert Sheckley, written by J. Michael Straczynski and Sam Egan, directed by Harold Becker, and starring Sean Astin and James Cromwell.
“Little Brother”, based on a story by and written by Walter Mosley, directed by Damell Martin, and starring Clifton Collins, Jr. and Kimberly Elise.
For even more info on the series, hosted by Stephen Hawking, see http://www.mastersofscifi.com/site/.
Outstanding. There’s very little serious video _about_ SF, much less _of_ SF.
wonderful!
looks fantastic!
Love sci-fi. This would be awesome to win.
It was such a shame that the network didn’t give this series a chance to succeed. It had the highest quality of writing, acting and production values of any genre series in years (and yes, I include BSG on the list of less successful series in these categories). The DVD release is great, but I’m bummed that they had to choose two of the stronger stories to hold out as DVD extras, rather than let us see them broadcast.
The show was incredible.
Good stuff, quite a line-up. This has promise, if nothing else. 🙂
So do we have to post every week to be eligible for the drawing every week?
This set looks great. Let it be me.
Did I win!? 😀
Hello Ian! Sorry you weren’t able to make Denvention. Do you need someone to put out flyers at Gaylaxicon?
Definitely! Thanks for the offer. I’ll e-mail you this evening.
–Ian
P.S. – If anyone else going to a convention (or some other gathering that might draw an interested crowd) and interested in distributing SFScope flyers, we would greatly appreciate it. Please use the “Contact Us” link on the top of the page.
Wow, a great offer! I hope I win…
Why is it that attempts at classy little sci-fi experiments like this never quite get the attention, financial success, and longevity that “masters of horror” and similar do? Does horror just have that much bigger a fan base? (Or does it cross-over into the mainstream more smoothly?) Is Sci-fi just that much easier to get wrong? (Not that there’s isn’t plenty crappy horror out there, of course.) Is it because, to quote David Foster Wallace, “people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests”? (I realise that equating scifi to “refined and noble” and horror to “vulgar and prurient” is controversial, to say the least.)
You make some interesting points, Djibril (and I like the Wallace quote). Perhaps horror actually has the same trouble as science fiction; to wit, the “successful” stuff we see on tv and in the movies isn’t necessarily the “best” or most “refined and noble.” The best horror, like the best science fiction, is probably way too cerebral to translate well into a visual medium that needs to reach more people (by orders of magnitude) to be a financial success. With the lesser horror (as with the lesser science fiction), it’s easy to show buckets of blood (or spaceships and ray guns), but much harder to show the psychological, thoughtful aspects of what’s really happening.
Or maybe it’s just that we have minority tastes….
Will there be a list of winners?
Pat, we’ve been naming the winners in each week’s succeeding article. See this article, this one, and this one.
WOW – didnt know of this series before I “netzapped” into your (magnificent) site!
I hold off my order for this DVD intil end of the competition, maybe I will get lucky in the final draw on the 28th?
Kind regards
Knud