On 5 August, the complete critically acclaimed Masters of Science Fiction anthology series was 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. Last week, “olorinpc” and “puppetwrangler” commented on SFScope articles, and now they’ll each be getting a copy of the DVD. But we’ve got eight more to give away. This week, as last, you can get in the running to win a copy by commenting 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). “Me too”s on this thread are, of course, acceptable, but look around the site, see if there’s another article that interests you (and that you want to say something about), and comment there. All comments received this week will enter their writers into the drawing, which will be this coming Friday. We’ll randomly pick two winners from all the comments we receive by 14 August, another 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).
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/.
Apologies to our readers outside the US, but Big Honcho can only ship to US addresses.
I want this DVD set. I have basically run out of sci-fi stuff to watch.
I agree with Douglas. I want this set also. I loved the three shows that aired in my region.
This was an excellent series. I was wondering when it would be available. Thanks for the great articles and news
This was an excellent series. We watched all episodes and I’ve been waiting impatiently for the DVD release.
I want this set. I enjoyed “The Discarded”, would like to see the two unaired episodes.
Never saw this, but it sounds fantastic! Love to check it out.
My comment goes to this article. When reading it, it implies that August 14 is a Friday — my calender here says it’s a Thursday.
Just a humor moment in the reading. I know it has to be planned — an eye stop to make the reader think about it!
Oops. Thanks for catching that typo (now corrected). The contest runs from Friday to Thursday (8-14 August), and then again from Friday to Thursday (15-21 August), and finally from Friday to Thursday (22-28 August).
–Ian
Oooo! A contest!
Wow, I wasn’t even aware the series had started yet. I’ll have to look into it.
“The Discarded” was rather good, but I missed the others. Looking forward to seeing “Watchbird.”
Stephen Hawking is the host? How cool! (Although maybe not as cool as his most recent Futurama movie appearance…)
It really hate it when series like this get cancelled before people even have a chance to learn that they’re on.
I had high hopes for this series, especially in that it featured my friend and former professor, John Kessel’s story “A Clean Escape.” Perhaps if the DVD sells well enough, the series will be revived, a la “Family Guy.”
Missed it when it was on tv, but I almost never watch anything on tv except the news and sports. Spend to much time reading
I’m glad this series is finally available on DVD. I’m especially glad the DVD includes the two episodes that never aired.
I am glad to see this was released. I didn’t get to see all of these but the ones I did see, I enjoyed enough. It drives me nuts that there is so much good source material for Science Fiction and yet, no one actually develops anything worth watching (at least not as often as they should). This was a step in the right direction, it was not properly marketed nor was it paired with the correct network or time slot. I would have liked to see this series be more successful but what can you say? It always comes down to the almighty dollar.
I thought “A Clean Escape” was possibly the best hour of dramatized sf I’ve ever seen.
So of course I never caught another episode, and this series never had a chance.
I managed to miss this when it was originally on, so I’m glad it’s coming out on DVD.
I saw some of these episodes, and thought one was fantastic, the other so-so. I would love to see the ones I missed. The series had a lot of potential, that’s for sure. It’s a shame it didn’t make it past these few episodes.