Science fiction is a popular subject for books, television series and feature films. For a lot of people it’s also a great subject to build up a thematic stampcollection because over the years a lot of beautiful stamps with this topic have been issued .
Typically, the classic science fiction story involves futuristic inventions and objects that don’t exist at the time of writing.
Frankenstein
The story of Frankenstein, was first published in 1818 when its author Mary Shelley was only 20 years old. It is regarded by many as the first science fiction story.
Jules Verne
The French writer Jules Verne (b. 8 February 1828 – d. 24 March 1905) is perhaps the most famous writer of science fiction stories. He had 54 books published, most of which could be labelled as science fiction. In these stories his imagination created such futuristic things as manned rockets, submarines and aircraft carriers.
H.G.Wells
The British writer H.G.Wells, known for, among others, his books ‘War of the Worlds’ and ‘Time Machine’, wrote an enormous amount of science fiction novels. In 1938, 40 years after its first publication, War of the Worlds once again became hugely famous (or infamous) via the broadcast in America of a radio play by Orson Welles. Narrated and directed by Orson Welles. The first two-thirds of the 60-minute broadcast were presented as a news bulletin and led to widespread outrage and panic by certain listeners who had believed the events described in the programme, which described an invasion of Earth by Martians, were real.
Sci-Fi TV series
In the 1950s and 60s science fiction was rediscovered in the form of comic books and series that were broadcast on television.
Dr.Who
Dr.Who is a science fiction series from Britain which has millions of followers worldwide. The first episode aired in 1963, and the series is still running.
Star Trek
The series was first broadcast in 1966 and outlined a Utopian vision in which a ‘United Earth’ set out to solve the problems of the modern world: pollution, hunger and poverty and resolve conflicts between people. Creator Gene Roddenberry died in 1992 and some years later became one of the first humans to have his ashes carried into space.
Thunderbirds
This TV series with marionettes was created by Gerry Anderson. The first episode aired in 1964.
Movies
The 1902 French stop-motion film “Le Voyage dans la Lune” is considered to be the first science fiction film. This was a silent film made by Georges Méliès.
Until the end of the 1950s of the 20th century, the science fiction genre was not taken seriously by the general public, because of the mainly low-budget movies that came out.
2001: A Space Odyssey
This film from 1968, made by Stanley Kubrick in co-operation with Arthur C. Clarke, lifted the science fiction genre to a higher level.
Star Wars
in contrast to 2001, this science fiction film-series by George Lucas is a real spectacle movie.
As mentioned before, a lot of stamps have been issued with the topic science fiction.
Are you curious about the these stamps? Have a look at the science fiction themelist on freestampcatalogue
