Dynamite film. If you're a fan of stop-motion or atmospheric design, this is a must. While in one sense this isn't a "faithful" adaptation of the original book, in another sense it's the adaptation that "appreciates" the book the most, takes it the most seriously.

So much to praise about this. I'm personally boggled because the whole first half of the sequence matches, down to individual shots, how I've always envisioned "Return of the Jedi" *should* have started, i.e. right where "Empire" left off: with the Rebel fleet out in space (maybe a matter of minutes after the…

Thanks for this. It's not just that these people had more population to kill — they also had more efficient *tools* to kill. It always bugs me when people bring up murderous dictators of the 20th century and then leave out the other, and first, big murder machine of the same century: World War One. Why were all…

Well, did it? You tell us & name a source.

Very lucid, classic intro to Zen Buddhism: "The Way of Zen" by Alan Watts.

Does have a kind of Sid & Marty Krofft flavor.

Well said. Right there with you on all of this.

Exactly. I think the dramatic tension of the whole series centers on the question of his implied vulnerability. (Of course the show "House" focused on this question as well.) I think Cumberbatch's relative youthfulness helps emphasize this theme — you just assume the chilly detachment has a young person's…

If you've always been in the dark about what feminism is, you *could* take the time to read a Wikipedia entry or a book about it.

That is some serious douchebaggery from Dawkins. Pretty damn disappointing.

I had them too. They were great!

Desperately wanted to see the car get struck by another vehicle just as it leaves the gate at the end.

In relation to the the space program, the answer is obviously Obama. Next!

Most of these answers were pretty generic, so I was struck by how specific Obama was about the superiority and overall importance of NASA'a unmanned space program. I get a distinct sense that that really is Obama talking, and that he really does genuinely appreciate and support the unmanned program.

The dissenting opinion in #5 is hilarious!

She fell prey to schizophrenia. Your callousness is unseemly.

Big-time thanks for this article. I know I can count on io9 to have a keen eye for thinkers who might otherwise fly under the pop-culture radar. Yeah — Firestone is a big deal in the history of radical feminism, techno-futurism, and feminist SF. Still cited all the time. A true visionary.

Here it is.

Re: music: definitely a pastiche of Erik Satie's "Gymnopedie No. 1."

Good to see "Logopolis" getting some nods here. The sense of ominousness and foreboding running through that story really works. The mysterious and portentous Watcher, the cloister bells of the Tardis, and the overall plotline involving universal entropy and decay all create a wonderfully dark mood, and add up to a…