Science fiction is very popular. It is hard to define and sometimes when we look at a show or a movie we don’t think of it as a science fiction story, but it really is. Science fiction is a genre which always remains popular unlike some others such as Westerns which seem to be on the wane. We tend to think science fiction is modern, but the truth is one of the very first science fiction epic’s came out in 2,000 BC. It was the epic of Gilgamesh. It is a poem written in ancient Mesopotamia. Five stories were combined and used as an inspiration for the epic of Gilgamesh. It has been recopied many times throughout history. It is a story of fights with gods and the search for eternal life. The story has even been retold in modern times and was featured in episodes of the twilight zone under a different name.

There have been many disagreements on what comprises science fiction and what comprises fantasy and some will say the epic of Gilgamesh was only fantasy, because it lacks the scientific elements, but this is up to each individual to decide. If it is scientific elements one is looking for in ancient literature one has to go no further back than the Indian Mahabharata. It talks about God’s flying around in UFOs, using lasers and nuclear weapons and destroying each other with them. While they don’t call these things by the names we use today their descriptions of these weapons leave nothing to the imagination. While I call this science fiction others are claiming it is history and what we are reading is what really transpired in ancient times on the earth when alien visitors came here. Many believe these texts were written in 400 BC, but some believe the events depicted actually happened five hundred years before that. It is in poetic form and many believe it is the longest poem ever written since it contains 200,000 lines.

Throughout history sci-fi stories have been turning up. Some claim there are sections of the Bible which are actually science fiction stories. This angers many people. The passages they are usually referring to have to do with Ezekiel’s wheel. Here is the passage, "This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like chrysolite, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel." It is claimed Ezekiel was describing a UFO which landed and eventually took him away, never to be seen again.

One of the greatest stories of its time was “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” It contained an incredible amount of scientific prophecy and the author Jules Vern had an incredible insight into what would be created in the future. The story was extremely popular and while many people realize there was a film made in 1954 about the story, not many know a film preceeded it in 1916 which was also about the same story. What was uncanny was the fact many of the features on the Nautilus, which was the submarine, are in use today, but were completely unknown at the time the story was written. Being able to predict what devices will appear in the future seems to be one of the keys to a successful science fiction story.

Science fiction was so popular some of the early movies were science fiction stories. One which was titled “A Trip to the Moon” came out in 1902 and was extremely popular. We still see it today in clips when old movies are talked about. One movie which was considered the most incredible movie of its time was “Metropolis”. It came out in 1927 and was considered the first full-length science fiction movie. The effects were incredible for the time which showed a robot being created. The film is still considered a technological breakthrough today. One of the early science fiction movie serials came out in 1936 and may have been inspired by the interest in Metropolis. It was Flash Gordon. Kids just couldn’t get enough of this serial. The serial was so popular it spawned another one with the same actor which was called Buck Rogers.

When early television came along it was no stranger to science fiction. One very popular show came out in 1949. The name of the show was Captain Video. It’s effects left a lot to be desired, but kids loved this show and I suspect some adults were also looking at it. Televisions were in their infancy and a lot of people didn’t have one yet, so the show couldn’t become extremely popular like some today, but for those who had a television set many tuned into it. In those days these early shows made extensive use of models and stop motion techniques. Stop motion technique is where you move something very slightly, take a picture of it, move it slightly again and take another picture and so forth. When these pictures are put together it looks like the object is moving. It is a very painstaking process.

In 1955, when TVs were more established, a science fiction show called “Science Fiction Theater” made it to television. I believe this is one of the first serious science fiction shows for the general public. The stories came from actual technical data which was available at the time and covered such subjects as Computers and robots, aliens, spaceflight and many other things. Eventually 78 episodes were aired. An interesting fact was while the show lasted two seasons, the first season was shot in black and white, but the second season was in color. Unfortunately for most of us nobody had a color television at that time so as far as we were concerned it was black and white anyway.

Science fiction has come a long way and the effects in the movies have become so lifelike if we didn’t know it was a fiction movie we might think it actually happened. It has also crept into many other movies which are not science fiction movies, but still contain elements of science fiction. It will probably always remain a popular topic, because people are interested in the future and science fiction gives them a window into the future.