Prophets of Science Fiction - Arthur C. Clarke

Today on Far Future Horizons we commemorate the memory and centennial birthday of Science Fiction writer and visionary Arthur C. Clarke with an episode from the acclaimed documentary series Prophets of Science Fiction. 

Executive Producer Ridley Scott presents Prophets of Science Fiction.

The "Science Fiction" of the past has now simply become "Science". And the science of the future was strangely prophesied by a group of visionaries whose dreams once may have deemed them renegades and "mad scientists," have become reality!

The New Twilight Zone: The Star

Today on Far Future Horizons we present "The Star" which was the third and final segment of the thirteenth episode from the first season (1985-1986) of the television series The New Twilight Zone which first aired on December 20, 1985. This episode was based on the short story "The Star" by Arthur C. Clarke.

Beyond 2000 ~ The High Frontier

Today on Far Future Horizons "a very special episode" of the acclaimed Australian science documentary series “Beyond 2000” titled "The High Frontier".

Iain Finlay writes, directs and presents this episode about the future of human space exploration.

2001 and Beyond

Today on Far Future Horizons we present 2001 and Beyond.

2001: The Making of a Myth (2001)

Today on Far Future Horizons we present the first television documentary about the greatest science fiction epic ever made - Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World: The Journey Begins

Today on Far Future Enterprise we present a television classic from the 1980s -"Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World".

"Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World" was a thirteen part British television series looking at unexplained phenomena from around the world. It was produced by Yorkshire Television for the ITV network and first broadcast in September 1980.

Towards 3001 and Beyond with Arthur C Clarke – Master of the Infinite

Arthur C Clarke departed our world and went on his own personal and final odyssey into the infinite on March 19^th, 2008. Through his creative brilliance in the genres of science fiction and popular science, both in the printed word and the mass media of television and motion pictures, Clarke more than any other futurist of his generation has taught three generations of men and women that our exploratory endeavors into the depths of unknown and the inevitable discoveries and terrors that await us could also be the greatest moments of transcendence in human history.

Apollo 11 interviews with Arthur C Clarke and Robert A Heinlein (July 20, 1969)

Today on Far Future Horizons we present a treasure from the CBS News Archives.

Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World - The Great Siberian Explosion

Today on Far Future Horizons we would like to offer for your viewing pleasure the following episode from Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World - The Great Siberian Explosion.

This episode concerns the Tunguska impact event of June 30th, 1908 and first aired on British television on October 14th , 1980 and has to rank as one of my all time favourites alongside Carl Sagan's Cosmos Episode 4: "Heaven and Hell" which we presented yesterday.

Stanley Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey ~ A Look Behind the Future

Today on Far Future Horizons we present Stanley Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey ~ A Look Behind The Future a documentary produced in 1968 which gives us a behind the scenes look at the making of this great film classic.

Without Warning

Today on Far Future Horizons it gives us great pleasure to present the TV Motion Picture – Without Warning which first aired on October 30^th, 1994, the 56th anniversary of Orson Welles infamous "War of the Worlds" broadcast.

The Exploration of Space by Arthur C. Clarke

My most favourite non fiction book that came from the pen of Arthur C. Clarke is the "The Exploration of Space" published in 1951. 

Autographed copy of the Exploration of Space

The High Road to the Moon

BIS Moonship 1939 lander on the Moon© David A. Hardy

Neil Armstrong’s one small step for [a] man was the culmination of the greatest scientific, technological and cultural advance in human history. It was indeed a giant leap for mankind. It proved, beyond any question of doubt that humankind had taken the first evolutionary stride in becoming a multi-planetary species. While history will bear witness that July 20^th, 1969 marked a technological and political victory for the United States, in its Cold War race to beat the Soviet Union to the moon, in point of fact it was also an international triumph. The tireless effort of numerous scientists, engineers and visionaries from many lands had finally come to fruition. Thirty years before this pivotal event, a group of far-sighted Brits known as the British Interplanetary Society (BIS) set forth the guidelines for such a lunar voyage.

Fractals - The Colors of Infinity by Arthur C Clarke

Today on Far Future Horizons we embark on a voyage into the infinite of the distinctly mathematical kind with Arthur C Clarke author of “2001: A Space Odyssey” and inventor of the telecommunications satellite.

Arthur C. Clarke presents this unusual documentary on the mathematical discovery of the Mandelbrot Set (M-Set) and introduces us to the visually stunning and visually spectacular world of fractal geometry. This documentary relates the science of the M-Set to nature in a way that seems to identify the proverbial hand of God in the design of the universe itself. Dr. Benoît Mandelbrot in 1980 discovered the infinitely complex geometrical shape called the Mandelbrot Set using a very simple equation with computers and graphics.

Arthur C. Clarke's The Nine Billion Names of God

Our world has completed six orbits about its Sun without the presence of its most creative and visionary thinker - Arthur C. Clarke.

Arthur C Clarke departed our world and went on his own personal and final odyssey into the infinite on March 19^th, 2008.

Today on Far Future Horizons we commemorate Clarke’s memory by presenting an audio recording of one of his most chilling short stories - The Nine Billion Names of God.

Arthur C. Clarke’s & Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 - A Space Odyssey

Today on Far Future Horizons we commemorate the memory of the great visionary and Science Fiction Grandmaster Arthur C. Clarke by presenting the greatest science fiction movie of all time - 2001: A Space Odyssey directed by Stanley Kubrick.

3001 The Final Odyssey- Prologue

Today’s blog post is dedicated to the memory of the greatest science fiction visionary of all time Arthur C Clarke who died six years ago today.

Prologue of 3001 The Final Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke, read by Garrick Hagon.

Call them the Firstborn. Though they were not remotely human, they were flesh and blood, and when they looked out across the deeps of space, they felt awe, and wonder— and loneliness. As soon as they possessed the power, they began to seek for fellowship among the stars.


In their explorations, they encountered life in many forms, and watched the workings of evolution on a thousand worlds. They saw how often the first faint sparks of intelligence flickered and died in the cosmic night.
And because, in all the Galaxy, they had found nothing more precious than Mind, they encouraged its dawning everywhere. They became farmers in the fields of stars; they sowed, and sometimes they reaped.


And sometimes, dispassionately, they had to weed.


The great dinosaurs had long since passed away, their morning promise annihilated by a random hammerblow from space, when the survey ship entered the Solar System after a voyage that had already lasted a thousand years. It swept past the frozen outer planets, paused briefly above the deserts of dying Mars, and presently looked down on Earth.


Spread out beneath them, the explorers saw a world swarming with life. For years they studied, collected, catalogued. When they had learned all that they could, they began to modify. They tinkered with the destiny of many species, on land and in the seas. But which of their experiments would bear fruit, they could not know for at least a million years.


They were patient, but they were not yet immortal. There was so much to do in this universe of a hundred billion suns, and other worlds were calling. So they set out once more into the abyss, knowing that they would never come this way again. Nor was there any need: the servants they had left behind would do the rest.


On Earth, the glaciers came and went, while above them the changeless Moon still carried its secret from the stars. With a yet slower rhythm than the polar ice, the tides of civilization ebbed and flowed across the Galaxy. Strange and beautiful and terrible empires rose and fell, and passed on their knowledge to their successors.


And now, out among the stars, evolution was driving towards new goals. The first explorers of Earth had long since come to the limits of flesh and blood; as as soon their machines were better than their bodies, it was time to move. First their brains, and then their thoughts alone, they transferred into shining new homes of metal and gemstone. In these, they roamed the Galaxy. They no longer built spaceships. They were spaceships.


But the age of the Machine-entities swiftly passed. In their ceaseless experimenting, they had learned to store knowledge in the structure of space itself, and to preserve their thoughts for eternity in frozen lattices of light.


Into pure energy, therefore, they presently transformed themselves; and on a thousand worlds, the empty shells they had discarded twitched for a while in a mindless dance of death, then crumbled to dust.


Now they were Lords of the Galaxy, and could rove at will among the stars, or sink like a subtle mist through the very interstices of space. though they were freed at last from the tyranny of matter, they had not wholly forgotten their origin, in the warm slime of a vanished sea. And their marvelous instruments still continued to function, watching over the experiments started so many ages ago.


But no longer were they always obedient to the mandates of their creators; like all material things, they were not immune to the corruption of Time and its patient, unsleeping servant, Entropy.


And sometimes, they discovered and sought goals of their own.


Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End

Today on Far Future Horizons we commemorate the memory of Arthur C. Clarke who passed a way six years ago today by presenting an audio recording of his 1953 science fiction novel Childhood's End narrated by Clarke himself.

Arthur C. Clarke ~ The Man Who Saw The Future

On March 19^th, 2008 Arthur C. Clarke went on his final odyssey into the infinite. Today on Far Future Horizons we would like to pay homage to the Man, who inspired three generations of men and women to pursue careers in science and space with his visionary writings.

Sir Arthur was and will always remain the Man Who Saw the Future.

The Sky at Night ~ Bases on the Moon (1963)

Today on Far Future Horizons we present an episode of the late Patrick Moore’s highly acclaimed television series The Sky at Night from 1963 featuring the late Arthur C. Clarke titled Bases on the Moon.

Many of the early Sky at Night programmes were destroyed or lost from the BBC library. Recently this early and very rare programme from 1963 with Arthur C Clarke, was discovered in an African TV station. Patrick and Arthur were both members of the British Interplanetary Society and here they discuss bases on the Moon and Mars. Arthur C Clarke made very few interviews, so this really is a broadcasting gem- once lost, but now found.