Very British Futures

Out of this World

When Canadian producer Sydney Newman came to work for the ITV company ABC, one of his most successful commissions was the anthology of plays Armchair Theatre. In 1962 this begat a SF spinoff called Out of this World. Thanks to the influence of story editor and SF fan Irene Shubik, Armchair Theatre had already featured several well received SF plays. Now Shubik had a chance to create a show dedicated to stories by the SF authors like Issac Asimov and Philip K Dick. She appointed Leonard White as her story editor and together they sought and negotiated thirteen suitable stories, including original work from young writers like Terry Nation.

Boris Karloff, a star firmly associated with science fiction and horror, was cast as the host, introducing each story whilst incongrously dressed in formal evening wear. He had performed a similar role in the American television series Thriller and The Veil.

Sadly only one episode of Out of this World survives today - "Little Lost Robot". The BFI released on a DVD which also contains audio recordings of The Cold Equations and Imposter, and the script of Dumb Martian. Two further episodes were remade in the third season of Irene Shubik's spiritual sequel Out of the UnknownSo for this podcast we not only conventionally review the existing episode, we talk about those extras and the other stories and their print originals. For this edition I was glad to welcome back Dylan Rees, line producer and host of Doctor Who: Too Hot for TV.

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