"Welcome to Xenon." Suzanne Ciani composes the music to Bally's first talking pinball table in 1980. This is from Omni: A New Frontier, a 1981-82 documentary series narrated by Peter Ustinov that was a spin-off from Omni Magazine. A collation video from the series was also released in 1988. Suzanne Ciani is one of the pioneers of electronic music, a five-time Grammy award-nominated composer best known for her albums Seven Waves (1982) and The Velocity Of Love (1986). She's currently touring, appearing at festivals and events in Glasgow, London, Oakland, Roswell, New York and Melbourne if you're in the neighbourhood.

New writers start here... The Science Fiction Horror Movie Pocket Computer. National Lampoon, November 1971.

The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961). One of the best British sci-fi movies of the '60s, with a sharp script from seasoned screenwriter Wolf Mankowitz and director Val Guest. Nuclear tests knock the Earth off its axis, leading to insane temperature changes. Can another set of nukes set it right? It's tense stuff with excellent dialogue, a slower pace and plenty of shots of Fleet Street in its heyday with a young(ish) Leo McKern as an affably grizzled reporter. Michael Caine also has a small uncredited role as a policeman. The matte work is superb, making London seem eerily desolate as well as baking hot. The film aims for catastrophic realism and it delivers it very well, but unlike On The Beach or Alas, Babylon the nuclear threat takes second place here to the environmental one. The ending in the UK version is ambiguous: does the plan work? The US print has a slightly amended end to suggest it does, but Guest wanted to keep it uncertain. If you have a subscription to BFI Player their remastered version is available online to watch.

Man and Space by Arthur C. Clarke (1964), illustrated by Ed Valigursky.