In the midst of that megalith that is the London Film Festival, SCI-FI-LONDON held its third Oktoberfest with sold-out screenings and lots of happy punters. What more could you ask for?
Thursday evening saw the Royal Observatory Greenwich placed under quarantine as volunteers decked out with haz-mat suits and glow-sticks guided the adventurous on a trip across the (Planetarium) skies to hear about the latest discoveries in Astrobiology, which was followed by a screening of Gareth Edwards' movie MONSTERS, which shows what happens when alien samples get accidentally dispersed into the Mexican jungle. Elsewhere around the ROG was stand-up comedy led by Rob Deb, and an Alien Among Us role-playing game.

Friday was given over to robots with a free event at The Royal Society. The draw of seeing real, working robots proved irresistible and the event was heavily oversubscribed. So as not to disappoint, those who couldn't get in were offered free passes to see the Serbian cyberpunk animation TECHNOTISE at the Apollo. After a pragmatic introduction to the current state of robotics by Prof. Dr. Kerstin Dautenhahn, a discussion with sci-fi author Tony Ballantyne ensued, overseen by the Clarke Awards' Tom Hunter. After a break, where drinks and snacks were served and people got to interact with the robots, there was a rehearsed readthrough of an extract of a new translation from the Czech of Karel Copek's 1921 play, Rossum's Universal Robots, from where the term 'robots' originated. The actors did an excellent job of bringing the characters to life, despite a lack of sets, costumes or sound effects. The play has been brought up to date with some pop culture references and contemporary politics. The play is still a work in progress, but the aim is to a completed stage show for the next SFL in April. We want to thank the Royal Society, the University of Hertfordshire, Graystone Industries and all the actors for making an interesting and entertaining evening. You can hear the reading of R.U.R here

Meanwhile, over at the Apollo the screening of TECHNOTISE went down well, and those who missed the Rise of the Machines at The Royal Society were happy with the alternative. For the curious and adventurous the screening of DOUGAL AND THE BLUE CAT proved to be a huge success, even if a little disorienting.

Saturday morning, before a free children’s screening of the CG animation ROBOTS, the robots from the previous evening returned to interact with the children, which is what these particular ones were developed for. When the kids came out of the Robots screening they were confronted with Abe the Alien and some Marines who were there for ALIEN ENCOUNTERS, a documentary about fans of the ALIEN movies. TIME TRAVELLER: THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME, a Japanese live action film based around the anime, served as a warm-up for the anime all-nighter.

Come 6 o'clock and the first of the evenings two sell-outs was on: another preview screening of MONSTERS, the new British sci-fi road movie by Gareth Edwards. This low-budget film is picking up incredible reviews and word-of-mouth wherever it shows, and there was plenty more excitement for it by the end of the show. Gareth came in held a masterclass afterwards to talk about how he made the film with a miniscule crew in Mexico and Central America, as well as how he created the special effects himself. He also brought along his editor Colin Goudie to share the stories. Gareth and Colin stayed around for hours afterwards chatting with newfound fans and other filmmakers.As everyone was coming out of the MONSTERS screen, the TRON fans were getting ready to go in for the first part of their evening's entertainment, after having stopped by the TRON memorabilia exhibition, which included Jeff Bridges' helmet from the movie (thanks Martin). First everyone trundled into Screen 4 for a new British 3D short called BREATHE, shot on a RED stereoscopic rig, and a 10-minute preview of the new TRON: LEGACY, which looked amazing on the Apollo's 4K projector and sounded awesome on the cinema's new sound system. Standing in the corridor it felt like a train was running overhead it was so loud. Once these were over, everyone decamped to Screen 5 for the exclusive 35mm screening of the classic Disney sci-fi movie TRON, which was introduced by video messages from director Steve Lisberger and actress Cindy Morgan. The fans were more than happy with what they saw and one even commented that there was different dialogue in the 35mm print to the DVD release. Scary.

And so to our renowned all-nighters. The staples of Anime and Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (MST3K) were there, along with Studio Ghibli and Guillermo del Toro's Spanish films, with MIMIC added for good measure. Stuffed goodie bags were given out along with plenty of Mad Dog Energy Lemonade to help through the night. As the photos on our Flickr account reveals, there were plenty of hi-jinx going on outside the screens with the volunteers.

We can safely say it was another success, which would not have been possible without our tireless volunteers, everyone at the Apollo, and of course our sponsors Blizzard (who kept people entertained with Star Craft 2 games), Play and Mad Dog. Now on to our 10th Anniversary in April. You know it is going to be good.