Finished your list? Okay, that was a little unfair. Recently there’s been time-hopping Netflix show Dark. Otherwise, scouring our brains, all we can think of are 1966’s Raumpatrouille (best known here for its groovy lounge-jazz score), and Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1973 mini-series Welt Am Draht (World On A Wire). Oh, and ’70s cheese-fest Star Maidens was a German co-production. It’s fair to say making sci-television just isn’t really a German thing – especially the kind that can travel internationally.
The brainchild of showrunner/director Rainer Matsutani, Spides is his attempt to buck the trend. Set in modern-day Berlin, this eight-part series melds sci-fi, horror and conspiracy thriller with police procedural. A ’50s classic was a key inspiration.
“When I was 12,” Matsutani tells SFX, “I turned on the TV and saw an old movie called Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, made by Don Siegel. It had a big influence on me. I was fascinated by the concept: people return, and they’ve completely changed. In those times it was an allegory for the Cold War. I think it still serves as an allegory for our modern life – with digitalization and globalization, many people have the feeling they’re losing their identity.”
This latest riff on the concept sees aliens from a dying planet seeking to supplant humanity through stealth. The means: Blis, a synthetic drug that young clubbers administer via an eyedropper. The name of these invaders supplies the title.
This story is from the July 2020 edition of SFX.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the July 2020 edition of SFX.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Spooks Ghouls & Freaks Fools
WITH ITS ECLECTIC cast, broad comedy and supernatural farce, Rentaghost was a mainstay of BBC children’s TV from the late ’70s to the mid-’80s and like nothing else.
LOST IN THE SHADOWS
THE EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS OF INTERDIEW WITH THE DAMPIRE DISCUSS THE FUTURE OF LESTAT, LOUIS, CLAUDIA AND WHERE THE ANNE RICE UNIVERSE IS HEADING
NINE LIVES
ON SET FOR THE FINAL SERIES OF INSIDE NO 9. STEVE PEMBERTON AND REECE SHEARSMITH REFLECT ON THE TYRANNY OF THE TWIST
NOA'S ARC
CAESAR'S STORY MAY BE DONE AND DUSTED, BUT AS HIS CREATORS RICK JAFFA AND AMANDA SILVER TELL US, THERE'S STILL PLENTY OF TERRAIN TO EXPLORE IN - KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
TICKET TO RIDE
DIRECTOR BEN CHESSELL TAKES THE TARDIS BACK IN TIME IN HIS TWO EPISODES
SERVING FACE
HAIR AND MAKE-UP DESIGNER CLAIRE WILLIAMS ON NEW LOOKS
BABY BOOM
The TARDIS lands on a spaceship. It was very, very hard to shoot. We used real babies! I like to do things that I’ve never done before and sometimes that’s quite hard, with such a long career as mine.
BOXING CLEVER
DOCTOR WHO IS BACK AND THIS TIME IT'S TAKING OVER THE PLANET
WELCOME HOME
THE CREATIVE MINDS BEHIND THE LIVE-ACTION ADAPTATION OF THE FALLOUT GAME SERIES EXPLAIN THEIR ORIGINAL TAKE ON BETHESDA'S POST-APOCALYPTIC WORLD
MONSTERS INC
THE TITANS UNITE IN HOT COLLAB GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE
