Sci-Fi’s 10 Geekiest Films and Shows

We’re not talking about things that geeks like to watch, but the films and shows that celebrate geekiness

What are the geekiest sci-fi films and TV shows ever? And by that we mean, which ones celebrate all things geeky and turn the geek into a loveable hero? Of course, if we weren’t specifying they have to be sci-fi, then The Big Bang Theory would be in with a shout (or a pouty whine, at least) but we are, so it doesn’t make the cut.

Close but no cigar shows and films include Farscape (Crichton made lots of hip cultural references, but he was never an übergeek – his targets were largely too mainstream); Stargate Universe (okay it had Eli, but his role wasn’t quite central enough); The Tick (lots of in-jokes, sure, but simply in-joking wasn’t deemed geeky enough); and Reaper (because in the Geek stakes it always ran a poor second to Chuck).

And definitely not included is No Ordinary Family, because the supposed “geek” in that – comic fan Katie – was played by an actress who managed to make lines like “Just like Professor X using Cerebro” sound like the class dunce being asked to explain String Theory. Did anyone believe she’d ever opened a comic in her life (maybe she has but it never came across)?

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Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel

2009

Geek credentials: Seriously, folks, this film was made for us. It’s as if writer Jamie Mathieson – who’s also scribbled episodes of Being Human – looked into our noggins, pulled out the stuff that makes us tingle in that special sci-fi way and brought it to the screen. FAQ About Time Travel takes the template set by Shaun Of The Dead – geeky pals sitting around in a pub waiting for something to happen to them – and goes absolutely wild with it. The results are brilliant.

The story’s pure sci-fi candy: Ray (Chris O’Dowd), Toby (Marc Wootton) and Pete (Dean Lennox Kelly) find themselves caught in a series of complicated and hilarious time loops and paradoxes while a hot babe from the future, Cassie (Anna Faris), attempts to help them. It’s about as British as British can be and refuses to take itself seriously: the centre of the time disturbance, for example, is their local pub’s grotty gents’ toilets. But the real pleasure comes from the fact our heroes understand precisely what’s going on around them because they’re geeks: nobody else could be better equipped to handle the dangerous daftness of time travel, after all…

Geekgasm: Outside a cinema there’s a poster for a film called A Boy’s Life. That was the original title for ET. But that’s not all – another poster is for Watch The Skies, the original name for Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. Geek-out!

Geeky references: Have you got all day? There are constant allusions to Ray Bradbury’s “Butterfly effect” (including the butterfly necklace worn by Anna Faris’s character). There are nods to Back To The Future (“Don’t sleep with anyone, it always ends up being your mum or your gran”) and the poster for the film parodies the poster for the third Back To The Future movie. The guys mention wanting more Firefly; Chris O’Dowd gets to say “Get away from him you bitch!” a la Ripley; and there’s even a shot of a giant ant on a rampage in the future, providing a hilarious little shout-out to Them! (1954). And there’s more. Lots more. Seriously, go watch it. You’ll bloody love it.

Geek speak: “Ray, I love you, but we only have fourteen hours to save the Earth!” (Cassie)

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