The What If Man: The Science Fictional Life of Peter Nicholls

"Discussions of sci-fi by a guy who'd know" - a review by pearly

If you've ever had some handsome person look down their nose at you and, in a derogatory tone, ask "are you reading a sci-fi novel?", then this film is for you. Peter Nicholls is the author of The Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction, which, now in its second incarnation, contains everything you could ever possibly want to know about science fiction.

This documentary gets Peter's thoughts on SF. In the seventies, Peter was looking for a resource that would tell him things about science fiction. Not being able to find one, he decided to write his own. And he did this the only way he knew how - by consuming as much science fiction as he possibly could (he has literally thousands of books, and says he has watched all the science fiction films there are, except for those made in the last couple of years).

For me, the most interesting thread running through the discussions is that of the question of science fiction being regarded as legitimate literature. The cliché of a sci-fi novel with little green aliens on the cover is compared with novels such as George Orwell's 1984. Peter and friends discuss the pigeonholing of sci-fi, and people's snobbery about it.

The film is interesting in no small part because Peter Nicholls is an interesting guy. I was lucky enough to attend the world premiere of the film, which was introduced by director Mark Atkin and Peter Nicholls himself, at the 2002 Melbourne International Film Festival. Peter gave an introduction detailing his involvement in the film, which had the crowd laughing out loud.

The What If Man is well shot, with cutaways of stills to show the films / books etc. that Peter is talking about. It will of course interest sci-fi enthusiasts, but should interest non-sci-fi fans alike.