This chapter examines the importance of transmediality in relation to British science fiction film of the 1950s, in other words, the significance of adaptation from one medium, such as radio or television, to the cinema, and the connections and associations between different media. While many film companies of the period were involved in the adaptation of texts from other media, most significant amongst them was Hammer, which was to become famous in this period for its horror productions. This chapter argues that the development of these horror films stems largely from the company's involvement with adapting science fiction productions from radio and television. It also argues that the development into being recognized as ‘horror’ and the conscious shift to ‘horror’ production by the company came about, in part, because of concerns over the term ‘science fiction’ in relation to national identity. In particular, there was a concern within post-war Britain about a loss of cultural power to go along with its loss of economic and political power in the period. The attractive, technological gleam of science fiction was seen as a threatening draw toward Americanization.

A Brief History of British Science Fiction Film

As Phil Hardy put it, ‘Science Fiction cannot really be said to exist as a genre until the fifties. Before then, it makes better sense to talk of films with Science Fiction elements’ (Hardy, 1995, xi–xii). As with many national cinemas, there are numerous early British films which could be considered retrospectively as science fiction in their use of technological devices or popular scientific concepts as motivators in their plots. Indeed, Hochscherf and Leggott note that ‘Britain has also been recognized as having produced some of the earliest examples of the genre, via scientificthemed “trick” films such as The X-Ray Fiend and Making Sausages (both George Albert Smith, 1897)’ [2011, 4]. As film narratives developed in the years before World War I, there were numerous films dealing with the potential for war in the air or England invaded, following a trend in other media, including An Englishman's Home (1914) from a play by Guy du Maurier, and If England Were Invaded (1914) from William Le Qeuex's 1906 novel The Invasion of 1910.