still from The What If? Man, dir. Mark Atkin

interview by Simon Sellars

Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 25 November 2003.

Mark Atkin is a Melbourne editor working in film and television. His first feature as director, The What If? Man: The Science Fictional Life of Peter Nicholls, looks at the life and career of Peter Nicholls, science fiction critic, anthologist, reviewer, author, filmmaker, collector and public speaker. According to the publicity, Nicholls has been “diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses that lead him to reflect on his mortality and question whether science fiction has run its course – or can it reinvent itself?” With these illnesses underscoring and driving the film, we examine science fiction’s so-called “sense of wonder” and the hope its vision of alternative realities gives to many seeking to make sense of the “real” world. The What If? Man was not an easy film to get up and running, and its creation provides an interesting reflection on the state of the Australian film industry. I spoke to Mark Atkin about the film’s genesis, about Peter Nicholls – and about the much-misunderstood genre of science fiction.

How did The What If? Man come about?

The first impulse for the film came out of some conversations with friends who were dismissive of science fiction, assuming it to be “boys’ own” stories set in space – galactic comic-book adventures. My wife Karen, for example, was surprised to learn that Margaret Atwood’s book The Handmaid’s Tale was SF. And so I began wondering why a genre that has had such a powerful influence is not better understood. I was surprised to discover there was almost no TV or film documentary material on the subject, and began toying with the idea of a television series that could take in the genre’s broad historical sweep. The idea was, of course, ridiculously ambitious for someone in my position, but in researching it I became better educated and this later enabled me to distil my thoughts on a smaller scale.

I was then introduced to a number of local SF writers and fans, and they contributed to this first research phase. It was suggested that I buy Peter Nicholls’ Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction as a reference. I did and later wrote to Peter who, I discovered to my surprise, now lived in Melbourne. We met and I interviewed him. Some months later, a producer saw a short trailer I’d made using these interviews, and thought that Peter was an impressive interviewee who could be the focus of the documentary.

Has making the film deepened your appreciation of the genre?

Yes, of course. Researching the doco was like doing a degree on the subject. I immersed myself in it and it became a way for me to ponder the world in which we live. It helped me in reflecting on my own personal circumstances – I now understand that one of the reasons I became attached to SF as a kid was because of the cultural shock I experienced after my family returned to Australia from Papua New Guinea. I watched a lot of TV and became addicted to the tube as an escape. In particular, I loved Lost In Space about a family cut adrift in space. Their experience encountering aliens – “the other” – was one I identified with. This notion of encounters with other cultures (and creatures) is, of course, at the heart of so much SF – particularly the early, proto-SF stories like Gulliver’s Travels.

What was your working relationship with Peter like? How receptive was he to having his life and illnesses exposed?

When I asked Peter if he would be interested in doing a documentary he didn’t hesitate – he liked the idea. He was very open about his life and views during our conversations and I went away and began writing a script – an outline of the topics we wanted to cover and a structure for those topics. That process continued through shooting and editing, with Peter reading my outlines and looking at rough cuts and giving feedback. It was obviously important that he felt comfortable with the way he was being represented, as his ideas and experience are at the core of the film.

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