Science fiction has a rich history of low-budget marvels being produced in the genre, just as horror does - and thats where youll find both iconic franchises (the first Terminator was produced on a shoestring) and the hidden gems. Such as 2013s The Machine, a relatively small independent British movie with some undeniably big ambitions. And some big stars, too, in the form of Toby Stephens (the baddie from Die Another Day) and Caity Lotz (Black Canary from Arrow!) The two actors take the lead as a couple of scientists enlisted by the British military to work on a form of artificial intelligence. But wouldnt you know it, Lotzs Ava becomes a cyborg and she rebels against her owners! Whilst the modest budget hampers some of the bigger action set pieces, what really makes The Machine stand apart from the score of low-budget killer android movies is a sense that the people who made it actually cared about grounding the film in some science fact, and the characters manage to emerge as actual people, not plot devices or cyphers for themes.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
