Series:

S.F. MASTERWORKS

3 total works

Cover of R.U.R

R.U.R

by Karel Capek

Published 20 August 2001
Simon Ward and Tessa Peake-Jones star in this suspenseful BBC Radio dramatisation of Karel Capek's play. Fired by a passionate enthusiasm to improve on Nature, old Rossum spends a decade trying to create humans. The experiments fail, until Rossum's engineer nephew takes over and manages to invent artificial beings. Intelligent machines, with no emotions and no souls, these 'robots' make perfect workers. When Harry Domain, general manager of Rossum's Universal Robots, has a visit from Helena Glory, he is only too pleased to agree to her request for a tour of the factory. But Helena is horrified and moved to pity by what she sees, and persuades Dr Gall to instil consciousness into certain robots - with catastrophic results...

Cover of War with the Newts

War with the Newts

by Karel Capek

Published 15 June 1976
The human world is stunned to discover that there is another intelligent species on the planet - a race of sophisticated, bipedal amphibious reptiles, ripe for exploitation by mankind. These creatures can use tools, fashion products and do the workno real person would wish to do. And fight. And perhaps even turn on those who had taken them for granted for so long. Written in 1936, WAR WITH THE NEWTS is a darkly humorous commentary on the cruelty and venality of man, the folly of exploitation, and the seeds of conflict. As Europe moved ever closer to the Second World War, the allegory within WAR WITH THE NEWTS was proved savagely right.

Cover of RUR & War with the Newts

RUR & War with the Newts

by Karel Capek

Published 13 October 2011

Written against the background of the rise of Nazism, War With the Newts concerns the discovery in the South Pacific of a sea-dwelling race, which is enslaved and exploited by mankind. In time they rebel, laying siege to the strongholds of their former masters in a global war for supremacy.

R.U.R., or Rossum's Universal Robots, seen by many as a modern interpretation of the 'golem' myth, is regarded as the most important play in the history of SF. It introduced the word 'robot' and gave the genre one of its most enduring tropes.