dave355

I'm both a follower of Christ and longtime sci-fi fan (especially hard sci-fi, like Niven & Pournelle, and The Expanse). So science fiction with a Christian backdrop sounds great, to me.

But The Shift still managed to surprise me. I expected to enjoy it, but I didn't expect such an original plot, and I really didn't expect to be so drawn-in, emotionally.

Christian sci-fi is an unusual combination, these days. But it needn't be, and it wasn't always. Dante's Inferno was so close to being science fiction, already, that it inspired Niven & Pournelle to write a science fiction book of the same name, set in a modernized version of hell. C. S. Lewis wrote highly aclaimed serious theology, but he also wrote delightful fantasy -- and science fiction.

These days, it seems that most science fiction writers are encumbered by the prejudice that for a story to be scientific it must NOT be religious. As this movie shows, that's an entirely unnecessary restriction, and a really engrossing science fiction story can be built on a foundation of Christian assumptions.

If you're going to put a sci-fi twist on a procedural drama, or write lines for a "scientist" character, you need to know at least a little bit of science. I don't think any of the writers for this show could have passed a middle school science class. It was just pathetic.

Not bad for an undergrad project with a £1000 budget.