This was previously published in Watch The Skies fanzine – February 2021 – Dust.

I attempt to keep the recommendations for this article series away from one specific network or subscription service. Focus that lands entirely on Netflix would rapidly exclude and push away any reader that didn’t have, or didn’t want a subscription to that particular service. In that spirit, this particular article covers one short film individually, but I want to highly recommend going to the channel itself. Dust is on YouTube. It features dozens of films ranging in length between two and twenty minutes. They’re great for a quick hit of science fiction. As long as you can get to YouTube, you can watch them all for free. As I scrolled the various videos available there I realized I’d seen at least one of them before, some years ago. The short film “The Black Hole” lasts just under three minutes and is just as good now as it was four years ago. There’s a lot to see and recommend this channel to science fiction fans.

I was spurred on to writing this by a recent article over at IO9 pointing out the short film “Avarya”. I won’t go into depth on this film because it is certainly short and I don’t want to give too much away. I will say that as science fiction fans, and particularly those familiar with the three laws of robotics, this one is really well done. Fantastic animation, great voices and just the right length (coming in at 19:31) to fill a quick lunch time bump or give some inspiration between binge watches. It does take a bit of a dark turn as the article title suggests, so be warned!

Go and subscribe to Dust and see all the excellent films available there!