HMS Polyphemus (1881) HMS Polyphemus (1881) The third HMS "Polyphemus" was a Royal Navy torpedo ram, serving from 1881 until 1903. A shallow-draft, fast, low-profile vessel, she was designed to penetrate enemy harbours at speed and sink anchored ships. Designed by Nathaniel Barnaby primarily as a protected torpedo boat, the ram was provided very much as secondary armament. It has been suggested that H. G. Wells’ fictional HMS "Thunder Child" from his novel "The War of the Worlds" may have been based on this ship, in part because he described "Thunder Child" as an ironclad torpedo ram, and "Polyphemus" was the only ship
Empire Award for Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Empire Award for Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy The Empire Award for Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy is an Empire Award presented annually by the British film magazine "Empire" to honor the best sci-fi, fantasy or superhero film of the previous year. The Empire Award for Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy is one of four new Best Film ongoing awards which were first introduced at the 11th Empire Awards ceremony in 2006 (along with Best Comedy, Best Horror and Best Thriller) with "" receiving the award. "A Monster Calls" is the most recent winner in this category. Winners are voted by the readers of "Empire" magazine. In the list