Get out the popcorn. It's November.

Everybody likes rockets, right? And science fiction involving spaceflight? In fact, if we hadn't imagined it first, how could we have done it? So you're going to like these bits, even if they don't involve the Isle of Wight's space programme.

Today's Short Subject: Back in the 1950s, people talked so much about extraterrestrials that it moved one child to make up a story about a Purple People Eater with rock'n'roll ambitions. Fortunately for the child, and us, composer/singer Sheb Wooley was a family friend. So we can all sing it and annoy people. My favourite version changes the band's genre to bluegrass.

Today's Feature Film: Today's film is short, but it's a doozy. It was made in 1937, no matter what W*k* says. It's called Weltraumschiff 1 Startet, or 'Space Ship 1 Takes Off', and it's the first 'Nazis in space' movie. But not intentionally. Apparently, the filmmaker was a big spaceflight fan, and he wasn't responsible for the Hitler takeover. Still, this space odyssey starts during the Third Reich.

It's fun to see how he imagined it. And it's pretty good science, I think. The result looks not unlike the Apollo 8 flight. Okay, NASA didn't have the giant ramp. But hey, it's less boring than Kubrick, and the astronaut is pretty confidence-inspiring.

The director, Anton Kutter, was a real scientist. He invented a telescope – and he had one on his house, which is a pretty cool combination of space-age technology with quaint Swabian architecture. Sort of like this film.

Didn't you always want to build a spaceship in your backyard?