Michael Allen is Senior Lecturer in Film & Electronic Media at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author of 'Family Secrets' (1999), a study of D.W. Griffith's feature films, and of 'Contemporary US Cinema' (2002). He is also editor of 'Reading "CSI"' (I.B.Tauris, 2007). He has been a space enthusiast since he was ten years old.