posted 06-22-99 01:50 AM ET            

It's just that there are too many movies and TV shows these days about space, space travel, space wars, aliens etc"

Name three shows, besides Star Trek.

So in reaction to the many Star Wars, Phantom Menace and Jar Jar Binks threads"

Well sci-fi fans and computer gamers tend to go hand-in-hand, and vise-versa. So if you intend to visit this forum, prepapre for sci-fi posts.

posted 06-22-99 02:18 AM ET            

that's Clarke not clark. Sorry it's a bit late, and i'm feeling woozy.

posted 06-22-99 01:23 PM ET         

Evidence A: Several Fighters zoom past DS9, a whoosh is heard
Problem: There is no ****ing sound in space!

Evidence B: Antimatter was in a planets crust (I think the Bolians, I don't watch the show!)
Problem: Matter and Antimatter don't mix

Evidence C: The USS Phoenix has her engines shot out, she stops dead
Problem: Anyone heard of inertia?

Evidence D: The wormhole
Problem: A wormhole that big? Duh!

I thought that Star Wars was slightly better because it does not explain some of the sciences, and some of the races seem realistic.

posted 06-22-99 01:39 PM ET            

Or else

posted 06-22-99 03:01 PM ET            

You mean that one by Lawrence M. Krauss? I read it and his second book on that issue. They both were not as critical as many people seem to think of it. Krauss showed up flaws in the scripts (such as the "whoosh" or the eternal crux with inertia) and problems with the representation of physical phenomenons, but pointed on the other hand out that most of the "physics" of ST were in principle possible.

Dreadnought:
I watched as long as it was played here in Austria. Quite nice show, if you ask me...

Hugo Rune:
Just curious - why do you think ST is "crap in story", while SW is not?

posted 06-22-99 04:30 PM ET            

I do NOT think that Star Trek uses real physics at all. HOWEVER...

quote:

---

Star Trek makes an effort to use real physics

---

That's what I said. Their explanations are ridiculous, their battles and grand strategic plans don't jive with the technology they appernatly have, blah blah blah blah... it's really bad. But they always make up a scientific explanation on the spot for it and pretend that it would work.

I also agree that the Next Generation was awful in the beginning, got better, and then got worse slightly before dying. DS9 was probably the best. The original had nice ideas, but, cough cough, not even an attempt at realism. Let's give a shout for all the barren planets with easily breathable atmospheres on them. And Voyager... lemme give another case of scientific screw-ups. The doctor (a hologram who can pick stuff up and is stunned temporarily when shot) has to choose between two patients to save. He can't do both because "it's a complex neurological operation." Okay, I can buy that, spinal shunts are nasty, nasty work even today. Then, he does it in about 5 seconds by waving his tricorder around. How did the the tricorder know what to do? It sounds like any old joe with a BA in tricorder waving could have done the job. Even more incredulously, he recognized the operation later (with his memory wiped of it) as his own handiwork because of some special technique he pioneered. What, an extra swivel in the wrist as he did his waving? Not to mention that if he simply didn't argue about what to do, the operation was so fast he easily could have done both patients.

There are plenty of Next Generation episodes to nitpick as well. An alien race has figured out how to mindwipe entire groups of people (another god-like power that would unbalance the entire universe) and makes the crew of the Enterprise forget who they are, but he leaves an officer log in the computer with officer positions (as well as the alien as an officer snuck in). Their orders are to wipe out this one hated enemy of the Federation. Their "skills" are all intact. But of course Picard, ever observant, notices that this "hated enemy"'s technology is woefuly inadequete, opens up a channel, and finds out it's really the alien race with the mindwipe device that's at war with them, not the Feds.

Questions: Better idea for the alien guy. Tell the Enterprise their orders are to go to the bad alien's home planet as a gift of the Federation to their new allies who are being oppressed by the technologically advanced (good race). The Enterprise never finds out the good race is good, or that they both sides really have bad technology. The people on the Enterprise teach the (bad race) engineers how to use it, the (bad race) starts making a whole bunch of ships based off it, the original Enterprise crew is executed and the Enterprise taken apart to make the new ships, the Feds never know that the (bad race) is at fault for the disappearnce of the Enterprise, and the (bad race) crushes the good race in a year or two when the refits are complete. Or, if they're impatient, they could execute the Enterprise staff right off and man the Enterprise with their own men, after finding the operating manual.

posted 06-22-99 04:46 PM ET            

The crew in one episode discover how to make a shuttlecraft move in Warp 10. This means they are able to make it be in every spot in the universe- at the same time (G.L.P again). The side effect is that it also accelerates evolution so that those who use it eventually turn into large salamanders (don't ask). By the end of the episode a treatment is found.

posted 06-22-99 05:14 PM ET         

Anyhow, I despise Star Trek, but some of the more escapist Sci-fi, like Dune and Star Wars are a bit more believable. Because they don't make up **** for science!

posted 06-23-99 07:46 AM ET            

The only sci-fi show that really rocks is Babylon 5. This because the characters is more than pieces of card-board (sp?) moving against a two-dimensional background. And because B5 is written to be a maimum of 5 seasons, this allows the plot to take new and exiting turns and twists. And also because it�s more realistic in terms of future politics. It�s more likely that the earth will become a fascist dictatorship than the rosy (almost socialist) ST future. Unfortunately.

posted 06-23-99 07:55 AM ET            

BTW has anyone seen "They live" (by John Carprenter), I saw last night. I thought it was a hoot (?). It proves what I�ve always been saying. The aliens run the capitalist system, forget the Jews, the communists or the negros it�s the aliens I�ll tell you ! Why won�t anyone listen to me !! (Bishop is dragged screaming away by the nice men in the white coats)

posted 06-23-99 01:31 PM ET            

Why has no one has mentioned Dr Who ? There you have a series that didn�t have a particulary large budget for special effects . But it�s a hoot anyway

Bishop

posted 06-23-99 02:05 PM ET         

IIRC your handle is from the android in �Aliens�. I hate to say it, but I didn�t really care for that movie. We went to see it when my wife was pregnant with our first kid (REAL BAD IDEA), but aside from that I was disappointed that it was basically Just Another Monster Movie. I had been hoping for something more. My favorite SciFi movie is �Forbidden Planet�. You may flame it now...

posted 06-23-99 07:58 PM ET            

Aliens is a great movie. It's one of the coolest action movies ever made. It also has some great, quotable lines, like:

posted 06-23-99 10:17 PM ET            

Besides, that big cannon-thing was unnecesary for the aliens. The sonic booms created by something that big moving as fast as it could in the movie (from the travel times to different cities) would flatten the city before it could even fire up the cannon.

And the shields? Puh-leeze. Since when can a shield stop heat? The intense heat done by a nuclear bomb would have done something.

On SS Troopers- yeah, nothing like WW2 tactics applied to futuristic combat. And the ending was horrible. Just horrible. "Now we know how to fight the aliens." Yeah, you, um, shoot them. I have a feeling that a captured "brain bug" away from the colony would have little to no god spy knowledge, by the time they figured out how to extract it.

posted 06-24-99 01:59 AM ET            

- Used as some sort of weapon that was supposed to destroy the Borg cube (TNG "Best of Both Worlds")
- "Paint a Federation warp signature" on the Dominion power generator (DS9 season 6 finale)
- The worst one: in Voyager's season 4 finale, it was the secret behind the "slipstream drive" which lets them travel at unheard of speeds. The worst part was that Voyager's engineers were able to duplicate the technology on their own ship after only a few days of studying the alien ship, even though they'd never seen that method of propulsion before in their lives.

posted 06-24-99 05:34 AM ET            

I�d say, what were you two thinking ?

but I didn�t really care for that movie.

ooohh, you heathen... "Aliens" is the best Sci-Fi/Action-movie ever made !

My favorite SciFi movie is "Forbidden Planet"
Do you mean that old movie from the �50�s with Leslie Nielsen ? I�d only seen bits of that, not very convincing bits at that.

I hate to ask, but what does IIRC stand for ?

Octopus
Don�t forget this one:
Hudson: Hey Vasquez have you ever been mistaken for a man ?
Vasquez: No, have you ?

posted 06-24-99 07:32 AM ET            

My main problem with the Borg is that they are really, really, dumb. A few issues:

In that same episode, Riker says "And you know that Picard trusted me implicitly," to convince the Borg of his serene and honest nature. The problem is, Picard trusted him when they were on the same side. Only if Picard was an idiot would they trust him now, and if the Borg have assimilated any other humans at all, than they would know that anyone saying "Trust me" is suspicious. Plus, in all the Trek movies, you can walk freely around the Borg cube if "they don't consider you a threat." Give me a break. In First Contact, the Borg had assmilated enough crew members to know who the officers were (if it weren't for their shiny red uniforms saying kill me! kill me! in the first place, a la Redcoats), and I'd say that assimilating officers would be priority number 1- like every available Borg would swoop down on Picard as soon as he entered Borg territory.

posted 06-24-99 09:17 AM ET            

1) In "Eraser," the rail guns supposedly fired rounds that moved "at the speed of light."

2) "Armageddon" was too stupid to watch, although I did. I didn't know nukes had timers that shut off if they lose radio contact, or that rocks could get pissed off.

3) Anybody ever seen the gun battle at the end of "Desperado" with Antonio Banderas? Guns only run out of ammo when it is dramatically convenient. Also, why did Banderas carry around all those guns, when he only used his two pistols?

4) In "Predator," how does infrared imaging see ANYTHING in 100+ degree heat? It's supposed to be one of the hottest seasons, ever

5) In "The Phantom Menace," they take a submarine through the core of the planet!

SciFi TV Shows:

Battlestar Galactica
Buck Rogers (my girlfried had a crush on Gil Gerard when she was a kid - yuck)
Sliders
Star Trek (4 shows)
Lost in Space (talk about corny)
Quantum Leap
Manimal
VR5
Misfits of Science (yee gods, did that suck)
V (yes, it was a TV show for a while after the miniseries)
War of the Worlds
Nowhere Man
The Pretender (arguable)
Earth 2
Seaquest DSV
Space Above and Beyond
Babylon 5
The Bionic Man/Woman
The Incredible Hulk (Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.)
3rd Rock from the Sun (it has aliens, doesn't it?)
Space: 1999

God, there's been tons of it. I think I remember something called Supertrain, and then there was a kid's series staring Jim Neighbors as an android (but we could list kids cartoons forever -- not to mention the dubbed anime like Starblazers, which in Japan was Space Cruiser Yamato, or something like that). It gets even worse if you count things with fantasy/horror influences, like Dark Shadows, Buffy, Xena/Hercules, Poltergeist, Friday the 13th, etc.

posted 06-24-99 10:28 AM ET            

1) In "Eraser," the rail guns supposedly fired rounds that moved "at the speed of light."

Actually, they said the guns fired at the speed of sound, entirly possible when using electromagnetic fields as propulsion.

2) "Armageddon" was too stupid to watch, although I did. I didn't know nukes had timers that shut off if they lose radio contact, or that rocks could get pissed off.

Also, how the hell does ONE nuke rip an asteriod the size of Texas (there are no asteriods of this size recorded, anyway) in half by travelling a mere 800 feet into the center??? Yee Gods!

4) In "Predator," how does infrared imaging see ANYTHING in 100+ degree heat? It's supposed to be one of the hottest seasons, ever

You might be right about this, but I'm quite sure that infared imaging detects signifigant heat signatures. Otherwise, infared imaging would be useless except in cold temperatures.

5) In "The Phantom Menace," they take a submarine through the core of the planet!

posted 06-24-99 10:36 AM ET         

dilbert, SnowFire, Dreadnought
On Starship troopers : Did anyone ever read the book? The book was very good. The movie SUCKED. I was really pissed at what they did to that story in the movie. In the book, the troopers had powered armor and were more than a match for any bug one on one. The problem was that they were outnumbered about a 100 to 1 most of the time. dilbert is right, a 1999 Armored Cavalry regiment from the US Army would have done better that the troopers in the movie.

posted 06-24-99 10:59 AM ET            

Alien is one of the best horror movies ever made. It is insanely suspenseful. I felt that the "background" of the alien was cool. Leaving some questions unanswered is frequently the best way to go. The original script to Alien called for a subplot which went into the alien life cycle, but they dropped that and put in the Ash plot instead (probably resulting in a better movie). After the alien gets on board, its origin is purely academic. The derelict alien ship is suitably spooky and Lovecraftian that I think further exposition would have detracted from it. Although the obvious answer to "Why the hell were they transporting the eggs anyway?" is "the same reason the Nostromo was -- the aliens are parasites and 'infected' that ship from some other source". I believe that the original intent of the "egg" stage is so the aliens could survive a long period of dormancy between finding an old and a new host.

"Where did it get the energy and mass to grow so fast?"

The Nostromo carried supplies. Where did the crew get the breakfast they were eating?

"I felt that the whole movie was just an excuse to have a monster jump out of the dark and kill people."

posted 06-24-99 11:05 AM ET            

The science fiction is bad? No argument but the way I see it it's poking fun at the whole mystique of war movies but setting it outside the traditional timeline so that it's more palatable as an ironic comment.

You have the classic recritment, kid goes to training camp (include nasty drill Seargent and training accident here) then they are off to war. All done with a tongue so firmly in its cheek that it's in danger of becoming a cheek burster. In fact I don't think you could find a war film cliche which Verhofen has missed. The acting is appalling, it's absolutely perfect.

posted 06-24-99 11:08 AM ET            

Infrared detects heat -- infrared radiation. How is the sensor supposed to know what is significant? It doesn't work too well in really hot environments.

As for Naboo, is it possible for a planet large enough to have normal gravity to also not have a molten core? What would that have to do with diverse environments? Earth has diverse environments and a molten core.

I missed a few significant shows, of course:
Knight Rider, Stargate SG-1, Land of the Giants, The Invaders, My Favorite Martian, Red Dwarf, Alien Nation, Time Trax, TekWar and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. The Bionic Man was actually called "The Six Million Dollar Man."

posted 06-24-99 11:35 AM ET         

I don�t disagree with any of these statements. I just personally prefer a different type of science fiction movie or story.

Although the obvious answer to "Why the hell were they transporting the eggs anyway?" is "the same reason the Nostromo was -- the aliens are parasites and 'infected' that ship from some other source�.

It seemed that the eggs, on the derelict ship, were arranged for transport in the hold of the ship, not just laying around. I had thought that maybe it would come out that they (the aliens) were really some type of doomsday biological weapon that had gotten out of control or something. (After all, that was why the earth military was interested in them) But their origin remained pretty much a mystery.

�The character of the alien in Alien is completely established by his (her?) actions.�

posted 06-24-99 01:27 PM ET         

Those SS troopers are only armed with rifles and grenades, no tanks, no artillery, no airpower. An armored NG regiment would have about 50 M1 tanks, dozen MRLS and Apaches. They can also call for close air support. In a minute, a single MRLS can devastate an area that has the size of six football field with 7800 shells, each of them equivalent to a handgrenade. Considering how concentrated those SS troopers are fighting, a battery(8 launchers) of MRLS should finish those guys in about a minute. I just want to say how pathetic firepower those troopers have.

posted 06-24-99 01:55 PM ET         

I have only seen the first two (I think). The original �Alien� and the one where Ripley (sp?) and the marines go to the human colony and end up rescuing the little girl from the hive (that was the second one right?). Maybe I need to clarify a point here: For the type of movie that they were suposed to be, the two movies were good. I went to the original movie expecting something different (obviously, or I would not have taken my wife!) and was somewhat disappointed.

posted 06-24-99 03:40 PM ET            

But, this is not why i put my post here. I wanted to know if someone has read the book "Battle field Earth", damn, i can't remember the author, but it is one of the writers who were working in the 50's. It's a realy excelent book, and i just couldn't escape the feeling that it would make a great movie. And now, suddenly i hear that there's gonna be a movie by that name, and that the author if the book that the movie is based on, is possibly the i-just-can't-remember-his-name.
I realy look forward to this since none of the great sf authors can realy make a book that can have a script based on her. Don't get me wrong, i love sf, i love Lem, Asimov, Hodgis and al of them, but only few of Clarke's books and this one are realy sootable for a movie.

posted 06-24-99 04:42 PM ET            

Bishop
BTW I never liked Heinlein (both film and book)

posted 06-24-99 04:44 PM ET            

"I don't know why all of you didn't like the Starship Troopers film, since it was a good, action packed movie. But, as most of the films of the newer gen it has nothing to do with sci-fi."

posted 06-24-99 09:36 PM ET            

And about the Starship troopers, well, i don't think you can say that there are holes in it, since the way i see this film, i'd put in the same category with Spawn, Blade and other good action films. And compared to them, this movie rates great.

Cheers

posted 06-24-99 10:40 PM ET            

Please compare these two pics.

This one is from Star Wars

And this one is from 2001: A space Odissey

Which one do you find to be more Science, and which one do you find to be more fiction?

posted 06-25-99 10:41 AM ET         

MikeH II,
Yea, I can see how one might find Starship Troopers funny if you had not read the book first.

White_Cat
At the end of 2001, astronaut David Bowman has been converted to a higher stage of human evolution by an alien artifact. He sees himself as a starchild and takes the physical form in MiKaeLe�s picture.

posted 06-25-99 03:10 PM ET            

Hey Why do you have a problem with Travolta beeing Tyler? Who else? Nicolas Cage? MWAHAHAHA...i think he'll fit good in the part...if he keeps that new artistic look of his. lol

And as i have wrote before, explaining the pic of 2001 is more difficult then just a single sentence.

quote:

---

At the end of 2001, astronaut David Bowman has been converted to a higher stage of human evolution by an alien artifact. He sees himself as a starchild and takes the physical form in MiKaeLe�s picture

---

An alien artifact??? Have you read all the odisseys?

And about Star Wars...well, we don't have to bother talking about the reality present in this film...since there's none of it
And i just hate those sharp headed X-Wings..it would be much better if they would make them look like a cube or something..

Cheers

posted 06-25-99 03:43 PM ET         

I am just not a fan of John Travolta. Sorry...

Yes, I have read all of the books in the �Space Odyssey� series... I was even one of the few who �got it� when the movie first came out. In 2001, the monolith was considered to be an alien artifact. In the context of the 2001 movie I feel that my description, while brief, covers the salient points relating to the picture that you posted. I do agree that there is a ton more that could be said about it though!

posted 06-25-99 03:55 PM ET            

Unfortunately, I can only do that so long and enjoy it. After about 10 minutes of standing in the same room as my dad watching Xena, I need air. Same with SST- it was on for free awhile ago, and I watched parts of it at a time.

MikaLee: I find it more probable that there are alien artifacts and starchilds than a galaxy where, given the preconditions of their technology and the Force, battles are fought the way they are.

posted 06-25-99 04:17 PM ET         

A Xenite and damned proud of it.

posted 06-25-99 04:44 PM ET         

As always, I remain,

posted 06-25-99 11:05 PM ET            

ST:TNG's Galaxy-class Enterprise, if I remember correctly, only had a capacity of like 20 or so, and is almost twice the size of Voyager.

posted 06-25-99 11:16 PM ET            

Let me clarify, I read the book and heard that they were making the movie without the power armor. If you are going to take out the "cool" part of that story, why the hell would you want to make a movie out of it? I couldn't imagine how you could make the movie even remotely enjoyable without the MI in action.

posted 06-28-99 08:15 AM ET            

"Captain, we lost another shuttle."
"Okay, beam the pieces back on board, and use more duct tape this time."

posted 06-29-99 12:03 PM ET            

I think sometimes to get a story across you have to suspend reality to a certain extent. The problem the film of SST has is that it was a well liked and respected book which has been altered drastically for the film maker's vision. If you completely seperate the film from the book, taking them as two completely seperate stories putting across different aspects of the same problem you might get what I mean. There is a lot more depth to that film than the surface enjoyable space romp.

Anyone read the book The Running Man? Stephen King wrote it under the name Richard Bachman (I think) Great book I thought, really made me think. The film had a character with the same name and a game show but that was the only similarity.

posted 06-29-99 02:07 PM ET         

�Considering that the PA was almost completely irrelevant they probably could have made a good movie out of Starship Troopers without the armor. �

Humm... I guess that if you peel any story down far enough, you will find that many elements of the story are �irrelevant� to the underlying ideas presented by the story. I seem to remember that there are actually a fairly small number of basic story plots. Anyway, most stories have several levels. The surface goal is usually to entertain the reader. What may seem irrelevant at a deeper level may be critical at a higher level. So, about Powered armor being �completely irrelevant� to the Starship Troopers story. I�m sorry, but I just have to disagree with that statement. While it is true that the combat scenes made up a relatively small portion of the book, the powered armor was central to the concept of the Mobile Infantry and �balanced� the human combat capabilities with the bugs. The PA put the �M� in Mobile Infantry. In fact IIRC there was a statement similar to that in the book. Besides, it was way cool!

I do agree that the sessions in the History and Moral Philosophy class were very thought provoking and more important to the main point that RAH was trying to get across: That �rights� are not �free� and if you do nothing to earn your �rights� they are of little real value to you. Look at the US today. Most people don�t bother to vote and many who do are uninformed. Anyway, the ideas on �rights� and that a person can not vote until after completing military service were very interesting.

MikeH II,

posted 06-29-99 02:19 PM ET         

How about the Abyss? When the movie first came out, I didn�t go see it. I thought that it was Just Another Monster Movie. Then, I noticed that the book, based on that movie, was authored by Orson Scott Card. Anyway, the book was super. Card had done his usual excellent job of character development so that you could really feel what each person was thinking and why they acted as they did. Then I bought the movie. The movie was also very good, but having read the book first enhanced the movie tremendously. Sadly, the book is out of print.

What do you think about �The Abyss�.

posted 06-29-99 06:54 PM ET            

You could make the argument that "Alien" was just a monster movie, and could have just as easily taken place in a haunted house instead of a space ship, but then you wouldn't have "Alien" anymore.

posted 06-29-99 08:41 PM ET         

I'm also tired of the permanent race wars, in which Human has to defeat some alien species. That's one major point I like about Star Wars: it's not a fight between races, but between good and evil. But I don't think humans will ever become as tolerant to other races as in Star Wars. If we can not tolerate humans in a different skin color, how possibly can we accept someone completely different as our neighbor?

posted 06-30-99 06:03 AM ET            

quote:

---

OhWell, by saying that the PA is irrelevent I meant that you could set up the same exact story, except with marine raiders in the Pacific during an WWII as the military setting without a real effect on the story. The only real effect of the future setting at all was adding a little believability since there isn't a a period in history where you could easily tie in the political philosophy; this doesn't mean that my example of the marine raiders wouldn't give you all the same plot devices as the MI(ok, so instead of lofting a ony nuke at a dam you'd have a demolitions team dropping a bridge, same effect).

---

Exactly what I think Verhofen was trying to do. Anyway enough about SST.

The Kim Stanley Robinson books I got were "The Memory of Whiteness" Which I am about half way through and (I think) "Escape from Katmandhu" although it might be Escape from somewhere else beginning with K. I haven't started that one yet but I'm halfway through The Memory of Whiteness, great book it's ostensibly about a musical tour in the 3000s but there's much more too it. The Solar system early third millenium history is straight out of the Mars Trilogy so you'll recognise some of the places. He goes into great detail about fourth millenium physics and it's really good stuff. I believe in Holywinkle spheres and glints!

posted 06-30-99 07:39 AM ET         

MikeH II,
Yea, I remember seeing something that said he wanted a �WW2 flavor� to the movie. IMNSHO it didn�t work very well.

MiKaeLe,
Have you read the book? I am interested in your thoughts. Post when you sober up!

posted 06-30-99 08:29 AM ET            

quote:

---

But I don't think humans will ever become as tolerant to other races as in Star Wars. If we can not tolerate humans in a different skin color, how possibly can we accept someone completely different as our neighbor?

---

This is in many sci-fi books, but in general, the finding of sentient species other than us that are even more different will be a crushing blow to human racism in many books. Plus, if anything our experiences with different races will cause us to be more accepting to other races- a planet full of people who are much the same may never have racism, but wow, when they discover other beings different from them, they're going to be extremely unenlightened in their view. Our hisory gives us a tolerance advantage.

And don't forget neccesity/oppurtunity either. We allied with the Russians in WWII, and the Germans allied with the "inferior" Japanese. Israel allied with their old enslavers, the Egyptians, to hold off the Assyrians and later the Babylonians.

posted 06-30-99 01:20 PM ET            

Books, on the other hand, have the space to explain concepts to the reader, and take the time to get it right (some of the time).

posted 07-01-99 07:47 AM ET            

The swooping and diving of WWII air combat isn't really appropriate for space, because any descent weapons system is going to be able to hit you long before you get close enough for a fly by. Missiles and mines might be the weapon of choice.

posted 07-01-99 09:18 AM ET            

There is an unfortunate trend in today's 'sf' movies to substitute sound and light shows for characterization, plot, and theme. I agree with OhWell in naming Forbidden Planet as great sf, since it told a good story (although borrowed from Shakespeare) and paid more attention to characterization. Nowadays we get "The Hero", "The Villain", "The Guy with a Family", "The Black Guy", "The Crazy Guy". Disappointing.

The great thing about sf is that it allows the author to change his/her world around to point out things about ourselves or own society. Like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" to capture the Red fear of the day. Ray Bradbury, Heinlein, john Brunner (esp _Stand on Zanzibar_ and _The Sheep Look Up_), Philip Dick (esp. _Ubik_ and _A Scanner Darkly_) to name a few.

Unfortunately, most of the best sf books translate poorly to film, as the author's point is cut from the script to make more room for action sequences (e.g. Total Recall). "Blade Runner" is a good exception. Although it graphically altered the novel by removing one of the central elements, it stayed true to the point of the novel: what does it mean to be human?

posted 07-01-99 01:51 PM ET            

On the other hand, combat will probably take place at long range, with weapon systems and counter measures duking it out more so than ship-to-ship. I like the idea of combat wasps -- robotic weapon drones which try to close on enemy ships before discharging their payload. That might be interesting, because the drones would be much faster than ships -- they're lighter and could burn all of their fuel without having to go home again.
It might be fairly exciting, too, although the drones would still be pretty far away when they triggered whatever they were carrying (X-ray laser, antimater, fusion bombs,whatever).

Was it a coincidence, or did you mean to describe exactly the sort of space battles that appear in Peter F. Hamilton's books 'The Neutronium Alchemist' and 'The Reality Dysfunction'?

posted 07-01-99 02:19 PM ET            

Vernor Vinge also talks about a similar mode of combat involving hyperspace. In "A Fire Upon the Deep," he describes a battle where all of the ships are making microjumps into and out of hyperspace. The goal of the weapons officer is to try and get the missiles/drones/whatever to jump out of hyperspace at the same time as an enemy ship, otherwise the payload would miss as the ship vanishes, or would detonate before it appeared.

posted 07-01-99 03:06 PM ET            

Can't find 'Star Hunt' on Amazon. Must be pretty old.

posted 07-02-99 01:25 AM ET            

this is one fine movie

A question... why is it that in most Sci-Fi's the Humans have fast firing/less damage weapons and the Aliens have slow firing/more damage weapons? Think Independence Day, Space above and Beyond, etc.

Another Question... why is every movie with Will Smith and Bruce Willis so damn bad.

posted 07-02-99 02:04 AM ET            

I don't know what movies you've been watching, but I've liked most of the Will Smith and Bruce Willis movies I've seen (Willis obviously more so than Smith).

posted 07-02-99 02:42 AM ET            

Will Smith is a realy cool action actor. I loved independence day. Has one of the best speaches i've heard in a movie. Ya know: WE WILL NOT GO DOWN INTO THE SHADOW(or whatever-damn i've forgotten the txt) ...COUSE TODAY WE CELEBRATE OUR INDEPENDENCE DAY(i've excluded the part about the globalization of 4th of july intentfuly.

And Bruce, well, just look who's he hanging with right now and all will be clear: Michelle Pfeiffer!! That boy is Mad!

posted 07-03-99 04:44 AM ET            

"Has one of the best speaches i've heard in a movie"

posted 07-23-99 08:29 PM ET            

It's on Amazon, or were you looking for it in Russian?

posted 07-27-99 04:53 PM ET            

"Vampires, mummies and the Holy Ghost,
these are the things that terrify me the most.
No aliens, psychopaths or MTV hosts
scare me like vampires, mummies and the Holy Ghost!"

posted 07-28-99 05:21 AM ET            

How about Jerry Springer ?

posted 07-28-99 02:24 PM ET         

Hear about the time the guy was reading the Lovecraft biography? People thought he was reading a sex book.

hahaha...taxi!

posted 07-28-99 04:10 PM ET            

Well, stranger things have happened (i.e. Ronald Reagan).