Barsoom, the planet of scantilly-clad damsels in distress.
Posted on 02/19/2008 11:03:14 AM PST by rjp2005
Where have all the sci-fi films gone?
Those simple, thought-provoking speculative tales about how people respond to something new, what kind of moral choices they make, keeping traditions in the face of technological change. Essentially, the kind of films that were thought provoking and story/character driven - Day the Earth Stood Still, Planet of Apes, 12 Monkeys, Minority Report (more action though but good), etc.
The "Superhero and Fantasy Genre Craze" since Spiderman and LOTR has really eaten up a lot of support for original sci-fi works to film...
For 2008, we have two horror/slasher types "I Am Legend" (Omega Man remake) and "Death Race" (revisiting the 70's version), another superhero film in "Jumper", "Iron Man", which could be a treat, and maybe the only true sci-fi attempt, "Babylon A.D.". There was also "Sunshine", a late 90's disaster film leftover, possibly funded by Global Warming-mongers ;)
On the bright side, Bonnie Hammer is gone, but her replacement is no great shakes, either, pushing the "reality" side of programming.
Are the Clintonistas still on the payroll? I think there were two of them. Podesta, and somebody else.
Oh I don't know...
They seem to do OK with their "extraterrestrial" wrestling, or whatever it is they call it...
< /sarc >
I liked them all. We used to get a double feature on Saturday nights at the movies (late 60’s). It would be a B horror film and a B sci-fi.
Journey to the center of the Earth was a favorite too.
Huh? Firefly is the anti-ST:TOS.
Kirk would not come aboard, and blow away a gub'mint agent without so much as "Can we talk?", and a hug.
Mal Reynolds did.
And the movie can stand by itself, imo, although I did see "Firefly" when it was on the Skiffy Channel.
How about the Prisoner? My library has the whole series. The bubble thingy used to freak me out.
A lot of people wouldn’t consider John Carter of Mars as Sci-Fi, but the God’s of Mars creeped me out. As a teenager, I would sometimes stay up all night to finish one of the novellas. Giant six armed apes and beautiful princesses (the cover paintings were like soft porn too ;) ).
Actually, my perception of Star Trek, TOS is that it was basically a western in Sci-fi clothes. I do see a lot of similarities to ST TOS and Firefly in the way situations are handled by the two captains, Prime Directive notwithstanding.
I call Firefly a sort of “life and times of Han Solo before he met Luke Skywalker” as well.
I remember the first episode of ST TOS. It was a week before it was supposed to air. A Thursday night. I was so excited I turned to that station just to remind myself to tune in the next week. To my shock and pleasure, there was a “Sneak preview” episode. It was the salt-sucking beast episode. I think I’ve seen every single episode of that show at least 15 times.
FWIW, I call TNG “Star Trek for women”. But the interesting thing about Firefly is that women really like the show. My wife thought it was very entertaining and funny. She really liked the characters and their interactions. She is NOT a sci-fi fan normally.
One of my favorites that was made in the 30s was the Man from Planet X. British made.
I haunt the used book stores looking for 50’s SF books like that. Great stuff!
Damn your eyes! For over 30 years I had that tune out of my head!!!
"Based on the back cover of a book by Robert Heinlein"
Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote a novella about role reversal. It was about a distant blck race that had white slaves. It was very insightful and of course called racist.
There is another book called “Black No More”. It was written by a black conservative writer in the first half of the 20th century. In the book, a scientist invents a machine that turns black people white. All the black people condemn it, but slowly but surely black people start to disappear. There are characters in it like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton who hate the machine because it is hurting their livelihood. It is the Atlas Shrugged of race relations. Not much of an ending though.
This thread has made my day much more enjoyable!
On One Hand: indicates it is a sequel
On the Other Hand: the title is perhaps too close, a casual glance in the store, you might mistake it for the original
The Gripping Hand: the phrase is lame, not awesome like The Mote in God's Eye or The Gripping Hand itself
If they asked me (they won't) I would cut the first two chapters where Bury and his pilot/keeper Kevin Renner go to Maxoy's Purchase, which while it details the OOH, OTOH, TGH thing, can be dropped without hurting the story ans is a bit slow for today's audiences who want violence.
Start with scenes of action on the Crazy Eddie Station blend that into the New Scotland background briefing on the Bolckade Fleet including the WTF about the Motie switch to token ships, segue into we have a bigger problem Buckman's Protostar is not so proto and the Moties may already have a wwhole new way into human Space.
Titles.
Exposition scense to introduce the audience to the characters
Go to the expedition to the theoretical new Jump point to the Motie system
More battle and the rest os the book follows.
“Damn your eyes! For over 30 years I had that tune out of my head!!!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmVkn9ULqNI
What was the other marionette show (Venus oooooh Venus)?
At 14, those covers were enough.
I did, however, catch "The Trouble with Tribbles" on a LPUFH station Saturday. I couldn't resist.
I did wonder about what the prop guy was thinking at the time, tossing tribbles down at Shatner.
Ringworld is the one I would like to see.
Any man-kzin war story would work.
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