Sci Fi Room

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Originally posted by: callagrafx

Originally posted by: N_O_Body And then, the next time you see Luke, he is a fully developed teenager, into fast cars and robotics.  Unfortunately, he falls under the influence of this monastic order and soon becomes a cleric in the order.  May the farce be with you.quote>

I take it then you are not a fan?  It's just a good old fashioned adventure story, retold in a different setting.  No different from the types of adventure films that were made when you were young.quote>

Actually, I am a fan.  However, when viewing a space opera, like a grand opera, you have to suspend your disbelief, and enjoy it.

[Joesocwork 4]

Originally posted by: ExiL3 defcon pilot: oh, haha sweet stuff!

I just saw episode 10 season 10 SG1 and ep. 10 season 2 Atlantis today, my %#¤%¤#&& I hate it whey they go "to be continued" those two episodes were great, hope they find the weapon in SG1 and they get to recapture Atlantis, in Atlantis...

take care,quote>

 

Yeah I think the midseason "cliff hangers" were pretty much run of the mill.  In SG-1's sort of duplicates what it did a year or so ago with the discovery of Camelot.   Atlantis was even less credible but felt funner.  I don't think they'll let it happen, but I hope the writers are smart enough not to let Jack O'Neill die, at least at Atlantis anyway.  I also read in TV Guide, btw, that the spring half-season will be the final one for SG-1 on the Sci-Fi Channel.  I have very mixed feelings about it.   

I felt satisfied with the season opener for Smallville.  I think it progressed the Superman story further  appropriately in the show's way.  I can see Clark Kent maturing.  I still have a hard time seeing Lex Luthor as a supervillian unless he's possessed by somebody like Zod.     I had no idea what the "Phantom Zone" was all about.    This good be an intriguiing season!

And of course we've got Doctor Who opening back up on Sci-Fi tonight and Battle Star Galactica finally opening next Friday.   I hope they each last more than ten original episodes this time (I had to say it).  Anyway, the k*****es are going to bed early on Fridays again!

[Easy Bakes 253]

YES

SCI-FI Friday Nights are back ! ! ! ! ! !

New Who !

[Easy Bakes 253]

Not sure i like this new Dr.

They showed 2 of the new ones friday, and just seemed  a bit  less manly then the last one.

And cant belive the PM did what she did ( not to spoil it if you havent seen it) at the end, seemed totaly out of chartactor for her.

[Palpatine001 57]

OK what I miss here

[1973tr6 0]

WOW . . . I just found this thread!!!  How I could have missed it for so ling I don't know.  Great discussions on theories, merits, and techniques!!  Looks like some people are taking it waaaaaay to seriously though.  LOL  After all, its just entertainment.

Been reading SF for about 50 years now.  Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Bova, Sturgeon, Bradbury, Andre Norton, Van Vogt, just to name a few.  My personal library is around 2,000 books!!  I even collect SF books, '40's, '50's, and '60's Ace Doubles and Singles. Check eBay and see what some of them are selling for!!  Some of it is actually still readable.  The last few years I have been reading Anne McCaffrey's dragonriders of Pern stories (www.annemccaffrey.net).  They're not realy SF, more like fantasy, but I still enjoy the heck out of them.

And I love to watch SF movies and tv shows.  Just about any of them.  Star Wars, Star Trek, Galactica, SG1 & 1A, Farscape, Dr. Who, Outer Limits, Twilight Zone.  I don't care what it is, I'll watch it.   I don't care if they are good or bad.  If they are good I just sit back and enjoy the experience.  If they are bad, I try to pick out all the bad\dumb things and figure out how I would have done it to make it better\more believable.

And the only other pc game that I play with any regularity is "MechWarrior."  Its another one that I started playing the DOS version and have gotten all the upgrades since.  I also have MechCommander 2.

[Fred_Ginger 1]

Hi all, I too am an aficionado of Science Fiction/Fantasy, although I haven't read much of it lately. I'll read/watch just about any SF/F I can find (I don't do horror!), and have enjoyed many of the books authors mentioned here (1973tr6, I love the Pern stories and tried to imagine doing the planet in SC but as I don't BAT, couldn't). I'm still enjoying Dr Who, this new Dr doesn't bother me and I've seen so many of them (My local Public Broadcast Station showed the old ones for years and I almost cried when they stopped making them!). I still have all the original (but one) Star Trek on Beta-max, but never much got 'in' to the subsequent series. I have recently started reading Mercedes Lackey (a fantasy writer) so maybe I'll add some more SF/F to my library (although I have no idea where I'll put them!). I've enjoyed reading this thread and am comforted that there are other SF/F readers out there!  I found the comparison of ships really funny, sorry!

[Joesocwork 4]

Regarding Dr. Who,  I'm still liking the first season's Doctor better, probably b/c he was middle-aged and average looking and yet still energetic and charismatic.  The show is reasonable opener for BSG.  I don't remember the 70's version of Dr. Who very well.  Was the guest star on Friday's episode who apparently along for his earlier journeys a part of the original series? 

I'm definitely into this Smallville season.    The enmity between Clark and Lex is quite strong, but I still can't see Lex as a villian. Best line of the week: Clark to Lex while investigating a mystery in one of Lex's experimental greenhouses: "Even your plants have hidden agenda" (okay, I guess you had to be there or at least know the characters).   I just also realized  that  the characters in this show break down into the brooders: Clark Kent, Lex Luthor, and Lana Lang; the animators/catalysts: Chloe, Lois, and Jimmy; and the adults: Martha Kent and Lionel Luthor. 

[Palpatine001 57]

Hey someone like to fill me on this seasons Smallville I havent been keeping up. (Would help if it was on here in New Zealand)

I also have just finished watching the first four seasons of Andronmeda and ok most of the episodes are pretty good. It's the opposite to Star Trek (both created by the same person), you could say the Commonwealth is are more realistic version to the Federation's utopia theme. Although in saying that, being the only super power left in the Galaxy after the Romulan Star Empire collaspes and will see if you can hack it as President and not go grey. I have to say..... no I won't I shall not incriminate myself for all to be seen here.

Answering this question again for the unteenith time regarding who would win in a Star Destroyer vs a Federation Starfleet Vessel: The answer being Starfleet! While smaller (Enterprise 5 is 800m long while the multi tacticle vessel Promethus is 1.4km long and remembering an Imperial Class Destroyer is 1.6km long) Starfleet ships can move damn fast under impluse let alone going to Warp. Last I checked they could pull 1/2 the speed of light (150,000km/s) in attack conditions. That is very quick and makes locking on with turbo lasers and proton torpdeos very hard unless you do blanket coverage. Yes a SD has powerful shields but as I remember the Executor's shields were taken out by fighters, doesn't give much of a chance against a constant Photon Torpedo Barrage. Also hit an SD up the backside, i.e from behind, it is the least protected area and you have full exposure to the engines and her core. TIE Fighters can be taken out by Phasers so minimises that threat, and to compound situation, Starfleet can fire her torpedos at Warp, making bombing runs and chases lethal. Anyhow I go into more detail backing some in this thread.

Oh riot control Empire style, Storm Troopers to pacify the crowd and of that fails use SD orbital bombardment for quieten them down; riot control Starfleet style, talk, more talk then let Commander Data fix it, first open up with person phasers set to stun or try this one open fire with the Enterprise's main phasers, it can stun an entire planet's population - thats STUN not vapourise!

Next week I should have a pic of Summer Glau from Senerity for you (and before any wise guysdecide to post one, this one is a special one) so stay in tune.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Originally posted by: Joesocwork Regarding Dr. Who,  I'm still liking the first season's Doctor better, probably b/c he was middle-aged and average looking and yet still energetic and charismatic.  The show is reasonable opener for BSG.  I don't remember the 70's version of Dr. Who very well.  Was the guest star on Friday's episode who apparently along for his earlier journeys a part of the original series? 

I'm definitely into this Smallville season.    The enmity between Clark and Lex is quite strong, but I still can't see Lex as a villian. Best line of the week: Clark to Lex while investigating a mystery in one of Lex's experimental greenhouses: "Even your plants have hidden agenda" (okay, I guess you had to be there or at least know the characters).   I just also realized  that  the characters in this show break down into the brooders: Clark Kent, Lex Luthor, and Lana Lang; the animators/catalysts: Chloe, Lois, and Jimmy; and the adults: Martha Kent and Lionel Luthor. quote>

 

Tom Baker was the doctor for Mrs Smith.

Tom was the most popular of the older doctors, and he did kinda  just up and leave her 

hanging but he did die right after that. i thought it was a good  little moral play there, kinda like the  Highlander series about how someone who lived a very long time would behave towards

those who didnt.

1973tr6

 Anne McCaffrey's   books are excellent.

[ExiL3 10]

N_O_Body: hey btw, I ordered Two Asimov books a few days ago, The prelude to foundation and foundation... can't wait

take care,

[Odainsaker 2,135]

Good choices ExiL3. Oddly enough, Prelude to Foundation was written after the popularity of the original Foundation, which itself was written as a series of magazine short stories. Although Asimov in his latter writings tried to set up and tie his books together in a chronology within his own fictional universe, it is not necessary to read them in that order, and sometimes it is even better not to read them in that order. Kinda like George Lucas making prequels to his successful trilogy...you get more out of watching Anakin when you already know Darth Vader. Hence, the sequence might be:

Foundation

Foundation and Empire

Second Foundation

Foundation's Edge

Foundation and Earth

Prelude to Foundation

Forward the Foundation

Fortunately, Asimov is fast and straight forward reading, so if you find you like the Foundation series and its vast historical arc, you can get the full expansive experience by also reading the Robot detective series, which Asimov would plot to setup the later Foundation universe. The Robot series sequence has The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn, and Robots and Empire. The two later Foundation books Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth have greater impact with their fun surprises if you have read this Robot series first.  There are lots of other tangential books, but these are the most directly related to the greater story arc.

Lots of reading, but this is THE classic historical space epic, written with an eye to the scale of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.  Pretty much all other space epics, including Star Wars, are inspired by or measured against Asimov's.

[ExiL3 10]

Odainsaker: Wow, that sounds amazing. You know, I did find some article on the net explaining the order of those books (I must admit being a bit confused at first), and there it did point out that "prelude to foundation" did belong before "foundation". Now you have made me even more confused, but hey, I guess there won't be anything wrong with reading prelude before the foundation book... Or do you INSIST on not doing that ?

I can't wait though, I have read a lot of fiction books, and adventure books before ( Everything from Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum to Raymond E. Feist(VERY GOOD adventure books) to J.R.R Tolkien (most of his work actually) and Jack McDevitt's DEEPSIX, which kinda opened my eyes for Science fiction. I really liked deepsix, a very good read.

Kinda funny though, I have always LOVED science fiction on TV, but never really thought about reading a SciFi book!? hmm...

take care,

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Having fought my way though Simmon's Illium, I am now about half way though Olympos.  Unless you like War and Peace type things with much triple plotting, look out for this one.

[Palpatine001 57]

Hmmmm Sci Fi novels are always fun to read when they have some depth behind them which is often hard. But one of my favourite Sci Fi novels of all time is the Foundation Series mentioned earlier, but the ones I'm going to mention is the Star Trek - A Time To... series followed by Articles of the Federation.

Great in the way we see how Picard is demonised by the very Federation he is suppose to protect and how his senior crew nearly all go their own way (Capt Riker and the Titan). Also we see how the Federation nearly went into a doomed war with the Klingons after the Tezwa Disaster (hmmm my spelling is out) that would of destroyed both the Federation and the Klingon Empire and the events that lead up to Star Trek Nemisis.

In Star Trek A Time for War and Time for Peace and the following Articles of the Federation we get the closest look we would ever see of the heart of the almighty United Federation of Planets through the demise of Dominion war hero Federtion President Min Zife; How Zife and his Chief of Staff secretly placed Pulse Cannons on Neutral Tezwa that borders the Klingon Empire, cannons designed to vapourise Tacticle Class One Borg Cubes that protect Unimaterix One (Borg Queen's Ship) but vapourised a Klingon Battle Fleet and nearly destroyed the Enterprise E if it wasnt for Picard and Data and a costly Federation Occupation plus war if the Klingons found out. How Picard and Gerodi found out about the cannons and the resulting of Section 31 "removing" Zife and co resulting in Nan Bacco winning the Election.

Articles of the Federation was unique, not since Star Trek Undiscovered Country have we seen the insides of Federation Politics, based around UFP President Nan Bacco after the occurance of Nemisis, we see how the Federation Council's inner workings as they and Bacco deal with crisis after crisis, including a council stonewalling her, the Klingon releations at new lows all while Romulan Star Empire - our oldest enemy finally falls over leaving the Federation as the only super power left in the known galaxy. However, Bacco pulls throw, restores relations with the Klingons, deals with a fragmented Romulan state and finds out the truth about Zife, and Admiral Ross's involvement, leading to his retirement.

All in all a great series and great for a new TV mini series.

We shall see where the future takes the Federation and her people.

[Palpatine001 57]

OK Sci Fi fans and others

I said I wouldn't disappoint, here is 2 cele photo ops I scored at the Auckland Armagedon Expo yesterday, and yes you get the see the face of Palpatine001, I should be more scared then you guys seeing my ugly mug

Without further ado

Yes thats me Palpatine001 (Ben) and Summer Glau from Serenity, Firefly and 4400.

And yes thats me again (and I am so not photo material) with Rachael from Stargate Atlantis

I'll post more later

[Palpatine001 57]

Oh while I remember, those Serenity Fans, there is talk of 2 more movies, just waiting from backing from Hollywood, which would take ages. Hmmm Peter Jackson, its up your alley, you give it a go seems Universal and Paramount Pulled out of Halo the dumb idiots. Jacksons normal backer New Line (LOTR) are looking at picking Halo up so this is going to be interesting.

[carson775 10]

sorry but you look really high in that second picture PALPatine.

other than that NICE!!!! SCORin with the ladies!

[Palpatine001 57]

Thanks for that . It wasn't helpful that I had nerves and my mate making a off hand remark while the shot was taken. But hey I felt lucky that day, Summer and Rachael are hot and I mean white hot. Hmm while I'm on this, I did meet Summer again the following day while she take a week's holiday in NZ before going out to Australia, she was touring the West Auckland Kemeu Vineyards and purchasing up some of the this nation's finest white wines (I live out in that part of the region). A real nice person to talk to although 3 days at armagedon would be tiring - I find 40 hours at university bad enough. I'm not gonna go into details while we were at the Vineyards but all in all was fun, minus feeling a bit sore the next morning from too much wine tasting.

[Joesocwork 4]

Originally posted by: Palpatine001 Oh while I remember, those Serenity Fans, there is talk of 2 more movies, just waiting from backing from Hollywood, which would take ages. Hmmm Peter Jackson, its up your alley...quote>

 

Considering that it bombed at the box office I'm kind of surprised. Albeit I wouldn't be surprised if the "browncoats" kept trying to keep the interest in those projects up, like trekkies/Trekkers did for the Star Trek franchise.  Serenity sparked mine to buy the Firefly series.  It makes me regret not noticing it when it first came on; that was a hidden gem of a show, a true SF/Western that was gritty and the characters had a lot of chemistry together.  I'd love to see it come back in some form if they brought back the characters killed off in Serenity.

The ladies look gorgeous.  I think you only simply look a little star struck.

[1973tr6 0]

Fred & Giner & EasyBakes:  Her son Todd has started writing Pern stories, and as far as I can tell, is doing a bang-up job of it.  I can't wait until Hollywood discovers these stories and makes a StarWars type series of movies out of them.  There should only be 15 or 20 movies there!!  I have only read 1 or 2 of her other books, but wouldn't miss a Pern novel.  I think she is my most favorite author of all.  The only other author that I have re-read is Asimov's Foundation.

Saturday night tv here has a double feature of SG and Farscape. 

[Easy Bakes 253]

Originally posted by: 1973tr6 Fred & Giner & EasyBakes:  Her son Todd has started writing Pern stories, and as far as I can tell, is doing a bang-up job of it.  I can't wait until Hollywood discovers these stories and makes a StarWars type series of movies out of them.  There should only be 15 or 20 movies there!!  I have only read 1 or 2 of her other books, but wouldn't miss a Pern novel.  I think she is my most favorite author of all.  The only other author that I have re-read is Asimov's Foundation.

Saturday night tv here has a double feature of SG and Farscape. quote>

 

Yes He wrote the last one  Dragons Kin but havent seen another one since then

Mrs  McCaffery is 80  and im not sure she would be too keen on any  Pern movies

being made, shes probably the one keeping them from being made at this point.When she passes on  there will probably be a miniseries or something along the line of The Dune thing Scifi Chanel did a few years ago i dont for see them makeing a big budget moive out of them.

.

 

[Easy Bakes 253]

Speaking of Dragons.

http://www.alagaesia.com/eragon.htm

There releasing a movie of a self published Fantasy Novel.

http://www.eragonmovie.com/main.html?cid=us

[Palpatine001 57]

Dragons? Ok who is seeing Eragon when it comes out? I might as it looks interesting

[Easy Bakes 253]

I Plan too.

Not much more else out there except The good Shepard that interests me.

[Palpatine001 57]

Ok I saw Eragon and all I can say is BORING, sorry resembles too much of LOTR and not being kiwi nor kiwinese biased, I adore and love LOTR!

Moving this along we have some good games around that are Sci Fi such as EVE and Empire at War, now I play both and am creating a coporation for EVE, more detail soon but post your reviews of them here

[Fred_Ginger 1]

I saw Eragon with a friend who had also read the book(s) and my sister who hadn't read them but had read some reviews of the movie. The reviews panned the movie, said 'it didn't follow the book' but I rather enjoyed it as did my friend, we felt that the parts of the book that had been left out of the movie (all that trekking back and forth while the dragon grew up etc.) didn't need to be in the movie as it would have added hours and not advanced the movie that much. As to it being boring, well, that's one persons view, but I myself was disappointed when it ended, of course I've read the 2nd book and know there is much more to come!

[Easy Bakes 253]

Originally posted by: Fred_Ginger I saw Eragon with a friend who had also read the book(s) and my sister who hadn't read them but had read some reviews of the movie. The reviews panned the movie, said 'it didn't follow the book' but I rather enjoyed it as did my friend, we felt that the parts of the book that had been left out of the movie (all that trekking back and forth while the dragon grew up etc.) didn't need to be in the movie as it would have added hours and not advanced the movie that much. As to it being boring, well, that's one persons view, but I myself was disappointed when it ended, of course I've read the 2nd book and know there is much more to come!quote>

 

I kinda noticed that she got big real fast.

other wise i liked the movie, will wait for the next ones mabey taken as a group of movies

they will seem better.

[ExiL3 10]

I didn't like Eragon, too fast forward, too much untold. Boring history, ... bad package.

take care,

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I have read both Eragon books.  Frankly, folks, there is a better dragon story going wanting.  I'd rather see a motion picture series made of the Pern novels by Anne McCaffery.