Science Fiction

[Kernel]

So there often seems to be a correlation between people interested in Computers & Technology and having an interest in Sci-Fi.

So who likes Star Trek/Star wars/Stargate etc? (or any other scifi show/book/movie)

[MDC]

What about graphic novels?

I have only read Watchmen so far but I liked it.

Star Trek - I have only seen Next Generation and Voyager and liked those but they don't repeat the original series on Freeview TV so I haven't seen them

Starwars - I have seen the original trilogy and liked them, but thought the prequels were alright but nothing to shout about (Same with Indiana Jones and it's follow up).

Stargate - I have seen a few of the series and thought it was alright. I saw the Original film last month on Film4.

Anyone else read The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy series (just thought I would mention it)?

[jamesh]

I have a pretty big collection of SF book, from 1940-50's pulp to modern day. I also have DVD box sets of Stargate, Stargate Atlantic, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, UFO, Babylon 5, and lots of individual DVDs of SF films.

Does that count?

Favourite book. Probably City and the Stars by AC Clarke. Read as a boy, never forgotten it. Also most stuff by David Brin is pretty good. Favourite film. Hmm, really enjoyed Aliens, and Total Recall. Blade runner is also pretty good! I'll keep thinking.

[MDC]

What about the classic film and book (H.G Wells) of the same name The Time Machine?

Nothing like a good Murlock

[RaTTuS]

Philip K. Dick is someone to read - seriously

[grumpyoldgit]

No-one's mentioned Asimov yet. His were the first S.F. I read. I have a particular fondness for the robot stories.

[Montekuri]

Grumpyoldgit said:


No-one's mentioned Asimov yet. His were the first S.F. I read. I have a particular fondness for the robot stories.



Oh, yes. Let's build a robot with a R-Pitronic brain wih the 3 Laws:

- Read the faq first;

- Read the wiki;

- And then, search in the forum.

[Burngate]

Hmm books ... where to start? Rough guess I've got 3000

Alphabetically by author would be: Aldiss Anderson Asimov Ballard Baxter Bear Benford Blish Bova Brin Brunner  ... Disch Dick ... Niven Pohl Pournelle ... ... White Wyndham ... Zelazney - those are some I can read from here

I'm rereading Hoyle ATM

Possible favourite Stand on Zanzibar. Or Helliconia series. or ...

[Kernel]

MDC said:


What about graphic novels?

Anyone else read The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy series (just thought I would mention it)? 
yes feel free to discuss novels

Not yet but it is one of the books on my very long to-read list!

JamesH said:


I have a pretty big collection of SF book, from 1940-50's pulp to modern day. I also have DVD box sets of Stargate, Stargate Atlantic, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, UFO, Babylon 5, and lots of individual DVDs of SF films.

Does that count?


YES!!

[timgiles]

Star Trek - all series - liked them all for different reasons (no, not just So9, Troy etc...!!)

Stargate, SG1 will always be the best, but Atlantis was extremely good. I also really got in to SGU and thought it was such a shame it had not been sold to foreign markets. If they had added in all the people DLing it, would never have been cancelled.

Babylon 5 - Amazing space opera. Worth watching from start to finish, have done... 4 times now.

Lexx - bizarre, odd but strangely compelling. Loved every episode.

Andromeda - oh dear. Well, it was OK. A mixture of good and not so good and then downright weird episodes.

Farscape - another hit. Fabulous and extended just the right amount in to B5 space opera territory.

Firefly - OMG simply stunning. First series I bought on bluray, still can watch those few episodes again and again and Serenity was one of the best sci fi movies ever made.

V (2009/10) - a great remake. And again, such a shame it was cancelled. I dont understand why people didnt get it. acting, stories and CGI all top notch.

BSG - Original, new and Caprica. OK, the new BSG was stunning. The original was fun and Caprica had a real soul to it. Told a story that had never been told before. New BSG also had a fantastic ending, maybe not what everyone wanted, but damn it was good way to finish (or restart)

Doctor Who - personally I liked from 1980s onwards and the current remakes have been excellent. Torchwood is fabulous and a great tiein.

gosh.... too many scifi series.

[SN]

Some Sci Fi faves of mine

Films (a right mixed bag)

Forbidden Planet

2001 A Space Odyssey

Silent Running

Star Wars Episode 4

Bladerunner

Total Recall

Books

L Ron Hubbard's (of Scientology fame)

- Battlefield Earth (the book not the John Travolta film)

- Mission Earth (all 10, took me about 5 years to read them all!)

A Fall of Moondust - Arthur C Clarke - would have made a great film!

The Number of the Beast - Robert A Heinlein

[Kernel]

Timothy Giles said:


Star Trek - all series - liked them all for different reasons (no, not just So9, Troy etc...!!)

Stargate, SG1 will always be the best, but Atlantis was extremely good. I also really got in to SGU and thought it was such a shame it had not been sold to foreign markets. If they had added in all the people DLing it, would never have been cancelled.

Babylon 5 - Amazing space opera. Worth watching from start to finish, have done... 4 times now.

Lexx - bizarre, odd but strangely compelling. Loved every episode.

Andromeda - oh dear. Well, it was OK. A mixture of good and not so good and then downright weird episodes.

Farscape - another hit. Fabulous and extended just the right amount in to B5 space opera territory.

Firefly - OMG simply stunning. First series I bought on bluray, still can watch those few episodes again and again and Serenity was one of the best sci fi movies ever made.

V (2009/10) - a great remake. And again, such a shame it was cancelled. I dont understand why people didnt get it. acting, stories and CGI all top notch.

BSG - Original, new and Caprica. OK, the new BSG was stunning. The original was fun and Caprica had a real soul to it. Told a story that had never been told before. New BSG also had a fantastic ending, maybe not what everyone wanted, but damn it was good way to finish (or restart)

Doctor Who - personally I liked from 1980s onwards and the current remakes have been excellent. Torchwood is fabulous and a great tiein.

gosh.... too many scifi series.



Trek is amazing - currently watching TNG reruns on CBS Action these days - and BluRay's are coming soon

Not a big fan of ENT but it is ok

Things seem to have changed with the new Star Trek Movie and the reboted universe - I preferred the older stuff

SG1 was epic - the earlier seasons a lot more than the later ones, SGA could have continued - SGA was slow to start but it picked up - they shouldn't have had the stones either to communicate with Earth - SGA also had issues once they could gate back/fly to Pegasus

B5 - my friend keeps telling me to watch - haven't gotten round to it yet as he recommneds watching it in a continuous run rather than one season now and another in a few months time etc.

Lexx - not seen

Farscape - liked that (but not when two of them turned up in SG1 then SG1 changed a lot)

Firefly - wasn't into it when it first came out and wasn't sure about the western concept - but watched it eventually and loved it - was nice to see Jewel Staite in SGA (as Dr), Morena Baccarin (in SG1 as Adria and in V as Anna) & Summer Glau has been in some cool stuff (like Dollhouse & Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles)

V 2010: yeah got cancelled when it was getting good, haven't seen the original version

BSG: I agree - though Caprica was a bit all over the place shame we didn't see more

Doctor Who: Absolutely love it - Tennant was the best doctor from the remake

Torchwood: Also very good - Children of the Earth the 3rd season was just epic

some other mentions:

Sanctuary: Starring Amanda Tapping (of SG1 fame) as a Dr who studies mysterious 'abnormal' lifeforms - a nice show and nice to see Amanda again

Merlin: Straying into fantasy rather than scifi now but a nice fun show to watch

[Montekuri]

"Lost in Space" was part of my childhood:

[grumpyoldgit]

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books have been mentioned. The film was OK, the TV series better but the radio series came before all the rest and had me really hooked at the time.

[JustThisGuy]

RE: HGTTG Movie -

I was so looking forward to Alan Rickman's turn as Marvin! The movie was blah and it felt like the director never let Rickman out of the starting gate. I was disappointed. Love the books. After all, I'm just this guy, ya know?

District 9, Primer, (I can't believe no one has mentioned this one) Pi, Serenity & Firefly (watch them every couple of months).

I second Philip K Dick, any and all the books. Forget Minority Report the Movie (Too much Spielberg, not enough Dick).

Iain Banks is a current favorite. Dan Simmons' Hyperion and Endymion books. Anything Azimov or Heinlein, The Kim Stanley Robinson's book "Variable Star" channels RAH quite well.

Don't get me started on Sci-Fi. I've been reading it since Tom Swift Jr..

Edit: punctuation.

[johnbeetem]

Blasts from the past…

In my teens I read most of the books by my avatar, with 20,000 Leagues (both book and James Mason movie) probably most influential.  I read The Mysterious Island in a few days — not exactly SF, but you've got to love a book where the engineer is the major hero who can do anything.  The books with Robur are pretty cool too.  I like what Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill did with my avatar's works in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (the book — I've been warned away from the movie).

IMO, one of the best and most relevant early SF stories nowadays is E. M. Forster's "The Machine Stops" (1909) which describes the modern Internet and social networking astonishingly well.

[johnbeetem]

MDC said:

Star Trek - I have only seen Next Generation and Voyager and liked those but they don't repeat the original series on Freeview TV so I haven't seen them 
To me, there is only one Star Trek.  I saw most of the episodes in black & white when they were first broadcast.  Next Generation?  A friend of mine once said the whole premise of NG is wrong:


How could anyone believe that by the 25th Century nobody had developed a cure for baldness?

[jamesh]

JustThisGuy said:


RE: HGTTG Movie -

I was so looking forward to Alan Rickman's turn as Marvin! The movie was blah and it felt like the director never let Rickman out of the starting gate. I was disappointed. Love the books. After all, I'm just this guy, ya know?

District 9, Primer, (I can't believe no one has mentioned this one) Pi, Serenity & Firefly (watch them every couple of months).

I second Philip K Dick, any and all the books. Forget Minority Report the Movie (Too much Spielberg, not enough Dick).

Iain Banks is a current favorite. Dan Simmons' Hyperion and Endymion books. Anything Azimov or Heinlein, The Kim Stanley Robinson's book "Variable Star" channels RAH quite well.

Don't get me started on Sci-Fi. I've been reading it since Tom Swift Jr..

Edit: punctuation.


Anything Heinlein? Even "The Number Of the Beast", which, in my view, was bloody awful. I only read it to the end to see whether it got better. It never did! Truly, stunning, woefully awful.

IMHO.

[Kernel]

John Beetem said:


MDC said:


Star Trek - I have only seen Next Generation and Voyager and liked those but they don't repeat the original series on Freeview TV so I haven't seen them


To me, there is only one Star Trek.  I saw most of the episodes in black & white when they were first broadcast.  Next Generation?  A friend of mine once said the whole premise of NG is wrong:


How could anyone believe that by the 25th Century nobody had developed a cure for baldness?




Maybe he liked being bald? just like he liked all that other old ancient stuff and experiences (then again Sisko was bald too)

I think TNG had more time to develop the characters and most episodes didn't revolve around the captain and some attractive alien woman!! (which isn't a bad thing in itself!)

[JustThisGuy]

JamesH said:


Anything Heinlein? Even "The Number Of the Beast", which, in my view, was bloody awful. I only read it to the end to see whether it got better. It never did! Truly, stunning, woefully awful.


Ok, ok. There at the end he got real sloppy with his books. I guess I have to agree as I stopped reading his stuff after 'The Number...'. I'll backtrack and say I liked a lot of his early space operas, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, Stranger in a Strange Land & Time Enough For Love.

[spamel]

Glad to see the Hyperion quantos has been mentioned. If you haven"t read it yet, go get the books!

[scep]

Old school here: Asimov; Heinlein; Dick (if he wasn't  "just" a SciFi writer  he'd have had all sorts of mainstream literary awards thrown at him.)

And then, of course, Jack Vance. "Planet of Adventure" gets a re-read every other year. And Cugel ("The Dying Earth" books)  is one of the all time great characters in any genre – up there with any Dickens mentalist. Makes me laugh every time

More contemporary stuff (well, the 80s when I mostly stopped reading SciFi): Julian May's "Golden Torc" series;  John Varley's "Gaea" trilogy; Gene Wolfe's "Book of the New Sun";

And lastly Orson Scott Card. Not because I've read any of his stuff, but because he calls out JK Rowling for the overrated, nasty piece of work that she is

[oninoshiko]

Have to agree with everyone else here on Asimov, Dick, and Heinlein (hrm... this sounds like a law firm).

Someone meantioned "Stranger in a Strange Land" I ask, which version? The originally published version had been gutted by the publisher, but there was a copy of the original manuscript that turned up. It has been published posthumosly, and is FAR better.

My only complaint with Azimov, is [spoiler]toward the end he started trying to tie the "I, Robot" and the "Foundation" universes together. They stand well on their own, the connection always seemed forced to me.[/spoiler]

Star Trek (et. al) - I liked this when I was younger, and it still has a pleasent nestalga for me, but the everyone is unrealistic in how well they get along.

B5 - Recently tried rewatching this. Frankly, while I still like the plotline, and the humor, the CG has not aged well. It really was pretty amazing when it came out, But I almost wish I wasn't CG.

Stargate (et. al.) - I liked these. SG:SG1 went on too long, I think. SG:A needed to go on longer. SG:U... Mixed feelings, would have liked more closure on it.

Firefly/Serenity - Best thing Jos ever did. Phenominal.

Who can forget the Alien triligy? Really, I think the setting has held up increadibly well. I the Nostromo really looks like a mining crew lives there. The crew interactions too, far more rounded then much of the average fare. (things go downhill after 3 though) (most of these comments hold true for the Abyss, too)

How about Ark? They are little shorter then normal TV, but the production quality seems good, and it keeps you wanting to know more. I need to see if they have done more.

[S0litaire]

guys If you're in the UK

Check out your local Stage/ Theatre between June/July

Original Radio Cast performance of Hitchickers Guide to the Galaxy

http://www.hitchhikerslive.com/

Arthur Dent is having a bad day.

Both his house and his planet have been demolished. The girl he really - really - fancies is on the third arm of a two-headed alien. His best friend isn't from Guildford after all, but a small planet near Betelgeuse. He hasn't even managed to find himself a decent cup of tea. And he's still wearing his dressing gown ...

This year you can experience the ultimate sci-fi comedy epic first hand, from the Heart Of Gold to the Restaurant At the End Of The Universe, performed live on stage by Simon Jones, Susan Sheridan, Geoff McGivern, Mark Wing-Davey and other original Hitchhiker's cast members under the direction of Dirk Maggs, Douglas Adams's choice to complete the saga in its original medium.

Oh Happy (American) Pi day  3/14 1:59

[riffraff]

  Everyone's hitting on my faves

StarTrek: TOS, Voyager, Enterprise (not so much TNG or DS-9, a little to lib preachy)

StarGate SG-1 (not so much spin-offs)

Ark (Haven't seen in long time)

Silent Running (haven't heard anyone mention that in decades)

Good stuff from your side of the pond:

Dr. Who

Tripods

Authors

P.K. Dick, Asimov, Poul Anderson, R. A. Heinlein (the terribull spellur), Arthur C. Clarke (the indisputable king of hard science), Harry Harrison, Ben Bova, E.R. Burroughs... so many I've forgotten about over the years... definitely Orson Scott Card (he's a master at character development). Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (both his books and his "Computing at Chaos Manor" columns for Byte magazine back in the day). Even Stephen King, he says he's terrible at Sci-Fi, but I remember a couple of short stories he'd written in that were quite good, plus Dark Tower series incorporates some SF elements brilliantly, he underestimates himself.

Recently, I got hooked on H. Beam Piper, Pournelle was his editor at Tor back in the early '60's before he committed suicide. Such a loss. Great writer, great social analysis. Had he lived, he would have been intrigued by, and probably predicted a lot of political trends and current events, esp. in Middle East. I would love to see his stories get a tech update and brought to the screen.You'll find some of his stuff at Project Gutenberg at http://www.gutenberg.org/.