h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Up to a point, I'm not sure I don't agree with him.
And ya notice, Ellison don't crank out novels anymore. Maybe he learned something aobut himself?

Yeah, I've read "the Long Walk". Wasn't that a story in the "Four Seasons"?

"Dreamcatcher", like "The Tommyknockers", is part of King's I-used-to-read-Lovecraft-and-Heinlein-but-I-can't-be-bothered-to-get-off-the-planet-or-hold-myself-to-twenty-pages collection of work. He takes what would be just an opening incident in another arfur's work and just beats it to death for 600 pages.
Hell, ol-what's his name, that wrote "Centennial", would have gone from the Mesozoic(sp?) to the early 40's in just three hundred pages, while Stephen can't get through a week sometimes.
What's "Dreamcatcher" encompass, all of two days?

So you can do better? Lois and Clark, Leah (sp?) and Luke, all are damned fine entertainment! If they're poor science, so what? (1) A story stands or falls on whether its audience is entertained. If the story or its author *claimed* to be good science, that would be different, but (AFAIK) they don't.

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

(1) sometimes *science* is poor science!

BTW, I think we can all accept that Science Fiction often bears little relation to science, what about "science fantasy"? A great genre with some talented authors (and some less so... ) but "science"?

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

Remember "cold fusion"?

Was that fiction or fantasy or just "vaporware"?

Good science or Bad Science (or maybe fiction, if it was fabricated...)?

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

I liked the Western tail-yanking aspect of Clark's "The Nine Million Names of God".
Good ol' old-fashioned computers.
"The stars began to wink out, one by one..."

It's amazing (to me) that Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey hasn't been mentioned as a pinnacle of sf films - ok, so it was mentioned in post 120, but just in passing. The article on science fiction films in h2g2 is great - names the very movies I love as great sf. Contact, 2001, Blade Runner ... all great. Can't imagine anyone ever eclipsing 2001. I'm wondering if anyone else out there thinks "Pi" should be considered sf? It's more of a personal and internal journey about the quest for knowledge, but it seems to have other qualities that certainly are similar to those of classic sf.

- JD

Oh yeah, I would count 'Pi' as real science fiction. As I would 'Cube'. And, of course, 'The day The Earth Stood Still'. Not sure about 'This Island Earth' cus it goes a bit cheesy to be honest.

In all of those films (well, the first three anyhow), human beings are still human beings, and they react to the situation they are presented with in totally human ways. However, it is the very nature of those situation that make these films SF.

I would go on, but I'll have to start thinking at that point, and right now I really don't want to.


Geggs

I have always considered "2001" to be marginal sciffy at best.
It wanders far into hard fantasy territory.

Let's think about it for a moment:
apes

monolith

violence

moon

monolith

ape descendants

ape descendant's Artificially Intelligent Computer

monolith

violence

Jupiter

moon of jupiter

lots of real trippy images and odd camera tricks.

really bad decorating and fashion choices.

Old ape descendant who survives violence by computer dies and turns into a fetus...

credits

"ooo, that was a Science Fiction Film?
Wow.
Um, heavy.
I don't understand it, so it must be either crap or a classic."

And don't even get me started on the sequels.

Pi was just a psychological thriller for me, a story of one man's obsession... One Hour Photo but with maths.

Kickass soundtrack though.

I agree. I can't think of 2001 as just SF and certainly not the sequels. But there are some very good SF ideas in there.

Nice camera work though

So what are you fav sci-fi films then..??

I could say "Read the backlog!" but I'm in a good mood ...

Planet of the Apes - not the crap remake
Soylent Green
Blade Runner - directors cut, of course
Silent Running

There are others too, but those were the ones that sprang to mind when I was posting.

Sorry, did everyone list their fav's then..?? Planet of the apes is quality (Old not over-rated Tim Burton remake) I don't think i've sat through Bladerunner all the way through.. I Just got bored.. Gutted cos most people say its great..

Most people seem to have mentioned their favourites.

The discussion was about good SF, as opposed to films which might be action packed, might be funny and may be even worth some award or other, but while labelled as SF, aren't. Like The Core, Independence Day and Star Wars, where the science doesn't matter.

Do you have any favourite SF movies?

Yeah i got the jist.. I posted some stuff on the first couple of pages.. It seams no-one in here agrees on what a sci-fi film is Butr theres also the 'Space opera' thing going on which to me is a bit daft, Spades a spade after all.. Fav Sci-fi movies would include

Terminator, Alien/s, Star wars, Alien mine (Only cos i grew up with it ) Other stuff like Tron and stuff.. Theres probably alot more but can't think of any off hand.. I haven't seen the Core though.. Is that really bad..??

Don't know why the hell i said Alien mine.. Obviously meant Enemy mine..

No idea about The Core, haven't seen it.

Oh.. Fair enough.. What do you think Matrix reloaded is going to be like...? Im quite worried about it..

Favourite Sci-fi films: Blade Runner, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Dark Star (not well made but humorous), Alien (not the sequals though), 2001, Solyent Green, The Day of the Triffids (BBC TV series not, definitely not, the film with Howard Keel), Fifth Element, Twelve Monkeys, Stargate (TV series not film), Evolution.

I'm not a big sci-fi watcher/reader (although used to be in my teens) and really couldn't care less if the plot/science is plausible or not.

I didn't like the original Star Trek series (prefered Doctor Who), TNG was okay (a bit too moralizing and preachy though). Star Wars just bores me and I gave up on the Phantom Menace (is that it's name?) about quarter of a way through. Is the X-Files sci-fi? Not that I care for the X-Files much either!

Star Trek Voyager with Captain Handbag would be much better without Neelix (and the moralizing - don't talk about it, just kill them!)- for some bizarre and inexplicable reason he annoys the cr*p out of me. I've never watched DS9 or Babylon 5.

Book wise - Douglas Adams of course, Kurt Vonnegut (who claims not to write sci-fi), Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov. A few others besides. Not really any dislikes as such since I read very few sci-fi these days.