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

Can I twist the thread slightly (I dont think it was mentioned but had to skim as I'm at work) and mention some fantastic writing on a TV show that was popular, american fluff apparently... Yet won awards for genuinely excellent quality work (amongst the teenage stuff...)

I speaking of Buffy the Vampire Slayer of course. I wouldnt bother with the novels, but there are two episodes...

One is HUSH the award winning episode with no dialog which not only tells the story of the ep but also manages to continue and positively carry along the overall arcs of the series.

But in terms of intelligent and thought provoking, fantasy more than sci fi, I would recommend you find the episode in S7 where Buffy, having been brought back from 'heaven' (she was finally at peace, not having to deal with the pain of her mother being dead, bringing up her younger sister who was going off the rails etc) and placed in a world that needed her more than ever but is even harsher and scarier than it was before... Anyway, Suddenly, we have a switch. Buffy is actually in an institution. Her parents are alive and well and, more importantly, together. They are trying to help her, saying she has been ill and that the whole thing has been a fabrication in her mind and that to get well again she has to conciously forget about her life, her friends (who are being butchered in front of her, but she is crouched, unable to move, trapped in her own head) and make a real effort to be lucid and live in the 'real' world...

Ok, just a quick summary, but the writers and directors on that show (particularly Joss who is, in my opinion, a GOD among us) have a touch that really manages to carry these stories and make them more than just another story twist to keep us interested. This is why I'm a fan of Buffy... I actually care.

Anyway, thought it belonged in this thread as it will probably be overlooked by fantasy and sci-fi snobs, but is, IMO underrated, and what better story than that of a superhero who is troubled and pained by life, given the choice to turn the clock back and be normal... Would Spiderman? Would Superman? Buffy didnt...

heya.... i bet theres a thread that is better suited.... i mean, c'mon, it's not at all intelligent sci-fi, as you said yourself.... sorry, but i think i'm probably a sci-fi snob to a degree and really dont think much of buffy anyway...

If you want "Intelligent Sci-Fi" on TV then please check out Battlestar Galactica 2003.

Simply fantastic....

Hee hee hee... I like to stir up the snobby sci-fi brigade... Well, I noticed there was other fantasy mentioned, and I believe the OP did ask for more than just books...

I suggest anybody who likes comics and who perhaps enjoyed Firefly (amazing series, honestly cant believe it was axed, though the shooting from a space suit only works for the first shot, Joss.) should give Buffy an honest chance... If you're only into your really hard Sci fi, then theres just no hope for you

*sigh*

...lost cause...

btw is fast becoming my favourite smiley

Well, Buffy is a great show especially the episodes you mention. Smallville kind of ripped off the second one. But it isn´t sci-fi though. I´ve watched almost the entire first season of Galactica, and that also is not that sci-fi but still better than being called space opera. The comparison with West Wing is probably quite accurate.

I dunno, there is a fair amount of "Kick-ass" sci-fi in BSG. Just a lot more as well.

I think it is just sometimes hard to square TV sci-fi with good characterisation, acting and intelligent plotting!

If we are talking about movies then here's one that does tie in with the thread's heading.
It has elements of Shakespeare's The Tempest and there is some nods to Greek mythology in several parts of the film not the least being the use of the name "Bellerophon" for a ship involved in exiling the main character and also the allusions to Bellerophon's story throughout the plot.
It is a movie with many 'firsts'; first fully electronic soundtrack and the first movie where us puny humans construct a flying saucer, the first movie adhering to Asimov's famous 'Three Laws of Robotics' and several more obscurities.
Gene Roddenberry creator of Star Trek acknowledged the influence it had on him when he began creating the TV series and someone mentioned the TV show 'Firefly', in one of it's episodes several references to this movie are made.

The movie is the cult classic 'Forbidden Planet' if you haven't seen it then hire it out, you wont be disappointed.
It has all the elements that Ferretbadger laments.

Oh', and of course it has the marvellous Robbie the Robot in his first screen appearance who lost in space's Robot shares many similarities.

"Heinlein's ideas are sometimes more interesting than his writings. HIs prose style could be a bit simple. Friday is one of the main examples of this." Friday is one of my faves, only disappointing toward the very end.

I never said I disliked Heinlein, BTW. To the contrary; just that some of his earliest novels were...uncomfortable for me, due to the jingoism/racism elements.

"Farmer in the Sky", on the other hand, is a pretty good coming of age novel, with an interplanetary "Where the Sidewalk Ends" (Maurice Sendak) flavor to it. I also like "Podkayne of Mars". Both of those were classed as young adult, but since I was one, they appealed.
Enough so, that I've been a space activist for 26 years...hence, the L5 Society and that party in San Francisco.

Joss Whedon rocks; definitely a God of SF/F! Pure and simple; I'm a huge Firefly fan, as well.

Slightly OT, but books to look out for: The Physics of the Buffyverse, by Jennifer Ouellette, and The Physics of Star Trek and Beyond Star Wars by Lawrence Krauss. These are none fiction, but deal with the *ideas* behind those shows. Surprisingly, not as trivial as it would seem...

Um, might be non-fiction, actually.

Ok, are we playing films and TV now? Cool!

Stargate SG1? I thought it came up with a lot of good answers to problems in many tv and film sci-fi, like "why do all the aliens look basically like us?" Also, it tied our history in with the plot very nicely. It was very original in lots of ways!

Also, what about the film "Tron"? Definitely original and outstanding considering it's age.

I enjoyed Buffy imensely and have a great respect for Joss Whedon, but I have to agree, it's not really sci fi.

Pow*

Tron is a total classic!!

(and the online 'Swron' is excellent too... its the tron bikes racing bit... give it a go.... iwas world no1 for a day or so a year ago.... forgot all about till you mentioned tron!

and the L5 society is...?
His writing obviously struck a chord with many and only when hubris took over in his later years did he lose the edge he had (IMO).
I too read his novels in my adolescence as well I might add the marvellous Edgar Rice Burroughs and the wonderful Barsoom and John Carter of Mars books.

Pure escapism.

the L5 Society was named for the L5 Lagrangian libration point, a place 60* ahead (or behind, I forget) the lunar position in it's orbit. An object, say, like a space station , placed in that spot, would require little fuel to maintain that position.

Here's a tad more info on libration points:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point

And the L5 Society: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L5_Society

We said that we'd meet in orbit to disband -- only we were silly enough at first to think that'd be in 1995! The L5 Society morphed into The National Space Society in 1986, by combining with The National Space Institute. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Space_Society

Well, you *did* ask...

As for TV, Farscape is possibly the ultimate in intelligent SF. Babylon 5 has its moments, but just doesn't quite measure up.

Never seen much of Farscape, when it was still on broadcast TV, and I don't have cable.

Getting back to the topic of books, does anyone know of some good SF dealing with the internet as the focus or the antagonist of the story? It occurs to me how we do things on it globally that mimic RL behaviour, and ways in which it's utterly changed how we react to others. Reason I'm thinking about this is, I went to a family party this evening, with a bunch of my late husband's family, and all the old behaviours came back, after 17 years! Amazing...

Ahem, like that there, that's what I mean. Hit the wrong button! The way I got back in touch was through the internet.

Does anyone know if there are any books with the internet as a *protagonist*? It figures in so many things in everyday life now: news travels faster, people can contact public figures they wouldn't have been able to, more quickly and more directly.

Have you ever thought about writing a story yourself. That sounds like a strong basis to start from! Necessity is supposedly the mother of invention after all.

Pow*

Well, there is always all the cyberpunk stuff by Gibson et al.