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

Don't bother, really don't. "Expensive B-movies" says it all. Whatever Lucas is up to, I can't fathom it. I took my eldest child on my crossbar to see the first one when it came out, I think it was 1977 (he was seven). We enjoyed it, particularly the robots and the way the gigantic spaceships crawled onto the screen from above. Beyond that and the ground-breaking dance of the small spaceships, it was pure B-movie, and unashamedly so.

Incredibly the trajectory has been straight downhill in every subsequent episode. The technology has improved steadily but its splendour has been more than offset every step of the way by clunky dysfunctional scripts and an apparent ban on acting.

But then I don't get Star Trek either. It must be me. What really gives me the heebie jeebies about both these series is the ghastly philosophy they exude.

Well, quite! From what I've heard, I can see no reason to see any of them. Mind you - even if they were conveniently on TV and I had nothing better to do, my perversity would dictate that I'd have to avoid them.

Strange how some people seem to regard Star Wars (and other SF) as a lifestyle choice.


By the way...I used to know somebody who one a national design prize for designing a recumbant bicycle.

Wow! Which one? Thee are lots of good designs; the PDQ seems to have spawned a lot of imitators, with its brilliant chain cross-over device that makes a short wheelbase possible. My brother has an American recumbent that is long and heavy and horribly inefficient. My son (no longer on my crossbar) has a Bike E which is a goodish compromise -- long but not too heavy.

His name was Dave something, and he designed the bike while doing an MSc in Product Design Engineering @ Glasgow School of Art....if that's any help. I don't know if it ever entered production.

*Buts in* The first two Star Wars movies, the original ones, were brilliant, but the rest were fair to horrid.

May the force be with you two sci fi curmudgeons.

JEllen