Arthur C. Clarke: 1917-2008

“What’s going to happen?”
“Something wonderful!”
— Heywood Floyd and Dave Bowman, 2010: Odyssey Two

When I heard the news, I was floored. One can usually point to what got you into SF, which in my case was Star Wars, but what got me into science fiction was Arthur C. Clarke. 2001: A Space Odyssey certainly drew me in, but it was reading his short stories along with Isaac Asimov and others who helped me appreciate the beauty of well-written science fiction — fiction based solidly in science.

Of course, I also think Clarke was a pretty good writer. If you’ve ever read 2010: Odyssey Two, then you have to remember the suspenseful ending that starts with Dave Bownman sending an instant message to Heywood Floyd. And the redemption of HAL is one of the best scenes in science fiction, IMHO of course.

Lunar Bases with Opening Windows

Keith Povall commented:

In the awful TV series Space 1999, there was an episode [The Last Sunset from Season One —Travers] where a probe lands on the moon and makes an Earth like atmosphere.

Fair enough.  But there is a scene, where Commander Koenig opens a window to breathe in the fresh air.

Really, Moonbase Alpha, purpose built on the moon where there is no air, but manufactured with opening windows (just in case).

Freeze Dried Spacemen

The sirens are going off. The space ship has just been hit by an asteroid. The air-tight bulkheads slam shut. But look! Someone’s trapped behind. He bangs furiously on the door while his comrades try desperately to override the locks, but suddenly, there’s an ominous clang. He looks over his shoulder and suddenly the panel gives way and he’s sucked out into space where he freezes solid…. or explodes. Maybe both.

Only problem with that… it ain’t so…

Detecting Cylons

Something’s been bugging me since… the damned mini-series.

How come it’s so hard to detect the new Cylons?  They can interface with computer networks with their left arms, their spines glows, have superhuman strength and indurance and can somehow download terrabytes of information wirelessly just before death.  And no one can tell them from humans without really hard tests using radioactivity.

Anyone care to take a crack at this one?

Top 10 errors?

Found this today:

http://listverse.com/movies/top-10-errors-in-science-fiction-movies/

I gotta disagree on some of these.

Commandments of SF

I thought this was pretty funny.

 http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Essays/Commandments.html

New Season of TV SF

Hooey! Sorry for the gap, but I was busy/tired/sick/tired/tired/tired (who ever came up with working for a living should be… well…) Anyway…

Talk about spoiled for riches. After what seemed like a drought of SF (Speculative Fiction in this case) on TV, we’ve got a bunch of them all at once.

Image Enhacements

I thought this post captures the problem in movies & TV shows quite accurately.

Ships Always Have the Same Orientation When They Meet

The Starship Enterprise slows to one quarter impulse as it meets a new alien race. The alien ship pulls closer and after hundreds of light years, has the same orientation as the Enterprise.

One Planetwide Timezone

Andreas Hartl sent me this one:

My favorite (from ST:VOY, some episode in season 1 or 2):

The crew of the Voyager has to get some samples of a rare and highly needed plant from the surface of a planet. The whole episode no restrictions of where to find this plant were made. Yet as they decide to go down on the planet, Paris makes one proposition: “I recommend to wait until noon; the weather on the planet can be very unpleasant during night”.