scifi films

[Moonshane]

I liked 'contact' i thought it was cleverly done..far fetched but still..hmm..remotely possible??

I love Contact too. Mainly though for the Science / Religion battle in it. My favourite bit is when Jodie Foster describes her experience and how no-one can appreciate what it was like - and basically describes a relationship with God - superbly written (by Carl Sagan by the way which explains why it's so realistic).

I'm an atheist before anyone jumps on me.

[Moonshane]

How long is a piece of string?

exactly twice the distance from the middle to one end

[Moonshane]

As daft as it ended, i thought 'signs' was entertaining.

Al

I agree mate - there's nothing wrong with this sort of thing. I love it. just modern equivalents of The Creature from the Black Lagoon and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. I love most sci-fi, sorry SyFy good or bad.

[Talitha]

I love Solaris its well "out there" i would liek to see the russian films its based on.

Another Solaris fan here. I'm not too big on sci-fi really, but picked up a copy when the price dropped to $5. Glad i did too, it's fantastic.

Regarding the old sci-fi stuff, has anyone ever seen episodes of the old 'Flash Gordon' series with Buster Crabbe? You'll laugh till you can't breathe, they're so awful. Maybe you-tube has some of them.

[Moonshane]

Regarding the old sci-fi stuff, has anyone ever seen episodes of the old 'Flash Gordon' series with Buster Crabbe? You'll laugh till you can't breathe, they're so awful. Maybe you-tube has some of them.

This is just my point - see above - I LOVE the old Flash Gordon - grew up on it. Nobody, but nobody can throw a dirty evil look like The Merciless Ming.

[Lowstar]

Contact was a good movie but sadly came out around the same time as Independance Day which seemed to be more popular at the box office with the punters.

I liked Alien. Hope none of those things come to visit:icon_eek:

Will.

[Astro_Baby]

I preferred the Russian original of Solaris - more broody and dark.

As to flashing panels of lights Stanislaw Lem got it right in the story that Solaris was based on. The space shuttle to the space station only hjas one dial which shows distance to the space station. The rest is automated.

2001 gets quite close as well and when you look at the displays in the Orion shuttle they are pretty similar to modern aircraft and the design of the Orion is pretty close to HOTOL in its layout.

Forbidden Planet also has a wonderful retro feel to its technology - you never know in the far future they may go 'retro' in their designs.

[brianb]

As to flashing panels of lights Stanislaw Lem got it right in the story that Solaris was based on. The space shuttle to the space station only hjas one dial which shows distance to the space station. The rest is automated.

That's Russian space technology for you - man in a can, all decisions come from the central committee. Even the early Mercury astronauts were expected to manouvre their spacecraft attitudes; all Yuri Gagarin had to do was survive.

The really interesting things about the control panels (not the displays) on the spacecraft in "2001" is how similar they are to the control panels on 1960s IBM computers - arrays of rectangular buttons with lights behind them to show when they're engaged, etched with the name of the function. I almost expected Hal to be provided with a golf ball head printer and a card reader ....

[Naz]

That's Russian space technology for you - man in a can, all decisions come from the central committee. Even the early Mercury astronauts were expected to manouvre their spacecraft attitudes; all Yuri Gagarin had to do was survive.

The really interesting things about the control panels (not the displays) on the spacecraft in "2001" is how similar they are to the control panels on 1960s IBM computers - arrays of rectangular buttons with lights behind them to show when they're engaged, etched with the name of the function. I almost expected Hal to be provided with a golf ball head printer and a card reader ....

H = I

A = B

L = M

IBM computers were the inspiration behind HAL, just use the letter before in the alphabet

[brianb]

just use the letter before in the alphabet

Arthur C Clarke always claimed that this was an accident. As far as I'm aware, Stanley Kubrick never commented. IBM certainly paid money towards the production of the film for product placement - as did Pan Am, Howard Johnson (hotels) & Bell Telephone.

[Astro_Baby]

When I worked in IBM t5he story internally was that HAL was supposed to be an IBM machine. The logo around HAL is in fact in the style of IBM System 360 mainframes with the blue and black stripe and a similar font style. The story was when IBM realised that the computer was to be cast as the evil genius they pulled the plug.

There was a lot of computer parania even in the 70s refelected in films like 'The Forbin Project' so IBMS attitude was understandable (if the story is true).

Your right Brian - the control panels all look like the rotary selectors off an IBM system 360 and the square lights/push buttons are very IBM. I have a box of them somewhere from a decommisioned 360 and a System 370 header plate off an old System 370/168 that was scrapped.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I really hate those made for tv movies that you see on the SyFy channel. Funnily enough most of them star Stephen Baldwin.