A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 30

To finish we need a great tune for the end credits -
what's your favourite sci-fi theme?

This one really is very, very easy, and conforms to what I'm certain must have been a running theme...

Doctor Who

Whether it's the creepy electronic original, or one of the synth-tastic '80s versions, or the orchestral TV movie recording, or one of Murray Gold's bombastic modern renderings, the Doctor Who theme is always unbeatable. It can inspire dread or excitement as needed, and that scream into the cliffhanger... Ah, perfection!

Plus, it's easily singalongable. Who hasn't at some point oo-wee-oo'd?


That's it! The end! What a good note to end on (see what I did there?)

I've quit enjoyed this, even if I did struggle with a few answers. Maybe I should try to find another one...

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A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 29

Best pre-1980s sci-fi

For this one I wanted something that was only pre-'80s -- so no Doctor Who (not even classic series only), no Star Wars or Star Trek, etc. Naturally cases could be made for all of these -- I could just have an era of Who, or the original Trek, or just Empire Strikes Back -- but I wanted to push for something different.

I don't know if "best" is quite the right word, and maybe I should've chosen this yesterday, but...

Flash Gordon serials

Larry "Buster" Crabbe starred in three of these cinema serials (the precursor of TV series, I suppose) in the '30s and '40s -- Flash Gordon, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe. They used to show them on BBC One on Saturday mornings in the late '90s (God that makes it sound long ago), when I was in the early year(s) of secondary school, and my friends and I used to love them.

They're silly and schlocky, and notorious for those kinds of cliffhangers where everything seems impossible... and in next week's recap something completely different happens and everything's OK. Ah, an age before repeats or VHS or harddrive recorders or iPlayer. Or, apparently, memory.

These things aren't Great in the proper use of the word -- there's no revolutionary SF concepts or fantastic screenplays or beautiful performances to be found -- but they're damn good fun, full of scrapes and spills and primitive special effects. They're a joy.

And I don't think I've seen all of them. I've seen at least two, because I remember the serial changed on the Beeb and suddenly the lead female characters had swapped hair colours, which was most confusing. I have two on DVD -- I hope different ones -- but I'm not sure which two, because they go under so many different titles. Quick read of Wikipedia suggests I have the first and third; don't know which I saw on telly. Anyway, I must try to right this and see them all.


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A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 28

A great sci-fi B-movie

I haven't seen many B-movies, those cheap '40s/'50s/etc films knocked out during the studio era to fill out cinema schedules, notorious for their so-bad-they're-good-ness. I feel I should've seen more. But when there are so many good films to watch...

Anyway, this is a complete and utter cheat, but tough.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

It's a tribute to the B-movie rather than a B-movie in its own right, but that's the best I can do.

It's wonderful for all sorts of reasons, but as this is meant to be about B-movies I'll mention some of those elements, because it's littered with them right from the start. I mean, if you were in any doubt, the opening song highlights it: Science Fiction Double Feature. It's there in the name, never mind the lyrics.

Then there's the Ordinary American Small-Town Couple who Get Lost In The Woods At Night, going to the Big Mysterious Mansion for help, where they find it's Full Of Weirdos who are conducting A Crazy Scientific Experiment, and it all goes loopy and Changes Them Forever, and there's a climax with Ray Guns and Aliens Who Look Like Humans, and no doubt all kinds of other things where I could capitalise every first letter and make it look like a widely-acknowledged trend. (I can't be bothered to surf through all of tv tropes for the real ones, but I bet all of these -- and more -- are on there.)

So no, it's not a B-movie. But it's the best homage to them there is. And if you've never even seen a proper B-movie, it's still rollicking good fun.


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A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 27

Who are the nastiest bad guys?

There are many different definitions of nasty in this context, I think. They could be cruel, they could be ugly, they could be just plain evil. But there's one, at least, that has all bases covered...

Xenomorphs

Have you seen an Alien film? Then this shouldn't really need explaining. These terrifying-looking creatures are experts at stalking you in darkened corridors, or just flat-out attacking you, or sticking something to your face that implants itself inside you so that a new one of them is born by bursting out of your chest...

And if you do, somehow, manage to damage them, they have acid for blood.

"Nasty" doesn't cover it.


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A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 26

Best battle scene

I kinda feel this ought to be a big ol' space battle, like that one in Serenity or something, but I can't think of many that immediately jump out at me, so I guess this becomes "best battle/fight/action scene", and I offer up this one:

Lightsaber duel
from Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace

I love a good movie sword fight, but unsurprisingly these are few and far between in sci-fi movies. Except for Star Wars.

For all the prequels' flaws -- and they are many -- the one thing they have over the original trilogy are the lightsaber duels. Whereas the first three films largely feature actors bumping some sticks together a bit, the prequels feature fully choreographed fights that are properly exciting to watch.

The best of these is at the climax of Episode I, when Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan take on Darth Maul (there's a bunch of Fantasy names if ever you saw them) and his infamous double-ended lightsaber. It is, as I said, fully choreographed and properly exciting, and just about everything you dreamed a lightsaber battle should be ever since you were a kid.

Some may argue there are better duels later in the prequel trilogy. Maybe, but this is the first one that showed what a lightsaber duel really could be, and this is the one that sticks in the memory.

And it's nice there's something to like about the prequels, eh?


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A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 25

Funniest sci-fi (intentional or otherwise)

It feels like it should be hard to think of an SF comedy, but actually there are quite a few -- Red Dwarf, Hitchhikers' (on radio, in print, on TV and in film!), Back to the Future, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, Galaxy Quest -- and those are just some of the good ones.

Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death

Penned by now-showrunner Steven Moffat for Comic Relief back in 1999, this is easily the most affectionate Who spoof ever. Not only is it a very funny take on the show, it's very funny fullstop; and not only is it very funny, but it actually creates a great deal of nostalgia for the real thing -- some of the ending is only a short step away from the kind of sentimentality we've seen in the revived series.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this was in some way instrumental in bringing the show back to TV properly. Considering it was made for zero money (as it was for charity), I think it shows that a Who series was viable in '99 -- sure it might look dated now, but it looks pretty much as good as any other late-'90s SF.

Other series and films may show more longevity and consistency -- this one only lasts for about 20 minutes after all -- but it's the one I'm most likely to re-watch again. And again.


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A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 24

Who's the no.1 captain?

There are plenty of Captains in military-esque SF like Star Trek or... well, other stuff... but the best one comes from a freer universe.

Capt. Mal Reynolds

Some say Mal is essentially Han Solo, but pish, he's better. He's funnier, for one thing. I bet he's braver. He's certainly got more morals. He tries to keep the latter two hidden, but they're definitely there. He always does the right thing... for himself and his crew anyway.

Besides, is Solo actually a Captain? No. No he's not.

If you don't know for yourself why Mal is awesome, you clearly haven't seen Firefly and/or Serenity. And if you haven't seen Firefly and/or Serenity, what kind of sci-fi fan are you?! Not one, I say.

So there.


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A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 23

It's party-time!
Which sci-fi character are you going to dress-up as?

No one. Does that count? I guess not.

Donnie Darko

Because I'm really lazy and really, really don't care.


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A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 22

Coolest alien race

So what does "coolest" mean, eh? There are loads of possibilities for a category like this. I don't think it means "alien race most like Samuel L. Jackson", for instance.

Cybermen

I love the Cybermen. They're better than the Daleks. They prefigure the Borg.

When done right they can be properly scary, because they take us humans and strip away all that makes us human. They have no emotion -- they can't be reasoned with or bargained with or persuaded. And they stomp about and shoot stuff and blow stuff up and all that too.

And, in the right designs, they can look rather cool.


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A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 21

Favourite alien invasion movie/series

Alien invasion is a constant theme of sci-fi across books, TV, film and more. Unsurprising, really -- it involves aliens (sci-fi!) and keeps it grounded on Earth, which can be good for both relating things to your viewers and, perhaps even more importantly, the budget.

Torchwood: Children of Earth

It's not an invasion story per se: only one alien actually arrives and it's after, essentially, a bribe. But it's a bribe to stop an alien invasion (if I remember correctly), so I'm going to count it. And that's because it's bloody brilliant.

Torchwood was quite good through its first two series. Some episodes were brilliant, some were dire, and overall it felt half-thought-through and made up on the fly -- characters' behaviour changing from week to week, that kind of thing. I think more people wanted to like it, as a rare dose of adult-orientated genre TV in the UK, than actually genuinely did.

But that all changed with Children of Earth, which is flat out one of the greatest SF miniseries ever made, never mind its connections to previous Torchwood or Doctor Who or what have you. It's a cracking tale full of action, emotion, humour, tension, fear, heartbreak...

You don't need to have seen previous Torchwood to get it, and if you disliked previous Torchwood that shouldn't put you off: Children of Earth is exceptional.


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A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 20

What's the best adaptation of a sci-fi book/story?

I don't read enough books to judge this properly -- "best adaptation" implies "the one that has been adapted best", not "the best one that is also an adaptation". So, um...

Children of Men

I've not read The Children of Men, but damn it made for a good film.

And especially good for me because I went to the cinema knowing nothing about it (can't even remember what led me there -- a vague awareness it had received some good reviews, I think), and consequently was completely blown away by it.

And it's probably not going to get mentioned anywhere else in this month of sci-fi-ness, so why not now?


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A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 19

Empire or Rebel Alliance?

C'mon, how much choice is there in this one?

Rebel Alliance

As the blog I took this from put it, "plucky good guys with the coolest space-ships or evil planet-destroying bad guys who are controlled by a demonic Emperor?"

Rebels it is.


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A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 18

Best use of special effects on the small screen

Much like yesterday's film topic, there's a lot to choose from here. TV special effects were even cheaper for even longer, but since at least the '80s there's been some excellent model work, and in the last decade or so CGI has caught up too. Big budget films still rule this arena, but there are plenty of lower budget (and, certainly, direct-to-DVD) ones with poorer effects than, say, Doctor Who.

And actually, it's from that very series that this choice comes...

Daleks in Space
from Doctor Who: The Parting of the Ways

I said yesterday that effects had to be iconic and I think this one is. It also represents the culmination of decades of dreams. Daleks have been seen invading en masse in comic strips since the '60s, but the TV series has always been limited to half a dozen real ones and maybe some cardboard cutouts (seriously, they used to use cardboard cutouts).

But with the development and cost-effectiveness of CG, this became an on-screen reality in 2005. And it was incredible. Thousands of Daleks, pouring through space... Click the link above for a video clip if you need reminding.

Much like yesterday's choice, there may be better-realised, or even more groundbreaking, examples of special effects work in TV. But this beats many of them for sheer impressiveness and the realisation of all those childhood imaginings.

Glorious.


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A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 17

Best use of special effects on the big screen

This is a very, very tricky one. While you might argue old special effects were Not So Good, I think you can go at least as far back as the groundbreaking effects work of Star Wars before you reach that time. So that's 35 years of movies to consider -- crikey.

And, actually, there's a definite charm and lingering impressiveness to, say, the stop-motion work in King Kong or the integration of matte paintings in Forbidden Planet. So that makes the list even broader. Oh dear.

But I think I have a good one...

Lightsabers

The best special effects are iconic, and there are few more iconic than the lightsaber. Sure, they're not always the best realised special effect -- even on the new Blu-ray editions the colour and thickness of the beams can be variable -- but that doesn't matter when they're so damn cool and instantly recognisable.

And there's the sound too. Visuals may be the main calling card of this category, but in film the visuals are in part sold by the sound, and everyone knows how a lightsaber goes.


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A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 16

A great quote!

Science fiction is full of great quotes -- more than many non-fans would care to realise, I think -- but this has always been one of my favourites...

from Doctor Who: Survival



The Doctor:
There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea's asleep and the rivers dream, people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice and somewhere else the tea is getting cold. Come on, Ace, we've got work to do.

Added at the last minute when it became apparent the series had been cancelled, this is a beautiful and incredibly fitting end to the series: looking out to the madness of the universe, but grounded with the mundanity of a cup of tea -- and always continuing.

I swear this one speech has inspired so much dialogue in the relaunched series. And some people would say the Sylvester McCoy era gave us nothing!


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A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 15

Which spaceship would you most like to own/fly?

I guess the TARDIS doesn't count here -- it's a time machine primarily, isn't it? -- and while part of me would like to say Serenity, it's a bit high-maintenance, isn't it? Same goes for the Millennium Falcon.

So, I mean, in a dream world:

USS Enterprise

I'm not a huge Star Trek fan -- far from it -- but in the same way I'd rather live in a mansion than a dingy bungalow, how brilliant would it be to have a gleaming high-tech starship at your command?

OK, all the military-esque duties of being in the Federation might drag that brilliance down a bit. Maybe owning your own ship, a la Serenity, would be preferable. But if the Enterprise was your own personal ship, with everyone at your command... Such stuff as dreams are made of, eh?


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A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 14

An under-rated sci-fi gem

Oh, there are loads that could go here! But I choose this one:

Ultraviolet

No, not that crappy 2006 movie, but a British miniseries from 1998 starring Jack Davenport From This Life and Coupling And Pirates Of The Caribbean and Idris Elba From The Wire and Luther and written & directed by Joe Ahearne Who Directed Half Of Doctor Who's First Season Back.

It was about vampires & that, but as you can see it was before the whole current craze took off -- indeed, Buffy would only have fairly recently started in the US at the time, and even that some would say predates the current vogue that bloodsuckers are experiencing.

But even for that, it took an alternative view of the creatures, a very technological and modern view. I haven't watched it for years but my God was it good. I really ought to watch it again. Nonetheless, I think it deserves to be more widely remembered as a classic of the genre.


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A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 13

What's your favourite flavour of Star Trek?

Six TV series, eleven films (and counting) -- there's plenty of Star Treks to choose from... though that distorts the numbers a bit, what with most of the films slotting into one of the TV strands.

I've never watch Star Trek consistently. I've seen bits of all of it except The Animated Series. So, bearing that in mind...

Star Trek (2009)

Some would say this counts as The Original Series -- it features Kirk, Spock and co, after all -- but it isn't, not really. By reinventing those characters and their situation so thoroughly, it turns a '60s TV idea (that survived/limped on through movies into the '90s) into a highly modern '00s-style action/adventure. And by rebooting the continuity in the process, it successfully makes it a new variant.

I'm sure all the other Star Treks have their merits, and maybe if I'd actually seen more of (say) The Next Generation I'd have a different view, but this is the version I've personally most enjoyed.


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A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 12

What's your "yeah I know it's rubbish but I love it" sci-fi film?

I don't actually think this film is rubbish, but as I can't think of one that is but I love anyway, this is the next best thing:

Flash Gordon

Y'see, some people (a lot of people? I dunno) think is one of a multitude of cheap Star Wars knock-offs from the late '70s/early '80s. I'm certain that was what inspired them to make it, but it's actually far better than that.

I'm not going to go into a full description of why I love it because I've already done that here, but suffice to say it's very deliberately camp, silly and B-movie-esque, the very things it often gets criticised for. Once you accept that's the filmmakers' aim, you begin to see how well they've pulled it off, and how much fun it is.

Plus the Queen score is solid gold. Dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum FLASH! Ah-ah! etc.

(The '30s Flash Gordon cinema serials are brilliant too, incidentally. Grew up watching those on Saturday mornings on the BBC and loved every minute of it.)


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A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 11

Favourite space film/series

Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy...

Firefly

If you've still not enjoyed the delights of Firefly, what in God's name is wrong with you?! This is a perfect TV series. It's exciting, it's hilarious, and so much more -- all things I said about its big screen spin-off, but they're even more true of the small screen version because it was longer.

What's most impressive, really, is how quickly you come to care for these characters. There are only 14 episodes total, but long before that you love them and dread that all-too-soon end. But the time you get to spend with them until then is to be savoured, again and again and again. And again.


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