Hi Erndog, being a sci-fi buff from waaaay back, I have to disagree with you about the early sci-fi, especially since I met and worked with some of them in workshops and even studied them in school.  Sure, there were the schlockmeisters, but there were the classics that couldn't get much better (which you alluded to).  For those reading this thread, look at Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, Jack Williamson, Philip K. Dick, Larry Niven, Roger Zelazny, Harry Harrison, Frank Herbert, Robert Silverberg, Ursula LeGuin, Harlan Ellison, David Gerrold (associated with the classic Star Trek series), Michael Crichton, etc.

Oh, the marvelous titles:

On the Beach, Canticle for Leibowitz, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Mutant 59: The Plastic Eaters, The Andromeda Strain, Three from the Legion (the inspiration for Star Wars), Fail Safe, etc.

And the movies:

A Boy and His Dog, Fantastic Planet, Land of the Giants, The Fly, Fantastic Voyage, Westworld, Invisible Man, War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, Atlantis, the Lost Continent (1960), The Monolith Monsters, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Dr. Strangelove, Metropolis, First Man on the Moon, etc. 

But even the schlock and B-movies had value, inspiring better stories, more realism, better effects, more psychological sci-fi instead of just the hard tech stuff, and some even led to new and practical scientific inventions.

Imagination is the foundation of invention.  Without people dreaming about the future, would we have leapt so far so quickly in technology and science in the scheme of man's short existence on the cosmic scale?

Kydd

Hi w.e.,

Finding a book you can't put down and stay up reading it in one night is exciting.  I've only encountered a few in my lifetime from elementary school to about when I was 35 or so (before my eyes went bad):  Battle for the Planet of the Apes, Dome World, Double Star, The Three Musketeers (two nights), The Assassination Bureau, Ltd. (by Jack London), the Silver Sun, Fellowship of the Ring, Little House on the Prairie/Farmer Boy, Tom Sawyer, Treasure Island, the Island of Dr. Moreau, Dr. Syn.  Thankfully, my folks encouraged me reading from a very young age.  I just loved those visits to the library.  We were allowed to spend as much time as we wanted there.

And, yes, Erndog, I read every Star Trek (classic) novel.

Kydd

Open mouth, insert foot…OK, OK, I completely forgot to elucidate a complete thought. What I MEANT to say, but didn't, is that SF was not regarded as ‘literature' and was somewhat classified a little better than comic books or pulp fiction, BUT that was a big misconception. For those of us who read the authors and saw movies everyone here has pointed out, we knew better – they were fantastic.

I read War of the Worlds, and saw the movie when it was released in 1957. That movie spent more on special effects than SF movies up to that date used for their entire budgets, perhaps discounting Metropolis by Fritz Lang. Most of the SF and horror movies in the early 50s were crap, like Invasion of the Eyeball Creatures, From the Earth to the Moon, It Came From Outer Space, House on Haunted Hill with Emerge-o-vision and many other movies where teenaged kids saved the town from rubber suited space monsters—these could not hold a candle to the SF that was being written at the time. Only a few movies were good. The Day the Earth Stood Still, War of the Worlds, and Forbidden Planet are classics. It really wasn’t until movies like 2001 A Space Odyssey, THX 1138, Soylant Green, and Dark Star came along, followed closely by Star Wars that I was finally satisfied. Of course Star Trek was tops – and it was on TV every week! And Fantasy was becoming more popular—Andre Norton, a woman writer became popular with her Witch World series, and the late Ursula Le Guinn and all of her wonderful dragons. So the 60s and 70s were the beginning of a new trend for SF and Fantasy and more and more stuff has been produced, and I’m loving it.

Hey, don't forget The Blob. Didn't that have Steve McQueen? Seems I remember him in there so couldn't be too bad for SF. I love to watch SF, but rarely read. My favorites were the Dune trilogy. Take care. Vern

Last edited by vern (02-17-2012 04:45:56)

http://www.tenthdimension.com/medialinks.php

I'd go with the 6th dimension for a story, as that dimension and the first five we can all relate to... well most can.

The Matrix deals with multidimensions, multi-verses. Inception also.

The Jesus, Mohammad, Hindu deities, Ra-Ba, Zoroaster, Native American god head stories deal with that single point in the 10th dimension. Stanislaus Lem goes to these places in his stories, as does Arthur Clark.

Kyyd"  "But I'm still running blank on the pre-1930s high fantasies."
......................................................
There were a lot of fairy tales written way back then. My dad used to buy a lot of “kid books��  for my sis and I from used book stores. From these few books, I began a collection of children’s books that caught my fancy. I suspect some have even been reprinted.
One of my favorites is, “The Magical Land of Noom, (Moon spelled backward). It was written by Johnny Gruelle, the same author that wrote Raggedy Ann and Andy books. I have an original copy published in 1922. It’s in good shape, but not mint condition. It has pen and ink drawings and a beautiful, full-page, color plate in every chapter. Of course, it’s a bit Victorian—sexist—sis and granma hang back while brother and granpa do the heavy lifting, but that was the norm for those times. I love his artwork. I have several other fairy tales books of the same era that make good reading — even for kids today. I read them to my own son. If you are interested I can give you a few more titles. I collected them mostly for the beautiful color plates and art rather than for the story content. You rarely see that kind of work published for kids these days—four color printing and clay stock archival paper. However, there is some resurgence in this higher end art in the graphic novels that are out and about.
In the 1940, there was a lot of pulp fiction that my dad read. These 10 centers were chock full of horror stories, the supernatural, vampires, demons, and the like. In fact some of the early SF writes cut there teeth in these publications—as well as some of the cover artists like Emshwiller, who signed all his work with “Emsh.��

Google the Johnny Gruelle book - it is a very popular reprint.

Last edited by Erndog (03-02-2012 10:07:50)

Holy cow, I can't believe I've met another human that has read the Magical Land of Noom! OK you have me on Atlantis. I've never read it, but me and Plato used to talk a lot about it.

I used to read a lot of Disney comics, and of course Mad Magazine. "They" always said it would rot your mind. They were right. I don't think there is a debate between religion and science. I believe that science is science and religion is religion, and never the twain shall meet. Science can't explain everything, and the same is true with religion, but what science explains seems plausible to me where religion fails except as a matter of faith.

Diana Rigg, yes the avengers. I was a fan as well as a fan of "The Prisoner" of about the same ere. In fact, I admire a lot of UK TV shoes and movies as they do appeal to my sense of humor as well as drama. I have purchased a number of UK dramas ans TV series, and revisit them over and over--they are like friends. Rumpole of the Bailey, Foyle's War, Red Dwarf, Upstairs Down Stairs, Monty Python, all good stuff. One of my favorite’s movies is Waking Ned--Hilarious.

I agree with your sentiment about Shark Fin harvesting. I was made aware of it by a couple I know (Hawaiians) who are skin divers. That and a lot of other so-called potions collected from animals all over the world that claim magical properties--not to exclude the albinos in Africa that are slaughtered for their bones.

Sounds like we watched and read many of the same things.

I'm sure you watched Outer Limits and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea as well.

There was another show on maybe 7-10 years ago about a network of undersea cities, and submarines, but I forget what it was called. Thought it looked promising, but lasted one season, maybe two.

Okay. Found it. It was called "Seaquest  2032" with Roy Scheider as the commander. From 1993-1996.

Seaquest, yes, I watched that one religiously.  In fact, I have the "trade cards for it" and still have some of the episodes on tape.  Too bad the kid in that show "Jonathan Brandis" committed suicide.  And Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, yep.  Man from Atlantis starred Patrick Duffy, before he became Bobby on Dallas.  Manimal starred Simon McCormick.  The Owl starring Adrian Paul--who was also in War of the Worlds, Highlander, Tracker, and a vampire pilot to a show that didn't take off.  I wish they would show the old reruns of the Phoenix again. But there was another show that I watched about the same time as Space 1999.  I think it was called UFO.  There was also It's About Time (by the producers of Gilligan's Island), and the Invaders. Oh, and the Planet of the Apes tv series (which I have on DVD now).

I never watched Serenity, but I've seen a few episodes (and read a fanfic of it on TNBW once).

I watched the original Battlestar Galactica, but not the new one.   

But I also have to admit that I was enamored of the westerns too.  I suppose it had to do a lot with time with my dad. He was a westerns fan, but I absolutely fell for High Chaparral.  I grew up watching westerns with my dad.  The Rifleman, Wanted Dead or Alive, Bonanza, Have Gun Will Travel, Maverick, the Big Valley, Lone Ranger, Cisco Kid, Zorro, Cheyenne, Rawhide, Alias Smith and Jones, Death Valley, Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, F-Troop, Wild Wild West (loved that because it was kind of like a sci-fi with all the gadgets), Wagon Train. 

It's an interesting thing to consider.  A lot of my sci-fi friends are also into Westerns.  I wonder if there's some sort of psychological connection between the two.  It's not true the other way around though... my western friends aren't okay with sci-fi.  It would be a curious study for someone's thesis.  Perhaps it's that Man Against the Unknown (new frontier).   I don't really know.  It also might have to do with the time my friends and I grew in.

Ah Yes the WWWest. I always liked Artemis Gordon. A funny line I'll never forget came from James West As he was summoned to one of his arch-enemies, a Chinese guy by the name of Dr Claw. When the Chinese messenger came to fetch James West  he told him that Dr Craw wanted to see him. Upon his arrival James West said something like, “So you the infamous Dr. Craw.��  Offended by West’s mispronunciation,  he replied,  “No! Not Craw! CRAW! Cracked me up!

I watched all the cowboy shows as a youngster, and even listened to them on the radio – oh God I’m old. Much to my mother’s chagrin, my dad and I used to drink a nice glass of butter milk and listen to all those radio shows from the late forties: Ozzie and Harriet, Fiber McGee and Molly, Amos and Andy, The Traveler, The Shadow, the Doors of the Inner Sanctum, and of course the Lone Ranger and Tonto (Git’um up Scout)  and the Cisco Kid and his side-kick Pancho (Hey Ceesco! Wait for me). I even remember some of the advertiser’s ditties.

I watched every cowboy I could and there were a lot on TV in the early fifties—a lot of those serial 20 minute reelers  played in theaters over the weeks to get folks to comeback. Lash La Rue (he carried a whip. Hop-along Cassidy, Gene Autry and gabby hays – (C’mon Gene, how ’bout some more Double Mint?), and of course Roy Rogers. Bonanza, Gun Smoke and the lot.
I guess I watched the westerns because they were popular then, so I watched what they had. Naturally, I think people who like Science Fiction have superior intellect, and are much more apt to appreciate other genres. ;-)

Babylon 5 was one of my favorite series, as was Battle Star Galactica – both are top notch and well worth watching IMHO. Likewise, Fire Fly (Serenity). That ran only 12 months, and a couple of episodes were run out of order, When it was cancelled, there was such an outcry, the producers decided a movie was in order (Serenity) with the original cast—also worth viewing. When I first tuned in to Fire Fly it looked corny to me, so I didn’t watch it until the re-runs hit—my son will never let me forget what a dope I was. I bought the series and the movie—as well as Babylon 5. The first season of B-5 was so-so, but it got much, much better in the later seasons.

Now I enjoy, The Big Bang, and Fringe, and Merlin. There are a few others on now that will do in a pinch like Falling Sky, and um… I forget.

I am thinking of writing about a Female pirate based on an historical woman, or a murder mystery. If you like funny and murder mystery, let me recommend the “Flavia De Luce��  series. It’s fantastic and hysterical. Learn about it here.  http://www.flaviadeluce.com/
Until next time…

Last edited by Erndog (03-26-2012 12:04:22)

Yes, not Terra Nova. I have to admit it's a bit like Falling Sky in a different venue. I've tried to watch it a few times... These shows are a bit like the reality show Survivor on steroids. I suspect, Kydd, if there was a font for sacasm, you would have used it.

Last edited by Erndog (03-27-2012 08:24:20)