The Galaxy Being - The Outer Limits

I miss the day when science fiction could be fanciful and there weren’t hordes of fanboys complaining about the physics are all wrong or that you can’t contact and materialise a being from another planet using a radio station antenna. Imagine making a film today and using Academy Award winning actresses in a story about drilling into the centre of the Earth because the core has stopped spinning, and in the core you were setting off nuclear explosions to restart it and then trying to get out of the core to survive. Who knows what they would call such a film!?

Well actually ‘the day’ was well before I was born in the time of forbidden planets and flying saucers, twilight zones and of course the outer limits. But I love the old black and white science fiction stories, possibly more than our current stories.

So I picked up The Outer Limits season one and two and checked out the very first episode ‘The Galaxy Being’ a story about a guy who runs a radio station and uses it to listen to microwaves. He accidentally contacts an alien in the Andromeda Galaxy. It is fascinating idea and that’s probably what I love about these old shows, the stories are uninhibited by the population having a greater scientific knowledge. It’s imagination all the way as we talk about three dimensional television and the wonders of radiation and microwaves.

The alien is surprisingly good, I mean really clever for the day. It’s a guy in a brown rubber suit shot in negative film. Cleverly if you want to see what the suit actually looked like you can run the image through Fireworks and just click invert (or I’ll just do it for you).

The alien doesn’t quite understand everything he is being told and for some reason having contact with someone outside his species is seriously forbidden. Of course thanks to an egotistical DJ who cranks the power up the alien is pulled into our galaxy and left to wander around on a Saturday night without a date.

Before the unpleasantness hits the fan though the guy gets to talk to the alien about death, taxes and god.

I love this episode and if you can look past the primitiveness, the black and white and the fact that its science is naive then you might too - check it out if you get the chance!

Popularity: 31% [?]

Previously on Stargate Atlantis

Previously on Stargate Atlantis: not much happened, characters didn’t develop, some were removed in fairly blasé fashion and they swapped planets.

Me personally I watched SGA out of habit and there isn’t any other science fiction currently running (well there is but not enough to fill my weekly quota).   That was the case right up until the ultimate episode of mediocrity when three of them were stuck in a hole, an episode I might add that I am not alone in picking on.

Then a beautiful thing happened.  Tealc showed up from SG1 with a coll new hairdo and went on a Die Hard run with Ronan.  Cool.  I enjoyed that.

Then last week the episode started off as I always expect, slow.  But then stuff started happening, an old foe returned and then in the last minutes of the episode an old friend made an appearance.

I was shocked, I actually wanted to see the next episode if only to see if my clone theory panned out.  Which it did, but I’m not upset by that.  It is a clever way of returning a character that you probably shouldn’t have killed off in the first place.

McKay continues to shine and Ronan had a brief flirtation with character growth!?

Then this episode arrives and we have pathos and drama and guest appearances and resolutions and beginnings of new threads and I’m actually interested, no, I’m looking forward to seeing the next episode.

See I don’t always have to put SGA down!!

*Update - I just found out next week is season finale and saw the trailer.  I am most definately keen to see!!!!!

Check out the season finale trailer!

Popularity: 38% [?]

What is this Jumper film?

If you had said to me the other day, ‘Hey Lee are you going to see that film Jumper?’ I would’ve jumped with fright and wondered how it is you tracked me down and if I strike you with my brand new almost silent keyboard* would you go away. After vanquishing you I would then turn my attention to the question you posed with a ‘heh?’

Is Jumper about a warm woolly piece of clothing? No. Apparently not and I’m left trying to work out did I miss the hype for this film or is it so left field that it wasn’t really focused on, what with your Cloverfields and Golden Compasses etc.

Well wikipedia came through and helped fill in some gaps.

It’s about a dude who can teleport himself anywhere in the world and… ummm does so…?

Oh well that sounds cool anyway, who pray tell is in this sci fi flick?

Hayden Christensen…

Right. OK his last foray into science fiction was ummm…. some what mixed. But he was brilliant in Life as a House (honestly it is really good!) so sure that’s cool who else we got? Samuel L Jackson. Mmmmm… he’s never been in a crappy film… um. Anyone else? The girl from the O.C.?

None of that’s fair, I’m pretty certain I’d like them in a film, it brings a certain expectation that at least the cast is recognisable and their rating will be at an MA to accomodate some swearing (I’m looking at you Mr Jackson).

Man that poster looks cool though.

*This is a story in itself and I will write about it.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Top ten fictional space ships

Well it’s finally here, my top ten fictional space ships list which you will never ever agree with because it is only ten ships and there’s no way I’ve included your favourite!!!

The rules were also that I could only choose one ship from a series:

1. Serenity (Firefly/Serenity)

   
   It was really hard to pick this over the Enterprise but in recent years Serenity and the series Firefly has cemented itself as one of my all time favourite science fiction shows and the ship itself is just awesome, it looks cool and moves great but it is probably the interior which has a wonderful lived in feeling. Probably has a lot to do with the way they built the sets which was to connect the rooms like they would have been in the show and the cast actually used sets like the galley to eat etc.

   Notable scene: Serenity repaired after crash landing at the end of the film, lifting off and soaring through the storm up past it and into space where something falls off.

2. Enterprise (Star Trek)

   
   The original and the best, the NCC-1701 no bloody A, B,C or D (and now E). It is really hard to sum up why but the Enterprise herself became a character in Star Trek as loved as the actors.

   Notable scene: Hard to go past the refit unveiling in Star Trek: The Motion Picture where Adm. Kirk and Scotty circle it several times to the amazing soundtrack. Enterprise’s destruction is quite memorable too.

3. Moya (Farscape)

   
   It was a toss up between Moya and the Farscape One module which I quite like also but I think a ship that you feel something for so much that it makes you wince when it has hooks shot into it is going to get the nod. Something that I realised whilst putting the list together is that the ships that I prefer are the ones that become characters in their own right and it would be hard for that not to be the case with Moya.

   Notable scene: Any time Moya goes to starburst.

4. Gunstar (The Last Starfighter)

   
   The Gunstar makes it simply because who wouldn’t want to pilot such a cool nod to our childhoods, before computer graphics became the video perfect resolution state that they are in today we had games like Asteroids where the ship was basically a triangle and you had to use your imagination, big time. The Gunstar whilst a little more advance than the Asteroids ship is still a polygon reminder of my childhood playing arcade games and pretending deep inside that they are more than they appear.

   Notable scene: The scene where the death blossom is unleashed and pretty much kills every mofo in the immediate galaxy.

5. Lexx (Lexx)

   
   I was a late comer to Lexx and have yet to watch the entire series although I’m told the last season is not really worth it. I love the Lexx’s business card: “the most powerful destructive force in the two universes”. It’s also one of the only science fiction shows Tracey will watch with me currently.

   Notable scene: Why are most of these notable scenes involving destruction? Because blowing up a planet is cool.

6. Liberator (Blake’s 7)

   
   This is from my childhood. When I was very young I was given a matchbox version of this ship and it has been a favourite of mine ever since, I haven’t even watched an episode of Blake’s 7 which I know I should (my Mum’s favourite sci fi show) but the DVDs are expensive so unfortunately no notable scene for this one.

7. Sulaco (Aliens)

   
   I just love the look of this ship, it’s like a shark slipping through water, and you know that it can kick ass. It didn’t really do anything other than look slick and slice through space so no notable scene again.

8. Viper (Battlestar Galactica)

   
   Again something from my childhood that was happily updated for the new show. The vipers always looked cool and had that great launch sequence on the show oh and King Tut helmets!!

   Notable Scene: I really loved the scene when the Battlestar Galactica jumped into the atmosphere of new Caprica (in the remake) and launched the Vipers through a wall of flame.

9. Starfury (Babylon Five)

   
   These are such cool little fighters that have muscle written all over them, they don’t even get launched they get dropped out B5 on racks, like guns!!! They have to be arguably the most manoeuvrable of the ships on the list.

   Notable scene: I like how they can change direction on a heartbeat.

10. Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers at least that’s what the series was called here)

    
    Another from my childhood and a show with a lot of memories as my Mum used to watch it with me when I was very young, so good memories. Once again how cool is it to have a traditionally water based design in space with cannons and jets and everything an air craft carrier would have… except for a freakingly huge gun barrel down the middle of the ship that absolutely stops dead whatever is in its path. Another series that I have to buy and watch again!

    Notable scene: You guessed it - big bloody cannon down the middle firing.

There are a bunch of ships that came really close to the list that I might mention anyway, Discovery from 2001 A Space Odyssey, Freedom and Independence from Armageddon, Roger Young from Starship Troopers, the Event Horizon from Event Horizon and finally but certainly not least the ships from Star Wars. A note about the Star Wars ships, I don’t love them, I like them but I can’t say that any of them including the Falcon rock my world. Controversial I know, go on tell me which ones I’ve left out.

Popularity: 48% [?]