The Informational Sci-Fi Thread

[Bjord]

In this thread I ask that you post things that you consider interesting and wish to share in matters of sci-fi. Ranging from movies to games, books to comics - you name it.

Even if the movie/book/game you wish to bring attention to is common knowledge, there is no harm in writing some opinions or a short synopsis. It doesn't have to be something unknown or underground. ;)

I'll start by giving you all a heads up on a great flick called Pandorum(IMdb).

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It's set way in the future on a colony ship on course to a distant planet (example of short synopsis, just something short and casual to pique some interest, doesn't have to be super elaborate.).

Great build-up in terms of dramaturgy, my stomach was clinching almost the whole duration of the movie, which is always a good sign. Also, I consider myself fairly adept in predicting movies and I have to say, I found myself entangled in all the twists and turns of the movie. Really a masterpiece, in my opinion. And that's very rare these days.

[Ninja_Khorin]

*looks at book-/dvdshelf*

Good thread. I'm a sci-fi nut. I'll leave the personal comments to a minimum, because I have a lot and you probably don't care much of what I think anyway(if you recognize some of these, don't hesitate to also comment on them). Also, this is a heavily shortened list, because I'm a lazy person.

Books:

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Altered Carbon:
A Sci-fi(cyberpunk) detective noir. One of my favourite sci-fi books of all time. It's gritty, and dark and all that goodness. And it raises some interesting ethical questions about how far man can go and still be called man. And if a man dies, and his consciousness is downloaded to a new body, is he still the same manor is he a copy? It's a trilogy, Altered Carbon is followed by Broken Angels and Woken Furies

Singularity Sky:
Humanity is controlled by a being that calls itself the Eschaton. It's an awesome story.
"I am the Eschaton. I am not your God.
 I am descended from you, and exist in your future.
 Thou shalt not violate causality within my historic light cone. Or else."
Need I say more? It's sequel is Iron Sunrise


Burning Chrome and Neuromancer:
One could say he's the father of cyberpunk. It's a little hard to read at some points. But I enjoyed 'em nonetheless.

TV series:

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Battlestar Galactica:
One of my favourite series of all time. I liked nearly everything about it. My only complaint against it was that I could not play games while watching it, because the story is so intense that missing it annoyed me. Also, the space battles were awesome. They have no fancy energy shield and lazors. They have machine guns, nukes and hull strength. Win.
There's a spin-off called Caprica, and I'm not gonna link to it, because it's shite. Avoid it. There's another spinoff planned called Battlestar Galactica: Blood&Chrome. I hope it's gonna be awesome.

Stargate SG-1:
Yeah yeah. It's light-hearted and funny. You just don't have to take it that seriously. Followed by Stargate: Atlantis(is alright, not as good as the original one, but whatever) and Stargate: Universe(Was actually fairly good at some points, but it did seem to copy a lot from Battlestar Galactica, which is fine)

Babylon 5:
One of the greatest sci-fi TV series around. Grew up watching it. And have rewatched it a few times since.

Movies:

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Huh. Where to begin? Classics, I guess.
Johnny Mnemonic:
An awesome cyberpunk movie in the same spirit as Blade Runner.

Blade Runner:
Basically the first cyberpunk movie in my eyes. Basically created the style that cyberpunk is visualized in modern media. Harrison Ford in the main role hunting down clones. It's cool.

The Chronicles of Riddick:
One of my favourite sci-fi films of the past decade. Vin Diesel does a great job portraying a ruthless killing machine in a dystopian setting. Quite cool. Has a prequel called Pitch Black, it's not as good, but if you like Riddick as a character, it's worth watching.

Babylon A.D.:
See above. (You know, except the part about Pitch Black).

Twelve Monkeys:
A movie with Bruce Willis trying to change the past and by doing so save 5 billion humans from dying of disease. A good movie by any standard I'd say.

The Fifth Element:
A movie with Bruce Willis trying to save the world yet again.

World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles:
If you ignore the Marine core/USA propaganda, I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It was nothing like I expected. It's quite a good movie, way better than your standard world invasion/apocalypse movies. Also, is nearly believable, and the aliens act almost smart which is something you don't often see. It is foremost an action movie, but it's a good action movie and the way the story unfolds in the beginning is fairly well done, I think.


District 9:
Apartheid in South Africa. Except this time with crab people and humans. Strongly recommend if you're looking for a slightly different take on the sci-fi genre.

Matrix:
You guys know it, I know it. Good enough.

Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning:
A finnish parody were the two universes of Babylon 5 and Star Trek meet. Captain Pirk is thrown back to the past and notices that history doesn't play out as it should, so he decides to become emperor and lead mankind to glory. Torrenting it last I checked is completely legal, but makes sure you have the english subtitles. The makers of this film are currently working on another film called:

Iron Sky(Not released yet, release is April 2012):
A movie about chocolate chip cookies who escape to the moon. Then they come back in 2018. Sounds awesome, right? Here's some trailers:
Trailer I
Trailer II
Trailer III
Honestly, this movie seems awesome, and I can't wait.

Anyway, I hope that anyone interested in sci-fi finds atleast something in that list that they haven't seen before. Everyone of those is worthy of watching or reading.

[GreasySausageSandwhich]

FIREFLY!!!

R.I.P.

[Nessaj]

Khorin's TV series picks is pretty much the best Sci-fi you can find on TV, plus FireFly (movies suck) which was also mentioned above. 

[Bjord]

I've seen nearly all the series/movies you listed. Battlestar Galactica is wonderful, I'm on season 4 but I have not bothered to download it yet. Mainly because the three other seasons occupy about 57 GB on my external.

And yes I also paid notice to the fact that they have no super-oscillating double modulating multi-harmonical shields and phasers(even though I am one of the biggest trekkies in these forums as well). I really appreciated the fact that they have armour plating and not shields, indeed. Yes I heard about the spin-off, I knew already then to stay away from it.

However, since I haven't read a book in 3 years(horrible, I know..) I have no idea about the books you listed. But you piqued my interest for sure, especially in Altered Carbon. Definitely buying it.


Also, World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles had great effects and all, but the heroical US marines-angle really ticked me off. However I must admit I digged the xenos in it, pretty innovative and the fact that they were after our water kind of scared me, because something like that could actually happen in the future.

[Christo]

Nice recommendations.

I loved Babylon 5 as a kid, I watched it a lot when it was aired.

Also that Star Wreck movie is hilarious. I laughed my a** of while watching it. 

Especially that russian/ukran guy, Fukov, and the Scene where the captain tries to aim a Photon Torpedo. xD

[Mala]

...

Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning:
A finnish parody were the two universes of Babylon 5 and Star Trek meet. Captain Pirk is thrown back to the past and notices that history doesn't play out as it should, so he decides to become emperor and lead mankind to glory. ...

Thats my favorite, too. It was a insider tip of the finnish members at the bge board.

Anyway i could offer Sillage a francobelgian comic series.
It is about Nävis, the only human midst of a giant alien fleet.

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Well, i think she is a clone  in reality.

It is pretty nice, since it has no fixed setting, dependant on the planet it can be a medieval or end time story.
I dont know how many volumes they have in french but in germanyland there are currently 12 issues available.

[[ptx]]

So, basically, the selection of cool sci-fi series and movies is woefully limited.

Well, okay, i can add a couple:

Immortal (Ad Vitam) - a sort of overlooked fancy sci-fi movie
The fifth element - classic much?

[Xant]

*looks at book-/dvdshelf*

Books:

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Altered Carbon:
A Sci-fi(cyberpunk) detective noir. One of my favourite sci-fi books of all time. It's gritty, and dark and all that goodness. And it raises some interesting ethical questions about how far man can go and still be called man. And if a man dies, and his consciousness is downloaded to a new body, is he still the same manor is he a copy? It's a trilogy, Altered Carbon is followed by Broken Angels and Woken Furies

This. Also "Black Man" or "Thirteen" by the same author.

[Joxer]

Few favs:

More recent stuff:
Eureka - Light hearted scifi comedy
Warehouse 13 - Another of the same
Chuck - Epic nerdy scifi comedy agent stuff
Fringe - eeh... just epic stuff watch it!

Older stuff:
Andromeda - Hercules conquers space. EPIC.
Buffy / Angel - fantasy but close enough
Heroes - Superhero stuff. First 2 seasons epic but after that it's boooring
Lost - Sometimes epic. Sometimes not.
X-Files - Still a classic. spoiler: Supernatural shit happens, mulder believes, scully doesn't, scully gets into life threatening situation, mulder saves, no evidence of anything is left. <- every episode.
Millennium - Often overlooked X-files spinoff with darker stuff. Serial killers etc. EPIC

[Ninja_Khorin]

Ooh, thank you for the recommendation, [ptx]. Haven't seen Immortal.

Christo: Fukov is hilarious. Can't wait for Iron Sky. They have like 100 times higher budget this time.

Bjord, I can list you a few more off the top of my head:

Movies:

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A Scanner Darkly:
It's a kind of trippy movie set in a near future where a superdrug is running rampant and a third of the population is addicted to it. It's a little weird when you start watching it, but I think it was good.

Equilibrium:
A movie set in a dystopian world after WW3 where they've developed a drug that represses emotions in people and it's a crime not to take it. Has Sean Bean and that Batman guy in it.

Then there are the two Stallone movies:
Judge Dredd:
A movie where Sylvester is a cop/judge and is accused wrongly of a crime so he kills everyone in his near vicinity to clear his name.

Demolition Man
A movie where Sylvester is a cop/judge and is accused wrongly of a crime so he kills everyone in his near vicinity to clear his name.

And for some more light-hearted stuff:
Galaxy Quest:
A parody of Star Trek.

Spaceballs:
A parody of Star Wars.
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Then the only anime series I've watched:
Cowboy Bebop:
It's anime, but it's not that bad and eventually any sci-fi geek will run out of any actual sci-fi and might have to venture to the other side to find some more.

Then there's of course Star Trek in all its variations. And a book called:
Learning the World:
Too lazy to comment on it much, but it's interesting. Not that action-packed. Loved reading it.

And yes Xant, Black Man(or Thirteen for you NA types. Still makes me giggle) is next on my reading list.
Andromeda was so bad... But I should give it another whirl. I saw the first 10minutes. First I saw Hercules in space and started laughing, then a rubber ant in the control of the ship and quit.

[Vammo75]

There are lots of great Sci-Fi films and books. I'll mention a couple (blurbs are cut and paste from wikipedia):

Films:

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Forbidden Planet:

Early in the 23rd century, the United Planets Cruiser C57-D has been sent to the planet Altair IV, 16 light-years from the Earth. Its mission is to discover the fate of an expedition sent 20 years earlier to establish a colony on the planet....

Great 1956 film based in part on Shakespeare's Tempest.


Solaris (Russian version directed by Andrei Tarkovsky 1972).

The film is a meditative psychological drama occurring mostly aboard a space station orbiting the fictional planet Solaris. The scientific mission has stalled, because the scientist crew have fallen to emotional crises. Psychologist Kris Kelvin travels to the Solaris space station, to learn and evaluate the situation—yet soon hallucinates like the others....

I've never seen the American version and probably never will...how could they remake a masterpiece?

Books:

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Hitckhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books:

Several of the funniest books I've ever read.

Iain M Bank's Culture novels:

The Culture is characterized by being a post-scarcity society (meaning that its advanced technologies provide practically limitless material wealth and comforts for everyone for free, having all but abolished the concept of possessions), by having overcome almost all physical constraints on life (including disease and death) and by being an almost totally egalitarian, stable society without the use of any form of force or compulsion, except where necessary to protect others.

Minds, powerful artificial intelligences, have an important role to play in this society. They administer this affluence for the benefit of all. As one commentator has said,

    In vesting all power in his individualistic, sometime eccentric, but always benign, AI Minds, Banks knew what he was doing; this is the only way a liberal anarchy could be achieved, by taking what is best in humans and placing it beyond corruption, which means out of human control. The danger involved in this imaginative step, though, is clear; one of the problems with the Culture novels as novels is that the central characters, the Minds, are too powerful and, to put it bluntly, too good.

The novels of the Culture cycle, therefore, mostly deal with people at the fringes of the Culture: diplomats, spies, or mercenaries; those who interact with other civilizations, and who do the Culture's dirty work in moving those societies closer to the Culture ideal, sometimes by force.

[Ujin]

Khorin, i actually think that Pitch Black was much better than the silly Chronicles of Riddick.

P.S. Anyone here watched Lexx ?

[Leshma]

BSG (re-imagined series) first season is great, second not so bad (first half of it), third is pile of religious goo and 4th is so stupid I can't find the words for it. Ending is terrible, especially those japanese robots at the very end

Fringe starts great, until they start to actually explain the background of Peter and then it starts to become super shitty..best episodes of Fringe are those X-files style episodes without main plot.

Serenity ain't bad movie, Cooties has no clue

Now the good stuff, something most of you don't practice. Not a book, not a movie, a comic and japanese one at that.

My picks are two series, one very well known but still epic, Gunnm or Battle Angel Alita and second probably the best sci-fi comic book I ever read, Eden: It's an Endless World! by Hiroki Endo.

[Joxer]

Omg forgot one of the best ones. RED DWARF! If you haven't seen it watch it NOW!