General > General Technical Chat
SciFi movies and pathetic misconceptions of tech failing for the story line.
Gyro:
--- Quote from: tggzzz on April 05, 2023, 12:15:24 pm ---Clearly you have never watched classic British TV SF from the 60s, 70s, 80s. For starters, have a look at Doctor Who and Blakes 7...
There's a subset of fandom that amuses itself by working out what various bits are and where they came from. The most famous example is probably "a sink plunger".
(They are a bit like my old Land Rover, which had many parts from many cars (frequently Minis!), and a fuel gauge calibrated in Roentgens/hour)
--- End quote ---
There's one in an Antique shop in Southsea - a Dalek that is, not just the sink plunger! It's comforting to see that the lights on its head have amber lenses with the appropriate approval markings.
vk6zgo:
--- Quote from: tggzzz on April 05, 2023, 12:15:24 pm ---
--- Quote from: tszaboo on April 05, 2023, 11:34:03 am ---B5 is great, and does sci-fi well. As in focusing on the human element instead of the tech gizmos. The human ships are pretty grounded design with centrifugal artificial gravity, or the Star Fury wit it's 4 engines and high maneuverability. I watched the series again, after like 25 years? Too bad the CGI is quite dated, and some of the sets are... Let's just say I had no idea that plastic pallets and IBCs, and garden floor tiles are so versatile.
--- End quote ---
Clearly you have never watched classic British TV SF from the 60s, 70s, 80s. For starters, have a look at Doctor Who and Blakes 7...
There's a subset of fandom that amuses itself by working out what various bits are and where they came from. The most famous example is probably "a sink plunger".
(They are a bit like my old Land Rover, which had many parts from many cars (frequently Minis!), and a fuel gauge calibrated in Roentgens/hour)
--- End quote ---
One episode of "Dr Who" showed, in passing, the Doc messing round with a cylindrical aluminium device with multiple knobs protruding at varying angles around its periphery.
I was bemused by the amount of detail the Props Dept had gone to with this seemingly incidental device.
I wasn't till years later, when I ended up in a Studio environment, that I realised what it really was.
Philips had produced this device which clamped to the tubular handles of one model of their Colour Studio cameras, so the operator could have "easier" access to adjustments of various parameters.
It was lying, neglected, on a high shelf in Camera Maintenance, TVW7 having decided, as evidently also did the BBC, that it wasn't worth the effort.
Then there was the "Dalek Supreme" (which my mate reckoned sounded like "the specialty of the house"), that had an Eveready "Magnet lite" mounted on its "forehead" where lesser members of the "species" had that weird thing that looked like something out of a children's party.
Re the Landrover, it always fascinated me how many parts of old Britbeasts were interchangeable with those from quite different brands, sometimes with a bit of butchery needed, but often not.
tggzzz:
--- Quote from: tszaboo on April 05, 2023, 12:38:37 pm ---
--- Quote from: tggzzz on April 05, 2023, 12:15:24 pm ---
--- Quote from: tszaboo on April 05, 2023, 11:34:03 am ---B5 is great, and does sci-fi well. As in focusing on the human element instead of the tech gizmos. The human ships are pretty grounded design with centrifugal artificial gravity, or the Star Fury wit it's 4 engines and high maneuverability. I watched the series again, after like 25 years? Too bad the CGI is quite dated, and some of the sets are... Let's just say I had no idea that plastic pallets and IBCs, and garden floor tiles are so versatile.
--- End quote ---
Clearly you have never watched classic British TV SF from the 60s, 70s, 80s. For starters, have a look at Doctor Who and Blakes 7...
There's a subset of fandom that amuses itself by working out what various bits are and where they came from. The most famous example is probably "a sink plunger".
(They are a bit like my old Land Rover, which had many parts from many cars (frequently Minis!), and a fuel gauge calibrated in Roentgens/hour)
--- End quote ---
No, but why would I? I also don't watch Turkish Sci-Fi, or the Sharknado series or 90s Brazilian soap operas. Or a number of genres.
Watched Doctor who from Eccleston to Peter Capaldi, didn't really like Capaldi since most of the time I didn't understand what he was saying, plus Steven Moffat is a baboon who doesn't understand storytelling, and it went all downhill from there. I think I wanted to watch some Red Dwarf, but it's nowhere to be found.
I don't think you realize, but If you don't have access to BBC 14 or whatever channel these films are goin on, you will never see them. They are so niche, even the BBC doesn't have all the Doctor Who episodes archived.
--- End quote ---
Er, I realise all of that!
The "modern" Doctor Who (Eccleston onwards) has modern special effects. That's why I mentioned the earlier incarnations.
You are wrong about the reason the BBC doesn't have all the episodes. In the 60s and 70s most programmes were recorded on an expensive medium: videotape. Since it was expensive, it was recycled after use for newer programmes. Astounding? Of course! Many programmes of the era no longer exist.
For Capaldi: use the subtitles. I do, because I'm deaf.
Yes, the last couple of series have been soulless design-by-committee-and-focus-groups affairs. Russell T Davies is back for the next series, and the Doctor Who actor is interestingly quirky. Promising, but time will tell.
But to get back to the point. If the principal things you notice in B5 are the props, then you are missing the soul of the series. A good intro to all the subtleties is the B5 lurkers guide, since it contains many of the interactions between JMS and fans that occurred on usenet after each episode was transmitted for the first time (see the "jms speaks" sections in http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/reference/episodes.html )
AndyBeez:
:popcorn: Credible Sci-Fi?
SPACE 1999 - no Moon Base Alpha (yet) but it did predict the arrival of cathode ray based smart phones.
RED DWARF (the early series') - every EEV DMM knows that one day it will go to a dumpster called Silicon Heaven.
LEXX - just about the most left-field sci-fi of the past 30 years - But for adults only. Seriously, it's not Doctor Who.
And stop off some time to watch the original 1960 version of THE TIME MACHINE ( as later referenced in the The Nerdvana Annihilation episode of The Big Bang Theory ) A pure 1950's take on the dystopian trajectory of human kind.
There are other higher brow films such as SOLARIS 1972, by Russian Andrei Tarkovsky and SUNSHINE 2007, by Danny Boyle. But you'll need to be a student to watch them, with other students, in a student context. If you know what I mean.
Enjoy :popcorn:
TimFox:
A former co-worker, originally from the UK, had commuted to work past a job shop that constructed Dalek props for the BBC, with a yard full of them in plain sight on the side of the road.
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