What is your preferred science-fiction serie or movie.

The ringworld series, but it's books. So last century.

Tripping the rift. But that is NSFW.
 
Profighost said:
A good Science Fiction reflects the present ("What if we do not change anything")
and not placing (silly) ideas into people's heads seeking (dreaming) for a better future
instead of solving real problems in the real world here and now.
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Stark.
 
Old ones: Firefly and Stargate Universe, both underrated and and prematurely cancelled.
Not too old: The Expanse.

Films... not easy, lot of very good Sci-Fy films out there.
 
Space Balls! Because it's a pretty good parody by Mel Brooks on Star Wars (also still the only one), Star Trek, Alien and many others in between somewhere like Planet of the Apes. It gave us Prince Valium, The Schwartz, Dark Helmet, Pizza the Hut and many other stuff. Also ludicrous speed, of course!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGIM_yNzeUo


Second in that category is "Galaxy Quest", because this is a pretty good documentation as well a friendly parody on Star Trek and its fan culture without being ill-natured, which makes good hearted fun about many Star Trek tropes. Also quite amazing cast with Alan Rickman as Mr. Spock equivalent, Sigourney Weaver as blonde dumb eye candy, Tim Allen as Capain and much more.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtHM77IRkus


When talking about Scifi Series, there's only one which takes the cake: Babylon 5, because this is really a space opera of epic proportions and the space battles where done back then in the 90s very inexpensive on an Amiga. The story arcs are still quite impressive today, the music is a blast. And the roles like Michael Garibaldi, Susan Ivanova, Londo Mollari, G'Kar and many others are still quite iconic. It seems writing so much He-Man stuff payed really off for JMS.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vIVFgXaxsU


Also let's not forget about a very popular scifi sub genre of the 70s, which is dystopian post apocalyptic scifi showing a rundown, damaged society (or its remains): Soylent Green takes here the crown. It shows a very grim, rundown future where many are poor and struggle to survive, because the planet is almost done. And few rich just still can have what they want, and of course the secret of Soylent Green is a major twist. And as it tells: "New York City in the year 2022. Nothing runs anymore, nothing works." So that fictional future is now.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_jGOKYHxaQ
Last but not least: "A Clockwork Orange" by Stanley Kubrick, which depicts a very grim future with a special way to deal with crime. A very controversial movie, and still very disturbing to many people today as it was in the year of its release due to its depiction of violence orchestrated like a ballet with music from Beethoven as soundtrack.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN-1Mup0UI0
 
Star Trek, Iron Man 1/2/3, Captain America, Ready Player One, Tron:Legacy (Amazing film, also has Daft Punk music inside it, which makes it cooler).
 
To get a good idea of the depth of Babylon5, you need to read some of the books comming from it. Pity the spin off series did not catch on (Rangers, Crusade).
Speaking of books, does anyone know where "The Book" from B5 is now? I want it.
 
Crivens said:
To get a good idea of the depth of Babylon5, you need to read some of the books comming from it. Pity the spin off series did not catch on (Rangers, Crusade).
Speaking of books, does anyone know where "The Book" from B5 is now? I want it.
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When B5 was new JMS also commented on it during its air time on Usenet, which was really a novelty back then. He always pointed out some of the finer details of every episode, and possible implications. Also stuff which could have been missed easily. Nowadays he would probably use Facebook or Twitter for that task.

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/ was quite interesting to read back then. And it still gives a great idea about the depth of that fictional universe.

What I always found fascinating about B5 is that it had not this optimistic Star Trek view, but was a much darker potential future. For me one of the most and biggest, also best difference to Star Trek is that not all known races in B5 are technologically around the same level. In Star Trek most space faring races are roughly on the same tech level, which makes stuff boring, when not taking in the Q which normally tend to mind their own business and are not really important. Also the Borg over time lost much of their horror, because they found ways to deal with them.

In B5 there is a clear distinciton between the races, there is a big gap between the humans and the Minbari. The Minbari, being the oldest of the younger races, are so advanced, that humanity was no threat to them at all... until the Minbari surrendered for first unknown reasons. And then there are also the older races, most notably the Vorlons and Shadows, who are so thousands of years ahead the younger races that they even fail to grasp about what the Vorlons technically might be able to do, or not.
 
I'm old, right? There's a lot of sci-fi productions I enjoy, but IMHO the masterpiece is still Kubrick's 2001.

To mention just one thing about it: There's no sound without a medium (air). 99% of all sci-fi movies just ignore that. Respecting it gives the movie a very special (and, arguably, dark and depressing) feeling.
 
Addendum: Something more modern that comes IMHO close is "Interstellar", and I really think there was quite some inspiration from "2001" making it (but I might be wrong 🙈). Another one worth mentioning is "Arrival".

Then, of course, "Star Wars" was nice (the original 3 episodes, don't have to talk about the rest) and IMHO superior to "Star Trek" which always tried to show some weird kind of "perfection"...

Regarding series, I would recommend "The Expanse".

IMHO, animated "comedy" sci-fi series are a whole other genre, but also enjoyable. For them my personal preference is first "Rick&Morty", then "Futurama".

But I stick to my opinion, 2001 is the masterpiece of sci-fi movies :cool:
 
Yesterday I just saw futurama. I found it quiet funny even at my age.
Regarding 2001, does the obelisk symbolises a TV-screen or the arrival of self-consciousness ?
 
Alain De Vos said:
Yesterday I just saw futurama. I found it quiet funny even at my age.
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Of course. This series addresses adults, not children, and IMHO it's not a question of age whether you enjoy the humor. It has a dark side, which I personally enjoy a lot! I remember first seeing this series back at university, before it was available here in Germany. Those events with new Futurama episodes directly from the US were quite popular back then :cool:.

Rick&Morty is a much more recent series, and IMHO, it tops Futurama. It's much weirder, it's darker, and it also deals more with the deeper problems of the characters. One episode where Rick and Morty have to bury their own bodies from another dimension is IMHO iconic, Rick being the slightly narcissistic and definitly nihilist guy (who at least pretends not to give a shit) and Morty being traumatized by that experience ...

Alain De Vos said:
Regarding 2001, does the obelisk symbolises a TV-screen or the arrival of self-consciousness ?
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I can't tell you, although the latter interpretation seems a lot more plausible. It's quite possible to also refer to some Nietzsche philosophy!
 
tingo, I think it's very worth mentioning, because it deals with a whole other aspect very deeply, forms of communication that are outside our thinking (so, really "alien"). It's an awesome work IMHO.
 
hardworkingnewbie said:
they even fail to grasp about what the Vorlons technically might be able to do, or not.
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Read the Technomage trilogy. It hints at even the shadows not having a complete idea of what they can do - meaning they might have found some technology and are using it without completely knowing it.
 
Alain De Vos said:
Regarding 2001, does the obelisk symbolises a TV-screen or the arrival of self-consciousness ?
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Neither, the obelisk is in a reality a multi purpose machine of alien origin, which triggered an important step in evolution on Earth, namely the apes in the beginning using the first tool over. The obelisks are still working, while the creators of the obelisks have transcended into higher beings made of pure energy. Exactly that what Dave Bowman is undergoing in the end of the movie.

HAL9000 then is the ultimate tool, amongst other things. And a good portion of that movie is about mankind and its relationships to tools.
 
Alain De Vos said:
Yesterday I just saw futurama. I found it quiet funny even at my age.
Regarding 2001, does the obelisk symbolises a TV-screen or the arrival of self-consciousness ?
Click to expand...
I just interpreted it literally: there was a mammoth-sized fetus floating somewhere in space? while a tall black rectangle appeared* among a number of humans acting like gorillas. Fascinating and moving to say the least. It's even better in real life. I haven't seen the movie, though, so take it with a grain of sand if you avoid salt.
 
Y'all know, Jurassic Park qualifies as science fiction... The best part is that the genetic analysis/synthesis behind the revival of the dinosaurs - it's actually valid scientific procedure... Just ask yourself what science even is, what the term means...
en.wikipedia.org

Science - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
Based on that, you guys might be surprised to discover what qualifies as science fiction, and why...
Dolly the sheep used to be science fiction - until it wasn't.
 
"Videodrome" (1983) is pretty good, from David Cronenberg


Also enjoyed "The Dead Zone" (1983), kind of horror/sci fi, based on Stephen King

 
zirias@ said:
To mention just one thing about it: There's no sound without a medium (air). 99% of all sci-fi movies just ignore that. Respecting it gives the movie a very special (and, arguably, dark and depressing) feeling.
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Have you seen Firefly? The TV series. The movie's just OK. Nailed the no-sound-in-space thing in the first episode. I was hooked.

Criosphinx said:
Farscape!! 😁
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Loved it! No one has pizza and margaritas! Crackers don't matter!
 
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