Great Sci-fi???

Day of the Triffids and Village of the Damned.
Andromeda Strain.
I also enjoyed Babylon 5, watched most of the Star Trek spin offs but stopped Enterprise after the first series,with a ship more modern than NCC1701 it didn't work for me.

Howard

i enjoyed heroes which is coming to dvd soon.

Hopelessly low brow, I know, but I think some of Arnie's efforts are pretty good. "Total Recall" and the first 2 Terminator films are all classics I reckon.

I liked Solaris

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Kelly:
Hopelessly low brow, I know, but I think some of Arnie's efforts are pretty good. "Total Recall" and the first 2 Terminator films are all classics I reckon.

Low brow? not in the least. Total Recall is based on the short story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick, easily the greatest sci-fi writer ever. Much sci-fi is wizard and dragon adolescent tosh but Dick wrote presciently about some of the great philosophical issues of our age. The filmed adaptations of his works tend to concentrate on action and strip out the philosophical core (Minority Report, Paycheck, Total Recall) but are still great fun.
The incomparable Bladerunner has significant departures from the book, but must still be considered as one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time. Last year's A Scanner Darkly was remarkably faithful to the book and is the best adaptation next to Bladerunner.

Malky
Thanks for that. I was unaware of the origins of "Total Recall". Tis a good tale though.

quote:

Originally posted by Jonathan Gorse:
I have recently been enjoying the series Firefly on DVD - it has an appealling cast though it's no masterpiece despite reviews saying it is.
Now has anyone got any other recommendations???
Jonathan

Jonathan, once you've finished Firefly make sure you watch Serenity!
The movie made after the series was axed (after only one series), it will round the story up nicely for you......

Cheers,
Ali

Silent Running.
Dark Star.
Blade Runner.
Children of Men.
Strange Days.
Brazil.
Twelve Monkeys.
Fifth element.
Galaxy Quest (!)
Starship Troopers.
Contact.
Event Horizon.
Enemy Mine.
Hitchhikers... (TV or radio).
Soylent Green.
The Omega Man.
Dune.
Farenheit 451 ('cos it's got Julie Christie in it...)
Survivors (TV).
Minority Report.
Repo Man.
Battle Royale.

Should keep you busy for a while...

I confess I like my SF big, colourful, noisy, and full of action. I loved Total Recall even though it omits the more esoteric aspects of Dick's novel. It's nonstop action from the opening seconds. Starship Troopers is another with fantastic effects and loads of thrilling action. I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the Forbidden Planet which is probably my all time favourite SF movie. It still looks and sounds fresh and innovative today so who knows what sort of experience it must have been in the 50s. Of course it was the inspiration for Star Trek (which may not be a good thing in some people's eyes )

I'm with Tom. Forbidden Planet's my favourite too. It's really almost the perfect SF movie - has everything.

Some more (just stream of consciousness):

The Day The Earth Stood Still
Soylent Green
Westworld
Kaze no Tani no Naushika
A Scanner Darkly
Planet Of The Apes
Predator
Pitch Black
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
The Andromeda Strain
Rollerball
The Quiet Earth

Oh, and read this (all about recent SF on TV):

The Guardian on 'The New Sci-Fi'

Wot, no Blade Runner !!!!! Epic

and for recent series, Farscape and Battlestar Galctica. Excellent, esp. compared to the rest of TV, usually "reality" i.e cheap TV dross.

Dr Who anyone?

The recent shows I have watched are as good if not better than the 70s heyday with Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker. Now that they have John Simm on board as The Master it will go up to 11.

Regards
Richard S

Richard I think Dr Who's going from strength to strength at the moment. The final few episodes in the latest series were some of the best SF I've ever seen. In my opinion it's superior to anything from the old days as I was never quite able to ignore the low budget cheesy sets and effects. (I liked the Jon Pertwee stories that had him stuck on earth though.)

Even the Guardian has something to say on the subject.

surprised that no one's mentioned the Quatermass films produced by Hammer in the 60s. All three are classics, but the third, "Quatermass and the Pit" is especially strong.

On TV, Battlestar Galactica is a no-brainer - exceptionally smart and provocative.

If you wish to branch out into fantasy/horror, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the greatest TV show of all time - objective fact!

Another vote for "Serenity". Yet more proof (if it was needed...) that big stars and CGI can't replace plot and character.

quote:

Originally posted by Deane F:
Another vote for "Serenity". Yet more proof (if it was needed...) that big stars and CGI can't replace plot and character.

thump!............."what was that?"

quote:

Originally posted by Rockingdoc:
I liked Solaris

This is an excellent film. Similar in pace to 2001 but far better IMO.
The closing scene is stunning. A Cinematic classic.

Alphaville is also worth watching.

quote:

Originally posted by Malky:
Philip K. Dick, easily the greatest sci-fi writer ever.

(Even though) I studied philosophy I have to agree - Dick is the most consistently interesting sf writer by far - and films based on his work are usually of interest.

quote:

Originally posted by Rockingdoc:
I liked Solaris

I really like Solaris too - i also have the soundstrack by Cliff Martinez which is very nice... in fact i might put it on later!

I think Forbidden Planet was the first to use electronic "music".Story line inspired by Shakespeare.It's weird to see Leslie Nielsen in a serious role.

quote:

... films based on his work are usually of interest.

If only a good director would film 'The Man in the High Castle'. Too controversial, perhaps?

(I don't agree that he's the best SF author, but that's by-the-by)

Hi Johnathan

Try Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles which they made into a TV mini series in the early 80's (on Region 1 DVD). The book is brilliant and although I haven't seen it for years, I can still recall many of the scenes because of the impact the TV version had on me. The special effects may not be state of the art but the thought provoking storylines make it classic SF.

Best Regards
Geoff

Yeah, I enjoyed those too. In hindsight the acting was terrible and the production not that great but they did leave an impression from the imagery.

B5 was excellent. It didn't entirely work (for example, the threat of cancellation pulled to much story into season 4, which left a weak final year), but it still did something that hasn't really been done before or since in TV - namely, that JMS set out to tell a 5 year story, in essence an novel in TV form, and did.

Firely/Serenity was very good, and though I've only watched a little of it, I'm very much enjoying the new Battlestar Galactica.

Sci-Fi on TV tends to have an unfortunately habit of being cancelled before its time. This was certainly Futurama, which was a work of genius (and, I suppose, unlike the Simpsons, could never be accused of having become tired). I think Farscape falls into this category too. Interesting because it's premise had the human as the alien, good effects, good stories, and the 3rd season was one of the most emotionally draining of any show I can recall.


In film, Blade Runner is rather special. And I very much enjoy the first Matrix (as well as the car chase from the second).


A lot of the best Sci-Fi is in books. I recently read Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle. I don't know if I'd entirely describe it as Sci-Fi, since as much as anything it's a satire politics, religion and just about anything else (including science and scientists), but it's very readable and quite brilliant. I'd say something similar about Asimov's I Robot, with it's wondeful use of logic. I'm also rather fond of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars) which is, essentially, a several hundred year history of the colonisation of the red planet, it does have plenty of moments where it drags, but the best bits are sufficiently excellent to compensate. I too enjoy Philip K Dick, though I don't think he writes quite so magically as Vonnegut. A Scanner Darkly is very good though


The other area you might like to explore is comic books. In terms of the sillier school of Sci-Fi, and very much of their time, were the Lee/Kirby fantastic four stories (in particular those around 40-60 which introduced such stellar characters as Galactus and the Silver Surfer). However, possibly the best place to start is with the peerless (and rather more grown up) works of Alan Moore. His masterwork, and arguably the greatest comic book ever written, is Watchmen. It's rather difficult to describe but essentially it is set in an alternative 1984 (around the time it was written) and takes as its premise the idea of how the world would be different if superheros were real. It's much more than that however, but rather difficult to sum up in a way that does it justice - just read it instead. V for Vendetta is also very fine (and infinitely superior to the over-simplistic film adaptation which robbed it of much of its subtlety). The premise is an alternative future (as it then was) in a post-nuclea holocaust 1990s Britain ruled by fascists. V, a Guy Fawkes like character fights back. The other Moore work worth mentioning is the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The extent to which this is superior to the absolutely terrible film cannot easily be stated. In it, he pulls together such 19th Century literary characters as Jeckle and Hyde, Alan Quartermain, Mina Hawker, Captain Nemo and the Invisible Man and dispatches them to save the work (Sci-Fi because this isn't really the 19th C of history). The first volume is rather special (the more so for the richness of all the literary references), the second, which revolves around the war of the worlds, doesn't work quite so well. The other comic book well worth checking out is Joe Straczyski (creator of Babylon 5)'s Rising Stars. In some ways, this was to do in comics what B5 did in TV. It tells, over 24 issues (or as you will read it 3 graphic novels, with one small, and optional, supplement) the story of 113 people who were in the womb when there was a blinding flash over Pederson Illinois. They develop super-powers and it tells what goes right, wrong and how they affect the world. In many ways this is similar to Watchmen, and very readable. I've said these are comics, and they were originally, but now all available as graphic novels and that's probably the best way to buy them (they're easily found, for example, on the books section of Amazon).


Of course, no discussion of Sci-Fi would be complete without mention of the wonderful Douglas Adams and his genre spanning Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The books (all 5 of them, and available in a single volume) are excellent and should be read. The first two phases of the radio show are, in some regards, the best of the lot and can be had on CD. The 3rd, 4th and 5th less so. Made after Adams' death they miss the point that he altered it for whatever genre it was in, but they've basically just adapted the books and there's too much clunky actors reading dialogue that's was description in the books. However the 4th is worth having for the cameo by the late, great World at One presenter Nick Clarke, I was listening again the other day and had completely forgotten about this so it took me aback when I heard the works "This is the World at One, I'm Nick Clarke with thirty minutes of news and comment" and I must confess it brought a tear to my eye. The TV series was also good (though hobbled by budget problems - Zaphod's second head doesn't really convince). While it divided opinion, I thought the film was excellent.


regards, Tam