Robert Heinlein's "Space Cadet" get's its full TV series treatment.
The multiverse abhors a vacuum...Trek's Trek
- Thread starter Laura Cynthia Chambers
- Start date
I've often thought that William Shatner would've made a great Dominic Flandry if Poul Anderson's stories had gotten a TV adaptation in the '60s or '70s.
The best part about "The Beginning" script for me was a bunch of Vulcans watching clips from "My Favourite Martian" and "The Outer Limits" and trying to deduce what species an alien was in the latter.
I always wanted to write something in my own hard science fiction universe where human explorers monitor the TV broadcasts of a non-humanoid pre-contact species and are amused by the sight of the actors sticking bits of rubber on themselves to pretend to be aliens, when to human eyes they're obviously just that species in make-up.
The point, of course, would be to lampshade the absurdity of our science fiction sticking makeup on human actors and pretending that aliens would look anything like us. Any genuine alien species looking at Vulcans or Klingons or Cardassians or Twi'lek or Togruta or whatever would only see humans in dress-up, and would probably find it farcical that we imagined extraterrestrial life in anything resembling our own image.
Admiral Archer approves of the following documentaries and series - which gained huge popularity during the early 21st Century, spawning a cult following for the next 100 years…
Freedom’s Fury:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom's_Fury
Children of Glory:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Glory
Water Polo Yankees:
https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/87003
Polo Boys:
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2372566/
[wink]
Freedom’s Fury:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom's_Fury
Children of Glory:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Glory
Water Polo Yankees:
https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/87003
Polo Boys:
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2372566/
[wink]
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Actually, many of the things that define the way we look (bilateral symmetry, bipedalism, hands with opposed thumbs, a head containing the brain and most sensory organs, etc) are all quite convenient for an intelligent creature, and scientists consider that alien animals may develop, in broad strokes, in similar ways. There's a name for it: convergent evolution.
Have in mind that sci-fi aliens are one thing, actual astrobiology is another, and if you want to write hard science fiction, you need to be familiar with the later. Star Trek has aliens who are "energy beings", and those may make sense in-universe, but for actual science, there is just NO WAY such a lifeform can exist.
Yeah, yeah, I've heard that trite argument trotted out many times over the decades, and several of my alien designs in my own original science fiction are refutations of it, showing that you can meet all those parameters with a species that could never be described as humanoid. This includes the species featured in "Aleyara's Descent," my story appearing in the upcoming May/June 2023 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, which I'll be updating the linked page with once the story comes out (probably in April). I designed them specifically to have a convergent evolutionary history to humanity as brachiators that adapted for life walking upright, but they still have massive differences from us in body shape and appearance.
It's facile and egocentric to use convergent evolution to argue that aliens would look exactly like us aside from bumpy head bits or whatever, because convergently evolved anatomical features in nature often look extremely different from each other even though they serve the same purpose. Nobody would mistake a pterosaur wing for a bird wing or a bat wing. It's a failure of imagination and humility to assume our appearance is the only possible one that could serve the same evolutionary purposes.
Which is exactly what I've been doing for most of my life. When I first started developing my own SF universe back in my teens in the early 1980s, it started out very Trek-influenced and featured humanoid aliens, but as I learned more science and read the nonfiction of writers like Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan, I came to realize how unlikely that was and started designing more plausible aliens. It's always been a point of pride to me never to design an alien that could be played by an actor in prosthetics.
Which, of course, is the whole point of the idea I brought up in the previous post -- to make fun of the idea of prosthetic-makeup aliens in the context of a hard-SF universe with more plausibly diverse aliens. It's turning around the egocentric tendency to expect humans to be the template for all life, showing how ridiculous it would look to us if a non-humanoid species made the same assumption about their appearance.
Yes, but the point of speculative fiction is to speculate and explore other possibilities. If you humanoid organization that's fine. If you want nonhumanoid also equally interesting. It's a matter of serving the story, and written stories are not hampered by make up efforts.
Though, it is egocentric regardless, to write aliens one way or another. It's all to authors and their tastes.
I wouldn't have any idea how to begin creating some of these non-humanoids in a story, aside from vague references.
The Borg Queen may have had a purpose, but it was nearly scuttled when Chakotay decided to open an airlock and get rid of all the Borg. Seven was the only one that survived.Star Trek Voyager, Dark Frontier when the Queen says that the Borg put Seven of Nine on Voyager and left her there for a purpose….
Perhaps a Seven of Nine spin off can elaborate.
Maybe they all took up knitting, or had a decades'-long competition to see who could design the dumbest-looking uniforms.
Not everything has to be about what aliens think of the Federation. They have their own concerns and perspectives.
If I could change anything about the westerns, it would be to let Bonanza grow up in its treatment of the Cartwrights, so Pernell Roberts might not have gotten fed up enough to quit. It's utterly ridiculous that in all those seasons, not one of Ben's sons managed to marry and have a family.
Watching Bonanza can also be a game called "Spot the Star Trek actors, whether regular cast or guest stars." To the best of my knowledge, the only regular TOS cast who did not appear in Bonanza are Shatner, Takei, Koenig, and Nichelle Nichols. The others did, sometimes more than once. There's an episode in which Ricardo Montalban and Madlyn Rhue play a married Native American couple.
It wasn't the non-interactive part that confused Tuvok. What made him question it was that they were in a 3-D environment (the holodeck), watching a 2-dimensional entertainment (a movie), while wearing 3-D glasses to make the movie look 3-dimensional. Tuvok considered that to be illogical.
If memory serves, that was the first Heinlein novel I ever read. Without Star Trek, I might never have become interested in science fiction. Science itself, sure - I was into astronomy years before getting into SF.
Heinlein's novels haven't aged well, for the most part, at least as far as planetary science is concerned. Part of Space Cadet takes place on Venus - swampy, sit-out-in-the-open Venus. I do recall a scene in the book where Oscar (the cadet who came from that planet) explains some of the social taboos to his fellow cadets when they interact with the natives of Venus (eating in public was considered to be Extremely Bad Manners and even mentioning the act of eating was a social faux pas).
I have most of the Flandry series but haven't read them yet. I've often wished that the Time Patrol stories could have been adapted as a TV show.
You seem very certain of this. I think that when we finally learn to communicate with the whales, they will disagree with your stance.
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Chakotay opened the airlock, not Riker.
Thanks, I'll correct that. Dunno what I was thinking.
Same here. My uncle gave me "Tunnel in the Sky" which was a really interesting novel that I found a lot of fun, and started looking at Star Trek more.
Unfortunately, this is true for much of his works. But, I love the book any how, and would enjoy an adaptation of some kind. Yes, "pie with a fork" which was a callback to a lesson another cadet learned while on the training ship.
I was more referring to Harry Kim in Future's End, who upon walking in on Neelix and Kes watching TV and noticing how they're getting hooked on soap operas comments "I can't imagine simply witnessing the story and not taking part in it."
Maybe Harry's just not as into TV as Tom is?
Me, I'm totally with Tom on this. I don't WANT to interact with the stuff I watch. If we had real interactive TV I'd steer well clear of it.
And Tuvok has a valid point.
Me, I'm totally with Tom on this. I don't WANT to interact with the stuff I watch. If we had real interactive TV I'd steer well clear of it.
And Tuvok has a valid point.
Which could just be his own perspective, not necessarily typical. There are, sadly, quite a few people in the present day who can't imagine reading a book.
During Kirk's childhood, kids watched a space opera which featured travel to another galaxy. That was the wild science fiction of the day, with the impossible fantasy of intergalactic travel.
Analogous to space travel stories during the 1950s, before the launch of Sputnik.
Analogous to space travel stories during the 1950s, before the launch of Sputnik.
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BTW, the cast included actual aliens, species such as Andorians, Tellarites, etc.
There were a few things included that have appeared in space opera, but not so much in Trek-robots, light sabers, etc.
There were a few things included that have appeared in space opera, but not so much in Trek-robots, light sabers, etc.
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