Sci-Fi Movies and TV shows......

So what's your favorites.

I remember when I was a young kid and used to go to Sat. afternoon matinees at the local movie theater. Saw the originals of War of the Worlds (w/Gene Berry), Day the Earth Stood Still (w/Michael Rennie), This Island Earth, Invaders from Mars, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Forbidden Planet, Them. Man, I LOVED that shit. The mid 50's was Sci-Fi heaven.

Just remembered. I used to work at a company called Laser Images. We did all the Laserium shows around the country (some outside the country) along with some special effects for Industrial Light and Magic. Anyways, the company got invited to a private screening of Star Wars at 20th Century Fox before the movie was ever released. It was the final cut and just come out of post production. It was a small private screening theater.........maybe 50 seats max. I'll never forget that opening scene. We were all like...........what the

Favorite Sci-Fi Shows on TV: Eureka, Torchwood, Fringe, Caprica, BattleStar Galactica, Firefly.

Did anyone walk out of that screening and say..."man that movie is never going to make it!!" that would be pretty funny.

bcleez said:

Did anyone walk out of that screening and say..."man that movie is never going to make it!!" that would be pretty funny.

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Not a one. But Ivan Dryer, the owner of the company, wrote a letter to Lucas telling him that the ending was all wrong.

I think my all time favorite Sci-Fi movie ever would have to be Aliens. I enjoyed the entire series, but Aliens is just so nostalgic, timeless, and was honestly one of the best films made in my opinion, Sci-Fi and otherwise. The story and character development was exceptional, and the music, tone, and visuals were immersive. I was not fortunate enough to catch it in theater, (was born the year it came out) but at 11 I had it on VHS and literally watched it every day for about a year straight.

I can still quote nearly the entire film from start to finish as I type!

I had just lined up Metropolis by Fritz Lang (instant play on netflix), paused and checked e-mail before starting in on the evenings work. Saw this thread.

There aren't many Sci-Fi stories that have translated well to movie screen (or little screen). Good sci-fi takes more than 90 minutes. Not saying there aren't good sci-fi short stories, but filling 90 mminutes of theater requires theatrics... not so much intellectual involvement needed.

Funny, just heard Bullwinkle refer to the TV show Moonsmoke... Star Trek was sorta Cowboys in Space . . . Moonsmoke with Sherrif Kirk, Deputy Spock, Miss Green (or Blue)Kitty of the week, the farmers that need help etc.


Was My Favorite Martian, Science Fiction?

I was young and impresionable and probably not allowed to watch Twilight Zone and certainly not Outer Limits, but managed to see a few (at the time) and was properly twisted from then on.

Good Sci-fi, can be written for the screen. But it rarely is.

Now back to Metropolis... 1927 I believe.

Blade Runner

I hovered over that one tonight... been sidetracked. It all went well, L , we are in, Woot. Just looking at pics...

Now back to regular scheduled programing.

lwien said:

So what's your favorites.

Favorite Sci-Fi Shows on TV: Eureka, Torchwood, Fringe, Caprica, BattleStar Galactica, Firefly.

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Wow, I love all those shows! I have always loved Sci-Fi shows and movies, most favorite being Star Trek. (The Original Series, The Next Generation, Voyager and Enterprise until they screwed it up with the Xindi plot).......never cared much for Deep Space Nine, too dark for me.

We actually own all the Trek movies on DVD, including the newest movie with Chris Pine. We also own some episodes of TOS and TNG. Of course, I love Star Wars too! We have all the Star Wars movies on DVD.

Being a child of the 70's, I loved watching the old Battlestar Galactica (love the new BSG too), Wonder Woman, Space 1999, The Incredible Hulk (I own every episode and movie on DVD, including Death of The Incredible Hulk.....gosh, there were so many good shows and movies, but I'm too high to remember them all right now.

Eureka is awesome, especially this season. I cried when Stark died, even though he was an ass. Maybe he is alive now that they screwed up the time line!

Torchwood is one of my favorites, as well as Doctor Who (I don't like Matt Smith, David Tennant is my fav doctor). I could barely watch Children of Earth. I was crying too much, and having a child I adore, it was very hard to watch.

Firefly and Serenity and great too, and yes, we own them on DVD.

I also love Stargate SG1, have all 10 seasons on DVD, and the movies.

I know I forgot some. Does horror count? I grew up on the old black and white monster movies...The Wolfman, Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, Creature From The Black Lagoon, etc.

Vicki said:

Does horror count?

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Ya know, you mention horror movies. The absolute scariest movie that I ever saw was Alien (the first one) when I saw it on the big screen in a movie theater when it first came out. I know it's sci-fi, but it's really a horror flick. Classic haunted house horror, except it took place on a spaceship. They threw ever trick in the book in that movie, even down to the false scares with that cat. I remember leaving the movie theater with a major pain from a stiff neck just from being so damn tense for so long. Great fucking movie. Scared the shit outta me.

Purple-Days said:

I hovered over that one tonight... been sidetracked. It all went well, L , we are in, Woot. Just looking at pics...

Now back to regular scheduled programing.

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Woot, woot.....

lwien said:

Vicki said:

Does horror count?

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Ya know, you mention horror movies. The absolute scariest movie that I ever saw was Alien (the first one) when I saw it on the big screen in a movie theater when it first came out. I know it's sci-fi, but it's really a horror flick. Classic haunted house horror, except it took place on a spaceship. They threw ever trick in the book in that movie, even down to the false scares with that cat. I remember leaving the movie theater with a major pain from a stiff neck just from being so damn tense for so long. Great fucking movie. Scared the shit outta me.

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I was too young to see Alien at the theater, but somehow my parents thought "Jaws" wouldn't be so bad for me to see.

I forgot to add all three Underworld movies.

Didn't end up watching Metropolis. Got thinking about one of my favorite sci-fi movies. 12 Monkeys with Bruce Willis and Sean Penn, wow, if you have never seen it, just do. Penn is incredible, Willis is in one of his best roles. Instead of Metropolis I watched Surrogates with Willis and James Cromwell. Decent enough...


I liked and watched Star Trek in original release. Not knocking the Moonsmoke formulae too much, after all everything is just Shakespeare on another set. And Wrath of Kahn was just the best sequel set-up from the old shows. With Corrrrinthian Leather Zero G seats.... I can hear him saying it now. Lots of those stories were lifted from NBC radio drama and serials scripts with slight modification.

Saw, 2001 in the theater after reading the book.
It's now one of my favorites.

2001 is both an amazing book and film! I'm personally a big fan of Arthur C. Clarke. In terms shows and films I've seen most of whats been posted...Anyone else read or see Contact/Cosmos by Carl Sagan? Contact is by far one of my all time favorite books

SkollIstKrieg said:

Anyone else read or see Contact/Cosmos by Carl Sagan? Contact is by far one of my all time favorite books

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Carl Sagan is my idol, and I've seen both. I like Cosmos better, but I also love science. Here is a link for every episode of Cosmos, in case anyone wants to check it out.

http://www.sprword.com/videos/cosmos/


I also forgot to mention another 70's show I liked, "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century." A show written by Glen Larson, who was also a writer on the old and new BSG.

If you ever get a chance to listen, Clarke narrated his own Martian Chronicles. A very decent audio book and introspective between chapters including the story of how he started as a professional writer.

Hated Starship Troopers, laughed at the John Carter attempt (and hated it). Some classics need to be left alone.

And some classic movies should be sacrosanct. The Day the Earth Stood Still should never have been re-made and I will try to avoid seeing the re-make if it's in my power. That is another of those films I hold in high regard as classic S-F.

And there is nothing like a classic Japanese S-F such as Gojira (Godzilla). Oh no, there goes Tokyo, Go, Go, Godzilla.

Tiime for bed, those recollections should bring on some strange dreams tonight.

I forgot to list "Supernatural." I love that show too.

No one mention X-Files? Probably my favorite all time show.

Anyone seen The Adventures of Brisco County Jr staring Michigan favorite B Actor Bruce Campbell? I used to love it as a kid. Very original. The only western, comedy, sci-fi series i have seen. I think Firefly might have got a bit of inspiration from this show, although it has more comedy elements. It died early, and was a bit ahead of its time.

Anyone watch Mystery Science Theater 3000? I grew up on it. A great way to enjoy some of those old sci-fi and horror classics with a twist. One of my favorites is the Mystery Science Theater Movie using This Island Earth. Check it out Iwien, i think you may like.

Sci-Fi and comedy? How 'bout Galaxy Quest ?

Can we ever forget Dr. Smith and the robot from Lost In Space? Now that was comedy. And of course the Jetsons. Spacely Sprockets vs. Cogswell Cogs... classic.

I remember when they came out with the directors cut of Alien. They had a limited time showing of it in the theaters.
I finally got to see it on the big screen. such a different experience to see a movie like that up on the big screen when my only experience with it had been the small screen.

Any one check out the new show Haven on Syfy? based off the Colorado Kid by Stephen King. Has a Warehouse 13/X-files feel to it.

I can't believe that no one has brought up Twilight Zone. It was one of my all time favorites growing up. I remember one starring Agnes Moorhead called The Invaders. There was no dialogue through the whole thing. She lived alone and heard noises in her attic. She goes to investigate and is attacked by little robots. The end scene was a shot of their "space ship." It was marked USA. Classic.

Edit: oops, just realized Tom brought it up earlier.

DevoTheStrange said:

Any one check out the new show Haven on Syfy? based off the Colorado Kid by Stephen King. Has a Warehouse 13/X-files feel to it.

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Yeah, I have checked it out. I'm kind of disappointed that all of these shows are following the same basic trend and that is than rather than following a story thread, they seem to be just giving us brand new situations to deal with each week, be it Fringe, Eureka, Warehouse 13, Haven (even tho I do like these series). Yeah, there is an underlying story thread, but it gets buried pretty deep and takes a back to seat to the situation at hand. I'd like to see a Sci-Fi series that follows a story thread that occupies, front and center, the series every week much like "24" did from week to week.

Can't hurt to bring up Twilight twice. And since I just mentioned Lost In Space one of my favorite Twilights was starring the little boy off LIS, Billy Mumy. Bad boy...

And what about Alf?

lwien said:

DevoTheStrange said:

Any one check out the new show Haven on Syfy? based off the Colorado Kid by Stephen King. Has a Warehouse 13/X-files feel to it.

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Yeah, I have checked it out. I'm kind of disappointed that all of these shows are following the same basic trend and that is than rather than following a story thread, they seem to be just giving us brand new situations to deal with each week, be it Fringe, Eureka, Warehouse 13, Haven (even tho I do like these series). Yeah, there is an underlying story thread, but it gets buried pretty deep and takes a back to seat to the situation at hand. I'd like to see a Sci-Fi series that follows a story thread that occupies, front and center, the series every week much like "24" did from week to week.

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I'm trying to give Haven a chance, but it hasn't grown on me yet. I do like Warehouse 13.

Ya know, good writing has so much to do with how much I like a series, especially when the writing reflects that the show doesn't take itself too seriously, and is just one of the reasons why True Blood is one of my favorites. Some lines in that show are real knee slappers. Southern Gothic Horror with a comedic twist and a bit of sex thrown in. Love it.