Aucbvax.1870 fa.sf-lovers utzoo!duke!decvax!ucbvax!JPM@MIT-ML Tue Jun 23 06:11:03 1981 SF-LOVERS Digest V3 #153 SF-LOVERS AM Digest Thursday, 18 Jun 1981 Volume 3 : Issue 153 Today's Topics: SF Books - Fantasticats & Cyber-SF, SF Movies - Clash of the Titans, SF TV - Dark Shadows, SF Topics - International Animation & Compu-fiction & Children's TV (George of the Jungle and Dodo and Space Angels) & Children's stories ("The Haunted Spacesuit") & Science in Science Fiction ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 15 Jun 1981 04:20:36-PDT From: decvax!duke!unc!smb at Berkeley Subject: SF Cat-tastrophes Well, if you prefer i'm-purr-fect SF, I can think of one example sure to give anyone claws-trophobia. It's a story called "Late Night Final", and it's really about the morality of TV producers. A vicious cat-like alien from an off-limits planet lands on earth, with the intention of looting the poor weak inhabitants. She pulls all sorts of vicious acts, such as killing the skid-row physician she forced to surgically alter her appearance. Unknown to her, her progress has been monitored by a TV network's hidden surveillance cameras. The network broadcasts her depredations as a block-buster live feature, without regard to the people killed, etc. The censorship board permits this, as long as sexual or scatalogical scenes aren't shown; they don't like it, but the public demands such fare. Finally, when the police apply too much pressure, they close the episode by hiring a man who has (apparently) killed several criminals whom he felt had been wrongly acquitted. Said vigilante is, of course, a popular hero. Anyway, the story has enough anti-cat propaganda to satisfy anyone's evil felines. Hmm -- could the author have been Leigh Brackett? I seem to remember several other Wait a minute -- why am I trying hard to think of anti-cat stories. Look at the bum raps have gotten for thousands of years... hell, just a week or two ago, Ann Landers said she had to go along with all those readers who claimed to know of cats who smothered babies. Me, I think these folks have never heard of sudden infant death syndrome... ------------------------------ Date: 12 Jun 1981 at 0453-CDT From: hjjh at UTEXAS-11 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ CYBER-SF: Natural Cy-Devices ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The rarest TYPEs of 'cybernetic' devices are those which are "natural" rather than constructed. Because we have found so few, all of them, not just the robots, are reported on together here. Laumer, K.: RETIEF'S WAR has the alien Quoppina, life forms combining the biological and the mechanical to form natural cyborgs. This is the basis of a lot of the humor in the book. The tone of the other books with cybernetic life forms, however, is not humorous. The circumstances are not described, but robots "grown from seed" in Kyle, D.A.: DRAGON LENSMAN would seem to be "natural". Metallic robot-like life forms occur in High, P.E.: NO TRUCE WITH TERRA Anthony, P.: OX In addition to the natural robotic life forms, "Machine Prime" in Anthony, P.: OX is a similar computer. And there are the alien purple flowers in Simak, C.: ALL FLESH IS GRASS which although biological rather than mechanical, have a root system which is described as forming a computer. 'Problematical' is all we can say about the alien ship's denizens in Clarke, A.C.: RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA They \could/ be natural. Like the characters in the story, we just don't have enough information to extrapolate reasonably from. ----- Has anyone come across any other books with "natural" cy-devices? ------------------------------ Date: 17 Jun 1981 10:40:32-EDT From: cjh at CCA-UNIX (Chip Hitchcock) Subject: bad actors in CotT (CLoT?) I'm curious about your statement that the actress(?) playing Andromeda was so bad they had to hire a stand-in for the bath scene. Certainly her proportions were extreme enough to satisfy most people; was it that she refused to do a nude scene (which I find thoroughly unlikely for an unknown in present-day filmmaking)? And do you think that one mark of a good actress is willingness to strip for the camera? Aside from this, I completely agree with your review, except that I didn't think much of the animated full shots of Pegasus---as with the seagull at the beginning, too much contrast between stiff animation and fluid life. ------------------------------ Date: 15 Jun 1981 0853-PDT (Monday) From: Mike at UCLA-SECURITY (Michael Urban) Subject: Dark Shadows, Huzzah! Ah yes. I remember Dark Shadows quite well. It ran back in the late 60's and ended in 1970, or 1971, right? I only caught the last couple of years of the program with any frequency. Thoroughly bizarre, and even more fun when you were up on the things they were stealing from (Dorian Gray, Frankenstein, Jekyll & Hyde, as well as some more obscure stories). Even today, you can hear "Shadows of the Night", which was "Quentin's Theme" on the show, played on the radio. This may be unique--a bit of music introduced as incidental music in a soap opera becoming a successful popular record. Channel 9 here in LA (RKO General affiliate) ran Dark Shadows reruns when MHMH started too. Clever people they were, they ran it at 11 PM, opposite MHMH. So it died from poor ratings, never to be seen again in the LA market, sigh. Again, unique. I can't think of any other soap operas that have gone into syndicated reruns! Every now and then, you see Dark Shadows alumni acting in other things. Notably Kate Jackson of "Charlie's Angels" (That's ANGEL, not ANGLE). However, a DS fan I was talking to at a recent con says that J. Frid (Barnabas) has retired from acting, and wants nothing to do with DS fan activities, unlike the other former cast members. I have the impression that Dark Shadows fans are actually fairly active and well organized. However, more due to laziness than disinterest, I haven't followed up any of the pointers. I assume that there are those out there who can help? Maybe the UFO fan coordinator (whom I know is also a DS fan) can supply information? Mike ------------------------------ Date: 15 Jun 1981 17:38 PDT From: Pettit at PARC-MAXC Subject: Dark Shadows Dark Shadows was my favorite TV show next to Star Trek during most of high school. In our neighborhood it came on at 3:00, which was the main factor in my choice of going to school 1st thru 6th periods (which let out at 2:20) instead of 2nd thru 7th (3:15). But I did feel during the last season that the plots were getting too much away from the central characters, and wished they would start over at the beginning. Instead they cancelled it altogether. If you decide to send that letter, I'll second it. /Teri ------------------------------ Date: 15 Jun 1981 10:36:10-PDT From: CSVAX.upstill at Berkeley Subject: SF-lovers; Animation show I'm not sure about the animation series (the International Animation Festival?) whose host was Jean Marsh, but more important, I can tell you who produced it, if you want to badger your local PBS station into reruns: KQED in San Francisco. And yes, it was really good (remember "Self Service", Bruno Bozetto's story of a mosquito consumer society run amok?), with much overlap with the (probably easier-to-obtain) Nth Annual Torurnees of Animation (for N up to 14 I think now). Steve ------------------------------ Date: 17 Jun 1981 1709-PDT From: OR.TOVEY at SU-SCORE Subject: animal robots, joint authorship The book version of Clash of the Titans will have Bubo, the robot owl (another robot bird). Re joint authorship: there is a book called The Floating Admiral, by Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, etc. -- one chapter per author. To keep themselves honest, each mystery writer was required to have a solution of the puzzle that was consistent with the clues in her/his chapter and the preceding ones. The book works out pretty well....It might be a good idea to do something like this, to keep the story more coherent. (sounds interesting). good reading, --cat ------------------------------ Date: 17 Jun 1981 1720-PDT From: Lynn Gold Subject: Song from SA George, George, George of the Jungle Strong as he can be AAOOHHHH (Tarzan-type yell)! "Watch out for that tree! "Watch out for that (AAOOHHHH -- followed by a loud crash) -- TREE!" --Lynn ------------------------------ Date: 17 Jun 1981 1214-PDT (Wednesday) From: Lauren at UCLA-SECURITY (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: G of the J Sigh... let's see if we can get the George of the Jungle theme RIGHT (the version sent in by someone in a previous digest was somewhat mangled). George, George, George of the Jungle Friend to you and me! [Tarzan Yell] Watch out for that tree! George, George, George of the Jungle Lives a life that's free! [Tarzan Yell] Watch out for that tree! When he gets in a scrape He makes his escape With the help of his friend, an A - P - E. Then away he'll schlep, On his elephant Shep While Fella and Bersella stay in step! With... George, George, George of the Jungle Friend to you and me! [Tarzan Yell] Watch out for that tree! Watch out for that... [Yell terminated with SPLAT--ARRRGHHH] Treeeeeeeeeeee... George, George, George of the Jungle -- Friend to you and me! --- --Lauren-- ------------------------------ From: TRB@MIT-MC Date: 06/15/81 10:12:20 Subject: SF-LOVERS Digest V3 #151 Dodo definitely exists, as real as you or I. Part of the theme song went: "... with propellers on his heels, antennas on his ears, he's a science fiction pixie from a strange atomic race, DODO, the kid from outer space, DODO!" Dodo was pretty hip, there was an off the wall ingenious scientist, if I correctly recall. The theme music really got your toes tappin'. I watched this in NYC all the time. ------------------------------ Date: 15 Jun 1981 14:02:17 EDT (Monday) From: David Mankins Subject: space angel I can remember watching Space Angel in my early childhood in Missouri (circa 1960). As I recall it was Space Angel himself who had the eye-patch. There was a heavy-set bearded fellow (with a Norse accent?) and a woman on the crew (don't remember their roles). There were some sort of baddies (a la Klingons) with skeletal space-ships. I only remember an episode which involved a race in space, including a grizzled old prospector (Gabby Hayes-like) and his patched-together spaceship (the most realistic space ship in films until the Discovery... lots of lumps and struts...) Sure seemed like fine stuff to a four-year old... ------------------------------ Date: 15 Jun 1981 1217-PDT (Monday) From: Lauren at UCLA-SECURITY (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: Space Angles (sic) Yeah! I remember the "Space Angles" show! It came on right after "Pythagorian Planet!" --Lauren-- P.S. If anyone believes this, may your keyboard melt beneath your fingers... --LW-- ------------------------------ Date: 15 Jun 1981 10:49:23-EDT From: cjh at CCA-UNIX (Chip Hitchcock) Subject: kittens in a space suit The story is Arthur Clarke's "The Haunted Spacesuit", a short-short that has appeared in several places. It came out in a mundane magazine as part of a series about life on the first space station. (I keep thinking of the series as a whole being titled "Islands in the Sky", but that's a juvenile novel.) I think "The Sentinel", which was the inspiration for 2001:A SPACE ODYSSEY, came from a similar set of short-shorts about the first flight to the moon (a fine fantasy: U.S., British, and Russian spacecraft leave together from a thriving space station). ------------------------------ Date: 14 Jun 1981 1108-PDT Sender: LEAVITT at USC-ISI Subject: HGWells and science fiction From: Mike Leavitt And even if we can conclude that Wells was in fact anti-science, that has nothing to do with whether what he wrote was science fiction. As someone recently said again (I think it was Baird Searles in IASFM) sf is about people's reaction *to* science. Time Machine and War of the Worlds qualify under that definition in any case. Mike ------------------------------ Date: 12 Jun 1981 20:31:32-PDT From: E.jeffc at Berkeley Subject: No science in science fiction ? Science fiction alone does not suffer from this gross distortion of science. Science-fact shows on television are also guilty of the same crime. COSMOS: I know that I supported this show last November, but after looking at it from this viewpoint, I have changed my mind. There is not one ounce of science in this show. What this show overflows with is MYSTICISM. Sagan's peculiar way of speaking adds to this effect. The problem with Carl Sagan is that he cannot understand the universe, and therefore the answer is to be sought in eastern religions, and stuff like that. He has this obsession with THINGS, such as the billions upon billions upon billions of stars in a galaxy, which the psychodelic animation and music reinforces. As soon as he comes to the frontiers of man's knowledge, he turns into a babbling idiot claiming that anything is possible, and that there is no way for us to know what is reality. Connections: This highly acclaimed series by James Burke fails in task it set out to do - show how science progresses to ever higher and higher levels of understanding of the universe. If you listen to this show, you come away with the impression that all advancements in science come about through accident, luck, circumstances, greed, everything but one - creativity. Nowhere in this series is creativity credited as the cause of scientific advancement. However, it goes deeper than that. The first episode dealt with the power blackout that hit New York, and showed how one little device caused the entire thing. What Burke emphasizes is this: we are at the mercy of our own technology. Something can happen that is totally out of our control and completely destroy everything. Technology has become a trap. Sounds a bit like H.G. Wells. The last episode is not any better. He goes through 4 alternatives that we can follow, everything from going back to the caves to continuing on our present course. He chooses the last one as the lesser of evils, but he does consider it an evil, for we can continue our scientific progress only at the expense of making todays breakneck speed seem like a snail's pace in the future. The emphasis here is that science will outgrow man's ability to comprehend it. In other words, there is a point at which man can no longer understand the universe, a statement I totally disagree with. In Search of: this show starring Leonard Nemoy of Star Trek fame can be classified as "science-fact" only if you take a grain of salt. The show specializes in providing "scientific" evidence that such things as ESP, witchcraft, voodoo, UFO's, and other such things are real. One major way of providing evidence is through a "reconstruction" of what happened, as if by using a lot of special effects and losy actors the "evidence" is made more "valid". The show claims that they are only proposing A solution, and not THE solution, but if that is true, why is the "solution" the show inevitably uses the most anti-scientific possible, and why don't they do a show describing another solution? Jeff ------------------------------ End of SF-LOVERS Digest *********************** ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.