The Greatest Sci Fi Story Ever Told

[Rosemary]

Number One has to be Frank Herbert's Dune Series.

Julian May's The Galactic Millieu Trilogy, also thr Black Trillium co-written with Marion Zimmer Bradley.

"V" was the name of the movie in which I believe Signoury Weaver might have had the staring role. Of course that was many decades ago now.

The first two episodes of Star Wars were great but after that...............

I also enjoy listening to the sound track of War of the Worlds, especially with the head-phones on.

 

[Glen C]

The funny thing with Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds, after months of trying to emulate the sound of the screw unscrewing, they ended up using exactly the same process that Orson Wells used for his famous broadcast. Two big aluminium pots rubbed together inside a toilet. Some things just can't be beaten lol


Glen

 

[Rosemary]

The funny thing with Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds, after months of trying to emulate the sound of the screw unscrewing, they ended up using exactly the same process that Orson Wells used for his famous broadcast. Two big aluminium pots rubbed together inside a toilet. Some things just can't be beaten lol


Glen

Wow, so recording technology was really something way back then!
I don't think I will try it though, just take your word for the info.
Actually, I remember an Aussie song where the intro was not a guitar or drums, it was the clicking of typewriter keys.

 

[Glen C]

LOL not sure it was a tribute to sound technology rather than Well's sound man hitting on the right solution. If you ever get a chance, watch the film "Night That Panicked America" Shows a lot of the behind the scenes stuff involving the radio play, and how America reacted to it.

Not sure about the typewriter, but I know the beat for the Bee Gee's hit "Jive Talking" came from the bouncing of the car over traffic markers on the Sydney Harbour Bridge at 60kph. That I can vouch is true. I tried it once. The rythmn is spot on

Glen

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Best Short story: Surface Tension by William Ten (Me thinks)

I seem to remember a short story called Surface Tension about human colonists, mutated to extremely small sizes so as to survive in a puddle on a largely aquatic world - but the story was by James Blish, if I recall right. Is it the same one? Or am I remembering the wrong author?

 

[GOLLUM]

I seem to remember a short story called Surface Tension about human colonists, mutated to extremely small sizes so as to survive in a puddle on a largely aquatic world - but the story was by James Blish, if I recall right. Is it the same one? Or am I remembering the wrong author?

I can confirm that James Blish definitely wrote a story by that name regarding the subject you're talking about. It is his most famous story that formed part of his 'Pantropy' stories that were collected into a book known as The Seedling Stars.

Heres' a short synopsis to jog the memory cells..

In "Surface Tension," a spaceship crash-lands on a planet around Tau Ceti, a watery planet quite unsuited for even ordinary adaptations. The only solution the desperate crash survivors can see is to make adapted humans of microscopic size, to live in the tiny ponds that dot the planet's surface. The two episodes, one derived from "Sunken Universe," the other from the original "Surface Tension" novelette, tell first of the humans' alliance with some of the protozoans, and their joint battle against the more dangerous microscopic creatures; then, generations later, of the brave attempt of some of the humans to make a "spaceship" with which to travel to other "universes": i.e., to leave one pond and make their way to another. The concepts here are wonderful, and the ironic commentary is nicely handled, though the story itself is rather straightforward.

Never heard of author William Ten Glen C and certainly not associated with a short story Surface Tension as far as I'm aware....

 

[BAYLOR]

Novels The Foundation series by Isaac Asimov

Under short stores All the Way Back by Michael Shaara

Under movies Quatermass And the Pit

Under Tv Series Babylon 5


Over time , these choices are subject to change .