Which movies and TV shows have the best representation of science and math?

[Danger]

one of my favourites is "dark star". check it out guys.

I've seen it. I wish I had a copy. Love that bomb.

Also, although I've only had the chance to see it 2 or 3 times, the Red Dwarf series was great.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Start talking like that and I'll throw in Earth Girls are Easy!

...Gina...droooooooooooolllllllll...Davis...droooooooooollllll

 

[Danger]

Start talking like that and I'll throw in Earth Girls are Easy!

I do own that one on tape. It was a gift.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Yeah, I saw the whole thing. Some parts were really good. but Spielberg being Spielberg couldn't get himself all the way over into how dark that series should have been, given the subject matter. I kept thinking Cronenberg would have been a better director.

I can see that. It had a dark side but it could have been much darker. WEre there too many warm and fuzzies for your tastes? Still, the story definitely kept my attention. In fact Tsu doesn't even like this sort of stuff but she watched the whole thing twice I think.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I still get a little twitchy whenever I see a butterfly.

You get butterflies when you see butterflies?

 

[Danger]

Of course, we can't omit 'Rocky Horror'.

I don't know if this counts, because they're not mainstream. I have 2 tapes from the 'Strike Force' series: 'Test Pilot' and 'Air Battle'. They're short documentaries.
You might like the cover quote from 'Test Pilot':

About 1,000 gallons of liquid oxygen, 1,200 gallons of anhydrous ammonia and 800 pounds of hydrogen peroxide got together and did their chemical thing. It was pretty violent activity for a moment or two. It was like being in the sun.
-Scott Crossfield

 

[zoobyshoe]

I can see that. It had a dark side but it could have been much darker.

It wasn't dark in a proper way. The dark characters just came off as sociopaths, which is disturbing. Cronenberg can do dark. Even better is M. Night Shyamalan. Take Signs. It had all the strong family elements Taken did, but without this surface, saccharine thing Spielberg does.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

It wasn't dark in a proper way. The dark characters just came off as sociopaths, which is disturbing. Cronenberg can do dark. Even better is M. Night Shyamalan. Take Signs. It had all the strong family elements Taken did, but without this surface, saccharine thing Spielberg does.

I like Speilberg, but how many times can we watch a crowd of awestruck bystanders with brightly lit faces stare in amazement at the phenomenal?

That reminds me a bit of Independence Day. It was a fun movie, but it could have been a good movie. Instead, every time the writers had a chance to make things interesting, instead we get ole what's his name acting cool and smoking cigars.

 

[FredGarvin]

I thought you were a Yank? I've never met one who ever heard of the Arrow, and the ones that I told about it called me a liar. As a lot of my friends here say, "Don't even get me started on the Arrow." We're all madder than a raped nun about that, and it's a mad that will never go away. June Callwood swears that she heard the unmistakeable sound of J75 engines leaving the base when the fleet was grounded. We still hold out hope that it was ditched in Lake Ontario and is just waiting for us to find it and put it back in the air. If you can get your hands on the Arrow movie, do so. It's a CBC production available on tape.

I have the Arrow movie on video tape. We taped it when it was shown on CBC. My whole family is Canadian. I was the first to be born in the states. My Dad is an avid aviation buff/historian. The Arrow story has been my "boogie man" story for as long as I can remember. What an absolute awsome piece of aviation engineering. I would give my left arm to see one fly again. The story around it's demise is so heart breaking. My Dad has a photo hanging on his wall of the Avro flightline on the day they started hacking up the airframes. I agree that it is a mad that will never go away. I am convinced the US had everything to do with it's end and Diefenbaker was a complete and utter idiot. Who knows where Canada's aerospace industry would be now if it had kept going.

By the way, where the hell were you when we were trying to find out the weight of a JT9D in GP?

I saw that thread. I actually could not find a weight in any of my references, so I didn't think I should chime in. I am still looking though.

 

[alexandra]

The Dish (Never heard of this one, so I looked it up):

Australia's involvement with the 1969 Apollo moon mission arrived with an unexpected wallop when its radio telescope in rural Parkes was elevated fron the Southern Hemishpere's backup broadcaster to primary broadcaster of Neil Armstrong's "one giant leap for mankind'. It is a modern wonder that the ten-year-old multibillion-dollar program became solely reliant on an untested crew based in a sheep paddock to capture this priceless moment in history."

DVD & Video Guide, Martin & Porter, 2004

Like many Australian movies, this is a pretty off-beat one. I really enjoyed it (PS: I currently live in Australia so may be biased).

 

[Chi Meson]

Someone already mentioned "Silent Running." Did "Outland" already get mentioned? BOth are good in that they portray silent explosions in space.

 

[Danger]

Who knows where Canada's aerospace industry would be now if it had kept going.

And think where NASA wouldn't be. The whole bloody space programme was put together by Avro engineers who had to move to get work. (And the Germans, of course.) I saw some guy claiming to have designed the Apollo LEM specifically for NASA. How'd he get away with that, when it was already on the drawing board to be launched from Arrow?

I saw that thread. I actually could not find a weight in any of my references, so I didn't think I should chime in. I am still looking though.

You'd still have a head start over the rest of us. I was just taking what I thought was an educated guess based upon size and materials. Somehow 4 tons just feels wrong to me.

 

[Danger]

Someone already mentioned "Silent Running." Did "Outland" already get mentioned? BOth are good in that they portray silent explosions in space.

Of course, 'Outland' also shows a guy carrying a shotgun inside a pressure dome...

 

[Chi Meson]

Of course, 'Outland' also shows a guy carrying a shotgun inside a pressure dome...

Why? Is it a bad idea to shoot firearms at windows when inside a space colony?

 

[Danger]

Why? Is it a bad idea to shoot firearms at windows when inside a space colony?

'Bad' is such a moralistic term. Perhaps 'ill-advised' is more appropriate. Sort of like poking a tiger with a stick, or teasing Moonbear on a bad day.

 

[Chi Meson]

You could get a swollen head that way. I suppose it would be OK if you have an inflated ego.

(I only had a minute to come up with this, so give me a break.)

 

[zoobyshoe]

I like Speilberg, but how many times can we watch a crowd of awestruck bystanders with brightly lit faces stare in amazement at the phenomenal?

If someone else imitated him the way he imitates himself, they'd be dismissed for it.

That reminds me a bit of Independence Day. It was a fun movie, but it could have been a good movie. Instead, every time the writers had a chance to make things interesting, instead we get ole what's his name acting cool and smoking cigars.

I love Will Smith. Yawned at that one, though. I'd rather watch the under-rated Wild, Wild West again. The repartee in his first scene with Loveless is hysterical. Great effects and the lovely Salma Hyak. That is a fun movie.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Like many Australian movies, this is a pretty off-beat one. I really enjoyed it (PS: I currently live in Australia so may be biased).

I love off-beat, and Australia seems to specialize in off-beat movies. Or maybe those are the only ones they export. They always seem to be energised by originality.

 

[Danger]

(I only had a minute to come up with this, so give me a break.)

Not bad for short notice. Sometimes a groaner is the appropriate type of joke.

I'd rather watch the under-rated Wild, Wild West again.

Haven't seen it, but maybe I should. It's the same as things like 'The Mod Squad' and 'Beverly Hillbillies'; I don't like the idea of characters changing that much from what I remember. I was wrong about 'The Addams Family' though, so maybe about this too. Although James West was pretty much interchangeable witht the likes of Kirk or James Bond, I can't imagine anyone but Ross Martin being Artemus Gordon.

 

[ricin]

"Through the Auditory Canal With A Gun And Camera"...a precusor to "Fantastic Voyage"

 

[zoobyshoe]

Someone already mentioned "Silent Running." Did "Outland" already get mentioned? BOth are good in that they portray silent explosions in space.

Do't get so exited. They only do that because accuracy in this case is cheaper.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I don't like the idea of characters changing that much from what I remember.

This film seems to go out of its way to be radically different from the TV show. I know what you mean; sometimes you just feel "They got it all wrong and this just sucks." Wild Wild West doesn't bother to pretend to be getting it right. They just took a few key elements and went crazy with them.

 

[FredGarvin]

And think where NASA wouldn't be. The whole bloody space programme was put together by Avro engineers who had to move to get work. (And the Germans, of course.)

I read a book not too long ago about the "brain drain" that Avro's closing caused. It really was a shame for Canada because the people this book talked about were incredibly bright people. NASA would have not been able to do what it did without them.

Screw "Who killed Kennedy?"...I want to know what the hell happened to the Arrow.

 

[Nylex]

Numbers

I love Numb3rs . It's not on TV here, so I've been downloading it.

 

[oldunion]

I just saw the day the Earth stood still yesterday, good movie.

 

[Danger]

I just saw the day the Earth stood still yesterday, good movie.

Then you obviously have an appreciation for the classics. Check out 'Forbidden Planet'. Many consider it to be the best SF movie ever made.
I just remembered the one that I've been trying to think of for a coupple of days. 'Marooned', from the book by Martin Caidin, was directly responsible for the Apollo-Soyuz mission. The Russians were incredibly impressed that they were made the heroes of a US production.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

How about... Capricorn One ;-p

 

[stoned]

"Escape from Los Angeles" with Curt Russell was preety good, especcially scenes when president of USA was reciting bible verses and later when on treshold of nuklur war he hid under the table. just like our Bush.

 

[Kenneth Mann]

I'm surprised at the lack of mention for "War Of The Worlds". It was actually a good plot, and considering when the story was written, a quite believable possibility (though Today we know that there's no one on Mars). Other possibilities, "On The Beach" and "Logan's Run".

Actually, Hollywood is usually quite bad at Science and Sci-Fi movies. In this line, maybe we could also list the Sci-Fi that we'd like to see made into movies, and maybe, those we feel couldn't be made into movies but would be great if they could.

One series that I'd love to see made, are the "Ringworld" series. Also others of the "Known Space" series and the "Man-Kzin Wars". A series that I don't think the movies could possibly handle without completely changing (and ruining) it is the "Foundation Series".

KM

 

[Kenneth Mann]

The "War of The Worlds" that I was talking about is the old version, not the upcoming remake. I know nothing about it at this time.

KM




(PS: It appears that the counter for insertions for this forum is hanging up on and repeating some count numbers.)

 

[Danger]

How about... Capricorn One ;-p

One series that I'd love to see made, are the "Ringworld" series. Also others of the "Known Space" series and the "Man-Kzin Wars". A series that I don't think the movies could possibly handle without completely changing (and ruining) it is the "Foundation Series".

I doubt that they could be done justice, but the 'Ringworld' Series is one of my favourites.
Martin Caidin (already mentioned) was my favourite author for years. I would like to see movies of 'Starbright' and 'Beamriders', as well as a proper adaptation of 'Cyborg' (as opposed to 'The Six Million Dollar Man').

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I doubt that they could be done justice, but the 'Ringworld' Series is one of my favourites.

One of my favorite ideas found in Sci-Fi, in Ringworld, is that humans could be hydridized for luck. And I really like the puppeteers!

 

[Danger]

One of my favorite ideas found in Sci-Fi, in Ringworld, is that humans could be hydridized for luck. And I really like the puppeteers!

If I can afford it (not likely), and have the time to build it (even less likely), my Hallowe'en costume for next year is a Puppeteer. By the year after, for sure.

 

[Francis M]

As long as we're going for movies that had an interesting plot but not the best sci in sci-fi I noticed none of our outside the U.S. folks mentioned a little NZ or Ausie movie I think it was called "The Quiet Earth"?

Was Silent Running the one about the last forests/plants of Earth on some domed agro-ships? That was a good movie as far as interesting plot. I just couldn't stand the Joan Biaz songs

 

[LURCH]

As long as we're going for movies that had an interesting plot but not the best sci in sci-fi I noticed none of our outside the U.S. folks mentioned a little NZ or Ausie movie I think it was called "The Quiet Earth"?

It was "This silent Earth", but it didn't really have any science in it, as I recall. This is a "doomsday" type of movie where some great calamity has wiped out most of the human population of the world. The disaster itself is later revealed to be the result of a scientific experiment, and one of the few survivers is one of the scientists responsible,but the nature of that experiment and the science behind it are never mentioned.

The movie starts after the disaster has already taken place, and mainly just explores the emotional struggles of the characters as they each try to cope with the loneliness, surviver's guilt, etc.