sf-lovers (07/29/82)
>From JPM@MIT-AI Thu Jul 29 09:14:47 1982
SF-LOVERS Digest Tuesday, 27 Jul 1982 Volume 6 : Issue 27
Today's Topics:
SF Topics - Movie Reviews,
SF Movies - THX 1138 & Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,
Spoiler - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
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Date: 13 July 1982 05:30-EDT
From: "Richard H.E. Smith, II" <QUIDLY at MIT-AI>
Subject: Anti-movies
I'm not much of a movie-fan myself, (as jcwinterton in V6#1 and
Schumacher in V6#8), so I appreciate the effort that goes into
supplying digests that are more segregated by topic than in the past.
That way, I can skip whole digests consisting of nothing but MORE
comments on ET or TRON. Keep up the good work, Jim!
Along this same line, I think everyone would approve of moving those
long movie reviews, especially the ones plucked off the APwire, to the
rear of the digest. That way, those who aren't interested in them, or
who have already read them in their local newspaper, can skip them
with greater ease.
--dick smith
------------------------------
Date: 17 Jul 1982 05:21:24-PDT
From: decvax!duke!uok!uokvax!mwm at Berkeley
Subject: #$)*$%)(* Movie Reviews
Will whoever/whatever is sending in those movie reviews from the press
please CUT IT OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There is a lot of intelligent discussion/commentary on SFL, but those
just don't qualify. They don't agree with me (take that any way you
want to, you'll have it right), and I don't agree with them. They
don't even agree with each other! These people give me the impression
that they slept through the movie, then wrote something down to
collect a paycheck. They miss the plot, the names & the dialog.
SFL is wonderfull, but it's not worth wading through those things for.
Please stop, so I can continue reading SFL with some pleasure.
mike
(decvax!duke!uok!uokvax!mwm@ucb)
Electronic Junk Mail Doth Exist!
mike
[ As long as outside reviews are sent to the digest they will
continue to be distributed. These reviews do serve a significant
portion of the readership, and they are instructive, no matter how
much any of us may disagree with them. However, it is also a
matter of policy to give preference to contributions from the
readership on a given topic, and to use other editing techniques to
minimize the impact of any material of limited interest upon the
entire readership (thus the recent alteration between "regular" and
"movie" digests). -- Jim ]
------------------------------
Date: 21 Jul 82 21:42:52-PST (Wed)
From: Stephen Willson <willson.uci@UDel-Relay>
Subject: THX 1138
I realize that what I am about to say is a bit dated, but concerning
the big discussion some time back about THX 1138 showing up again and
again in Lucas' movies:
In "American Graffiti", there is a car license plate which reads
(fanfare please!) "THX 138".
------------------------------
Date: Thursday, July 29, 1982 12:45AM
From: Jim McGrath (The Moderator) <JPM at MIT-AI>
Subject: SPOILER WARNING! SPOILER WARNING!
The last messages in this digest discuss some plot details in the
movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Some readers may not wish to
read on.
------------------------------
Date: 18 Jul 1982 1849-PDT
From: Henry W. Miller <MILLER at SRI-NIC>
Subject: Flights of Fancy
These are a few flights of fancy that have been in the back of
my mind for a while. Thot I'd pass them along for comments, etc.
WHAT IF V'ger had been thrown back in time, and landed back on
earth in 1939, when the Lost Ark was opened?
WHAT IF V'ger had met Nomad?
WHAT IF V'ger had met the Planet Killer?
WHAT IF V'ger had met the giant amoeba?
WHAT IF Nomad had met the Planet Killer?
WHAT IF Nomad had met the giant amoeba?
(as you can see, there are many possibilities...)
WHAT IF the Battlestar Galatica arrived at earth in the Star
Trek time period?
WHAT IF the Cylons joined forces with the Klingons?
(Can you imagine the Galatica with warp nacelles, or the
Enterprise with landing bays?)
-HWM
------------------------------
Date: 19 Jul 1982 14:30:27-EDT
From: Bob.Zimmermann at CMU-ZOG at CMU-10A
Subject: Spock Must Die
Come on now folks, the man (sic) is dead. What is the point in
reincarnating him except for more bucks for Paramount and the Trekie
souvenir pushers? R.I.P.
R. Zimmermann
(MI - CEC)
------------------------------
Date: 18 Jul 1982 14:37:57-EDT
From: csin!cjh at CCA-UNIX
Subject: STAR TREK character aging (non-spoiler)
I didn't see the ST special you describe, but I recall McCoy as
always being sort of craggy (maybe he just looked bad in the interview
because of the combination of no makeup and TV lights?). The biggest
problem with going back to ENTERPRISE-as-she-was is Scotty (James
Doohan); he seems to have gone through the same sort of change that
hit Jimmy Stewart and Frank Sinatra (50%+ greater weight,
well-distributed), except that he's visibly pudgier in the movies than
in the TV episodes.
------------------------------
Date: 27 Jul 1982 09:05 CDT
From: Johnston.DLOS at PARC-MAXC
Subject: Re: SF-LOVERS Digest V6 #22
In regards to Shatner's acting ability:
I agree that in the two Star Trek movies, he hasn't seemed quite
right. It was like he was having to overplay the part to avoid being
wooden. However, I have seen him live in a one-man show which he
toured around several universities about five years ago, and he was
very impressive. He didn't do any JTKirk, but rather a monologue
comprised of stories about Galileo and such. In this show, he was
properly animated, really entered into the parts he played, and gave
an overall excellent performance. And if we get right down to it,
Star Trek is fairly shallow anyway, although I certainly wouldn't miss
a movie, and saw all the episodes in the series what seemed like
dozens of times. It's FUN, not intellectual. The science in the
whole series is too far off to be very intellectual, but it provides
adventure, which everyone is finding out that they still crave.
Rick
------------------------------
Date: 19 Jul 1982 1933-PDT
From: Jon Solomon <JSol at USC-ECLC>
Subject: TWOK - Why Checkov survived the Ceti Eel
Khan said that 20 of his crew members died because of that thing, and
I suspect they did, and without proper medical attention, Checkov
could have died too.
McCoy was fortunately right there with his bag of salt shakers and toy
tv (tricorder), and miniature bicycle pump (injection tool) full of
all those modern healing things. Also Checkov had the whole Sick Bay
worth of medical wonders to insure that he would have lived.
It would seem to me that you would need all your physical health to
survive Ceti Alpha V's climate now, and after that creature sapped all
of your strength, and you became unconscious; it just left for a more
ample food supply.
Cheers,
--Jsol
p.s. you can also die of Snake Poisoning if you don't get medical
attention shortly after you are bitten by a snake. It's not so
unbelievable that Checkov survived where the genetically superior
beings did not.
------------------------------
Date: 07/21/82 02:05:48
From: DMM@MIT-ML
Subject: Re:Random comments about ST-TWOK & TRON.
I maintain that the reason Chekhov was the one selected by the
writers to beam down to Khan's planet was that traditionally, he was
the one most often called upon to emit agonized screams. I seem to
recall him screaming and displaying horrified expressions in more
episodes of the series than any other regular in the show.
Also, about spock's reincarnation... Remember, TWOK was brought to
you by none other than Harve Bennett, the same one who miraculously
reincarnated the bionic woman after she had been declared dead, just
because it looked like the ratings would have dropped otherwise.
Did it bother anyone else that in TRON not only was there no shield
behind the orange that they were zapping, but that there was a CRT
directly in the line of fire? Now really...
Cheers -- DMM@MIT-ML
------------------------------
Date: 19 July 1982 09:46-EDT
From: Richard Pavelle <RP at MIT-MC>
Who did Tyrell shoot (before himself) in the center of the planet?
------------------------------
Date: 19 Jul 1982 22:57:27-PDT
From: npois!npoiv!harpo!decvax!duke!unc!mcnc!idis!mi-cec!rwg at
From: Berkeley
Subject: Why Kirk left shields down (slight spoiler)
Recall from the novel of the first ST movie that the Enterprise crew
was chosen for "limited mental agility;" Starfleet wanted to see if a
shipload of dullards could handle the stress of a 5-year mission
better than the honor graduates usually assigned to starships.
Not only does this explain why the Enterprise shields were left
down in TWOK, it explains certain statements from the series:
"Captain, are they surrendering?"
"The M-5 must be destroyed!"
"...1 to the nth power..." (I forget what n was)
------------------------------
Date: Mon Jul 19 13:09:02 1982
From: decvax!watmath!bstempleton at Berkeley
Subject: Why M5 did not know the prefix codes to disable ships.
It would seem to me that these prefix codes are TOP TOP secret, and
known only to commander rank officers such as Captain Spock and
Admiral Kirk. They would have to be very secret, for anybody with
knowledge of the codes could take over the whole of star fleet in days
without a shot. They are very useful, though, since they can stop an
enemy who has taken over a star fleet ship (like Khan).
The important thing to remember is that the codes are NOT in the
computer, and the computer probably isn't conscious of its own code.
(You could not ask, "computer, what is your code", for example) M5
would not be given these babies for a test run.
------------------------------
Date: 18 July 1982 12:48-EDT
From: James M. Turner <JMTURN at MIT-AI>
Subject: Shields coming down sir!
Why didn't M-5 use the magic code numbers? Because they aren't stored
on-line, most likely. Better yet, they are stored on-line, but hidden
somewhere (square root of the registration number of the ship times
data of commission expressed as seconds past midnight, January 1...)
Now, while its easy to remember the formula, and easy to work out in
nothing flat given a computer with the data, there's no way a computer
could figure it out without the formula. There's also probably no
interconnection between the receiver and the ship's computer, so M-5
couldn't know it's there.
James
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End of SF-LOVERS Digest
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