BBC Focus Magazine

[M Paul Lloyd]

Thanks for that Mr.A, I should really pay these things more attention, so presumably a time could come when literally thousands of would be time travellers emerge all at once like spam emails and threatening the stability of the cosy little colony! That could be interesting..

You are right about the acting, you could feed an army on the ham and cheese whilst building a fleet of ships with the wooden performance generally, but I'm going to stick with it too, especially as its one of the few things on the TV with a broad family interest.

Boundaries?

Tongue in cheek if you were wondering.

[The Beige Avenger]

...

Boundaries?

Tongue in cheek if you were wondering.

I was hoping...

[Shadowwolf]

To be honest I don't know if it will last as promising sci-fi - in my opinion at any rate - like Caprica, SG-Universe and Firefly of all shows were all canned; I was really disappointed when Universe and Firefly was axed. However, cop based sci or fantasy seems to keep going no matter how weak it is in concept, plot, acting etc that they are; though I do note that one of our leads is a former cop so perhaps they've got that angle sewn up.

I just hope they have their arc thought out and know roughly where they are going. Mind you I don't know where I'm going to get the time to pay attention to it so maybe it won't matter.

As for Breaking Bad, wouldn't call it sci meself, good drama yes, but quite rooted in contemporary reality.

[The Beige Avenger]

...

As for Breaking Bad, wouldn't call it sci meself, good drama yes, but quite rooted in contemporary reality.

But it's fiction about science...

Clearly not a sci fi but definitely with a certain appeal

[M Paul Lloyd]

I think what defines a lot of science fiction is less certain than it used to be, time was a spaceship/time travel device and some rayguns pretty much covered it, but not anymore I fear.

I do sometimes find myself trying to get my head around alternative dimensions that Lisa Randall works on and wonder when fantasy blurrs into fact but I would think that anything fictional written about science, or with a science theme is science fiction.

[10_Rufus]

Hi there, to kick this topic along again, what about Ghost in the Shell?

It's a futuristic post-cyberpunk, crime action drama, AI, what-does-it-mean-to-be-alive anime.

It's set in 2030something, and follows the plot of Public Security Section 9, an offensive crime fighting organisation (basically a specialist SWAT-like team), and the various cases they have to deal with. The world is completely cyberised with AI everywhere and prosthetic body parts a plenty. To the point where some people are fully prosthetic, including the protagonist Kusanagi Motoko. people's conciousnesses are known as ghosts, and can be transferred and hacked.

It comes in 2 series, several films, 3 manga adaptations. You'll have to look up which are in which continuity as it's not simple.

Finally, the animation is absolutely LUSH, and is excellent throughout.

any thoughts?

[Shadowwolf]

Ahhh Ghost, in my own opinion one of those rare gems in the sea of unremarkable or just downright awful Manga / Anime. Only have the second movie though, Innocence, and I'm with you one hundred percent on the animation, incredible stuff so it is.

[M Paul Lloyd]

Wasn't 'Ghost in the Shell' though to be the inspiration for 'The Matrix'?
Have to say I really enjoyed the animation too.

[MikeG]

I won't mention the well known classics. For obscure movies, one that comes to mind is The Hidden with Kyle McLaughlin, which was a lot of fun. This is an old (1987) B-movie which is worth a look.

[10_Rufus]

Wasn't 'Ghost in the Shell' though to be the inspiration for 'The Matrix'?
Have to say I really enjoyed the animation too.

yeah it was influenced greatly by GitS, although the two are not so similar in the end XD.

Another great Sc-fi anime (albeit not on the same level of quality as GitS) is PlaneteS. a slice-of-life drama, set in space. It's one of so few shows that portray realistic spaceflight, problems, and potential situations. Where GitS is very philosophically aimed, this is very environmental.

and just to throw another in there. Paprika. Which in my opinion is what inception should have been, which was a heist film at heart, and not very scifi at all. . It is a dream based reality mindwarper, and good fun too.

[M Paul Lloyd]

I shall do my best to look those up Rufus, thanks.

[10_Rufus]

I shall do my best to look those up Rufus, thanks.

I'd be happy to post trailers, but I can't remember the policy for posting links... I remember being told off for it once. but can't remember which forum it was :s

[Shadowwolf]

No problems I'm aware of so long as they ain't links to illegal downloading, stuff like You Tube should be fine.

[10_Rufus]

No problems I'm aware of so long as they ain't links to illegal downloading, stuff like You Tube should be fine.

Yes no problem. wouldn't dream of it.

here's a trailer for paprika:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJzEW_eE1G0

and one for Planetes: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9104855394795499171#docid=-5644944058865233848 it's a tale of space binmen (better than it sounds)

[Shadowwolf]

Damn that Paprika thing looks very intriguing, I must see this.

The other seems to have that 2001 mix of space and classical music, apart from garbage collectors what's the main gist of the plot?

It's been a bank holiday last week and now they've got to collect twice the normal level of trash!

[10_Rufus]

Humanity is steadily moving out into space, but, the problem of waste is still very strong. Small items such as nuts, bolts, fragments from nuclear detonations many years ago, are still all travelling at the speed they were at the beginning. These objects, no matter how small, can do serious damage to spacecraft. So teams have been set up to go out and either collect this rubbish, or force it to burn up in the atmosphere if it's too large. Here's it's ANN entry:http://www.animenewsnetwork.co.uk/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=2654