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We are going to write a sci-fi by harvesting the 100 best ideas from every Scifi you have ever seen or Read. What do you consider one of the best 100 Ideas? Make Sure you number that Idea.
1. {Alien} Underwear clad Sigorney Weaver climbing into a Space suit with a Plan to flush an alien out of the shuttle.
2. {The Day the Earth Stood Still/remake} The Technician screaming to be let out after replacing the drill bit in the test chamber in which GORT is housed.
Here are some classics. Numbered for Clarity, not quality.
"Get away from her, you b$%~$!"
I still get chills.
"It's not my fault..."
11 (Soldier) - Colonel Mekum gets dragged up to Todd, the soldier that he said was obsolete and thought dead and who just wiped out all of the new soldiers single handedly. "Please." the Colonel begs as he wets himself. The Colonel and his flunkiess get tossed out to be blown up by their own device.
12 (Galaxy Quest) - "And what you fail to realize is my ship is dragging mines."
13 (ST3:WoK) - "Kahn, I'm laughing at the superior intellect."
16: The Last Starfighter
Alex Rogan: [discussing battle strategy] Wait a minute. We knock out the turret to get the fighters. But to get to the turret, we gotta get THROUGH the fighters. We're dead.
Grig: [reassuringly] I'll have it all figured out by the time we reach the Frontier.
[alarm sounds and Grig's face falls]
Alex Rogan: What's that?
Grig: The Frontier.
As a science fiction publisher, I must say it's a little depressing to see how many of these "moments" come from TV and movies.
Ok, I'll play:
27. Bean destroys vials purportedly containing embryos of his own children, then shooting Achilles in the eye with a rubber bullet.
28. Si Wang-Mu discovering that the godspoken of Path are being controlled by the government with a form of OCD
29. Peter, Jane and Wang-Mu teleporting with the armed M.D. device directly into the invading fleet's hanger.
Ok, so I think the only sources in this thread that haven't come from movies or TV are Orson Scott Card books...is that a bad thing?
As a science fiction publisher, I must say it's a little depressing to see how many of these "moments" come from TV and movies.
Oddly, I've never been a big fan of sci-fi books (and I'm falling on the "SCI" part of it and not including fantasy stuff). I like sci-fi movies, but have never been a big sci-fi novel fan.
But...
one somewhat obscure story I read long ago that I really really liked (though I don't know whether it would count as one of the 100 best moments) was Starquake by Robert L. Forward.
I also wonder whether you would consider the superhero genre as sci-fi? Certainly there is an abundance of tech and fantastic plotlines, and for that matter many of them set in space, some good, some not so good, some maybe even great. You could probably say the same for anime - one of the OG's of the American anime scene and one of my favorite shows as a kid: Star Blazers.
I guess I was mostly thinking about live-action sci fi movies. Maybe I should've broadened my horizons in thinking about "sci fi" and space opera.
30. How about "best sound effect EVAR" in SciFi for the "seismic charges" Jango Fett fires at Obi-Wan during the asteroid chase in Attack of the Clones
31. Most chillingly simple moment: "You forgot your space helmet, Dave" from 2001.
32. Or just "My God, it's full of stars... " Still gives you the chills 40 years later.
From Jack Vance's The Dirdir: Earth astronaut Adam Reith has been stirring up all kinds of trouble on the planet Tschai, run by alien races, where humans are kept as slaves and their knowledge of Earth brutally suppressed. When he's captured, one of the aliens remarks, "What sort of odd human are you, who refuses to serve us?" and another replies, "He calls himself an Earthman." Reith is interrogated:
Alien: "Are there other of you 'Earthmen' on Tschai?"
Reith (Holds head up): "ALL men are Earthmen!"
As a science fiction publisher, I must say it's a little depressing to see how many of these "moments" come from TV and movies.
TV and Cinema is the novel being read to us by the librarian. May be when we grow up, we will learn to read on our own. But until then, the Librarian's 'siren song' is just too damn aluring.
33. {Neuromancer, William Gibson} The term 'Cyberspace' is coined, and the concept of 'black ice' invented.
34. "Game over, man.. Game over!"
Continuing with Neuromancer:
35. "Minds aren't read. See, you've still got the paradigmsprint gave you, and you're barely print-literate. I can access your
memory, but that's not the same as your mind."
And the opening line:
36. " The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
37. (xfiles/daytheearthstoodstill/sliders/...) Alien shows up at the genius's house and rewrites the world shattering calculations on the blackboard.
38. (Last Starfighter) Trusted Lieutenant: "What do we do?" Commander: "We Die."
39. (Spaced Invaders) ...blah blah..."Donut of Distruction!" Death Droid begins burrowing a very deep hole to hide in.
40. (spaced Invaders) Captain Bito is crossing the highway and is hood ornamented by a truck.
41. (The Fifth Element) The Blue Diva singing Opera
Literary Science Fiction needs some love!
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle served up dozens of great moments...
42. In A Mote in God's Eye, when one of humanity's most powerful warships is overcome by alien "watchmakers" infesting its works.
43. Then in Footfall, Humanity's Orion Ship rises on a pillar of nuclear fire, challenging an alien race conquering Earth. Forced to make an EVA to repair battle damage, a heroic pipefitter appreciates the stars as the radiation kills him.
John Ringo whipped out...
44. A tribute to the Army Corps of Engineers in Gust Front when the Posleen turn back in fear from the heraldry of the after running the Engineers' gauntlet of booby-traps.
45. Then, in Hell's Faire, "Bun Bun", almost the most badass tank ever, leads humanity's counterattack against the Posleen.
46. Of course, that brings the Bolos to mind. I especially liked a touching scene in David Weber's collection Bolos! in which a Bolo suicidally charges into battle to save her colony, reciting poetry in memory of her fallen commander.
47. Vernor Vinge gave one of the coolest adventures ever, with A Fire Upon the Deep, where an advanced AI "virus" hijacks every system it encounters, including the cybernetically-enhanced minds of humanity...
53. Psychohistory from Foundation Series.
54. Humaniform robots from the Robot Series and the three laws of robotics.
55. Kzinti from the Ringworld and Kzin-Human Wars series.
56. Solar system composed entirely of anti-matter seen in the Crashlander collection.
57. Uplifting and dolphins piloting space ships from the Uplift Series.
25. Princess Leia's bronze bikini. Nuff said.I admit, I've been upstaged. ;-P
Alright ...
58. Lt Uhura - Mirror Mirror
60.
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate
All those moments will be lost in time
Like tears in rain
Time to die"
I cannot watch this scene without crying.
I can't even listen to these lines without dropping a tear.
62. From Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven: As the giant meteor plunges into the Pacific a surfer dude decides to spend his last minutes riding the biggest wave in history. He manages to get up and ride the thousand ft. tsunami halfway over Los Angeles before he's smacked into the side of a skyscraper.
63. “It’s a trap!” – Admiral Ackbar
64. “Then I’ll see you in Hell.” – Han Solo
65. The scene in The Empire Strikes Back when Vader is talking on holo to the captains of the three Star Destroyers, when one of the hologram images suddenly cowers and then blinks out as his ship is destroyed. Vader ignores it.
66. The moment in Niven and Pournelle’s The Legacy of Herot, where the colonists realise that the Salmon are actually baby Grendels…
67. The moment in Niven and Pournelle’s Footfall, where Harry first gets a look a the alien invaders … and they are baby elephants, wearing platform shoes, flying in paper planes … and wielding large shotguns in their trunks …
68. For Mr. Mona: Masque World: "Sir Henry Oliphaunt kept his Trog suit. He never wore it and he never spoke of it to Lady Oliphaunt, but he kept the suit and sometimes late at night he would take it from its secret place and look at it. And there were other nights when he would suddenly rise from his chair and dance around the room."
60.
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate
All those moments will be lost in time
Like tears in rain
Time to die"I cannot watch this scene without crying.
I can't even listen to these lines without dropping a tear.
Ok. I give. What is this from? It sounds very familiar.
Ok. I give. What is this from? It sounds very familiar.60.
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate
All those moments will be lost in time
Like tears in rain
Time to die"I cannot watch this scene without crying.
I can't even listen to these lines without dropping a tear.
Blade Runner
Blade RunnerOk. I give. What is this from? It sounds very familiar.60.
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate
All those moments will be lost in time
Like tears in rain
Time to die"I cannot watch this scene without crying.
I can't even listen to these lines without dropping a tear.
D'oh!!! ~facepalm~
70. As part of his final test to become a Nexus Starship Officer, cadet Asodo Hatch must defeat a far superior strategist and commander in an Illusion Tank battle. Both men are in command of Mega Command Cruisers, starships with enough fire power to take out whole planets, with crews of hundreds.
Knowing he cannot defeat his opponent in a conventional starship battle, Asodo cloaks the ship, orders his entire crew to go EVA, abandoning ship, floating silently through space undetected by the other Cruiser and undertake a boarding action. The assault partially depressurises the other ship, and Asado and his men fight through the corridors, slaughtering the unprepared opposing crew with the ceremonial swords that form part of their uniform and taking command of the enemy Cruiser. Asodo himself beheads the opposing commander. (From The Worshippers and the Way, Hugh Cook).