[neal66]

Here are some of my favorite worlds in genre of SF and their Creators
1. DUNE(also known as Arrakis)Creator:Frank Herbert
2. PERN-Creator:Anne Mccaffrey
3. HYPERION-Creator-Dan Simmons
4. UPLIFT UNIVERSE-Creator-David Brin
5. RINGWORLD-Creator:Larry Niven
6. SHOLA-Creator:Lisanne Norman


[This message has been edited by neal66 (edited January 04, 2000).]

[Hulk]

Blade Runner

Bablyon 5

Planet of the Apes

[mothras]

When I was really young my Aunt took me to see what I'm pretty sure was my first SF movie, Logan's Run. It had a big impact on me. Very enjoyable.

[DoctorDoom]

Neal, looks like you encountered the UBB effect.

No space after a colon can lead to the strange effects noted. E.g., a colon followed immediately by a capital D give you http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/biggrin.gif. Not what you wanted, I hazard. Adding a space prevents that.

As for favorite worlds: I've never been turned on by SF where a world is the central character, so to speak. To my mind, the world as it affects the heroes (and villains) of a story is far more important than the world itself.

There's nothing like a good alien environment tale to stir the blood, but on the other hand, we get sheer drek like that Bruce Willis fiasco, Armageddon, where the asteroid became the gee-whiz villain, evil-looking in every aspect (and ignoring how it could possibly have come to be that way).

Every trace of scientific accuracy went out the porthole, and the attempt to portray this Fortress of Solitude on steroids as menacing fell abysmally flat. The film wasn't a race against time to save the world. It was an all-out mad dash to end it before the audiences got bored spitless.

Man conquers rock. When it involves climbing Everest, yeah, that's human interest. When it involves an utterly improbable mission of absolutely impossible "astronauts" chasing down an asteroid with a bad 'do in order to blow it up with one A-bomb in exactly the right place at exactly the right moment, it's sheer BS.

A good story can make any environment hostile or friendly, whether it's Earth, Mars, Altair 4 or some unnamed chunk of barren, nondescript rock in close orbit around a dying red dwarf star.

Re Ringworld, it's a great story, and it makes the Dyson sphere concept at least semi-credible.

[Dreambird]

Babylon 5... the station itself isn't a world, but would be the type of place I could hang around.

The planet below the station though, Epsilon 3, is fascinating.... always wanted to know more about the "Great Machine"

Then there's Z'Ha'Dum, which is pretty bleak, and the Vorlon Homeworld... which they never named per say. These two races I found fascinating though... I wish we'd learned more about the Vorlons.

I had the pleasure of meeting J. Michael Straczynski in person, listening to him talk, put a whole new "spin" on the show for me...

Then there were a couple of Andre Norton books I read as a youngster... about a world called Janus...

[Blueyedog]

Hi All!

Best SF world? Babylon 5. SciFi fan or not, B5 was the best thought-out, intricate plot ever on TV. That is one reason I was soooo disappointed with the spin-off, Crusade.

[Dreambird]

Blueyedog,

A B5 fan!!.... Never thought I'd run into one again! B5 was more than just a show... it was a "story"... that's what JMS intended and that's what he did.

I pretty much "lived" in that story for that hour every week and hours afterward thinking about it... never mind chasing it all over the dial while Network nimrods played idiot.

BTW.. what disappointed you about Crusade? I just never let myself get into it, because I knew it would probably not ever get past the first 13 eps thanks to TNT's stupidity. It was never allowed to develop.

[This message has been edited by Dreambird (edited November 19, 1999).]

[Blueyedog]

Dreambird,

Crusade never seemed to get the depth it needed. I think one of the reasons I never got into the series is because they tried to create too much mystery too fast. B5 built the mystery slowly over the years. Crusade seemed to throw nothing but mysteries at the viewers and kind of left us dangling there.

B5's mysteries were often so subtle you didn't realize that the show you watched weeks ago was the clue to the show you were watching just then.

Two questions go unanswered. What happened to the 'one-eyed-thing' that was implanted in the urn that Lando gave to Delyn & Sharadon's son, David? And, what happened to Leata(sp?).

[Dreambird]

Blue,

I'm just reading some books and things that are "filling" things out a bit... Lyta was killed in the telepath war, Lennier too I think. This was supposed to have been about 2 years after B5. Garibaldi, seems fine as of "Sleeping In Light"... but I'd sure like to know if Lyta removed Bester's "whammy" on him and if he was responsible for Bester's demise... http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

As for the keeper that was intended for David... I don't know... that's still a mystery. There are some great pocket books available by Jane Killick... one for each season... that covers each episode and some of the thoughts JMS and the actors had on it. I just got them from amazon.com myself.

Crusade... yeah they did try to cram a lot in there... it's really too bad... it should have been the natural "next" thing to B5... JMS talked a lot about what he had in mind for that show when he was here in town. Unfortunately TNT had other ideas... they were apparently more interested in "Bay Watch in Space"... Since he refused to bow to their wishes on the whole thing.. the show was left w/o a home.

[Blueyedog]

It surprises me that Lenner would get killed. I always figured that after Sheradon's death, Lenner would come back to be with Delyn again.

I figured Lyta would die somehow, but I didn't think it would come only 2 years after she left with G'kar. I figured she would end up taking the block off Garibaldi and he would get his revenge on Bester through the multi-million dollar company he now ran.