Science Fiction Trivia

[Cody]

Clue the first: for the tune, think wild west bounty hunter.

[spud42]

got the tune.. no idea from there... need time to think.

[Cody]

Clue the second: for the forties song...

[Cody]

Clue the third: the sci-fi animation short is Russian, and dates from the eighties.

[RockDoctor]

OK, next question: identify five intelligent aquatic races, from five different SF universes. These can be anything from fully gill-breathing to amphibious to happy on either land or in the water, but they should spend much of their time in an aquatic environment and have at least some significant physiological adaptation to a water-dwelling lifestyle.

OK, in the dim and distant past, I read a story by Piers Anthony, possibly under the influence of several "herbal cigarettes", in which the main protagonist was a galaxy-travelling kidnapped dentist-slave who was touted around by his owners/ pimps for frumpstiggle (which is definitely not "money", no matter how much it seems to resemble it). In one epidose (I meant to type "episode", but my fingers seem to know better), he had to perform a root canal on a junior royal of a race crudely approximating to whales. A wholly aquatic species, who developed their technology in the dry space of their mouths, using tentacular tongues.
My memory might not be wrong in calling the LE who picked up the bill for a 20 ton gold filling "the Lord High Muckamuck of Gleep", though who the whale-a-likes were I forget. Gleepoids, Gleepians ... but them, whoever they were.

[RockDoctor]

OK, next question: identify five intelligent aquatic races, from five different SF universes. These can be anything from fully gill-breathing to amphibious to happy on either land or in the water, but they should spend much of their time in an aquatic environment and have at least some significant physiological adaptation to a water-dwelling lifestyle.

Oh, in the "Man-Kzin Wars" universe dungeon-mastered (*) by Larry Niven, the Kzinti got their "uplift" to space-going gravity-polarizing litter-scatterers from a pentagonal 5-mind species called the Jotoki, who were obligate aquatic mono-minds as fry and juveniles but in maturity linked up into 5-sets with interlinked minds and were also able to come out of the water.
Actually, that probably doesn't really count. Though there is a definite obligate aquatic stage in their life cycle.

Edit : forgot the footnote (*). Is "dungeon master" really the right term for this? Niven knew there were several Man-Kzin wars in his future history, but decided to not write about it because he'd never been in any military in his life and was sure he'd fsck it up thoroughly. But about 1990 he decided to release that phase of his future history, with the character notes from a D&D type game set in the universe, for other authors to play in. And generally it has gone well, with a dozen or so high-calibre authors playing in the universe, probably as much material in total as Niven's entire bibliography, and only the one episode of an author "breaking the playground equipment" (Niven's words) resulting in one of the most interesting stories of the whole universe.

Is that what a "dungeon master" means? I've never actually come closer to playing D&D than the Colossal Cave.

[spud42]

sorry RockDoctor but that question has already been answered.. Cody's musical clue and question is the current..

ok cody no idea but am i right with the song clue? Contract by New Riders of the Purple Sage?

ok google helped..

Contract (Russian: Контракт) is a 1985 Soviet/Russian animation based on the short science fiction story Company Store (1958) by Robert Silverberg and directed by Vladimir Tarasov. The song I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby is used in the animation. (according to wikipedia its a 1928 song)

P.S. was that link supposed to go to a monty python skit? 16 Ton weight? cause that really confused me!!

[Cody]

Correct, spud - Contract (song and animation) is the title I was looking for. As for sixteen tons - I owe my soul to the company store!

Over to you, sir!

[spud42]

right, new question, hmmmm

book title and author
rich guy signs up for cryogenic preservation of his head( i think it was only his head) wakes up 100 years later to find out he has been uploaded into a computer.

[spud42]

clues #1
guy got rich by selling his business.
gets run over within hours of sigining the cryo contract.
this is the begining of the first book in a trilogy.

[spud42]

time for more obvious clues... Authors last name starts with T , and is the same as a overhyped female American singer.

[RockDoctor]

and is the same as a overhyped female American singer.

Well that hardly narrows the field.

[spud42]

and is the same as a overhyped female American singer.

Well that hardly narrows the field.

lol... saw what you did there....... another clue....... synonym of quick.....

[RockDoctor]

lol... saw what you did there....... another clue....... synonym of quick.....

Oh, I got it. There's a female American singer with the revoltingly "sweet" name (which must have been made up by 32 marketing committee members charlie-foxtrotting a dozen focus groups) of "Cutie-CLE". No? Tag-line "holds the key to your heart"?

I feel the need to wash my keyboard.

[spud42]

american singer has the last name of a Suzuki car model.......