Science Fiction Trivia

[ffutures]

OK, let's try something a little more open ended.

EXCLUDING all thing Gerry Anderson, name five SF TV series / Films that have made extensive use of puppetry.

[Disembodied]

I'll leave it up to you to decide if it's "extensive", but the Alien Queen in Aliens was pretty much all done with puppetry. And two of the main characters in Farscape - Rigel and Pilot - were puppets.

[JD]

One answer is right there next to the question - Space Patrol.

As a kid I loved those Galaspheres, and the various sound effects in the programme. (That's the UK series called Space Patrol - I know there was a US series with the same name.)

Cheers
John

[Cody]

That's the UK series called Space Patrol - I know there was a US series with the same name.

There was a German series too (Raumpatrouille), whence Commander McLane took his name.

[ffutures]

OK, Space Patrol was what gave me the idea, and I'll accept the Alien queen given her importance to the plot. Three to go.

Re space patrol, there are plenty - the disambiguation page is here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Patrol

[Disembodied]

How about Farscape?

[ffutures]

How about Farscape?

And you unerringly find the other series that gave me the idea for this question. Three down, two to go.

[Cody]

Seeing as it's now the year of the pig: Pigs in Space?

[ffutures]

Seeing as it's now the year of the pig: Pigs in Space?

Works for me - I'll allow that that or Muppets From Space but not both.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muppets_from_Space

One to go.

[Disembodied]

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial?

Seeing as it's now the year of the pig: Pigs in Space?

Surely, now, the time is right for Pigs in Space: the movie?

[ffutures]

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial?

Seeing as it's now the year of the pig: Pigs in Space?

Surely, now, the time is right for Pigs in Space: the movie?

Yep, ET completes the set. Your turn.

The one I'm surprised nobody mentioned was Team America: World Police, since there turned out to be a SF explanation for much of the plot...

[Disembodied]

Okay, time for another set of five: five SF books or films whose titles are drawn from (or inspired by) works of poetry. An example (which doesn't count towards the five, but which is a fairly mahoosive clue to another possible answer): Consider Phlebas, by Iain M. Banks, which comes from a line in T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land.

[Cody]

And All the Stars a Stage, perchance?

[Disembodied]

And All the Stars a Stage, perchance?

Hmm, tricky. Strictly speaking, that's from a monologue from Shakespeare's As You Like It, not a poem. Although it's undeniably poetic, and there are a couple of poetry websites which list it …

I'll allow it. But I think this should be the last Shakespeare reference from a play. If you can find a sonnet with a sci-fi link, though, that would be OK!

[Cody]

You are Bamber Gascoigne, and I claim my £5.