Science Fiction Trivia

[Disembodied]

Depending on the definition of "intelligent", there's always the triffids. They're definitely aggressive …

[RockDoctor]

Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan Farscape. quote from Farscape fandom
" Zhaan was arrested for murder and imprisoned by the Peacekeepers. She spent three cycles on Mekkar VII, a maximum labor planet. For nearly 17 cycles after the murder, she was tortured by her own dark impulses."
" Zhaan chose to expend nearly all her hard-won spiritual energy in a quest to restore Aeryn Sun to life. She succeeded in raising Aeryn, but Zhaan was greatly weakened in the process and contracted a fatal, though curable, disease. While Stark and the rest of the crew searched for a planet where Zhaan's plant physiology could heal, she herself grew resigned to a peaceful death."

I'm not familiar with Farscape (it's a computer game, isn't it?), so is Zhaan actually aggressive (arrested, imprisoned, convicted and tortured is a pretty good sign of innocence, as is resignation to death)?
Hmmm, from Wiki ... spiritual, but terrorist, makes explosives etc ... sounds like a Spock with an edge. Sounds complex enough. If the series ever appears on UK TV, I'll try to catch it.

1 down, 6 to go.

[Cmdr James]

I'm not familiar with Farscape (it's a computer game, isn't it?),

There is, or was, a farscape computer game but its more normally known as being a television scifi show .

[ffutures]

The plant-woman Jabe, in the Doctor Who episode The End of the World, and the rest of her species.

There was an invasion by an intelligent plant from space in The Avengers - Wikipedia tells me the episode was "Man-Eater of Surrey Green" made in 1965.

Brian Aldiss had sentient plants of several types in his novel Hot-House (1962).

later - sorry, forgot you were excluding Hot-House

[ffutures]

Can't believe I forgot Groot, from Guardians of the Galaxy etc.

[RockDoctor]

Depending on the definition of "intelligent", there's always the triffids. They're definitely aggressive …

Agreed.That's two.

[RockDoctor]

The plant-woman Jabe, in the Doctor Who episode The End of the World, and the rest of her species.

Three.

There was an invasion by an intelligent plant from space in The Avengers - Wikipedia tells me the episode was "Man-Eater of Surrey Green" made in 1965.

I remember seeing that one a year or so ago. Daytime TV rising from the mire - greatly helped by a PVR.
Four.

Brian Aldiss had sentient plants of several types in his novel Hot-House (1962).
later - sorry, forgot you were excluding Hot-House

I excluded the morel fungi in Hothouse, being fungi (choanoflagellate cells, closer to animals than the bulk of the plant kingdom) not plants. But if you can put a name to any other intelligent, aggressive plants in the book ...

[RockDoctor]

Can't believe I forgot Groot, from Guardians of the Galaxy etc.

Old Woss'isname?
Five. Groot is antepenultimate even if he can't get his ... twigs? around the word.

How the hell is a plant meant to speak, any way? At least Aldiss had the decency to give his fungi pseudotelepathic hyphae.

[Disembodied]

Please, doctor, I’ve got to ask this. It sounds like, well … Just as though you’re describing some form of super carrot.

The Thing from the 1951 movie The Thing From Another World: definitely intelligent, definitely aggressive.
https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2019/05 ... her-world/

And there's the Florans, from the game Starbound.

[ffutures]

Brian Aldiss had sentient plants of several types in his novel Hot-House (1962).
later - sorry, forgot you were excluding Hot-House

I excluded the morel fungi in Hothouse, being fungi (choanoflagellate cells, closer to animals than the bulk of the plant kingdom) not plants. But if you can put a name to any other intelligent, aggressive plants in the book ...

Sorry - I was thinking of the Tummy Belly men but they're humans with a symbiotic relationship with a tree, not actual plant beings.

If you want another, Stanley Weinbaum's The Lotus Eaters has sentient telepathic plants living on the dark side of a tidally-locked Venus. He also has telepathic plants on Mars in Valley of Dreams, which use their telepathy to lure people to their doom, but it isn't clear if they are actually intelligent.
http://www.forgottenfutures.com/game/ff ... iction.htm

[RockDoctor]

Please, doctor, I’ve got to ask this. It sounds like, well … Just as though you’re describing some form of super carrot.

The Thing from the 1951 movie The Thing From Another World:

That makes six.

And there's the Florans, from the game Starbound.

I've not met that game, but the link seems definitive, and you have the con. Over to you, Disembodied.

[RockDoctor]

If you want another, Stanley Weinbaum's The Lotus Eaters has sentient telepathic plants living on the dark side of a tidally-locked Venus.

Another planetary image cruelly laid low by reality. Though Venus' rather slow rotation does raise some interesting questions for SF universe-builders. Is it a day, or is it a season?

[Disembodied]

OK, another collection of five (maximum one answer per universe).

Posthumanity: name five stories/films/TV/etc. where humanity – that is, anything reasonably fitting the description of "human", e.g. could pass without remark on the average high street during daylight hours - has ceased to exist. One or two more-or-less modern human protagonists/survivors/witnesses etc. are permitted (but not required).

[spud42]

Planet of the Apes ?

[Disembodied]

Planet of the Apes ?

I'll accept this: the human beings are "animalistic", and I did specify that to count as "human" they should be able to pass during daylight hours. Closing time on a Friday night, maybe the Planet of the Apes humans could fit in, but even in Glasgow they'd struggle to go unremarked upon during the day. Assuming there wasn't an Old Firm match on.

That's one.