Science Fiction Trivia

[RockDoctor]

Gimboid!

Ummm, from?
I think I know, but since we're eliminating universes, we do need to know which universe that is getting the "with a MBP spot I damn him!" treatment.

That should be from the smeggin' awesome Red Dwarf.

I thought that was what you meant, and that makes number 2, I think. Which is fine, but it also makes the practically polite "smeg", "smeghead" etc unavailable. People could argue that they're too obviously derived from the medical term "smegma", but that argument, with the words, is off the table now.

quote=ffutures post_id=279164 time=1630266279 user_id=27361]
OK, let's try something else - Frak!, from New Battlestar Galactica, used as a substitute for the less TV-audience friendly F*ck!
... https://en.battlestarwiki.org/Frak
[/quote]
Fine by me. Though I've got to admit having watched a total of about 20 minutes of Battlestar Galactica in my life. Just doesn't do it for me.

So, we have

1. Drokk (with an honourable mention for Grud! and Stomm! from JudgeDredd-iverse, (disembodied)
2. a smeggin' smeghead of a "Gimboid!" from Rew Dwarf-iverse (hiran)
3. "Frak" from the Battlestar Galacticaverse (ffutures)

And we're getting closer to the half-way point than any Formulaics did this weekend.

[spud42]

i was going to say frac or frak and it is originally from the first Battlestar Galactica. Starbucks favorite word..lol

may i postulate the following for your consideration

Bowb
Harrison introduced a new euphemism, "bowb", in the series to cover the vulgarity necessary to render military life accurately. It is used extensively in Bill, the Galactic Hero.

[RockDoctor]

may i postulate the following for your consideration

Bowb
Harrison introduced a new euphemism, "bowb", in the series to cover the vulgarity necessary to render military life accurately. It is used extensively in Bill, the Galactic Hero.

I have a less-than vague memory that it appeared a few times in the Stainless Steel Rat series too - as a general denigration of "the opposition" - but it is there, so you get the 4th position in the Hall of Vulgarity.

[hiran]

How about Zorflick?
I think the aliens used it in ZaKMcKracken...

[RockDoctor]

How about Zorflick?
I think the aliens used it in ZaKMcKracken...

I've never heard of it - but the game itself seems somewhat interesting (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zak_McKra ... an_sequels).

Can you provide more detail - a screenshot, text extract or fan website link?

[ffutures]

Tanj - from Larry Niven's "Known Space" books, short for "There Ain't No Justice" and used as a general-purpose swear word. Also "Tanjit" (used as a replacement for sodit etc.). Used especially by Luis Wu in Ringworld and sequels

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=TANJ

[hiran]

How about Zorflick?
I think the aliens used it in ZaKMcKracken...

I've never heard of it - but the game itself seems somewhat interesting (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zak_McKra ... an_sequels).

Can you provide more detail - a screenshot, text extract or fan website link?

Took me some time to investigate. Check this video at 2:16:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKlZzAWIlJc

But now that I see I had a typo in there, I find more references...
https://www.redbubble.com/de/i/ipad-fol ... 7389.MHP6F

[RockDoctor]

How about Zorflick?
I think the aliens used it in ZaKMcKracken...

{...}
Took me some time to investigate. Check this video at 2:16:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKlZzAWIlJc

OK, by persistence you get the fifth slot and avoidance of chalice poisoning issues in the near future.

Tanj - from Larry Niven's "Known Space" books, short for "There Ain't No Justice" and used as a general-purpose swear word. Also "Tanjit" (used as a replacement for sodit etc.). Used especially by Luis Wu in Ringworld and sequels

Sorry ffutures, that's one I included in the examples, so specifically "tanj" and any variants (including the Kzinti "Hrrrrurrrr") and the Puppeteer {industrial accident in 4:17 time, full orchestration} are off the table.

[ffutures]

Soddit, I checked all the answers for tanj! but forgot to check the question! Mr. Brain is not at home today...

Can I have one that I can't actually spell, only whistle?

https://youtu.be/-OvefhhMbbg

[RockDoctor]

Soddit, I checked all the answers for tanj! but forgot to check the question! Mr. Brain is not at home today...

Can I have one that I can't actually spell, only whistle?

https://youtu.be/-OvefhhMbbg

Why do I suspect there is a Clanger looming the other side of that link?
Well, since I've already cited a Hero's Tongue swear word (transliterated from their "dots and commas" writing system), there's no obvious reason to not include the mighty Clangers too - if it is them.
I am somewhat intrigued what evidence you are going to show that this particular Clanger is turning the air blue and embarrassing old sailors. Assuming it is a Clanger.
(Watches)
I don't have musical notes in my collection of glyphs, to indicate assent, but yes, you've got it. So that's number 6, and a perilously balanced chalice of Alien blood looms for the next person to swear extraterrestrially.

Did the Apollo astronauts ever get recorded swearing? Probably not, given the recordings from Apollo 13.

[ffutures]

Well, since nobody else seems to want to do this, let's go for the original language of the Bard, Klingonese.

I present PetaQ (various spellings) which has many usages but no clear definition in English. The closest translation is something like "Weirdo" but it has become a serious insult.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Klingonese#petaQ

I suspect that the The Official Space Marines War-Cry "EAT PLUTONIUM DEATH, YOU DISGUSTING ALIEN WEIRDOS!" from D.R. and Quinch is translated Klingonese!

[RockDoctor]

Well, since nobody else seems to want to do this, let's go for the original language of the Bard, Klingonese.

That sounds like .. there is at least one episode that I haven't seen. Along with many that I have paid less than scrupulous attention to.

I present PetaQ (various spellings) which has many usages but no clear definition in English. The closest translation is something like "Weirdo" but it has become a serious insult.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Klingonese#petaQ

Well, that looks as if the precariously balance phial etc etc has tilted in your direction. As they probably say, in Klingonese, "Live short and die horribly".

At fear of invoking Rule 34, someone, somewhere, has probably written porn in Klingon. Klingon Furries. {Shudder}

[ffutures]

OK, let's try a nice simple one. I'm looking for FIVE SF works of any type in which characters have a form of sight which is different from our own. This might include seeing things that others can't, different forms of radiation, etc. etc. Please give a link to information about your source, especially if it's obscure!

Usual rules: no two from the same author / set in the same fictional universe / using exactly the same form of sight.

For example, in the Discworld books wizards and some supernatural entities can see Octarine, the eighth colour, aka the Colour of Magic. Since they aren't actually SF that wouldn't be an acceptable answer, but that's the sort of thing I'm looking for. Giving this as an answer would rule out all Discworld canon and any other works by Terry Pratchett for future answers, and anything else that jams extra colours into the visible spectrum.

[RockDoctor]

OK, let's try a nice simple one. I'm looking for FIVE SF works of any type in which characters have a form of sight which is different from our own. This might include seeing things that others can't, different forms of radiation, etc. etc. Please give a link to information about your source, especially if it's obscure!

Well I'll dive straight in with an example that appeared a couple of questions ago, under "Sculpture". In Niven's "Known Space", the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kdatlyno">Kdatlyno</a> are a (former) Kzin slave-species of imposing (even to a Kzintosh!) size and strength, but without a sense of vision - at least, not one involving the electromagnetic spectrum. Instead they "see" using a form of sonic echo location ; as a consequence, their described cultural achievement of "touch sculpture" is the bane of museum curators - an artwork intended to be touched by the visitors.

So, that should be all three of Known Space, Niven and "echo location" off the table. There is at least one mention in a "Man-Kzin Wars sub-Universe" story where non-human terrestrial aliens with echo location and innate "3d-thinking" - the dolphins - are used as tactical assistants in a space battle, so that would take echo location further off the table. Do we count dolphins as "aliens". They're definitely not from another planet (unless someone has been planting fossils again), they're definitely intelligent (and a challenge for how to measure "intelligence"), and they're definitely not human - but are they alien? Now there's a question to debate with your local lobster species.

[RockDoctor]

OK, let's try a nice simple one. I'm looking for FIVE SF works of any type in which characters have a form of sight which is different from our own. This might include seeing things that others can't, different forms of radiation, etc. etc. Please give a link to information about your source, especially if it's obscure!

Usual rules: no two from the same author / set in the same fictional universe / using exactly the same form of sight.

Having just taken Niven and Know Space off the table, how can I bring in the sort of "telepathic prey-predator link" that the Kzin have, which is suggested to have became their "telepath" abilities when hypertrophied and drug-enhanced?
Answer : same sense (more or less), different universe.
McCaffrey and her Pernese dragons (and fire lizards, and I think the watchwhers too) have a strong impressionistic-to-verbalised telepathy. Would you call that a "sense", or a communication method? I think a "sense" - because it also seems involved in their navigation through between to destination coordinates in 4d space.