Science Fiction Trivia

[RockDoctor]

https://www.bigw.com.au/product/darrell ... g/p/804275

Thought, for a few seconds, that I'd missed a contribution. But no, it's a bag of Australian Liquorice Allsorts. And as expected, the bag opens upside-down.

Looking for a last PARODY SF character.

[ffutures]

Well, since nobody else seems to want to volunteer...

Pretty much all characters in the film Team America: World Police, which is a critique of post-911 American action movie tropes using the techniques of Thunderbirds and other supermarionation films and TV. It counts as SF for various reasons which I probably shouldn't mention because they are spoilers.

Here's the trailer

https://youtu.be/kMyJWuvW_9k

And here's a trailer of something vaguely related...

https://youtu.be/nSEN4eOK-Ew

[ffutures]

Should I post a question?

[Cholmondely]

Or maybe decide who gets to post the next question! Go for somebody new like Hiran or Arquebus... see if they can do as lousy a job as I did!

[ffutures]

OK, since there seems to be a stunned silence from everyone I'll set another question. Five names of characters or concepts from SF or SF-adjacent media. All are four letters, and there is a one-letter difference between each answer and the next. Explain your answers!

For example, if we were using fantasy as well as SF a sequence might begin

1: One of seven children, a twin - FRED Weasley
2: Superhero noted as an escapologist - Scott FREE
3: Another name for Yggdrasil - The World TREE
and so forth.

And here are the five to answer - Please only answer one at a time, and leave a couple of hours for other to respond before posting if you know more than one.

1: Pretty much has to be an alien
2: One of The Hong Kong Cavaliers, a sidekick of the hero
3: Protagonist of many novels, whose name usually appears in the first few words of the SECOND chapter of the story.
4: An Indian ruler determined to seek revenge on the British Empire.
5: An aristocratic supervillain

[ffutures]

Clue time!

1: Pretty much has to be an alien
2: One of The Hong Kong Cavaliers, a sidekick of the hero
3: Protagonist of many novels, whose name usually appears in the first few words of the SECOND chapter of the story.
4: An Indian ruler determined to seek revenge on the British Empire.
5: An aristocratic supervillain

1: Usually as a prefix
2: This name is also the name of a city, their surname is the rest of the city's name
3: "His name was XXXX and..."
4: Back when there WAS a British Empire and the sun never set on it
5: His title is usually before the name when he's referred to.

[Cholmondely]

Apologies. Seems too similar to a cryptic crossword for me to have any chance of guessing anything!

But - more power to your elbows!

[Nite Owl]

1) Xeno

The rest of the answers should be much easier now.

[Disembodied]

2) Reno (Nevada)

[ffutures]

1) Xeno

The rest of the answers should be much easier now.

Absolutely right, and have an MBC for starting the ball rolling.

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

2) Reno (Nevada)

Absolutely right - a member of Buckaroo's band and adventuring team from The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.

https://buckaroobanzai.fandom.com/wiki/Reno?so=search

Right - the answer to question 3 is one letter different from Reno. It is NOT necessarily the first letter again!

[Nite Owl]

This is purely a guess on my part as no collaborating evidence can be found.

3) Remo

[ffutures]

This is purely a guess on my part as no collaborating evidence can be found.

3) Remo

Absolutely right - Remo Williams, the main protagonist of the Destroyer series of martial arts novels (150+ books). It's SF adjacent because quite a few of the stories had SF-related plots. Most notably a killer robot called Mr Gordons (named after the gin) who came back several times after apparently being destroyed, a genetically-engineered were-tiger, and so forth. The structure of the novels is somewhat formulaic - the first chapter usually describes a situation with something horrible (usually death) happening to someone, then the second begins "His name was Remo and...", describes what Remo is currently doing (usually killing someone for the US Government), then leads into the next assignment involving the events of the first chapter.

Two to go!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Destr ... el_series)

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ ... eDestroyer

[cbr]

4 Nemo (based on the excellent clues!)

[ffutures]

4 Nemo (based on the excellent clues!)

Yep - It is indeed Captain Nemo, from 20000 Leagues Under The Sea and The Mysterious Island, as well as numerous other stories that have commandeered the Captain (and usually the Nautilus) for plot purposes.

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

One to go!

[ffutures]

So far the answers have been
1: Xeno
2: Reno
3: Remo
4: Nemo
I underlined and bolded the letter that changed between one answer and the next.

Clue time for the last question!

5: An aristocratic supervillain

5: His title is usually before the name when he's referred to.

Two villains by this name have appeared, a father and son, it isn't clear if earlier ancestors were also in the supervillain business.