Science Fiction Trivia

[ffutures]

Damn! How did I miss HHG? Never mind, there are lots of others for the next time this one comes up.

OK, let's try something a little simpler - this time there will only be a single answer!

What one word (spelling may vary) links all of the following?

A 1960s British comic-book superhero with invisibility and other powers
A 1970s Doctor Who serial
A 1980s novel, one of a series, in which the character is a far-future exile with a perfect memory who may still be an unreliable narrator.
A 1960s Marvel villain with sonic powers who was an important character in two recent films.
A 1980s animated villain, the main opponent of a cyborg hero.

Bonus points for EXPLAINING your answer!

[ffutures]

Some clues:

A 1960s British comic-book superhero with invisibility and other powers
The character was originally a villain, but quickly reformed.

A 1970s Doctor Who serial
The word is in the plural in the title.

A 1980s novel, one of a series, in which the character is a far-future exile with a perfect memory who may still be an unreliable narrator.
The second book of the series

A 1960s Marvel villain with sonic powers who was an important character in two recent films.
The word is spelled unusually in this character's name.

A 1980s animated villain, the main opponent of a cyborg hero.
Think Blofeld, but even less competent.

[spud42]

would the 80's animated villian be Dr Claw ?

[ffutures]

would the 80's animated villian be Dr Claw ?

That might indeed be the case. Care to give me the actual answer, and the reason why it is relevant to each of the five prompts?

[spud42]

i have no idea.really just thought if Dr Claw was right i might have a clue to help...

[spud42]

ok i will bite.

the answer then has to be CLAW.
clue 1 is the steel claw ( google search)
clue 4 is Klaw again a google search
clue 5 is Dr Claw....

no idea of the other clues and with these three pointing to claw no point chasing them up.

[ffutures]

ok i will bite.

the answer then has to be CLAW.
clue 1 is the steel claw ( google search)
clue 4 is Klaw again a google search
clue 5 is Dr Claw....

no idea of the other clues and with these three pointing to claw no point chasing them up.

OK, that's good enough. In order the answers were

A 1960s British comic-book superhero with invisibility and other powers - The Steel Claw
A 1970s Doctor Who serial - The Claws of Axos, March 1971
A 1980s novel, one of a series, in which the character is a far-future exile with a perfect memory who may still be an unreliable narrator - The Claw of the Conciliator (1981) by Gene Wolfe
A 1960s Marvel villain with sonic powers who was an important character in two recent films - Ulysses Klaw (originally spelled Klaue). In the comics he was a former Nazi with sonic powers, recent Marvel films made him an Afrikaans arms dealer branded as a thief by the Wakandan government.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaw_(character)
A 1980s animated villain, the main opponent of a cyborg hero. - Doctor Claw from Inspector Gadget

Have three MBPs, one for each of the ones you got. And the ball is now in your court.

[spud42]

ok, i am going on holidays tomorrow but i will have internet access on my tablet so i should still have access to the forum.
I will do a relatively easy question to "pass the buck" .

What i the first robot on TV. not film so dont go Metropolis on me...

the accepted date of firs airing and for a MBP or 2 name the actor

[ffutures]

I think that the first SF TV series was Captain Video and his Video Rangers, from the late 1940s onward, and looking on Wikipedia it appears that the series did have a robot called Tobor, appearing in a serial (written by Isaac Asimov) starting Nov 2, 1953, and in later serials. Played by Dave Ballard, an actor most notable for being 7ft 8" tall.

Web site for Tobor
https://cyberneticzoo.com/pseudo-automa ... -american/



However, when I looked this up the web site for Tobor mentioned that there was an earlier appearance by a robot: "To my knowledge, the Superman TV serial had the first robot – Adventures of Superman: Season 1, Episode 17, The Runaway Robot (9 Jan. 1953). "Prof. Horatio Hinkle (Lucien Littlefield) is the inventor of a robot. He is kidnapped by burglars who intend to use his robot for robberies. The police set out to arrest Hinkle for a series of crimes. Hinkle telephones his assistant Marvin (Bob Easton) to alert Lois Lane and Superman. Guest Stars: Dan Seymour as Rocko, Russell Johnson as Chopper, John Harmon as Mousie." I think that Rocko was the name of the robot but I haven't been able to confirm it. Rocko was played by Dan Seymour.

Given this, I'm going with Rocko (or whatever it was actually called) as the first robot on TV, and 9th January 1953. Alternatively, Tobor, and Nov 2, 1953

[spud42]

My google search gave me to believe it was tobor. The previous that you mentioned was not confirmed so either way you are now in charge and I will go back to my holiday

[ffutures]

Just to clarify, the January 1953 robot story is described in the Wikipedia list of The Adventures of Superman episodes, that's where the brief plot summary came from, so it's almost certainly a real thing. And means that the first robot in TV SF appeared about six weeks before I was born, which I suppose is cool...

OK - I've just been conned out of a couple of pounds by an (expletive deleted) on eBay, so let's have five SF works - books, films, comics, whatever - in which confidence tricks and/or fraud are a major part of the plot.

Usual rules - no two from the same source / author / whatever, and please allow time for others to try to answer. For example, if the Saint series was SF a lot of the stories / episodes would have qualified, since the Saint often tricked con-men, but you could have only one of them, and anything else about the Saint, or by Leslie Charteris, would be excluded.

[Commander_X]

I'd start with an "en vogue" example, Foundation by Isaac Asimov (which Apple's Foundation managed to twist to an extremely poor resemblance to the original).
In Prelude to Foundation, we are entertained for most of the book with Hummin, a journalist, which turns to be Eto Dermezel, emperor's prime minister, and finally is revealed as our older acquaintance R. Daneel Olivaw.

As a follow-up for the previous (first robot not on film) question, S01E17 from Adventures of Superman seems to be publicly available at The Runaway Robot (didn't watch it, though).

[Nite Owl]

Star Trek: The Original Series - either The Trouble With Tribbles or Mudd's Women.

[Cholmondely]

The Trouble With Tribbles

Trouble with Tribbles?

Is this truly possible?

I've read so many posts on this board stating that once one smears them with barbecue sauce they simply melt away leaving a most delightful aftertaste!

[ffutures]

I'd start with an "en vogue" example, Foundation by Isaac Asimov (which Apple's Foundation managed to twist to an extremely poor resemblance to the original).
In Prelude to Foundation, we are entertained for most of the book with Hummin, a journalist, which turns to be Eto Dermezel, emperor's prime minister, and finally is revealed as our older acquaintance R. Daneel Olivaw.

OK, that's close enough, I really don't want to get too bogged down in defining what it, or isn't, a con.

As a follow-up for the previous (first robot not on film) question, S01E17 from Adventures of Superman seems to be publicly available at The Runaway Robot (didn't watch it, though).

Thanks - took a quick look at Runaway Robot, that's a VERY silly looking robot but it certainly does seem to be one for the purposes of the original question, I think.

Star Trek: The Original Series - either The Trouble With Tribbles or Mudd's Women.

I'll go with Mudd's Women, that's definitely a con. Trouble With Tribbles is more a case of "forgetting" to mention some problems. OK, that's two down, three to go. No more Foundation, Asimov or Star Trek please.