Science Fiction Trivia

[MrFlibble]

Delete your post! Quick!

Do you have any idea at all as to what you are letting yourself in for? the Chalice of Doom?

AFK last night, popped out for a drink and ended up hanging on to the bar to prevent it from leaving me. Just woke in time for tea and terror.

Image prophetically deleted from origin. Deed undone.

[RockDoctor]

.....

Delete your post! Quick!

Do you have any idea at all as to what you are letting yourself in for? the Chalice of Doom?

What did he do? Confession is good for the soul - particularly as someone else quaffs from the Chalice of Doom.

I have a vague memory (and no remaining copies) of "Dirk Gently" being frequently be-topped with a battered fedora of dubious parentage and even more dubious relationship to Indiana "Woof" Jones?
If, of course, you accept the Holistic DA as being "SF", which is a very dubious point.

[Cholmondely]

.....

Delete your post! Quick!

Do you have any idea at all as to what you are letting yourself in for? the Chalice of Doom?

What did he do? Confession is good for the soul - particularly as someone else quaffs from the Chalice of Doom.

I have a vague memory (and no remaining copies) of "Dirk Gently" being frequently be-topped with a battered fedora of dubious parentage and even more dubious relationship to Indiana "Woof" Jones?
If, of course, you accept the Holistic DA as being "SF", which is a very dubious point.

But how public should this "good-for-the-soul confession" actually be?

[ffutures]

.....

Delete your post! Quick!

Do you have any idea at all as to what you are letting yourself in for? the Chalice of Doom?

What did he do? Confession is good for the soul - particularly as someone else quaffs from the Chalice of Doom.

I have a vague memory (and no remaining copies) of "Dirk Gently" being frequently be-topped with a battered fedora of dubious parentage and even more dubious relationship to Indiana "Woof" Jones?
If, of course, you accept the Holistic DA as being "SF", which is a very dubious point.

OK, one hat confirmed and habitually worn. And it definitely is SF in my opinion because (a) it started life as a Doctor Who story and (b) the plot involves frequent instances of time travel, used among other things to perpetrate an "impossible" conjuring trick. There's also the Electric Monk etc.

That means that you have given answer No 5, and thus win an exciting poisoned chalice. Over to you for the next round, sucker!

Later - oops, nearly forgot the clues I gave which nobody tried to answer:

There is a good TV example from the mid 1980s onward.
Guinan, in Star Trek TNG, always wore strange hats.


There is a good YA novel example, the second of a series, from the mid 2000s
Starcross, the second book of Philip Reeve's Larklight trilogy, featured an invasion of sentient hats from the end of time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starcross_(novel)

There's a good web novel example from the last decade
Worm by John C. "Wildbow" McCrae- one of the villains is Contessa, creator of incredibly complex plans, who always wears a fedora.


There's a good web comic example that is still in progress
Girl Genius - the Jägermonsters are constructs (beings created by mad science) who love fighting and always wear strange hats. “Any plan where you lose your hat is a bad plan”

https://girlgenius.fandom.com/wiki/J%C3%A4germonster

[RockDoctor]

But how public should this "good-for-the-soul confession" actually be?

Three-line advert in the Personals of The Times, as per Bill Tilman's classic "Success dubious, no pay" advert.

Awww, sad : seems likely to be a hoax. Firstly, Shakleton, not Tilman (though neither would be insulted by the association, I think). The wording generally cited is

Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.

One of the first books to feature the ad was The 100 Greatest Advertisements 1852-1958, written by Julian Watkins in 1959. He claims it ran in London newspapers in 1900. But that was several years before Shackleton’s "hazardous journey".

Other biographies of Shackleton say the ad appeared in The Times on 29 December 1913. However, it did not run on that day. A reward offered by a group of polar historians to anybody who can find the original has never been claimed.

[RockDoctor]

I have a vague memory (and no remaining copies) of "Dirk Gently" being frequently be-topped with a battered fedora of dubious parentage and even more dubious relationship to Indiana "Woof" Jones?
If, of course, you accept the Holistic DA as being "SF", which is a very dubious point.

OK, one hat confirmed and habitually worn. And it definitely is SF in my opinion because (a) it started life as a Doctor Who story and (b) the plot involves frequent instances of time travel, used among other things to perpetrate an "impossible" conjuring trick. There's also the Electric Monk etc.

Is that the one?
Hmmm, I don't have "sucker" in my list of acceptable nicknames ... but it gives me an idea.
A rather NSFW idea.
But I think I'll go for it.
Examples of suckers in an SF connotation, with multiple bonus points for making it disturbingly sexual.
And off the table immediately I will take "The Dream of the Fisherman's wife" (Hokusai, IIRC, early 1800s, in between all the views of Mt Fuji and the whole canon of animé "tentacle porn"). Let's just chop that right off now, leaving it writing on the floor, suckers gripping on themselves and pulsating obscenely. Which also prompts removal of another prolific source : Morty succumbing to the pulsating orifice of the horse wank machine in a Rick'n'Morty episode.
So, no Hokusai, tentacle pr0n, or RnM, bur a fistful of succulent, gripping suckers - GO!

Complaints can ooze along to ffutures, for suggesting this. (Is there a BBCODE for linking to an account?)

EDIT : Only one invocation of the Elder Gods. I know they like pulsating obscenely, so they're bound to appear. But only once, for the whole pantheon! MBP if you can include ... no, I won't name names ... just see if people's memories match mine.

[Disembodied]

Examples of suckers in an SF connotation, with multiple bonus points for making it disturbingly sexual.

For your consideration … Noctupulis the Night-Squid, from the Adventures of Zirk (a character from the equally dubious adventures of Axel Pressbutton and Laser Eraser). The four-page story, by Steve Moore (AKA "Pedro Henry") and illustrated by Brian Bolland, can be seen here:

https://comicsagogo.wordpress.com/2013/ ... n-bolland/

[ffutures]

Starro The Conqueror from DC comics - suckers galore! A giant starfish thing that fires off swarms of smaller starfish that use their suckers etc. to latch onto people and mind-control them. VERY icky!

https://www.ign.com/articles/suicide-sq ... u-starfish

https://youtu.be/ss3k329_tzY?si=jyo7cKWq9vvvBs2m

[RockDoctor]

Examples of suckers in an SF connotation, with multiple bonus points for making it disturbingly sexual.

For your consideration … Noctupulis the Night-Squid, from the Adventures of Zirk (a character from the equally dubious adventures of Axel Pressbutton and Laser Eraser). The four-page story, by Steve Moore (AKA "Pedro Henry") and illustrated by Brian Bolland, can be seen here:

https://comicsagogo.wordpress.com/2013/ ... n-bolland/

Sounds good to me. "And what i like ... thrashes". "Jay Jonah Juggliwig the notorious joy-juice racketeer" - I wonder who he could be getting at here?
Well, that was ... "refreshing" is a word, though maybe not the right word. I shall never look at avocado puree again in the same light.

[RockDoctor]

Starro The Conqueror from DC comics - suckers galore! A giant starfish thing that fires off swarms of smaller starfish that use their suckers etc. to latch onto people and mind-control them. VERY icky!

https://www.ign.com/articles/suicide-sq ... u-starfish

https://youtu.be/ss3k329_tzY?si=jyo7cKWq9vvvBs2m

That also seems to fit, although starfishes (echinoderms) are mounted on "tube feet" rather than the tentacles and "suckers" of cephalopods. Different phylum, different structure and mechanisms. But since they're all extraterrestrial, I'll let DC's pen-men off with it.
Would I be right in thinking that DC are going for a slightly less childish movie universe than Marvel? I saw a few numbers of "Harley Quinn" a while ago - after the Rick'n'Morty slot ; probably not a coincidence - and thought that Marvel's Disney-constrained script-baboons (rejects from the School of Shakespeare Randomisation) "would never have taken this past the grave of the Boss".
If that's the case, the 2010s flood of Marvel movies could well play into DC's hands.
Whatever, Disembodied with Alan Moore's squid avocado molester for first place and ffutures for second with DC's less childish offering.

[RockDoctor]

Starro The Conqueror from DC comics - suckers galore! A giant starfish thing that fires off swarms of smaller starfish that use their suckers etc. to latch onto people and mind-control them. VERY icky!
https://www.ign.com/articles/suicide-sq ... u-starfish
https://youtu.be/ss3k329_tzY?si=jyo7cKWq9vvvBs2m

Wait, what? In the "live action", they used WHICH part of a starfish's anatomy as an "eye"?
As Flanders and Swann used to say, "rolling in the aisles, helpless with mirth". And not an attendant in sight!

[Nite Owl]

Quite possibly one of the original Sucker films - IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA. Most notable for the Ray Harryhausen stop motion effects used on the sixtopus. Read the article for an explanation of this nom de plume.

[ffutures]

Examples of suckers in an SF connotation, with multiple bonus points for making it disturbingly sexual.

For your consideration … Noctupulis the Night-Squid, from the Adventures of Zirk (a character from the equally dubious adventures of Axel Pressbutton and Laser Eraser). The four-page story, by Steve Moore (AKA "Pedro Henry") and illustrated by Brian Bolland, can be seen here:

https://comicsagogo.wordpress.com/2013/ ... n-bolland/

Sounds good to me. "And what i like ... thrashes". "Jay Jonah Juggliwig the notorious joy-juice racketeer" - I wonder who he could be getting at here?
Well, that was ... "refreshing" is a word, though maybe not the right word. I shall never look at avocado puree again in the same light.

From what I can remember, that's actually one of the milder Zirk stories.

Re starfish and their relatives sea urchins, and also the previous question, aquarists have been 3D printing little hats for urchins which they use to cover certain organs instead of little pebbles or shells.

https://www.boredpanda.com/sea-urchins-tiny-hats/

[RockDoctor]

Whatever, Disembodied with Alan Moore's squid avocado molester for first place and ffutures for second with DC's less childish offering.
And NiteOwl gets third for I was watching a few weeks ago, raising a yentacle to the ghost of Harryhausen!

Quite possibly one of the original Sucker films - IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA. Most notable for the Ray Harryhausen stop motion effects used on the sixtopus. Read the article for an explanation of this nom de plume.

Cephalopods have always treated tentacle-count as an USER_OPTION. In the Nautiloidae the fossilised count can go up to 20. 8 going to 6 is nothing.

[RockDoctor]

From what I can remember, that's actually one of the milder Zirk stories.

Re starfish and their relatives sea urchins, and also the previous question, aquarists have been 3D printing little hats for urchins which they use to cover certain organs instead of little pebbles or shells.

https://www.boredpanda.com/sea-urchins-tiny-hats/

I think the good (?) Judge got it approximately right when he said, "Grud, What sickos!"