Science Fiction Trivia

[ffutures]

Seriously? Nobody? I suppose I'd better fall on the bullet (or whatever)

Spoiler

River Song, with an energy gun, kills the Doctor at Lake Silencio
River Song is in the space suit but unable to stop it firing, and present twice due to time travel.

OK, another obvious one given that the assassin is actually known for being an assassin...

The Doctor shot, then shot again and killed during regeneration, during The Impossible Astronaut

https://youtu.be/j_Z-8FKN_lw?si=6_ngUdQtQmfYuQKa

The assassin revealed during The Wedding of River Song

https://youtu.be/-77eKQ2IP5A?si=_ntmBIT5yZSyPMoI

[RockDoctor]

Looks like ffutures has the final podium, the Chalice, and an appointment for some serious plastic surgery to add (or extend) limbs - podia for the occupation of.

[ffutures]

OK, staying with the theme from the last question, here's a fun little clip from Doctor Who:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWXV8DLQgV8

let's have FIVE other stories / films / comics / whatever about attempts to kill historical figures - and NOT Hitler, or anything from Doctor Who since I've used that for my example!

[MrFlibble]

let's have FIVE other stories / films / comics / whatever about attempts to kill historical figures - and NOT Hitler, or anything from Doctor Who since I've used that for my example!

Red Dwarf S7 e01 : Tikka to Ride
An attempt to kill JFK is foiled by the boys from the Dwarf, who knock Lee Harvey Oswald out of the window as he's about to take the historic shot, and subsequently accidentally send him plunging to his death. I would imagine that the inadvertent killing of Oswald doesn't count as an "attempt to kill"?


The other killing in the story might qualify though!

Spoiler

The boys convince JFK to travel back in time from 1966 and become the "gunman behind the grassy knoll", so he can assasinate his younger self and restore history.

[ffutures]

let's have FIVE other stories / films / comics / whatever about attempts to kill historical figures - and NOT Hitler, or anything from Doctor Who since I've used that for my example!

Red Dwarf S7 e01 : Tikka to Ride
An attempt to kill JFK is foiled by the boys from the Dwarf, who knock Lee Harvey Oswald out of the window as he's about to take the historic shot, and subsequently accidentally send him plunging to his death. I would imagine that the inadvertent killing of Oswald doesn't count as an "attempt to kill"?


The other killing in the story might qualify though!

Spoiler

The boys convince JFK to travel back in time from 1966 and become the "gunman behind the grassy knoll", so he can assasinate his younger self and restore history.

Yep, that's a good answer - I prefer the bit you've hidden, since it's deliberate. Four to go, and no more Oswald, Kennedy, or Red Dwarf!

[Commander_X]

In Mass Effect 3, there is a mission called Priority: Citadel (getting assigned right after the genophage cure mission).
During the mission, the Citadel (galactic center of government) is under attack by Cerberus forces. A target of the attack is taking out the Citadel Council, which the hero (commander Sheppard) helps in avoiding. The hero is initially saving the Salarian Councilor of the annoying assassin Cerberus sent, and then, bypasses the assassin to reach the remaining members, and save them from an internal betrayal.

[Cholmondely]

Not sure if this counts... Triplanetary (E. E. Doc Smith) features an attempt on Nero in Book 1 §3.

[hiran]

Eeek ! a chalice! What're you trying to do? Kill me?

From my folder of ideas, I don't think we've used this one before :

[*] From the SpamAssassin award of an (armour-plated?) cummerbund ... Assassination techniques used in SF.

I'll rule out the vulgarly inefficient (destroying a planet to get the guy who took your place in the "Tax Payment" queue) because that would rapidly escalate into territory recently explored (spectacular suicides). And "posting an inhumation contract on the non-GalCop bulletin board" is also too indirect and self-referential.

Examples where the assassination technique is appropriate to the victim are to be encouraged, but it's not essential. So "Rev.Green battered to death with a Bible in the library" would be preferred over "Rev.Green, with a uranium fuel element, in the engine room".

Suitably elaborated, the "Cluedo" prial of "who, with what implement, where" would be the minimal elements necessary. Having just typo-ed "eelements" for "elements", there are MBPs available for people who can work out an assassination method involving eels as an essential component.
Not knowing the DC universe, I wonder if anyone has ever tried to kill Poison Ivy with, uh, poison ivy. If that's even possible.

Going backwards through the thread I believe this is still the ongoing question. Assassination technique in SF stories.

Would planning and executing your own death qualify? In Asimov's "I Robot" US Robotics' Director of Research Dr Alfred Lanning had himself assassinated in a way subtle enough for the AI not to notice.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Robot_(film):
Spooner also realizes that Lanning anticipated VIKI's plan and, with VIKI keeping him under tight control, had no other solution but to create Sonny, arrange his own death, and leave clues for Spooner to find.

[ffutures]

In Mass Effect 3, there is a mission called Priority: Citadel (getting assigned right after the genophage cure mission).
During the mission, the Citadel (galactic center of government) is under attack by Cerberus forces. A target of the attack is taking out the Citadel Council, which the hero (commander Sheppard) helps in avoiding. The hero is initially saving the Salarian Councilor of the annoying assassin Cerberus sent, and then, bypasses the assassin to reach the remaining members, and save them from an internal betrayal.

I'm going to have to say no on this because it isn't a historical figure.

Not sure if this counts... Triplanetary (E. E. Doc Smith) features an attempt on Nero in Book 1 §3.

Yes, Nero certainly counts. Three to go! Nice to see Doc Smith in here, have an MBP. No more Nero or Smith, of course.

Eeek ! a chalice! What're you trying to do? Kill me?

From my folder of ideas, I don't think we've used this one before :

[*] From the SpamAssassin award of an (armour-plated?) cummerbund ... Assassination techniques used in SF.

I'll rule out the vulgarly inefficient (destroying a planet to get the guy who took your place in the "Tax Payment" queue) because that would rapidly escalate into territory recently explored (spectacular suicides). And "posting an inhumation contract on the non-GalCop bulletin board" is also too indirect and self-referential.

Examples where the assassination technique is appropriate to the victim are to be encouraged, but it's not essential. So "Rev.Green battered to death with a Bible in the library" would be preferred over "Rev.Green, with a uranium fuel element, in the engine room".

Suitably elaborated, the "Cluedo" prial of "who, with what implement, where" would be the minimal elements necessary. Having just typo-ed "eelements" for "elements", there are MBPs available for people who can work out an assassination method involving eels as an essential component.
Not knowing the DC universe, I wonder if anyone has ever tried to kill Poison Ivy with, uh, poison ivy. If that's even possible.

Going backwards through the thread I believe this is still the ongoing question. Assassination technique in SF stories.

Would planning and executing your own death qualify? In Asimov's "I Robot" US Robotics' Director of Research Dr Alfred Lanning had himself assassinated in a way subtle enough for the AI not to notice.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Robot_(film):
Spooner also realizes that Lanning anticipated VIKI's plan and, with VIKI keeping him under tight control, had no other solution but to create Sonny, arrange his own death, and leave clues for Spooner to find.

Er no, this is the "assassination attempt on a historical figure" question now, hence Hitler in the example, Oswald in the first successful answer, and Nero in the second. Can't really accept that a fictional character set some time in the future is a historical figure, sorry.

Three to go. And there are some REALLY obvious examples out there!

[Wildeblood]

Hitler in the example, Oswald in the first successful answer, and Nero in the second. Can't really accept that a fictional character set some time in the future is a historical figure, sorry.

What about a fic. char. who is fictional in our waking-state timeline, but an important historical figure in the fictional narrative?

I'm thinking of the Star Trek episode wherein time-travelling Kirk and Spock stand by and watch Joan Collins (leader of the American Pacifist movement during WWII) be run down by a car, in order to restore their version of the fictional timeline.

Yes, I know the question of accident or assassination is not pursued in that instance, I merely ask about the issue of fictionality. I suppose it's analogous to Hiran's example, except WWII was a really historical setting, whereas the events of I, Robot are, to the best of our knowledge, wholly fictional.

(Why am I uncomfortable writing "really historical", not "real historical"? It reads like baby-talk, despite being grammatically correct in my view.)

[ffutures]

I've gone with real-world historical figures because they tend to have real-world consequences that make for more interesting stories, and that most people will have some sort of opinion about. People CARE about what might have happened if Hitler was assassinated, if Kennedy wasn't assassinated, and so forth, that often isn't the case with fictional characters.

[ffutures]

OK... maybe I've been over-restrictive. I don't want to open up to fictional historical characters, but I will ALLOW Hitler if you can find a really entertaining or unusual assassination method, or one with unusual repercussions. But there really are plenty of other potential victims out there!

Oh, and have a fun story while you're thinking about it...

https://reactormag.com/wikihistory/

[RockDoctor]

People CARE about what might have happened if Hitler was assassinated

I wonder if the "fan fic" side of our resurgent problem with Nazis are writing time-travel stories about people going back in time to assassinate problematic real world characters to promote Hitler. Churchill, Roosvelt, and vonSchellenberg (of the briefcase bomb under the board room bunker table, IIRC).

I bet they can't bring themselves (or their characters) to assassinate the Vienna art teachers who denied Hitler recognition and triumphant acclaim ("sieg heil!") as a watercolour artist. That would be to sticky a wicket for them, I think - yes, Hitler is successful and dies in the 1970s, but as a moderately successful artist, not-a rage-fuelled monomaniac.

[RockDoctor]

People CARE about what might have happened if Hitler was assassinated

I bet they can't bring themselves (or their characters) to assassinate the Vienna art teachers who denied Hitler recognition and triumphant acclaim ("sieg heil!") as a watercolour artist. That would be to sticky a wicket for them, I think - yes, Hitler is successful and dies in the 1970s, but as a moderately successful artist, not-a rage-fuelled monomaniac.

From ffutures linked story :

Vienna, 1907: after numerous attempts, have infiltrated the Academy of Fine Arts and facilitated Adolf Hitler’s admission to that institution. Goodbye, Hitler the dictator; hello, Hitler the modestly successful landscape artist! Brought back a few of his paintings as well, any buyers?

Great minds thinking alike, or fools rarely differing?

Incidentally, for anyone with a few megabucks laying around, I've got a scheme for making parchment (well, goats) and gall-ink with a perfect C-14 date for your next contribution to the Gospels - targetting the period Hitler spent in the Nazi time machine subverting the first-century origins of Christianity as a sect of Judaism. Obviously, he kept diaries, didn't he?

[ffutures]

OK, here are some clues for possible answers

TMWMM - Story

TIWUaSMwT - Film (a reversal of this plot, trying to keep someone alive who was historically killed)

TLSfE - Novel

MH - Novel

SD - TV series

There's also at least one where the title is all numbers and punctuation and no words.