Science Fiction Trivia

[Disembodied]

Aha! So I added some thorium to the google mix, and I got Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet, by the unlikely-sounding "Blake Savage" … the novel was also published as Assignment in Space with Rip Foster and Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet.

[spud42]

Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet is a young adult science fiction novel written by Harold L. Goodwin under the pseudonym Blake Savage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rip_Foste ... ray_Planet

that last clue got it over the line..... spent many googles without success until this...lol

[spud42]

damn ninja'd by Big D

[Malacandra]

And that's it all right. The text is free to download and it's by no means contemptible. Well done, and over to you.

[Disembodied]

OK: what links the first offworld Doctor Who story ever broadcast, and a fairground ride?

[Smivs]

I think this was the first time we met the Daleks, on Skaro, and the only possible fairground connection I can think of is that they are a bit like Dodgems!
If I'm wrong, feel free to EXTERMINATE!

[Malacandra]

I think this was the first time we met the Daleks, on Skaro, and the only possible fairground connection I can think of is that they are a bit like Dodgems!
If I'm wrong, feel free to EXTERMINATE!

Very much like - purely from memory* here, they were moved by electrified floors.

*Of having read about it. I personally was a very small boy when Doctor Who hit the screens.

[Disembodied]

I think this was the first time we met the Daleks, on Skaro, and the only possible fairground connection I can think of is that they are a bit like Dodgems!
If I'm wrong, feel free to EXTERMINATE!

Smivs wins! It is indeed dodgems:

‘Let’s concentrate on the Daleks. Have you noticed, for example, that when they move about there’s a sort of acrid smell?’

‘Yes, yes, I’ve noticed that.’

‘I know – a fairground.’

‘That’s it. Dodgems.’

‘It’s electricity. I think they’re powered that way … I believe the Daleks have discovered a way to exploit static electricity. Very ingenious, if I’m right.’

https://www.scifinow.co.uk/books/simon- ... mell-like/

[Smivs]

Which Sci-Fi film, based on three novelettes by Raymond F. Jones, features one of Howard Hughes' girlfriends and a ginger cat?

[ffutures]

I vaguely remembered This Island Earth, IMDB tells me that the actress was Faith Marie Domergue, and confirms she was Hughes' girlfriend. No idea of the cat's name though...

[Smivs]

Absolutely right!
The cat's name was Orangey and like all great actors he could be a bit feckless from all accounts.
Over to you...

[ffutures]

Nice easy one - what's her name? (also the name of the story):

[Malacandra]

That's Helen O'Loy. I stumbled across this one within the last year, it's mid-20th-century science fiction - originally acquired as a domestic help, Helen gets modified by her owner and after a while she falls in love with him. Eventually, when she's almost ready to die of a broken heart, he returns her affections and they get married and live happily until he dies of old age; whereupon Helen implements measures to "die" also. Poignantly, she has the help of the narrator, who, it is clear, has also been in love with her for decades.

[ffutures]

Yep, that's the one - your turn.

[Malacandra]

Okay. This one's for those who have read the Long Earth series (and doesn't include The Long Cosmos which I haven't read yet).

Can you identify three themes or plot elements that recycle earlier material from Terry Pratchett, all Discworld-related but not necessarily from the Discworld?

EDIT: This seems to be sinking like a stone so alternatively, how many lines does Lt Uhura have in the classic Trek episode "The Doomsday Machine"?