Science Fiction Trivia

[Norby]

The series is Stargate SG-1 and the ship is the Daedalus

Stargate indeed, but Daedalus is not the first appearing capital ship. Here is another shot:

[Malacandra]

Found it! It's the Prometheus.

[Norby]

Exactly! You won the chance to make the next question.

[Malacandra]

Okay then, take your pick of either of the following questions:

1) In the amazingly good space adventure novel Claymore Mine, by an author who has been mentioned favourably in the same breath as Robert Heinlein and E. E. "Doc" Smith, what is unusual about the battle between The Black Bear, on the one side, and Erebus, Terror, and Thunder Child, on the other.

or

2) At least two actresses have played three different roles in the Star Trek franchise. Name one and their roles. (On-screen appearances please; voice FX don't count.)

[ffutures]

9 billion / 42 * 7 * 6 = 9 billion …

Have a good Worldcon!

Absolutely right, and I did!

I don't have a clue about either of the new questions though!

[Cody]

... an author who has been mentioned favourably in the same breath as Robert Heinlein and E. E. "Doc" Smith

An up-and-coming author, by all accounts. <sniggers>


Erebus and Terror sank in the ice, whereas Thunder Child melted. <grins> Other than that, I don't have a clue about the questions either.

[Malacandra]

I'll give you a Trek clue then: For both actresses, one of their roles involved being based in Sickbay. Also, for both actresses the roles were in the Original Series and TNG.

As to the other one, you'll just have to buy the book.

[Disembodied]

Majel Barrett-Roddenberry (née Majel Leigh Hudec) played the unnamed first officer in the original series pilot "The Cage"; she then went on to play Nurse Chapel in Star Trek, and Diana Troi's mother Lwaxana Troi in Star Trek: TNG.

[Malacandra]

Majel Barrett-Roddenberry (née Majel Leigh Hudec) played the unnamed first officer in the original series pilot "The Cage"; she then went on to play Nurse Chapel in Star Trek, and Diana Troi's mother Lwaxana Troi in Star Trek: TNG.

Right on all counts. Another answer was Diana Muldaur, who played astrobiologist Lt-Cmdr Mulhall (and host to the spirit of the alien woman Thalassa) in "Return to Tomorrrow" and Dr Miranda Jones in "Is There In Truth No Beauty?", both episodes of the original series, and Dr Kate Pulaski in the second season of TNG (while, rather rudely, never being credited as a main character even while it was uncertain Gates McFadden would ever return as Dr Crusher).

The nipper is all yours!

As to the other question, The Black Bear is, of course, Marilee's Claymore which she acquired in Sidewinder Precision Pro, but gur bgure guerr irffryf ner nyy fgrnzfuvcf. Anghenyyl Guhaqre Puvyq ohlf gur snez fnivat gur bgure gjb. There are conventions you have to observe.

[Disembodied]

OK, another list: name three intelligent weapons, from any science-fictional sources. By "intelligent" I mean endowed with a personality, and by "weapon" I mean something with that one specific purpose (so, for example, although the Rapid Offensive Unit Killing Time - a Culture warship from Iain M. Banks's Excession - is definitely intelligent, with an enormous capacity for destruction, it's a multi-fuction ship, not a specific weapon).

[Cody]

Tough one! Would Bomb #20 be classed as an intelligent weapon?

[Disembodied]

Tough one! Would Bomb #20 be classed as an intelligent weapon?

Yes, absolutely … its grasp of phenomenology might have been a bit shaky but it was definitely intelligent!

It is quite tricky, I admit: I have managed to think of a few (including Bomb #20) but some are rather obscure. I could add that a weapon can be intelligent and endowed with a personality, and still not actually talk …

[Cody]

My grasp of phenomenology is a bit shaky - but I'm classed as uneducated, so that may be why!

[Disembodied]

This pretty much covers it:

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

[Disembodied]

Maybe time for a clue to one possible answer: this hugely powerful, hand-held, non-speaking weapon is widely assumed to be intelligent, partly because of the sometimes whimsical way it operates.