Science Fiction Trivia

[ffutures]

OK, this is an odd one...

Maniac Mansion: Day of the Purple Tentacle (1993), a graphics comedy computer game involving time travel and an evil alien tentacle with a couple of teeny arms that wants to rule the world. Lot's of travelling backward and forward in time and changing history etc. The Tentacle, as depicted on the box cover, has three visible suction cups.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Tentacle
https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/mania ... e_tentacle

[RockDoctor]

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!
And now it looks like ffutures is trying for the Chalice again.

OK, this is an odd one...

Maniac Mansion: Day of the Purple Tentacle (1993), a graphics comedy computer game involving time travel and an evil alien tentacle with a couple of teeny arms that wants to rule the world.

Masochist!
Although it looks like one of the less-silly clown hats I've seen, it does indeed seem to be be-suckered. So it fits. And 4th place goes to ffutures - who I now declare, arbitrarily and without precedent, to be locked out of this round, pour encourager les autres. Though the Navy did have precedent for tuering that amiral.
Come on - there's at least one filmic tentacle-monster who has appeared on screen twice (at least), hanging around doing it's best impersonation of salty, low hanging suckable fruit.

[RockDoctor]

Come on - does nobody know the name of the book and film(s) in which this nameless one appeared.

[RockDoctor]

Come on - does nobody know the name of the book and film(s) in which this BROAD HINT >>> nameless one <<< BROAD HINT appeared.

[ffutures]

I suspect I do, but you don't want me to play!

[MrFlibble]

Not claiming anything... I just felt the need to share my totally on-topic pain.

Returning from the pub at exactly the wrong moment, I found myself subjected to the opening sequence of some dire bilge called "Alien Siege". A 2018 film, apparently with a lower budget than a John Pertwee episode of Dr. Who.

It rapidly became apparent that my unplanned extended diversion to the tavern was going cost me, in the form of tolerance.

I managed to avoid the first half hour by hiding in the kitchen to make an over-cheesy pizza, which helped balance the scales of justice and taste.



I wouldn't recommend it, but the pizza was alright.

[RockDoctor]

I suspect I do, but you don't want me to play!

Well, not getting three of the 5 places in contest like last time round (last-but-1? ). But you've done your time in purdah, so you can remove the ball gag, anti-typing boxing gloves and whatever of Anne Summers' "finest" which you've bedecked yourself with.

Perhaps a slightly less draconian throttle would be appropriate - for example, after winning a podium, you can't play again until someone else has ascended the podium. But that'll lead to "queuing" competition for the antepenultimate podium (I'm just watching the F1 Quali - and they've had problems with such unintended consequences too.

Whatever - pure purdah seems excessive.

[RockDoctor]

And MrFibble gets the fifth and final (or even, premium) position on the podium with his wobbly sets monstrosity :

Returning from the pub at exactly the wrong moment, I found myself subjected to the opening sequence of some dire bilge called "Alien Siege".

Due attention has been paid, to the claim of "not claiming anything". Your beloved subconscious has achieved it's end of hoisting the Poisoned Chalice overhead. Did we tell you that one of the toxins smeared on the handles is absorbed through the skin? Sorry - I thought the "Hazard" tape and 400-+ page long trail of bodies was sufficient warning.

Other runners and riders :
Disembodied on step 1 with Alan Moore's squid avocado molester
ffutures on step 2 with DC's less childish offering.
NiteOwl one step 3 for the Harryhausen-fest that was tearing down San Francisco on the telly a few weeks ago.
ffutures swiftly hopping to step 4 with "Day of the Purple Tentacle (1993)"
And finally MrFibble and his untrustworthy subconscious with "Alien bilge Seige" - which should also be a pop group.

Poisoned chalice, armoured gloves and broad-spectrum antibiotics. Safety goggles too - did we mention there was a spitting mamba in the Chalice's murky history?

For the record, the "nameless one" clue I was dropping was the encounter between Captain Nemo's ("nameless") Nautilus and a giant squid - which has featured on celluloid on several occasions, though I think it was a smaller scene in the book - just a few lines.
I also had a recent Red Dwarf binge, and one of their "monster of the week" episodes had a cameo role for the "Squid of Despair". What was the ace ffutures had up his sleeve?

[ffutures]

Nemo - two films, one of them recent, the original book, an appearance in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, etc..

[Nite Owl]

My thoughts turned to the schlock known as SHARKTOPUS as opposed to the classic Giant Squid of Nemo lore. Then again bad movies are considered a delicacy around here for their ability to invoke laughter dependent on how seriously they take themselves.

@Mr. Fibble
Invest in some very large industrial tongs to safely handle The Chalice. Do not worry too much about the Mamba. It will only strike if provoked, usually.

[RockDoctor]

Nemo - two films, one of them recent, the original book, an appearance in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, etc..

Low-hanging calamari - which sets a scene for either another low-budget horror movie, thrash-metal band, or both.

[ffutures]

Paging Mr. Fibble...

[MrFlibble]

Paging Mr. Fibble...

Tentacles and aliens.... The Untamed. Not a sci-fi as such. Not going to bother with a picture 'cos we've done that topic.

So bad they're good:

Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles, Braindead, The Frighteners.

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

Cockneys vs. Zombies.

What was the question? Ah.. that's the point!!!

I'll have to think about it for a while.

[MrFlibble]

Right. Here's my first stab at this.

Localised alien invasions.

I want five examples of alien invasions/incursions which are set on Earth, and limited to a village or town, with no or little knowledge outside that community during the invasion/incursion.

To make that a shade harder, I want one each for Book, Radio (series), TV (series), Film, Stage.

Book and Radio must not be commonly available in the other forms. Others may have been a book.

(Massive pre-emptive cop-out) I can't really count "The Rocky Horror Show", as it's an isolated property rather than a community/settlement, and that was the only stage one I could think of. So I am compelled to provisionally accept two from any ONE other category, but any such second answer will be knocked-out if a suitable answer for stage is presented before we reach the five.

[Commander_X]

<lowest hanging fruit>
Stargate SG1, season 6 episode 5, Nightwalkers.
The short description is that the small town of Steveston, Oregon, United States, is implanted with cloned Goa'uld, which turn out to still keep their "ancestral memories", and start driving their hosts to build a spaceship.