Oolite Bulletins

ffutures wrote: ↑Sun Sep 01, 2024 8:03 pm

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!

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.

MrFlibble wrote: ↑Mon Sep 02, 2024 1:44 am

ffutures wrote: ↑Sun Sep 01, 2024 8:03 pm

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.

RockDoctor wrote: ↑Sun Jul 28, 2024 1:27 pm

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.

Commander_X wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2024 4:02 pm

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 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2024 4:33 pm

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

hiran wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2024 8:53 pm

RockDoctor wrote: ↑Sun Jul 28, 2024 1:27 pm

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 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2024 11:35 pm

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.

ffutures wrote: ↑Thu Sep 05, 2024 1:17 am

People CARE about what might have happened if Hitler was assassinated

RockDoctor wrote: ↑Sat Sep 07, 2024 9:36 pm

ffutures wrote: ↑Thu Sep 05, 2024 1:17 am

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.

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?