Science Fiction Trivia

[Cody]

Don't you just love that Chris Foss artwork.

Quite correct... your turn, Disembodied.

[Disembodied]

Right, something more trivial ... in the episode of Firefly, where the ship's drive malfunctions and the crew have to abandon ship, leaving Mal behind, what's the name of the specific part of the engine that breaks?

[CheeseRedux]

Wild stab in the dark: Isn't someone here on the board flitting around in a C3 called "Rolling Thunder" "Clear Air Turbulence"? And isn't that and album as well? By... Jefferson Starship Ian Gillan Band??

[Disembodied]

Wild stab in the dark: Isn't someone here on the board flitting around in a C3 called "Rolling Thunder" "Clear Air Turbulence"? And isn't that and album as well? By... Jefferson Starship Ian Gillan Band??

Minitrue strikes again!

[Cody]

Unlucky CR… when I changed ship to a Griff multi-decal Cobra III (Rolling Thunder), I dropped the CAT into a sun and watched it blow from the escape capsule… a fitting end.

[CheeseRedux]

Minitrue strikes again!

I was hoping that leaving the an/and typo in there would make it slide under the radar...

[Cody]

Right, something more trivial ... in the episode of Firefly, where the ship's drive malfunctions and the crew have to abandon ship, leaving Mal behind, what's the name of the specific part of the engine that breaks?

I’ve never seen Firefly, so I’ll have to invent something: the plasma containment flask?

[Thargoid]

I think it was the catalyser, or something like that?

[Disembodied]

I’ve never seen Firefly, so I’ll have to invent something: the plasma containment flask?

Nope ... and by the way, if you've never seen it, I strongly recommend getting the DVDs. I got the set a couple of weeks ago (I'd never seen it either) – £14 or thereabouts for all 14 episodes ever made. I'm having to ration out the last few because I don't want it to be over. It's really, really good. Strikingly good, in fact. OK, a lot of it is (consciously) the Wild West in space, but it's so well done: a brilliant little piece of smart, witty, downbeat SF adventure, sharp and funny and unlike anything else. It's a crying shame that it got canned so early on while dreck like Star Trek: Voyager and even *choke* Andromeda got to drag their sorry carcasses all over the schedules for years on end.

Anyhoo, a clue: the episode in question is the well-named "Out of Gas" ...

[Disembodied]

I think it was the catalyser, or something like that?

... and just as I'm posting a clue, Thargoid nails it! It was indeed the catalyser: as we all know, it's a key component of the compression coil.

[Commander McLane]

as we all know...

except, of course, all of us who don't

[Thargoid]

If you like Firefly, you also mustn't forget the movie spin-off Serenity.

Anyway next question - title and author please.

First clue - a 1982 doorstep of a best seller book which spawned a (rather dire) movie version in 2000.

[Disembodied]

If you like Firefly, you also mustn't forget the movie spin-off Serenity.

Anyway next question - title and author please.

First clue - a 1982 doorstep of a best seller book which spawned a (rather dire) movie version in 2000.

I've seen (and enjoyed) Serenity – definitely worth watching as well as the series.

A guess at your question, thinking about dire movies of decent books: Contact, by Carl Sagan?

[CheeseRedux]

It's not Travolta, is it?

(As in Battlefield Earth, Hubbard)

[Thargoid]

Nope for Disembodied, but the returning cheese takes it on the first clue.

It is indeed Battlefield Earth, by L Ron Hubbard (the only question I could easily pose, as I'm away from home and said book is sat beside me just finished).

Over to you