OT: Sci-Fi Founders

luke_slovakian · #1 February 17th, 2005, 01:52 PM

COme on you guys you aren't old. I have to wake up and say damn i'm fifteen and i need surgery:-d

Azselendor · #2 February 17th, 2005, 02:17 PM

If I recall right, Star Trek was supposed to the Western in Space, IE: Wagon Train to the Stars

And StarWars was supposed to be like an Epic/Pirate/Fantasy Movie in Space.

But if you review the original concepts of the series, you'll see how the series started totalyl different.

Spock, for example, was supposed to be red and ate stuff via a metal plate in his stomach. The Klingons were supposed to be something totally different and non-humanoid race named "Trox" or something like that. And the Enterprise's missions (Yorktown originally) were supposed to travel to parellel earths. The concept was actually pretty clever since it would have made use of every existing set at the time in hollywood and require only a handful of new sets.

The concept survived in partial form into the proudction of star trek, but later served as a foundation for series like the Time Tunnel and Sliders.

Star Wars, in the original script, involved a General Luke Skywalker trying to get the brains of some scientists to clone bodies and away from the clutches of imperial capital, It started with a G, I can't remember it fully, but it reminded me of a gastro-intestinal disorder.

But to further cement WildCard's comment with something I heard at the Sci-Fi/Fantasy Writer's Guild

Nothing ever created is original. when you think you're original, then someone else already done it a hundred times before you.

RudyHuxtable · #3 February 17th, 2005, 02:54 PM

I don't want to be a party pooper but I do think the Dune/Star Wars comparison is wrong. Dune is written very much as an allegory to the problems and cultures of the current middle east. The spice is characterized by oil (which really does rule the known universe), and the Emperor is basically the British Empire, since at the time they still had a great command of the region. The Fremen are sometimes compared to the Bedouins, but it is more likely Arabs in general were the basis for the Fremen. Once the first book was written, he eschewed the original tenor a bit and made the series stranger and stranger, but nevertheless his initial inspiration was the effects of oil on the international community.

Star Wars was made with the old west in mind, and he included magic to help build his myth, since so much of our past includes tales of miracles and other "magic" occurrences.

I'll go with you on Forbidden Planet, though.

Captain Kwok · #4 February 17th, 2005, 02:58 PM

Jules Verne was certainly one of the earliest Sci-Fi pioneers.

Thermodyne · #5 February 17th, 2005, 07:17 PM

For those who have yet to read the Foundation series, do so ASAP.

For thoes who have read them, ever get the feeling that Lucas read them too.

geoschmo · #6 February 17th, 2005, 07:43 PM

I'm not sure I see any reseblance between The Forbidden Planet and Star Trek other than they are both sci-fi and both had similer visual styles. (At least if you are talking about TOS, which I assume you are.) There's not much connection in the story. Forbidden planet is also not an original story. It's a sci-fi telling of Shakespears "The Tempest". Of course Shakespear probably stole it from some Italian folk tale or something.

Here's a website that shows the connection between the two stories. LINK

Atrocities · #7 February 17th, 2005, 09:54 PM

Quote:

geoschmo said:
I'm not sure I see any reseblance between The Forbidden Planet and Star Trek other than they are both sci-fi and both had similer visual styles. (At least if you are talking about TOS, which I assume you are.) There's not much connection in the story. Forbidden planet is also not an original story. It's a sci-fi telling of Shakespears "The Tempest". Of course Shakespear probably stole it from some Italian folk tale or something.

Here's a website that shows the connection between the two stories. LINK

There are so many simularities that I could scaresly post them all.

Watch it again and think Star Trek as you watch it. Things like the viewing plat, "speeds many times faster than the speed of light," 1701, Engineer, the primary three actors, a Doctor, a Captian, and his first officer.

The Captain getting the girl, laser guns, or as Robby said, "A simple blaster." The uniformes, albeit not red or gold do set a presidence. They use a rector, wireless communications, even a small tri-corder device.

The ship is a saucer shape, as is the primary hull of the Enterprise. THey have a United Planets compared to the United "federation" of planets. Yes indeed Star Trek has many of the characterstics that Forbidden planet had.

There is nothing wrong with this, I am not complaining or trying to make an issue, I am simply making the comparisson and saying hey this is kinda cool.

rdouglass · #8 February 18th, 2005, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Thermodyne said:
For those who have yet to read the Foundation series, do so ASAP.

For thoes who have read them, ever get the feeling that Lucas read them too.

I agree completely. Also, I don't think that any movie maker that has ever read a good sci-fi book or series was NOT influenced somehow by those books.

If they never read anything than maybe it was original.

narf poit chez BOOM · #9 February 19th, 2005, 03:23 AM

So long as it's interesting and not a rip-off, I don't particularly care.

kerensky · #10 February 19th, 2005, 10:27 PM

Quote:

Thermodyne said:
For those who have yet to read the Foundation series, do so ASAP.

For thoes who have read them, ever get the feeling that Lucas read them too.

HA! You noticed this too!!! I think that most of the sci-fi stuff today is made up of stuff borowed from the early pioneers such as Verne and Asimov.