Ten Best Planets in Science Fiction

[injest]

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/sciencenotfiction/2008/08/15/10-best-science-fiction-planets/

how they could leave off Tattooine I do not know...

[Meryl]

Thanks for posting that, Jess.  The article and comments are a quick education in what's out there in popular science fiction.  I have a lot of reading to do! 

Looks like they did mention Tatooine, but they went for Dagobah as the one Star Wars choice. 

I have read numbers 3 and 8, the Ursula LeGuin and Kim Stanley Robinson books.  Both highly recommended! 

[injest]

Thanks for posting that, Jess.  The article and comments are a quick education in what's out there in popular science fiction.  I have a lot of reading to do! 

Looks like they did mention Tatooine, but they went for Dagobah as the one Star Wars choice. 

I have read numbers 3 and 8, the Ursula LeGuin and Kim Stanley Robinson books.  Both highly recommended! 

Dagobah was ok but to me Tatooine was so much more iconic..

[injest]

I havent read any of those. My thing is Sci fi SHORT stories. I love the skill it takes to write a complete, believable story in a few pages that captures my imagination and makes the world seem real to me..

[delalluvia]

Tattooine is right up with there with Courscant, IMO.  Dagobah can go suck a Sith.  You seen one swamp, you've seen 'em all.

In some of the comments people left, one or two jogged my memory - yes, how can they leave off the planet Vulcan?  Or Geidi Prime from Dune?  Or Krypton?

Heck, there are even planets no one has seen, but almost everyone has heard of in the Star Wars universe - Corellia (Han Solo was Corellian, remember?) and - well up until Ep III - Alderaan.

They guy who yelled "Barsoom" in the comments made me laugh.  Yes, I remember that place!

[Kd5000]

No Star Trek planets mentioned??    I'm a fan of the old series but I have not watched it in awhile.  Of course, on the old series a crewmember always seems to die on some new planet they are visiting or the main characters meet some type of hostile aliens.  Kirk usually gets a doomed love interest though.

[Meryl]

No Star Trek planets mentioned??    I'm a fan of the old series but I have not watched it in awhile.  Of course, on the old series a crewmember always seems to die on some new planet they are visiting or the main characters meet some type of hostile aliens.  Kirk usually gets a doomed love interest though.

I watched all those old Star Trek episodes many, many times in repeats, but it's hard to remember the actual planet names.  Unfortunately, because of a low budget and no CGI, most planets looked an awful lot like Earth or the inside of a studio. 

My brothers and I would always say "Uh-oh" when the guys in red shirts beamed town with the away team.  One or more was surely doomed! 

[Kd5000]

Usually one of the security dudes (they wore red), so he was expendable. Hey, at least he can put it on his resume.

Yeah, the planets in Star Trek were rather low budget constructs.  I kinda liked the one that seemed to inspire the movie WESTWORLD if you know the episode I mean.  Of course, it looks like California without all the people.

[Meryl]

Usually one of the security dudes (they wore red), so he was expendable. Hey, at least he can put it on his resume.

Yeah, the planets in Star Trek were rather low budget constructs.  I kinda liked the one that seemed to inspire the movie WESTWORLD if you know the episode I mean.  Of course, it looks like California without all the people.

Yes, I know the one you mean. 

Earth's history was mined so often, you began to wonder how we managed to have such a huge influence on the galaxy:  cowboys, gangsters, Greeks and Romans, hippies.  The writers had their work cut out for them figuring out all the angles.

Some of my favorite episodes involved Vulcan, one of their more original concepts.  I wish we'd been allowed to see the homeworlds of the Klingons and Andorreans, too.  Later TV series (or was it movies?) did set some scenes on Romulus.

[injest]

Usually one of the security dudes (they wore red), so he was expendable. Hey, at least he can put it on his resume.

Yeah, the planets in Star Trek were rather low budget constructs.  I kinda liked the one that seemed to inspire the movie WESTWORLD if you know the episode I mean.  Of course, it looks like California without all the people.

what was that movie that had the cast of a sci fi show get kidnapped to defend some aliens? Galaxyquest? there was an African American in a red shirt and he was so upset because "Are you kidding? I am Black, I have on a red shirt, there is NO WAY I am gonna survive this!!!"

 

only a Trekkie would snort their Coke outta their nose at that one...

[delalluvia]

what was that movie that had the cast of a sci fi show get kidnapped to defend some aliens? Galaxyquest? there was an African American in a red shirt and he was so upset because "Are you kidding? I am Black, I have on a red shirt, there is NO WAY I am gonna survive this!!!"

 

only a Trekkie would snort their Coke outta their nose at that one...

That must have been a Saturday Night Live skit.   

No, a white actor Sam Rockwell named "Guy" was in GalaxyQuest.  He was a redshirt and Guy spent the entire movie terrified he was going to get killed at any minute.  If that wasn't funny enough, the rest of the characters expected him to as well.      

Guy Fleegman: I'm not even supposed to be here. I'm just "Crewman Number Six." I'm expendable. I'm the guy in the episode who dies to prove how serious the situation is. I've gotta get outta here.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I see Kolob didn't make the list.   

From Wikipedia:

Kolob in popular culture

Some of the elements of the two Battlestar Galactica science-fiction television shows seem to be derived from the Mormon beliefs of its creator and chief producer, Glen A. Larson. In both the original series from 1978, and the 2003 new series, the planet Kobol is the ancient and distant mother world of the entire human race and the planet where life began, and the "Lords of Kobol" are sacred figures to the human race. They are treated as elders or patriarchs in the old series, and versions of the Twelve Olympians in the new series. According to Jana Reiss, author of What Would Buffy Do? [5] "Kobol" as an anagram of "Kolob" is only one of many plot points Larson has borrowed from Mormonism.

[Meryl]

That's interesting to know, Jeff.  I had no idea BSG had Mormon roots. 

[Kd5000]

Is Commander Adama Brigham Young leading a group of followers to a find a new Eden?   I knew there is some Scientology influence in Hollywood, less aware of Mormon influences.

[Jeff Wrangler]

That's interesting to know, Jeff.  I had no idea BSG had Mormon roots. 

I didn't, either, until I looked up "Kolob."

I was just trying to make a questionably tasteful joke and it turned out to be sort-of germane to the discussion anyway!