A Little Sci-Fi Now and Then

I received 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010: The Year We Make Contact on Blu-Ray for Christmas. A week or so ago I made my inaugural viewing of 2010 and I have to say that I enjoy it more now than I did the last time I saw it which was back in the days when VHS ruled the home theatre land.

One thing very noticeable was how grainy the non-SFX shots were in contrast to the SFX ones. The shots of the space ships and Jupiter were absolutely gorgeous. But those of the crew inside the ships were really rough looking. I found a handy site which explained why this is:

Unlike its predecessor, the majority of '2010' wasn't shot on 65mm film, just regular 35mm. Further, director Peter Hyams performs double-duty as cinematographer on all of his movies. His preferred visual style is dark and grainy. He favors source lighting and high-speed film stocks. You'll find a consistently drab appearance among most of his pictures ('Timecop', 'The Relic', 'End of Days', et al.).



The special effects footage (which was shot on 65mm by an entirely different crew than the live action scenes) looks terrific. The model shots are as sharp, clear, and well-lit as you could hope.



Watching the movie again after many years I noticed a lot of things. Some aspects have dated rather poorly such as that the Cold War is still ongoing in the story. In addition, some of the music sounds like what it is – a product of its time. Luckily, not all of it suffers. The real menacing sounds played as the ships approach Jupiter and when the black spot on the planet appears hold up pretty well 25 years on. But what struck me the most was Hyams' shot lengths which, by today's standards, are of Wellesian duration. Plus his framing minimized the need for shot-reverse-shot as he often put his interlocutors in the frame at the same time. A good example is at the opening when Floyd is talking to Moisevitch at the radio antenna. There is a long shot that shows the entire antenna which dwarfs the characters. Floyd and Moisevitch are these specks onscreen yet Hyams lets the scene go on for some time before cutting.

Another thing which hasn't improved over time is Roy Scheider. Nothing against the guy but I've just never been able to completely warm up to him in his role here as Heywood Floyd. It's not like I watched it pining for William Sylvester to return, but there's just something…something too old school Hollywood about him, if that makes any sense.

Lastly, I want to point out that Helen Mirren is a total fox in 2010 as Tanya Kirbuk. I wish some freak accident involving a faulty kannuter valve and a hatch had been put into the script which caused depressurization resulting in tovarich Kirbuk's space suit and all her clothing getting ripped off. How could Arthur C. Clarke be against that?

A day or so after watching the movie, I finished reading Polkabilly by UW Prof. James Leary and was left to decide what to read next. Being in a sci-fi mood, I chose to buy and re-read James P. Hogan's Inherit the Stars.



Honestly, I had a flashback to 1994-95 when I spent a year reading more classic sci-fi than is perhaps safe. If memory serves, I began by ODing on Isaac Asimov by reading his Foundation series. And I don't mean just the first three books he wrote in the 1950s – I mean I read those and then the sequels from the 1980s. You'd think that the Foundation series proper would have satiated my sci-fi desires, but no. My exercise in masochism was only beginning. I then plowed through god-awful prequels, the last of which was published in 1993. As I scanned the pages, I was furious inside. "No! All these chases and a love interest – you're ruining Hari Seldon!" OK, maybe not a love interest but doesn't he kiss Dors or another woman at some point?

I figured Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous With Rama would be a good follow-up. And it was. I adore the book and I also highly recommend the BBC Radio dramatization of it. Some truly great listening. But again, I was not content with the original classic from back in the day. Nope. Instead of having learned my lesson, I read the three "sequels" which were really written by Gentry Lee and rubber stamped by Clarke. I cannot tell you what a relief it was to finally turn the last page of Rama Revealed and to be done with them.

At this point, I decided that I just couldn't handle another series and needed to read a stand-alone novel. A friend told me to check out Walter M. Miller's A Canticle For Leibowitz and so I did. I loved it. It had Latin in it and I'd had many a Latin course so I was able to put my skills to work.

This brief sojourn didn't last long as I next began Dune. Luckily for me, I read 100 pages before deciding I just couldn't take any more. This spared me the pain of an agonizing six book read and any temptation to delve into the countless books that have followed written by Frank Herbert's son. Today I am a different reader and would at least finish Dune but not go any further. I don't think I've even cracked the spine of a Herbert book since this time.

Having dodged the Dune bullet, my memory tells me that I then proceeded to read something by Harry Turtledove. Why I did so I can only speculate. My best guess is that this was because I had read and loved Philip K. Dick's alternate history novel The Man in the High Castle and thought it'd be a good idea to try something else in this vein. And, when it comes to alternate histories, Turtledove is at the top of the list. Now I am unable to recall which book of his I devoured so I assume that it was an amusing though not particularly memorable read.

Then I somehow found Hogan's Giant series, which has grown to five books since my little reading escapade. I'm still in the middle of the first book and am having a blast. The year is 2028 or thereabouts and a 50,000 year old corpse of a creature, given the name Charlie, that is for all intents and purposes human is found well-preserved inside a space suit on the Moon. Where did this first cousin of ours come from? How did he get to the Moon? How did he meet his demise?

The hero is Victor Hunt who is loaned to the United Nations Space Arm by his employer to lend a hand in poking and prodding Charlie's corpse and effects to try and answer the questions above. It's what I call a hard sci-fi procedural. Hunt hasn't fallen in love with anyone and the story is preoccupied with scientific minutiae such as examining cranial structure, trying to decode numerical sequences, and attempting to determine Charlie's sleep cycles by looking at toxins in his blood. While there are probably a million books like this, the closest analogy in style is Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain. Things unfold slowly as data emerge and are studied.

Perhaps not the most thrilling way to tell a story but I dig witnessing an intriguing enigma slowly become untangled and, eventually, solved.

It's rather funny because, after this burst of sci-fi reading in the mid-1990s, I have generally avoided the genre. Not completely, but I don't read anywhere near as much sci-fi these days and am completely out of the loop.

So what am I missing? I have read or tried to read a goodly cross-section of the classics from the 1950s-70s. I suppose I should get my butt in gear and read Neuromancer, thereby knocking down an 80s classic. But what is happening now in the 21st century? Any recommendations? And no one had better say the 83rd Dune novel or the latest installment of the Rama series penned by Arthur C. Clarke's friend's grandson.