ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Butch commented earlier on the greenish tint of the photo of the altered version of Gort shown below.





So, I took a crack at fixing the problem.





Here's side-by-side comparison.





I was surprised to see just how green the photo was when I altered the color.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[tmlindsey]

Yeah, this movie was a stinker in almost every aspect. I re-watched it the other night and it still stinks just as bad as when it got dumped out of the creative dumpster that is Hollywood. Had to re-watch the original to get the smell of it out of my nostrils.
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"Have you never wondered what it would be like to walk between the ticks and tocks of Time?"

[Bud Brewster]

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Right! They even screwed up Gort. It was a bland design, cheaply down with simple CGI, and way too big (for no apparent reason).

Hell's bells, I made a better design than they did just by altering an existing graphic art version using Paint.net. I like it better than the original Gort!



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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[tmlindsey]

That's far superior to what they used!
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"Have you never wondered what it would be like to walk between the ticks and tocks of Time?"

[Bud Brewster]

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After I posted the image of my redesigned Gort —

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— I decided to add him to the publicity shot shown above for comparisons sake. So, I replaced the single image of Gort II with the modified photo.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[tmlindsey]

I think they might have done better if they approached this movie as a sequel rather than a remake/reboot/regurgitation.

Klaatu's people send a second emissary with a final warning to Earth since they didn't heed Klaatu's warning in 1951 (and covered it all up).

New alien, updated Gort, new human characters and they could still have the same ending of the nano-induced destruction of our tech (and evacuation of the animals just in case they change their minds).

I would have liked if they tried to get Billy Grey as an older Bobby Benson since the actor is still alive. Maybe he could have played the professor character, having been inspired by Klaatu and Prof. Barnhardt, to do better for mankind.
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"Have you never wondered what it would be like to walk between the ticks and tocks of Time?"

[Gord Green]

The main point of the original story is totaly lost in both versions. In FAREWELL TO THE MASTER it was Gort who was in charge, Klaatu was the "spokesman" or "herald" subservient to the sentient AI that was Gort.

Much like the Galactus / Silver Surfer relationship in reverse!
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There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Bud Brewster]

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Those are stellar ideas, Tim! No, by God — they're interstellar!

Twenty years ago I posted a long description of my idea for remake on the science fiction forum of the IMDB message boards.

It went like this.
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A message is received by radio in multiple languages all over the Earth, stating that an envoy of extraterrestrial beings will soon land in Washington D.C. on a peaceful diplomatic mission. The message includes the location where the alien diplomats will land.

Five gleaming, futuristic spaceships cruise over Washington and land on the National Mall, the long grass-covered area which stretches from the Washington Monument to the Capitol Building (which is a perfect "runway" for spaceships if ever I saw one!)


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The National Guard has quickly mobilized, and they hastily deploy along the perimeter of the Mall while they nervously wait for orders.

Meanwhile, the President is urged by his advisors to act cautiously, since this is obviously a historic event; mankind's first contact with aliens.

The alien ships sit silently and wait until the military has ceased most of their activities, positioning themselves along the perimeter, among the dense trees. Then a thunderous voice erupts from all the ships at once.

"We come to visit you in peace, and with good will."

Moments later, all the ships open up, and a group of tall, dignified humanoid aliens emerge from each of the five ships. They wait patiently beneath the spacecraft, apparently leaving the next move to the humans.

Inside the Capital building, the politicians frantically wrangle over who should go out to greet the aliens, thus insuring themselves a place in history (not to mention becoming a shoe-in for future re-elections 'till the day they die of old age.)

However, the soldiers are still keeping their weapons trained on the aliens . . . and this hostile behavior is being observed from inside the spacecraft. When more and more examples of weapons being loaded and troops getting into firing positions, the entities who observe this behavior reach a decision and "act automatically against the aggressors" (as Klaatu described it).

Suddenly each ship rapidly lowers a metal platform to the ground on invisible beams of energy. Atop each platform is a formidable ten-foot robot.

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What happens next is a slam-bang, fast-past FX-loaded version of what Gort did in the 1951 classic — but on a much bigger scale, with all five of the robots rapidly vaporizing the weapons around the perimeter on both sides of National Mall!

But they aren't quite able to destroy every weapon in time to prevent a few soldiers from opening fire . . . with tragic results.
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Want to learn what happens?

I hope so — but first, add your own speculations. I'll continue the story tomorrow.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

[Bud Brewster]

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Gentlemen, I submit that since Klaatu stated he traveled 250 million miles to reach Earth, it proves that the planet he came from is . . . Mars.

Space.com has this to say on the subject.
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Mars and Earth are farthest apart when they are both at aphelion and on opposite sides of the sun. Here, they can be 250 million miles (401 million km) apart.
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So, when Klaatu says, "We of the other planets have long accept this principle", he's not talking about planets in other star systems — he means other inhabited planets in our solar system!

How can that be?

I came up with an interesting theory on that subject in a post called The Day the Earth Stood Still - Let's Create a Remake. Consider the following statements

We think Mars looks like this —





— because for decades the highly advanced Martians have been secretly substituting all the telemetry we get from our space telescopes and probes, replacing them with images like the one above.

We've been fooled by this deception because until recently the best images we could get were like the one below from our Earth-based telescopes — and frankly, these images suck.





However, THIS is what Mars really looks like — a fully terraformed world with an oxygen-rich atmosphere and plenty of water.





Meanwhile, another alien advanced civilization exists on Venus, hidden beneath the white veil. It that opaque atmosphere (which we can see with telescopes) were not there, this is what Venus would look like.




In addition to Mars and Venus, two other advanced civilizations created by aquatic beings exist in the oceans beneath the icy surfaces of both Europa and Titan, the largest moons of Jupiter and Saturn.







The fact that Klaatu's "other worlds" are inhabited by vastly different life forms means they might indeed need a totally objective "peace-keeping force". The "Gort police" would be fully programmed to understand the vast cultural differences between the four alien civilizations.

As such, they would be able to analyze a conflict between two groups (either two groups composed of different aliens, or two groups of the same species), and the robots could determine if one-or-both should be punished.

Gentlemen, I ask you this.

If I can come up with an idea this good, how come those dimwits in Hollywood thought the 2008 version of The Day the Earth Stood Still was a worthwhile premise? .
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

[tmlindsey]

I would imagine none, Bruce, since it was a financial success.

Budget $80 million
Box office $233.1 million

Which boggles the mind.
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"Have you never wondered what it would be like to walk between the ticks and tocks of Time?"