ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Here's three posts I think are worthy of replies But if you should happen to disagree . . . just add a reply and say so!

(Hey, I'm must messin' with ya, guys! I know I'm a tough act to follow.)
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Doorways (1993)

Thanks, Pow! This unsold pilot sounds cool!

YouTube has a video of the movie, but it's one of those versions with the picture darkened way down, with a slightly brighter spot in the middle.

But they do have a short video of the opening scenes with a good picture (even though it's stretched horizontally to fill the screen, dammit . . . ), so at least we can enjoy the well-done promo from the beginning of the movie.
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____________ George R R Martin's DOORWAYS


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Listen carefully to what the narrator says about the alternate universes.
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Perhaps this is not the only world. Perhaps for every world where the coin came up heads, there's another where it came up tails.

~ A world where Hitler won the second world war.

~ A world where Indian "Columbus" discover Europe in three tiny sailing ships.

~ A world where John Kennedy assassinated President Lee Harvey Oswald.

~ A world where Elvis is still sing . . . and Marilyn lived on to win a dozen Oscars!

~ A world where dinosaurs still rule the earth, and a world where magic works — and physic's won't!

~ A world where the Dodgers never left Brooklyn.

Worlds upon worlds, universe upon universe, lying as near to each other as pages in a book, yet each different, each telling its own story. An infinite number of worlds, all dimly dreaming of one another.

And between them . . . perhaps there are . . . Doorways!
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Some of the ideas are very different from the standard Sliders concepts, like an Earth where Germany got the atomic bomb first. I mean, who'd have ever thought to suggest a world that reversed the roles of Kennedy and Oswald, or the Native Americans and the crews of Columbus' ships!

Such concepts don't just suggest a small change in History which would lead to large consequences, like the German A-bomb. With differences like these we'd have to consider changes that went far back into history.

The dinosaur world idea, for example, would mean the asteroid missed Earth, and evolution ended up causing multiple sentient species on Earth . . . some of which are reptilian!

The Kennedy / Oswald concept would mean a drastically different history for both the entire Kennedy family and Oswald's ancestors, before we even got to the point where John shoots Lee, instead of vice shooting versa!

My favorite idea is the one about the Native Americans discovering Europe. That one means the Indians developed a more advanced civilization than the one which occurred on this Earth. They actually became a sea-going culture who traveled by ships back and forth between the East and West coasts of North and South America.

But wait, the Aztecs and the Incas might well have done that eventually if the Spaniards hadn't destroyed them after they arrived in search of gold!

But what if those early American cultures had developed large sailing ships and begun to trade, cooperate, and advance long before the Spanish arrived? In that universe, they might have sent an expedition to the east well before Columbus set out towards the west!

With fleets of ships like those that were common in Europe during the Age of Discovery, starting in the 15th century —



— the united Native American cultures would have flourished along the expansize coastlines of both North and South America. Rather than battling with each other (which they frequently did), a robust trade would have made peace more profitable. The diverse cultures would have mixed and "standardized" to some degree, easing cultural conflicts.

Communications between the regions would have occurred more rapidly, making localized governments easier to manage.

So, where am I going with this?

If the Native America cultures were united, prosperous, and as technologically advanced as the Europeans before Columbus discovered the New World, history would be VERY different if they discovered Europe — instead of the other way 'round.

In that universe, the Native American's would be much less superstitious and easily deceived by the greedy Europeans. A hundred-plus years of travel, trade, and cultural exchange throughout the two American continents would have prepared them just as well as the Europeans for the culture shock which resulted.

And the Native Americans would have plenty of resources to trade with the Europeans . . . including an abundance of something highly valued in Europe.

Gold!

Yes, indeed, I can imagine a very different world history if the Native American's had developed a thriving sea-going civilization before the Europeans even showed up.

Interesting idea, eh? ]
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Son of Flubber (1962)

After reading Andrew Bogdan's review above I got the distinct impression that he either got bored with this movie and didn't finish watching it, or he wrote the review a few decades after seeing it and didn't remember the rousing second half of the movie!

His concluding sentence —

As far as Brainard's invention, he decides to adjust its properties to create his own rain clouds — for whatever reason, his objective now is to control the weather.

— completely ignores the fact that Fred McMurray's new ray projector (a) created rain clouds in minutes flat, (b]) broke all the glass in town whenever he used it, and (c) caused vegetable crops located below the rain clouds to grow to enormous proportions, creating a miraculous method which could end world hunger!

Oh, wait! And then there's the hysterical high school football game which included players who used a kind of super-helium the professor's invention creates to inflate a rubber suit one of the boys wore under his football uniform, making him so light the quarterback could actually throw him AND the football in a pass which caused Medfield to win the Big Game!

Folks, this was the brilliant follow-up to the legendary basketball game featured in The Absent-Minded Professor — and creating something which matched that was pure genius!

In short, the sequel to the first movie was every bit as entertaining as the original — a feat seldom achieved by sequels back in those days!
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Looper (2012)

I watched this movie again recently and loved it just as much as I did the first time.

I did, however, have to read an interview with Rian Johnson to explain why we see the character referred to in all the articles as "Young Joe" actually succeed in killing "Old Joe" after we'd already seen him fail because Bruce Willis turned his back and let the gold bars protect him from the gun.

The reason surprised me. Here's what it says at a site called Film about the old "second scene" in which Young Joe blasted Old Joe when the event seems to repeat itself with a different outcome.
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The first time Old Joe pops back to the present, he escapes. Later we see him die in the same place. Which happens first and why the deception?

The first time we see Old Joe and he escapes is actually the second time he appears in the straight story.

According to Johnson . . . the straight line of narrative is that Joe becomes a looper, closes his loop by killing Old Joe (this is the second time we see the scene in the field), goes to China, meets his wife, then gets sent back without the hood and escapes, setting off the rest of the movie, which is the first and third time we see him.
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The reference to the the first and third time we see him means that we see the first event two times in the movie — the second of which is viewed from a distance, showing Bruce Willis throw the gold bar and knock out Joseph Gordon-Levitt, after which he drives off in the truck.

Brian Johnson explains why he made this confusing editing choice in the interview at the link above. Read it and see what you think.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)