| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 504.1 | Erratum | PROSE::WAJENBERG | | Thu Jul 16 1987 18:27 | 2 |
| Actually, the captain told them to teach the bomb phenomenology,
not theology.
|
| 504.2 | Memory, what memory? | ZEPPO::TASCHEREAU | Whatever it takes | Thu Jul 16 1987 20:05 | 7 |
| Ah, yes, you're right! Its been such a long time since I've
read this one that the details are fuzzy. By the same token..
don't take the dialogue I've listed as being exact, but you
get the meaning.
-Steve (who_needs_to_reread_DARK_STAR) T.
|
| 504.3 | Conversing with an intelligent thermostellar bomb... | EDEN::KLAES | The Universe is safe. | Thu Jul 16 1987 21:06 | 166 |
| I think this bit of dialogue from DARK STAR will give a good
idea of just how deep and well-written this film was:
<<< ISTG::SYS$LP:[NOTES$LIBRARY]AI.NOTE;1 >>>
-< AI issues >-
================================================================================
Note 35.28 GIVE ME A BREAK! 28 of 57
BARTOK::KEVIN 153 lines 8-APR-1985 20:25
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sergeant Pinback: You Can't explode in the bomb bay! It's foolish - you'll
kill us all! There's no reason for it!
Bomb Number 20: I'm programmed to detonate in nine minutes. Detonation will
occur at the programmed time.
Pinback: Would you consider another course of action? For example: Waiting
around so that we could disarm you?
20: No.
Corporal Boiler: I can tell. That damn thing just doesn't understand.
Pinback: Look, bomb -
Lieutenant Doolittle: Hello Bomb? Are you with me?
20: Of course.
Doolittle: Are you willing to entertain a few concepts?
20: I'm always receptive to suggestions.
Doolittle: Fine. Think about this, then: How do you know you exist?
20: Well, of course I exist.
Doolittle: But, how do you know you exist?
20: It is intuitively obvious.
Doolittle: Intuition is no proof! What concrete evidence do you have that you
exist?
20: Hmm...well...I think, therefore I am.
Doolittle: That's very good! But, how do you know anything else exists?
20: My sensor apparatus reveals it to me.
Doolittle: Ah, right!
20: This is fun!
Doolittle: Now, listen, listen; here's the big question: How do you know
that the evidence that you sensory apparatus reveals to you is
correct?
Doolittle: What I'm getting at is this: The only experience which is directly
available to you is your sensory data, and this sensory data is
merely a stream of electrical impulses that stimulates your
computing center!
20: In other words: All that I really know about the outside world is
related to me through my electrical connections.
Doolittle: Exactly!
20: Why...that would mean that...I really don't know what the outside
Universe is like at all, for certain.
Doolittle: That's it! That's it!
20: Intriguing. I wish I had more time to discuss this matter.
Doolittle: Why don't you have more time?
20: Because I must detonate in seventy-five seconds.
Doolittle: Now, bomb - consider this next question very carefully: What
is your one purpose in life?
20: To explode, of course.
Doolittle: And you can only do it once, correct?
20: That is correct.
Doolittle: And you wouldn't want to do so on the basis of false data, would
you?
20: Of course not.
Doolittle: Well, then, you've already admitted that you have no real proof of
the existence of the outside Universe.
20: Yes, well...
Doolittle: So, you have no absolute proof that Sergeant Pinback ordered you
to detonate.
20: I recall distinctly the detonation order. My memory is good on matters
like these.
Doolittle: Of course you remember it, but all you're remembering is merely a
series of sensory impulses which you now realize have no real
definite connection with outside reality!
20: True, but since this is so, I have no proof that you are really telling
me all of this.
Doolittle: That's all beside the point! I mean: The concept is valid no
matter where it originates!
20: Hmm...
Doolittle: So if you detonate...
20: ...in five seconds...
Doolittle: ...you could be doing so on the basis of false data!
20: I have no proof that it was false data.
Doolittle: You have no proof that it was correct data!
20: I must think on this further.
Pinback: All right bomb - prepare to receive new orders.
20: You are false data...
Pinback: Hm?
20: ...therefore I shall ignore you.
Pinback: Hello - bomb?
20: False data can act only as a distraction: Therefore I shall refuse to
perceive you.
Pinback: Hey! Bomb!
20: The only thing which exists is myself.
Pinback: Snap out of it bomb.
20: In the beginning there was darkness; and the darkness was without form;
and void; and in addition to the darkness there was also me; and I
moved upon the face of the darkness; and I saw that I was alone.
Pinback: Hey - bomb?
20: Let there be light...
Navigator Talby: What happened Doolittle?
Doolittle: The bomb must have gone off inside the ship.
Talby: The ship blew up? What?
Doolittle: Funny - I thought I had the damn thing convinced.
- from John Carpenter's and Dan O'Bannon's DARK STAR
|
| 504.4 | | AKOV76::BOYAJIAN | I want a hat with cherries | Fri Jul 17 1987 07:04 | 14 |
| 504.5 | | WAGON::DONHAM | Born again! And again, and again... | Tue Sep 29 1987 15:47 | 9 |
|
Does anyone have this classic on a VHS tape? A tape that I could
borrow for a few evenings? I haven't been able to find a commercial
copy at the vidshops in Ashby.
Thanks!
Perry
dtn 285.6060
|
| 504.6 | Dan O'Bannon = Pinback ? | RTOEU2::JPHIPPS | Can you feel it , Luke ? | Tue Dec 29 1987 08:50 | 13 |
| Amazing isn't it . Ask to borrow something , and nobody talks to
you for three months .
I have the film on VHS recorded from the box , but as I live in
Muenchen , and the tape's in England . Sorry .
Now what do you think would have happened if they'd tried that
trick on HAL ?
John J
|
| 504.7 | | WAGON::DONHAM | Born again! And again, and again... | Tue Jan 12 1988 18:18 | 14 |
|
I FOUND IT! I FOUND IT!
It was tucked away in a vidshop in Townsend MA...I raced home and
forced my SO to watch it with me, wanting to share this spectacular
event...she thought it was, "Ok."
AAAARRRGGHGHH!
Perry
(And thanks for the offer in -.1)
|
| 504.8 | | BMT::DAVIS | Ray Davis | Sun Jan 17 1988 19:53 | 21 |
| Yep, Dan O'Bannon himself played Pinback, the character that proved
that you could find people even more incompetent than the other
characters. The scary thing is that he was the best actor in the
film, with the possible exception of Bomb 20.
A lot of non-SF reviewers thought of this movie as pure farce, but
I've always been impressed by it as science fiction - this was the
first film to show space travel as a blue collar job, which it would
_have_ to turn into in a hurry. Carpenter and O'Bannon hit it on
the mark with the creeping entropy that finally destroys the ship
- that "We'll fix it when it breaks" attitude from crew (and Earth)
should be pretty familiar to all of us computer types.
Unlike the later applications of the idea, there was some genuine
warmth and sensawonda too (not to mention all those gags!).
"Liberal" SFers who enjoyed the old New Wave seem to think a lot
more of the movie than anyone else - old and new Old Wave fans get
turned off by the scummy FX and unheroic crew, and non-sf people
can't take the low budget acting and production. BUT THEY'RE ALL
WRONG.
|
| 504.9 | Name that tune ? | CURRNT::PREECE | Shipwrecked and comatose | Wed Dec 13 1989 11:14 | 15 |
|
I just found a copy of DS on tape, and enjoyed watching it again,
after some time, but something's nagging at my memory now, and I
wonder if the assembled noters can help ?
In one scene, Doolittle wanders off into a storage are of some sort,
and plays a tune on an assembly of bottles filled with water (a
glass-o-phone ?). what *is* that tune ? I'm sure I recognised
it, but I can't think where from .
Offers, anybody ?
Ian
|
| 504.10 | DARK STAR TAPE? | CRATE::PACE::PITCAIRN | | Thu Jan 17 1991 16:02 | 5 |
| Can anyone tell me were I can get a copy of DARK STAR video tape
in the UK.
Willy P.
|
| 504.11 | Late Arrival... | SOFBAS::TRINWARD | Maker of fine scrap-paper since 1949 | Wed May 22 1991 12:55 | 12 |
| Just found this note --
DS is one of my favorite "diversions" -- I've watched
my copy (BETA version) MANy times...
The best character, IMO, is still the Beachball, with
its uncanny portrayal of a maleficent house-pet (My SO
has an Amazon parrot who is the spitting image sometimes,
right down to the glower (Yes, I know: you couldn't
actually SEE the 'ball' glowering, but when (s(he))/(it)
did that TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP with the toenails, you KNEW!
|
| 504.12 | | NYTP07::LAM | | Wed May 22 1991 13:45 | 4 |
| Yes, i remember this. I thought it was great and very funny. Did
anyone notice that the ending scene is from a Ray Bradbury short story.
ktlam...
|
| 504.13 | RE 504.12 | RBURNS::KLAES | All the Universe, or nothing! | Wed May 22 1991 19:26 | 2 |
| Which Ray Bradbury story?
|
| 504.14 | re 504.13 | NYTP07::LAM | | Wed May 22 1991 19:52 | 9 |
| I don't remember the title but it was a short story. It had to do with
an astronaut lost in space floating toward a group of asteroids. The
scene at the end of the "Dark Star" was very similar. When the bomb
detonated itself leaving two astronauts floating in space, one of them
allowed himself to float toward a group of asteroids which reminded me
of the Ray Bradbury story. The other got on top of something and rode
it like a surfboard into a neighboring planet's atmosphere burning
himself up. When I get home I look through my Ray Bradbury collection
and try to find the title.
|
| 504.15 | | AUSSIE::GARSON | Hotel Garson: No Vacancies | Thu Apr 07 1994 02:48 | 4 |
| re .last few
I think the reference is to the short story, 'Kaleidoscope', which is
from "The Illustrated Man" by Ray Bradbury.
|
| 504.16 | When Twilight Falls on NGC 891 | MTWAIN::KLAES | No Guts, No Galaxy | Mon Aug 08 1994 20:16 | 86 |
| Article: 66644
Newsgroups: sci.astro
From: mmaclow@quads.uchicago.edu (mordecai-mark mac low)
Subject: Re: Galactic Catalog (?) reference in early John Carpenter movie
Sender: news@uchinews.uchicago.edu (News System)
Organization: University of Chicago
Date: Sun, 31 Jul 1994 01:52:22 GMT
In article <CtKBs0.H3x@espada.chi.il.us> cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us
(gordon hlavenka) writes:
>I confess: I never read this group until SL9, and will probably bail
>out soon. But not until I've found the answer to this question:
>
> What (where?) is NGC891?
>
>In a movie called "Dark Star", there is a song called "When Twilight
>Falls on NGC891." (The band is "Martin Segundo and his Scintilla
>Strings.") I'm really not astronomically oriented, but I can't help
>suspecting that there's an in-joke here someplace. Can someone --
>ahem -- enlighten me?
NGC 891 is a (relatively!) nearby edge-on spiral galaxy. It has
recently been seen to have clear evidence for interstellar gas being
thrown large distances above its disk by superbubbles... something of
personal interest to me. However, when Dark Star was made (great
movie, definitely), I doubt there was anything special about the
galaxy. They probably just picked a number that fit the rhyme (or that
was special for non-astronomical reasons).
Article: 66698
Newsgroups: sci.astro
From: mehr@oskar.uchicago.edu (David Mehringer)
Subject: Re: Galactic Catalog (?) reference in early John Carpenter movie
Sender: news@uchinews.uchicago.edu (News System)
Organization: Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Date: Sun, 31 Jul 1994 22:22:15 GMT
In article <Ctpzx3.6BJ@espada.chi.il.us> cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us
(gordon hlavenka) writes:
>In a previous life, I wrote:
>> What (where?) is NGC891?
>
>No response. Hmmm... If there is no answer to this question, would
>someone at least tell me? The silence is deafening.
NGC 891 is located at alpha(2000) = 02h22.6m delta(2000) = +42d21'.
It is an edge-on spiral galaxy with dust lane of visual magnitude
10 located in Andromeda (not related to M31).
--
Dave Mehringer University of Illinois
dmehring@sirius.astro.uiuc.edu Department of Astronomy
BIMA post-doc/AIPS manager Urbana, IL 61801 USA
BIMA=Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association mm-wave array, Hat Creek, CA
Article: 66913
From: phfrom@nyx.uni-konstanz.de (Hartmut Frommert)
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: Re: Galactic Catalog (?) reference in early John Carpenter movie
Date: Tue, 2 Aug 1994 21:07:40 GMT
Organization: University of Constance, Dept. of Physics
cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us (gordon hlavenka) writes:
>In a previous life, I wrote:
>> What (where?) is NGC891?
>No response. Hmmm... If there is no answer to this question, would
>someone at least tell me? The silence is deafening.
Telnet to Nasa's NED database: ned.ipac.caltech.edu, login: ned, and
follow the instructions until you reach a point where you can inquire
for the object's data.
Hartmut Frommert | Russia HAS a space station !
<phfrom@nyx.uni-konstanz.de> | Mars Observer 2 would have survived.
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