Sci Fi Log #11: It's Not Just A Screwdriver

For this blog, I’ll be talking about a scientific object from Doctor Who, called the sonic screwdriver. The sonic screwdriver is a tool used mainly by The Doctor. It’s most common use is as a lockpick, but it can also do many other things such as a remote control for other devices, performing medical operations, tracking alien presences/life forms, open any type of lock or door (unless it’s made of wood), and a couple of other functions.

The 10th Doctor (played by David Tennant) and his sonic
screwdriver.

Like The Doctor’s TARDIS (his spaceship), the object has become a major icon of the show. There are also other items in the show that function in similar ways to the screwdriver, such as the sonic lipstick, the sonic blaster, the sonic pen, and the sonic modulator.

The sonic screwdriver was introduced in 1968, and was used regularly throughout the Second Doctor’s seasons. It was cut out of the series in 1982 due to some limitations it caused when writing for the show. It was then briefly featured in the 1996 Doctor Who movie. It made a full comeback when the series was rebooted in 2005.

The 11th-12th Doctor's screwdriver. 

Throughout the show, there have been many different versions of The Doctor’s screwdriver. It changed from time to time when the Doctor regenerated. It has also been destroyed on many times, therefore leading to the introduction of the next model(s). 

The Doctor’s sonic screwdriver is absolutely one of my favorite sci-fi items, because it basically do almost anything! It can open locked doors, open locks, control electric devices, perform medical scans, and so on. It can definitely come in handy in almost any situation. I really, really, REALLY want one of them. (Dear Santa….)

Sci Fi Log #10: One of us, one of us, one of us!

For this sci-fi blog, I decided to talk about “One of Us”, an episode of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. In this episode, a woman named Grandma Taters is turns every single one of Jimmy’s friends and family into mindless happy zombies by hypnotizing them, and it's up to Jimmy and Cindy to stop her.

The episode begins by one Jimmy’s best friends, Carl Wheezer, telling Jimmy that their friend Sheen is acting strange, but Jimmy doesn’t believe him. Sheen soon walks up to them smiling an eerie smile, and talking in a somewhat creepy tone. He says that it’s a happy day, and then he says that he watched a show called "The Happy Show Show " on channel 357 the previous night. He recommends that they watch it, and that would will make him "happy" if they did. Sheen then walks away in a zombie-like manner, leaving Jimmy somewhat suspicious, but not really bothered. Later that night, instead of watching the show, Jimmy fools around on his computer. Sheen calls his phone, and asks him if he’s watching the show. Jimmy says no, and Sheen argues that he should watch it "the next day... or the next day... or maybe the next day," and so on. By then, Jimmy felt a little bit creeped out, but still didn’t let it bother him.

The next day at the Candy Bar restaurant, Carl comes up to him with the same creepy smile as Sheen and asks if he watched "The Happy Show Show" last night. Jimmy doesn't answer as he sees Libby, classmate who loves music, turn off the nearby radio. She asks him the same question and Jimmy looks and sees Butch and Bolbi (other classmates of Jimmy who bicker and fight one another) being friendly to each other. Betty Quinlan walks up to him and also says that he should watch the show. Out of love (or, as Jimmy states, "scientific curiosity") he switches on the TV and goes to channel 357, only to find a old, innocent and sweet-looking woman named Grandma Taters. He watches only the first 10 seconds of the program, decides that it’s the worst show he’s ever seen, and turns the TV off.

The next day, he goes to school, which suddenly appears quiet and empty. He turns a corner, and all of his classmates are standing there, looking like creepy smiling zombies. They ask him what he thought of the show, and he goes on a rant about how terrible it was, stating that he could only watch the first 10 seconds of it. They implore him to watch it again, but he refuses. Betty Quinlan tells him to come over to her house later and watch it with her, and, because she’s his crush, he does so.

Once Jimmy gets to Betty’s house, he looks through her window and sees that the show is actually hypnotizing people, and hears that soon Grandma Taters will broadcast her show to the entire world. He tries to run back to warn his parents about it, but they have already been hypnotized. One by one, all of Jimmy’s friends are hypnotized by the show. He runs into Cindy Vortex, a friend who just got back from her karate convention. She is the only one who isn’t hypnotized, and together they run from the freaky, smiling, happy zombies. He informs her of what’s happened, and they rush to Taters’ house to stop the broadcast.

After confronting the woman, Jimmy's friends appear and capture him, tying him to a chair so that Taters can broadcast the show. Cindy enters, seemingly hypnotized but soon reveals that it's a distraction,  and she fights the zombies and Taters. With Taters and the zombies occupied, Jimmy dresses as Grandma Taters and restores their minds by running the show himself. Jimmy tells Taters that she shouldn't mess with people's minds. She agrees that it was a bad idea. A spaceship suddenly lands and two copies of the old woman come out to greet her. She leaves with them, but not before ominously saying "We'll be back!"

Sci Fi Log #9: Countdown to Extinction

For this science fiction log, I’ll be discussing one of my memories. It’s about the time I went on vacation to Florida with my mom, my brother, and my dad when I was really young. I don’t remember much about it, but I do remember one thing about it: Disney World. I know, not very related to sci-fi, is it? Don’t worry, we’ll get there soon.

I remember that we walked through Animal Kingdom for most of the day. For me, the best part of it was DinoLand, U.S.A. Why? The indoor dark ride called DINOSAUR. In the ride, you board a vehicle called a Time Rover and are taken on a rough and dangerous journey through the Cretaceous period, featuring prehistoric scenes with audio-animatronic dinosaurs. Originally called Countdown to Extinction, the ride's name was changed to DINOSAUR to promote the Disney film of the same name. Scenes from the movie also appear in the ride’s pre-show, to help the guests identify the Iguanadon as the film's protagonist, Aladar.

You begin your adventure by entering the Dino Institute, a once secret research facility. You soon are taken to a room where you watch a pre-show video. In the video, A woman named Dr. Marsh announces that you are about to board a Time Rover that will take you on a peaceful tour of the early Cretaceous period (WHY WOULD YOU EVER THINK THAT IT WOULD BE PEACEFUL?). As she finishes, however, a man Dr. Seeker cuts off Marsh and, from his laboratory, informs you that he plans to send you to a time towards the end of the late Cretaceous period so that you can rescue Aladar the Iguanodon from extinction. Marsh hears Seeker and enters his lab, arguing that the mission is dangerous, as the time you would be sent to is extremely close to the time when the meteor that killed the dinosaurs hits (of course). After Dr. Marsh has left, Dr. Seeker says that he has hacked the time travel systems so that you can go to rescue the Iguanodon, and says that you'll be out before the meteor breaks the atmosphere.

The video ends, and you’re taken into the Time Rover boarding area. You’re shot through a sort of time stream, and you enter a prehistoric jungle. You encounter many varieties of Dinosaurs, including a Hadrosaur, a Velociraptor, and even an extremely dangerous Carnotaurus. The rover, controlled by autopilot, makes a narrow escape, then comes across a safe, non-dangerous herbivore dino, called Saltasaurus. Seeker insists that you keep moving, or you won’t have enough time to make it back before the meteor hits. You encounter even more dinosaurs, going down a drop to avoid a flying predator dinosaur.

Encounter with the Carnotaur. 

Suddenly, the computer on the rover announces “Loss of traction,” and you enter complete darkness. After a few seconds, strobe lights reveal the deadly Carnotaurus (my brother’s seat belt suddenly unbuckled at this point, but he fixed it). The vehicle then tries to escape, only to meet up with it again. The Time Rover then actually does escape, but there’s EVEN MORE trouble: the meteor is going to hit in a few seconds. Seeker tries to abort the mission and bring you back, but to no avail. Aladar the Iguanodon appears, and Seeker tries desperately to bring you back. Just as the meteor hits with a loud boom, you drop down a slope into darkness, and then suddenly enter the time stream. You safely make it back with Aladar, and the ride ends.

Sci Fi Log #8: Spongebob of the Future

I’ll be writing this blog on what I consider one of the most memorable Spongebob Squarepants episodes: “SB-129”. The episode is about how Squidward Tentacles tries to avoid Spongebob Squarepants and Patrick Star by hiding in the freezer of the Krusty Krab, but locks himself in and becomes frozen, staying that way for a whopping 2,000 YEARS! He ends up in the distant future and meets future versions of Spongebob and Patrick, then uses a time machine to get back to the present.

The day begins nicely for Squidward, who wants to start out by “treating Bikini Bottom to some real music” (i.e. badly playing his clarinet). Spongebob and his loud morning ship horn alarm suddenly cut his happiness short. Spongebob and Patrick then go to Squidward’s door, asking him if he wants to go jellyfishing with them. He refuses, but they don’t get the hint. He asks Spongebob if he should be at work by now, and Spongebob tells him that the Krusty Krab restaurant is closed, since it’s Sunday. Squidward uses this to his advantage, and goes there to hide from the two jellyfishing enthusiasts. Unfortunately for Mr. Tentacles, Spongebob and Patrick go looking for him there. He quickly hides in the freezer, and waits for them to leave. Once they do, he attempts to get out of the freezer, but realizes that it’s locked. He hopes that he is found soon, but no one ever looks for him (which, by the way, is completely illogical because I’m sure people would actually be concerned after a while and then they’d come looking for him. Also, I’m sure that on days when the Krusty Krab is open Spongebob comes back to the freezer to get food ingredients, so he’d find him there but ya know it’s a cartoon so whatevs brah).

Squidward trapped in the dimension of Nothingness. 

Anyway, 2,000 years later, the hinges to the freezer door are rusty and old and the freezer door breaks from the frame. Squidward is frozen to the door, stuck looking out the window in quite a comical pose. Future Spongebob, named SpongeTron, comes across Squidward and unfreezes him with a lazer hammer (LOGIC OF THE FUTURRRRE). SpongeTron informs Squiddly that he’s in the futuristic year of 4017, where he discovers that everything is chrome. SpongeTron states that “Everything is chrome in the future!” Squidward then meets SpongeTron’s clones, SpongeTrons X, Y, and Z. After meeting PaTron, a future descendant of Patrick, Squidward decides that he doesn’t like the future, and he wants to go home. He is directed to a time machine, which is a small and cozy room with a very simple control panel with two settings only: “Future” and “Past”.  He ends up in the very distant past, in prehistoric times. He meets cavemen versions of Spongebob and Patrick, who don’t like Squidward’s clarinet playing. They chase him, and Squidward gets back into the time machine. He panics and breaks the control panel, and then the time machine flattens itself into nothing. He ends up in a world of white nothingness. He thinks he can stay there, where he can be all alone, but then he freaks out again and then somehow stomps through the floor, ending up in the time machine. He says he wants to go home, and that he even misses Spongebob. This is apparently enough to get him there, and he opens the door to see Spongebob and Patrick. He greets them happily, and that’s the end of the episode.

Sci Fi Log #7: Hold on to your butts.

For this blog, I chose to discuss the movie Jurassic World, an upcoming science fiction adventure film. Jurassic World is the fourth installment in the Jurassic Park movie series. The movie has been in development limbo for ever since the 2001 release of Jurassic Park III. It was originally scheduled to be released on June 13, 2014, but production was temporarily halted due to a disagreement between Universal Studios and the film writers regarding the script and direction. The film is officially scheduled to be released next summer, on June 12, 2015.

Here’s a little bit about the movie itself: twenty-two years after the events of Jurassic Park, Isla Nublar is now a fully-functioning dinosaur theme park called Jurassic World, as originally envisioned by John Hammond. This new park is owned by a corporation called Patel. The main character, Owen (played by Chris Pratt), is a member of Jurassic World's on-site staff, and conducts behavioral research on the Velociraptors (Oh dear god, no). After many years, however, Jurassic World's attendance rates begin to decline. As a response to this, a new and special attraction is created to re-spark visitor interest. But, as expected with Jurassic Park, this gravely backfires.

The official poster/logo for the film. Yeyuh.

Being a fan of Jurassic Park, I’ve looked at a couple of websites that discuss information about the movie, and have discovered a couple of interesting rumors. Apparently Sam Neill, who played Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park’s I and III, will reprise his role in this fourth film. Jeff Goldblum has expressed an interest in reprising Ian Malcolm. Finally, In November 2009, Joe Johnston discussed the possibility of Jurassic Park 4, saying that the story for the film is different from that of its predecessors and that would take the franchise into a whole other trilogy.

I’m going to say that I’m kinda excited for this film! It seems to have a lot of potential. Plus I can’t wait to see what the new park looks like, and the CGI effects of the dinosaurs. I hope it’s more complex than the last movies, too. I’m sure a lot of people (including me) have high hopes for this new film, and I just hope that it doesn’t let us down.

Sci Fi Log #6: KRAB-E

In this blog, I’ll be writing about an episode of Spongebob Squarepants called “Krab Borg”. In this episode, Spongebob and Squidward believe that their boss at the Krusty Krab, Mr. Krabs, is a robot.

The episode begins by Spongebob up late at night, watching a (not even) scary movie called “Night of the Robot”, where robots take over the world at night. He later becomes scared at the thought of robots taking over the world, and he has a nightmare about him being chased by the robot in the movie.

The scene cuts to Spongebob working at the Krusty Krab the next day. He obviously didn’t get a good night’s sleep, because his eyes are bloodshot and he is very paranoid, and is under the impression that robots are "everywhere" (one turning out to actually a trolley full of sea potatoes, and another a red light that was actually the warning light for the grease). He later sees Mr. Krabs apparently "speaking" in a robot language (actually humming to  a song called "Electric Zoo" on the radio and arguing with the radio host to find the song so he can hear it again) and wearing batteries in his pocket (his radio broke and he was planning give the batteries to Pearl for her Christmas present), and suspects that he is a robot imposter.

"Bee-boop-boop-bop."

SpongeBob calls Mr. Krabs to show Squidward he is a robot. First, he tries to test his sense of humor, so Squidward tells a joke to Mr. Krabs: "Why couldn't the 11-year-old go into the pirate movie? Because it was rated ‘ARR’ (HEHEHEHHH).” Mr. Krabs does not laugh and leaves. SpongeBob calls him again and tells him Squidward's father never hugged him. Mr. Krabs thinks it is a little sad but doesn’t really care and leaves, failing the crying test. SpongeBob calls Mr. Krabs again and says that Squidward loves him, but he tells him to get back to work, failing the love test. This means that he must be a robot, right? SpongeBob and Squidward then see Mr. Krabs with metal pincers (tongs he was holding an egg with) and glowing red eyes (he accidentally threw salt into his eyes while trying to salt the egg after calling for him and surprising him), which then confirms SpongeBob's suspicions. Squidward announces over the microphone that robots are taking over the world, causing the customers to flee the Krusty Krab. SpongeBob tries to call the Navy, but, due to their automated phone service, thinks the robots have already taken it over. Squidward then asks Spongebob what the people did in the movie. SpongeBob says that they got “poop” (or collected information) from the robot after learning how to torture, and the two collect some tools for the investigation.

Soon, they capture Krabs and interrogate him in his office. Krabs says he is not, in fact, a robot, but the two workers don’t believe him. They break his technological appliances, thinking that they are his “little friends.” When they are about to break his cash register, Krabs starts to protest a lot, crying and showing love for it. Spongebob then remembers that in the movie, there were no robots at all, and it was just everyone’s imagination. Welp Spongebob, ya dun goofed.