Final Sci Fi Log: The Ender's Game Movie

For this log, I’ll be discussing the movie Ender’s Game. Ender’s Game is a 2013 American science fiction action film based on the novel of the same name by author Orson Scott Card. The film stars Asa Butterfield as Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, an extremely gifted child who is sent to an advanced military school in space to prepare for a future alien invasion and is destined to save the Earth. The cast includes Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, Abigail Breslin, and Ben Kingsley.

In the future, a hostile alien race (called the Buggers) have attacked Earth. If not for the legendary heroics of International Fleet Commander, Mazer Rackham (played by Ben Kingsley), all would have been lost. In preparation for the next attack, the highly esteemed Colonel Graff (played by Harrison Ford) and the International Military are training only the best young children in the Battle School to find the future savior. Ender Wiggin (played by Asa Butterfield), is a small and shy but strategically brilliant boy. He is enrolled into Battle School, and is believed to be the next Mazer Rackham.

Arriving at Battle School, Ender quickly and easily masters difficult war games, distinguishing himself and winning respect amongst his peers. Ender is soon ordained by Graff as the military’s next great hope, resulting in his promotion to Command School. Once there, he is trained by Mazer Rackham himself, to lead his army into an epic battle that will determine the future of the human race.

The movie, for me, wasn’t all that good. It falls into the category of movies that were based off of books, but were really rushed and told ONLY the important parts of the story. Movies similar to this are The Spiderwick Chronicles and Eragon. Many things from the book weren’t as I expected them to be in the movie, like Mazer Rackham. In the movie, he has tattoos and looks like a kind of ancient monk. That was really unexpected. Aside from that, the movie did a decent job of telling the story. However, if you’re going to watch the movie, make sure you read the book first.

Sci Fi Log #14: "It's bigger on the inside!"

For this log, I’ll discussing ANOTHER Doctor Who-related object: the TARDIS. The TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space) is a time machine and spaceship in Doctor Who, and its associated spin-offs The Sarah Jane Adventures, and Torchwood.

A TARDIS is a product of the advanced technology of the Time Lords (the Doctor’s alien race). It can transport its passengers to any point in time or any place in the universe. The interior of a TARDIS is much larger than its exterior, which can somehow blend in with its surroundings using the ship's "chameleon circuit". TARDISes also possess an ability of knowing, which has been expressed in many ways, including implied personality and free will. They also provide their users with additional tools and abilities including a telepathically-based universal translation system.

The Doctor's TARDIS. 

In the series, the Doctor pilots an apparently unreliable, obsolete Type 40, Mark 1 TARDIS. Its chameleon circuit is broken, so it is stuck in the form of a blue 1960s-style London police box after one visit to London in 1963. The Doctor's TARDIS was, for most of the series' history, said to have been stolen from the Time Lords' home planet, Gallifrey, where it was old and decommissioned. However, during the events of the episode, "The Doctor's Wife" (2011), the ship's consciousness temporarily inhabits a human body named Idris, and she reveals that she left of her own free will. During this episode, she flirtatiously implies that she stole the Doctor rather than the other way around, although she sometimes does also refer to him as her "thief" in the same episode.

The unpredictability of the TARDIS's short-range guidance (relative to the size of the Universe) has often been a plot point in the Doctor's adventures. Also, in "The Doctor's Wife", the TARDIS reveals that much of this "unpredictability" was actually on purpose. It is usually done in order to get the Doctor where he needed to go as opposed to where he actually wanted to go.

Doctor Who has become a big part of British pop culture. Not only has the shape of the police box become more immediately associated with the TARDIS than with its real-world inspiration, but the term "TARDIS-like" has been used to describe anything that seems to be bigger on the inside than on the outside.

Sci Fi Log #13: Don't Blink

For this log, I’ll be discussing some interesting creatures from the world of Doctor Who. These creatures are called the Weeping Angels. The Weeping Angels are an alien race of predatory creatures, resembling stone statues. They were first introduced in the 2007 episode of the show "Blink", making repeat appearances in "The Time of Angels"/"Flesh and Stone" (2010) and "The Angels Take Manhattan" (2012) as well as cameo appearances in "The God Complex" (2011) and "The Time of the Doctor" (2013). Since their initial appearance, they have been nominated as one of the most popular and frightening Doctor Who monsters.

"Red light!"

Steven Moffat, the writer and producer of Doctor Who, attributes their appeal to childhood games, such as Red Light, Green Light. According to The Doctor, the Angels are almost as old as the universe, and no one really knows where they came from. They are the deadliest, most powerful, most malevolent life-forms that ever lived. The creatures are very unusual predators, because they don't kill their prey themselves. Their usual way of feeding is to consume time paradoxes - with just a single touch, a Weeping Angel can send anyone into the past to a point before their own birth, and can then feed off the "potential energy" of the years which that victim would have lived in the present. The Doctor describes the Angels as "the only psychopaths in the universe to kill you nicely", because their victims are uninjured and may live out their lifespans, but only in the past.

In their usual form, Weeping Angels resemble human-sized stone statues in the form of winged angels in draped clothing. Apart from the wings, their standard form is similar to humans (having two arms, two legs, two eyes), even when they are infiltrating worlds on which the inhabitants differ from this form. Generally their facial features are bland and serene. However, as they close in on their victims, they transform to look more horrific, bestial and demonic with wide-open mouths, vampiric fangs and clawed hands.

"Green li--WAUGGH!!!"

When they are not being observed, Weeping Angels can move very quickly and silently. Their speed allows them to cover large distances LITERALLY in the blink of an eye (FRIKIN EERIE, RIGHT?) However, when they are being observed, they become "quantum-locked", occupying a single position in space and becoming stone. In this state, they are frozen and become difficult to destroy. They cannot suppress this reaction. If two Weeping Angels were to look at each other at the same time, they would be trapped in stone form permanently until an outside force moves them apart. To prevent this, they often cover their eyes while moving, which makes them look as though they are weeping.

In conclusion, the Weeping Angels of Doctor Who are some pretty creepy and scary creatures. If I were you, I would watch my back around any statue you come across. You never know, right? As the Doctor said, don’t turn your back on it, don’t look away, and DON’T. BLINK. Good luck………

Sci Fi Movie Log #2: Hot Tub Time Machine

For this log, I’ll be discussing ANOTHER movie I recently watched, called Hot Tub Time Machine. The movie is a 2010 science fiction adventure-comedy film, directed by Steve Pink. It stars John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Clark Duke, Craig Robinson, Crispin Glover, Kellee Stewart, Collette Wolfe, Crystal Lowe, Lizzy Caplan, and Chevy Chase.

Disappointed at the way their lives have turned out, four longtime friends reunite at a ski resort where they used to party when they were teenagers and suddenly find themselves transported back to the year 1986 by a magical jacuzzi time machine (....yeah, I don’t get it either). Adam (John Cusack), Lou (Rob Corddry), Nick (Craig Robinson), and Jacob (Clark Duke) have all seen better days; Adam's and Nick's love lives are in the toilet, Lou is clinging to his hard-partying punk-ish past, and video-game addict Jacob can't even gather the courage to talk to a girl outside of the online world. A fun stay at the ski resort where the gang made some of their best memories seems like just the thing to cheer everybody up. After a night of heavy drinking in the hot tub outside their hotel room, the four friends wake up and find themselves back in 1986. However, determined not to make the same mistakes twice, Adam, Lou, Nick, and Jacob decide to take full advantage of the unique opportunity presented to them, and create the lives they've always wanted.

This movie wasn’t bad, but it really wasn’t good either. The only sci fi part about it is the time machine and the few mentionings of the butterfly effect. Other than that, it was pretty much like The Hangover. Lots of rude humor, drinking, partying, “livin’ it up”, sex, and the like. I didn’t really like it, though. Unless you’re the type of person who’s into those kinds of movies, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Sci Fi Movie Log #1: Edge of Tomorrow

For this log, I’ll be discussing a movie I recently watched, called Edge of Tomorrow. It is a 2014 science fiction movie starring Emily Blunt and Tom Cruise, and it is based on a Japanese novel called All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. The movie takes place in the near future, where an intelligent alien race, called the Mimics, have invaded Earth and have taken down the world's military units. Also, they’ve also taken over most of Europe. Great.  

The main character is a man named Major William Cage (played by Cruise), a public relations officer inexperienced in combat, who ends up being thrust into combat against the aliens. Cage is killed within minutes of the battle. Suddenly, he finds himself starting over and over in a time loop, repeating his experience of the same mission and being killed. With each repeated day, Cage’s combat skills and knowledge of the Mimics improve, and, along the way, he meets and teams up with Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski (played by Blunt) to defeat them.

The Mimics are very interesting aliens to me. They aren’t like the usual aliens we see in movies, ones that are bipedal and are almost human-like. These were strange, quick-moving, four-legged creatures with bodies that looked like they were made of metal shards. They were pretty different compared to other aliens in the media. Very unique.

I really enjoyed this movie! When I saw the trailers for it, I thought that it would be a cheesy, explosion-y, Expendables type of movie, just more futuristic and with aliens. Also, I was definitely confused about how the main character could come back to life many times, as if he were in some kind of video game. The movie was great. I really wish I had seen it in theaters.

Sci Fi Short Story: The Vortex Controller

This story is told in the format of a letter. I hope you enjoy it!

17254 Bentley Avenue

Twin Oaks, MI 48026

November 19, 2010

Dear Jenny,

How’re you doing, friend? It’s been a while. Sorry I haven’t sent you any letters, life’s been pretty busy for me lately. Finals are coming up soon, and I’m studying as much as I can so that I can at least try and get good grades by the end of this semester. I’m probably boring you with all this stuff, but let me tell you something really sweet that happened to me this past weekend. You’re most likely not going to believe it, but get this--I traveled through time. Yeah, yeah, you’re probably thinking, “Pshh, this guy’s insane” or something, but let me explain how it all went. Here’s what happened…

On Saturday, I was with my friend Devin in the park, just hanging out and walking around the field and talking and stuff, when suddenly the sky above us lit up like lightning for a split second, accompanied by a loud crack of thunder. Devin and I fell to the ground in surprise, and the next thing we know there’s this small patch of grass in front of us that had just been scorched. We went up to it slowly, and saw that there was something in the middle of the burnt grass. It looked like some kind of high-tech, futuristic wristwatch. I walked up to it, carefully picked it up and saw a label on it that read: “Vortex Controller”. It had a keypad on it, with digits numbered 0 through 9 on the left side, and what seemed like a small speaker and a small microphone on the right, and a small monitor on the top. We hadn’t seen anything like it before, so we decided that we would look it up on the internet, to see if it was some new toy or something.

We walked back to his house and went up to his room, and looked it up on his desktop. There weren’t any photos or any pieces of info on the watch. Nothing at all! We didn’t know what it was, nor did we know what it could/would do. I decided to toy around with it, and, you know, try to figure out what the weird thing was. I slipped it on my wrist, and it immediately turned on, with the monitor glowing a weird light-blue color. A clear robotic voice spoke from the speaker, saying: “Hello, and welcome to the Vortex Controller! Would you like to begin? Say yes to continue, or no to cancel.” I asked Devin what I should do, and he told me to say yes. I did so, and the device replied, “Please type in the month, day, and year that you wish to travel to.” I was kind of skeptical of the device. I was starting to think more and more that it was just a toy of some kind.

I decided to just type in the day before that Saturday’s date, which was the 11th, and it appeared on the tiny blue monitor. “Is this date correct?” asked the Controller. “Yes.” I replied. “Okay, the date has been set,” said the machine, “Countdown initiated. Prepare for time leap.” Then, the machine started to get warm and shake a bit. I started to get a bit scared, and then the machine spoke again: “5, 4, 3, 2,...”. Just as the countdown hit one, we were sucked into (and were falling through) some sort of warp tunnel with blue and shimmering gold colors, bolts of lightning, and stars. Jen, let me tell you, it was really crazy. We were falling down through this tunnel so fast it felt like we were riding on the Top-Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point. It was so awesome, but I had never felt so scared in my life. I felt the adrenaline race through my body, and my heart was beating so fast I could actually almost hear it! Suddenly, everything around us began to stretch out, and we started going faster and faster. There was a bright white light at the bottom, which we were quickly approaching. When hit the light, everything became blindingly bright, and we passed out. The last thing I remember is hearing a loud crack of thunder, similar to the one from before.

When I woke up, I was lying next to Devin on the floor of his bedroom. I felt pretty dizzy, so I stayed there for a few minutes before sitting up. Then I shook Devin awake. We looked around to see if anything seemed different, but nothing did. It was still a sunny, cloudless day. I told Devin to look at his phone, and he did so. The time on his phone was the same as the time we had left: 2:56 p.m. The REALLY eerie thing, though, was that the date wasn’t the same. It no longer said November 12, 2010; instead it said the date that I had punched in, which November 11, 2010. At first, I had a really hard time believing that we had possibly just traveled back in time. We went outside and looked around his house see if any change had occurred. We didn’t find anything for a bit, but then we saw something that weirded us both out: we saw ourselves, riding on our longboards down the road, toward downtown Birmingham, just as we had done yesterday. (Or today. I don’t know. You get what I mean.) We both did a double-take, and looked closely, to make sure that it actually WAS us. We both started freaking out, and then we both started freaking out excitedly, because, you know, we were the first time travelers in history. FRIKIN’ AWESOME, RIGHT?

After a while, however, we got pretty bored because we saw pretty much the same thing as we did on the 11th. So we went back to our present date, the 12th, and started getting really pumped. We thought about all of the possibilities. We could change history, visit certain dates in both our lives, significant or not, or visit any important event that ever happened or will happen in the world. Then I remembered everything that I had ever read about or seen in sci fi novels, TV shows, and movies. If we tampered with time, we could possibly either mess something up completely, or do something that could be good for the entire world. I’m sure you know about that stuff, too. I told Devin, and although he was really psyched about being able to see what was to come in his own future, he thought that it’d be better if we destroyed it. I agreed, knowing that it would be a huge loss. However, we couldn’t risk messing something up or letting the Vortex Controller fall into the wrong hands. So we took it, broke it to pieces with a sledgehammer, and burned the rest of it in his fireplace.

I actually do think that what we did with the watch was right. I mean, it would’ve been fun to explore history and see my future and all, and to be able to give my younger self some advice about some situations that I had been in and how to avoid or get over them, but I think I’m already okay as I am, and I think that leaping into the future would ruin surprises for me. Plus, I think meeting my younger or older self probably would’ve caused some issues with the space-time continuum or something. So, um, yeah. . Hope you enjoyed my lil’ story, Jenny, hahahaha! Can’t wait for you to write back. Tell the family I said hey!

Sincerely,

Remy Combs

P.S.: Don’t tell anyone about this, okay? I trust that you won’t. I mean I don’t want Devin and I to have to deal with reporters and stuff like that. Thanks, girl. :D

Sci Fi Log #12: Mummy Murder on the Space Orient Express

For this sci fi log, I chose to discuss an episode of Doctor Who I recently watched, called “Mummy on the Orient Express”. The episode is the 8th of this current season of the show. To start us off, here’s a brief synopsis:

For her final adventure, the Doctor takes Clara (his current companion) for a trip on board the wondrous, space-traversing Orient Express. There, they find it has a supernatural passenger…

Now, on with the full description. In the beginning of the episode, you hear a quick and suspicious voice-over from the Doctor, stating to “start the clock,” at which point a timer starts counting down from 66 seconds in the corner of the screen. Just then, in a luxurious dining car of the train, Mrs Pitt, an elderly lady, spots what she believes to be a man dressed in a mummy costume. Her granddaughter Maisie, who is eating with her, says that there’s no one there. She pays no mind to him at first, but very soon starts to get worried, because the creature appears to be coming straight for her. She complains about it to the nearest conductor, demanding that he be thrown out of the room. The conductor asks what she’s talking about. This makes it clear that at this moment, only Mrs. Pitt can see the monster. CREEPY, AIN’T IT? As the timer reaches 6 seconds, the Mummy gets closer and closer to Mrs. Pitt. At 5 seconds, its face is in hers. At 4 seconds, Maisie begins to really worry for her poor grandmother. At 3 seconds, everyone in the car is staring, wondering what’s going on. At 2 seconds, Mrs. Pitt appears to be having some kind of panic attack. At 1 second, the Mummy places its hands on her forehead. When the timer hits 0, Mrs. Pitt collapses, dead.

A while afterwards, the Doctor’s spaceship, the TARDIS, appears in the baggage car of the space train. The Doctor and Clara emerge from the TARDIS, dressed in fancy 1920s outfits. They step into a passenger car, where a singer is performing and people are dancing. The two step up to a window and have a deep conversation, where Clara announces that she intends this trip with the Doctor to be her last. He quickly changes the subject, but then is interrupted by a visibly distraught woman, who turns out to be Mrs. Pitt’s granddaughter Maisie. She is gently ushered back to her room by some guards, and Clara asks Quell, the Captain, what happened to Maisie, and he explains to her Mrs. Pitt's sudden death before leaving.

That night, the Doctor ponders the story of Mrs. Pitt's death and the mummy creature that only she saw, becoming increasingly suspicious of it. Meanwhile, Clara is on the phone with her beau, Danny, discussing her last trip so far. He is relieved that at least the train is safe, which Clara seems a little bit unsure of, but agrees. The Doctor leaves his room, stopping at Clara's bedroom door. He almost knocks, but instead goes on, leaving her to rest. As soon as he leaves the hallway, Clara emerges from her room and goes to the Doctor's bedroom door. She knocks, and discovers that he’s not there.

The Doctor starts to poke around the engine room, where he examines the chair that Mrs. Pitt had died in. It's then that he meets Perkins, chief engineer aboard the Orient Express. Perkins tells him that they think something else might be responsible for the deaths of some of the passengers.

While out looking for the Doctor, Clara meets Maisie, who is coming down the hallway looking determined with a high heel shoe in her hand. Clara greets her, then follows her. Maisie asks the computer for access to a room, but the computer denies her. Maisie says that that's the room where they're keeping Mrs. Pitt's body, and that she should be allowed to see it. Maisie smashes the computer with her high heel shoe and the door slides open.

The Doctor has seeks out a passenger named Professor Emile Moorhouse,  a professor of alien mythology. The Doctor asks him about the Foretold, which is a mythical mummy-like being. He tells the Doctor bits of info, including a short legend: "They that bear the Foretold's stare have 66 seconds to live." Right at that moment, in the kitchen, a chef catches sight of the Foretold and screams (and the timer starts again). The chef backs towards the freezer and locks himself in it, seeing that the Foretold is on the other side of the door and can't get inside. But when he turns around, he comes face to face with the monster, who has somehow teleported inside the freezer. As the clock ticks to 1 second, the Foretold wraps its hands around the chef, who then dies.

The Doctor confronts Captain Quell about the Foretold, but Quell does not believe him. Perkins then gives the Doctor a large amount of documents and information about the Foretold and its victims. They meet up with Moorhouse in the engineer's room to watch footage of Mrs. Pitt's death and note its details. Meanwhile, Maisie and Clara get into the room, but Mrs. Pitt's body isn't there. The door has closed and locked behind them. The Doctor calls Clara, who notices that there's a strange sarcophagus at the back of the room. It opens up, but there’s just bubble wrap. Captain Quell then apprehends the Doctor, believing he is the one causing the deaths (Why? I don’t even know…).

Another Foretold death happens, this time to one of the guards. The Doctor then quickly deduces that all of the passengers are all experts and scientists in specific fields of study, and that they have been gathered on the train to study the Foretold (What?). The inside of the room turns into a laboratory, and most of the passengers disappear. They were holograms, says the Doctor, to make up the numbers (WHATTT?). The train comes to a stop and the computer, Gus, reveals that the Doctor was right and the whole Orient Express excursion was created to find out more about the Foretold (WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING?). "Your goal is to ascertain the Foretold's true nature, probe for weaknesses with a view to capture, after which we will reverse engineer its abilities," explains the computer (WHY, THOUGH?!). Gus reveals that an ancient scroll, kept in the front of the car that everyone is currently in, is what causes the mummy to appear.

Professor Moorhouse suddenly catches sight of the mummy, and he describes its features to the Doctor. He ends up dying, as does Captain Quell. The Doctor finds out that Maisie is next to go, and just then the Foretold appears, coming for her. The Doctor pulls out a device that scans Maisie’s emotions, grief and trauma, and implants them in himself. He can now see the Foretold, and he has only a few seconds to figure out how to stop it. He discovers that the mummy is actually an ancient soldier augmented with technology to allow it to kill only its victims by pulling them out of phase and that it is protecting the scroll, which is actually a flag (.......they aren't trying anymore). The Doctor notes that for him, the war isn't over yet, and with one second left, the Doctor shouts: "We surrender!” The mummy is then seen by everyone, and the Doctor says, “You’re relieved, soldier.” The mummy wearily salutes him, and then collapses in a pile of bandages and dust.

Gus then announces that he is happy that they solved the mystery, but no survivors are needed for the experiment. The Doctor then rescues everyone and takes them to a nearby planet, where they are all safe and able to go home.

Clara then calls Danny, who says that she should keep traveling with the Doctor, and she agrees. The episode ends with the Doctor and his companion traveling to another planet.