Can Mathematical Models Explain Scenes from The Day the Earth Stood Still?

[difalcojr]

This model diagram is possible when index0/index1=index1/index2=radius2/radius1 for the model's variables. 30 degree wave into a sphere. Reminded me of something out of that old science fiction movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still.
....................................................................................

 

[jedishrfu]

What is it?

I don't recall any structure like that in the movie Forbidden Planet unless you mean that light bulb structure moving up and down in the vertical shafts when Morbius shows off Krell engineering in the underground city.

What are you planning to use it for? spaceship? some kind of weapon?

 

[difalcojr]

No, not Forbidden Planet (a pretty good movie too, though). The Day the Earth Stood Still. With Michael Rennie. And that huge robot.
I wasn't planning to use it for anything. The head shape and visor shape reminded me of the robot in the movie. It would open its visor and blast beams out. This lens shape reminded me of that, that's all.

 

[jedishrfu]

My apologies for conflating the movies. They are both my favorites since childhood.

The Day the Earth Stood Still is based on a short story called Farewell to the Master:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Earth_Stood_Still

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farewell_to_the_Master

and the actual story

http://www.digital-eel.com/blog/library/Farewell_to_the_Master.pdf

 

[difalcojr]

Yes, me too. Childhood memories.
Another one I liked was the first Invaders from Mars. But the one that really scared the hell out of me as a kid was the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Thanks for all that information. I checked it out. Didn't know of the 2008 remake or the short story by Harry Bates.
The visor reference was for the 1951 movie. Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal.
What are a couple of your favorite SF books?

 

[Janus]

My apologies for conflating the movies. They are both my favorites since childhood.

The Day the Earth Stood Still is based on a short story called Farewell to the Master:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Earth_Stood_Still

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farewell_to_the_Master

and the actual story

http://www.digital-eel.com/blog/library/Farewell_to_the_Master.pdf

I always thought that the original story would have worked well as a The Twilight Zone episode.

 

[pinball1970]

I always thought that the original story would have worked well as a The Twilight Zone episode.

If you watch the twilight zone from 1959 there are lots of plots that crop up in films decades later. Great series.

 

[jedishrfu]

Invaders from Mars scared me a lot. I imagined seeing those bubble people and getting sucked into the ground.

Also Target Earth where I imagined the evil robot would crash into my bedroom to plug itself in the wall socket to recharge its batteries. This was where they used high frequency sound to shatter the vacuum tubes in the robots head.

Darby O'Gill and the Little People was also scary, I liked it because of the Irish stories and leprechauns but was totally frightened by the Coach Du Bower and its headless coachman.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dullahan

and I never forgot the poem:

three wishes I grant you large or small
wish a fourth and lose them all

so many things to scare the bejesus out of us kids, its a wonder we survived.

 

[difalcojr]

great poem.

Yes, agree, still remember those scary movies. Invaders from Mars scared me a lot too. Maybe nightmares also, I vaguely remember now, on that one.

Twilight Zone episodes were always really good too.

 

[jedishrfu]

I didn't get to see the Twilight Zone until I was in high school or college. I did get to see Outer Limits, The Time Tunnel, Lost in Space and some reruns of Rocky Jones. I really liked Forbidden Planet especially Robby and often drew endless pictures of him in my school notebooks.

We would also get the horror sci-fi fanzines because they'd have black and white photos that we could copy. My friend had one of those projectors that could magnify and project an image on the wall so we could make our own posters of Robby and other things.

One Twilight Zone episode I remember vivdly was the where Anne Francis sells her soul to some witch so she could win the heart of a young man. The bargain meant that she would turn into a panther at night.

Another favorite episode was the one where the farmer went out hunting with his dog and he jumped into a pond to rescue his dog. Later, they're walking together on a road and see a sign to what looks like heaven but they don't take dogs so he and his dog travel on and discover its because dogs can sense danger and smell brimstone.

Lastly, I remember watching One Step Beyond, a show similar to tThe Twilight Zone only purported to be real. In one episode, they had a woman trapped in her house during a tsunami alert. She cries for help but can't get any. Later, a deaf retired Navy officer drives by hears her call and rescues her and she rescues him telling him about the tsunami alert. They actually had the woman appear at the end of the show.

 

[pinball1970]

I didn't get to see the Twilight Zone until I was in high school or college. I did get to see Outer Limits, The Time Tunnel, Lost in Space and some reruns of Rocky Jones. I really liked Forbidden Planet especially Robby and often drew endless pictures of him in my school notebooks.

We would also get the horror sci-fi fanzines because they'd have black and white photos that we could copy. My friend had one of those projectors that could magnify and project an image on the wall so we could make our own posters of Robby and other things.

One Twilight Zone episode I remember vivdly was the where Anne Francis sells her soul to some witch so she could win the heart of a young man. The bargain meant that she would turn into a panther at night.

Another favorite episode was the one where the farmer went out hunting with his dog and he jumped into a pond to rescue his dog. Later, they're walking together on a road and see a sign to what looks like heaven but they don't take dogs so he and his dog travel on and discover its because dogs can sense danger and smell brimstone.

Lastly, I remember watching One Step Beyond, a show similar to tThe Twilight Zone only purported to be real. In one episode, they had a woman trapped in her house during a tsunami alert. She cries for help but can't get any. Later, a deaf retired Navy officer drives by hears her call and rescues her and she rescues him telling him about the tsunami alert. They actually had the woman appear at the end of the show.

The ideas were fantastic, it was all about the writing/plot and not so much about the actors and close to zero special effects. Mini plays really.
How many had sinister plot twists right at the end? Just very clever story creation at the end of the day.

 

[jedishrfu]

Yes, I’ve heard Rod Sterling witnessed one particular traumatic event in service during the WW2 in the Philippines when a loaded freight pallet dropped on his friend killing him instantly.

https://www.grunge.com/315846/how-r...ii-military-service-fueled-the-twilight-zone/

it shaped his view of life and death and later his writing and story telling.

oh yeah, I really liked Mr Whipple’s factory with Robby something that echoing again today with our AI chat craze taking jobs.

 

[difalcojr]

Wow, some excellent episodes I have not seen, thks. Previous post about mini plays is right on, I think.

Interesting about that traumatic event shaping Sterling's outlook on life after that. Makes me think of that episode of a war zone when the soldier saw the others' faces go white, and he knew they would die next, and then he saw his own face in the mirror go all white too at the end.

A lot of actors started out careers in the Twilight Zone too, I think. One of my favorites is Captain Kirk himself as a mental patient on an airplane trip, having just gotten out of the hospital, going home, and that gremlin is out there on the wing!

 

[pinball1970]

Wow, some excellent episodes I have not seen, thks. Previous post about mini plays is right on, I think.

Interesting about that traumatic event shaping Sterling's outlook on life after that. Makes me think of that episode of a war zone when the soldier saw the others' faces go white, and he knew they would die next, and then he saw his own face in the mirror go all white too at the end.

A lot of actors started out careers in the Twilight Zone too, I think. One of my favorites is Captain Kirk himself as a mental patient on an airplane trip, having just gotten out of the hospital, going home, and that gremlin is out there on the wing!

Yes I remember that one. I suggest you get the whole series from 1959 and see how it evolves.
Check out the actors who crop up. A "before they were famous," aspect to it.

 

[pinball1970]

Wow, some excellent episodes I have not seen, thks. Previous post about mini plays is right on, I think.

Interesting about that traumatic event shaping Sterling's outlook on life after that. Makes me think of that episode of a war zone when the soldier saw the others' faces go white, and he knew they would die next, and then he saw his own face in the mirror go all white too at the end.

A lot of actors started out careers in the Twilight Zone too, I think. One of my favorites is Captain Kirk himself as a mental patient on an airplane trip, having just gotten out of the hospital, going home, and that gremlin is out there on the wing!

As a genre? This was on its own. Short story, play. "Tales from the unexpected" in the 70s UK had influence here.

 

[dlgoff]

... the one that really scared the hell out of me as a kid was the original Invasion of the Body

I hear that. Same for me.

 

[DaveC426913]

This model diagram is possible when index0/index1=index1/index2=radius2/radius1 for the model's variables. 30 degree wave into a sphere. Reminded me of something out of that old science fiction movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still.
....................................................................................View attachment 330371

Reminded you of ??

(Also, Klaatu was a really great band. Unless you're a die-hard fan, you might only know "Calling Occupants.")

 

[difalcojr]

The ideas were fantastic, it was all about the writing/plot and not so much about the actors and close to zero special effects. Mini plays really.
How many had sinister plot twists right at the end? Just very clever story creation at the end of the day.

Agreed. And Rod Sterling with his low, serious voice and cigarette in hand, calmly assuring us that sometimes things are just not the way they're supposed to be.

I just read Ray Bradbury's "Martian Chronicles". Very enjoyable. It too had a nice, unexpected twist at the end.

 

[Bystander]

Rod Sterling

?

 

[difalcojr]

Yes, Rod Sterling, the host and science fiction writer. The Twilight Zone was on TV right after Captain Satellite.

 

[renormalize]

Yes, Rod Sterling, the host and science fiction writer.

Rod Serling. (No "t" in his name!)

 

[difalcojr]

Rod Serling. (No "t" in his name!)

Wow, I had it wrong all these years! Thks.

 

[Janus]

If you watch the twilight zone from 1959 there are lots of plots that crop up in films decades later. Great series.

A good number of the show's episodes were lifted from the pages of the SF pulps: A couple of examples are : It's a Good Life (Jerome Bixby , 1953), and What You Need ( Henry Kuttner & C. L. Moore*, 1945)

* A husband and wife writing team. They both also wrote solo works, and Moore used the "C. L." in place of Catherine Lucille( along with the pen-name Lewis Padgett) to keep her gender secret.

 

[jedishrfu]

Jerome Bixby also wrote some Star Trek episodes including the one about a man who lived forever on Earth but when moved to a different planet started to age naturally: Requiem for Methuselah

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem_for_Methuselah

Later, Jerome did another story of a 14,000 year old college prof called Man from Earth. It was sci-fi without sci-fi props. He wrote a few days before his death dictating it to his son Emerson Bixby who got it with the help of director Richard Schenkman on a budget of $200k.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_from_Earth

 

[difalcojr]

Not sure if this has been posted and answered before in a previous thread sometime in the past, but would you or anyone else like to list a couple of your most favorite SF books? Or even short stories? Your favorite two amongst, I'm sure, hundreds or even many more for some in this audience? Old or new.
I'd like to get a good list of SF books to read for now and in the future.

 

[difalcojr]

A good number of the show's episodes were lifted from the pages of the SF pulps: A couple of examples are : It's a Good Life (Jerome Bixby , 1953), and What You Need ( Henry Kuttner & C. L. Moore*, 1945)

* A husband and wife writing team. They both also wrote solo works, and Moore used the "C. L." in place of Catherine Lucille( along with the pen-name Lewis Padgett) to keep her gender secret.

I found It's a Good Life in a pocketbook online called "Mirror Mirror". Cannot find Padgett's What You Need. Do you know an available pocketbook that has that story in it?

 

[pinball1970]

Not sure if this has been posted and answered before in a previous thread sometime in the past, but would you or anyone else like to list a couple of your most favorite SF books? Or even short stories? Your favorite two amongst, I'm sure, hundreds or even many more for some in this audience? Old or new.
I'd like to get a good list of SF books to read for now and in the future.

Lots of threads in pf if do a search. "Sci fi books" in Titles only gave me lots of hits/lists

 

[difalcojr]

Lots of threads in pf if do a search. "Sci fi books" in Titles only gave me lots of hits/lists

Yes, of course, lots of lists and favorites and opinions are available. My thinking was just that this Physics Forum would get favorites from physicists and scientists themselves in the viewer audience. With their unique perspectives. Outside of the general population.

 

[difalcojr]

Lots of threads in pf if do a search. "Sci fi books" in Titles only gave me lots of hits/lists

Also, I thought that two absolute favorites is a good and small number for a limit. Because maybe you could choose your favorite even if it was everybody else's favorite too. And then your second choice might be a unique one to your own perspective and insights, maybe something others were not aware of. That was my reason for requesting to list just two. That and space.

 

[pinball1970]

Yes, of course, lots of lists and favorites and opinions are available. My thinking was just that this Physics Forum would get favorites from physicists and scientists themselves in the viewer audience. With their unique perspectives. Outside of the general population.

Yes there is a search function within physics forums. Magnifying glass top right.