2001 a space oddesy

[Rikki]

for my 1st topic I would like to take a look at one of my fave sci fi flicks ever. this movie stunned me the 1st time I saw it. and to think here we are 11 years into the 21st century and not even half of what was forseen has come to pass. post your thought on this movie and what it meant to you.
Victoria Watson
Rikki

 

[Bob Watson]

I will post my thoughts on my wife’s post. I was interested in the stars since I can rember then at 12 I saw this movie. My path was set and I became an astronomer This movie made me think to dream to wonder. Are we alone? What is it like to see wonders so vast so great that man's mind can not grasp it. truly in the universe there are wonders to sate all desires be them small or great. And this movie set me on the road to seek out those wonders and the truth no matter where the truth will lead us.

 

[mike]

I enjoyed the movie, though i must admit i didnt "get" the plot the first time i watched it.
It wasnt till many years later having read the book etc, that i got the story that was meant to be told.
I still have the original soundtrack as realeased on vinyl at the time, and my HAL9000 logic memory systems patch.

I also have a model of the PanAm shuttle hanging in my bedroom

The bedroom roof is a dark grey, with a glow in the dark moon and covered in glow in the dark star decals, so every night, when the light goes out, i get to go to sleep looking at a scene that could have come from the movie

Bit of trivia, HAL is actually IBM truncated one letter. IBM decided that a computer that goes mad and kills its operators, might not be the best of marketing ideas.


Yep, i'm a sci fi nerd through and through. But you all knew that right ?

 

[mike]

I also have two models of moonbase alpha, which is considered to be modeled from 2001ASO's Clavius base, as seen in the rear of the album cover in the post above

The look is more than reminiscent of Clavius Base in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.)

Moonbase Alpha (Space: 1999) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here are my two

A 2001 spacesuit backpack appeared in the "Close Up" episode of the Gerry Anderson series UFO, so its small surprise S1999, another of andersons productions drew on the imagery of 2001. This prop is one of only two to survive, since kubrick ordered all props scenery etc to be destroyed.

 

[mike]

I also have a copy of

Which includes the orginal short story, "the sentinel"

Well worth a read if you want the backstory

Mines the November 1972 2nd edition, but i still keep my eye out for a 1st edition copy for my collection, whenever i trawl the bookshops

 

[Goggs Mackay]

Oh man Mike, I used to have a Space 1999 Eagle craft. I used to have an old Enterprise. I never had anything like your collection of sci fi stuff but I still had a few originals from the 70's which if kept, would have been sought after (and admired by myself).

Check out the 2001 posters you posted above, there's one where the guy on the moon looks like he has an Ipad!

I used to watch old 'Lost in Space' episodes on sundays and I've been thinking about that show recently after watching 'Forbidden Planet' - the two remind me of eachother and of course they both have robots - which of course look a bit silly now but I don't let silly robots get in the way of good sci fi.

Thinking about 'Forbidden Planet' - I watched it again the other night and I was again blown away by the sound and visual effects - this is 1956 we are talking which is very pre-synthesizer!

Sci Fi rules.

 

[mike]

Yeah the robot from lost in space is on my must have list

The ROBOT from "Lost in Space"

 

[mike]

Check out the 2001 posters you posted above, there's one where the guy on the moon looks like he has an Ipad!

In August 2011, in response to Apple Computer's patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung, the latter argued that Apple's iPad was effectively modeled on the visual tablets that appear aboard spaceship Discovery in the Space Odyssey film, which legally constitute "prior art". Legally, prior art is information that has been disclosed to the public in any form about an invention before a given date that might be relevant to the patent's claim of originality.[155] Samsung appealed specifically to a clip appearing on YouTube arguing

Attached hereto as Exhibit D is a true and correct copy of a still image taken from Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey." In a clip from that film lasting about one minute, two astronauts are eating and at the same time using personal tablet computers. As with the design claimed by the D'889 Patent, the tablet disclosed in the clip has an overall rectangular shape with a dominant display screen, narrow borders, a predominately flat front surface, a flat back surface (which is evident because the tablets are lying flat on the table's surface), and a thin form factor.[156]​

"Siri", Apple's intelligent voice control personal assistant for the iPhone, features three references to the film; a modem that looks like HAL's faceplate, if asked to sing it might reply "Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do", and it responds "I'm sorry I can't do that" when asked to "open the pod bay doors".[157][158]
Inspired by Clarke's visual tablet device, in 1994 a European Commission-funded R&D project code named "NewsPAD" developed and pilot tested a portable 'multimedia viewer' aiming for the realisation of an electronic multimedia 'newspaper' pointing the way to a future fully interactive and highly personalised information source. Involved partners were Acorn RISC Technologies UK, Archimedes GR, Carat FR, Ediciones Primera Plana ES, Instut Catala de Tecnologia ES, and TechMAPP UK.[159]

 

[mike]

Kubrick hinted at the nature of the mysterious unseen alien race in 2001 by suggesting, in a 1968 interview, that given millions of years of evolution, they progressed from biological beings to "immortal machine entities", and then into "beings of pure energy and spirit"; beings with "limitless capabilities and ungraspable intelligence".

For some readers, Arthur C. Clarke's more straightforward novelization of the script is key to interpreting the film. Clarke's novel explicitly identifies the monolith as a tool created by an alien race that has been through many stages of evolution, moving from organic form to biomechanical, and finally achieving a state of pure energy. These aliens travel the cosmos assisting lesser species to take evolutionary steps

Interpretations of 2001: A Space Odyssey - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For me the story is one about parity, The intelligence cannot possibly relate to the apes in the opening sequence, nor they to it/them.

There is no point in it visiting them, instead using the monoliths it uplifts them, so they can come to it/them.

I find this a very satisfying contact scenario, rather than an advanced species contacting a less advanced species, it tweaks them from a distance until they are at parity, technologically and evolutionarily with them.
At which point true contact can take place

 

[trainedobserver]

I saw it when it first came out. Probably weeks after actually as I was one of five people in the place. I remember walking out of the theater a bit stunned. I stood on the sidewalk and thought about how old I would be in 2001 and whether I would "make it." I puzzled over the meaning of the thing and read everything I could get my hands on in the coming years about the film. I think I still have my copy of "The Making of Kubrick's 2001" which I highly recommend to fans of the film. I was just a kid who thought space stations and moon bases were just the logical progression of things, I mean that is what they were telling us they were going to do. Little did I know we'd give it all up to continue to fight over patches of Earth.

 

[trainedobserver]

The ending was originally to have the Starchild playfully setting off one of the nuclear weapons hanging in orbit (shown on the cover of The Making Kubricks 2001.) believe it or not.

 

[GeoShift]

Open the pod bay door HAL.
I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that.
What a shock to have a computer turn on you with such a calm relaxing voice, yet being so cold and calculating (pun intended)

 

[Goggs Mackay]

@GeoShift - Yeah, it has to be one of the scariest things, an artificial intelligence going against you or it's programming etc. Esp if it has the power over your lifesupport and suchlike.

 

[Blabyboy]

I heartily recommend that you all read 2010 (and see the film starring Roy Scheider and Jon Lithgow), 2063 and 3001 to complete the series as Clarke intended. There are many indicators to things that we have seen or are just on the cusp of developing in today's societies and technologies.

The Sentinel is a must read for completeness, and on a slight tangent, readers may also be interested in a novella Clarke wrote called 'Jupiter 5' and then compare and contrast with the bold claims of a certain protagonist - who has the Angstrom Medal and was a 'Science Advisor' to Walter Cronkite - about the moon Iapetus and the oddities of that body.

 

[Wade]

I don't remember too many space:1999 episodes but do remember liking one of the fighter pilots (alan?) and I thought their hand guns had it all over star trek's phasers. Only three episodes stick in my mind, the plot, the two-parter where they got their a@&$ kicked by aliens and one episode where there was some beast sucked his victims in and spit out a skeleton.

As far as Space Odyssey, even today words escape me, the movie and the soundtrack,
thus spoke spookymulder

 

[Bob Watson]

 

[GeoShift]

Excellent clip from the movie. One of my favorite parts.

 

[Goggs Mackay]

Daisy daisy...

 

[boomerang]

Tucked away somewhere in my house is a much cherished postcard from Arthur Clarke, postmarked Sri Lanka, as a reply to a poem I sent him in tribute to "2001". This was in my foolish youth. Judging from his short but generous critique and just the fact that he took time to reply, he must have been a very nice man.

The original "2001: A Space Odyssey" is a very particular kind of masterpiece with a very particular kind of mood and message. Kubrick apparently chose a sense of quiet mystery and viewer imagination over "info dump", the latter always being a problem in science fiction. Reading Clarke's "The Senitinel" and especially Space Odyssey in book form really helps.

 

[Bob Watson]

Of TV shows my personal favorite is babylon 5 followed by doctor who