Television: 3 Body Problem Premiering on Netflix

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Netflix

We live in a time where we have plenty of science fiction options on television and at the theaters. Be it the Apple TV+ remake of Issac Asimov’s Foundation, the current showing of Frank Herbert’s Dune: Part Two at theaters, or the ongoing television series spinning more Star Wars and Star Trek tales.

And now, starting tomorrow, we will be treated to a Netflix series on the 3 Body Problem, one of the more recent science fiction series from the mind of Chinese writer Liu Cixin. The new series based on the Hugo-awarding winning book was created by Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss, as well as Alexander Woo from HBO drama series True Blood.

So what is it about? Netflix has a paltry summary, so let’s go to the book summary itself (and the trailer):

Set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.

The reviews are mixed, though I am sure you will want to judge for yourself. But just in case you want some insights from others, check out these reviews:

Should you want to see the Chinese television series, you can find it here on Youtube. Or you may want to circle back to this version if you don’t care for the Netflix production.

Note: You can also find the Chinese version of the series on Amazon Prime. Rather than 8 episodes, you will find the Chinese version called Three Body has 30 episodes. I am working my way through the Amazon Prime series and so far prefer the slower-paced Chinese original. Netflix seems to rush through the ideas, whereas they are better developed in the longer series.

Credit: Amazon Prime

Movie: Jodorowsky’s Dune

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): One of the ships from Jodorowsky’s Dune drawings. (Sony Pictures Classics)

Now that Dune: Part Two is in theaters, it may be worth your time to revisit an earlier attempt to create a Dune movie by Chilean-French filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky. The 2014 film, Jodorowsky’s Dune, discusses the filmmaker’s elaborate plans in the 1970s to create a 12-20 hour film covering the life of Paul Atreides. The planned combination of surrealistic art (Moebius), contemporary music (Pink Floyd), and stars (from Orson Welles to Dali) were being aligned to create something that might of been magical or just catastrophic. We will never know because the American film industry turned him down, even if they did use some of his ideas for future films such as Star Wars and Aliens.

When the film rights to Dune were sold again and Peter Lynch was given a green light to direct the film, we got the 1984 cultish mess that still haunts the streaming services. In the 2014 flim, Jodorowsky said he watched the Lynch film and was “happy because the picture was awful.’

In terms of the latest Dune films by Canadian filmaker Denis Villeneuve, in an interview Jodorowsky said he saw the trailer for the first Dune film and thought it was “well done” for standard industrial cinema, but noted that “industrial cinema is incompatible with auteur cinema.”

In my opinion, after a failure and then a flop, we are lucky to have the determination of Denis Villeneuve to finally give us a high-quality, memorable Dune. That said, it would have been fun to see Dali as the Emperor.

Study Findings: A Recently Formed Ocean Inside Saturn’s Moon Mimas

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Saturn’s moon Mimas and its large Herschel Crater. The moon is also referred to as the “Death Star” from Star Wars. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)

Nature  abstract of the study findings:

Moons potentially harbouring a global ocean are tending to become relatively common objects in the Solar System. The presence of these long-lived global oceans is generally betrayed by surface modification owing to internal dynamics. Hence, Mimas would be the most unlikely place to look for the presence of a global ocean. Here, from detailed analysis of Mimas’s orbital motion based on Cassini data, with a particular focus on Mimas’s periapsis drift, we show that its heavily cratered icy shell hides a global ocean, at a depth of 20–30 kilometres. Eccentricity damping implies that the ocean is likely to be less than 25 million years old and still evolving. Our simulations show that the ocean–ice interface reached a depth of less than 30 kilometres only recently (less than 2–3 million years ago), a time span too short for signs of activity at Mimas’s surface to have appeared.

Citation: Lainey, V., Rambaux, N., Tobie, G. et al. A recently formed ocean inside Saturn’s moon Mimas. Nature 626, 280–282 (2024).
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06975-9

Study-related stories:

Movie: Rebel Moon on Netflix

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Movie advertisement for Rebel Moon. (Nexflix)

In an earlier post, I mentioned those movies you don’t need to see until they come to your television. What is even easier is when they start on the television, as is the case with Netflix’s Rebel Moon.

Released in mid-December, and labeled as “Part One: A Child of Fire,” you may be witnessing the start of an interesting new series or the creation of content for it’s own sake. I have yet to decide myself.

Here is the trailer, which tells you a good part of the story. That, and this teaser from Netflix:

When the ruthless forces of the Motherworld threaten a quiet farming village on a distant moon, a mysterious outsider becomes its best hope for survival.

The movie has some decent special effects to go along with the usual well-worn tropes:

  • An empire with troublesome planets at the edges, similar to Star Wars and Foundation? Check.
  • Desert planet hosting an individual important to the empire, similar to Star Wars? Check.
  • Desert planet with wild saloons where you battle bounty hunters and hire rogue ships and pilots, similar to Star Wars? Check.
  • Confused robot not sure about its path, similar to Lost in Space? Check.
  • Ragtag band fighting evil, similar to Guardians of the Galaxy? Check.

The list could go on and on, with elements of Conan the Barbarian, Star Trek’s Borg Queen, Vikings: Valhalla, and Firefly thrown in as well. Oh yeah, and an evil empire where the officers where Nazi SS uniforms and are followed by masked religious figures similar to the ones you see in Dune.

The only redeeming portion of this film comes after the first half when the battle scenes and reincarnation of a key character provide some interesting twists. It may not save the entire effort, but it did add to the fun.

Part Two: The Scargiver will be released on April 19th. It is supposed to be the second and final episode of Rebel Moon.

Will I watch it? Probably. Am I recommending you watch it yourself? Not really, unless you need to kill a few hours. It can be interesting, if only to create your own list of well-worn tropes.

Podcast: Romans in Space

Posted on by onespaceman2000
 

If you are searching for a good podcast to listen to on your next drive, you might enjoy a recent podcast from The Rest is History discussing the ideas of the early Roman Republic that may have informed George Lucas and his Star Wars films.

In the episode, “Romans in Space: Star Wars, Dune and Beyond…,” the narrators also discuss the influence of Rome on other popular series, from earlier stories, such as Issac Asimov’s Foundation, Frank Herbert’s Dune, and Star Trek, to more recent tales, such as Battlestar Galactica and The Hunger Games. The discussion also touches on the role of the Nazis, the American Revolution, Islam, and even the story of King Arthur in these science fiction stories.

No stone is left unturned in this 55 minute episode, with plenty of ideas to keep your head spinning and your mind guessing. After listening, I bet you will play it a second time just to be sure you took it all in (and wrote down some references you might want to research on your own).