Favourite SciFi Moments

[Dave]

Sky One, the British satellite TV station, have been advertising a show they have lined up called 'Favourite SciFi Moments' (I've been unable to find out any more info than that, even when it is scheduled.)

I thought it could be a good thread idea though.

In the advert someone suggests the end of the original 'Planet of the Apes' film. I agree that that is a good one, but surely there is something better than that...

So, what is yours...?

[ray gower]

In fairness the end of most Sci/fi films is my favourite part, if only from the relief

But I would admit a certain fondness for the ending of The Day the World Split in Two, where the Earth gains a new moon. Or The Day the Earth Caught Fire where the world waits in breathless suspense to see if it will die after all.

[Dave]

I expected more replies to this, I've been thinking myself and have come up with a few 'Star Trek' ones don't come at the end of a film.

What about 'The Voyage Home'? -- Scotty talking to the computer Mouse, or Spock giving the Punk on the bus the nerve pinch -- What about the Vulcan ship landing in 'First Contact'?

What about the alien bursting out of John Hurt's chest in 'Alien'? Or the mashed potato mountain in 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'.

I'm still thinking on 'Star Wars' and 'The Matrix'...

It doesn't have to be a film either -- a TV series, a book too!

[Trouble]

One of my fav moments is when Neo stops the bullets in the Matrix...when luke loses the hand in ESB is classic, the alien through the ches bit.... can't really think of one though.

[Dave]

The programme was shown on TV tonight.

This is what their 'panel of experts' decided was the Top Ten:

10/ Star Wars – “Luke, I am your father!”
9/ Blake’s 7 – Final episode massacre.
8/ The Matrix – Bullet Time sequence.
7/ Quatermass and the Pit – Breaking into the alien pod.
6/ Planet of the Apes – Statue of Liberty scene.
5/ Doctor Who – Dalek Invasion of Earth.
4/ Close Encounters of the Third Kind – Aliens make contact.
3/ Thunderbirds – Opening titles sequence.
2/ Alien – Chest bursting scene.
1/ 2001: A Space Odyssey – Hal goes mad.

From that I would hazard a guess that their 'panel of experts' consisted mainly of 40 to 60 year old British people.

It had some good clips from TV and film, and interesting interviews, but I would dispute the list myself.

edit: this programme is actually a series -- next week it's 'Top Ten Scifi Aliens'. I'll start a new thread...

2nd edit: I've found a Sky One website:
http://www.skyone.co.uk/top10scifi_site/


This is there full list of 30 moments from which the top ten was chosen:

Aliens first land (Mars Attacks!)
Aliens make contact (Close Encounters of the Third Kind)
Bike Chase (E.T.)
Blowing up the Whitehouse (Independence Day)
Bullet-time fight sequence (The Matrix)
Chest bursting scene (Alien)
Creation of False Maria (Metropolis)
Daleks invade London (Doctor Who)
Dave travels through the Monolith (2001: A Space Odyssey)
Doc Brown connects the cables on the tower (Back to the Future)
Final episode massacre (Blake's 7)
First regeneration (Doctor Who)
HAL goes mad (2001: A Space Odyssey )
"I am your father, Luke" (Empire Strikes Back)
Lister's shrinking Boxer Shorts (Red Dwarf )
Man without a face (Sapphire and Steel)
Matrix is explained (The Matrix )
Number Six removes Number One's mask (The Prisoner)
Opening credits (The Tomorrow People)
Opening sequence (Star Wars)
Countdown opening sequence (Thunderbirds)
Opening shot of the City (Blade Runner)
Picard becomes Locutus of Borg (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy)
Robin Maxwell gives birth to an alien (V)
Sam Lowrey escapes the torture chamber (Brazil)
Statue of Liberty scene (Planet of the Apes)
The two newspaper headline scenarios (The Day the Earth Caught Fire)
Underground scene (Quatermass and the Pit)
Winston Smith and the rats (1984)

I would rate some of those much higher.

[Dave]

There are also many more I would add that they missed:

*First scene in Star Wars (A New Hope)
-- when Leia's ship passes followed by the huge Imperial Battle Cruiser that takes up the whole cinema screen and the sound makes the walls of the cinema rattle. (Not the same on a TV)

*The 'Burley Brawl' scene (The Matrix Reloaded)

*The final scene (Vanilla Sky)

but when I started this thread I thought people would add scenes from Buffy, X-Files...

[little smaug]

There are 2 Buffy moments that I would have in my top ten - when Buffy kills Angel at the end of "Becoming ptII", and when Buffy sacrifices herself to save Dawn at the end of "The Gift".

[Dave]

SFX magazine has printed a similar poll, and one that I think I agree with more; the 'Star Wars' scene I like came first.

Star Wars tops special effects

The opening scene from Star Wars, starring Harrison Ford, has been voted the best special effect in cinema history.

The first glimpse of the colossal Imperial Star Destroyer still has film fans awe-struck nearly 30 years after it was first seen.

The 1977 classic beat competition from state-of-the-art modern movies including The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Matrix.

In a galaxy far, far away, a rebel ship races into the distance pursued by blasts of gun fire. Then its pursuer comes into view - a ship so vast that it took moviegoers' breath away when the film first hit the big screen.

It topped a poll conducted by SFX magazine to find the greatest ever special effect.

"Star Wars winning the best special effects sequence ever shows just how significant the film is to movie fans," said SFX editor Dave Golder.

Most of the special effects in the top 10 were from older films.

The climax of 1933 classic King Kong, in which the giant ape climbs the Empire State Building with Fay Wray, was second.

Third was the gruesome moment in The Thing (1982) in which a severed head sprouts spider's legs.

The skeleton fight sequence from 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts - ground-breaking in its day - was fourth.

I liked 'Jason and the Argonaunts' and 'The Thing' too. I don't know how they didn't make it to the Sky One poll because they deserve a Top 10 place.

Does no-one have any more favourites of their own?

[Steffi]

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

When the mother ship appears from behind the devil mountain
and when it talks to the computer with music......GOOD STUFF

Stargate the movie

When the wormhole opens for the first time

2010

When Jupiter becomes a new sun

Best of Both Worlds

Blood runs cold when Cpt. Picard becomes Locutus of Borg

[Kanazaka]

Here are some of mine, in no particular order:

1) Rick Deckard's spinner flying toward the pyramid headquarters of the Tyrell Corporation in Blade Runner

2) The final scene of Gattaca

3) Yoda lifting Luke's X-Wing out of the Dagobah swamp in The Empire Strikes Back

4) Smith's death in The Matrix

5) "Get away from her, you *****!" in Aliens

6) The final scene in Star Wars

7) The final shot of the original Planet of the Apes

8) The first revelation of the "psychic energy monster" in Forbidden Planet

[imported_Sandman]

Almsot any part of E.T....
E.T. & Eliot taking off and flying around on his bike is one of my favs or Eliot figuring out that E.T. wants to phone home.
I guess i'm just a sucker for that movie.

or


Jurassic Park...when Dr. Grant sees the dinosaurs for the first time.

[L. Arkwright]

First post for a while

1 Opening scene in Blade Runner
2 Roy's speech towards the end of Blade Runner
3 The first time you ever see the dead pilot in Alien
4 The hologram memory room scene in 2001 ASO
5 The premise behind Robert Reed's fantastic novel "Marrow"

[wikiberry]

Currently I am quite into Red Dwarf. I am especially fond of the part where they show Red Dwarf in the beginning of each eps of early series. It starts with a person in a space suit painting the hull and the camera moves back and further back to see how HUUUUUUUUGE the ship is!

[immortalem]

My favorite Sci-fi moment is in Aliens when newt is in the water and she is looking around and you know the alien is going to get her. It's a very suspenseful moment.