On Mon, 16 Jul 2018 13:37:12 -0700, you wrote:
On Sun, Jul 15, 2018 at 08:45 AM, David Hess wrote:
They were using stories from actual science fiction writers. Larry
Niven wrote Inconsistent Moon which was episode 12 of season 2.
AAAAHHHH, I think I remember that one. the guy from Family Ties was on it and he was a scientist who figured the sun had gone nova, but it turned out to be a solar flare. He had the hots for this Woman and was a bit shy to approach her but when he thought the world was gong to end he went for her. She got a little bit miffed over that but got over it. the shockwave at the speed of sound hit them and the flare did kinda FUBAR the Earth but it did not kill everyone. he was kinda thinking when he wanted to cook all the food they had because the utilities were bound to go off.
For what it is worth, the woman was based on Marilyn "Fuzzy Pink"
Niven from the time that I assume he was dating her.
It had a bit more of a human touch than I prefer in scifi but not too bad. Even with Star Trek, which I cut my teeth on, the ones that are like a soap opera are not my favorite to say the least. I don't really even watch DS9 because of that. not that it is bad, it is just not my taste.
There was a close link between Larry Niven and David Gerrold who wrote
many Star Trek - TOS episodes. I think Niven only wrote one which
ended up in TAS. I do not know about later Star Trek.
When I was a kid, 7 when it came out nobody was allowed to talk when it was on. We had the choice, shut up, outside or hell broke loose, maybe locked in a closet or something. My Parents were not really abusive at all. Tough, but then so was I. But the olman was allowed to talk and he made some jokes about it that literally had me on the floor rolling in laughter. I mean to the point where I missed part of the show. But they did reruns so all was not lost.
That series was great, as well as some that followed, but I have to say, the new Outer Limits actually beat them.
I found some of the old Twilight Zone and Outer Limits episodes to be
terrifying as a child. The Zanti Misfits comes to mind.
The Masters of Science Fiction and Masters of Horror anthologies which
ran around 2007 were pretty good. I think they drew on some of the
same source material as The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. The
more recent Black Mirror series is also worth checking out.
I recall seeing a couple instances of Tektronix oscilloscopes in those
series but would have to rewatch them to be sure. I have only watched
a couple Black Mirror episodes so far.
David Hess