Slashdot Asks: What Are Some Sci-Fi Books, Movies, and TV Shows You're Looking Forward To?

Even as Hollywood studios report fewer footfalls in theaters, the last few years have arguably been impressive if you're a sci-fi admirer. Last year, we finally got to watch the Blade Runner 2049, and the The Last Jedi and Logan also found plenty of backers. In 2016, Arrival was a home run for many. Star Trek: Discovery, and Stranger Things TV shows continue to receive positive feedback from critics, and the The X-Files is also quickly winning its loyal fans back.

"Artemis" by Andy Weir and "New York 2140" by Kim Stanley have found their ways among best selling books. "Borne" by Jeff VanderMeer, and "Walkaway" by BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow have also been widely loved by the readers.

On that note, what are some movies, TV shows, and books on sci-fi that you are waiting to explore in the next two to three years?

Comments

The OA

[mknewman]

I was very pleased with season 1. It's on Netflix. Season 2 is in work. I also am looking forward to Altered Carbon.

Any that aren't about 'social justice'.

[Anonymous Coward]

All I'm awaiting is a new sci-fi movie that isn't about 'social justice' or otherwise forcing leftist ideologies on the audience.

Re: Any that aren't about 'social justice'.

[Anonymous Coward]

In other words something set in the future but reflecting the social and ethical atitudes of the past?

Re: Any that aren't about 'social justice'.

[Anonymous Coward]

'Social justice' is an amplification of the bigotry of the past. The leftists pushing 'social justice' are the ones who are fixated on classifying people into extremely fine-grained groupings based on physical traits or other attributes. They have even managed to take it to a level never seen in the past, continually introducing new ways of dividing people into smaller and smaller groups. The people who are supposedly decrying things like racism, sexism, prejudice, and intolerance often end up being the ones who engage in such behaviors the most egregiously.

Re: Any that aren't about 'social justice'.

[lgw]

'Social justice' is an amplification of the bigotry of the past. The leftists pushing 'social justice' are the ones who are fixated on classifying people into extremely fine-grained groupings based on physical traits or other attributes. They have even managed to take it to a level never seen in the past, continually introducing new ways of dividing people into smaller and smaller groups. The people who are supposedly decrying things like racism, sexism, prejudice, and intolerance often end up being the ones who engage in such behaviors the most egregiously.

STTOS and STTNG were great at showing us a different path. A way of living where, simply, no one cared about race - at least among Earthlings. People were judged on the content of their character, not the color of their skin. To me, that's part of the appeal of good SF - it presents a world where we're just beyond that shit, and have different problems.

Contrast that with STD. The only way STD could be redeemed as Star Trek is if it were revealed the show was set in the mirror universe (at which point it would become the coolest "twist" ever).

In general I've just about had it with "Dark Version of Thing from your Childhood". Let's have something inspiring - what SF used to be!

Re:Any that aren't about 'social justice'.

[PopeRatzo]

All I'm awaiting is a new sci-fi movie that isn't about 'social justice' or otherwise forcing leftist ideologies on the audience.

Then I'm not sure science fiction is what you're looking for.

Science fiction has always leaned toward social justice, and to a great extent, leftist ideology. There are some counter-examples, but overall, the arc of science fiction bends toward justice.

Re: Any that aren't about 'social justice'.

[lgw]

Oh, troll elsewhere.

Sure, SF is often used for social commentary, because you can get away with stuff you can't point out directly. But that only works when it's not the norm. The Golden Age of SF was much more about proposing all sorts of ways man might live in the future, including many that were the author's idea of utopia, but the point was people were happy in the setting, outside of whatever the drama of the book was. Heinlein was rare in showing how silly some of these ideas were when taken to the extreme, but even then his books were never about how miserable everyone was.

Re: Any that aren't about 'social justice'.

[ThanatosMinor]

'Social justice' is an amplification of the bigotry of the past. The leftists pushing 'social justice' are the ones who are fixated on classifying people into extremely fine-grained groupings based on physical traits or other attributes. They have even managed to take it to a level never seen in the past, continually introducing new ways of dividing people into smaller and smaller groups.

By "dividing people into...groups" do you mean "describing different groups?" Talking about different demographics and how policies might affect them differently isn't dividing them, it's simply recognizing them. Society has always been comprised of different groups of people, some large and some small. Have you ever talked about your family vs someone else's family or families in general? You're "dividing people into groups." Almost everyone I've ever talked to who rails against this kind of practice is also likely to blame talking about racism for racism ("there wasn't all this racism before Obama"), but what that argument ignores is that society has already done these divisions and is already treating people differently based on their physical traits or other attributes. What you have issue with isn't the division, but merely talking about it. You want to ignore society's unfair treatment of some groups because they're not your groups. That's your prerogative but don't pretend you're the victim of leftist propaganda when all you have to do is not watch or read those stories and you still get to not care.

"Social justice" and activists looking at how certain populations are underserved and/or underrepresented is how we got the 19th Amendment. It's why Jim Crow laws aren't legal anymore. And in the future it'll be why nobody raises a fuss when a trans woman uses the women's bathroom (if separate bathrooms even still exist). Discrimination in sci-fi is generally not treated as a good thing, but there's an entire subgenre of dystopian sci-fi you can read to get your fix of the powerful stepping on everyone else. But I should warn you that even in most of those books your side loses.

The people who are supposedly decrying things like racism, sexism, prejudice, and intolerance often end up being the ones who engage in such behaviors the most egregiously.

Citation needed

Cloverfield 3

[Anonymous Coward]

The currently untitled Cloverfield III, only for its ARG (which is starting to pick up now)...

Black Panther

[WillAffleckUW]

Especially the spin off where they fight with giant mech robots in space

Re:Black Panther

[Jason Levine]

But a guy flying in a one man armored suit, a man frozen for 60 or so years in a chunk of ice (with no physical problems), a Norse god with a magic hammer, a kid who can cling to walls, and a thief who can shrink down and talk with ants are all totally realistic, right?

Wishlist

[Anonymous Coward]

I want more people to make movies like Interstellar. Interstellar wasn't perfect, but it was visually appealing and much of the Science they show was accurate. I would love to see more people explore this territory.

Re:Wishlist

[serviscope_minor]

I want more people to make movies like Interstellar. Interstellar wasn't perfect, but it was visually appealing and much of the Science they show was accurate. I would love to see more people explore this territory.

No fuck no nope nope NOPE NOPE.

The whole thing was full of stupid.

1. Monoculture is destroying crops. PLANT MORE MONOCULTURE
2. Why do you care if a planet has hydrocarbon fuel if there's no oxygen in the atmosphere
3. Anne Hathaway does nothing but scream and endanger the mission
4. Love transcends the fifth dimension wooooooooooooo
5. WTF solving theoretical physics problems doesn't let you do magic
6. Murph! Murph! Murph! oh yeah and my son (but fuck him) MURPH!!!!!

And so on.

It looked cool though.

Battlestar Galactica, because . . . .

[Joey Vegetables]

Everything has happened before, and everything will happen again.

The Orville, Ready Player One

[bjdevil66]

With all the interesting sci-fi out there, I'm mostly looking forward to more of The Orville. After a really lame trailer and the first couple of episodes being kind of forgettable, it improved quickly - and by the end was actually thought-provoking at times.

And of course, Ready Player One. I hope Spielberg's adaption doesn't change too much from the book (mild spoiler alert: the method of earning the copper key looks like it has changed some, per the trailer, and I hope the Rush references get left in at least partially), but it looks really promising. And casting the bad guy from Rogue One as the CEO of IOI was a great choice, IMO. Like Alan Rickman before him, that guy seems like he was born to play aristocratic, evil antagonists.

Re:The Orville, Ready Player One

[Anonymous Coward]

I appreciate that people are enjoying The Orville. I've watched most of its episodes but it just feels... hollow? It always feels like the blandest episodes of TNG or Voyager, which is to be expected considering Seth is a huge fan and Brannon Braga is heavily involved. I hate sounding like I think I'm better than it, but I feel like my tastes have moved on. This is a constant conversation with my friends from way back because we were all big Trek nerds and they're all about Orville and I'm not.

Re:The Orville, Ready Player One

[Anonymous Coward]

It can't decide whether it should focus on comedy or be a standard star trek-like adventure show.

Re:The Orville, Ready Player One

[bjdevil66]

Good points about Braga, Seth being a fan, etc. It definitely feels like Trek sans teleporters and with different races.

What sets The Orville apart, IMO, is that it keeps the upbeat arc of classic Trek (vs. the gritty, negative, "real" sci-fi view of the future) AND it has imperfect characters flawed in ways that we can relate to today. That makes them more interesting and fun to watch.

We all probably know the guy from the elevator with the music playlist idea, the officer that hates clowns (especially vampire clowns), the couple that fights over one of them not spending quality time at home, the busy professional with spoiled ass children that won't put down their "phone", religious fanatics that you can empathize with but still question their sanity, wealthy snobs that look down on military service with disdain, etc.

I mean, who cares if an orc gets "blooded", or a klingon regains his honor? I do care if there are vampire clowns out there, however. Damn...

Altered Carbon

[Cajun Hell]

Altered Carbon is the obvious one, simply because it's so imminent (thus should be on everyone's radar right about now). It's been a while but I remember the book as "cool."

The Ringworld!

[Astrogoth13]

I can not wait! Snowcrash is a close second but still second. All Ringworld swag will be MINE! Posters, figures, soundtracks, pet Kzin. Mine!

Ready Player One

[BenFenner]

The book Ready Player One is more of an MMORPG fantasy than proper Sci-Fi but I enjoyed it quite a bit. I've waiting for the movie to come out. If you've ever been sucked into an MMORPG like I have (Diablo 1, then Ultima Online, then EverQuest) then you'll likely enjoy the book. I'm hoping the movie will live up to the book. Lately Hollywood has been mostly good at bringing books to the screen (Harry Potter, Twilight, The Hunger Games, etc.).

Re:Ready Player One

[jlv]

I'm really worried about the Ready Player One movie. WTF are the race cars all those IOI employees are getting into?

Shameful Moderation

[Anonymous Coward]

Why was my post modded down? Is there any cogent explanation for this? I'd really like to hear it.

My post specifically addresses inaccurate and misleading statements made by msmash, who wrote this story. Therefore, it is most certainly relevant to the topic.

The comment about Star Trek: Discovery is certainly accurate. With respect to The X-Files, the ratings for seasons 10 and 11 are facts and are readily available for anyone to see. So are the criticial reviews that panned season 10 while saying that season 11 is better. Gillian Anderson's desire to leave after this season is widely reported, as is the desire of Fox to only renew the show if Anderson and David Duchovny are on board for a new season.

So, why did my post deserve to be modded down? I'd really like to know. Why bother trying to write an informative post if it's going to quickly be modded down? Slashdot is becoming truly awful.

As for the likely response that I should simply post from an account, I requested my account to be deleted in frustration with the current owner, because Slashdot has declined in quality so much. Besides, it shouldn't matter if an informative post is made anonymously or from an account. Facts are facts.

Slashdot is awful now, and the moderation is a significant part and reflection of this. The editing is just as bad, too.

More Shameful Moderation

[Anonymous Coward]

I see that my reply is also at -1, and that it was moderated very quickly.

Whipslash promised to do a story about the direction he's going with Slashdot, specifically to discuss topics like moderation. This happened a few weeks ago, but whipslash has yet to follow through with this promise.

I've flagged the original downmod as abuse, for editors to review it. I'll also be flagging the downmod on the parent post for editor review.

If this is an ordinary user rather than an editor abusing mod points, it's a shame that they're able to do so anonymously. Perhaps it's time to do away with anonymous moderation and associate moderation with the accounts that are responsible.

More Vinge, please?

[jeffb (2.718)]

He certainly doesn't crank things out quickly, but most of it is eminently worth waiting for. His last novel was a bit of a misfire, but he's talked about a couple of other things in the queue from the Zones of Thought universe, and I'd love to see something entirely new from him as well.

Re:The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

[Quirkz]

I'd recently read John Steakley's "Armor," and had not yet read "Starship Troopers" so when I saw the previews, I thought it was going to be for Armor. Admittedly, Steakley wrote Armor specifically as an action-oriented take on Heinlein's premise, so there is a connection. I'd still like to see them do Armor - it'd make a fine movie.