know of any good examples of sci fi terms that aren't used anymore and if they are, they're looked at as if they have three heads?

I'm talking about ray-gun, memory bank, databank and so on.

Moving this to Movies for Modelers as I think it's more appropriate there. Nothin' personal.

yup. I'd have done the same thing if I had the capability. I realized my mistake after the fact - as usual. :o

I've been scratching my head, but other than what you've mentioned I can't immediately think of anything. :(

I'm sure sumthin'll come to me, eventually.

"Rocketship" isn't a term you hear much anymore. You can also add "flying car" to the list until someone comes around to claim it.

"Atomic submarine?"

Jim

Actually, I think Atomic anything. Just don't hear Atomic at all.

Haven't heard "Invisible Force Field" or "Roger Wilco" in a while :p
Mcdee

verniers, gimbals and robot(for humanoids) aren't used that much anymore.

Do I remember correctly that Robby said to the Captain that he was "monitored" to not allow him to enter the house?. I think the updated term today would be "programmed".

you think to "monitor" Robby, Morbius used punch cards?

Klystron has a retro feel to it. Sure, it has real-world applications but it just seems dated to me.

Do I remember correctly that Robby said to the Captain that he was "monitored" to not allow him to enter the house?. I think the updated term today would be "programmed".

cool reference.

Along the same lines, in Heinlein's early books one of his characters was Andrew Jackson "Slipstick" Libby. You won't find too many slipsticks (sliderules), or giant calculating machines run on vacuum tubes today. In Rocketship Galileo, I think the plan was to build giant circuits in the moon's vacuum.

Heinlein also had "stereo tanks," a kind of holographic TV. One of his weirder ideas was road cities: they were built on giant conveyor belts and the city moved around the country but the people stayed put. He is credited for automobile airbags and the term "grok."

ah, here we go: From Star Trek II

Hyperchannel, commpic

May the Schwartz be with you.

Steve

~snip~
One of his weirder ideas was road cities: they were built on giant conveyor belts and the city moved around the country but the people stayed put.


The modern update to this is "nano georgaphy". The idea is that the underside of a building, a lake, any physical piece of property as we know it now, has trillions of nanobots that move the property, slowly roaming where it wills or directed. They cover land or water as if they were the same. This works on a personal to city level. A person with such shoes should be able to achieve dozens to hundreds of mph. This notion also makes the wheel obsolete.
----

My hope is that the prefix 'nano' and 'cyber' are already dated. No one living in a society based on nano or cybertech would use the prefix nano or cyber. A "cyber arm" is a prosthesis, the cyber is irrelevant. But it could still be used as a generic noun or verb as in "Is your arm cybered?" "Cyber me!" "Get me some cyber while I'm at it."

It's like the prefix 'space': space food, space captain, space pen, space men, space monsters, even space ship, etc. You know it's a space ship based on context of the milieu -as opposed to airships or water ships. Perhaps 'space' as a prefix is still needed occassionaly, but they went overboard back in the 50's.

Since my era is that of the 'golden' sci-fi era, I find myself still using the early space-age terms as "atomic", "spaceship", "rocketship", "outer space", etc., much to the delight of those much younger than me.

Actually, I think Atomic anything. Just don't hear Atomic at all.I can't remember which writer it was -- maybe Robert Heinlein -- who coined the term "atomjacks" for atomic powerplant workers. Sounds futuristic in a Fifties blue-collar way.

I haven't heard "astrogator" used in quite a while, meaning either a person who navigates a spacecraft or a device used for that purpose. And nobody calls astronauts "spacemen" any more, although the word is still sometimes used to mean someone FROM space -- or someone who looks and acts as if he's in space!

What about "food pills"? Both the term and the concept are dated. I mean, did anyone seriously think that someday people would take all their nourishment in pill form? How utterly boring. Humans are sensual creatures. We like to EAT!!

And before Star Trek gave us "warp drive," SF writers used other terms for faster-than-light propulsion: hyperdrive, hyperspace, star-drive, to name a few. In fact, "hyperdrive" was heard in the original Star Trek pilot.

A related topic is the use in SF of real-world terms that are already dated now, for example, Kirk's reference to "printed circuits" in "This Side of Paradise," or Scotty's description of the Botany Bay (launched in the 1990s!) as containing "transistor units."

And, getting a bit further off-topic but somewhat relevant, there was that cheap writer's device of making something sound futuristic by adding a numeric prefix. "Duotronic" computers, "tri-ox" compound, "tri-laser" connector, "trimagnesite" flares (sounds like magnesium, obviously), and, of course, "quadrotriticale"!

How about 'Power Pack". As in Dr. Smith removed the Robots Power Pack.
Today it would probably be termed a fuel cell or power/energy cell.

Max Bryant

Picture/video phone, videotape, history tapes, android, droid, ro-man, cyborg, mainframe, bug-eyed/green martian, people's names that include numbers: Klar Ken T5477/PW 5598/Bruce Wayn E7705/C-3PO/R2-D2, instant food machine, anti-grav/anti-gravity (fill-in-the-blank), and, of course, Sci-Fi.

Countdowns. They ALWAYS had a countdown before they did ANYTHING! "Retro-rockets in 5!-4!-3!-2!-1!-Fire!"

Picture/video phone, videotape, history tapes, android, droid, ro-man, cyborg, mainframe, bug-eyed/green martian, people's names that include numbers: Klar Ken T5477/PW 5598/Bruce Wayn E7705/C-3PO/R2-D2, instant food machine, anti-grav/anti-gravity (fill-in-the-blank), and, of course, Sci-Fi.The word "videotape" is still used, though it now describes an obsolescent technology. We still speak of androids and cyborgs, don't we? As for "sci-fi" -- hell, we use that term every day! The legacy of Forry Ackerman.

And it's funny how we used to think folks in the future would all have either numbers instead of names, or names with lots of K's and Z's in them.

Meteor swarm
computer tapes

and how is it that computers', robots' and martians' (another term) voices interchangeable?

Also, I wish people would get the fact that we live in the Milky Way galaxy and it's not some far away place.

Blastoff!

I wish people would get the fact that we live in the Milky Way galaxy and it's not some far away place.

That will happen when they understand that we live in a planetary system (the solar system--and why is that as a proper name not capitalized as, I think, "earth" used as the planet's name should also be?) and properly use the term "galaxy" and so on. :p

Tractor Beam, an oldie but goodie!

How about just waiting for the weapon or communication systems tubes to warm up before you saw a picture?

Not so much a dated "term" but how about the computers and effects? especially the TOS computer "Working..... *assorted electro-mechanical sound effects* I called those sound effects the coffee grinder.

Don't forget those computers with the rotating tape reels. Or the far future where the entire knowledge of an advanced civilisation is recorded on a handful of perspex blocks no bigger than a deck of cards.

Of course if you want to go on a 50's sci-fi kick you could check out Frank Zappa's 'The Radio is Broken'...Frank was a big fan of B-movies and pulp SF and he namechecks a lot of redundant technology. It's all very strange but funny all the same...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWSPmXUqHos&feature=related

Here's the lyrics.....

The cosmos at large
It's so very big
It's so far away
The comets...the craters...the vapors
The solar wind
The residual echoes...the residual echoes
The residual echoes from the giant explosion
Where they said it beginned

The germs from space!
The negative-virus knit-wear
The blobulent suit
That's right! THE BLOBULENT SUIT
It's made of rubber, it's very ugly
It's got an air hose...
(The guy that has it all has a SPACE WRENCH!)

The things that were supposed to be green
In the black and white movies
They get you in the neck when you're not looking
They get you, the get you, they get you, get you, get you
The radio is broken -- it don't work no more
The radio is broken -- it don't work no more
The lovely Lisa Kranston:
(Her father invented the secret fuel (that's right!)
For the rocket
So she gets to go with a clipboard!
She writes it down when the meters go around
And falls in love in a space warp
Space warp
Space warp

The giant knobs
The porthole where you see the earth for the first time
The corrugated fiberglass interior walls
The partially reclining G-force lawn furniture
The brown hole
The pointed brassieres
The atomic war
The tiny little dresses on the space girls
A love-starved race begging to reproduce with earthmen
They need to reproduce (with John Agar)
They need to reproduce (with Morris Ankrum)
They need to reproduce (with Richard Basehart)
They need to reproduce (with Jackie Coogan)
They need to reproduce (with Sonny Tufts)

The botchino...the botchino...the botchino

The gigantic spider
The co-pilot always plays the harmonica
The navigator always gets killed by a bad space person
Uh-oh -- the radio is broken
It don't work anymore
The radio is broken
It don't work anymore
The radio is broken
It don't work anymore
We'll never get back to the Earth no more
Uh-oh!
We have to fall in love on Uranus!
The radio is...
That's right -- uh-oh
The radio is broken
The meteor storm
You spilled your coke
You're stepping on the popcorn
JOHN AGAR!
Uh-oh...
(Dwarf Nebula)


...Botchino by the way is a venusian word spoken in Queen of Outer Space starring Zsa Zsa Gabor

I can't say that this is sci-fi specifically, but I didn't think it was a dated or dead term ...until today.

For a couple of years now, I've had a quote on my office door by Werner Von Braun, "Crash programs fail because they are based on the theory that, with nine pregnant women, you can get a baby a month". It turns out that for as long as I've had that quote up, my students have been mystified as to it's meaning, as well as who Werner Von Braun is (was). I had no idea and only realized because ...today, they asked.

I explained who Von Braun was and why he'd say something like that. "Sure Mr. O., but what's a crash program?" Oy, teenagers can make you feel young, but also very old.

John O.

Not so much a dated "term" but how about the computers and effects? especially the TOS computer "Working..... *assorted electro-mechanical sound effects* I called those sound effects the coffee grinder.That was similar to Robby in Forbidden Planet. Before he spoke, the row of switches under his dome would move and there would be a sound effect like an old electromechanical adding machine when you hit the "total" button.

Another dated effect, or rather a dated prop: Video telephones with rotary dials! . . . The pointed brassieres
The atomic war
The tiny little dresses on the space girls
A love-starved race begging to reproduce with earthmen
They need to reproduce (with John Agar)
They need to reproduce (with Morris Ankrum)
They need to reproduce (with Richard Basehart)
They need to reproduce (with Jackie Coogan)
They need to reproduce (with Sonny Tufts)Sonny TUFTS???
http://img2.allposters.com/images/LIFPOD/190294.jpg

How about the Grand Daddy of em all? ---- "FLYING SAUCER"

Geminibuildups

And of course any Onscreen Writing would always have that typewriter sound as the letters appeared.

Another dated effect, or rather a dated prop: Video telephones with rotary dials!Sonny TUFTS???

What's weird is that a lot of that stuff was purposely archaic so the stupid audience would know that it was a videophone and not some fellow talking to the television. The fact that the people on the screen were replying in context would have offered no clue as to what was going on, I'm sure.:rolleyes:

I think that Star Trek, besides its own dated tech and terms, was one of the few shows/movies that actually dared to treat the audience with some respect in that regard (not counting the first pilot).

Did anyone mention "laser beams"? (I guess today most people would just say "lasers".)

Also, computer names ending in "-ac". I was bummed when Sperry-Univac changed its name to Unisys back in the '80s. That still sounds like some kind of unpleasant medical condition no one really wants to talk about.

As per the movies:
One thing that always cracks me up is how all of Kubrick's neat flat video screens in 2001 were replaced by conventional curved CRTs for 2010. Talk about "retro-tech"! I assume that they didn't want to spring for multitudes of FX inserts to replicate the originals. CRTs look kind of silly whenever they show up in the Star Trek films, too. (IIRC the original series depicted flat screens, too, whenever they could. Pretty far-sighted and forward-looking for '60s TV.)

I was bummed when Sperry-Univac changed its name to Unisys back in the '80s. That still sounds like some kind of unpleasant medical condition no one really wants to talk about.To me, Unisys sounds like it could be short for "United Sisters" -- maybe a nuns' union or something.One thing that always cracks me up is how all of Kubrick's neat flat video screens in 2001 were replaced by conventional curved CRTs for 2010. Talk about "retro-tech"! I assume that they didn't want to spring for multitudes of FX inserts to replicate the originals. CRTs look kind of silly whenever they show up in the Star Trek films, too. (IIRC the original series depicted flat screens, too, whenever they could. Pretty far-sighted and forward-looking for '60s TV.)And Syd Mead's cluttered hardware designs for 2010 actually looked more primitive than the sleek, sterile spacecraft of 2001. But I suppose that could be explained by the fact that 2010's spaceship was Russian!

The dozens of visual screen displays in 2001 were done with traditional frame-by-frame cell animation and rear-projected onto the flat screens. By the time 2010 was made, it was cheaper and more practical to use real computer graphics displayed on real CRT screens. Same with Trek TOS -- the display screens were flat more by necessity than choice. in the 1960s, it was technically more feasible to use matte inserts or rear projection than to have actual TV monitors on the set. Fantastic Voyage (1966) was unusual for its time in using real video screens on the CMDF control room set.

To me, Unisys sounds like it could be short for "United Sisters" -- maybe a nuns' union or something.LOL - sounds like they've gone corporate for the new millennium!

And Syd Mead's cluttered hardware designs for 2010 actually looked more primitive than the sleek, sterile spacecraft of 2001. But I suppose that could be explained by the fact that 2010's spaceship was Russian!Agreed, except I've often been intrigued by Russian industrial design, and Syd failed to capture the sense of no-nonsense, confident simplicity that's evident in so much of the stuff they designed. I'm such a fan of his paintings, yet there has never been anything remotely Soviet about his signature aesthetic approach. I'm surprised he was hired for 2010.

I recently caught the last half of 2010, and all I can say is, wow, for anyone who appreciates the unsurpassed technical, dramatic, and aesthetic achievements of 2001, 2010 in nothing less than painful to watch. Almost every aspect that is wonderful about 2001 has been dumbed down in 2010 to the point of actually being insulting. I even prefer the homicidal, eye-on-the-prize 2001 HAL 9000; the reborn 'noble' HAL almost made me toss my tacos.
The dozens of visual screen displays in 2001 were done with traditional frame-by-frame cell animation and rear-projected onto the flat screens. By the time 2010 was made, it was cheaper and more practical to use real computer graphics displayed on real CRT screens. Same with Trek TOS -- the display screens were flat more by necessity than choice. in the 1960s, it was technically more feasible to use matte inserts or rear projection than to have actual TV monitors on the set. Fantastic Voyage (1966) was unusual for its time in using real video screens on the CMDF control room set.Thanks for the info - I didn't know all that background. IMHO the simple, seemingly 'commonplace' flat screens in 2001 are a major contributor to its incomparable futuristic ambiance. The only drawback about the ones in ST:TOS is that they usually have old-fashioned rounded corners!

Tractor Beam, an oldie but goodie!

I wouldn't say that the term is old fashioned or dated, merely well used. The term "tractor beam" has been around since 1966, but was used in the original Star Wars film and nearly every iteration of Trek into the 21st century.

Now, if it was the term "magnetic beam" or "magneto ray"....now, those are really dated!

Bryan

I wouldn't say that the term is old fashioned or dated, merely well used. The term "tractor beam" has been around since 1966, but was used in the original Star Wars film and nearly every iteration of Trek into the 21st century.

Now, if it was the term "magnetic beam" or "magneto ray"....now, those are really dated!

Bryan

Tractor beam goes back a lot further than that. I have a Buck Rogers collection of comics from the 1930s, and it talks about "tractor beams". Tractor beams were originally called "attractor beams", then someone shortened it and it stuck.

The S.T. screens were also flat because they were designed for slide projectors to be used for the images. That was shot down when they found out that they would need a union projectionist for each projector!

One reason you didn't see many real tv monitors used in the 60s was because of the care that was needed to sync the monitors, and the cameras to eliminate the scan lines on the monitors.

David.

The word "videotape" is still used, though it now describes an obsolescent technology. We still speak of androids and cyborgs, don't we? As for "sci-fi" -- hell, we use that term every day! The legacy of Forry Ackerman.

The use of "videotape" as a verb is hardly ever used anymore in movies and everyday conversation.

After Star Wars popularized the contraction "droids", the word "androids" was rarely used anymore.

The word "cyborg" is rarely used in movies and everyday conversation.

As for "Sci-Fi".......well.......(unfortunately for 4E)......is now SyFy......whether us older people like it or not.

As for "Sci-Fi".......well.......(unfortunately for 4E)......is now SyFy......whether us older people like it or not.

The only "SyFy" I know of is the former "Sci-Fi Channel."

"Sci-fi" is still "sci-fi" as far as I know. The reason the cable channel changed its name, I would think, is in order to have a shorter, registered trademark since "sci-fi" is a real word and not a brand name they made up.

I always thought that using sound for a ship in space was kinda weird too. In space, no one can hear you scream.

How about "blast-off!"?

I always thought that using sound for a ship in space was kinda weird too. In space, no one can hear you scream.

Yeah, but it would have been really dull without the Jupiter 2's unique sound, wouldn't it?

Jeff

Yeah, but it would have been really dull without the Jupiter 2's unique sound, wouldn't it?

Jeff

Not necessarily!

After all, 2001: A Space Odyssey filled in the silence of space with The Blue Danube music. Perhaps other movies and TV shows would have also had music added after a few moments of silence to accentuate the airlessness and to stay scientifically accurate in that regard.

I was disappointed with every space movie and TV show after 2001 for that reason. It's like they were treating us like idiots. Even Star Trek with that whooshie sound in the opening credits.

Allot of the so-called obsolete terms really aren't obsolete as people think.
They are terms that often were taken from the scientific and engineering community. Ray, memory, magnetism, etc are valid words today still.

.

THAT DOES NOT COMPUTE!

Here is my contribution (you never heard it before and after LIS):

Or did you?

Didn't the computer in Space1999 say something like that.

Which bring up the voice of all computers. They spoke, but always with a 'mechanical quality'.
If you're going to put in a voice chip, it would sound like the voice chip! Star Wars changed that, except for R2D2. It has a thousand gadgets, but no voice chip.

Gee, I liked 2010. It was preachy, but a good message. And we learned what a ballute was.

Sorry, I didn't mean to be too harsh. I think if Kubrick's version of 2001 didn't exist, then 2010 would be a fine movie on its own without the comparison to be made. But I think that 2010 pales in comparison to 2001, at least in most artistic aspects, barring that of conventional cinematic entertainment. In that respect, I consider 2010 to be very well made, given the limitations of Clarke's published sequel. (However, the scene in which the aliens send the cease-and-desist text message to all of humanity generally puts me ROFL - gosh, talk about spelling things out for the audience!)