In Praise of the Sci-fi Corridor 171
brumgrunt writes "Technically a corridor in a science-fiction movie should just be a means of getting from one big expensive set to the next, and yet Den Of Geek writes lovingly of the detailed conduits in films such as Alien, Outland, Solaris and even this year's Moon by Duncan Jones."
How to do a much shorter article next time (Score:3, Interesting)
Creepiest sci-fi corridor (Score:3, Interesting)
Event Horizon! Can you imagine trying to walk down that hall with the walls spinning around you?
Of course, maybe Event Horizon doesn't actually qualify as science fiction.
Re:Star Wars Gets "More Later"? Really? (Score:5, Interesting)
A friend of mine who films his own movies has a corriodor in his basement. He says that corridor is one of his primary sets.
The same was true with Trek. If they weren't on the bridge, they were in some damn corridor. One of the things I liked about DS9 and Babylon 5 was that they had lots of "open" sets, and tried to avoid corridors as much as possible.
Re:How to do a much shorter article next time (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:How to do a much shorter article next time (Score:3, Interesting)
Idiocracy may reach extreme levels and an AI born from the technological singularity may control everything.
People may even have a total lack of privacy.
As long as everyone is confortable (lack of privacy is not uncomfortable by itself, it's the negative reactions of the other people and your broken expectations that do it.) and entertained, nobody will care.
Re:Star Wars Gets "More Later"? Really? (Score:5, Interesting)
You can't really fault Trek for having so many corridors when most of the shots occur on the ship. If the space ships of Star Trek are anything like U.S. naval vessels, then they are mostly corridors connecting rooms. The rooms will be cargo, berthing, galleys, a few work shops, engineering, and the bridge. If the ship supports fly ops, it will have a hanger and flight deck.
The important thing is that there will be no "open" decks. Everything will be enclosed, much like a modern submarine. Space will be at a premium due to life support considerations, so rooms will be small and packed together. Plus, depending on how long it takes to get around, there is the matter of food and water storage, recycling systems.
In ST:TOS, the Enterprise would often be "three weeks out" from the starbase of the week. It had a crew of about 1,000. So, the ship had to have enough food, water, and air for 1,000 people for three weeks. Even with the "replicators", there would need to be source matter to create the food from. Let us not forget waste handling. Ejecting it from the ship means loss of material, water, and air. Storing requires voids. Recycling it requires space for the recycling equipment.
Also, a ship moves through space so it must have engines and fuel. The bigger the rooms, the bigger the ship, the more mass the ship has, the bigger the engines and the more fuel it needs.
Most people forget many of the details required for life because those details are taken for granted on a planet.
Corridors are the natural result of building large space ships with large crew compliments. Even a large cargo vessel will be some huge empty spaces for the cargo and a large space for engineering both connected to a small crew section which will be mostly small rooms off of corridors.
Re:Blakes 7 had the best corridors!!! (Score:3, Interesting)
When a Sci-Fi corridor is mentioned I instantly think of old series Dr. Who. They were all flimsy and cheap, but they were interesting to look at and it always seemed like half the story involved the Doctor and/or an assistant running through them.
Best corridor(s) from the classic 2001 (Score:5, Interesting)
The best corridors were from the movie 2001. In it we have:
- The long corridor connecting the crew module from the propulsion system on the Discovery. Note it was octagonal in section and had no up or down as it was only to be accessed in zero-g.
- The short corridor/connector in the shuttle to the moon where the mod space stewardess walks in and, thanks to the tricks of a rotating set and fixed camera, travels up the wall onto the "ceiling" and exits. (She is supposedly held on by her velcro shoes).
- The short connector on the Discovery which is where the non-rotating main part of the space-craft meets the rotating part of the crew module. The astronauts must float down it and then clamber down a spinning opening to the part of the spacecraft that has artificial gravity. This is also another great "corridor", here Stanley Kubrik built basically an enclosed ferris wheel and in some memorable shots, had his astronauts jogging all around the "wheel".
Amazing what you can do with a script that isn't pseudo science and a director who cares (and has a good budget!).
The lost art of gypsum drywall (Score:4, Interesting)
Just as people currently endeavor to recreate the manufacturing methods for medieval stained glass or the great pyramids, the people of the future will be awestruck at the ability of 20th and 21st people to make such smooth walls out of the mysterious and amazing material known as drywall.
Re:How to do a much shorter article next time (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm sorry but I'm having a very hard time comprehending your post. Did you actually call Kubric's 2001 one of the worst movies you have ever seen?
DOES NOT COMPUTE
Re:Creepiest sci-fi corridor (Score:3, Interesting)
What about the corridor of chompers in Galaxy Quest? Just imagine trying to wheel a food-service cart or carry an antigrav-attached magnetic bucket of antimatter down that one...
Re:How to do a much shorter article next time (Score:3, Interesting)
Depends. By the time I saw it, I was told its an Important Film and Important People made it and Important Things happen because its Important Art. As such, its interesting to watch and comment on all the little things that happen and more or less take it apart in your head and sit back and enjoy the swirling lights because they are Important Art. I think for the average filmgoer at the time of release it must have been somewhat unbearable. The critics at the time either loved it or hated it. I think this is typical of movies like this that have experimental elements and work more with broad themes like alienation and discovery and not concrete terms like "I need to win this prisonhouse arm wrestling match to win back my daughter!"
Lets just say its an acquired taste. Its obviously pretty heavily influenced by social conventions at the time. The entire landing sequence is more or less an homage to the drug-heavy counter-culture at the time. I feel like an older more mature Kubrick would have done a much better job than the late 30s Kubrick who was still something of a counter-culture type himself. Luckily, his immense talent allows us to overlook some of the weaker if not outright silly parts of the movie.