Summer Sci-Fi Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

The Goal is 100

This thread is for talking, not for listing. Listing goes here http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=534670

Challenge Starts July 1st at 12am EST

Challenge ends August 1st at 12 am EST

Rules Update
As long as the movie or show is obviously sci-fi, list it. Even if it's not listed as such at the 2 movie sites.

If anyone has a problem with something someone watches or just wants an opinion on if it's sci-fi or not, list the title here and I'll shoot it with laser or let it live.

Don't go crazy and start watching wrestling or some other obvious non-sci-fi movie/show because it'll probably be mentioned here and then it'll be kicked to the curb.

Rules

Movies/TV shows should be labeled sci-fi from either imdb.com or allmovie.com. Other labels don't matter as long as there is at least a sci-fi label from one of those sites. Fantasy/Sci-fi would be fine.

Sci-Fi documentaries are allowed but not DVD featurettes/interviews.

When I think of Sci-Fi documentaries, I'm thinking documentaries about UFOs, alien crash at Roswell, Area 51 and not so much about the making of movies.

As with the other challenges, the lists must be numbered or it won't count.

Movies count as 1 entry each.

TV shows count according to length as they are aired on TV(including commercials):

• 30 minute shows count as 1/4 an entry
• 1 hour shows count as 1/2 an entry
• 2 hour shows count as 1 entry

So you need 4, 30 minute shows for 1 entry or 2 60 minute shows or any combination that gets you to 1 entry. While X-Files has a runtime of around 43 minutes, on-air it's an hour show.

If it's short films that are 10 minutes or less, once you hit 23 minutes of watching them, you've reached one 30 minute show. This is based on the theory that the run time for a 30 minute show is between 22-24 minutes.

For mini series, do count each "day" that it aired (assuming that each day was a 2 hour block). For example, Dune: The Mini Series, would it be:

63. Dune: The Mini Series - Part I
64. Dune: The Mini Series - Part II
65. Dune: The Mini Seriies - Part III

When listing TV shows, keep them together for one entry.
Example: How do I list TV shows and other short stuff if I don't have enough for an entry?

At the bottom of your post/list, keep a Temp TV section. Add stuff there until you get enough for an entry.

Watching the movie with the commentary will count as an entry.

Watching multiple versions(theatrical and director's cut) of the same movie will also count.

Show what days you watched whatever it was you watched

Example
NUMBER YOUR LISTS OR YOU WON'T HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN FABULOUS CASH AND PRIZES

The List Thread will be posted when the challenge begins.

Prizes of varying quality will be given to the top 3 people.

Sounds like fun to me. I'll try to participate as I have time during July. Glad you found a way to include television shows as sometimes that's all I have time to watch during the week.

Michael

ummm... some TV shows are like 45mins or so? how do we count that? for example each episode of The X-Files are like 45mins...

I figured 1 hour meant shows that were aired at one hour like the X-files (so 43-46 minute shows on DVD count as one hour. There aren't too many shows out there that actually fall into an actual 30 minute or 1 hour category)

I'm really looking forward to this. I went through my movies the other day, and made a list of the ones that qualify. I'm not a big sci-fi fan, so I didn't think I'd have that many, but I actually have a lot more than I thought. Over 50, but some of those are ones I'll probably save for other challenges that they also qualify for, like the horror challenge, Oscar challenge, etc.

I'll fill up the rest of the month with TV shows. :D

Rob

Exactly. I updated the rules to explain this a little more clear.

Question about commentary tracks: Usually I watch a movie then i watch/listen to the commentary track/s.
Are commentary tracks going to count as 1 in addition to the film counting as 1.?

Yes.

You can also watch different cuts of the same film, like Aliens theatrical and the director's cut.

I can pretty much count on my hands how many sci fi movies iv seen.

Serenity
Starship Troopers 1/2
Dark City
Blade Runner
are the only ones that come to mind that iv enjoyed...


anyone wanna gimmi some ideas to fill my que with? to experience some good sci fi?

i have Firefly which i intend to finally watch and i plan on finally watching star wars and i wanna stay away from scifi horror since well i watch horror the other remaining months of the year

I may not have much time in July to participate, but this might be the motivation I need to go through the X-File sets in my unwatched pile.

TV shows: Futurama, Outer Limits, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers

Movies: Terminator, 12 Monkeys, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Matrix, Star Trek, Iron Man, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Planet of the Apes, The Invisible Man, The Holy Mountain, X-Men, Spider-Man, Superman, http://www.deepdiscount.com/viewprod...uctId=40529240, http://www.deepdiscount.com/viewprod...uctId=20888000

...and Mystery Science Theater 3000

I'm planning watching all unwatched movies:
unwatched movies out of my 50 movie sci-fi packs
Planet of the Apes set(the monkey one with all the movies and both tv shows)
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Matrix box set
Futurama movie
The Outer Limits show

or, I'll just go in alphabetical order of unwatched movies because I'm lazy.

Hmm, well if you like Blade Runner and Dark City it sounds like you're into dystopian futurism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dystopian_films

I recommend: Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, THX-1138, Existenz & Videodrome.

Re: Starship Troopers, I love Robocop and Total Recall.

Thanks for the reminder. I have the Criterion and my wife hasn't seen it yet.

I'll also show her They Live.

count me in

I'm not really the biggest Sci-Fi fan, but thats probably because I haven't watched much, but this sounds like a fun way to watch more. Count me in :).

(I think I'm just a sucker for these challenges)

If anyone's looking for stuff to watch, might I suggest Rifftrax.

They have a couple fan made Star Trek episodes, just came out with one for the X-Files movie and Alien is coming out Tuesday.

I think it's about time I got into one of these now. I have a bunch of sci-fi I have been meaning to watch.

Great. This sounds like fun.

Just out of curiosity, will the Holiday Challenge change to this format or will it stay with the same rules (everything counts as 1)

And a couple nit questions
1. What about shorts or something that are 10-15 minutes? I don't plan on watching anything like this, but it may come up for others.
2. For mini series, do you count each "day" that it aired (assuming that each day was a 2 hour block) or does it just count as one? For example, Dune: The Mini Series, would it be:

63. Dune: The Mini Series - Part I
64. Dune: The Mini Series - Part II
65. Dune: The Mini Seriies - Part III

or would it be
63. Dune: The Mini Series

1. For something like 10-15 minutes, two of them would be about as long as a 30 minute TV show, so it would work like that. You could do 8 of those or do some combinations with longer stuff.

2. Each block would count as if it was it's own TV show. So in your example it would be:

63. Dune: The Mini Series - Part I
64. Dune: The Mini Series - Part II
65. Dune: The Mini Seriies - Part III

I have a hard time just jumping in and watching an episode of a TV series without wanting to watch the whole series which doesn't really fit with the spirit of the challenge. Maybe I'll try to build some viewings around themes (time travel, alternate/parallel universe) that span series.

so what about short films that might not even be 10 minutes?

Sorry for missing your question for so long.

For short films like that, once you hit 23 minutes of watching them, you've reached one 30 minute show.

Why 23? Because most 30 minute shows are around 22-24 minutes long.

In other news, I picked up the roku netflix box and it's perfect for these challenges. Especially when it comes to tv shows. I have Battlestar Galactica, Sliders and some Outer Limits set for watching.

I think I'm just going to do an X-Files marathon. I've been meaning to watch the entire series in order, and the new movie comes out at the end of the month.

I'm up for the challenge. Since school is out for my boy, my work schedule is a little more flexible, so it looks like we'll be catching up on the Sci-Fi movies.

Off to IMDB to make a list and then onto Netflix to get things in order

I'm starting up Stargate SG-1 again, so most of my viewings will be those. I'll mix in a movie here and there, though.

How does this look for organizing tv shows and other short films?

24. Star Wars
25. Alien
26.

1. Futurama: - season 1 episode 2
2. Futurama: season 3 episode 4
3. robot chicken season 1 episode 2/robot chicken season 1 episode 3
4. star wars: droids - season 1 episode 3

27. Aliens
28. Superman

So we have some clown that watched:
1) 30 minute Futurama episode
2) 30 minute Futurama episode
3) 15 minute Robot Chicken episode / 15 minute Robot Chicken episode (which makes this equal to a 30 minute show
4) 30 minutes of Star Wars crap

That comes out to one entry. If you had two 1 hour shows you would just have a list of 2. Seems easy to read and see what's going on.

How did I make this list? I used the list tags and here's the code with a space in the list tags so you can see what the hell I did. I just choose '1' for the list type when I hit the list button.

Does anyone agree with this or have another idea?

That might not look so great when people's lists will be nothing but TV. I liked it more like your first example:

23: X-Files: 101 / X-Files: 102
24: Futurama: 304 / Futurama: 401 / Futurama: 210 / Robot Chicken: 101 / Robot Chicken 102
25. Movie

My two cents. When you do the /list feature it adds an extra hard return both before and after the list. I always have hated that. That may be a Firefox / IE thing (I can't remember).

Regardless, if there is a sub-list, I think it would be better to put them a,b,c, etc... Putting them as numbers in the list makes everything a little cluttered with numbers, IMHO.

I like BlueCC's format, except I always like to put comments on as many of my viewings as possible, so it's not too conducive to that format. Although, I could do separate paragraphs for each of the items.

On the previous challenges, I have put the < dd > code (ignore spaces) to tab in, but it is different for Firefox/IE. I'll have to do a little more research.

I agree with you, plus it'll be easier for everyone to do. You just made my old one look nice :)

:lol: Just out of curiosity, why would the viewing sequence above constitute someone a "clown"? Do you have some deep-seeded hatred for Futurama, Robot Chicken, and/or Star Wars?

That clown was watching Star Wars: Droids.

That clown was me :(

Whoops! I've never heard of Star Wars: Droids. It doesn't sound like it's getting a stamp of approval from you, though. No need to put yourself down, though, there's always hits and misses! It wouldn't be any fun without a few turds along the way.

Discussions stay in this thread.

List thread
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=534670

Couple of updates to the rules:

Break up your lists by days. This is like the other challenges.

Also,

How do I list TV shows and other short stuff if I don't have enough for an entry?

At the bottom of your post/list, keep a Temp TV section. Add stuff there until you get enough for an entry.

Did you redo your placeholder Rob?

Yup! I figured since it's your challenge, your list should come first. :D

Rob

Wow. My bulb on my DLP went out this morning. There's definitely something funny going on here. My bulb went out at the beginning of the Holiday movie challenge too. The warranty company must have sent me a POS bulb...grrr...

I guess it's 24" LCD vs. 62" DLP for a couple days. I'll be sticking with TV shows until I get back to 100%

Hey, if you got it, you got it. I'm not going to complain :)

Just wanted to ask if Wall-e would count for a movie...or are these all just films watched on DVD?