Best sci-fi TV questions of all time

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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy picture

Episode 6 - S1-E6

Question: When Marvin is left behind in the Disaster Area ship as the others teleport away, he says, "I'm so intelligent I've probably got time to go through the five." before he is cut off. Is there anything in the books or rest of the series which suggests what we was about to say?

Moose

Chosen answer: That seems to be an error in the subtitling of the episode. What Marvin actually says is: "I may just be a menial robot, but I'm far too intelligent to expect to think of me for a moment... far too intelligent..."

Sierra1

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Star Trek: Discovery picture

The War Without, the War Within - S1-E14

Question: In dialogue, Starbase 1 is described as "100 AU from Earth," which is over three times the orbital distance of Neptune. But the onscreen graphic shows the starbase next to a planet that can be visually recognized as Earth; portions of North America, including the Florida peninsula and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, are visible. The distance given in dialogue makes sense, given the episode's plot; it's a distant location still within the Solar System, and the Klingon attack is said to be "practically in Earth's backyard." The location shown in the graphic does not make sense, because Earth would already be under attack yet everyone is concerned only about the starbase, not the planet (which is never mentioned at all, let alone said to be Earth).

DavidK93

Answer: The planet shown could well be a terraformed moon on the outskirts of the Solar System. The planet is not shown in great detail behind the damaged station.

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Away picture

Negative Return - S1-E2

Question: While a spacewalk is going on, Mission Control has four camera feeds showing the action. Some of them seem to be taken from beyond the spacecraft. Where are these cameras? I can understand a TV show showing the action from various vantage points, but Mission Control having four camera feeds looks a little suspicious. (00:36:00)

Answer: I just answered my own question. Looking at the feeds, I see they have captions, such as Solar Array 3; Airlock forward, sleeping quarters, or similar tags. Therefore, they are legitimate feeds.

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Knight Rider picture

Knight Rider [Pilot; a.k.a. Knight of the Phoenix] (1) - S1-E1

Question: At one point, after promising help, Michael parks, and goes to a pay phone to call Devon. As he gets to the booth, over his left shoulder, there is a badly altered Pepsi sign. Black tape has been put over the word 'PEPSI' in the familiar logo, and also over the "si" in the phrase 'say Pepsi please'. What type of mistake would this be?

Movie Nut

Chosen answer: Before "product placement" became common, name-brand products were rarely, if ever seen in TV shows, mostly due to avoid advertising conflicts with program sponsors. The Pepsi logo may have been taped out to prevent any commercial infringements.

raywest

Are you kidding? Product placement was so rampant in the 50s that sometimes you'd wonder if you were watching a TV show or a paid ad.

Brian Katcher

Knight Rider wasn't produced in the 1950s. TV shows of that era had advertising more similar to the old radio shows from the 30s and 40s. The early 50s series often had a sole sponsor, so their product (and related items) was likely seen in a program. An announcer also informed the audience at the beginning that, "This program is brought to you by (insert brand name). " From the 60s on, brand-name products weren't generally seen in TV programs. Networks sold air time to multiple advertisers, and their ads were shown during the long commercial breaks. So no, I'm not kidding.

raywest

Answer: It wouldn't be a mistake. Anyone could have taped the sign for a number of reasons.

Brian Katcher

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Z Nation picture

Batch 47 - S2-E4

Question: In this episode, several teams of human "harvesters" wander through a greenhouse filled with vegetable-hybrid zombies, searching for specific seed pods that might cure the zombie virus. None of the harvesters survive very long inside the greenhouse, even though the translucent plastic/fiberglass greenhouse walls are never more than a few steps away. In fact, the prized "Batch 47" is discovered just feet away from the translucent wall. Why couldn't the harvesters escape from the zombies by simply charging straight through the flimsy greenhouse walls? Or, even better, why didn't they just tear out the flimsy walls from the outside and search for Batch 47 from around the perimeter? I mean, it's just a greenhouse, not Fort Knox.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: When the plant zombies would attack they would wrap people with the vines and hold them, so they couldn't escape.

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Answer: This was actually one of many errors in Transformers, the Constructicons MUST have been built on Cybertron, the only transformers genuinely built on earth were the dinobots, reason being Vector Sigma has to give personalities to each and every robot, else they end up like the dinobots, very simple and dumb. For reference watch the episode "The Key to Vector Sigma" which introduces the Stunticons and Arielbots - both Megatron and Optimus Prime have to go to Vector Sigma to get decent personality traits installed, prior to this the new robots are controlled by remote controllers and have no AI.

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Chosen answer: It was a piece composed expressly for the episode by Christopher Franke, who simply called it "Bar Background Music."

Jean G

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Lost in Space picture

Season 1 generally

Question: The eels eat the fuel in all the Jupiters, other than the one in the desert. Somehow, the eels get in all the fuel tanks. We know that the Robinson's ship got them when their ship sank and flooded, so how did they get into all the other ships' tanks, and why wouldn't more eels suck down the fuel later added from the desert ship?

Answer: It's unknown how the eels got into all the fuel tanks. Once they were discovered, the colonists could flush them out of the tanks and keep them out before adding the fuel from the Jupiter that crashed in the desert.

raywest

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Roswell picture

Show generally

Question: What is the name of the theme song of Roswell? I think it's something called "Here I am", or "I am what I am".

Answer: It's called "Here With Me", performed by Dido. It can be found on her album "No Angel".

Tailkinker

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Lexx picture

Show generally

Question: Why do the robot heads get attached to human bodies?? Doesn't make sense when you consider how much more advanced they could make robot bodies for such. Also, why not put human brains in robot bodies? We know they have that ability.

dizzyd

Answer: From what I'm seeing, the answer seems simple. The robotic heads allow the control of the body they need. However, no mater how advanced you make a robot's body, it will never quite be as flexible and versatile in it's movements and actions as a flesh and blood human body can be in most cases. And if they do put the effort into creating a robotic body with the capabilities they need, and be durable enough to last... it would cost a lot of money. The Cluster has a large influx of constant prisoners that they use for feeding the Lexx and other needs, so human bodies are easy to come by and in vast quantities. Them simply producing robotic heads with the ability to interface with the human nervous system and placing them on the decapitated bodies of expendable prisoners is a hell of a lot more cost effective and easier to do with the technology they have. It's just a cheaper, more effective option for them to have thousands fo 790 Units in production and use without the cost of manufacturing a fully functional and durable robotic body for them.

Quantom X

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Answer: Gluto has quite a cowardly personality and never contributed too much in fighting against the Power Rangers. When he felt that the final battle was getting too intense for him, he decided that he would rather be frozen than participate.

More Power Rangers Time Force questions

Answer: Her date of birth is unrevealed. What little is known is that she was found as a child (precise age unknown) by a Jedi who crashlanded on her homeworld of Rattatak somewhere around 40BBY (precise year unknown). Realising her Force potential, he took her as his Padawan and trained her for some years, only to be cut down by a local warlord before he could finish, leaving her to seek vengeance on the warlords who had conspired against him, precipitating her fall to the Dark Side. It's difficult to determine her precise age from all this, but if we assume that she was ten when she was found, and that was in 40BBY, then Asajj would be 28 at the outbreak of the Clone Wars. So figure on anywhere in a range a few years either side of that.

Tailkinker

More Star Wars: Clone Wars questions

Chosen answer: The rings represent what is called the "Emotional Spectrum". Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. Where Green is the representation of will, the Star Sapphires are given violet rings, which represent the emotion of love.

MasterOfAll

More Batman: The Brave and the Bold questions

Answer: She likely had a hidden back-up weapon she didn't surrender. Many agents carry a second gun.

raywest

Good point. Thanks.

toroscan

More Watchmen questions

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