Jump to content

David Johnston

HERO Member
  • Posts

    1,434
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

David Johnston's Achievements

  1. Re: Phrasing a Psych Lim Psych Limit: Power=Responsibility
  2. Re: To catch a clone You're probably thinking about the fact that they discovered that the telomeres in clones are no longer than they are in the parent, meaning that even though they are actually younger, the aging process will set in earlier for the clone.
  3. Re: Traveller=Pulp Hero+Star Hero That's something unusual about Andre Norton. There weren't many sf authors back then who had it take centuries for serious space exploitation to start.
  4. Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines) Yeah. Go ahead.
  5. Re: Dark Teen Champions: The Anime Series (genre concept) Well, if this was a dark anime high school super series, then the first thing that would happen is that either the student government or the administration or both would be part of a conspiracy to take over the country at the least and possibly the world. The students have either been manuevered into coming to this school by said conspiracy which intends to either coopt or eliminate them, but first will test them to evaluate their potential threat, or the students have been manuevered into coming there by some opposing force which assumes they'll come into conflict with the bad guys. Very possibly both things are going on at the same time. Said conspiracy would of course explain why powerful supers no longer seem to be present. The conspiracy makes the high profile types vanish.
  6. Re: Traveller=Pulp Hero+Star Hero Although I don't recall space opera being quite so dominated by lowlives out for a quick buck.
  7. Re: How to get swords on your starship Terror From the Deep taught me one way. Just give me an opponent who has armour that is impervious to my guns but not to my "vibro-blades". Not that it wasn't fun to spray a Lobster Man with the combined firepower of 10 heavily armed men (and a small tank) while screaming "It won't die! It just won't die!"
  8. Re: Traveller=Pulp Hero+Star Hero Not the best of her Solar Queen books: "Plague Ship". But it's not bad. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16921 It was followed by Voodoo Planet which is also on Gutenberg, and Post Marked The Stars which was my favourite, but hasn't fallen into public domain, yet.
  9. Re: Legend of Galactic Heroes Timeline Legend of Galactic Heroes is one of those "endless warfare" Japanese cartoons of the 80s, where two sides are locked into combat and all efforts to find peace seem futile. In this case, the problem is the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance are for some inexplicable reason, only linked by two narrow safe navigational corridors. Since the author who seems to have been influenced by Lensman is cognizant of the sheer scale of resources involved in empires controlling significant portions of the galaxy, each side has millions and millions of ships to throw at the other and there's a substantial homefield advantage for the defender thanks to the narrow channels they have to pass through. The Empire's ruling class are a bunch of brutally authoritarian (and racist) thugs who all dress like 19th century Prussian aristocrats. The Free Planets Alliance are...somewhat better, but are drifting in the direction of dictatorship because of the incessant warfare, which has been on and off for the last 150 years or so. The military high commands of both sides are inept dimwits on the order of the people in charge of the Western front in World War I. (You can count on old officers in Japanese cartoons to be fools at best and fools and villains at worst.) However the true villains are the rulers of the planet of Phezzan which, located on one of the two navigation routes between the nations, controls all trade between the two sides thanks to it's quasi-neutrality, and behind the scenes sabotages any attempt to score a decisive victory, or failing that make a lasting peace since if peace ever broke out, Phezzan would no longer have it's monopoly. The heroes are two young military officers who, being young are of course much better strategists than the old pharts in charge. The Imperial hero, Reinhard has a lot more luck climbing the military totem pole because his sister is the Emperor's concubine and this connection gives him preferment. However he fully intends one day to lead a coup d'etat and overthrow the Emperor, uniting the entire galaxy under his rule (and freeing his sister from concubinage). Y'ang Wen Li is probably even smarter than Reinhard, but suffers from having bosses who hate him.
  10. Re: Traveller=Pulp Hero+Star Hero Traveller was mostly based on the 1950s science fiction of Andre Norton although she had rayguns.
  11. This is the background for the mil sf cartoon "Legend of Galactic Heroes". ==Background Timeline== 2039: A massive nuclear exchange between the powers which dominate the Earth (identified as the United States of Euro-Africa and the Northern Coalition) destroy most major cities. 2129: After 90 years of chaos Earth is united under the "Earth Unity Government" based in the capital of [[brisbane]]. 2166: What will be a massive research installation on [[io]] is begun.\ 2253: A slower-than-light vessel is launched for Alpha Centauri but never returns. 2360: The first faster-than-light drive is developed, but turns out to have deleterious effects on females. 2391: The problems with FTL are solved. 2402: A habitable world is discovered near Canopus. 2404: As the first colony ship is launched for Canopus, Earth's government establishes a "Navigation Safety Department" which later becomes known as the Department of Public Safety. 2428: The Department of Public Safety reorganises itself as a formal navy. 2682: Disgruntled colonies unite to complain about high taxes, interference in local administration, and their lack of proportionate representation in the Humanity Congress which is weighted to ensure that Earth will always have the deciding vote. Earth responds by trying to make Sirius into a scapegoat, accusing them of spreading subversion as part of a plot to take over. 2685: Earth's denunciation of Sirius makes it into the natural leader of the dissident colonies and they establish the "Sirius Congress" and begin to gather military power. 2689: Earth attacks the on Sirius VI (aka Rondolina) to suppress the dissidents. Earth's forces become increasingly undisciplined, culminating in a massacre of the city of Laglane similar to the [[Rape of Nanking]]. 2703: The lack of discipline among Earth's forces leads to a devastating defeat at the hands of the much smaller rebel "Black Fleet". 2704: The Black Fleet blockades the inner Solar System for two months and then attacks the starving population, killing most of them. 2706: The death from heart attack of Carl Palgrem, the leader of the revolution, ends the unity of the rebels and they fragment into factions fighting for control. 2801: The United Stars of the Galaxy is formed, centered on Theoria, the 2nd planet of Aldebaran, and a new calender era is adopted, "Space Era" beginning in this year 2906 (106 S.E.): In order to deal with ongoing threat of space pirates descended from elements of the Sirius/Earth war who never reintigrated into civilisation, the U.S.G. authorises the creation of of a large military to combat them. 3088 (288 S.E.): A military genius named Rudolph Von Goldenbaum leads the U.S.G. space army to wipe out the resurgent pirates, becoming an idolised hero. 3096 (296 S.E.): Rudolph Von Goldenbaum having rocketed up the ranks to Admiral by the age of 28, retires to run for a seat in Parliament forming the National Reform Alliance. The public is eager for a man on a white horse to take over since the U.S.G. has become decadent and disorderly. 3110 (310 S.E.): President-for-life Goldenbaum declares himself Emperor of the Galactic Empire and this to be Imperial Year 1. 3120 (320 S.E., Imperial Year 9) Emperor Rudolph declares the Inferior Genes Exclusion Law which mandates sterilisation of the handicapped and execution of the mentally ill and terminates all social assistance of the poor. He begins selecting "superior genetic specimens", all of whom are white and have germanic names to form an aristocracy with titles handed out by Rudolph. 3141 (341 S.E., Imperial Year 42) Emperor Rudolph is succeeded by his grandson Sigismund, and widespread democratic rebellions break out, only to be suppressed. Billions of people lose their citizenship and become serfs for being family members or associates of executed rebels. 3263 (463 S.E., Imperial Year 164) Arle Heinnesen, reduced to serf status for being a member of a rebel's family, masterminds the escape of 40,000 serfs from a labour camp on Altair VII. 3327 (527 S.E., Imperial Year 218) The refugees, travelling more than 10,000 light years to flee the Empire arrive at a habitable world and decide to start the Free Planets Alliance from there, reviving the Space Era calendar. 3440 (640 S.E., Imperial Year 331) The Empire discovers the Free Planets Alliance and the war between them begins.
  12. 1. Kidnap the G-7 leaders at the conference then let rescuers rescue your replacements for them. 2. Shrink everyone to the size of Barbies so the planet will be more easily able to support them. 3. Trigger a sudden ice age. 4. Generate a self-sustaining black hole, then drop it into the planet 5. Reanimate every corpse in a large area as zombies under your necromantic control. 6. Become the most intelligent man in the world by draining everyone else's brain power into the mentally deficient range. 7. Open a gateway for the hordes of Hell. 8. Strip away Earth's atmosphere to give Mars a breathable atmosphere. 9. Remove humanity's capacity for physical violence.
  13. Re: Villain Team Name The Circle of Seven The Angels of Destruction The Chosen Few
  14. Re: The Core Suns It's not that I can't figure out what the columns are. It's that there are no columns. It actually came out clearer when I pasted it here.
  15. Re: The Core Suns Yup. I just can't make any sense out of them. The start, for example looks like this: HIP,RA,DEC,V,PARX,SIGPX,B-V,SIGBV,CCDM,HD,BD 6,00 00 04.30,+03 56 47.4,12.31,18.8,4.99,1.336,0.02, , , 7,00 00 05.40,+20 02 11.8,9.64,17.74,1.3,0.74,0.02, , ,B+19 I've no idea what that means.
×
×
  • Create New...