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| "The Road Not Taken" | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jun 5 2008, 02:50 PM (951 Views) | |
| TR1 | Jun 5 2008, 02:50 PM Post #1 |
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Heir Presumptive
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I'm still on the Videssos yahoo group mailing list. Sporadically, people actually talk about things. In the last month, I've received several posting about "The Road Not Taken". Evidentally, AH.com even has a whole thread of fan fic about this story. I've read it. It's perfectly good, but it seems like one of the least likely stories to just fire the imagination of the fans the way it evidentally does. |
| "Nobody's gay for Moleman." - Hans Moleman | |
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| Custer | Jun 5 2008, 06:32 PM Post #2 |
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Resident Kamikaze Warrior
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What is this story about? |
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| MapleLeafs4Ever | Jun 5 2008, 08:39 PM Post #3 |
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Landowner
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Teddy Bear invasion of the Earth in 2030. FTL technology is so simple that sentient species can stumble over it before they invent gunpowder. The Bears are one of the more advanced alien races and so have muzzle loading matchlock muskets and iron swords. Their invasion force consists of several hundred wooden spaceships each capable of carrying a regiment with muzzle-loading black powder artillery support. Poor humans are such dullards that we never stumbled over FTL and the anti-gravity drive that can be derived from it. Instead we developed rapid fire smokeless powder firearms, tanks and F-29 fighter aircraft. Poor humans are sitting ducks for the invasion force. For more info, check out the Turtlewiki. Those were pretty much my first set of articles there. |
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| Custer | Jun 5 2008, 10:17 PM Post #4 |
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Resident Kamikaze Warrior
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Oh, yeah. The Turtlewiki. |
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| Makkabee | Jun 5 2008, 10:19 PM Post #5 |
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Count
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It's a fun little story. Much better than the Saturday Night Live skit from the 1980s with basically the same theme. |
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| Custer | Jun 5 2008, 10:22 PM Post #6 |
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Resident Kamikaze Warrior
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For a moment I thought you were talking about the Coneheads, and I was like "Well, yeah...<_<" |
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| SladeJack | Jun 6 2008, 02:23 AM Post #7 |
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The Grand SladeJack
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I don't remember that skit. I have to say I have a little trouble fathoming how they can make their wooden spaceships airtight, filter the air, dessicate rations et cetera. It takes more than powerful engines to make manned spaceships work. |
| When you wipe your ass, make sure you wipe it really well. | |
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| Makkabee | Jun 6 2008, 08:16 AM Post #8 |
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Count
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It was from the mid-80s. Dana Carvey was one of the aliens, Nora Dunn was one of the human scientists, and the guy who was the ranch boss in Brokeback Mountain was the US military commander who confronted the aliens. Highlights included: The aliens explaining that they have a very advanced system of dirt roads on their world, but that they need two things from Earth to maintain them -- more dirt, and slave labor to repair them. The Earth scientists concluding that the aliens didn't build the spaceship, they found it. The aliens mocking earth technology: "can your primitive weapons fire little lead balls?" asks the alien, holding what looks like a blunderbuss. "Yes," replies the soldier. "Ours fire 250 little lead balls per minute." He fires a magazine from a submachinegun into the air. The aliens promptly make some lame excuse to leave. |
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| SladeJack | Jun 6 2008, 08:37 AM Post #9 |
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The Grand SladeJack
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Sounds cute. I like the "We need more dirt" bit. |
| When you wipe your ass, make sure you wipe it really well. | |
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| MapleLeafs4Ever | Jun 7 2008, 11:29 AM Post #10 |
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Landowner
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Probably some leakage but it just needs to hold most of the air for a few weeks.
It isn't and so gets awfully stale and stinky.
Stale, rotting and wormy.
I wonder who "borrowed" from who. |
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| SladeJack | Jun 7 2008, 11:42 AM Post #11 |
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The Grand SladeJack
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"Probably some leakage but it just needs to hold most of the air for a few weeks" I don't know, exposure to vacuum will suck out a lot of air through a small leak. "It isn't and so gets awfully stale and stinky." If they respirate like we do, and if they're interested in Earth they likely do, that means a lot of CO2 building up. "Stale, rotting and wormy." Yum. That at least doesn't tax believability to the breaking point. "I wonder who 'borrowed' from who." I'd guess HT took the skit and improved upon it. |
| When you wipe your ass, make sure you wipe it really well. | |
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| Makkabee | Jun 7 2008, 12:13 PM Post #12 |
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Count
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The story does make a point of mentioning how ships that don't land on a suitable planet in time run out of breathable air. The story had a great setup, talking about the main viewpoint character waking up on the spaceship, using the chamber pot, etc. At first I assumed the spaceship was leftover technology from a collapsed civilization and the aliens were using whatever surplus equipment hadn't broken down entirely yet. I never guessed at the real explanation before the reveal. |
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| Wyldstaar | Jun 13 2008, 04:25 PM Post #13 |
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Serf
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It could be that the ship doesn't need to be airtight at all. Perhaps the system that allows FTL travel creates a field around the craft, like in the movie Explorers. The details of it's function were not detailed in the story, so pretty much anything is possible. I think that this story captured my imagination because of the notion that FTL travel is not only possible, but actually easy. So easy in fact, that I could build a starship in my back yard if I set my mind to it. There's also the aliens themselves. They are portrayed almost completely against every "alien invader" cliche' ever established, which is refreshing. The Lizards of the Worldwar saga were different, but not nearly as much as the Bears. Steven Colbert would probably love this story. Bears!!! |
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| SladeJack | Jun 13 2008, 09:20 PM Post #14 |
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The Grand SladeJack
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Dwight Schrute, too. "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." |
| When you wipe your ass, make sure you wipe it really well. | |
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| The Guy from Fiji | Jun 13 2008, 10:49 PM Post #15 |
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Bullshitter
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Godless Killing Machines. |
| Sic Temper Molemannis! | |
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9:15 AM Jul 11