New Contest
A while ago Lt Ron wrote this piece.
I was getting ready to post what I felt was a clever comment on the subject.
My wife read the comment over my shoulder, and didn’t get it. She felt, perhaps correctly, that I was referencing something too obscure, even for the kinds of sci-fi nerds that tend to frequent my site. So I made it into a contest.
My post was the following.
The best use for cloning technology is to duplicate famous people, and then pimp them out to bribe people into doing you favors.
For instance: “Hey Minty, if you give me another story to put up here, I will give you half an hour of snuggle time with Nathan Lon Fillian.”
The first person to contact me with the science fiction series I am referencing here get’s either a free t-shirt or mug.
Edit: Not Firefly…that’s not obscure at all.
Hint: I was referencing a book.
April 21st, 2009 at 10:52 pm
I believe you are referencing Firefly…I could be wrong.
April 22nd, 2009 at 12:10 am
He played the Captain on Firefly and Serenity.
Main catch phrase i remember is “What was that?”
April 22nd, 2009 at 1:00 am
futurama
April 22nd, 2009 at 1:17 am
There was something very similar in Babylon 5 (The River of Souls), but that was a holobrothel, not clones and I wouldn’t call Babylon 5 obscure either.
April 22nd, 2009 at 1:20 am
Obscure … Nathan Fillian
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog
April 22nd, 2009 at 2:24 am
sounds like something from american dad or family guy
hardly obscure tho…
Captcha conduits cleaner – what a crap job…
April 22nd, 2009 at 2:27 am
or sci-fi for that matter
April 22nd, 2009 at 2:37 am
and here’s how you cheat
is it one of these ?
The 4400
Amazing Stories
Andromeda
Ark II
Battlestar Galactica
Bionic Woman
Crusade
Dark Skies
Deadly Games
Early Edition
Eureka
Farscape
Dark Angel
Kyle XY
Logan’s Run –
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Lost in Space
Lost
Medium
Mutant X
The Outer Limits
Quantum Leap
Roswell
seaQuest DSV
The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne
Smallville
Space Precinct
Star Trek
Stargate Atlantis
Surface
Tru Calling
The Twilight Zone
The X-Files
April 22nd, 2009 at 3:42 am
Since I’m doubting our beloved madhatter would be making a Moondial reference, I’m thinking Dr Horrible’s too. (Hey, it’s got Felicia Day..)
If, however, he IS making a Moondial reference.. I said it first ;)
Captcha : Promptly ghana. I got nothing. Even at 0340.
April 22nd, 2009 at 4:38 am
Hrmm, seems like something i thought of when watching scarlet johanson in the island.
April 22nd, 2009 at 4:41 am
I got nothin’, but I’ll throw out MST3K
Captcha: defiles Bermuda
Well, I certainly plan to…
April 22nd, 2009 at 4:41 am
Hmm… I have no idea.
April 22nd, 2009 at 5:37 am
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
It’s not obscure, but I’m throwing it out there anyway.
April 22nd, 2009 at 5:42 am
The TV show would be Serenity
Captcha Quaalude Besets
April 22nd, 2009 at 5:51 am
Eureka I think.
April 22nd, 2009 at 6:18 am
The Cloning of Joanna May
April 22nd, 2009 at 6:26 am
Obviously he’s quoting “All My Children.” Dammit people, how blind can you be?!?!
Captcha: coconut had – Where’d you get the coconut?
April 22nd, 2009 at 6:52 am
I have another guess:
Lonvellin, an alien character from the Sector General series by James White
Given that the character is described as having a club for an appendage, I can see the humor.
April 22nd, 2009 at 7:01 am
Am I the only one who thought of Futurama? The episode where fry got a robot made to look like Lucy Lu, and had to lose her because Napster, actually KidNapster, was making pirated copies from the heads of celebreties?
captcha fijian Childs, what happened after the Truman show
April 22nd, 2009 at 7:10 am
I’m going to go with “Parts: The Clonus Horror”. Either that or The Boys From Brazil, but that was just about cloning that one famous guy.
(look it up)
April 22nd, 2009 at 7:18 am
Am I the only one who actually read the last sentence? :p
April 22nd, 2009 at 7:26 am
Here is a synopsis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Surgeon
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:32 am
Was it Spiderman?
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:36 am
Sounds like one of the books in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:03 am
Oh my god, Nathan Lon Fillian!!?! Can be marmalade involved?
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:12 am
Gah! Too early for proper grammar.
Captcha: “hit arks.” And that’s why I never joined the Navy. . .
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:21 am
Best I can come up with is another movie, ‘Slither’, even though that last line gives that book hint. Something from either Alan Dean Foster or Robert Heinlein?
captcha: teasing O’Brien — yeah, giving obscure clues would tease O’Brien!
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:34 am
Brave New World Alex Huxley I think it is spelled.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:37 am
Aldous Huxley, sorry! (Also wrote Brave New World Revisited)
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:02 am
It was Firefly, more specifically Serenity. The captain (played by Nathan Fillion) is dealing with Fanty and Mingo in the bar.
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:11 am
I have to go with Futurama, otherwise it is probably something I never saw/read.
Oh wait, you said a book… no fucking clue.
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:38 am
Crap, crap, crap, that name sounds familiar but I’m drawing a blank.
Perhaps if I could get Manuel O’Kelly to run a program on Mike.
Or Hari Seldon could point the perfect place in time to find it.
Or Dirk Gently could holistically detect the answer.
I do find it more than a coincidence that Nathan Fillion’s parents were both English teachers.
captcha: 18 felsch, when 17 felsch just won’t do
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:04 am
… I belive you were the first and I would be the seconds one to have read the post completly…
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:10 am
I believe the book was “Love in Shadow”
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:19 am
But I’ve been known to be wrong before.
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:52 am
Teasing O’Brien, a good way to start a fight, and see how many Irishmen are in the pub.
April 22nd, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Not only does it seem that a lot of people didn’t read the last sentence, they also don’t understand what “for instance” means and never watched Firefly, because there are no clones of celebrities in that show.
Meh. I’m feeling extra-special bitchy today, apparently. Not a good day for me.
April 22nd, 2009 at 1:06 pm
I’d missed “lon” the first couple of reads, but that was used for clones in “The Jesus Incident” and “The Lazarus Effect”. Other books in the series are “Destination: Void” (the original book in the series) and “The Ascension Factor”, neither of which I’ve read (only read TJI after seeing it on a relative’s shelf).
April 22nd, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Thanks I have not read the book in a long time. Thank you thank you thank you. I want to read Brave New World Revisited.
April 22nd, 2009 at 3:17 pm
So much for it being Futurerama then.
CAPTCHA – sister golan – Gollum’s twin sister?
April 22nd, 2009 at 3:30 pm
In fairness, the hint that it’s from a book is an edit that was thrown up after the initial post. At least. it wasn’t there when I made my initial guess this morning.
April 22nd, 2009 at 3:35 pm
The plot sounds familiar enough that I might have read this before. Can’t think of what it might be though, and it’s nothing I still own. I tried looking up the book I was thinking of on Amazon and the only possible thing I could find was “The Athena Factor” [http://www.amazon.com/Athena-Factor-W-Michael-Gear/dp/0765311666]
If be some freak chance this is the right answer, I’ll waive credit and the prize because I cheated.
April 22nd, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Actually, there’s quite a few posts suggesting Firefly after the edit went up.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Azimov
Methuselah’s children
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:54 pm
Apparently this is a fairly common conceit, because I can think of a novel off the top of my head–Dancing With Werewolves–which I know isn’t the answer but which features not just clones of famous people, but clones of them in particular movie roles. (So, for instance, you could have Lon Chaney, Jr forever the Wolfman.)
April 23rd, 2009 at 6:03 pm
I suppose the novel being ‘Dune’ and the ones doing the cloning being the Tleilaxu would be far too obvious? Only it fits the criteria of being a very famous novel, being something sci-fi geeks are supposed to have read, and they produce clones of people for commercial reasons.
April 23rd, 2009 at 7:51 pm
I thought those weren’t so much clones as the actual characters ripped from the films by magic. If I recall, there’s a Nick Charles working in a casino that constantly frets about Nora.
April 24th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
I so remember this book, just not the name, and internet searches are proving fruitless. It’s about this 17 year old kid who’s a clone of some famous musician, and he’s been living in a school/breeding ground for other clones, but he’s never been adopted, and then he runs away? Damnit, why can’t I remember this?
May 1st, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Are you saying Asimov wrote Methuselah’s Children? It was actually Heinlein.
captcha: stillest 18: a former 17-year-old shocked into catatonia on his birthday?
May 1st, 2009 at 2:26 pm
meh, I’ll be perfect someday, just not today.