Monster of the Day #536

Hey, you got your rip-off of Predator in my rip-off of Alien!*

[*A good rip-off, but a rip-off nonetheless.]
  • Flangepart

    “Look, it’s a rip off we’re in. So, I’ll just rip yer head off, and that’s a rap, K?”

  • MrTongoRad

    “Sokath his eyes uncovered!” <–that was a great moment. I've always loved this ep (well…to be honest, on first viewing I kinda wanted there to be more gibberish, but I got over that rather quickly); I'm gonna have to put it in the queue for the weekend (somewhere in between Rollerball and Yes Prime Minister episodes) as it's been a while.

  • Gamera977

    Ahhh yes, I’d forgotten about this one. Interesting episode. 

  • Ken_Begg

    Ah, Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister. Expensive shows, but worth the buy. How I love ye?

    Of course, I’m sure Sorkin’s The Newsroom is good, too.

  • Beckoning Chasm

    If this is the ST:TNG episode everyone is referencing, I always wondered how these guys managed to develop a civilization.  Somebody, somewhere, has to be the first to do something, so how could you refer to it using someone else’s past actions?

  • Gamera977

    Didn’t seem too practical to me either. I took it more as an interesting way to working around the universal translator being able to pretty much magically instantly translate any language. 

  • MrTongoRad

    My sarcasm meter must be on the fritz, Ken- that post has gotten it going off like crazy ;)

    As to the Yes Minister series- there is something about them that is dated, certainly, but they have that underlying satirical quality that still stands on its own, and it’s great for a revisit every now and then. It’s a real pleasure to watch, especially for the performances. Eddington gets top billing, and probably deservedly so in as much as he was coming off of a big hit with The Good Neighbors (iirc), but Nigel Hawthorne really does steal the show.

  • KeithB

    The metaphors came from mythology which would precede any civilization.

  • zombiewhacker

    Patrick Stewart and Paul Winfield in the valley.
    The stunt man in the rubber suit in the valley.
    Patrick Stewart and Paul Winfield and the stunt man in the rubber suit in the valley.
    Patrick Stewart his speech eloquent.
    Paul Winfield his eyes closed.
    Patrick Stewart in his Winnebago.
     
    LeVar Burton on the Engineering set.
    Ashley Judd on the Engineering set,
    LeVar his technobabble incomprehensible.
    Ashley her jumpsuit too tight.
    LeVar Burton and Ashley Judd on the Engineering set,
     

  • Only saw it once, but I do remember it being an intriguing concept, the language based on phrases rather than words. That’s all I really remember, though. I’d completely forgotten about the invisible monster!

  • Gamera977

    Perhaps I should start speaking in metaphor: ‘Poor fool watching Manos: The Hands of Fate’ instead of saying ‘I’m bored out of my skull…’ 

    I’m certain other films suggest themselves as well. 

  • I wrote a Video Cheese for “MANOS” THE HANDS OF FATE. Never occurred to me it could be considered boring too!

  • Flangepart

     “Ash with his boom stick’ = Impressing the hicks.

    “The Blob snacks on the audience” = Another summer blockbuster.

    “Gene Kelly tap dances around the set” = What, election time again?

  • Marsden

    Mr Rational punched the shark. 

    Jabootu grins down on you.

    Ken and the hacker.

  • Petoht

    Well, yeah, but having an entire language of nothing but metaphors and idiom is a little far fetched.  If for nothing else then for mundane things, “Zeus, his bladder bursting”  Also, the use of metaphors means they have words with meanings.  Since they have “Sokath his eyes uncovered!”, would they have a metaphor for “my eyes hurt” or would they just say that.

    It’s a prime example of fridge logic: it works at the time, but the more you think about it, the less sense it makes.  Still, I loved the episode, and loved the concept of a language that used nothing but metaphors.  It just doesn’t seem like something that would organically develop.

    Besides, how would you tell those stories in the first place since everything is by metaphor?  How could you explain that “Sokath his eyes uncovered!” means someone has achieved understanding if you have no way of saying “I understand” outside of the metaphor?

    Seems it would also leave out a lot of details, since this entire post could, technically, be rendered as something like, “Thomas, full of doubt.”

  • Sandy Petersen

    In Gene Wolfe’s Shadow of the Torturer series, the communistic Ascians (who inhabit North America) speak only in quotes from their Little Red Book of the Council of 17. Wolfe actually addresses some of the problems such a language would present. Not saying he solves them of course, but it is fun. One of the books has a whole chapter devoted to an Ascian successfully telling a story, using only quotes from The Council of 17.