SIHA 2023

SIHA 2023

 I've begun my annual Search for Interesting Hollywood Aliens. Last year, I awarded another retro-SIHA because I did not find any new Sci Fi from television or the movies for 2022 that struck my fancy. 

The main question that I must answer is: will any new science fiction-related television show or movie in 2023 been able to inspire me to turn on a television set or go to a movie theater? In an attempt to increase the chances of that, I'm once again broadening the scope of this year's SIHA and making another edition of a Search for Interesting Hollywood Anything.

Here in 2023, I've been experimenting with how to use AI-generated images for the purpose of illustrating science fiction stories. Images such as the one to the right that are in this blog post were made by a collaborative process involving WOMBO Dream.

See the original art by Michael Whelan.
This copy made by WOMBO Dream.
Related image: Visi-Sonor Band.

 Waiting for the Mule. I don't envy anyone trying to adapt Isaac Asimov's science fiction to a screen. In the case of Asimov's Foundation Saga, which Asimov set several tens of thousands of years in the future, after Humanity has spread through the entire galaxy, the first book in the original Trilogy is really boring; it reads like 1930's New York City politics set in outer space. The series of Foundation stories limps along until the arrival of the telepathic Mule. 

Apparently, viewers were teased with glimpses of the Mule in season two of Apple TV's Foundation, but I could not bring myself to watch the second season of Apple's Foundation soap opera. 😔

 I was recently blogging about Arthur Clark's story Against the Fall of Night. Most of us have a hard time imagining what the world will be like ten years in the future, but there have been some science fiction story tellers like Clarke who took on the task of trying to write stories that are set a billion years in the future. 

See the original book cover
art by John Schoenherr. This
  copy made by WOMBO Dream.

 Goodbye cruel Moon. Not surprisingly, Against the Fall of Night has not stood the test of time. For example, one plot element in Clarke's story concerns the idea that in the far future, the Moon had to be destroyed because it was going to crash into the Earth. However, it is now known that the Moon is moving further away from the Earth, not moving closer. 

 I blame Clarke. However, Clarke's giant ray-gun for destroying the Moon may have been what inspired the idea of a "death star", so when I want to point fingers and lay blame for the ultimate Hollywood weapon of mass destruction, I start with Clarke.

For the AI-generated image that is shown to the right on this page, I used as a reference image an old book cover image that was painted by John Schoenherr. As a young boy discovering the literature of science fiction, I was inspired by Schoenherr's cover art. Here, fifty years later, I wanted to know if WOMBO Dream could provide an interesting new version of that cover art.

image source

 Not really the future. I was intrigued when I read a description of Molli and Max in the Future. Might this 2023 movie provide a similar inspirational imagining of the distant future, just as Clarke's Against the Fall of Night had done for me in the previous millennium? This film is supposedly set in the far, far, far, far future. However, the more I read about this film, the less interested I became. It is supposed to be the far future, but the film deals with all the same social crap that we are dealing with currently. Ew. 

Poster by WOMBO Dream.

Look at the purple creature in the Molli and Max in the Future poster (image shown to the left). I thought: great, there might be an interesting alien in this film. I'm always on the lookout for an interesting new alien!

 The 40 foot tall alien. Sadly, I have not seen this movie, but I asked Mr. Wombo to make a new movie poster featuring an alien with purple skin and tentacles around the neck. For the image that is shown to the right, I had to paste in AI-generated images for Molli and Max. Back in 1949, Jack Vance published a story called "The Sub-Standard Sardines". Vance's story featured genetically-engineered intelligent sardines. I wonder if that old story provided any inspiration for this 2023 film.

Generated by Mr. Wombo

For the AI-generated Molli and Max poster (above), I wanted to depict the purple alien as being much larger than Molli (see Attack of the 50 Foot Woman). You can click on the images in this blog post to enlarge them, but you can't zoom in enough on that poster to appreciate the way that Mr. Wombo crafted the woman's face. I was impressed by some of the images that Mr. Wombo generated when I included "Zosia Mamet" in the text prompt. One of these is shown to the left on this page.

One of the features that I like in the image to the left are the flowers in the background. I was using this text prompt: "high resolution full color movie still of Zosia Mamet, Zosia Mamet is twenty years old, Zosia Mamet has long blond hair, Zosia Mamet is dressed Victoria's Secret style, Zosia Mamet has large eyes, bushy blond hair", so I don't know why Mr. Wombo included the flowers.

Mr. Wombo does fish.

 Something Fishy. Science fiction originated as a coherent genre of literature among a small group of young writers such as Isaac Asimov and Arthur Clarke who were fascinated by science and technology. Sadly, the success of early science fiction story tellers led to the name "science fiction" being subjected to a horrific act of cultural appropriation. Hordes of ignorant writers who knew nothing about science appropriated the term "science fiction" as a marketing tool for their anti-science horror stories and also for goofy attempts to generate social commentary that viewers will pay for and go to see in theaters.

For the image to the right, I used the magazine cover that I created back in 2019 as a reference image for Mr. Wombo with this text prompt: "high resolution full color magazine cover, under water, twenty years old, long blond hair, big eyes, surrounded by fish, tall and slim".

Just dial "I" to bring
Indy out of retirement.
A "shallow fake" movie poster
created by Mr. Wombo and I.

 Dial still off. I was interested in the idea that the latest Indiana Jones film (which went into movie theaters in 2023) would involve time travel. I had high hopes that this film would include a fun and interesting application of one of my favorite Sci Fi plot elements: time travel. However, I have some long-standing expectations for the deployment of this particular science fiction plot element, making me a tough audience. 

As I understand the "plot" of the Dial of Destiny, in ancient Greece, Archimedes invented a device that was intended to guide people from the future back through time to help defeat the Romans in 212 BC. Don't ask me to explain how Archimedes invents a machine that "reveals time fissures" and allows Harrison Ford to travel through time. My problem is, you can't expect a science fiction fan like me to watch a movie about a time travel trip that accomplishes nothing. I suppose it could be argued that the whole film is just a mechanism for getting Indy and Marion back together. In any case, I'm not interested in watching mad-cap "adventure"; I was hoping for an interesting science fiction story. 

Going down? The dark future of Hollywood.

 Unreasonable Expectations. As described in another blog post, I had hopes that this new Indiana Jones movie would again feature aliens, but no such luck.

 Juliette's Run. In 1976 there was a film called Logan's Run. In 2023 we got a television series called Silo. As soon as I see the words "dystopian future" my eyes start to feel heavy. Logan's Run was an over-long 118 minutes. So far (season 1) of Silo has stretched to ten plodding episodes and revealed (really?) that outside of the titular Silo, the world looks like a devastated mess. How fun. There is a season 2 being planned. Yawn.

Assignment: Earth, 1968.
Re-imagined by Mr. Wombo.

 Retro-SIHA nomination. Not finding any new science fiction films in 2023 that inspire me to go to a theater and not being favorably impressed by any new Sci Fi television shows, my thoughts turn to old movies and T.V. shows from the previous millennium. Earlier this year (see this blog post), I tried to get help from artificial intelligence (both Bard and ChatGPT) to write a sequel to one of my favorite Star Trek episodes. Not being inspired by anything new from Hollywood here in 2023, I'm placing in nomination for a retro-SIHA the Star Trek episode "Assignment: Earth".

For the image shown to the left, Mr. Wombo generated everything in the scene except for the spaceship models which I manually pasted in and made use of to hide anatomical defects in the hands that were made by the artificial intelligence algorithm.

Hollywood's assignment for 2023.
Image by WOMBO Dream.

While discussing the 2023 Indiana Jones movie that features time travel (Dial of Destiny, above), I complained about the futility of a journey through time that accomplishes nothing. But can't the same complaint be lodged against "Assignment: Earth"? At the end of that episode, it is implied that the crew of the Enterprise did not alter the timeline of Earth in any deleterious way. However, it may be that by being there in the past, the crew of the Enterprise did help Gary Seven complete his Interventionist mission, allowing the future to unfold in the exact fashion required so that it would include the Enterprise and its crew... completing a loop in time.

Suzy's bright future
in an imagined
T.V. show inspired
by Gene Roddenberry's
Assignment:Earth

In any case, the point of "Assignment: Earth" was to promote a possible future television show about alien interventionists helping Earth. I think that could have been a great science fiction television show... and still could be.

 I just say "no" to dystopian dreck. There has been a debate about the nature of science fiction and the question has been asked: should science fiction stories be dark and dismal and pessimistic about the future or should they be exciting, intellectually stimulating and welcoming of the future? My vote is for fun science fiction such as "Assignment: Earth". I'm not surprised that depression, addiction and mental illness are rampant in a society where people are subjected to dystopian drek that is marketed in the name of science fiction while actually being anti-science. Currently, people are treated like sheeple who will bleat like sheep when someone stokes fears and rants about how the end of the world is just around the corner. Spare me.

retro-SIHA awards

 Related Reading: The 2022 SIHA. 

See also: Hal Clement & aquatic humanoids.

The 2023 SIHA winner. Next: science fiction in 1958.

Gary 18's assistant Interventionist, imagined for inclusion in a new television series inspired by Gene Roddenberry's Assignment:Earth; on my Hollywood wish-list for 2023. These five AI-generated image were made by WOMBO Dream using a text prompt that included: "high resolution full color movie still of Teri Garr, Teri Garr is twenty years old, Teri Garr has long blond hair, Teri Garr is dressed Victoria's Secret style".  Visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers