Space Romance Movies

[Condottiere]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ERb9SOibxM

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone falls in the '80s style of Traveller that so many old fat dudes with fanny packs play still. I've refused for decades to ever be in such a game. I'd rather play in any d20 system game (excluding T20 which is the worse edition of Traveller ever) than be in that Traveller game.

 

[Jacqual]

Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone falls in the '80s style of Traveller that so many old fat dudes with fanny packs play still. I've refused for decades to ever be in such a game. I'd rather play in any d20 system game (excluding T20 which is the worse edition of Traveller ever) than be in that Traveller game.

But Shawn what is wrong with a little cheese in your science fiction or is it due to that female being in it, that is what makes me shudder lol.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone falls in the '80s style of Traveller that so many old fat dudes with fanny packs play still. I've refused for decades to ever be in such a game. I'd rather play in any d20 system game (excluding T20 which is the worse edition of Traveller ever) than be in that Traveller game.

But Shawn what is wrong with a little cheese in your science fiction or is it due to that female being in it, that is what makes me shudder lol.

Watch that movie and then come back saying what you liked about it. I refuse to do cheesy games. A lot of the Classic Traveller types are into it, because that's what they grew up with watching. Also, cheesy games are inherently metagamed with out-of-character chatter. That's what Mel Brooks and Monte Python movies do to people.

Time After Time is more the style I'm looking for. But without the humor parts. Like Abyss has a seriousness to it. And so does Solaris (1971).

 

[GypsyComet]

A few Sci Fi time traveling ones recently like About Time.
Another category not quite "space"/otherworldly as you describe it would be future earth settings like Oblivion or The Matrix.

A few more "spacey" off the top of my head
One of my favorite movies: 5th Element
John Carter
Lost in Space
Star Wars
Starship Troopers
Galaxy Quest
Serenity
Kirk seams to have a woman in most TV episodes, I'm sure some of the Star Trek movies must of had a little romance?

For some of these, the romance is certainly not a major part of the movie

Those all fall in the Space Opera genre, unfortunately.

Even though the John Carter stories were some of the first Planetary Romances? The rest are indeed "space opera".

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Even though the John Carter stories were some of the first Planetary Romances? The rest are indeed "space opera".

Swashbuckling, whatever you want to call it. It fits in the Avatar genre. Rather than the Solaris genre. I said already I'm not talking about the 1900 era of space romancing.

I do have a Downton Abbey Traveller in the works. But it doesn't have any space romance in it. Just space. Downton Abbey with space nobles, dukes, and dilettantes.

 

[GypsyComet]

Even though the John Carter stories were some of the first Planetary Romances? The rest are indeed "space opera".

Swashbuckling, whatever you want to call it.

"Planetary Romance" is the widely accepted label, and Barsoom the archetypical example.

I do have a Downton Abbey Traveller in the works. But it doesn't have any space romance in it. Just space. Downton Abbey with space nobles and dukes.

That would be a "Costume Drama", using TV labels for such things. They depend heavily on that visible perception of time and place to inform and justify the social model. Much harder to do as an RPG without leaning on the same eras we use for such stories now.

The idea of "Romance in Space" as a separate thing is puzzling. Solaris stands out for good reason; Stanislaw Lem is a really unusual writer.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

"Planetary Romance" is the widely accepted label, and Barsoom the archetypical example.

And that is exactly what I'm not asking for.

That would be a "Costume Drama", using TV labels for such things. They depend heavily on that visible perception of time and place to inform and justify the social model. Much harder to do as an RPG without leaning on the same eras we use for such stories now.

Not sure what you're going on about. You against TV dramas or something? Are movies non-fiction to you?

The idea of "Romance in Space" as a separate thing is puzzling.

Not for me. I just don't want Wilma Deering in my Taveller game is all.

Solaris stands out for good reason; Stanislaw Lem is a really unusual writer.

Good writing doesn't have to mean unusual.

 

[GypsyComet]

Solaris stands out for good reason; Stanislaw Lem is a really unusual writer.

Good writing doesn't have to mean unusual.

No, but Lem (1921-2006) was both. He was reportedly a complex writer in Polish, and only a similarly prodigal translator allows his work to shine in English.

Solaris has been made into a film three times, but more cerebral SF has a poor track record on film in the last 40 years, getting converted to action and losing its speculative edge in most cases, or simply doing so poorly at the box office that no one has heard of it.

You might do better by looking at noir and its close relatives, and just assuming that the bar is on a ship.

Along those lines, Dark City is a heck of a movie, and a romance of sorts, but it only barely tips the SF scales.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Solaris stands out for good reason; Stanislaw Lem is a really unusual writer.

Good writing doesn't have to mean unusual.

No, but Lem (1921-2006) was both. He was reportedly a complex writer in Polish, and only a similarly prodigal translator allows his work to shine in English.

Solaris has been made into a film three times, but more cerebral SF has a poor track record on film in the last 40 years, getting converted to action and losing its speculative edge in most cases, or simply doing so poorly at the box office that no one has heard of it.

You might do better by looking at noir and its close relatives, and just assuming that the bar is on a ship.

Along those lines, Dark City is a heck of a movie, and a romance of sorts, but it only barely tips the SF scales.

Noir only works as private dick stories for me. There's no bar in my game. I've already done Blade Runner too many times in Traveller.

I've decided to go with something more mainstream, and less cerebral than Solaris, like The Abyss. Two lovers, trying to save either themselves first (as a couple) or humanity first (having to sacrifice what they have, or who they (really) are, in doing so). My Traveller games tend to have a choice in them that player characters find themselves stressing over. Lots of role-play event twists that happen.

Thanks for the help, guys and gals.

 

[Condottiere]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inGUZEDJllY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdhXeiWHjzI

 

[Hopeless]

You know maybe Space Truckers might qualify although that might be stretching it a bit...

Wasn't there a David Hasselhoff movie that qualifies?

Star Crash or whatever it was called... still more likely to watch that cheesy movie mentioned above than that but still...

Battle Beyond the Stars been mentioned yet?

Robert Vaughn, John Boy, George Peppard, John Saxon I think... the lead has a ship with an AI voiced by someone like the woman who did the voice for that Mel Brooks take on Star Wars and warships that turn into Maids with Hoovers...

Actually I think there wasn't much romance well at least not as much as Ice Pirates had not so sure about whatever Star Crash was about... hey what about Barbarella?

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone falls in the '80s style of Traveller that so many old fat dudes with fanny packs play still. I've refused for decades to ever be in such a game. I'd rather play in any d20 system game (excluding T20 which is the worse edition of Traveller ever) than be in that Traveller game.

But Shawn what is wrong with a little cheese in your science fiction or is it due to that female being in it, that is what makes me shudder lol.

Watch that movie and then come back saying what you liked about it. I refuse to do cheesy games. A lot of the Classic Traveller types are into it, because that's what they grew up with watching. Also, cheesy games are inherently metagamed with out-of-character chatter. That's what Mel Brooks and Monte Python movies do to people.

Time After Time is more the style I'm looking for. But without the humor parts. Like Abyss has a seriousness to it. And so does Solaris (1971).

I read Time After Time by Albert Finney. The plot involved a man from the 20th century with the ability to teleport himself to the 19th century, and used self-hypnosis to harness that power. Traveller does have psionics in it. What if there was a psionic power that allowed oneself to make a massive leap in time, say from the classic Traveller era to our time. If used they way it is used in the novel Time after Time, one must be in the physical location and then make a jump back and forward in time. So you find a location on Terra that looks the same as it does today.

So the protagonist is either from the future or his romantic interest is from the future. How would this work in classic Traveller. The Zhodani have a lot of psions, what if one developed the power to leap backwards in time and then back to the present? She is a Zhodani agent and her one power is the ablity to leap back and forward in time. She travels to Terra and leaps to the year 2001 and falls in love with one of the inhabitants, lets say this is a very charismatic hero type, an air force pilot or a marine, something like that, and she transports him to Classic Traveller Terra, this would be similar to Buck Rogers except instead of being frozen, he is teleported to the future setting by the romantic interest. Since the Zhodani are the Chief adversaries of the Imperium, they might want to help the Solomani regain Earth, perhaps if they extracted a charismatic hero type from Earth's past, it might induce the political changes the Zhodani desire, the person selected would have to be someone who wouldn't be missed by history, someone who was doomed to die shortly after his abduction. Lets say the year is 2001, the date is September 11. The Two airplanes have just crashed into the World Trade Center. and the Zhodani agent finds herself on one of the upper floors, she has a watch which tells her exactly when the building she is in is going to collapse, she has a respirator, because the rooms are filling with smoke, people are jumping out of windows to save themselves. So she spends some time walking about looking for someone to rescue and bring to the future. and she needs to do this before the building collapses and she gets killed.

Lets say at one point the floor collapses and she is trapped, some one rescues her, and that is the person she brings to the future. (If no one comes to her rescue, she can always teleport back to the future by herself, but she is looking for the heroic type, so she needs a doomed person to rescue her, someone who won't be missed by history because he is presumed dead.

 

[Condottiere]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFMLGEHdIjE

 

[Hopeless]

Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour starred in a movie that sounds like that book Time after Time.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour starred in a movie that sounds like that book Time after Time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_and_Again_(novel)

My apologies, I confused a book with the made for television movie your talking about. The titles are similar, and the book is a science fiction romance novel as well. Basically the protagonist is able to teleport himself back in time, I believe that this the plot of the movie as well, though the specifics are different. Also the book's author was Jack Finney, not Albert Finney, that is what I get from using half remembered data off the top of my head without looking things up on the internet. The book is a good novel by the way, I highly recommend it.

Time and Again is a 1970 illustrated novel by Jack Finney. The many illustrations in the book are real, though, as explained in an endnote, not all are from the 1882 period in which the actions of the book take place. It had long been rumored that Robert Redford would convert the book into a movie. The project has never come to fruition.[1] In July 2012, it was announced that Lionsgate studios optioned the film rights to the novel, with Doug Liman set to direct and produce.[2]

A sequel, From Time to Time (1995), was published during the final year of the author's life. The book left room for a third novel, apparently never written.

Plot[edit]
In November 1970, Simon Morley, an advertising sketch artist, is approached by U.S. Army Major Ruben Prien to participate in a secret government project. He is taken to a huge warehouse on the West Side of Manhattan, where he views what seem to be movie sets, with people acting on them. It seems this is a project to learn whether it is feasible to send people back into the past by what amounts to self-hypnosis—whether, by convincing oneself that one is in the past, not the present, one can make it so.

As it turns out, Simon (usually called Si) has a good reason to want to go back to the past—his girlfriend, Kate, has a mystery linked to New York City in 1882. She has a letter dated from that year, mailed to an Andrew Carmody (a fictional minor figure in history, who was associated with Grover Cleveland). The letter seems innocuous enough—a request for a meeting to discuss marble—but there is a note which, though half burned, seems to say that the sending of the letter led to "the destruction by fire of the entire World", followed by a missing word. Carmody, the writer of the note, mentioned his blame for that incident. He then killed himself.

Si agrees to participate in the project, and requests permission to go back to New York City in 1882 in order to watch the letter being mailed (the postmark makes clear when it was mailed). The elderly Dr. E.E. Danziger, head of the project, agrees, and expresses his regret that he can't go with Si, because he would love to see his parents' first meeting, which also occurred in New York City in 1882. The project rents an apartment at the famous Dakota apartment building, which did not actually exist in 1882. (It was completed two years later, but Finney explains that he took a few liberties with the timeline due to his fascination with the building.) Si uses the apartment as both a staging area and a means to help him with self-hypnosis, since the building's style is so much of the period in which it was built and faces a section of Central Park which, when viewed from the apartment's window, is unchanged from 1882.


The Dakota in winter. This image appears in Chapter 17 of the novel.
Si is successful in going back to 1882, at first very briefly, and then a second time he is able to take Kate with him. They travel by horse-drawn bus down to the old post office, and watch the letter being mailed by a man. They follow him, and learn that he lives at 19 Gramercy Park. Then they return to their base at the Dakota apartments and return to the present.

Si is debriefed and carefully examined after each trip to the past, and as far as the project organizers can tell, his activities in the past are making no difference to the present. He is encouraged to go back again. He presents himself at 19 Gramercy Park as a potential boarder. He is accepted, begins living there and learns that the man who mailed the letter is named Jake Pickering. He explores the Manhattan of the past for several days, sketching all the while—he is an illustrator, and Finney inserts illustrations from the period into the book as Si's own. He goes on to learn that Pickering is blackmailing Carmody. Si finds himself falling for the landlady's niece, Julia Charbonneau. But he has a rival—Pickering. Eventually, Pickering makes a scene, having tattooed the name "JULIA" on himself, and Si soon leaves, to return to the present.

Things aren't going as well in the present. One of the other participants in the project, having gone back to Denver some seventy years in the past, has made some unknown change in the past and thus a friend, whom he remembers, was never born. Danziger insists that the project be stopped. When he is overruled, he resigns. After Prien talks to him, Si sees no alternative other than to return to the past again, though he is troubled by Danziger's resignation.

He is accepted back at Gramercy Park cheerfully, with even the dour Pickering happy. It seems Pickering and Julia are now engaged. Si (casting himself as a private detective) tells Julia that Pickering is a blackmailer. They go to Pickering's office and conceal themselves to watch the blackmail money being turned over by Carmody. Carmody brings only $10,000, rather than the demanded million dollars for the incriminating files. After knocking him out, Carmody ties up Pickering and sets out to look for the papers. He realizes they are concealed amid many other files. He patiently thumbs through the files, as Si and Julia agonize as the hours pass. Finally, Carmody decides on a scheme—burn the files. He does so. Pickering tries to save the files, but burns himself badly in the process. To the pair's astonishment, Si and Julia burst forth, urging them to flee, and flee themselves.

It is a huge fire, and Si and Julia find themselves trapped. They barely escape. Si learns that the building used to house the newspaper the New York World and one piece of the puzzle fits in—the missing word in Carmody's note was "Building". After watching the efforts to fight the fire, in which many die, the shaken couple returns to Gramercy Park. There is no sign of Pickering. [The burning of the New York World building is a factual historical event].

Two days later, the two are picked up by Police Inspector Thomas Byrnes, and then taken to Carmody's house. The terribly burned man there accuses them of murdering Pickering and starting the fire. After they leave, Byrnes expresses indecision and lets them walk away—only to yell "The prisoners are escaping" to the sergeant who accompanies him. It is a set-up, the two are to prove their guilt by "attempting to escape". As it turns out, police all over the island have already been provided with their description and photographs. They are able to flee, but have no money and nowhere to go. They shelter in the as-yet-unassembled Statue of Liberty's arm, then standing in Madison Square. (Again, the arm standing in Madison Square Park prior to the statue as a whole being erected is a factual event). Si tells Julia the whole story, but she takes it as entertaining fantasy. She is soon convinced otherwise, as Si brings them both into the present, and she observes the dawn from high inside the long-assembled statue, seeing a totally strange New York.

They spend a day in the present, with a shocked Julia observing the things that have changed in ninety years, from clothing to television. At last, they settle into Si's apartment. He is ashamed to tell her the history of what has happened in the past ninety years, the horrible wars and the fact that there are areas of the city where no law abiding citizen can safely go. Julia must return home. The two realize that the man whom they met at Carmody's house was in fact Pickering—Carmody died in the fire. Armed with that fact, Julia can keep Pickering from having her arrested, lest he be exposed. As 1882 is far more real to her than 1970, she returns to the past without needing any help from Si.

Si goes to report in, and tells most of the story, concealing Julia's visit to 1970. They then give him an assignment—to intentionally alter the past. Research has confirmed that Carmody (actually Pickering) was an acquaintance of Grover Cleveland's--and talked Cleveland out of buying Cuba from Spain. The military men now in effective control of the project conclude that if Pickering is exposed, he might never have influence with Cleveland, and the U.S. might never have to worry about Fidel Castro. But after talking with Danziger, Si worries about the other effects the change might have, and Danziger makes him promise not to carry out the scheme. Si returns to 1882. Having been told how Danziger's parents met, he aborts the meeting. Danziger will never be born, and the project will never happen. Si walks away sadly—towards Gramercy Park and Julia and away from 1970.

That last bit was a bit nasty, don't you think. Danzinger warns him not to change history, so Si makes him "not happen!" Maybe Danzinger should have kept his mouth shut and he wouldn't have been deleted from history.

 

[Condottiere]

The problem with spaceliner movies is that they are inherently uninteresting, while spacelabs are easy to film, but also inherently uninteresting

Futurama, I believe, did have a Titanic episode.

If you reinterpret 2001, HAL has an unrequited love for Bowman, and decides that if he can't have him, no one will.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

The problem with spaceliner movies is that they are inherently uninteresting, while spacelabs are easy to film, but also inherently uninteresting

Futurama, I believe, did have a Titanic episode.

If you reinterpret 2001, HAL has an unrequited love for Bowman, and decides that if he can't have him, no one will.

Why a spaceliner, why not just reinterpret fairy tales and set them to a Traveller background? After all the Imperium has princesses to rescue. Could Romeo and Juliet be set to a Traveller Background? What sort of adjustments would be necessary to make this happen? I think Revenge of the Sith was structured like a Shakespearean Play, don't you think? You have a tragic hero and his downfall!

 

[GypsyComet]

The problem with spaceliner movies is that they are inherently uninteresting, while spacelabs are easy to film, but also inherently uninteresting

Futurama, I believe, did have a Titanic episode.

If you reinterpret 2001, HAL has an unrequited love for Bowman, and decides that if he can't have him, no one will.

Why a spaceliner, why not just reinterpret fairy tales and set them to a Traveller background?

We talking Brother Grimm or after being Disney'd?

Could Romeo and Juliet be set to a Traveller Background? What sort of adjustments would be necessary to make this happen?

Romeo & Juliet is in no way a fairy tale, by the way.

I think Revenge of the Sith was structured like a Shakespearean Play, don't you think? You have a tragic hero and his downfall!

Revenge of the Sith is structured like a long commercial for a longer serial.
The Devil wins but our heroes ARE seen again, so it isn't really a proper fairy tale.
It might be a Shakespearean Tragedy in some ways. Most of his tragic characters did it to themselves, though, while Anakin is a pawn the whole time.

 

[Hopeless]

Sort of like Speed in outer space or Point Break in the Future?

Fairy tale wise how about Elsa is actually infected by a parasite released by Hans' uncle and his plans to usurp the throne is revenge for his uncle's death at the hands of their parents who were conveniently lost in a hyperspace accident?

Anna is aware there's a problem but everyone thinks Elsa is now a monster who has deliberately isolated herself believing she will infect others unaware that Anna was infected as a child and survived meaning she's immune.

The bad guys want to secure her as a potential new weapon unaware that all Elsa needs is for someone to willingly accept the parasite and then it will go dormant long enough for them to prove she's no longer infected.

Cue sequel as they now seek a cure for Anna I believe that alternative is also a fairy story regarding an infected princess requiring someone willing to sacrifice themselves to take the curse from them isn't it?

Sleeping Beauty except she's the ship brain of a massive warship, everyone wants it but she wants to be free to live a normal life... cue the four surviving aliens who know the secret to gaining control with three trying to find a suitable person to take control and their rogue rival who wants control for themselves...

Then throw in the hapless heroes who end up trying to save the slumbering woman trapped at the heart of the ship...

Rapunzel the mysterious tower and the life draining monster posing as the hair of the "damsel in distress" this time the hero is a hairdresser who knows something isn't right about that lady... :wink:

Cinderella trapped inside an ancient Fortress controlled by an AI and the menacing stepmother whose unknowingly become the AI's personality whose only hope is a group of uplifted Travellers being not human gives them access and a chance to save the trapped young woman...

EDIT: Sorry got a bit distracted!