Finals of the quiz conducted on 26/9/2021 as part of the BCQC September Opens covering science and speculative fiction.

1. Sci-Qi
A science and speculative fiction quiz
Mohit Karve

2. Mains
• Infinite rebounds, no pounce
• Two halves of 17 questions each
• I’ll give a hint on a question if all teams agree
• Two sets of 4 loosely related write-down questions
• Whatsapp the answers to these questions to me
• Send a test message to that number before we begin

3. Set A
• Next four questions are loosely connected
• Hear all four, write down answers
• 5 points for each correct answer
• We’ll check answers at the end of the set of 4

4. A1
• Visitors, ostensibly from Deneb, came to earth in six places, and left
behind 'zones' where the laws of physics behaved erratically and
many anomalous artifacts could be found. At the centre of the zones is
a device that grants wishes. The journey into the zone is fraught with
danger, and it is especially hard to get to the wish granter itself.
• Several artifact hunters (illegally) venture into the zone to extract these
objects and sell them for huge sums of money. The story revolves
around one such artifact hunter and his experiences navigating the
zone.
• What 1971 novel is this?

5. A2
• The 2007 game ________, loosely based on the novel above was one
of the most successful games made by Ukranian developer GSC
Game World. After disbanding in 2011, the studio reformed and started
working on a sequel.
• The sequel is also based in Chernobyl, where the fall-out of the
nuclear disaster has resulted in an exclusion zone full of strange
artifacts and anomalies.
• The sequel was confirmed for a 2022 release at E3 this year.
• What game?

6. A3
• Seeking to make a truly alien species, __________ settled on a liquid
with an indescribable colour that was outside the normal visible range
of human beings. The alien lands on earth via a meteorite, and seeps
into the soil and water on the property of a farmer. In following years
the livestock and produce grow to be bountiful and large, but turn out
to be inedible. The water itself is infected, and slowly drives the family
living on the land insane. The story ends with the alien entity flying into
the sky after blighting the lands in the vicinity.
• What short story is this?

7. A4
• X is a 2018 movie based on a book by the same name. It stars ______
_______, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson,
Tuva Novotny and was released to generally positive reviews. While
the director insists that the movie was not inspired by #1 or #3, many
critics have noted similarities in the stories about exploration of a
strange area altered by a destructive event.
• What movie/book is this?

8. • Send answers to me
• Mention your team name in the message

10. Set A Answers
• Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
• Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl
• The Colour out of Space, by HP Lovecraft
• Annihilation (blank is Natalie Portman)

11. 1
• Edward Page Mitchell was a journalist and writer who spent most of
his career at The Sun in New York City. He is considered a major
figure in American science fiction, having written stories about
cyborgs, teleportation and thinking computers, among other things,
well before other masters of the genre.
• One of his stories, published in The Sun in 1881, described an
adventure where two young boys experienced the Siege of Leiden in
the Anglo-Spanish 80 years war.
• What was unique about this story?

13. • 'The Clock that Went
Backward' is the first
recorded use of a time
machine

14. 2
• The "Zero-point Energy Field Manipulator" was created mainly as a
technological showpiece to display the strengths of the physics engine
in a 2004 video game.
• In-game, the weapon was designed to handle hazardous materials
and assist with movement of heavy objects. In the hands of the player,
the manipulator is turned into a launcher for saw blades, fuel barrels
and other heavy objects during in-game fights. It is also used to solve
puzzles in slower parts of the game.
• How is the manipulator otherwise known?

16. • The is the
Gravity Gun
form Half-Life 2

17. 3
• What does this
Venn Diagram
describe?
45 25 32
An inventor,
writer and
editor, widely
considered one
the fathers of
science fiction
A cloud of dust
and gases,
illuminated by
the stars inside
them

19. • Number of Hugo
Awards, Nebula
Awards and Joint
Winners (for best
novel, to be clear, but
not required in answer)
• Hugo awards are
named for Hugo
Gernsback, one of the
early and influential
sci-fi authors

20. 4
• ______ is perhaps the best known sci-fi author out of Cuba. One of his
most well-known books is "A Planet for Rent". In that collection of short
stories, readers follow a few loosely connected protagonists of a future
where the Earth has been conquered, isolated from the rest of the
galaxy and turned into a tourist destination for rich aliens. Drawing
allegories to the experiences of Cubans living through international
isolation, the books paints a heart-wrenching picture of oppression and
exploitation at the hands of a ruthless and powerful external entity.
• His more recent works include "Super Extra Grande" and
"Condomnauts".
• Who is this author (pen name will do)?

22. • Yoss, or José
Miguel Sánchez
Gómez

23. 5
• A: A loop in orbit around a star, first seen in a novel of the same name
in 1970.
• B: A loop that started as a Dyson sphere, then a Dyson swarm, and
finally a loop similar to A, but much smaller and orbiting a gas giant at
the L1 Lagrange point. Developers for B were concerned that B would
be viewed as a rip-off of A, but forged ahead anyway and created a
classic in the process.
• What are A and B?

25. • A: Ringworld and
B: Halo

26. 6
• Successful • Not-so-successful
Connect these
movies based on the
lead actors shown
here
(Not exhaustive)

28. • Successful • Not-so-successful
Hollywood
adaptations of
Philip K. Dick novels
Matt Damon (The
Adjustment Bureau)
Harrison Ford (Blade
Runner)
Tom Cruise (Minority
Report)
Keanu Reeves (A
Scanner Darkly)
Arnold Schwarznegger
(Total Recall)
Ben Affleck (Paycheck) Peter Weller
(Screamers)
Gary Sinise (Imposter) Nicolas Cage (Next)
Jonathan Scarfe (Radio
Free Albemuth)

29. 7
• A: Latinisation of the Greek word for "acting of one's own will“
• B: Greek word for something that "has the likeness of man“
• C: Based on the Czech word for "forced/slave labour“
• While A & B have been in use since antiquity, C came from a play
written in 1920. C swiftly displaced A & B in science fiction works (and
the English language in general).
• In modern science fiction A has fallen completely out of use, while B is
now used to refer to a very specific kind of C.
• What are the three words?
(half points for getting 2, full points for all 3)

31. • Automaton
• Android
• Robot

32. 8
• He gained most of his fame as a writer who explored class differences
and hypocrisy in society, and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in
Literature 16 times (but never won).
• "The Machine Stops," published in 1909 was a rare foray into science
fiction, imagining a future where humanity lived underground and 'the
machine' took care of all human needs. It predicted technologies
similar to instant messaging, video conferencing and the internet. It
came back into focus in 2020 because of the eerie similarities of
lockdown life to the isolated life described in the story.
• Who was this prescient author?

34. • EM Forster

35. 9
• What are all of these different examples of?
And what is the blank?
• Interocitor (Jones)
• Ultrawave/Hyperwave (Asimov, del Rey, EE Smith, others)
• Dirac Link (Blish)
• ________ (le Guin, Bisson, Card, Gaiman, Vinge, Chambers, many others)
• Subspace relays (various Star Trek scriptwriters)

37. • Various descriptions
of Faster Than Light
communication, Le
Guin's Ansible being
the most popular one

38. 10
• X is a title but also a name, the leader of a nomadic group of people
bound by a warrior's way of life.
• In order to distinguish between different leaders, descriptors were
added to the title.
• For example, X the First, X the Conqueror, X the Preserver, X the
Avenger, etc.
• While most leaders (there was no familial succession) would give up
their names and be referred to simply as X, others chose to keep their
names too.
• What is X? Looking for a specific word, variations will not do.

40. • Mandalore (or Mand'alor).
The followers of Mandalore
are called Mandalorians.

41. 11
• The overarching villains of the Mass Effect trilogy are 'Reapers' - a
hyper-advanced synthetic-organic race that lives in the dark space
between galaxies. The Reapers 'reproduce' by wiping out all life in the
galaxy and converting the bio matter into a new Reaper who
represents a whole species. Their overall goals are incomprehensible
to organic life.
• This theme is inspired by a much earlier creation that imagined cosmic
entities who lived in the depths of space.
• What was this inspiration?

43. • Lovecraftian Horror/
Cthulu

44. 12
• X was to be based on a science fiction story from a few years prior. The
script was written in 1967 and had Peter Sellers and Marlon Brando signed
on for the lead roles. Plans fell through due to a copyright conflict and the
film was never produced. The eponymous character was described by the
writer as "a cross between a gnome and a famished refugee child: large
head, spindly limbs, a lean torso. Is it male or female or neuter? We don't
know. What its form basically conveys is a kind of ethereal innocence, and it
is difficult to associate either great evil or great power with it; yet a feeling of
eeriness is there because of the resemblance to a sickly human child."
• Y, a film from the 1980s, had many similarities with X, a result of (according
to X's writer) copies of the script of X being freely distributed in Hollywood in
the late 60s.
• Z, a film from the early 2000s, is considered to be based on Y, but actually
much more similar to X.
• Name Y, Z and the writer of X (X is not needed, except for brownie points)

46. • Satyajit Ray's 'The Alien’
• E.T. : The Extra Terrestrial
• Koi Mil Gaya

47. 13
• Led by Commander Tara, ______ _______ _______ (name of a
location in a show of the same name) was Earth's last stand against a
race of technologically superior aliens. With a crew consisting of a
cyborg security officer, a communications officer, an engineer, a
scientist, an adorable robot and a doctor, the commander worked
tirelessly to thwart the ambitions of the leader of the alien race,
Zakhakoo.
• What short-running but groundbreaking show was this?

49. • Space City Sigma
(1989), probably the
first sci-fi show on
IndianTV

50. 14
• Considered one of the most iconic episodes from the original series,
"The _______ with _______" has been referenced and parodied
several times, including:
• Trials and _____-ations (Deep Space 9)
• The Problem with Popplers (Futurama)
• The ______ with Gizka (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic)
• A humorous take on the Beatles' song 'Yesterday’
• Swarm of the Century (My Little Pony)
• What is the title of this episode?

52. • The Trouble with Tribbles
• Trials and Tribblations
• The Trouble with Gizka
• "Yesterday, all my tribbles
seemed so far away"

53. 15
• In a 36-year career starting in 1970 and ending with her death in 2006,
________ ________ compiled a large body of work that focused on
pluralist societies, critiques of present day hierarchies and the roles of
women in society. Her unfinished Earthseed trilogy was somewhat
prescient, set in the mid/late 2020s, where a religious fundamentalist
leader uses the slogan _________ (several words) as he embarks on
a crusade to eliminate minorities.
• What author, and what slogan?

55. • Octavia Butler,
Make America
Great Again

56. 16
• A: Greek statesman, considered one of the greatest orators in the
Classical Era. A staunch opponent of the expansionist ways of Philip II
and Alexander the Great, A eventually took his own life to prevent
capture by Alexander's successor.
• B: An English philosopher and physician, commonly considered the
'Father of Liberalism'. He was an empiricist philosopher whose writings
influenced Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Scottish
Enlightenment thinkers. His influence on the American Revolutionaries
was such that his ideas are reflected in the United States Declaration
of Independence.
• How are A & B connected in a sci-fi context?
Just need the name of a book.

58. • Ender's Game
• These are the
pseudonyms used by
Peter and Valentine
Wiggin to influence the
politics of Earth.

59. 17
• Put funda and name X andY
X’s timeline
Y’s timeline
X meets Y for the
first time, Y meets
X for the last time.
Y sacrifices herself
to save X, ‘lives on’
as a data ghost
X’s friend, who
will be Y’s
mother, meets Y
for the first time
X meets Y at the
stonehenge,
approximately midway
through their
relationship
X’s friend gives birth to
baby Y, baby Y is
abducted. Y reveals
that she is X’s friend’s
daughter
X meets Y for the last
time, Y meets X for
the first time. They
get married, Y
pretends to kill X.

61. • Timelines of The Doctor (X) and River Song (Y)

62. End of First Half
• Scores

63. Set B
• Next four questions are loosely connected
• Hear all four, write down answers
• 5 points for each correct answer
• We’ll check answers at the end of the set of 4

64. B1
• In physics and classical mechanics, X is an unsolved problem
involving a chaotic system of masses where it is difficult to predict the
positions of any of the masses at a future time. One of the most well
known sci-fi novels to come out of China, X explores humanity's first
contact with an alien species that evolved on a planet in such a star
system.
• What is X?

65. B2
• Depending on who you ask, there are three versions of the question
that X asked, each pretty similar to "Where are they?". The three other
people at the lunch table at Los Alamos in 1950 knew exactly what X
was referring to and burst out laughing at the outburst. There are
many answers to the question that X asked, and one of the responses
is the sequel to #1. The ______ _________ hypothesis (same as the
name of the book) offers two points. First, it is impossible to build trust
given all of the unknowns of the situation; second, the amount of
resources available, even if large, is necessarily finite.
• How do we better know X’s question?

66. B3
• Ken Liu, who translated #1 and another of its sequels to English, is
considered the creator of the term __________. He describes it as a
version of a more popular retrofuturistic subgenre, the key difference
being that the setting is more Asian than Western, and the technology
of the setting revolves around organic materials (such as paper,
bamboo, silk, coconuts, etc.) that are relevant to East Asian and
Pacific Island communities.
• His series, 'Dandelion Dynasty' is the first example of the subgenre,
with other authors writing books of this form more recently.
• What is the blank?

67. B4
• Connect:
• A prequel of sorts to #1
• One of the explanations for the early 2000s scare of the "Muhnochwa“
• An unexplained phenomenon of luminescent explosive objects that leave behind
a smell of sulphur

68. • Send answers to me
• Mention your team name in the message

70. Set B Answers
• The Three Body Problem, by Cixin Liu
• The question is Fermi's Paradox, the question of why there has been
no evidence of extraterrestrial life given the age of the universe. Cixin
Liu's "The Dark Forest" responds to the paradox, proposing that the
universe is teeming with life but no civilisation wants to risk short term
elimination and its own long term growth by drawing attention to itself.
• Silkpunk (from Steampunk)
• Ball Lightning

71. Second Half
• Reverse Direction Infinite Rebounds

72. 18
• __________ (7 word phrase) is a transphobic internet meme that
started as a way to parody the evolving gender spectrum. The phrase
is now also used by the trans community itself as a way of reclaiming
the meme. In January 2020 a transgender woman named Isabel Fall
submitted a story with the same title to Clarkesworld Magazine. The
story was critically acclaimed and is nominated for the 2021 Hugo
Award, but also generated lots of controversy as it wasn't immediately
clear (due to the title) whether it was mocking transgender people or a
serious exploration of gender.
• What is the phrase?

74. • I sexually identify
as an attack
helicopter

75. 19
• Quantum X is a solution to the Schrondinger's Cat paradox,
postulating that a decision point creates multiple realities. The cat is
alive in one reality and dead in another. Quantum X ensures that the
two outcomes of the decision do not interact with each other. This is
the plot of the 2013 sci-fi thriller Y (Y is the opposite of X). The nearby
passing of a comet results in temporary Quantum Y, leading to a
mixing of multiple realities.
• What movie (Y)?

77. • Coherence

78. 20
• Formulated in the 1990s as an educational content for children, __
______ _________ was a show set in the year 2050. The professor
would introduce his grandchildren to notable historical figures by
teleporting them from their time/location into the present, assisted by
Zigmoid the android and a computer called Big Brain.
• Notable 'guests' included Galileo, J.C Bose, Benjamin Franklin and
Thomas Edison.
• Name the show please.

80. • The Great Experiment
on Doordarshan

81. 21
• CS Lewis is perhaps best known for Chronicles of Narnia but he also
dabbled in early science fiction.
• One of his sci-fi series (published between 1938 and 1945) is
considered some of the best writing of its era.
• Arthur C Clarke went as far as to say that this set of books was one of
only a few science fiction books that could be considered 'literature’.
• What book series?

83. • Ransom Trilogy/
Space Trilogy/
Cosmic Trilogy

84. 22
• Fill in the blank
• 1984: An influential novel that would go on to become the archetype of
__________, it had one of the earliest descriptions of virtual reality
and is credited with first using a word to describe interconnected
technology.
• 1988: A tabletop board game called __________ (same blank)
• 2020: A video game based on the 1988 board game

86. • Cyberpunk
• 1984: Neuromancer
• 1988: Cyberpunk
• 2020: Cyberpunk 2077

87. 23
• A sergeant in the losing Independent Army
• A wartime friend of the sergeant, serving under him in the war as a corporal
• A pilot, husband of the ex-corporal
• An escort or geisha, but in a 26th century context
• A mercenary who was hired in the middle of a stand-off
• A mechanic with no formal training who operates on intuition
• A trauma surgeon on the run
• The trauma surgeon's paranoid sister
• A pastor with a criminal past
• Where would you find all of them? Looking for a specific where (not show
name).

89. • Serenity (the
ship from Firefly)

90. 24
• A lifetime honour, X is awarded to no more than one writer every year,
starting in 1974.
• The focus is on excellence over a long career - the youngest recipients
were 66 when they were selected.
• While the award honours science fiction and fantasy writers, only two
winners have written fantasy exclusively.
• What recognition is this?

92. • Science Fiction
and Fantasy
Writers of America
(SFWA) Grand
Master Award
• The Damon Knight
Grand Master
Award will also do

93. 25
• X was a novel written shortly after the US suspended nuclear tests in
the 1950s. It is considered very influential, but has also been widely
criticised for its fascist handling of topics like militarism, voting, race
and gender.
• While the novel was written seriously, the movie adaptation ironically
satirised the source material by dialling up all of the problematic ideas
to a crazy extent.
• What classic novel/movie is this?

95. • StarshipTroopers

96. 26
• One of a collection of 18 short stories published by Ray Bradbury in
1951, ________ _____ tells the poignant story of an astronaut
grappling with the realities of spaceflight. He loves travelling through
the stars, visiting Mercury, Venus, Mars and the outer planets, but
deeply misses his wife and son on his time away.
• ________ ________'s 1972 adaptation of this story instantly became
a classic that is still popular today.
• What story, and who created the very well-known adaptation?

98. • Rocket Man,
by Elton John

99. 27
• __________ is a networking equipment manufacturer that started out
in 1976 as a maker of dial up modems. The domain it operates in has
nothing do with its name - the name is in fact a reference to a fictional
"greatest company in the known galaxy".
• What is the name of the real world company, and what is it based
on?

101. • USRobotics, based on US Robots and
Mechanical Men (from Isaac Asimov's
Robot series of books)

102. 28
• Miguel __________ is a scientist who proposed a solution for faster
than light travel, now called the _________ drive, which is consistent
with general relativity. It works by expanding space behind it and
compressing space in front of it, while the spaceship itself does not
move at all.
• This notion of warping space was actually inspired by the Star Trek
warp drive. While the drive is still entirely theoretical, the cycle has
now been completed, with modern science fiction (such as Mike
Brook's Dark Run series) using the __________ drive as the preferred
way of FTL travel.
• What is the blank?

104. • Alcubierre Drive,
postulated by Miguel
Alcubierre

105. 29
• Extremely non-exhaustive list about this person:
• Created a device that clones people (____ _______)
• According to him, caused the Tunguska Event using a superweapon (Goliath)
• Created a self-aware robot whose adventures we follow (Atomic Robo)
• Holds the key to a device to make a ship disappear (The Astounding, the
Amazing, and the Unknown)
• Modified every light in a building to run on broadcast power (Lady Slings the
Booze)
• Built a doomsday device in New South Wales that could destroy all wireless
communication (The _______ Legacy)
• Found a way to help the Tsar free Russia of the mysterious 'Ice' (Ice)
• These are examples of a certain ‘trope’ in sci-fi writing. What am I
talking about?

107. • Nikola Tesla as a
stereotypical 'mad
scientist' character in
science fiction
• Blank was The Prestige

108. 30
• While neither X nor Y are primarily known as science fiction authors, X
was a well regarded author of hard science fiction, and Y has
popularised sci-fi in his country by writing in his local language.
• They met in the early 1960s, with X eventually becoming Y's doctoral
advisor.
• The X-Y theory of gravitation fits into the steady-state theory of the
universe.
• Who are these two gentlemen?

110. • Fred Hoyle and
Jayant Narkilar

111. 31
• Connect
Protagonist (X) X’s partner Third member of X’s
crew, joins a little later
X’s arch-enemy X’s prior love-interest

113. The cast of the live-action
version of Cowboy Bebop
John Cho/
Spike Spiegel
Mustafa Shakir/
Jet Black
Daniella Pineda/
FayeValentine
Alex Hassell/
Vicious
Elena Satine/
Julia

114. 32
• Harry Harrison got the idea for "_____ _____! _____ _____!" from an
Indian acquaintance he met after the second world war. His friend told
him that overpopulation was going to be the next big crisis in the
world, and this led to Harrison writing the book.
• The movie adaptation changed the plot quite substantially, focusing on
a product made from two easily grown legumes instead.
• What book, and what movie?

116. • Make Room! Make
Room! by Harry Harrison,
was the basis for Soylent
Green.
• Soylent is a portmanteau
of Soy and Lentils.

117. 33
• The traditional name for the star u Draconis is Arabic for 'the dancer’.
• _______ ________ chose a variant of this name for a fictional planet
that orbits the star Canopus (α Carinae) in his sci-fi series that spans
several books written by him and his son.
• A devastating war involving AI had resulted in a ban on powerful
computers, and a resource found only on this planet was required to
facilitate faster-than-light spaceflight.
• What planet, and what book?

119. • Arrakis
(from al-raqis)
in Dune

120. 34
• ______, an advanced android, was designed to look like his creator
and has appeared in three movies so far:
• Created in X, and then disassembled because he was manipulated
into murdering a human
• A cameo appearance in an unrelated movie Y, he was not played by
the actor from X
• Rebuilt in Z to fight the ghost of an ornithologist, played by the same
actor as in X
• Name X and Z for full points, Y for brownie points

122. • This is Chitti, from
Enthiran and 2.0
• The robot character has
a cameo in Ra.One

123. That’s all folks!
• Scores