Tech Tatva 2017: Science Fiction Quiz Finals

Rounds
- Dry Round 1 – 18 questions
- Theme Round 1
- Theme Round 2
- Theme Round 3
- Dry Round 2

Rules
- 18 questions
- First letter of each answer
- Bounce -> +10/0
- Pounce -> +10/-5

q1
• In a letter from 1953, Raymond Chandler writes:
• Did you ever read what they call _____________ ? It’s a scream.
It’s written like this: ‘I checked out with K19 on Adabaran III, and
stepped out through the crummaliote hatch on my 22 Model Sirus
Hardtop. I cocked the timeprojector in secondary and waded
through the bright blue manda grass... I had exactly four seconds to
hot up the disintegrator and Google had told me it wasn’t enough.’
• FITB

q2
• Barrage balloons over London
during World War II. The author
observed balloons like these
floating over the city in 1941. He
recalls that his earliest idea for the
story may have originated with
this scene, with the giant balloons
becoming alien ships in the novel.
• The story follows the peaceful
alien invasion of Earth by the
mysterious Overlords, whose
arrival begins decades of apparent
utopia under indirect alien rule, at
the cost of human identity and
culture.
• ID the book.

Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke

q3
• Nine-year-old Hogarth Hughes—and his mother, Annie Hughes—both
share a name with the British Poet Laureate Ted Hughes who wrote
the children’s book the film is based on. Published in 1968, Ted
Hughes penned this book to comfort his children after the suicide of
his wife, Sylvia Plath.
• In 1999, how did this story come back to prominence in popular
culture?

q4
• X is a 1997 British-American science fiction horror film directed by Paul W. S.
Anderson.
• Set in 2047, the film follows a crew of astronauts sent on a rescue mission after
a missing space ship, spontaneously appears in orbit around Neptune.
Searching the ship for signs of life, the rescue crew learns that the spaceship
was responsible for testing an experimental engine that opened a rift in the
space time continuum, allowing a hostile entity on board the ship.
• The movie in some ways makes literal an underlying concept of a boundary in
spacetime beyond which incidents happening cannot affect an outside
observer. In layman's terms, it is defined as the shell of "points of no return"
What is the name of the movie?

q5
This picture ( IMAGE ON NEXT SLIDE ) combines an
artwork X and another reference Y which used X as
its primary influence for its look.
ID X and Y. (0.5 points each)

• X - Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks
• Y - Blade Runner

• What derives it’s
name from what
you see in this
picture?
q6

Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

• X originated thus as a
short story published in
the August 1977 issue of
Analog Science Fiction
and Fact.
• An updated version of the
actual publication
changed some political
facts to reflect the times
more accurately eg. to
include the collapse of
the Soviet Union and the
end of the Cold War.
q7

q8
These are fans attending
a particular panel at the
San Diego Comic Con.
Which panel?
BIGGER IMAGE ON THE
NEXT SLIDE.

• What has
been blanked
out?
q9

q10
• A reference can be spotted in the
hangar control room on the Death
Star. When C-3PO asks what he and
R2-D2 should do if they are
discovered, the first line on the
monitor reads “___ /____” The final
reference can be found in the name
of the stilt-legged speeder that is
parked outside the Mos Eisley
cantina, which is referred to as a Void
Spider ___ ____ Decipher’s
Customizable Card Game, although
the name was later changed into the
Void Spider TX-3.

THX/1138 – George Lucas’ first film

q11
• The only film adaptation
features Matthew
Broderick, broadway and
film star (from movies like
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,
Jurassic Park and The Cable
Guy) as the protagonist.
• The character is said to
have been a combination
of Maxwell Smart of “Get
Smart” and Clouseau of
the Pink Panther series..

• This is a picture from an
infamous radio broadcast
from 1939 which caused
nationwide panic and
paranoia due to its
content which involved
apocalyptic themes and
alien invasion.
• Who is the man in the
picture? What was
broadcast? (0.5 points
each)
q12

ORSON WELLES
WAR OF THE WORLDS

q13
After viewing the first 20 minutes of
landmark cyberpunk film Blade Runner
(1982), which was released when the author
had written a third of the novel, he "figured
the work was sunk, done for. Everyone
would assume I’d copied my visual texture
from this astonishingly fine-looking film.”
He re-wrote the first two-thirds of the book
12 times, feared losing the reader's
attention and was convinced that he would
be "permanently shamed" following its
publication; yet what resulted was seen as a
major imaginative leap forward for a first-
time novelist.

Neuromancer – William Gibson

q14
• The genre is not necessarily science-themed and blurs the line separating
science fiction and fantasy into a broad scope of mainstream literature that
transcends the mechanical model of science and involves the fantasy of
human perception or imagination as realistic components affecting the
every day physical world.
Novelist Vanna Bonta is said to have invented the genre with her novel
Flight.
Bonta defined it as stories in which consciousness affects physics and
determines reality; in her words, "the genre is broad and includes life.”
Bonta further explained her development of this new genre: "I don't write
science fiction. Science fiction is a niche genre, defined by Ray Bradbury as
depiction of the real. “

q15
• This alien from Ben 10 is inspired
from which iconic character?

q16
• This is Dr. Lanning,
holding her cat in a
2004 film directed
by Alex Proyas
described as a neo-
noir dystopian
science fiction
action.
• Which movie?
• What is the cat’s
name?

q17
• What infamous
photograph was
taken here?

THEME: STATUE OF LIBERTY GETTING
DESTROYED
• Identify the movies in which The Statue of Liberty gets Destroyed

Round iii: written round
• Theme: Science Fiction drugs

q1. id the movie.
X originated on the planet Y, where it was produced deep
beneath the sands. It was created in a process whereby the
fungal excretions of sandtrout would mix with water to form a
pre-_____ mass. This mass would then be brought to the
surface of the desert through an explosion of pressure, and
under the intense heat and air of Y, X would form. When the
worms died, sandtrout would be released into the sand, and
the cycle of creation would repeat.

q2 id the book.
"Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly hallucinant"—that's
what Mustapha says of soma. It's arguably the best
tool the government has for controlling its
population. It sedates, calms, and most
importantly distracts a person from realizing that
there's actually something very, very wrong—namely,
that the citizens of the World State are enslaved.

q3 id from where this drug D is used.
D was designed with a genetic key that stimulates the telepathic gene present in
many races. The telepathic abilities it would awaken in humans were unstable,
creating a kind of "high" that would allow them to "go for a joyride" in
someone's mind, reliving events from their life - sometimes their entire life - in a
matter of minutes. The effects are highly addictive, and every time it is used it
takes an increasingly large dose to get the same effect, making a very lucrative
enterprise. Though the experience for the victim is always traumatic, when a
telepath is violated, it usually leaves them so deeply affected they never fully
recover.

q4. id the movie series.
Vorta: "First [name], can you vouch for the loyalty of your men?"
Jem'Hadar: "We pledge our loyalty to the Founders, from now until
death."
Vorta: "Then receive this reward from the Founders, may it keep you
strong.“
[Without Ketracel White , Jem'Hadar soldiers suffered withdrawal
symptoms including pain, anxiety, loss of mental control, and inability
to “shroud"; eventually, the Jem'Hadar spiraled into homicidal insanity.]

• Hypermind
• Perfect recall
• Instant learning
• Instant analysis
• Omnilingualism
• Hyper-cognition
• Superhuman Charisma
• Superhuman dexterity
• Multitasking
• Superhuman sensory absorption
• Superhuman instincts
• Hypercompetence
q5
When an individual takes
NZT : 40, they are able to
do/experience the
following.

q5 id x or name the book.
"Somehow, the drug acted to destroy all organisms built on a unicellular
structure, or less. It had no effect on organ systems - groups of cells organized
into larger units. The drug was perfectly selective in this respect.“
Knowledge of K was privately circulated and a further test was undertaken with
healthy volunteers and cancer patients. All participants experienced massive
diarrhea but, as ________ puts it, "That seemed a small price to pay for a cancer
cure." What happened next is one of the most fascinating excerpts:
"On March 1, 1966, the forty men were taken off the drug. Within six hours,
they were all dead.

q7 id the inventor.
• Miracurall
• Air-conditioning pill
• Somnolin
• Evolutin
• Pill for Nightmare
• Batika Indica
• Invisibility Drug
• Frankenstein Formula

Answer : Dune
X – Melange
Y – Arrakis

q2. id the book.
"Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly hallucinant"—that's
what Mustapha says of soma. It's arguably the best
tool the government has for controlling its
population. It sedates, calms, and most
importantly distracts a person from realizing that
there's actually something very, very wrong—namely,
that the citizens of the World State are enslaved.

q3. id from where this drug D is used.
D was designed with a genetic key that stimulates the telepathic gene present in
many races. The telepathic abilities it would awaken in humans were unstable,
creating a kind of "high" that would allow them to "go for a joyride" in
someone's mind, reliving events from their life - sometimes their entire life - in a
matter of minutes. The effects are highly addictive, and every time it is used it
takes an increasingly large dose to get the same effect, making a very lucrative
enterprise. Though the experience for the victim is always traumatic, when a
telepath is violated, it usually leaves them so deeply affected they never fully
recover.

• Hypermind
• Perfect recall
• Instant learning
• Instant analysis
• Omnilingualism
• Hyper-cognition
• Superhuman Charisma
• Superhuman dexterity
• Multitasking
• Superhuman sensory absorption
• Superhuman instincts
• Hypercompetence
q5.
When an individual takes
NZT : 40, they are able to
do/experience the
following.

q6. id x or name the book.
"Somehow, the drug acted to destroy all organisms built on a unicellular
structure, or less. It had no effect on organ systems - groups of cells organized
into larger units. The drug was perfectly selective in this respect.“
Knowledge of K was privately circulated and a further test was undertaken with
healthy volunteers and cancer patients. All participants experienced massive
diarrhea but, as ________ puts it, "That seemed a small price to pay for a cancer
cure." What happened next is one of the most fascinating excerpts:
"On March 1, 1966, the forty men were taken off the drug. Within six hours,
they were all dead.

Answer : Kalocin from The Andromeda Strain

q8. id the inventor.
• Miracurall
• Air-conditioning pill
• Somnolin
• Evolutin
• Pill for Nightmare
• Batika Indica
• Invisibility Drug
• Frankenstein Formula

Answer : Professor Shonku by Satyajit Ray

The evolution of Godzilla’s roar from 1954-
2014

q2.
• The three main characters of this Oscar winning film all have
appropriate biblical names.
 ___ is a form of Eve, the first woman;
 ______ was a prophet in the court of David;
 _____ was a spy sent by Moses to evaluate the Promised Land.

q3. iD x
• Psycho pass is a Japanese crime
thriller anime television series produced
by Production I.G which aired in 2012.
• It takes place in a Japan ruled by the Sibyl
System, which arrests and
isolates/exterminates people based on
only their psychological profile and
likelihood to commit crime.
• The main story revolves around the officers
of The Police Bureau in their effort to stop
crime before it happens.
Aside from visual influences from Blade
Runner and Ghost in a Shell, the premise
was inspired by another famous movie, X.

q4. x?
• X is retro-style Speculative Fiction that is set in an alternate universe
where the internal combustion engine never replaced its predecessor,
and as a result cool different technologies powered by _____
emerged.
•
Largely, X runs on Rule of Cool, with some supposedly “_____-
powered" technology being more advanced than modern electronics.
They incorporate these different technologies along with the
aesthetics designs of the 19th century.

q5. FiTB
• According to the latest report from Glenn Greenwald's site The
Intercept, the NSA has (or had) a secret program called ______.
The NSA's ______ uses metadata to try and identify people with
terrorist connections. According to The Intercept, the system used data
from Pakistani mobile carriers to find out, for example, "who has
travelled from Peshawar to Faisalabad or Lahore (and back) in the past
month." It could also check to see who that person called after arriving
at each destination, and it kept an eye out for suspicious activities like
swapping SIM cards often, visiting airports, or traveling on certain days
of the week.

q6. which story?
• During the preparation of the story, The author made a list of what
he wanted to bring into the plot, which he reproduced in "Behind the
Painted Smile":
• Orwell. Huxley. Thomas Disch. Judge Dredd. Harlan Ellison's "Repent,
Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman, Catman and The Prowler in the City
at the Edge of the World by the same author. Vincent Price's Dr.
Phibes and Theatre of Blood. David Bowie. The Shadow. Night
Raven. Batman. Fahrenheit 451. The writings of the New
Worlds school of science fiction. Max Ernst's painting "Europe After
the Rain". Thomas Pynchon. The atmosphere of British Second World
War films. The Prisoner. Robin Hood. Dick Turpin..

q8. ID X and Y
• The movie ‘Traveler Zero’ is a ‘biography’ of sorts of X who travels to
the year 2000 from 2036 in order to retrieve an IBM 3100 computer
and avert a Civil war. However a ripple effect by altering the past
causes him to lose his family in his timeline.
• X is based on an internet phenomenon and X’s story also inspired the
anime Y.

X- John Titor
Y- Stein’s Gate

q9. What was x?
• Curiously enough, the dolphins had long known of the impending
demolition of Earth and had made many attempts to alert mankind to
the danger. But most of their communications were misinterpreted as
amusing attempts to punch footballs, or whistle for titbits, so they
eventually gave up and left the Earth by their own means - shortly
before the Vogons arrived.
• The last ever dolphin message was misinterpreted as a surprisingly
sophisticated attempt to do a double backwards somersault through
a hoop, whilst whistling the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’. But, in fact, the
message was this “X”.

So long and thanks for all the fish

q10. What are these?
• METEOR SHOWER Take evasive action
• YOU ARE PROMOTED TO STARSHIP CAPTAIN Move ahead 2 spaces
• SHIPMATE ENTERS CRYONIC SLEEP CHAMBER for 5 turns
• YOUR ROBOT IS DEFECTIVE
• YOU ARE VISITED BY ZORGONS REPROGRAM
• RESCUE STRANDED ASTRONAUT
• LOSE MAP OF GALAXY Go back 2 spaces
• SHOOTING STAR Make a wish as it passes

q11
• This is a documentary about an unfinished work X
by Y. The same project was made in 1993 by a
visionary director Z but was panned by critics
worldwide.
• Id X, Y and Z.
• VIDEO ON NEXT SLIDE

• X - Dune
• Y - Alejandro Jodorowsky
• Z - David Lynch

• This was a free Web-based language translator by
Yahoo. In May 2012 it was replaced by Bing
Translator, to which queries were redirected.
• What was it named?
q12

q13
• The image shows one of
the villains in the movie
Spaceballs, a parody sic fi
from the 80s.
• The pun-inly named
villain is said to be half
man and half _____.
• ID

q14. id x
Of the stories written by X, Y deserves a special mention.
When X wrote the story, Zs were almost invariably
imagined as hostile and brutal in popular culture. X’s story
– about a friendly Z who changes the life of an ordinary
man for the better – was a notable exception to the
zeitgeist of his time. X had actually planned to make a
movie based on it named ‘The Z’ during his stint at
Hollywood in 1967. Unfortunately, X was unaccustomed to
the politics and his idea never progressed beyond its
nascent stages. But his script for ‘The Z’ remained in
circulation in Hollywood. Curiously, Spielberg’s famous
movie E.T. came out soon after.

Tech Tatva 2017: Science Fiction Quiz Finals

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Tech Tatva 2017: Science Fiction Quiz Finals

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