 April 3, 2011 - 9:40pm | plans are a foot to do a re-imagining of Disney's the Black Hole http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/rorschachsrants/news/?a=14767 http://www.chud.com/22470/the-black-hole-remake-to-be-hard-scifi/ while the movie didn't suck as bad as the recent John Carter of mars movie; it was not good. Since it seems that they will make a different movie with the science about black holes updated and plan a harder approach to it this could be a good thing. Question: Would run a "Black Hole" module in SF? How would you update/ re-imagine it? in case you missed the original heres the wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Hole I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 April 21, 2011 - 8:30pm | very nice, definitely keeps to the design class, without being a copy, not easy to do with a tin-can.  Nice character, all it's own, too. I could see a couple few of those added to a a larger main-strut explorer, as a lander... modularity, independent workhorse capability, unique character of design (again not easy to do for a tin-can).... accessible for low budget teams, very nice... Oh, and the artistic renders are good too. Is it already designated as an Iccarus Class, or is that the 'Iccarus 2'? Oh humans!!  We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
 April 21, 2011 - 11:54pm | It's a custom research vessel. either UPF or joint UPF and private research. I didn't have this in mind as being a mass-produced starship but rather a custom craft like the Eleanor Morales. |
May 24, 2013 - 10:01pm | Historical documents from the Icarus 1 Project The Icarus 1 was the first active duty deep space probe sent to find the Kronos after it did not return when recalled. The Icarus 1 was believed to be lost with all hands in the endeavor. No one has ever heard from the ship since it left space port. |
April 25, 2011 - 1:04pm | I like the Icarus medal but would prefer to see a crew patch. Perhaps a 1/4 of a sun above and a man with attached white feather wings flying up to touch it; almost Led Zepplin-ish http://thesilvertongueonline.com/?p=12915 all on a circular patch with the ship's name and the exploration service and the word "CREW" ringing the outer edge. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
May 7, 2011 - 8:05pm | While we are thinking outside the box on a reimagining of The Black Hole for Star Frontiers why dont we rethink the "Cygnus" vessel as well. Does the actual size of the Dr. Reihardts ship really matter? What if it were a smaller vessel like a HS 6-10 with an appropriately sized crew compliment. You could still tell the same story on a much smaller scale. Instead of having hundreds of sentinel robots at his command maybe he only has 10 or twenty. This would be an interesting way to keep the story playable with in SF game mechanics without having to rescale the massive Cygnus. |
May 7, 2011 - 9:36pm | I was seeing the potential of having the large space be explorable, which the crew was able to do more than shown 'on-camera', and give enough extra room for some surprises and variations on the rather linear plot, not seen in the movie. There is also how the Cygnus is kind-of it's own staring character, passive as it might be, it still has a place that makes it more equal to the cast rather than just a background set. Also it was a matter of justification on the deep-space exploration, cut-off from the regular safe trade-lanes, alone out on the real edge of the frontier, and giving it a reason to be out there, that ties it into the SF setting. Being cut off from help from civilization, seemed important, a large ship that gives the impression of having fallen into the spiders web with little hope of escape, and keeps the characters in a mode that gives them lots of room to run around in, but nowhere to hide for long. Oh humans!! We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
May 8, 2011 - 12:41pm | I believe the real reason the Cygnus was so big was because someone had envisioned that great cinematic sceen where the asteroids are pelting toward the event horizon and some strike the Cygnus. One enters the structure and begins rolling down the inside of the ship like a molten glowing ball of doom headed for the catwalk that the good guys must flee across; sort of a galactic version of the giant rolling ball from the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark That said you can re-imagine the Cygnus as small but the ball of doom might have to be scaled down to the "marble of doom" I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
May 8, 2011 - 5:46pm | Just a thought since we are considering things outside the box and reimagining. It also fits the inconsistency brought up by the movie itself. If the Palomino was on the same mission as the Cygnus wouldnt they "Government" have sent and equally impressive ship. Now one could argue that the financial fiasco that was the Cygnus is the reason why they went with a smaller ship like the Palomino but the design inconsistency is to large a gap to reconcille. It would have been better to write the story as one ship on one type of mission and another ship on another type of mission. |
May 8, 2011 - 5:49pm | Last thing you would want is vincent to get a wire crossed and start shooting crew members aboard the palomino |
May 8, 2011 - 7:47pm | For what it is worth my answers are: Origional Background: The Cygnus was much larger in the novel, than in the movie adaptation, the scale of the 'financial fiasco' was lost in interpretation, along with the scope of the original mission. In the movie they were not actually exploring, they were on a simple transport run near the edge of the fringe, and 'stumbled' onto an unexpected discovery, a derelict ship, in a black-hole, that one of the crew members just happened to have lost a family member to. The reason the small ship was in the area of such a larger (for deeper exploration? or just because it was built oversized to be a flagship of exploration?) ship was because the edges of explored space, had caught-up to the earlier missions the Cygnus represents. Reimagined for Star Frontiers: In the reimagine I offer the Pan-Gal corporation as the financial source of the 'spruce-goose' construction of such a deep-space explorer, and the smaller ship being supported as just one of a 'fleet of freelancer' exploration missions, commissioned by the local governments tied into the Yazi expansion politics in the region. The Pan-Gal Corporation considered it worth their time to build a few large mobile research and logistics bases in an attempt to monopolize exploration in that direction, the logistics failed because cheaper ships could be hired under freelance charters, the bidding-war drove the cost and scale of the missions so low that Pan-Gal was forced to abandon the small (almost paramilitary) fleet that was originally conceived, but not before a handful in various classes were constructed, and initial mission charters set underway. For the purpose of Star Frontiers the Sathar Threat is reason enough to justify a privateer armament on any ship, the large cost the capital ship represents to Pan-Gal justifies armament, and the general potential for armed claim jumping and pirating that occurs in the Vast Expanse completes the justification of armed explorers. The established setting regularly suggests more armemenet among the fringe explorers than the rules give an easy rational for, I side with the setting fluff over the rules representation. Armament, I refer to the classic naval tradition of both offensive and defensive capabilities, and in the tradition of the privateer and armed merchants, not the modern unarmed civilian transports that are rather unsuitable to the high-exploration/age-of-adventure setting. Oh humans!! We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
October 24, 2012 - 7:05am | Having bought a copy of the movie off ebay and rewatched it now I have a new appreciation for the movie. Aside from the bad science that could be picked at in the movie which can to a certain extent be chalked up to being a product of the time the movie was made I like movie. I still dont like the quasi religious theme at the very end that implies a hell at the center of the black hole and or that Riehhart entered an alternate dimension that could be called hell and that the probe ship was led by an angel through a stainglass window shaped corridor to some place. As a catholic and a kid I was rather bothered by it and hated it but as an adult and non catholic I still dont like it much but view it as Reinhart entering a new form of existence and having read up on wikipedia about the comic released that picked up the story on the survivors entering an alternate universe and having adventures there I can pretty much roll with the story as presented. What I really like about the movie: 1. when the Palamino finds the Cygnus and its a dark silloette against the carefully lighted background and then on the 2nd pass the Cygnus lights up from within- that is a seriously cool moment- a big reveal if you will and its some stunning images. it really gives you the feel of what it could be like to discover a derelict ship in space- i love that. 2. Reinhart at the end has the big view screen fall on him and Maximillian turns his back on him and his cries for help fall on deaf ears with the lobotomized humanoid robot crew that he brutally savaged and treated as toys to command- that was a fitting bit of fate for him story wise and I liked it. 3. Maximillian's defeat by Vincent- story wise you needed that and the way it happened was satisfying and the scene with Max drifting toward the back hole was cool too even if the gravity would have reduced him to a compressed collection of atoms or ripped him apart.- chalk that up to the presence of the anti-gravity field I guess. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 October 27, 2012 - 12:30am | I have to agree about the religious weirdness. Never liked it as a kid. I understand it better now, but I still feel like it ruins the movie. |
October 27, 2012 - 5:55am | I have to agree about the religious weirdness. Never liked it as a kid. I understand it better now, but I still feel like it ruins the movie. One wonders what the rumored remake will do with that part of the movie. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
