In Poul Anderson's The Night Face, the Gwydiona are usually peaceful but go insane and become potentially violent once a local year. The Commandant of the military unit on a visiting spaceship is rightly suspicious that all is not as it seems.
In the Star Trek episode, "The Return of the Archons," a planetary population is usually peaceful but becomes violent during "festival." (See here.)
Star Trek informs TV audiences of some sf ideas but, needless to say, prose authors like Poul Anderson do it better.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And after reading Anderson, Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Heinlein, and Norton, etc., as a boy, I could never be satisfied with STAR TREK. Compared to the works of the masters I listed, STAR TREK seemed so inadequate, thin, shallow, and superficial.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: part of that is the difference in media. They have different strengths and weaknesses.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree! But, I would say, on balance, that well WRITTEN science fiction has shown itself to be far better than anything that passes for filmed SF. Allowing for the differences in media, I can't think of any allegedly SFnal films I could call good or excellent.
And I so wish somebody in the film industry would take a chance and make some Nicholas van Rijn or Dominic Flandry movies! Preferably accurately and respectfully made.
Ad astra! Sean
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