On 2025-05-02, Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

On 2025-05-02 03:27, rbowman wrote:

On Thu, 1 May 2025 21:37:34 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:

Recently I started watching a TV SciFi serial on Amazon, Spanish made:
Punto Nemo. I could make a list of the things they do that the Navy
would never do, but I forget, there are so many. One of them, is they
start a generator in an abandoned island by just turning some big
switches labelled in Russian. Later we learn that they use geothermal
energy and that's why it still works. (!)

Hey, it's Hollywood. Or wherever the Spanish film industry lives.

Of course, but there are serials that do a wonderful job, and others
that do a terrible job.

The Expanse is a wonderful job, for instance. In Spain I don't remember right now, Sci-Fi is not usual. I have a mental image of one SciFi movie that was good, but no idea of the title. But this particular serial they
do wrong even naval/navy things, not yet SciFi.

For instance, at some point they do apnoea diving. The diver goes down
by moving her fins, while I understand they go down with a weight, that
they release at the bottom. Much faster, does not use muscular effort.
She needed to go down some 75 meters, I think.

There are movies out there where the science is so bad that it is even
funny and entertaining to watch them. Past the cringing point.

This one I want to watch to the end. Pity that Amazon Prime Video app doesn't accept criticism or votes. So I watch half an episode at a time. Instead I watch "The Rig".

In Spain the Francoism killed most progressive spirits from the 30's
and mandated a national-Catholic fascist regime.
A bit less in the 60's/70's thanks to the opening to the world
thanks to the USA relations in the 50's and European tourists in the
60's. And, yes, the Moon landing almost made the Spanish regime
dumb and idioting against the Space Era USA. Everyone was into
space, UFO's and what not.

We almost fought them culturally
not with SciFi, but with satire, even in comic books
written for kids.
That's why one of the most known
Spanish author (Francisco Ib ¤ez, RIP),
it's a writter on parodying
the Spanish CIA a some slapstick James Bond;
the blue collar workers/brick layers
with dirty hacks and patches, the scummy and shitty low life
in a building (13 rue del Percebe, where it's the spiritual
origin from the uber known sitcoms Aqu¡ no hay quien viva (no *damn
way anyone can live -down- here) and la que se avecina (The one that
is coming, also a pun on 'vecino', neighbor).

One would say that making fun out ourselves dates back from Don
Quijote days, maybe. But we have had people like Leonardo Torres
Quevedo and Ram¢n y Cajal.
Also, Ib ¤ez itself depicted scifi related ambums in the 70's
because of the impact in the world society of the Moon landing.

In the 80's in democracy times everyone was more about
real life politics than scifi itself. People were *living* down the
utopia, so most Spanish scifi was Cold War related with
a mad max apocalypse, nuclear bombs, punks and yadda-yadda...
Scary, but not Spanish/Iberian. A lot of people was living
far better than the post-war parents and they even got
some cheap electronics, it was like travelling to a far future.
And, yes, people had radios and such in the 60's but TV's were
for the rich guy almost up to early and late 70's when people
abandoned villages en-masse for a better future.
And they earned it. As I said, having some people colour TV's,
Spectrums and such was like a time travel to a better
future as technology changed exponentially over a decade.

In the 90's, we did Futurama earlier than Futurama itself. Look
at Los Xunguis, it almost looks as a Futurama made for older kids/
early teens. You have a dumb pilot and a robot side partner.
But, being in the 90's, Dragon Ball killed the Spanish comic
industry for all, among the Play Station and, later, Pok‚mon.
And the X Files for adults, too.

So, that's the reason there wasn't many scifi media in Spanish
except for underground comics in the 80's, the present looked
futuristic enough for tons of people.
As for myself, my life in early 90's was analogic and a decade
later I was talking with people from the other side of the world.

The problem is, we need some other kind of scifi, neither pesimistic
nor mirroring the 80's corporate crap.
We need makers and hackers.

The mentioned Spanish author depicted some teen, Tete Cohete
(Tete Rocket, you might translate it as Joseph Rocket) which
was into vehicle tuning and built a gas powered vehicle for fun
with anything: wardrobes, wood boxes, hot tubs and rockets, anything.
A slapstick comic book depicting silly crashes into everyone.
In the 80's it was something made from low class teens and young
adults on motorbikes, something done by every hormone boosted
kid in Europe actually. Go figure, something a like a cheap 50CC
motorbike into something much faster (and OFC dangerous).

So, depicting some slapstick hardware
maker or programmer from today isn't that far fetched.
Something like "you created a computer with WHAT?"

Why scifi+comedy instead of just scifi? Because that how we
do that here, for fun. Or the classical "no hay huevos" told
from everyone to some random guy ("There's no balls, Paco, you don't
dare"). And then, we do it, in the same way James from USA
would do that drunk in a pub as a daring challenge.
But without being drunk. And, half of the time, it explodes.
But, when it works, everyone shit bricks.

If you want a random Spaniard being into IT, tell him that
by learning computer skills he might be able to watch soccer
for free. In the 2000's tons of people even burned electronic
PICF84 based magnetic card software to pirate cable decoders.
So, it's just a matter of utilitiarism.
We are more like Sancho Panza than Don Quixote.

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