# I need hard science fiction and fantasy trivia quesstions **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 11, 2020, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-hard-science-fiction-and-fantasy-trivia-quesstions/847762 "2020-02-11T03:32:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-hard-science-fiction-and-fantasy-trivia-quesstions/847762/101 "2020-02-13T12:08:14Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > The Riddler’s henchman Whitey — who took point on kidnapping King Boris, and who had the right height and build to masquerade as Batman after personally springing the end-of-episode trap on our heroes, and who fared better than the Riddler in the final fight scene, and so why the heck is _he_ the henchman while the guy who leaves clues is the boss? — was played by **Roy Jenson** , who’s also been seen ritualistically pledging allegiance to the flag as Yang chief Cloud William: Guardian of the Holies, Speaker of the Holy Words, Leader of Warriors, and All That Stuff. Which brings the number to 30! Additions are always welcome. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-hard-science-fiction-and-fantasy-trivia-quesstions/847762/102 "2020-02-13T12:35:33Z")
IMDB can search for people working on two different films. Here’s a list of people working on Batman and Star Trek. [88 names](https://www.imdb.com/search/name/?roles=tt0059968,tt0060028&start=51&ref_=rlm). Some of them are bit-parts, stuntmen or uncredited extrras, and some of them are production crew. How far down the list do you want to go? Shall we count [Hubie Kerns](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0449593/), Adam West’s stunt double on 120 episodes, and a Klingon in _Day of the Dove_ (uncredited)? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-hard-science-fiction-and-fantasy-trivia-quesstions/847762/103 "2020-02-13T12:57:40Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > IMDB can search for people working on two different films. Here’s a list of people working on Batman and Star Trek. [88 names](https://www.imdb.com/search/name/?roles=tt0059968,tt0060028&start=51&ref_=rlm). Some of them are bit-parts, stuntmen or uncredited extrras, and some of them are production crew. How far down the list do you want to go? > > Shall we count [Hubie Kerns](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0449593/), Adam West’s stunt double on 120 episodes, and a Klingon in _Day of the Dove_ (uncredited)? I did it the old fashioned way: I went down the complete cast list for _ **Batman** _ and copied the names of guest stars I recognized from _ **Star Trek** _ and, I presume, other people would recognize. While I salute Mr Kerns and all others in his profession, I wouldn’t consider him a guest star. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-hard-science-fiction-and-fantasy-trivia-quesstions/847762/104 "2020-02-13T13:45:09Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Which one of the Bettys is the clone? > [@mbh](#): > > Each points to the other. Simultaneously, they both say, “She is!” Not the answer I had in mind. [spoiler]“The pretty one is the clone.” (Bettys, in unison) “I am not!”[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-hard-science-fiction-and-fantasy-trivia-quesstions/847762/105 "2020-02-13T16:46:50Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Genius take on Verne vs. Wells (bonus! It’s a comic!): > > [Hark, a vagrant: 231](http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=231) Close to the truth, although Wells generally DID do his homework. With _First Men in the Moon_, though, he wasn’t even trying. Plus, he copied the idea of the “anti gravity sphere” as a way of getting to the moon from several authors who had preceded him. Here’s the other trope: Invisibility. Wells wrote \*The Invisible Man \* in 1897. Verne’s _The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz_ is also about a mad scientist who creates an invisibility serum, and was published in 1910. The published version, like many of his later stories, was heavily rewritten by his son Michel, who changed the setting to the 18th century. Verne’s original version was published in 2011 in English translation. Even in the original, it’s pretty disappointing Verne. He seems to have been copying Wells’ idea – Verne certainly did copy ideas from other writers, too – but without any scientific justification (not even the one Wells used). That’s pretty atypical of Verne. His son’s changing the story’s date might have been a weird attempt to distance this book from Wells’, although Michel had switched the date of his father’s stories before. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-hard-science-fiction-and-fantasy-trivia-quesstions/847762/106 "2020-02-13T21:33:28Z")
1. J.R.R. Tolkien mentioned this town in Valinor with a slightly ridiculous name. 2. Galadriel’s husband was usually known as Celeborn, but he also had this slightly ridiculous name. 3. What did Stanley Kubrick say was the only intentional joke in _2001: A Space Odyssey_? 4. Before he played a good President on _The West Wing_, Martin Sheen played a very bad President in what movie? 5. The official Pocket Books blueprints for the USS _Enterprise_, NCC-1701, show what large compartment never actually depicted on the show? 6. Hellboy works for what secretive U.S. government agency? 7. Who played James T. Kirk’s just-killed brother Sam in a single scene? 8. What is the first name of Insp. Lestrade, Sherlock Holmes’s frenemy at Scotland Yard? 9. What is the gentlemen’s club at which Mycroft Holmes spends most of his time when not at work? 10. What is the nickname, and the full name, of Nite Owl II’s aircraft in _Watchmen_? 1. Tuna 2. Teleporno 3. Dr. Floyd reading the detailed instructions for the zero-G toilet 4. _The Dead Zone_ 5. A bowling alley 6. BPRD - the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Development 7. William Shatner, with a fake mustache and more gray in his hair 8. Trick question - Conan Doyle never told us his first name, but did provide his first initial, “G.” 9. Diogenes Club 10. \*Archie \*or _Archimedes_ ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Zox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Mr\_Zox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Zox)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-hard-science-fiction-and-fantasy-trivia-quesstions/847762/107 "2020-02-14T05:31:11Z")
1. In _Stand on Zanzibar_, who is standing on Zanzibar? 2. In _A Canticle for Leibowitz_, the old Jewish man, who may or may not be the same person in all three sections, may or may not be - - - who? 1. Everyone in the world, but only in a theoretical discussion of overpopulation. In the in-book “reality,” only the ordinary population of Zanzibar 2. Lazarus. Yes, the Biblical Lazarus. Who was told “Come forth!” (from the grave), but never told he could go back. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-hard-science-fiction-and-fantasy-trivia-quesstions/847762/108 "2020-02-14T06:12:37Z")
> [@Mr\_Zox](#): > > 1. In _A Canticle for Leibowitz_, the old Jewish man, who may or may not be the same person in all three sections, may or may not be - - - who? There’s more than one possible correct answer to that one - the book hints he might also have been The Wandering Jew or St. Leibowitz himself ---
**Author:** ![HyacinthBucket](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hyacinthbucket/32/3063_2.png) [@HyacinthBucket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HyacinthBucket)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-hard-science-fiction-and-fantasy-trivia-quesstions/847762/109 "2020-02-14T07:16:07Z")
This is probably too easy, but… In the classic Arthur C. Clarke short story “The Star”, to what religious order does the narrator belong? Jesuits ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-hard-science-fiction-and-fantasy-trivia-quesstions/847762/110 "2020-02-14T09:35:29Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > 1. This major flop was the reason that Hollywood avoided big-budget science fiction films for twenty years. Name the film. > 2. What science fiction television show had the greatest number of individual episodes? (And, no, it’s not _Doctor Who_) > [@N9IWP](#): > > 4 is Space Patrol with \> 1000 episodes (900 are 15 min long). Doctor Who is second I believe. \*Dark Shadows \*had 1,225 episodes. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-hard-science-fiction-and-fantasy-trivia-quesstions/847762/111 "2020-02-14T15:18:52Z")
> [@](#): > > What is the first name of Insp. Lestrade, Sherlock Holmes’s frenemy at Scotland Yard? I once wrote a Sherlock Holmes parody which featured a Scotland Yard foil named **Gregson Lestrade**. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-hard-science-fiction-and-fantasy-trivia-quesstions/847762/112 "2020-02-14T15:55:45Z")
Star Trek the original series questions: 1. What mistake is made on the tombstone of Captain Kirk shown in “Where no man has gone before”? 2. In which two episodes do cats appear? 3. In which episode can a dog be heard, but not seen? 4. Who is the only individual to write an episode of TOS and act in TOS? 5. What human language other than English is spoken in “Man Trap”? 1. His middle initial is “R” rather than “T”. 2. “Catspaw” and “Assignment: Earth” 3. “City on the Edge of Forever” 4. Stanley Adams played Cyrano Jones in “Tribbles” and co wrote “Mark of Gideon” 5. Swahili ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-hard-science-fiction-and-fantasy-trivia-quesstions/847762/113 "2020-02-14T16:48:53Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I once wrote a Sherlock Holmes parody which featured a Scotland Yard foil named **Gregson Lestrade**. Nice! Of course you know that there’s an Insp. Gregson, another man entirely, in the Conan Doyle stories. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-hard-science-fiction-and-fantasy-trivia-quesstions/847762/114 "2020-02-14T19:38:21Z")
**1. What mistake is made on the tombstone of Captain Kirk shown in “Where no man has gone before”? 2. In which two episodes do cats appear? 3. In which episode can a dog be heard, but not seen? 4. Who is the only individual to write an episode of TOS and act in TOS? 5. What human language other than English is spoken in “Man Trap”?** 1. Middle initial “R” instead of “T.” 2. “Catspaw” and “Assignment: Earth.” 3. “City on the Edge of Forever.” 4. Tough one—Stanley Adams? 5. Swahili. **EDIT:** 100%!: 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-hard-science-fiction-and-fantasy-trivia-quesstions/847762/115 "2020-02-14T19:49:30Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > 1. J.R.R. Tolkien mentioned this town in Valinor with a slightly ridiculous name. [Spoiler]1. Tuna What Tolkien surely knew is that it’s just the word for “town” in at least one of the medieval Scandinavian languages. And that there are examples of unimaginative people thus using it as the proper name for particular settlements. So Tuna is the largest place - really just a scattered village at that - on the island of Hven in the Oresund. Which I have actually visited - Tycho Brahe and all that. [/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-hard-science-fiction-and-fantasy-trivia-quesstions/847762/116 "2020-02-15T01:59:31Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I once wrote a Sherlock Holmes parody which featured a Scotland Yard foil named **Gregson Lestrade**. Watched two of the three teevee adaptations of “Little Black Bag” you mentioned…the 1952 _Tales of Tomorrow_ and the 1970 _Night Gallery._ Easy to find on the internets, and SOME fun! Even though both departed somewhat from the original story. Burgess Meredith killed it as the alcoholic doctor in 1970, and Chill Wills was an interesting casting choice. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-hard-science-fiction-and-fantasy-trivia-quesstions/847762/117 "2020-02-15T02:05:28Z")
Best line from two sodden derelicts in an alley, passing an 89-cent bottle of “wine:” Meredith: “I went to medical school with a Hepplewhite…was that _you?”_ Wills: “Nah…I did nuclear science at Ohio State.” Did Rod Serling go to Michigan or something? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-hard-science-fiction-and-fantasy-trivia-quesstions/847762/118 "2020-02-15T02:50:28Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > \*\*\*TOS \*\*\*sets like \*Enterprise \*corridors and the courtyard on Cestus III often turned up in what other Desilu series of the period? **Answer:** _ **Mission: Impossible** _, filmed on adjacent sound stages. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-hard-science-fiction-and-fantasy-trivia-quesstions/847762/119 "2020-02-15T03:17:27Z")
What is the connection between vampires and Folger’s coffee? Virginia Christine, aka “Mrs Olsen,” played “Eva the Immigrant” in _ **Billy the Kid vs Dracula** _ (1966), a movie on a par with\*\*\* Plan 9 from Outer Space\*\*\* and _ **They Saved Hitler’s Brain** _. John Carradine was the Count himself, who didn’t seem to be bothered by going outside in daylight. What was the original title of _ **They Saved Hitler’s Brain** _ (1968), and how did it differ from your average run-of-the-mill shlock? _ **Madmen of Mandoras** _ (1963). What started out as a _ **Boys from Brazil** _–type flick had an extra ten minutes of secret agent–themed story tacked on to the beginning to cash in on the James Bond vibe of the '60s. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-hard-science-fiction-and-fantasy-trivia-quesstions/847762/120 "2020-02-15T16:18:34Z")
What is Jimmy Olson’s _middle_ name? (Hint: It gives him a second “L”.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-hard-science-fiction-and-fantasy-trivia-quesstions/847762.md?page=5)