This is not something I have ever really consciously thought about, and yet it is awesome and worthy of attention all the same. And that is one of the things that I love MeFi for. Thanks. posted by six-or-six-thirty at 5:14 PM on September 3 [2 favorites has favorites]
Ah, so utilitarian and yet stylish and futuristic. Very cool! (I like the corridors of the Serenity, myself) posted by gemmy at 5:15 PM on September 3
Awesome post, empath. I wish I could favourite it more than once.
And gemmy, there used to be a martini bar in my town that we called "The Firefly" because it reminded us of certain sections of Serenity. (it's since been renovated and lost most of its charm) posted by Durn Bronzefist at 5:30 PM on September 3
The aesthetic had even penetrated into the 1980 cover of one of AskMe's all-time favorite "What did I read as a kid?" sci-fi books, This Time of Darkness. Apologies for the size; it's all I can seem to find. posted by adipocere at 5:36 PM on September 3
This is something I have thought about quite a lot. Some good stuff in there. Would like to see a twin article about the best corridors in FPS games. For my money it's hard to beat Doom 3, and Dead Space. posted by autodidact at 5:39 PM on September 3
Seconding six-or-six-thirty's take: I've appreciated the scenery without giving it the lovingly in-depth analysis the author has. Nice post. posted by misha at 5:46 PM on September 3
Would like to see a twin article about the best corridors in FPS games.
Very well researched article. Thanks! posted by zardoz at 5:50 PM on September 3
I seem to remember having read a book about the writing and filming of The Trouble With Tribbles wherein the author says that corridor scenes were discouraged for Star Trek because they somehow cost more than the normal sets of rooms. posted by hippybear at 5:50 PM on September 3
Post of the week. Maybe the month. posted by Joe Beese at 5:53 PM on September 3
So *thats* what was so eerie and familiar about the corridors in the Hoover Dam. posted by The Whelk at 6:01 PM on September 3
Would like to see a twin article about the best corridors in FPS games.
Barrels I Have Known And Loved: A Gaming Retrospective coming soon from the good people at wonderchicken industries™
I know the article is talking mostly about movies, but no love for the corridors of Moya from Farscape? Especially those doors that pivot from the middle rather than the sides. :) posted by snwod at 6:04 PM on September 3
The Importance of Walls in Science Fiction
Walls are important to science fiction. There are many examples of walls in science fiction throughout the ages. Without walls, science fiction would not be the same. This is why there are so many walls in science fiction today. posted by Pronoiac at 6:13 PM on September 3 [18 favorites has favorites]
Very cool. Another corridor I'll always remember is the rotating corridor in The 6 Million Dollar Man - Sasquatch episode. (Sasquatch played by Andre the Giant!)
Time Tunnel! One season on TV, 1966-67. Each episode began with our hero running through a tunnel. Didn't realize until I checked Wikipedia that it was created & produced by Master of Disaster Irwin Allen. posted by robotico at 6:20 PM on September 3
OK, that article pretty much pegged my geekometer. Well done. posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 6:28 PM on September 3
Barrels I Have Known And Loved: A Gaming Retrospective
I meant to say crate but went with box cause I couldn't rember the name of Old Man Murray. This is just to say-oh never mind posted by The Whelk at 6:36 PM on September 3
oh yeah...that time tunnel set is amazing...spot-on about curves being expensive, also any set that has to move around (2001, poltergeist)...but i think the most expensive are forest sets (dagobah)...lotta upkeep, and of course, underwater ones... posted by sexyrobot at 6:40 PM on September 3
It seems to me that the fact that "corridors" are an identifiable subfield of SF is indicative of a certain monotony of setting. posted by DU at 6:40 PM on September 3
Very awesome. But alas, I suspect that no corridor will ever top the (Mariot Hotel-esque) corridors of the Enterprise-D, my first sci-fi hallway loves. posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:00 PM on September 3
I'm sad that there's no love for Cube, which is, in a sense, a movie entirely shot in corridors.
True, but so much more. The entire spectrum of human emotion, based around traps that will kill you only if you are smart enough to defeat them. Cube is a great movie... the sequels, not so much. posted by Benway at 7:03 PM on September 3
When I was in high school, my friends and I all agreed that the prototype for all Dr. Who episodes should be The Ventilation Ducts of Womb-World. This appears to be true for all other SF vehicles as well. posted by localroger at 7:05 PM on September 3
Get Smart. Well, OK, it's not science fiction. posted by maxwelton at 7:12 PM on September 3
I think it's a single set with no corridors. I've not watched it entirely yet. posted by hippybear at 7:13 PM on September 3
Fans of the vermislitude-laden scifi corridor should visit the late site of Quark's Bar in the Vegas Hilton. The part of the casino surrounding the bar was all decked out in Star Trek decor, but now it's just really out-of-place since the Trek exhibit passed. posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:13 PM on September 3
Look, I'm one of the System Shock developers and I just thought of a crazy way to store ammo: in crates!
Thanks jedicus, for turning me on to Old Man Murray. Very funny.
And this post is awesome! posted by Mister_A at 7:15 PM on September 3
What happened to OMM anyway? posted by Mister_A at 7:18 PM on September 3
However, it fails to mention Das Boot (who cares if it's not sci-fi), which I'd say is the ultimate "corridor" movie. posted by qvantamon at 7:19 PM on September 3 [1 favorite has favorites]
I've always thought that the Enterprise D needed some potted plants and bellhops, and maybe a few expensive prostitutes hanging around.
As for me, I liked the corridors of Babylon 5, especially the doors that were designed to swing down in case of a power outage. posted by happyroach at 7:29 PM on September 3
Oh so we're starting off with the Nostromo. -swoon- posted by butterstick at 7:32 PM on September 3
Erik Wolpaw ended up doing a lot of the writing for Portal. (Which, ironically, features quite a few crates.) posted by blenderfish at 7:51 PM on September 3
"What do you think, what do you think that surface looks like to you, that hallway?"
"Carpet."
"It is. I'm just saying it, more in terms of what - in the reality of the motion picture it looks like. What do you think: it's a spaceship, what kind of surface might he be running on?"
This is great. An architect would a corridor a "transitional space," noting that it is neither the entry, nor the terminus, and thus somewhat minor and only intended to facilitate movement from point A to point B, and perhaps become supportive of reaching Point B in some heroic or significant manner. But this focus on "corridor," a real subset, illustrates the possibilities. Somehow, airports should be this interesting. It is like the garage--ignored, therefore pregnant with possibility. posted by wallstreet1929 at 7:54 PM on September 3 [1 favorite has favorites]
Very nice, and I must admit it made me realise I like corridors :)
A worthy mention of the WORST corridors, must go to Star Crystal which featured tunnels you had to crawl through. posted by lundman at 8:03 PM on September 3
Somehow, airports should be this interesting. It is like the garage--ignored, therefore pregnant with possibility.
I've just spent the last half hour trying (and failing!) to find photos of my favorite real-life sci-fi corridor--the main passage of Grand Central North. Two or three blocks long, with something like a 2:1 width-to-height ratio, and a slight curve like it's the bottom deck of a rotating space station. (I've thought way too much about this--thought about using it as a cheap set for a cheap sci-fi movie myself).
I also think that the LIRR departure space of Penn Station is a fairly accurate rendition of what the first colony on Mars would look like, 10 or 20 years in. So I might be just a little bit weird. posted by thecaddy at 8:04 PM on September 3 [2 favorites has favorites]
This is nice, and the eclecticism is a nice change from sci-fi picture-blogs... with one notable exception.
When talking about this corridor from Soderberg's serviceable remake of Tarkovsky's classic Solaris, he might have noted that it's pretty much an exact copy of the corridor in the original, which (one might note) actually predates every single film on there except 2001: A Space Odyssey, since it came out in 1972. In fact, I've always felt like the special effects and settings in Solaris are sort of the Soviet answer to 2001; the sets kinda have that particular Soviet feel. I like 2001 a lot, but I still think Solarisisalotmoremorefun to look at. (Seriously, stare at this for a while; what the hell is going on there?)
I'd never heard of Old Man Murray. It was quite funny.
It would have been better if I didn't have to spend five minutes writing a new greasemonkey script to change black backgrounds to grey. posted by Netzapper at 9:00 PM on September 3
Dammit, iridic, I spent the last hour looking for that clip.
I got nuthin' else except that the younger guy on the sound console is Albert Brooks's brother, Cliff. posted by stargell at 9:09 PM on September 3 [2 favorites has favorites]
Awesome post. More, please. posted by signal at 9:16 PM on September 3
Barrels I Have Known And Loved: A Gaming Retrospective coming soon from the good people at wonderchicken industries™
Erik Wolpaw ended up doing a lot of the writing for Portal. (Which, ironically, features quite a few crates.
I'd go so far as to say that Portal made the final statement on crate usage in video games. In fact, Portal was to "Crates in Videogames" as Watchmen was to "Superheroes in Comics".
(Also, the other half of OMM also works for Valve--mostly on Left 4 Dead stuff now). posted by empath at 9:47 PM on September 3
needled: awesome corridor, thoroughly overdone, but real life, in other words, perfect for SCI-FI. posted by uni verse at 10:24 PM on September 3
"It is. I'm just saying it, more in terms of what - in the reality of the motion picture it looks like. What do you think: it's a spaceship, what kind of surface might he be running on?"
My OCD is so bad that all I can do is look at those corridors and think how hard it would be to mop them. And then all that stuff in the walls, those tubes and those electrical looking things...Gah! What a nightmare. How am I suppose to clean that? posted by cazoo at 12:22 AM on September 4
Yeah even though it was on films (and awesome) I was missing an aside on Dr Who... On one of the commentaries I listened to recently Peter Davison even takes time out to give an in depth analysis of his corridor acting. posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:30 AM on September 4
this is really only a subset of sci fi corridors, that being, corridors in space, what about the matrix reloaded corridor? or the corridors of tron? also it seems like once you get out of space and back onto land corridors stop being infrastructural pipes making utilitarian connections and start being chthonic carvings/growths of varying ornateness (alien, dune), with the exceptions of wormholes which often look like gaping cosmic vaginas of space-time. the labyrinthe or maze is of course the ur corridor, and marks the climactic fate of all sci fi corridors, tracking the descent from civilised, manageable traffic (modernist planning) to anarchic pandemonium (primordial chaos) and the greatest thing about the london underground is that it can do both at any given time of the day. posted by doobiedoo at 6:33 AM on September 4 [1 favorite has favorites]
also, aren't all 2D sidescrollers essentially one HUGE ass corridor? posted by doobiedoo at 6:49 AM on September 4
Nah. Mario goes outside and into different buildings. posted by hippybear at 9:30 AM on September 4
I'm continually surprised by which of my posts will get large numbers of favorites. I thought maybe 5 or 6 at the most for this. posted by empath at 12:04 PM on September 4
Sir you failed to get one from me, because this post is about corridors and not toilets. In the future, humans and other creatures appear to never have to take a piss. The entire list of sci fi toilets I can recall are:
1) The three seashells
2) ... nope that's it.
In particular, one wonders how toilets were arranged on ships with a mixture of humanoid and non-humanoid crews. Are they all unispecies? One can only begin to imagine the misunderstandings, not to mention the cleaning issues. posted by vanar sena at 12:12 AM on September 5
vanar sena, it's too bad the Star Trek Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton is no longer there. The toilets in the Trek themed casino were the main attraction. posted by localroger at 6:29 AM on September 5
The entire list of sci fi toilets I can recall are:
Wow... a veritable gaggle of shitters. Thanks Pronoiac.
2001
Didn't come to mind, but you're right. Is there anything that movie didn't have?
Speaking of ROUs though; I dimly recall an explanation of facilities in one of the Culture novels but I can't recall which book it was. posted by vanar sena at 1:54 PM on September 5
Speaking of ROUs
"Rodents of unusual size? I don't believe they exist!" posted by hippybear at 2:32 PM on September 5
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posted by six-or-six-thirty at 5:14 PM on September 3 [2 favorites has favorites]