#ellie arroway

[bcavendish23]

I wish they would have kissed

[noriya-in-the-stars]

Cosmic Hope

Where the road is the destination, the end is the beginning, and no one is ever, ever alone.

Contact (1997)

"You're an interesting species. An interesting mix. You're capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you're not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other."

Project Hail Mary (2026)

"I don't have the bravery gene that you all have." "Trust me. It's not a gene. You just need to find someone to be brave for."

[weirdstuffmuseum]

christ alive is the movie Contact (1997) fascinating. I didn't realize it was 2.5 hours til I looked it up and only then did I understand why they needed everything to take so long. it's about the aliens but it's not about the aliens, it's about the discussion that will last forever even after aliens come into contact with us. can cold hard science ever admit to itself that it could never have existed without the notion of faith? religious people have faith in a higher power but scientific people have faith in things that can't be explained and can't be on a timeline either. "they should have sent a poet" because only someone who crafts sentences you have never heard before could make anyone understand what you have seen and what you believe. they needed to set up this theme of divide in science vs religion so that we could realize by the end that it's never been versus, it's always been acknowledged. science and religion have different systems but they both share a theme of truth and trust. God katya was right all along

[berlynn-wohl]

So beautiful…I had no idea…they should have sent a vidder!

This is one of several vids I’ve made where all I set out to do was take all of my big big feelings about a movie I adore and compress them into a 4-minute song. Contact has been one of my favorite movies since I saw it in the theater in 1997, and every time I watch it, it is as breathtaking and suspenseful as my first viewing. There’s no tricks here, I’m not trying to be clever – this is just a love letter <3

I post a new vid every Sunday, so subscribe to my YouTube channel if you'd like to see more things that you can't prove, that you can't even explain.

[sarchiba]

from Contact (1997) 🙏😏

[a-typical]

“She had studied the universe all her life, but had overlooked its clearest message: For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.” ― Carl Sagan, Contact

[j-sprrr]

wake up everyone new crackship throuple just dropped

[sshbpodcast]

She blinded me… with scientists

by Ames

Good news, everyone! Welcome to our laboratory, and I do hope you’re pronouncing it with a plethora of syllables. This week, we’re looking through our safety goggles at the characters who drive science fiction the most: the scientists! Some of them thrive in their competency. Some of them revel in going absolutely mad for the sake of their work. And many are a little of both. But one thing’s for certain: they will not tire until their experiments are proven one way or the other.

We’ve got the science to back up how compelling these professors, inventors, skeptics, doctors, researchers, or general science guys are. The A Star to Steer Her By hosts have our hypotheses outlined as we decide on our favorite scientist characters from across sci-fi media. So grab your lab coat, pack your beakers, and open those lab results by reading on below or listen to the full theorem on this week’s podcast episode (the experiment begins at 54:06). It’s alive!

—

Chris’s picks

Great Scott! Chris’s picks may be a bunch of zany old white inventor dudes, but they’re very different zany old white inventor dudes. Chris can and will put Back to the Future on every list he can, and that iconic film would not be where it is today without Christopher Lloyd’s over-the-top performance as Dr. Emmett Brown. He’s just so quirky a character, and he gives it 110% every single moment, blasting himself at 88mph to the top of a list of iconic fictional scientists. We also bring up the ingenious Futurama all the time, and we’ve got to praise Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth for delivering on so much perfect comedic timing, general weirdness, and some of the most creative concoctions anyone could think of—it was hard NOT putting more of them in our favorite sci-fi gadgets post. And let’s round things out with Wallace from Wallace and Gromit, who is weird in a much more wholesome and endearing way, and yet his Rube-Goldbergian inventions might actually be the most unusual of the bunch! Cracking toast, Gromit!

—

Jake’s picks

Let’s dig into some classic science fiction television series of the nineties and aughts (give or take). Each of these shows centers around its respective science McGuffin, and these scientists spend most of their time making it make sense while also being compelling characters. Samantha Carter, the science expert of Stargate SG-1, serves frequently as the show’s moral compass, at least when she’s not busy being the most competent person in the room. While much of The X-Files concerns itself with more paranormal, supernatural quasi-science, it’s the skepticism of Dana Scully that roots the show in a modicum of scientific reality. Her loyalty to the scientific method is only rivaled by her loyalty to her FBI partner—a very fine balance indeed. We don’t talk about the utterly fascinating Fringe as much as we should, and its main scientist character Walter Bishop is a multifaceted one for sure. Played by John Noble, of Star Trek: Prodigy fame, Dr. Bishop dances on that fine line between credible science and mad fringe scientist, and his commitment to his estranged (sometimes VERY estranged) son gives the whole show life.

—

Caitlin’s picks

Let’s hear it for some big personalities! Caitlin’s first scientist has a love for megafauna, as we see Ellie Sattler’s appreciation of all the great dinosaurs from Jurassic Park. Not only do we get some excellent biology in action when she’s down for getting elbow-deep in some dino dung, but we’ve got to appreciate how cunning Ellie is in being one of the few who actually survives that death trap… twice! Caitlin is also highlighting our first of two different Gene Wilder appearances, this one as Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. You’ve got to give the guy credit for some of his amazing candy creations, as we did in our science tech post recently, but Wonka is also such a memorable, eccentric, slightly diabolical character that Gene Wilder just absolutely nails. Speaking of quirky characters, even though we never see Cave Johnson in Portal 2, his recordings make the late eccentric billionaire behind Aperture Science a noteworthy presence. J.K. Simmons’s voice work makes this portrayal quite the romp in a game that’s already quite rompy.

—

Ames’s picks

Rounding out our team of women who science hard, Ellie Arroway from Contact exemplifies everything you want in your competent scientist character. She’s curious, she stands up for what she believes, and she’s up for any- and everything, including testing alien technology on herself (though it’s still up for debate if any of that actually happened, like in any good sci-fi story). Let’s U-turn away from the A-tier competent scientist collection and pick from the batshit-insane scientist bucket for a moment. I’ve brought up my affection for the works of H.P. Lovecraft numerous times, and the mad scientist Crawford Tillinghast from the story “From Beyond” really stands out. He builds a device to expand human consciousness and (who’da thunk?) goes absolutely mad. Because I know you’re asking for it, here’s a radio play adaptation I penned a while back with Jake himself as Tillinghast. It’s exactly as unhinged as you’re expecting. Finally, our second instance of Gene Wilder in this listicle comes in the form of Frederick Frankenstein from the absolutely ingenious Young Frankenstein. Which pile does he belong in? Competent scientists or mad scientists? How is it somehow both?

—

And that concludes our tour of the laboratory. Lucky for us, there are even more great scientist characters gifting us even more great science fiction, so make sure you’re following along here for more explorations of the genre. We’re also still parsing all the science banter in our coverage of Star Trek: Discovery over on the podcast, so find us at SoundCloud or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also compare theorems with us over on Facebook and Bluesky. And don’t let the experiments out of their cages.