The Poetry of Nerds and Geeks

soldier4242

We become fans of our genres for a myriad of reasons. The cool special effects drew many of us I am sure but I wanted to create a thread where we could put the words that drew us in. When a character gives a speech that truly resonates. You feel like you are hearing a real truth that could not be delivered better in another way. I think we should take some time to appreciate the writers because their work is a big part of why we are all so fanatical and passionate.

Since this is my idea I am putting the first one that springs to my mind. This is from one of the best Star Trek the Next Generation episodes ever entitled "The Measure of a Man" Patrick Stewart gives and amazing performance. Captain Picard is basically defending Commander Data in a trial to determine if he has the right to make choices regarding his own well being. If you have not seen the episode I highly recommend it.

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"Your honor, the courtroom is a crucible; in it, we burn away irrelevancies until we are left with a purer product: the truth, for all time. Now sooner or later, this man [Commander Maddox] - or others like him - will succeed in replicating Commander Data. The decision you reach here today will determine how we will regard this creation of our genius. It will reveal the kind of people we are; what he is destined to be. It will reach far beyond this courtroom and this one android. It could significantly redefine the boundaries of personal liberty and freedom: expanding them for some, savagely curtailing them for others. Are you prepared to condemn him [Commander Data] - and all who will come after him - to servitude and slavery? Your honor, Starfleet was founded to seek out new life: well, there it sits! Waiting."
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soldier4242

This speech made by Sam to Frodo was perfect for the situation that they were in and its message is universal. This was some top notch writing and its delivery was spot on.

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(Sam)I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.

(Frodo)What are we holding onto Sam?

(Sam) That there's some good in this world and its worth fighting for.
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soldier4242

I am secure enough in my masculinity to admit that this scene actually made me cry a little bit. The narration from Riversong serves as the perfect backdrop to the scene. She is describing the inevitable end to our ephemeral lives. This extremely well written soliloquy acknowledges both the futility of the Doctors efforts to save life and the importance that he never accept it. This type of juxtaposition is difficult to convey but in this episode they knocked it right out of the park.

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River's narration: [as the Doctor walks away from the Library] When you run with the Doctor, it feels like it'll never end, but however hard you try you can't run forever. Everybody knows that everybody dies and nobody knows it like the Doctor, but I do think that all the skies of all the worlds might just turn dark if he ever, for one moment, accepts it.
[The Doctor runs back and picks up River's sonic screwdriver]
The Doctor: Why? Why would I give her my screwdriver? Why would I do that? The thing is, future me had years to think about it. All those years to think of a way to save her, and what he did was give her a screwdriver! Why would I do that?! [peels back a panel to reveal a set of green lights like on the suits, realizing why his future self has given River the screwdriver] Oh, oh, oh! Look at that! I'm very good!
Donna: What have you done?
The Doctor: Saved her!
[The Doctor runs with River's consciousness in the screwdriver]
The Doctor: Stay with me! You can do it! Stay with me! Come on!! You and me, one last run! [pointing his screwdriver at an elevator] Sorry River, short cut!
[He jumps into the entrance and travels to the computer system while the data ghost indicator lights begin to go out. He continues to run]
River's narration: Everybody knows that everybody dies, but not every day. Not today. [The Doctor uploads her into CAL with her own happy universe] Some days are special. Some days are so, so blessed. Some days, nobody dies at all. Now and then, every once in a very long while, every day in a million days, when the wind stands fair and the Doctor comes to call, everybody lives.
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soldier4242

It seems that this will just be a public journal of my own creation. I realize that this does involve a level of nerdiness that is a bit more escoteric so the audience may be a bit smaller. For that matter the audience may just be me. I am sure I will give this exercise up at some point but for now I will just post a few more of my favorites from time to time.

This is from the Star Trek TNG episode entitled "Drum Head" Picard is put on trial and his loyalty is called in to question by a women who is much like McCarthy from "The Red Scare" his response was brilliant and it cut right to the core of why that style of think is so damaging.
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JEAN-LUC PICARD
You know, there are some words I've known since I was a schoolboy. "With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." Those words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie as wisdom and warning. The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged.
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d0gma

One of my favorites from Amazing Spider-Man #537. It was in the middle of the Civil War over Superhuman Registration.

Captain America: Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world — "No, you move."

soldier4242

One of my favorites from Amazing Spider-Man #537. It was in the middle of the Civil War over Superhuman Registration.

Captain America: Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world — "No, you move."

Man I love Captain America. I know he started out as nothing more than a propaganda piece but I love the character that he grew in to.

I remember when he faced off with Thanos. He knew he couldn't win and yet he still stood there there straight faced and defiant right up to the very end.

soldier4242

I am pretty sure that if you talk about good writing and science fiction at all you have to talk about V for Vendetta. I don't think this gem needs much in the way of introduction so here it is.
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~ * Good evening, London. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine- the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration, whereby those important events of the past usually associated with someone's death or the end of some awful bloody struggle are celebrated with a nice holiday. I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat.

There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there?

Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, think, and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillence coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well, certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.

I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now High Chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent.

Last night I sought to end that silence. Last night I destroyed the Old Bailey, to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than four hundred years ago a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives.

So if you've seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you, then I would suggest you allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament, and together we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgot.~
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soldier4242

This is from the TNG episode "Tapestry" and it is not only an example of Star Trek at its finest it is the best representation of Q that has ever been put on screen. A wise and powerful being that has taken enough interest in humanity to teach us. The lesson in this episode is both potent and universal. This conversation between Q and Picard was amazing.
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Lt. J.G. Jean-Luc Picard: You having a good laugh now, Q? Does it amuse you to think of me living out the rest of my life as a dreary man in a tedious job?

Q: I gave you something most mortals never experience: a second chance at life. And now all you can do is complain?

Lt. J.G. Jean-Luc Picard: I can't live out my days as that person. That man is bereft of passion... and imagination! That is not who *I* am!

Q: Au contraire. He's the person you wanted to be: one who was less arrogant and undisciplined in his youth, one who was less like me... The Jean-Luc Picard *you* wanted to be, the one who did *not* fight the Nausicaan, had quite a different career from the one you remember. That Picard never had a brush with death, never came face to face with his own mortality, never realized how fragile life is or how important each moment must be. So his life never came into focus. He drifted through much of his career, with no plan or agenda, going from one assignment to the next, never seizing the opportunities that presented themselves. He never led the away team on Milika III to save the Ambassador; or take charge of the Stargazer's bridge when its captain was killed. And no one ever offered him a command. He learned to play it safe - and he never, ever, got noticed by anyone

Lt. J.G. Jean-Luc Picard: "You're right, Q. You gave me the chance to change, and I took the opportunity. But I admit now - it was a mistake!"

Q: "Are you asking me for something, Jean-Luc?"

Lt. J.G. Jean-Luc Picard:"Give me a chance, to put things back the way they were before."

Q: "Before, you died in sickbay. Is that what you want?"

Lt. J.G. Jean-Luc Picard: "I would rather die as the man I was...than live the life I just saw."
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soldier4242

Valerie's letters were a very powerful part of the movie V for Vendetta. We got to see what the world of the movie looked like through the eyes of a victim. I found it to be very moving.

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Valerie: I know there's no way I can convince you this is not one of their tricks, but I don't care, I am me. My name is Valerie, I don't think I'll live much longer and I wanted to tell someone about my life. This is the only autobiography I'll ever write, and god, I'm writing it on toilet paper. I was born in Nottingham in 1985, I don't remember much of those early years, but I do remember the rain. My grandmother owned a farm in Tuttlebrook, and she use to tell me that god was in the rain. I passed my 11th lesson into girl's grammar; it was at school that I met my first girlfriend, her name was Sara. It was her wrists. They were beautiful. I thought we would love each other forever. I remember our teacher telling us that is was an adolescent phase people outgrew. Sara did, I didn't.

In 2002, I fell in love with a girl named Christina. That year I came out to my parents. I couldn't have done it without Chris holding my hand. My father wouldn't look at me, he told me to go and never come back. My mother said nothing. But I had only told them the truth, was that so selfish? Our integrity sells for so little, but it is all we really have. It is the very last inch of us, but within that inch, we are free. I'd always known what I wanted to do with my life, and in 2015 I starred in my first film, "The Salt Flats". It was the most important role of my life, not because of my career, but because that was how I met Ruth. The first time we kissed, I knew I never wanted to kiss any other lips but hers again. We moved to a small flat in London together. She grew Scarlet Carsons for me in our window box, and our place always smelled of roses. Those were there best years of my life.

But America's war grew worse, and worse. And eventually came to London. After that there were no roses anymore. Not for anyone. I remember how the meaning of words began to change. How unfamiliar words like "collateral" and "rendition" became frightening. While things like Norse Fire and The Articles of Allegiance became powerful, I remember how different became dangerous. I still don't understand it, why they hate us so much.

They took Ruth while she was out buying food. I've never cried so hard in my life. It wasn't long till they came for me. It seems strange that my life should end in such a terrible place, but for three years, I had roses, and apologized to no one. I shall die here. Every inch of me shall perish. Every inch, but one. An Inch, it is small and it is fragile, but it is the only thing the world worth having.

We must never lose it or give it away. We must never let them take it from us. I hope that whoever you are, you escape this place. I hope that the world turns and that things get better. But what I hope most of all is that you understand what I mean when I tell you that even though I do not know you, and even though I may never meet you, laugh with you, cry with you, or kiss you. I love you. With all my heart, I love you.
-Valerie
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soldier4242

A classic Blade runner quote.
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Deckard: [narrating] I don't know why he saved my life. Maybe in those last moments he loved life more than he ever had before. Not just his life - anybody's life; my life. All he'd wanted were the same answers the rest of us want. Where did I come from? Where am I going? How long have I got? All I could do was sit there and watch him die
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d0gma

It seems that this will just be a public journal of my own creation. I realize that this does involve a level of nerdiness that is a bit more escoteric so the audience may be a bit smaller. For that matter the audience may just be me. I am sure I will give this exercise up at some point but for now I will just post a few more of my favorites from time to time.

This is from the Star Trek TNG episode entitled "Drum Head" Picard is put on trial and his loyalty is called in to question by a women who is much like McCarthy from "The Red Scare" his response was brilliant and it cut right to the core of why that style of think is so damaging.
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JEAN-LUC PICARD
You know, there are some words I've known since I was a schoolboy. "With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." Those words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie as wisdom and warning. The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged.
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It's funny, I have not seen this series, I have nothing against it, just never had a chance to actually watch, but most of the quotes that you are putting are from some of the various episodes that I have seen (or seen parts of). In fact, I just saw parts of this episode this weekend, this was the only quote I didn't recognize.

soldier4242

I admit that Encounter at Far Point was terrible and that was the pilot episode for Star Trek TNG but over time the show did grow into its own. The topics became very mature and the executions got better and better. Several of its works are in their own way timeless the writing is a big part of the reason for that. I do recommend watching this series if you have the chance. TNG is a huge part of the reason I am such a nerd.

d0gma

We're about the same age, so you have to consider that I was 6 when the show first aired. It's in syndication now, but I haven't had cable in 10 years. The episode I caught the other day was because it's on Netflix now and my wife loves the show. We're currently watching Buffy and Angel, and looking to go through the whole Star Trek universe next.

soldier4242

Netflix is definitely the way to watch TNG these days. You get to see every episode back to back. When I saw it the cliff hanger episodes were so rough on me. I wanted to know what would happen right away.

soldier4242

Picard eloquently defends and women who is part human and part Q.
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Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Your... arrogant pretense at being the moral guardians of the universe strikes me as being hollow, Q. I see no evidence that you're guided by a superior moral code or any code whatsoever. You may be nearly omnipotent, and I don't deny that your... parlor tricks are very impressive. But morality, I don't see it. I don't acknowledge it, Q! I would put human morality against the Q's any day. And perhaps that's the reason that we fascinate you so - because our puny behavior shows you a glimmer of the one thing that evades your omnipotence: a moral center. And if so, I can think of no crueler irony than that you should destroy this young woman, whose only crime is that she's too human.
Q: Jean-Luc... Sometimes I think the only reason I come here is to listen to these wonderful speeches of yours.
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southpaw211

As someone who really enjoys all things nerd and geek, reads, and finds the most enjoyment in music that is lyrically stimulating, I'm enjoying this thread immensely. I'll have to think of some things that resonate with me personally and give them a post.

soldier4242

Thank you for letting me know of your appreciation for it. I was beginning to think it was just me and Dogma. I hope you do find some gems from your past. I was hoping that the creation of this thread would expose me to new soliloquies, monologue, speeches, and debates that I had overlooked over the years.

We nerds and geeks have been truly fortunate to have such an abundance of great writing running through out our genres. While the "cool" people get to watch "Jersey Shore" and "The Kardashians" we get to have our minds broadened by the lyrical majesty of thousands of great men and women.

southpaw211

Okay, there's no poignant world commentary in this, but it remains my favorite line, favorite episode, favorite season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I think watching Buffy really helped me embrace all of the geeky things I truly loved with pride, having just finished the hell that was high school a few years prior. It will always remain one of my absolute favorite television shows. Even the episodes that had me screaming at the writers (I'm looking at you, season 7).


Pardon the cut and paste!

Buffy: Close your eyes.

She nods reassuringly, and he closes his eyes. She tries hard not to
start crying, and kisses him again gently. She steps back, draws back
her sword and thrusts it into his chest. His eyes whip open in surprise
and pain, and a bright light emanates from the sword. She steps away
from him. He reaches out to her and looks down at the sword thrust
completely through him. He looks at her imploringly, completely
bewildered by this turn of events. She can only stare at the sword
protruding from his chest, and slowly steps further back.

Angel: Buffy...

Behind him the power of the sword begins to swirl into the vortex. Buffy
steps further back, still looking only at the sword in his chest and not
into his face. The vortex has enlarged to about twelve feet (3.5 m)
across, and the two energies begin to interact. Angel still holds out
his hand to Buffy. When the vortex finally meets him it suddenly closes
into Acathla's mouth without so much as a spark, taking him with it.
Buffy stares at the stone demon for a long moment, a light of awareness
dawning in her eyes as she truly realizes what she has done, what she
has lost. She begins to sob, her heart breaking. In the background "Full
of Grace", by Sarah McLachlan, begins to play over the scene.

seilidhe

I am really enjoying this thread as well. The power of words put together well can be so very seductive. Some of the best I've heard, albeit a bit dark, were LaCroix's soliloquies as The NIghtcrawler on "Forever Knight." I used to have a collection of them, but I don't know where it went. Here's one I picked up from Googling. It's from the last episode, "Last Knight". The actor, Nigel Bennett, had the perfect voice for his role.


"Life is a gift, as sweet as a ripe peach, as precious as a gilded jewel. I have never been able to understand the logic of willfully surrendering such a treasure. And what is there to gain? How dark can your existence be when compared to an eternal void? Unless, of course, you have faith that there is something beyond.
What do you see from where you stand? A bright light at the end of the tunnel? Is it a ray of hope? A glimmer of something better? Or will it burn you like the rising sun? Is that sound you're hearing the trumpeting of St. Peter's angels or the screams of Memnoch's tortured souls?
You can't answer that, can you? Because you will never know the answer, until after the deed is done. And is your faith really that strong?
I understand the need to move on. It is something that happens to us all, and your time has truly come. I also understand that with the beauty of this life, there comes pain and despair. No one is immune. But consider what you have in your hands before you give it up. Don't trade a treasure for an empty box.

Love. It warps our senses, twists our souls...can take us past hope, past cure, past help. I know about love: it's suffering, it's anguish, it's pain. Heaven makes means to kill our joy with love. And yet we must have it, at any cost. But are you so enamored that you'll overlook your love of life? And you do love it. I've seen you smell the sea, gaze at the stars at night. Are you willing to sacrifice one mistress for another? Look into your heart and tell me that you're willing to make the choice. "

soldier4242

Here is a nice bit of writing from the video game Alpha Centari.
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Pravin Lal: As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.
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Panda_1999

Thank you for this thread! :flowerforyou:

There are so many beautiful, powerful quotes to choose from. But this simple one has really stuck with me over the years.

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"Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn to see fear's path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
- Frank Herbert, Dune
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