[ExI] Lethal future was Watson on NOVA

[David Lubkin]

Samantha wrote:

>Hmm.  Of course if they are particularly advanced they could just 
>engineer a super-nova aimed in our general direction from close 
>enough.    Or as some film had it, send us the plans to build a 
>wonder machine that wipes us out or turns us into more of them.

The first attempt at remote annihilation I know of in sf is 
astronomer Fred Hoyle's A for Andromeda (BBC 1961, novel 1962):

>[I]t concerns a group of scientists who detect a radio signal from a 
>distant galaxy that contains instructions for the design of an 
>advanced computer. When the computer is built it gives the 
>scientists instructions for the creation of a living organism, named 
>Andromeda. However, one of Andromeda's creators, John Fleming, fears 
>that Andromeda's purpose is to subjugate humanity.

Andromeda was played by Julie Christie, in her first significant 
role. Sadly, there does not seem to be a complete copy of the 
seven-episode series. But, thankfully, I'm old enough to have seen it 
before they were lost.


-- David.