"Sci Fi sounds forever embedded in your brain?" Topic

I was thinking about this this morning as I painted and there are certain sounds that are forever echoing in my brain….

Hand held blasters from Star Wars

Star Trek old series doors, the pfffwheeet of phaser fire, the haunting musical plants from The Menagerie….

The computer noise from the opening scene in Alien

Others may come to mind as my mind wanders…..

Perhaps the most distinct sound is the sounds of the movement tracker in the movie Aliens. It was designed to beat as it picked up movement but the fact that it beats in time with your heartbeat and speeds up was masterful.

The sounds of the M41A Pulserifle and Smart gun from Aliens.

The sound the Yamato's wave motion gun makes when it fires as well as the sound the shock cannons make when firing.

R2-D2's beeping and buzzing.

Sound of the proton pack charging up in Ghostbusters

Star Wars---lightsabers and blasters

Alien---the computer noise
Aliens---opening scene door cutter and side scanner

Star Trek---all doors and the transporter

Star Gate--the TV show---the whirring and interlocking of the star gate

The sound of a Lightsabre.

Christopher

Lightsabers
TIE Fighter engine
Blaster fire
Transporter energizing
Phaser fire
Transformers transforming
Optimus Prime's voice
The opening theme to TOS Star Trek

Light sabers and various TIE fighter noises.

'Aliens' motion tracker sound (hours of sitting in the dark playing the excellent Aliens vs. Predator PC game also drove that one home).

Yup. All of the above.

The theremin is an unusual and memorable instrument I associate with sci-fi: YouTube link

Not quite what you're looking for I realize.

• Opening scene of Star Wars.
• "Danger Will Robinson"
• Photon torpedoes firing
• Darth Vader's voice
• Also Sprach Zarathustra

Excellent thread!

For me it's the sound of looking up something in the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Virtually all of the above, plus the sound of the TARDIS dematerialising.

Star Trek photon torpedo launcher. The one from the old series was generic, but the sound from the movies was pretty cool.

Ron

Star Trek: the communicator chirp, the transporter sound, the whooshing doors, McCoy's medical tricorder, sick bay heartbeat beds, the Red Alert klaxon, and the whistle of the intercom summoning "Kirk to the Bridge." I still whistle the latter from time to time.

Star Wars: R2D2's chirps and whistles, the TIE engine, the blasters, the lightsaber powering up, Chewie's growls, and Darth Vader's breathe. The latter may be the best of all… just a steady, unrelenting, almost throbbing "Hohhh" that conveys menace and the sense of a grossly altered human being at the same time. You didn't know what was behind the mask, but you knew it was horrific… and powerful.

BSG (original): "By Your Command."

And, lastly, "FLASH! Aah-aaaaaah!"

That woodpecker sound that the Predator made. Creepy---still gives me a shiver when I hear a real woodpecker!

The ants in Them!

The electric "vrrrrrrmmmmmm" sound of the rocket ships in the old serials.

The roar of the Id monster from Forbidden Planet.

Definitely agree with a lot from above.

TARDIS, the ants in Them, Star Wars blaster, lightsabers, tie engine (like a Stuka), Vader… so many good sounds!!!

I would say that woodpecker sound of the predator, but it also gets confused with any japanese ghost, like in the Grudge

So far I would add:

BSG the whoo whoo of the cylon eyes

War of the worlds 1950s heat ray charging up and firing

War of the Worlds (Tom Cruise) signal horn and the walking steam engine sound

Megatron's gun

There is another one for me but it is not widely known.

In the late 1960's WKBW Radio in Buffalo NY did an online enactment of War of the Worlds, as if the cylinders came down on Grand Island. The sounds of the Martian War machines remains with me to this day.

You can here it here:
YouTube link
at the 36:10 mark.

And another…
the Original Jupiter 2 taking off
YouTube link
This is really worth the 6 minutes BTW.

Lightsabers
Starship Enterprise's bridge background noises
Tardis materializing / dematerializing
Them stridulating
Godzilla roar
Gamera roar
Theramins
"Exterminaaate!"
Moaning eggs from "Alien Contamination"
ELP's "Toccata" used as theme for "Creature Double Feature" on Channel 56

The Door opening sound in the Doom game.

It shows up in tons of movies, games and animation

link

U F O

the UFOs
the teletype during the opening theme
the opening theme

Background noise on the bridge of the Enterprise in TOS

Bidibidibid from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

Star Trek doors and the unscrewing sound from the War of the Worlds music album……….not a sound effect but the Darth Vader march …..just superb!

That sound Transformers made when they transformed (from the 80's cartoon)

Tardis sound effect.
Dalek HQ "heartbeat".
All the routine Enterprise effects.You can't imagine an original series without these noises.
Lightsabre hummm…

The background noise from the bridge of the Enterprise in TOS.

Soundtrack from Forbidden Planet.

The active sonar ping from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

link

Lots of the ones already mentioned:

TIE fighter sound
R2D2's beeps and burps
lightsabre
Tardis sound effect
"Exterminate!"
Teletype (with the music) from UFO
"What are you doing, Dave?"
Transporter sound
Phaser firing (the handheld one)
Doors opening and closing
M41A (pulse rifle) firing
Alien hiss (or did I just imagine that?)
Cylon "eye" scanning
Colonial fleet blasters shooting
Viper going into turbo mode

Rob

The War Machine siren from Jeff Wayne's WOTW album.

Definitely #1 is the sounds of a lightsaber.
#2 is Vader's breathing.

In no particular order:
Motion tracker from Aliens.
Gunfire from Aliens.

Several from Forbidden Planet especially the Krull complex.
Motion tracker in Aliens
Bridge sounds in Star Trek
Light sabers in Star Wars

Any time I hear "On the Beautiful Blue Danube", views of Earth from orbit come to mind.

Nice to see Forbidden Planet mentioned, as the opening music, Krell city effects and the sound of the Monster form the Id stalking are all classics.

Surpsied no-one's mentioned KITT's light bar noises from Knight Rider. Similar to the Cylon eye noise, but sufficiently different.

And Wolverine's claws coming out from the recent X-Men films.

Whenever I go to a nightlcub and hear the band break into the theme from Marine Boy, my heart just skips a beat. The vision of Bolton & Piper crewing the P-1 on the way to aid Marine Boy comes to mind immediately.

The second choice is when my church choir and organist close out the service with selections from the Ultra Man series. Akiko Fuji was my hero!

--The high-pitched whining electronic tone followed by the monotone of the narrator/announcer ("There is nothing wrong with your television set….") for "Outer Limits" (the 60's version)
--The sharp guitar notes picking out the opening theme to The Twilight Zone
--The Doctor Who theme music
--"Exterminate!" (of course)
--ST:TOS communicator chirp
--spark-gap mad science devices from Dr. Frankenstein's (et al.) laboratory
--the five-note musical "greeting" from Close Encounters

I work at a hardware store and we have one of those big push ladders with squeaky wheels that sound JUST LIKE the ants from THEM. It's especially creepy when someone else is using the ladder and pushes it around the corner and I hear that same vibrating squeal. YEEYEEYEEYEEYEE!!!!