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Rocinante


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I think it's a reasonable assumption that choosing Rocinante as the name for a space ship may well have a Rush connection.

 

However, if you did the logical thing, as I did, and looked the series up on Wikipedia you would know that there are two episodes that have references to Don Quixote in the title. It also helps to not just know your trivia that Rocinante is the name of Don Quixote's horse but to have also read the book. As I have.

 

Well...arent you a literate fecker ;)

 

Yes, I shout "One's arriving" during intercourse...

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I think it's a reasonable assumption that choosing Rocinante as the name for a space ship may well have a Rush connection.

 

However, if you did the logical thing, as I did, and looked the series up on Wikipedia you would know that there are two episodes that have references to Don Quixote in the title. It also helps to not just know your trivia that Rocinante is the name of Don Quixote's horse but to have also read the book. As I have.

 

It's still a reasonable assumption to have made, even if (and no one has shown this to be definitive), the assumption is wrong. All references to Rocinante will ultimately end up at Don Quixote, but it's possible that there was an additional reference to Rush in naming the space ship Rocinante.

 

I've just phoned the show's writer and he agrees with you. He reckons I'm an obnoxious bastard too...

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Still, it could be a nod to Rush. It's a sci-fi show and obviously X-1 is a sci-fi song. Unless they are tilting at windmills in the show (haven't watched the latest episode yet).

The first episode's title was "Dulcinea". Another episode (only episode 7) that'll air this month is called "Windmills". It couldn't be a more obvious reference to Don Quixote than those two titles.

 

Now I'm wondering why the show has so many Don Quixote references...

Is the main character, any important object, or main theme anachronistic? I haven't seen the show or read the books where it's derived from but I'm guessing someone or something MUST be. The theme of anachronism seems much more likely than some writer simply likely Rush and wanting to cram in a spaceship named Rocinante.

There's also a ship called the Canterbury, apparently. I can see there would be thematic connections to space colonization in both works, not to mention archetypal characters.

 

Incidentally..."Rocinante" is based on the Spanish word "rocín" (meaning "nag", a broken down horse). The ending "-ante" suggests fluidity and grace. One of the many puns in the Quixote.

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My favorite music or lit reference in a tv show was in X-Files when some strange, alien-obsessed author character was named Roky Crikenson, a nod to the strange, alien-obsessed psychedelic songwriter Roky Erickson. Love Roky. Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye is among the top tribute albums, for sure.

 

Also find it cool that the original Alien had nods to Joseph Conrad, with the Nostromo and Narcissus. No Rush tie-ins there though, that I know of.

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So I moseyed on over to Syfy.com and they had a "Fun Facts" section for Season 1, Episode 5. One of the fun facts read:

 

"The Rocinante is a reference to both Cervantes' Don Quixote and the name of the ship in the Rush song "Cygnus X-1.""

 

So there's that...

 

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yeah yeah yeah, all the non believers will be changing their tune when this Rocinante ship lands and comes across a place they call Megadon

Can happen. Lifeson did do the music for the sci-fi show Andromeda. So there's that. I can also imagine enough Rush geeks begging the show creators on some website to put in a Rush reference. After all, there was that time just a few years ago when enough of us voted to get that baby panda called "Tai Shan". Think that was at the D.C. zoo (?). Now if on the show there's a birdlike alien race that hops around on one foot called a Weinrib then I'd bet it's not a Don Quixote reference.

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So I moseyed on over to Syfy.com and they had a "Fun Facts" section for Season 1, Episode 5. One of the fun facts read:

 

"The Rocinante is a reference to both Cervantes' Don Quixote and the name of the ship in the Rush song "Cygnus X-1.""

 

So there's that...

 

Doesn't matter. Clearly it's inconceivable that one or more writers for a sci-fi series could ever be anything more than the most casual of Rush fans who would never know about Rush's sci-fi pedigree. I mean, how likely is that?!

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So I moseyed on over to Syfy.com and they had a "Fun Facts" section for Season 1, Episode 5. One of the fun facts read:

 

"The Rocinante is a reference to both Cervantes' Don Quixote and the name of the ship in the Rush song "Cygnus X-1.""

 

So there's that...

There you go! Just like someone said in here earlier, a reference to BOTH.

 

Good find ct!

Edited by JohnnyBlaze
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yeah yeah yeah, all the non believers will be changing their tune when this Rocinante ship lands and comes across a place they call Megadon

Can happen. Lifeson did do the music for the sci-fi show Andromeda. So there's that. I can also imagine enough Rush geeks begging the show creators on some website to put in a Rush reference. After all, there was that time just a few years ago when enough of us voted to get that baby panda called "Tai Shan". Think that was at the D.C. zoo (?). Now if on the show there's a birdlike alien race that hops around on one foot called a Weinrib then I'd bet it's not a Don Quixote reference.

 

JB is on fire this week

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yeah yeah yeah, all the non believers will be changing their tune when this Rocinante ship lands and comes across a place they call Megadon

Can happen. Lifeson did do the music for the sci-fi show Andromeda. So there's that. I can also imagine enough Rush geeks begging the show creators on some website to put in a Rush reference. After all, there was that time just a few years ago when enough of us voted to get that baby panda called "Tai Shan". Think that was at the D.C. zoo (?). Now if on the show there's a birdlike alien race that hops around on one foot called a Weinrib then I'd bet it's not a Don Quixote reference.

 

JB is on fire this week

:blaze:

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My favorite music or lit reference in a tv show was in X-Files when some strange, alien-obsessed author character was named Roky Crikenson, a nod to the strange, alien-obsessed psychedelic songwriter Roky Erickson. Love Roky. Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye is among the top tribute albums, for sure.

 

Roky is a fascinating artist.
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