brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) (06/08/85)
It's pretty difficult to defend this one, guys. A show where the major premise involves the moon getting blasted away from the Earth at interstellar velocity? (I worked this out once, and it would take about 8 lunar masses of matter combined with 8 lunar masses of antimatter to do this, never mind the G forces!) Space 1999 had no concept of the nature of the galaxy, the distances involved and the planetology. Even Galactica was better (Although not at handling the nature of the Galaxy). Worst of all, the show took itself so seriously. Real successes like Doctor Who and Star Trek have had levity to keep them going when the SF fails. Space 1999 never came close. -- Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473
thornton@kcl-cs.UUCP (ZNAC468) (06/11/85)
When I worked the calculation to push the moon out of the Earth's orbit and out in to space I got little more than 1/200 th of a lunar mass needed converting into K.E. This is because the moon was not travelling at interstellar velocity but at a much slower sub-light speed. In the calculation I assumed a terminal velocity of 0.1c ,mainly because if the moon went faster than 0.15c then an Eagle would never catch it. The reason for the moon meeting so many planets is that it was propelled into a 'time warp' and emerged in an area of space where the stars were packed much more tightly together (!). I am not saying that any of the above is possible or correct but if enough psuedo-science is applied, any sci-fi concept can be explained away. This is why Dr Who and Star Trek got away with it (warping the 'fabric' of space, indeed). Many of the 1999 episodes were set in interplanetary space and didn't include planets anyway e.g. BETA CLOUD,LAMBDA FACTOR. I don't think B.G. was a better series ,they relied much more heavily on 'library' shots e.g. seeing those same three vipers taking off each episode, and whenever I saw it I couldn't help feeling I'd seen this episode before. For me ,SPACE 1999 was the best sci-fi series of the 70's. Andy T. (DEFENDER OF THE TRUE FAITH)
hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath) (06/11/85)
In article <281@looking.UUCP> brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) writes: >Space 1999 had no concept of the nature of the galaxy, the distances >involved and the planetology. I have to agree. We could even hold a contest to see who can come up with the most incongruities and logical flaws. Two of my favorites were the never-ending supplies of people and "Eagle" space craft. They seemed to loose at least one and usually several of each every episode without creating any shortages, or even much concern. -- -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe) Citicorp TTI "How goes the rat race?" 3100 Ocean Park Blvd. "The rats are winning." Santa Monica, CA 90405 -- Paul Lynde (213) 450-9111, ext. 2483 {philabs,randvax,trwrb,vortex}!ttidca!ttidcc!hollombe
pete@stc.UUCP (Peter Kendell) (06/12/85)
I was a long-term fan of previous Gerry Anderson series like Supercar, Fireball XL5, Thunderbirds and Stingray and it always struck me at the time what an achievement it was to make puppets look and act like humans. It took Space 1999 and its predecessor UFO to make me realise that he could also make humans look and act like puppets! (BTW - who remembers Four Feather Falls; or should I look in net.trivia?) -- Peter Kendell <pete@stc.UUCP> ...mcvax!ukc!stc!pete "Me? I never said nuffink!"
iwm@icdoc.UUCP (Ian Moor) (06/14/85)
In article <468@ttidcc.UUCP> hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath) writes: >the most incongruities and logical flaws. Two of my favorites were the >never-ending supplies of people and "Eagle" space craft. They seemed to >loose at least one and usually several of each every episode without >creating any shortages, or even much concern. Not that I am defending Space 1949 but ... What about the never-ending supply of security officers on the Enterprise (the ones at the tail end of the group that got grabbed zapped or whatever.. and the other one "Smith go back and find out what happened to Jones" Is it true that a ship was reported at a range of 10 'microns' in Battlestar pathetica ? -- Ian W Moor The squire on the hippopotamus is equal Department of Computing to the sons of the other two squires. 180 Queensgate London SW7 Uk.
ccrdave@ucdavis.UUCP (Lord Kahless) (06/17/85)
> Not that I am defending Space 1949 but ... > What about the never-ending supply of security officers on the Enterprise The Enterprise had starbases with fresh supplies of Redshirts to serve as monster chow. Space 1999 had NO new people coming in, excepting Maya, and no supplies.
betsy@dartvax.UUCP (Betsy Hanes Perry) (06/17/85)
> > Is it true that a ship was reported at a range of 10 'microns' in > Battlestar pathetica ? > > > -- > Ian W Moor > Quite true. I was watching with a group of highly-amused friends when we heard: "Captain, the alien ship is within 10 microns of us!" One of us immedieately cried, "Nobody inhale!" We used to gather regularly on Friday nights, just to heckle. Betsy Perry -- Elizabeth Hanes Perry UUCP: {decvax |ihnp4 | linus| cornell}!dartvax!betsy CSNET: betsy@dartmouth ARPA: betsy%dartmouth@csnet-relay "Ooh, ick!" -- Penfold
root@trwatf.UUCP (Lord Frith) (06/17/85)
In article <406@stc-b.stc.UUCP> pete@stc.UUCP (Peter Kendell) writes: > > I was a long-term fan of previous Gerry Anderson series like Supercar, > Fireball XL5, Thunderbirds and Stingray and it always struck me at > the time what an achievement it was to make puppets look and act > like humans. Has anyone ever noticed that the puppets in the Captain Scarlet series actually LOOK like the actors that did their voices? The puppet character in Captain Scarlet that Ed Bishop did the voice-over for, has Ed Bishop's face! I LOVE GA PUPPET SHOWS! -- UUCP: ...{decvax,ihnp4,allegra}!seismo!trwatf!root - Lord Frith ARPA: trwatf!root@SEISMO "Give a man a horse... and he thinks he's enormous"
hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath) (06/17/85)
In article <217@ivax.icdoc.UUCP> iwm@icdoc.UUCP (Ian Moor) writes: >What about the never-ending supply of security officers on the Enterprise >(the ones at the tail end of the group that got grabbed zapped or whatever.. >and the other one "Smith go back and find out what happened to Jones" The Enterprise could replace lost personnel anytime it docked at a major star base. Moonbase Alpha had no such outside resources. >Is it true that a ship was reported at a range of 10 'microns' in >Battlestar pathetica ? Probably. The writers on that show tried to make a lot of things sound exotically scientific by tacking the suffix "on" on to them. Spiders became "crawlons", for example. This is somewhat reminiscent of the _old_ Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon serials where everything had "o" appended to it. ("They're using the dissolvo ray!"). The next Hollywood sci-fi disaster will probably start adding "ono" to everything (Creativity? What're you? Some kind of communist? (-: ). It's enough to give you nightmares. -- -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe) Citicorp TTI 3100 Ocean Park Blvd. Santa Monica, CA 90405 (213) 450-9111, ext. 2483 {philabs,randvax,trwrb,vortex}!ttidca!ttidcc!hollombe
joel@peora.UUCP (Joel Upchurch) (06/19/85)
> > Not that I am defending Space 1949 but ... > > What about the never-ending supply of security officers on the Enterprise > > The Enterprise had starbases with fresh supplies of Redshirts to serve > as monster chow. Space 1999 had NO new people coming in, excepting Maya, > and no supplies. If you want to discuss the various incongruities you should read David Gerrold book on the show. He discusses such points as how long a Captain of a major capital ship could make it a practice to leave his command and particpate in ground actions without getting cashiered. And most of the time he took his first officer with him too!
ucoelm@sw1c.UUCP (06/20/85)
> > > > Is it true that a ship was reported at a range of 10 'microns' in > > Battlestar pathetica ? > > > > -- > > Ian W Moor > > > > Quite true. I was watching with a group of highly-amused friends when we heard: > "Captain, the alien ship is within 10 microns of us!" > One of us immedieately cried, > "Nobody inhale!" > > Betsy Perry Funny enough, I also said the same thing the first time I heard it. 10 MICRONS??? Their long range sensor must be a micrometer. However, after watching several episodes I realized that a micron must be a unit of time. They were simply estimating the enemy's distance from them in time units based upon each other's velocity. I finally figured out that a micron was approximately equal to one second earth time. However, I was never able to figure out how much earth time was in one of their centon's (sp?). I cracked up during one episode when a character who was not part of the "rag-tag space fleet" was encountered and asked the magic question (paraphrased) "What the hell is a centon?" I still didn't hear a satisfactory answer, if I heard one at all. Any comments? Need I ask? :-) -- Lee Morehead Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. ...!ihnp4!sw1c!ucoelm My opinions are my own ... no one else will claim them. "Tell them Willy boy is here...and he's eating the furniture again."
al@mot.UUCP (Al Filipski) (06/20/85)
> Is it true that a ship was reported at a range of 10 'microns' in > Battlestar pathetica ? I don't know about that one, but in one episode of Star Trek, in which the ship was being subjected to some extreme conditions, Spock reports to Kirk that the reading on a gauge is something like "7 times 1 to the 35th power" with the implication that this is a large number. The episode might have been "Tomorrow is Yesterday" where they go back and forth in time by whipping through a high gravity gradient. -------------------------------- Alan Filipski, UNIX group, Motorola Microsystems, Tempe, AZ U.S.A {seismo|ihnp4}!ut-sally!oakhill!mot!al allegra!sftig!mot!al ucbvax!arizona!asuvax!mot!al -------------------------------- Aren't the stars lovely tonight? Say, isn't that a moon ?