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Defying Gravity
Freejack
Jake the Not-so-Wise
in Zocalo v2.0
Anyone catch the pilot that aired on ABC last night? Actually not a bad show. I was afraid it was going to be another romance-driven drama, but romance is a significant component, it didn't seem to drive the show so much. Also was concerned that Ron Livingston wouldn't be able to pull off an astronaut, but it wasn't too bad.
Intial pilot had enough to keep me watching, though its a 6 year flight to Venus, long time to write shows only set on a ship, and they will run out flashbacks at some point.
I was impressed with the Antares as it was almost exactly what I imagined a long term, intra-system vessel would look like.
Jake
Intial pilot had enough to keep me watching, though its a 6 year flight to Venus, long time to write shows only set on a ship, and they will run out flashbacks at some point.
I was impressed with the Antares as it was almost exactly what I imagined a long term, intra-system vessel would look like.
Jake
Comments
I don't know who's responsible for psychologically profiling those "astronauts" but he or she needs to get fired. That's the scariest bunch of nutcases I've seen in orbit and in mission control so far this side from the [I]Event Horizon.[/I]
They haven't even left orbit yet and they have to replace like half the crew? How's that possible? Those are adults who behave like prepubescent teenagers.
I like the show's "don't care" attitude though. It's too early to tell if it's going to be any good or not. The SFX are convincing for the most part. The casting is a bit iffy. Ron Livingston tries his best Clive Owen impersonation (which is a good thing). He's likeable and carrying this pilot episode. The show lacks level-headed women like Karen LeBlanc and she did a great job at mission control.
The ship is obviously inspired by the Discovery (2001/2010) design mixed with a large shield and rotating sections. While it's the easiest way to assemble a vessel of that size in space, I'm not sure it's the safest way to travel on long duration flights. The Leonov was a better design. I'm no doctor but the Antares crew is too exposed to cosmic rays. :D
Well the show is set only 50 years from now, so I think it would be a bit weird to have a homogenous crew with no accents. Actually, the crew really isn't that diverse for an international effort with only AJ and the german chick (with a not so well done accent) appearing to be non-American, (Oh wait, I forgot the annoying reporter person...)
All in all I suspect that personal religions may have a greater role to play in the show (which is a good thing), for example [SP]Donner asks Shaw (his counterpart from the Mars mission) about being a buddist. In addition, it's very likely the statue will play a role later, in Donner's dream he is pulling a broken elephant statue from what appears to be a thruster cone.[/sp]
[QUOTE=Stingray;183398]
I don't know who's responsible for psychologically profiling those "astronauts" but he or she needs to get fired. That's the scariest bunch of nutcases I've seen in orbit and in mission control so far this side from the [I]Event Horizon.[/I][/QUOTE]
Yeah they are a bit loosey goosey on the crew interactions, but I think artistic license in needed to write the type of story.
[QUOTE=Stingray;183398]
They haven't even left orbit yet and they have to replace like half the crew? How's that possible? Those are adults who behave like prepubescent teenagers.
[/QUOTE]
You may want to rewatch [sp]as there is a very specific reason why Ajay and Rollie are forced off the mission, caused by some yet to be revealed force.[/sp].
It's definitely not a B5 or BSG, much more like Grey's Anatomy (not surprising since same writers involved). May actually be good for the show's longevity if it can attract a non-scifi audience.
Jake
Jake
[LIST]
[*]Retro Dell monitors from 47 years ago are in fashion.
[*]A solar shield, just like the ship in Sunshine. Makes sense, since it's a good idea.
[*]Whoever designed the ship interiors spent a long time looking at photos of the interior of the ISS.
[*]Apparently, weight is no longer an issue in EVA suit design, specifically in the MMU.
[*]Wonder nanotechnology strikes again!
[/LIST]
In general, it was pretty intriguing and managed to keep my interest. I don't know how long it will be able to maintain a good scifi edge, though. There's a big risk of it degenerating into a soap opera with an ever-shrinking cast of characters.
I'm ok with that but they could have spared us the [I]Apu[/I] impersonator. :D True, BSG did have a few accents and that's fine. I'm glad Apollo kept his in check though. ;)
[QUOTE]All in all I suspect that personal religions may have a greater role to play in the show (which is a good thing) [/QUOTE]
I hope not, because it's one thing to pray when you are about to die. Another, to bring your religion along for the trip. Then I'd like to see something other than the vanilla kind of religion. It would make sense if the navigator were a Muslim. He would always know the way back to Earth. :D
[QUOTE]You may want to rewatch [sp]as there is a very specific reason why Ajay and Rollie are forced off the mission, caused by some yet to be revealed force.[/sp].[/QUOTE]
Oh, I didn't miss that detail. It's fairly normal for young adults to have medical conditions of retires. I don't get it why they made it out to be something mysterious while a common flu would have done much more damage. The writing is a bit overkill in that respect.
[QUOTE=Biggles;183431]Some amusing non-spoilery observations: A solar shield, just like the ship in Sunshine. Makes sense, since it's a good idea.[/QUOTE]
It made sense in [I]Sunshine[/I] because their destination was the sun, not so here. While they are supposed to explore the entire solar system, most time will be spent away from the sun and the shield (in its current configuration) is too small to protect the entire ship all of the time. If they are aiming for any of the planets, the shield will most likely not face the sun. But I'm sure they'll think of something. :D
[LIST]
[*]Retro Dell monitors from 47 years ago are in fashion.
[*]Wonder nanotechnology strikes again!
[/LIST]
[/QUOTE]
Heh, when you spend 1/10 of the worlds GDP on the ship itself, turns out you haven't a lot of money left for good ground support equipment. And yes I was disappointed at the cop-out reason they were walking around upright. To me though, based on that explaination it was disruptive when everyones hair hung downard...maybe they use nanotech hairspray?
In the end, the gravity component doesn't bother me much if the story is good, as showing constant zero-G is basicly unfilmable.
[QUOTE=Stingray;183433]Oh, I didn't miss that detail. It's fairly normal for young adults to have medical conditions of retires. I don't get it why they made it out to be something mysterious while a common flu would have done much more damage. The writing is a bit overkill in that respect.
[/QUOTE]
I think the point was that [sp] they knew why those two conditions had been induced and they understood that what ever it was in cargo pod 4, (I think it was at one point called Beta) did not want Ajay and Rollie on the ship or more specificly it wanted Donner and Shaw on board.[/sp]
And the reason I like to see shows discuss region is not necessary because it adds something to the story for me, but rather, it shows that the writers aren't afraid of more delicate subjects.
Jake
The space lingo is starting to get annoying... copy this, copy that, roger, wilco... I mean do people talk like that? :D
copy that.
Nah I like it. Its got potential I think so Im looking forward to next weeks episode
Yeah the nanosuit stuff is a bit far out, but I respect the reasons for putting it in there; permanent zero-G would just not work on a TV series.
Spoiler: As they said many times during the first episode, the chances of two people getting it at once were astronomical. Hence why it's a big deal, and considered to not be a random coincidence.
[quote]It made sense in [I]Sunshine[/I] because their destination was the sun, not so here. While they are supposed to explore the entire solar system, most time will be spent away from the sun and the shield (in its current configuration) is too small to protect the entire ship all of the time. If they are aiming for any of the planets, the shield will most likely not face the sun. But I'm sure they'll think of something. :D[/QUOTE]
The route they showed at one point had the ship doing a very close swing past the Sun, where it would obviously be necessary. Likewise, visiting Mercury (also on the tour) is also close enough to require a shield (the probe on its way there right now has a shield). Further out, it's not necessary and so doesn't have to be kept facing the sun. I'm not sure why you think it's too small to protect the entire ship. Orient ship so shield is between it and the Sun, and unless you're [i]really[/i] close to the Sun, the ship will be protected. They don't have to use their plasma engines all the time, remember.
[LIST]
[*]Retro Dell monitors from 47 years ago are in fashion.
[/LIST]
[/QUOTE]
You forgot to mention:
[LIST]
[*]512-bit encryption from 45+ years ago is still strong enough not to be cracked.
[/LIST]
And don't forget to question why they would be touring planets on opposite sides of the solar system, crossing back and forth several times (as shown on the graphical representation of their route in the first episode), instead of launching in a year when they were actually in fairly alignment or sending different ships to different planets.
The space craft would have to be constantly realigned towards the sun which would take quite a bit fuel to do so. A probe is fairly small, this ship is something else. There is only so much you can do with slingshot navigation. Remember how much trouble they had with the MIR station to keep the solar panels aligned towards the sun. I also can't see why they would send a human crew to Mercury... talk about a suicide mission. Yeah it's hot, quite dead, next. :D
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I also can't see why they would send a human crew to Mercury... talk about a suicide mission. Yeah it's hot, quite dead, next. :D[/QUOTE]
I think you answered yourself there :p
[QUOTE=Stingray;183457]The space craft would have to be constantly realigned towards the sun which would take quite a bit fuel to do so. A probe is fairly small, this ship is something else. There is only so much you can do with slingshot navigation. Remember how much trouble they had with the MIR station to keep the solar panels aligned towards the sun. I also can't see why they would send a human crew to Mercury... talk about a suicide mission. Yeah it's hot, quite dead, next. :D[/QUOTE]
You do make a lot of amusing assumptions. :D
The spacecraft could be easily kept aligned to the Sun using a single thruster burst to make it spin, which it will then continue to do forever. After that, assuming chemical propulsion (unlikely), occasional corrective bursts to account for the changing rate-of-change of the angle between the ship and the Sun would be enough, since the rate-of-change will be small and the allowable error range in the angle would be reasonable. No continuous use of fuel required. Assuming plasma or ion propulsion, which the ship is apparently equipped with (it was continually thrusting away from Earth, days into its voyage - not pure slingshot navigation), you have a thruster capable of maintaining the alignment with the Sun with minimal fuel use even if using a continually varying thrust.
MIR had trouble with alignment because its solar panels were a pretty messy layout and the station was old and broken. The ISS has had only one problem and that's been due to insufficient lubrication of a bearing - once that was fixed, they're tracking the sun quite happily. It's also worth pointing out that MIR and the ISS have an entirely different problem to solve in terms of Sun tracking.
As for going to Mercury: the same reason as anywhere else: because they can (or in this case, because they were told to). :D It's not a suicide mission at all with suitable protection. The high (Sunward-side) surface temperature of Mercury is less than the average surface temperature of Venus. They have equipment that can (apparently) survive on Venus, so they should be able to adapt that to Mercury. They also haven't yet stated that they're going to be landing on Mercury, that I recall.
Even if Fox jumps off, perhaps the show can survive with the remaining stations.
[QUOTE]You do make a lot of amusing assumptions. :D[/QUOTE]
It's sad that I have to make them since the writers can't seem to be able to tell us anything right off the bat.
I wasn't really paying attention (playing Fallout 3 while watching... taking on the Talon Company base at Fort Bannister), that's why I missed many details. :D
That's what I'm hoping.
...not that it would have much impact.
Jake
Have to say tho I've been impressed with Ty Osson, (Rollie/Kelly from BSG). BSG really didnt let him cut loose enough
Yeah, I'm definitely ready to see more... especially since they haven't shown us anything yet. The set is really nice and trekky... a SeaQuest DSV in space.
I did laugh at the scifi excuse for their hair not floating about.
Yeah, it totally makes sense to put a recovering alcoholic with PTSD on a long duration space flight.
Other than that, it's pretty good.