MYTHBUSTERS 10th Anniversary Season

Discussion in 'TV & Media' started by Christopher, May 2, 2013.

  1. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Heads up! This coming Saturday, January 4, at 8 PM Eastern, there's a new episode called "Star Wars: Revenge of the Myth." The description says they'll be testing:

    Interesting selection. I shudder to think how they'll handle the tauntaun myth. But they'd better do the walker thing full-scale (although I'm sure it'll be with a static replica).
     
  2. Lonemagpie

    Lonemagpie Writer Admiral

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    They made a full-size tauntaun, going by the pics they posted on Facebook...
     
  3. Savage Dragon

    Savage Dragon Not really all that savage Moderator

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    Looking forward to this one!
     
  4. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Hold on... apparently the Star Wars special is the season premiere. So should we begin a new thread for the new season?
     
  5. Savage Dragon

    Savage Dragon Not really all that savage Moderator

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    Well, this one isn't exactly filling up. Maybe we could just get a mod to change the thread title to make it the ongoing discussion thread?
     
  6. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Not sure if we're going to continue with this thread or start a new one.

    Very good episode and looks like a fun season ahead.

    Not much to say, really, on everything that happened. The jumping the chasm "myth" wasn't too surprising. It seemed "possible" but as they tested it out to be just very difficult.

    The AT-ST test was interesting. Surprising on how heavy the two logs they picked were (and, yeah, it's hard to believe the Ewoks would've been able to rig that up but maybe they have some advanced rope/crane/pulley technology we didn't see?) and considering the mass of those two logs that they went with a wooden structure for the test. I'm also surprised how much damage the logs actually did to the armored truck!

    The tauntaun test was also interesting but, also, didn't bring too surprising of results. Of course the question could also be how Han survived in the cold without the warmth of an animal while he built the shelter. IIRC he was no more heavily dressed than Luke was so he would've lost heat just as fast (if not faster) which would have really impacted his ability to build the shelter.

    And maybe it's me but I never took it he was going to build a snow shelter but had something on-hand with his survival gear that'd make him a shelter rather quickly.

    Surprising how many hurdles they had in testing that myth and that they still had the Titanic rig to test the heat-loss with.
     
  7. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Assuming we're still using this thread, here's my post on the season-premiere Star Wars special. I like it how they did one myth from each of the three movies. (The three that count, anyway.)

    Chasm swing: Interesting. It seems such a simple stunt in principle, but the specifics are a lot harder to get right than you'd think. Who knew it was that hard to throw a grappling hook around a pipe? And the problem with having the line attached to the belt never occurred to me. (Although a good point was raised in the Twitter commentary superimposed over the episode: Namely, that Luke probably weighed a lot less than Jamie, so the strain might not have been as great. They should've gotten people of the right weight to do the swing, like maybe Grant subbing for Luke.)

    I was surprised that they had their "guest Leia" just hang on to Jamie and the rope rather than being in her own safety harness. Although it seemed to work just fine. I've never heard of the actress they used -- Sophia Bush, was it? -- but she's really pretty.

    Adam did something that bewilders me, something that Americans seem to do a lot: pronouncing "cosplay" like "cozplay." Which is bizarre, since it's short for "costume play," and nobody says "coztume." The original Japanese word is kosupure, which is the closest Japanese approximation of "cos(tume) play" and is definitely pronounced with an S sound rather than a Z sound. So I have no idea where people are getting the notion that it should be pronounced as though it had something to do with Bill Cosby.


    Ewok log trap: They raised a lot of good points about the logistical unlikelihood of this one -- how could the Ewoks have gotten the logs into position and been sure they'd get a target at the right height and location? But the result was startlingly effective. The second smash-up they did with Buster as the pilot looked very much like the movie scene, except for the explosion.

    It's also a bit surprising that they got someone to give them an armored truck to wreck.

    Speaking of cosplay, I'm disappointed that Kari wouldn't go along with the Slave Leia idea, but she looked pretty nice in that R2-D2 dress.


    Tauntaun shelter: I was wondering how they'd do this one, and honestly I'm a bit surprised they didn't use a pig carcass or something. Although really they would've needed the carcass of a fair-sized horse at the very least. And Jamie made a good point that they needed an analog for an Arctic animal, and I doubt they could've gotten their hands on a polar bear carcass. I'm quite relieved that they constructed an artificial analog. It was clever how they did so, although it didn't work as well as they intended. I'm surprised there wasn't some other ready-made substance they could use for the intestines, like maybe sausage casings.

    It's also impressive how well the "tauntaun" worked as an insulator, but I suppose it makes sense. The animal's body would be designed to retain heat, after all. What surprised me was that they interpreted Han's "shelter" as an ice cave. I always took the line to mean that he had some kind of collapsible tent with him.

    Remember, they said Luke had already lost 3-4 degrees and was mildly hypothermic when Han found him. And he was unconscious and immobile. Han's activity building the shelter would've helped keep his body temperature up.


    The preview for the upcoming season looks really interesting. Some things there I can't wait to see. It looks like they're even recreating their classic cement-mixer explosion, perhaps in order to get some proper high-speed footage this time.
     
  8. Marc

    Marc Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    Han hadn't been out in the snow as long as Luke, hadn't suffered the exposure, hadn't lost a fight with a wampa and he was engaged in physical activity that would help him keep warm.
     
  9. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    I thought she also looked nice in the forest Leia camo.

    I've heard it pronounced both ways. I say it with the "s" sound but the "z" sound doesn't surprise me. It's probably systemic of general English-speaking laziness of slurring words and sounds into new ones. Might also be a regional accent thing.

    I liked her too as I was also surprised that she wasn't in a rig or something to, especially considering what happed to mannequin-Leia during the tests. ;)

    They probably simply bought an old/decommissioned one like most of the vehicles they wreck. It may have been damaged, to old or obsolete to be viable for use. That or they just simply bought one and wrecked like they do with classic cars people sell from their driveways. ;)

    Oh, I know they gave "Luke" the head-start. But I don't think I've ever heard/been told that "staying active" stays off hypothermia at some point your body can't create heat faster than it's losing it. I would think being in arctic temperatures of 30 or 40 below zero Celsius it doesn't matter how active and healthy you are your body can only make so much heat so fast. At even starting to get cold is going to have an impact on finer motor skills and concentration.

    I was disappointed as well Kari didn't get into the Slave Leia dress but that's probably asking too much. ;) Hope to see another "Star Wars" episode done down the road plenty of other good scenes for them to test and recreate! Also, of note, this is the first movie/TV-based show in a while to use actual footage from the source material rather than recreating it with animations or re-enacting it with the cast.

    Sausage casing would have been even more difficult to work with. They're not greatly resilient to stress and abuse and you have to be very delicate with them in even the best of conditions.

    Christopher, I think we can just keep this thread given that it's not very big. PM one of the TV/Media mods and have them change the title to just "Mythbusters Discussion" or something to get rid of the "10th Anniversary Season" part.
     
    Last edited: Jan 5, 2014
  10. Marc

    Marc Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    True but staying active can help delay things.

    I was out in -30C yesterday morning and can tell you that it's worse just being then when you're moving about.
     
  11. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    It depends on whether they can get the rights from the film owners, I guess. Given that Adam, Grant, and Tory used to work for ILM, and given that the producers were presumably willing to shell out more money for this special, I'm not surprised they got the rights.

    On some of the episodes on Netflix, the clip rights have apparently lapsed, since the clips are edited out. For instance, the "Black Powder Shark" myth based on the movie Deep Blue Sea no longer has the movie clips included in the streaming episode, which is a bit confusing if you're seeing it for the first time, since it means they jump right into the preparation without explaining what it is exactly that they're testing. It's too bad the producers didn't plan for the contingency of losing the clip rights and make alternate animation segments to accompany the same narration.

    Although they went well beyond licensing a few clips here. They would've had to pay for the right to use trademarked logos, costume and creature designs, and characters like R2 and Chewie, plus they licensed the John Williams theme for the opening.
     
  12. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    I wonder if that's a Netflix exclusive problem, given the oddities with them and the instant streaming service when it comes to some other series, and not with the DVDs?
     
  13. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    It could be the case with the DVDs too, depending on what rights were negotiated. Many shows have DVD-release problems due to music clearance; either they have to replace the original licensed songs with substitutes (like in one of the early VHS releases of Trek's "The City on the Edge of Forever" where all the uses of "Goodnight, Sweetheart" were replaced), or the shows have to be severely edited or just not released at all. This is why WKRP in Cincinnati isn't on DVD -- because the music clearance rights are a mess. Nobody at the time knew they'd need to negotiate for future home-video clearances.
     
  14. Forbin

    Forbin Admiral Admiral

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    I'm gonna bet that Sophia was in a harness for the chasm swing. Look closely and she seems very relaxed, isn't holding onto Jamie very hard, and doesn't separate very far from him when they land.

    If nothing else, the insurance people would have had a fit.
     
  15. davejames

    davejames Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Adam actually mentioned in the online Aftershow that one big reason they waited so long to do SW was being able to afford the clips.

    And yeah, it definitely looked like Sophia Bush was hooked up to a harness in the final swing. You could see where the front of her costume was pulled upward on her right once they landed. Granted, by that point they had already shown that Jaime could carry the weight across, but it still would have been nice if they had actually acknowledged the harness.
     
  16. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    And then he laughed. He was joking, I doubt the cost of those clips for the movies would have cost "that" much, really. Especially given they were pretty short, minor, clips for 30-year-old movies that pretty much everyone has seen. ;)

    Adam then goes on to say that since the earlier seasons of the show they've grown to testing more fictional things/ "myths." And, really, it's probably taken "that long" for them to really build the "rep" to be able to do this to make it an event episode. Had they done this in the earlier seasons it wouldn't have been quite as big of a deal.
     
  17. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    I think it was the kind of joke that was based in the truth. No, it didn't literally take them ten years to save up enough money to afford the clips, but that was a facetious way of saying that, yes, the clips were expensive. Thirty years old or not, they're Star Wars movies -- and they're Disney property now. So of course the clips are expensive to license.

    I was interested by Adam's discussion of Han shooting first. I've always been bothered by the pride people take in the idea of Han shooting first, as if there were something admirable about killing in cold blood. But Adam's explanation completely turned that around: Han shooting first is important not because it's heroic, but precisely because it isn't, because it establishes his moral failings at the start of the saga so that his growth into a hero over the course of the story is more meaningful. So it finally makes sense to me.

    (Well, that and the fact that the altered sequence is very awkwardly executed and requires Greedo to miss at point-blank range. I've always understood that part of the dislike.)
     
  18. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Well, that's one of the arguments for "Han Shoots First" I've heard over the years but the bigger one, the one I usually go with, is just that Han is a ruthless smuggler sitting three-feet away from a bounty hunter who has just said he's after Han's head. Why WOULDN'T Han shoot first? The change also is problematic for several other reasons for me:

    1. The "idea" of the Special Editions was for Lucas to go back and add or fix things he wanted but couldn't do back in the 70s/80s. Things like other creatures, more extras/troopers, making planets look more alien or otherworldly, removing matte lines and the like. So what in 1977 prevented Lucas from being able to film Greedo shooting first and Han dodging the shot?

    2. It makes Greedo look like the galaxy's worst shot considering he missed a man sitting three-feet away from him (point-blank range) with a LASER!

    3. Han DODGES a laser. Say what you want about the EU suggesting Han has a degree of force-sensitivity that gives him what he calls "luck" that's a pretty damn hard stunt to pull off. A laser (and even if we assume it's literally not light but a particle of some sort it's still going be traveling at very close to the speed of light like electrons do) is going to get from Greedo's gun to Han's head in like a couple of femtoseconds.

    The change was just pure dumb. The "arc" of Han's character is a good argument if you don't want to completely buy into Han being a ruthless killer unless there's a "means to an end" for him to be so. But that doesn't change the "fact" of what's going on in this universe. Han IS a scoundrel and he'd hardly be a ruthless killer for taking down a man with a gun who's sitting three feet away from him who has JUST SAID he's going to kill him.

    Ugh... Breathe.... Breathe.... "You're not even *that* big of a Star Wars fan."... Breathe... Breathe... Relax, think of Kari in the Endor Camo.... Relax....

    Sigh.

    Better.
     
  19. Forbin

    Forbin Admiral Admiral

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    Lucasfilm and Disney are the two mist litigious film companies out there. Lucas regularly issued C&Ds to garage kit manufacturers I know who dared to make unlicensed short-run resin amateur model kits, and Disney once sued a daycare for painting Disney characters on a playground wall.

    As for Han shooting first - holy poop, he'd have been the stupidest guy in the galaxy NOT to! Greedo's last line CLEARLY indicated he was about to shoot Han! Somebody's holding a gun in your face and says something that indicates he's about to shoot you, you do NOT wait for him to shoot first! You shoot the fucker, or you fucking DIE! It counts as self-defense, believe me!
     
  20. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Indeed, Han shooting Greddo would not have been in "cold blood" it'd be self defense considering Greddo literally JUST SAID he was going to kill Han.