Watching Buck Rogers In The 25th Century

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I just had a thought about a possible Land of the Giants ripoff. Based on my (extremely limited) understanding, there aren't any obvious physical laws which would prevent this, unlike the aforementioned square-cube law. It sounds like a story idea so I'll put it in spoilercode.

Spoiler

Perhaps in the new version, the Spindrift crew remain on Earth, but are actually shrunk in size. So OUR world is the "land of the giants" to them.

 

[Mytran]

I just had a thought about a possible Land of the Giants ripoff. Based on my (extremely limited) understanding, there aren't any glaring physical laws which would prevent this, unlike the aforementioned square-cube law. It sounds like a story idea so I'll put it in spoilercode.

Spoiler

Perhaps in the new version, the Spindrift crew remain on Earth, but are actually shrunk in size. So OUR world is the "land of the giants" to them.

In response:

Spoiler

Would human shaped bipeds that small be feasible either?

 

[Christopher]

I did often wonder whether the Spindrift crew might actually have been miniaturized by the space warp instead of being on a planet of giants.

Would human shaped bipeds that small be feasible either?

Probably not. For one thing, they'd lose body heat way too fast with such a small surface area (this is why tiny mammals have high metabolisms). Also, their brains would probably be too small for conscious thought.

Isaac Asimov wrote a couple of Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine essays about this subject back in the '60s, talking about both Land of the Giants and Fantastic Voyage (which he novelized and made more scientifically plausible). They're both collected in his book The Solar System and Back, which is apparently available for borrowing in electronic form (scanned from an old print edition) at Archive.org: https://archive.org/details/solarsystemback00asim

 

[diankra]

Yeach, I tended to go for the "spacewarp somehow miniaturised them" option too.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I just had a thought about a possible Land of the Giants ripoff. Based on my (extremely limited) understanding, there aren't any obvious physical laws which would prevent this, unlike the aforementioned square-cube law. It sounds like a story idea so I'll put it in spoilercode.

Spoiler

Perhaps in the new version, the Spindrift crew remain on Earth, but are actually shrunk in size. So OUR world is the "land of the giants" to them.

That would be a good twist. They made their flight without hitches only to find they land in London and everything is bigger all around them. But then it's London they wouldn't be in any real danger.

 

[Christopher]

But then it's London they wouldn't be in any real danger.

At 6 inches tall? They'd be in all sorts of danger. Just ask The Incredible Shrinking Man.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

At 6 inches tall? They'd be in all sorts of danger. Just ask The Incredible Shrinking Man.

Oh for sure but I mean they still landed on Earth so radio communication could get them help while they avoid the everyday dangers around them.

Or a bunch of little girls find Valerie and Betty and decide to play dress up

 

[Skipper]

Yeach, I tended to go for the "spacewarp somehow miniaturised them" option too.

It was my impression when I was a kid too...

 

[Skipper]

By the way, if they were really miniaturised, they couldn't even breath the air (the molecules of O² would be too big to be processed by their lungs).

 

[Christopher]

By the way, if they were really miniaturised, they couldn't even breath the air (the molecules of O² would be too big to be processed by their lungs).

If it were a dimensional miniaturization, as in Asimov's Fantastic Voyage novelization or DS9: "One Little Ship," where their actual atoms and molecules are reduced in scale to everything else while remaining in normal relation to each other. Other miniaturization options would keep atoms and molecules the same size, but they bring their own problems. There's the "Terratin Incident" approach where the body's particles just get closer together, but this would have the problem of increasing a person's density to a dangerous degree -- if they were 12 times normal density, they'd probably sink into the soil or any soft material, or break through any glass table they walked on. (There's no way Chapel in "Terratin" could've floated in that fish tank.) Also, the chemical processes that sustain our cells and tissues might not work right if they were 12 times denser -- would cell membranes still be sufficiently porous to nutrients and such? Then there's the Incredible Shrinking Man approach where you just lose body mass and shrink proportionally. Past a certain point, you'd just have too few brain cells left to retain consciousness. Although this is the least likely form of miniaturization to result from passing through a space warp.

 

[Spot261]

I just had a thought about a possible Land of the Giants ripoff. Based on my (extremely limited) understanding, there aren't any obvious physical laws which would prevent this, unlike the aforementioned square-cube law. It sounds like a story idea so I'll put it in spoilercode.

Spoiler

Perhaps in the new version, the Spindrift crew remain on Earth, but are actually shrunk in size. So OUR world is the "land of the giants" to them.

In which case shouldn't

Spoiler

they all be superhumanly strong?

 

[Forbin]

If they were miniaturized and landed back on Earth, the "giants" would know exactly who they are, and wouldn't be chasing them around. And the crew would be contacting the airline for help, not trying to hide.

 

[Skipper]

If they were miniaturized and landed back on Earth, the "giants" would know exactly who they are, and wouldn't be chasing them around. And the crew would be contacting the airline for help, not trying to hide.

They time traveled to the past, too.

 

[Mysterion]

If they were miniaturized and landed back on Earth, the "giants" would know exactly who they are, and wouldn't be chasing them around. And the crew would be contacting the airline for help, not trying to hide.

I generally wouldn't trust an airline to find my luggage much less assist me if I'd been suddenly and mysteriously miniaturized.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Didn't Matt Damon do a movie where he got shrunk with a bunch of other people and they lived in small houses and had a small city inside a normal sized one?

 

[diankra]

Didn't Matt Damon do a movie where he got shrunk with a bunch of other people and they lived in small houses and had a small city inside a normal sized one?

Downsizing?

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Downsizing?

OK I thought I had imagined that. I think it was a box office flop.

 

[diankra]

OK I thought I had imagined that. I think it was a box office flop.

Mixed reviews, ISTR. Not seen it.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Mixed reviews, ISTR. Not seen it.

I just looked up trailers of this and it doesn't grab me at all. Just seems kind of meh.

 

[RandyS]

I just looked up trailers of this and it doesn't grab me at all. Just seems kind of meh.

It was.