Joking aside, someone did the math and you are right, the moon would be pulverized. I have to find that article...
Space 1999!!!
- Thread starter LaxScrutiny
- Start date
You know, the original sin of Space 1999 (well, from a science fiction point of view) is that it wanted to use an absolutely prosaic phenomenon (a nuclear explosion) as the starting point of the series and to explain why the moon wanders around in the universe. Something that from a scientific point of view makes absolutely no sense. If instead they had unleashed their imagination and said that the explosion had created a portal or a wormhole or whatever word was fashionable in the 70s and the moon had ended up inside, no one would have objected.
Instead they somehow wanted to adhere to some crumb of scientific realism which made them become effectively anti-scientific.
Instead they somehow wanted to adhere to some crumb of scientific realism which made them become effectively anti-scientific.
^ That's how I always reconciled it in my head, that there was something more going on, and there's enough hints through season one that their journey is being guided by some higher power or something. Granted it's some heavy lifting on my end but good enough for me to just take it semi-face value.
I would have been happy with just one line in the pilot, such as "But that's not possible! It can't just be the explosion that knocked the moon out of orbit! There must be something else!". Instead they all act as if the thing is in the realm of possibility.
The Andersons said otherwise, but I'm very sure there was absolutely no scientific advisor for the series.
The absurd thing is that sometimes Buck Rogers, a series with no pretensions to realism, was more scientifically accurate than Space 1999!
On one of the Gerry Anderson YouTube videos, there's one about how UFO 2, later UFO 1999, then Space: 1999 delt with the issue of the Moon leaving Earth's orbit.
The aliens would have used a weapon/device that would have negated the Moon's gravity and sent it hurtling out of the solar system.
While less scientifically accurate than a nuclear explosion, at least it could be kinda sorta handwaved away by saying that the alien technology was far in advance of humans and they found a way to cancel gravity.
The aliens would have used a weapon/device that would have negated the Moon's gravity and sent it hurtling out of the solar system.
While less scientifically accurate than a nuclear explosion, at least it could be kinda sorta handwaved away by saying that the alien technology was far in advance of humans and they found a way to cancel gravity.
think the "massive nuclear explosion" was a bit much for Big Finish when they launched the re-imagined audio range.
I can forgive a lot of things in Space 1999, but one thing i cannot is that they predicted flares would be back in 1999, and they were not, and i spent a lot of money through the 80s buying a lifetime supply, and do you know how difficult it is to wear white flared trousers around Glasgow and not be verbally assulted? Lol
It is just lucky that i can run away quite fast in 70s white platformed shoes.
It is just lucky that i can run away quite fast in 70s white platformed shoes.
It occurred to me that the hanger space under Moonbase Alpha must be absolutely massive if each Eagle launch pad is connected to it in some way via underground transport tubes branching out from a central hub. No wonder they never seem to run out of Eagles.
You are correct on that. Even as a young child I knew the science was wrong--as well as the travel times between planets. In the hopes of a reboot of the series, I believe that the series could really work today if it cleverly combined a mixture of science and magic--which seems to be more acceptable these days.
As a kid I thought it would have made more sense if some sort of warp drive effect was being tested on the moon, and that could have explained why the moon could encounter multiple planets.
Something like that had was posted in earlier Space:1999 thread in here though it was it was testing of a wormhole drive.
The Alphans weren't able to shut it down - they'd have a a period of time before it randomly kicked off and zapped them elsewhere.
Though both concepts would still need a deus ex machina for they why don't collide with another celestial body on their travels.
It's exactly what happened in the Big Finish audiobooks reboot
