In the film version of 2010, Discovery 2 is only mentioned once, towards the beginning of the film, when Floyd says that Curnow is building it.
As for the return to Earth, Chandra says that HAL "will rendezvous with the new space station".
2001: A Space Odyssey
- Thread starter Sentience
- Start date
In the film version of 2010, Discovery 2 is only mentioned once, towards the beginning of the film, when Floyd says that Curnow is building it.
As for the return to Earth, Chandra says that HAL "will rendezvous with the new space station".
I just did a quick skim of the novel. There's a good deal less urgency to the final escape sequences, with the fact that everything will take so damn long providing the impetus to leave ASAP, so that while they can be on their way well before Jupiter goes up, they won't be far enough away. The original plan was to send Discovery back to Earth uncrewed on a three-year trajectory, while Leonov and the people inside were able to take a more expensive orbit that would get them home in less than a year. After the booster plan was thought up, Discovery would be left in a wide, but stable, orbit of Jupiter. Floyd raises the possibility of another rendezvous from a hypothetical future expedition that could bring along additional fuel to recover Discovery, but he doesn't mention Discovery 2 by name, or indicate that the mission he's talking about is anything other than an idea.
Also, the crew doesn't know Discovery is going to be lost. In the book, they spend some time in contact with the ship after they leave, and it's an unpleasant surprise when Jupiter finally ignites and they find out it wasn't far enough away.
I guess they just didn't have much imagination in those days. I mean, hell, they went all the way up to Apollo 17 without thinking of a different name.
Given the namesake, I remember being disappointed in the design of Discovery 2. Everything went from pristine and white in 2001 to suddenly gritty and crude in 2010, and felt like a step down. I was 12 at the time, so I'm sure there was a story reason I missed to explain it.
^The ship in 2010 was Soviet-built, the Leonov. Though the decision for the American characters to bring contemporary space-shuttle spacesuits instead of something styled more like the ones that were seen in the first movie is, well, a decision.
We never saw the Discovery 2. I was always a bit curious what it would like, though most of what I thought was "Discovery, but with the forward sphere elongated into a capsule or sausage shape, so as to carry a larger crew."
We never saw the Discovery 2. I was always a bit curious what it would like, though most of what I thought was "Discovery, but with the forward sphere elongated into a capsule or sausage shape, so as to carry a larger crew."
At least with Apollo, each command module and each LM had their own distinctive name for each mission. Apollo was the program name.
I always assumed it was a replica, built from the same plans, especially since construction of the two would have overlapped to some extent because of the mission profiles.
It's been years since I've read '2010', but was there a reason why they waited nine years to send a crew up to Discovery?
It was only after Heywood and the others discovered that Discovery's orbit was decaying that they hitched a ride with the Soviets; and that was because Discovery 2 wasn't completed yet.
Was construction on Discovery 2 paused while they tried to figure out what went wrong with H.A.L. and how best to proceed with the mission?
It was only after Heywood and the others discovered that Discovery's orbit was decaying that they hitched a ride with the Soviets; and that was because Discovery 2 wasn't completed yet.
Was construction on Discovery 2 paused while they tried to figure out what went wrong with H.A.L. and how best to proceed with the mission?
That last hyphenated term ironically was unknown to Kubrick until R. Lee Ermey explained it to him.
It's interesting how space suit technology seems to have regressed in between the first and second films. Instead of the sleek, efficient environment suits from 2001, now both Soviet AND American crewmembers are wearing bulky monstrosities not too far removed from RL suits...
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Well, they say every decade gets the movies it deserves...2001 and 2010 are perfect examples of that.
I plan to to watch the movie this Sunday, February 13 as I try to do each year. I occasionally let that goal slip, but since it does fall upon a Sunday, it holds a bit more personal significance. Why?
Well, 45 years ago, on Sunday, February 13, 1977, NBC aired "2001", I think for the first time on national broadcast television. If one of the networks did so earlier, I was not aware of it. Certainly, it was my first opportunity to see it. I do remember it was re-released in theaters maybe 1 or 2 years earlier and I earnestly wanted to see it, but I could not convince my father to take me. So, this was my first viable chance to see it. Having been introduced to reruns of Star trek in 1972 by a newly acquired friend, I learned of other notable productions. Magazines and retrospective books about science fiction almost always mentioned "2001" with near religious reverence. So I had to see what was so special about this movie.
Finally, the big day arrived. I woke early Sunday morning and to kill a bit of time before breakfast, I turned on a portable radio (shaped like a 2 door coupe type car, a literal car radio). I distinctly remember "Dancing Queen" by ABBA playing. Then I heard something odd, labored breathing. It came from my father's bedroom. I had witnessed this twice before when we still lived a townhouse apartment a couple of years earlier. My father was having some sort of "episode". This was far worse than the previous times and the second time resulted in a trip to the ER. I couldn't "snap" him out of it by rolling him on his side as I managed the first time, so I raced to the next house to get help. 911 was not yet a thing and being just a naive kid of 14, I didn't consider calling the operator to get an ambulance. My neighbors did, but by the time medics arrived, it was too late. After several failed attempts at resuscitation, they declared my father dead.
I called my closest family who lived some 6 hours drive distant of the news and my father's older sister along with her husband drove to Birmingham to deal with final affairs. In a state of shock and disbelief, I tried shutting out the world that evening by watching the movie. I did not get to see the whole thing because my aunt had countless questions about wills, legal documents and other things about which I had no real knowledge.
I finally got the opportunity to see "2001" in its entirety (and free from commercial interruptions) a few years later when HBO aired it around 1980, maybe '81. I believe it was presented as "pan and scan" because I don't recall the black bars above and below indicative of the "letterbox" format. That would be years later.
Anyway, to make a verbose diatribe short, I try to watch the movie on the anniversary of my father's passing. Since it will fall upon a Sunday this year, I really want to make the effort barring some truly soul crushing catastrophe.
Well, 45 years ago, on Sunday, February 13, 1977, NBC aired "2001", I think for the first time on national broadcast television. If one of the networks did so earlier, I was not aware of it. Certainly, it was my first opportunity to see it. I do remember it was re-released in theaters maybe 1 or 2 years earlier and I earnestly wanted to see it, but I could not convince my father to take me. So, this was my first viable chance to see it. Having been introduced to reruns of Star trek in 1972 by a newly acquired friend, I learned of other notable productions. Magazines and retrospective books about science fiction almost always mentioned "2001" with near religious reverence. So I had to see what was so special about this movie.
Finally, the big day arrived. I woke early Sunday morning and to kill a bit of time before breakfast, I turned on a portable radio (shaped like a 2 door coupe type car, a literal car radio). I distinctly remember "Dancing Queen" by ABBA playing. Then I heard something odd, labored breathing. It came from my father's bedroom. I had witnessed this twice before when we still lived a townhouse apartment a couple of years earlier. My father was having some sort of "episode". This was far worse than the previous times and the second time resulted in a trip to the ER. I couldn't "snap" him out of it by rolling him on his side as I managed the first time, so I raced to the next house to get help. 911 was not yet a thing and being just a naive kid of 14, I didn't consider calling the operator to get an ambulance. My neighbors did, but by the time medics arrived, it was too late. After several failed attempts at resuscitation, they declared my father dead.
I called my closest family who lived some 6 hours drive distant of the news and my father's older sister along with her husband drove to Birmingham to deal with final affairs. In a state of shock and disbelief, I tried shutting out the world that evening by watching the movie. I did not get to see the whole thing because my aunt had countless questions about wills, legal documents and other things about which I had no real knowledge.
I finally got the opportunity to see "2001" in its entirety (and free from commercial interruptions) a few years later when HBO aired it around 1980, maybe '81. I believe it was presented as "pan and scan" because I don't recall the black bars above and below indicative of the "letterbox" format. That would be years later.
Anyway, to make a verbose diatribe short, I try to watch the movie on the anniversary of my father's passing. Since it will fall upon a Sunday this year, I really want to make the effort barring some truly soul crushing catastrophe.
@Redfern I don't remember 2001 airing on NBC, but I do remember when our local PBS station KCTS9 here in Seattle did a simulcast with 98.1 Classic KING FM sometime in the 80s. Being on PBS it aired without commercials and letterboxed. Probably the closest we could get to the experience of seeing the movie in the theater.
This movie, for me, stands as a testament to how so much context can be lost over time, in a piece of art. There's boundless shots in this film that look utterly & forgettably mundane by standards, even some 10 years later, which could be shot today by a layperson, on their phone, that were virtually impossible to even fathom, in its day, & required all the resources a sorcerer-like master craftsman of that time could muster, in order to realize them in such a magnificent fashion. Just a shot of a damn computer screen, with words on it, completely revolutionized industry standards to make that happen.
During this period of reflection about that fateful day, I decided to see what hour it started. I suspected it was 8 PM Eastern, but I wanted to be certain. To my pleasant surprise, I actually dug up some reasonably certain data. In addition to confirming the hour, the linked blog...
http://space1970.blogspot.com/2015/08/2001-space-odyssey-1968-tv-guide-ad.html
...and this TV spot...
...claim it was the first time 2001 aired on US based broadcast network television, something called "The NBC Big Event". A post within the blog notes "Gone With The Wind" aired a few months earlier under a similar promotion to great success, so NBC tried it again with Kubrick's film. Alas, it did not garner as many viewers.
