Wow, I remembered something correctly!
Gene Coon and Spock’s Brain
- Thread starter EnriqueH
- Start date
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My point was that Y1 wasn’t all that consistent with time either. People also rag on how Alan’s helmet visor flipped open on the moons surface in Space Warp when the same thing happened to Steiner in the first few minutes of Breakaway.
I don’t mind if people point out the weaknesses in Y2 but recognize there were plenty of them in Y1 a well.
Oh, I didn’t say DoD was a mistake. Dragons Domain was. That was the penultimate episode of the year and WELL after DoD, Black Sun and ATAP.It's more jarring because Bringers part one states it is 1912 days since Breakaway but part two says it is 2515! Well that is a clear error unless the Bringers were on Alpha for nearly two years anyway?
The Death's Other Dominion mistake isn't really one as the moon went through a space/time warp in Another Time, Another Place and that was episode six in production order where as DOD was fourteenth I believe! The Black Sun also took them to the other side of the universe as well in the third produced episode! It depends on which order you watch them plus who's to stay that Tanner's ship didn't hit the same time warp as the moon but earlier and found itself hurled back in time some nine hundred years but their computer counted time as on from their initial launching? It all goes with the idea that ITVs original viewing order wasn't very good and the production order makes much more sense just like with Star Trek!
JB
My point was that Y1 wasn’t all that consistent with time either. People also rag on how Alan’s helmet visor flipped open on the moons surface in Space Warp when the same thing happened to Steiner in the first few minutes of Breakaway.
I don’t mind if people point out the weaknesses in Y2 but recognize there were plenty of them in Y1 a well.
What always strikes me odd about this story is why would Armen be in a screening of an episode at the point where Freddy was getting to know the show? That suggests they were screening episodes for potential writers, but wouldn’t Fred have to know the show first?
it smells of a conflated memory.
It's hardly a mistake just acknowledging that the time passing on Alpha might not be the same as elsewhere. If the moon is travelling fast then it might only be 800 days on Alpha, yet centuries into the future.
Problem is that, obviously, when the Moon enters a solar system it must slow down, as they're around for days not hours, and the Eagles have enough delta-very to make a landing (an argument for the Eagles being fitted with the gravity device Bergmann creates in Black Sun, to allow them to decelerate more than is realistic, and to create a forcefield heat shield for them).
I have read that scientists do or did believe that star systems are much closer together in other parts of the universe! Although we never got to see a detailed listing of the passing of time in the first series and the moon reaching those distant regions of space was detailed in two episodes but the channels seemed to ignore the science in favour of the ratings so if anyone is to blame it's the TV stations!
JB
This thread took some interesting turns since I last looked in! 
My particular point was that in one episode they are hundreds of years in to the futire of 1999 and weeks later (production tie) they are just a handful of years. Their own internal timeline was screwed up. They weren't logging stardates or anything, the alphans were apparantly going by Earth time as best they could, checking off a calendar. Obviously, they really don't know how many years have passed since they've been through a number of time altering events. But in year two, it's firmly establsihed on Earth is is 2120.
All TV science fiction practices generous amounts of dramatic license in order to actually get made. People speak English on alien planets, most planets support humanoid life, the protagonists are able to get from planet to planet within days or weeks, there is abundant food, clothing is all in pervcet shape, everyone has haircuts, there's sound in space, gravity is not a problem, etc. You can't really pick apart the science on one show and let it go in another when the grat majority of SF programs bend or ignore those rules to make entertaining television. It's not COSMOS, it's Star Trek, Space:1999, Lost in Space, The Invaders, V, BSG, and so on. Where things get dodgy is when a show violates its own internal rules. A a lot of shows have done that.
You forgot to add in Doctor Who and UFO into that mix there, ssosmcin!
JB
JB
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The thing is that every time the moon passes through a Space Warp or Black Sun time is affected according to Professor Bergman! So yes the first series could be set in the year 2870AD for all we know or the that is the year for the Uranus Probe survivors and in the early episodes of series two the year is confirmed on earth for 2120AD but what about after they pass through another shift in space in the episode Space Warp where they move five light years in a matter of seconds, how has the time on earth passed for them now? Enough for that Galactic Eclipse to be happening and more contact with earth?
JB
I watched Spock's brain just recently. I had mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it was absolutely absurd on several key plot points, on the other hand, I never got bored.
Even when TOS goes off the rails it’s never boring.
I was bored during The Alternative Factor, and I didn't think that episode was off the rails. I was also bored during The Tholian Web, but that might have been because I was very sleepy at the time. I'll actually rewatch it again tomorrow.
But 1 or 2 boring times in 79 long episodes is a fantastic accomplishment.
I am reading my digital copy of starlog#39
It has a interview with freberger no where is gene coon is mentioned but Roddenberry.Fontana.gerold
Are.shows how he is underrated
here is a quote.
St:
what do you feel are your failures on star trek?
Ff;
The cloud minders was close not Davids fault.
We could never work the script properly.
The way to eden.That which survives and spocks
Brain.
It has a interview with freberger no where is gene coon is mentioned but Roddenberry.Fontana.gerold
Are.shows how he is underrated
here is a quote.
St:
what do you feel are your failures on star trek?
Ff;
The cloud minders was close not Davids fault.
We could never work the script properly.
The way to eden.That which survives and spocks
Brain.
Apart from three episodes and one of them in particular (?) these shows were part of our growing up and we accepted them without issue, nowadays we pull them to pieces and analyse them down to their individual acts! Well if that's what it is to be a fan...I still love the show and it's episodes!
JB
JB
FF thought the script in TCM was a failure? I think it's very good. I know, I know, everyone hates the Spock-Droxine interaction, but even if you insist on setting that aside, the script was nice.
I'm surprised too. I thought The Cloud Minders was one of the better ones. Also, I enjoyed The Way to Eden because the music was great and the story was plenty good.
I barely remember That Which Survives. Skimming Memory Alpha, I can remember the major plot points, but I can't for the life of me remember if I was having fun when I watched it.
I barely remember That Which Survives. Skimming Memory Alpha, I can remember the major plot points, but I can't for the life of me remember if I was having fun when I watched it.
I agree
What's funny about the FF interview in Starlog is the manner and terms he uses to discuss race issues in Star Trek. Of course this interview was 40 years ago, and he was an old man back then. So of course his culture's framework of acceptable wording would be different. Still, among other things it's funny how he viewed Spock racially.
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