The brain is a pliable device. I think she has trained herself to crank up the gain on her ear by thought alone, just the same way Steve can zoom his eye. Pulling her hair back is a visual cue for the audience, something she hated doing after a while, because she felt the audience who had followed the show didn't need it anymore. But both shows did rely on the familiarity of trademark visual and aural riffs for their appeal.
MeTV's SuperSci-Fi Saturday Night
- Thread starter JD
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^Yes, obviously its real-life purpose is as a visual cue. But I was trying to think of how the ear might be activated, and it occurred to me that said visual cue could be repurposed to serve an actual in-story function.
The thing is, although it's a given that Rudy Wells was decades ahead of the state of the art of bionics, it's a little hard to believe that, working in the 1970s, he could've devised such a sophisticated brain-bionic interface that the implant would be able to respond to volition alone rather than some physiological trigger. With Steve's eye, the magnification isn't entirely dissimilar to what the eye does naturally when shifting focus; perhaps the bionic eye automatically zooms when it detects that it's being focused on something at a distance (although I confess I'm not sure how a single bionic eye could have that kind of depth perception). Or maybe if he squints in a certain way, it activates a pressure sensor. And the infrared vision could be activated by the same nerves that cause the pupils to dilate in dim light, say. So I can buy that there's a physiological trigger to those functions because they're analogous to things the human eye can already do, things it has nerves and muscles to control.
But there's nothing intrinsic to human hearing that would have the capacity to turn up the gain. "By thought alone" doesn't really work, because even our brains wouldn't be wired with a "turn up the volume" trigger, because that's not something we can do at all.
Although I suppose it is possible that it could be like the more recent experiments into controlling devices through brain telemetry -- the devices don't actually read your thoughts, but you can train yourself to concentrate on a particular thought and create a state of brain activity that the device is programmed to recognize as a trigger. So yes, I suppose it's possible that she could've been trained to adjust its gain through some kind of neural feedback, but the idea that there was a proximity trigger in the bionic hand is an interesting possibility as well.
And yes, I'm well aware that the bionics couldn't really have worked as shown. Steve and Jaime would've needed heavily reinforced spines and hips to be able to achieve the feats of strength shown, and half the time their left arms would've been totally incapable to provide the bracing or leverage they were shown using them for. Not to mention, when they're running at 60 MPH, how could they be pumping both arms superfast to keep pace with the legs? So, sure, there's a ton that doesn't really work, but it's fun to speculate about how it could work.
The thing is, although it's a given that Rudy Wells was decades ahead of the state of the art of bionics, it's a little hard to believe that, working in the 1970s, he could've devised such a sophisticated brain-bionic interface that the implant would be able to respond to volition alone rather than some physiological trigger. With Steve's eye, the magnification isn't entirely dissimilar to what the eye does naturally when shifting focus; perhaps the bionic eye automatically zooms when it detects that it's being focused on something at a distance (although I confess I'm not sure how a single bionic eye could have that kind of depth perception). Or maybe if he squints in a certain way, it activates a pressure sensor. And the infrared vision could be activated by the same nerves that cause the pupils to dilate in dim light, say. So I can buy that there's a physiological trigger to those functions because they're analogous to things the human eye can already do, things it has nerves and muscles to control.
But there's nothing intrinsic to human hearing that would have the capacity to turn up the gain. "By thought alone" doesn't really work, because even our brains wouldn't be wired with a "turn up the volume" trigger, because that's not something we can do at all.
Although I suppose it is possible that it could be like the more recent experiments into controlling devices through brain telemetry -- the devices don't actually read your thoughts, but you can train yourself to concentrate on a particular thought and create a state of brain activity that the device is programmed to recognize as a trigger. So yes, I suppose it's possible that she could've been trained to adjust its gain through some kind of neural feedback, but the idea that there was a proximity trigger in the bionic hand is an interesting possibility as well.
And yes, I'm well aware that the bionics couldn't really have worked as shown. Steve and Jaime would've needed heavily reinforced spines and hips to be able to achieve the feats of strength shown, and half the time their left arms would've been totally incapable to provide the bracing or leverage they were shown using them for. Not to mention, when they're running at 60 MPH, how could they be pumping both arms superfast to keep pace with the legs? So, sure, there's a ton that doesn't really work, but it's fun to speculate about how it could work.
That debut episode is all I have from either show (and still on VHS). I'll have go watch that scene again.
Seems to me that she'd want her hair out of the way. Amplified hair rustling could mess up whatever she was trying to hear.
Seems to me that she'd want her hair out of the way. Amplified hair rustling could mess up whatever she was trying to hear.
Good point!
I know Kyle Clark! We were childhood buddies, living in the same apartment complex from 1972 to '75. He's actually the person who got me to watch Star Trek (I was in Irwin Allen material until I met Kyle).
Sincerely,
Bill
As to horror hosts, in Las Vegas we had The Vegas Vampire (wikipedia link). Because Vegas was a resort town, nationally known celebrities would sometimes appear on the show while performing in Vegas, including Red Buttons and Frank Sinatra, Jr. (link to a 1970 clip featuring him) and up and comers like Fred Willard and Louise Lasser, as seen in this the first segment of this clip.
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Does anyone remember the show Exposure on Sci-Fi? It had Lisa Marie as the host and Terry Farrell did a guest spot on a best of. They would dress up in various sexy sci-fi outfits but I think maybe 50 people ever saw it. 
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^^ Never heard of that one. Or the Vegas Vampire, either.
Depends on what X-ray vision really is. If he just has eyes that are sensitive to the X-ray part of the spectrum, he wouldn't see much unless there was a powerful source of X-rays behind her, in which case he'd mostly see her bones. If his eyes radiate X-rays, he wouldn't see anything at all unusual (but he might give her cancer). The power is usually depicted as the ability to make things selectively invisible, but only from his own perspective, which is pretty hard to come up with a reasonable explanation for, even using comic-book pseudo science.
This week's Superman episodes:
"Rescue" was pretty silly. Set up a minor crisis that Superman could resolve in ninety seconds, then spend the whole episode contriving to keep Clark from finding out about it. Sure, the radio series did that from time to time, but this built the whole story around doing it over and over again. Really kind of lame. Although I do like Lois's fearlessness in risking herself for the trapped miner, even though it was quite obvious that she'd end up trapped along with him.
"The Secret of Superman" started out more promisingly, with the bad guy investigating Superman's identity. And I like that Lois was better able to resist the hypnotic drug than anyone else because she's just that strong-willed. But it kind of fizzled at the end there. Superman punched the bad guy, yet he was still able to run out and get into a shootout with the police? That makes no sense.
"Rescue" was pretty silly. Set up a minor crisis that Superman could resolve in ninety seconds, then spend the whole episode contriving to keep Clark from finding out about it. Sure, the radio series did that from time to time, but this built the whole story around doing it over and over again. Really kind of lame. Although I do like Lois's fearlessness in risking herself for the trapped miner, even though it was quite obvious that she'd end up trapped along with him.
"The Secret of Superman" started out more promisingly, with the bad guy investigating Superman's identity. And I like that Lois was better able to resist the hypnotic drug than anyone else because she's just that strong-willed. But it kind of fizzled at the end there. Superman punched the bad guy, yet he was still able to run out and get into a shootout with the police? That makes no sense.
I only caught part of the episode, but Lois going into the mine crossed the line between "spunky" and "stupid". Professional miners are doing what needs to be done to try to get to the man...they know that it's suicide to just go into the shaft and have told her so...and she does it anyway. Luckily, she happens to know Superman.
You just summed up Lois Lane's entire character. On the one hand, admirably brave; on the other hand, reckless enough to constantly need Superman to get her out of trouble.
In Elliott S! Maggin's brilliant novel Superman: Last Son of Krypton, there's a scene where Lois is on a talk show debating someone who argues that Superman is bad for humanity. He suggests that Lois has become complacent about going into danger because she knows Superman will save her -- as part of a larger point that humanity has also stopped trying to solve its problems because we just rely on Superman to take care of us.
Yeah, my mom and I both laughing at a lot of Rescue. First at Lois going into the mine even though all of the miners told her not to. Then at all of the different ways they kept Clark from hearing about Lois being trapped in the mine. I just realized this whole episode could have been avoided if people had just done what the were told. First if Pops had stayed out of the mine like the inspector told him to, then there would have been no cave in and then if Lois had stayed out she wouldn't have gotten herself trapped in there with him.
I didn't get to see these (and the first episode is always pre-empted by Community Auditions anyway), but this is the fun of shows like this for me.
Anyway, 90% of what happens in the real world is the result of people being stupid and not taking good advice.
Anyway, 90% of what happens in the real world is the result of people being stupid and not taking good advice.
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Anyway, 90% of what happens in the real world is the result of people being stupid and not taking good advice.
When I broke my arm a few years back, by tripping over our dog while foolishly playing with her on concrete, I was all embarrassed and apologetic when explaining to the doctor about my "stupid" accident.
He assured me that he saw very few broken bones that resulted from people behaving in a safe and sensible manner . . .
I'm sure "Be careful" is the most given and least heeded advice in the world.
^ I only know her from Match Game reruns but I think you're right.
