Planet of the Apes (1968 original) question

[Navigator_NCC2120]

Yep, played by Dr. Forbin.

Yes, it was actor Eric Braeden who played Dr. Otto Hasslein in "Escape from the Planet of the Apes" released in 1971 and he played Dr. Charles Forbin in "Colossus: The Forbin Project" released in 1970./\

He also played a werewolf on Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

He also played the German World War II Soldier that would not die, Capt. Hans Dietrich, in "The Rat Patrol" tv series.




Navigator NCC-2120 USS Entente
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[MLJames]

So, where were they headed? Does it say how long they were supposed to be in cryogenics for?

They never say what the intended destination was, but when Landon asks Taylor why he's not more broken up about Stewart's death, he replies that she's been dead nearly a year. Landon then says that would mean they've been away from Earth for 18 months. "Our time," Taylor adds.

Of course, that figure adds another fly to the ointment. According to the ship's clock, they were in flight for 2006 years (1972 to 3978). Do the math on the time dilation for those figures and there's no way they would only have traveled 320 light years. To cut 2006 years down to a year and a half, they would need to be moving at 0.9999972c; that would have sent them about 5 light hours short of 2006 light years from home. It's just another one of the things about the movie that just don't quite add up.

MLJames,

You are assuming that Taylor's ship traveled near the speed of light on a linear flight path for 2,006 years. However, I don't believe it was programmed to do so. A possible explanation would be the ship was programmed to enter the star systems of some of the stars in the constellation Orion to scan for Earth type planets in a habitable zone (the "Goldilocks Zone" - not too hot and not too cold) for liquid water to exist and life as we know it to exist. The ship would have to slow down or stop to make course adjustments for each new star system destination and then accelerate to near the speed of light toward each new star system. Then once the ship finished its survey of the targeted star systems in the constellation Orion, it would select one of the Earth type planets that was in a habitable zone and land there, which according to Taylor was 320 light years away from Earth. This assumes the ship had already past the selected Earth type planet earlier in its flight and after its survey of the targeted star systems, turned around and headed back towards the selected Earth type planet.

Furthermore, Landon states they were not programmed to land in the water, yet they did, indicating a computer malfunction, possibly a computer programming error. In the 1960s Professional Computer Programmers did not type their programs on punch cards, they hand wrote their programs on blank coding sheets and the coding sheets were given to Keypunch Operators (sometimes called Data Entry Operators) who typed the programs on 80 column punch cards. This sometimes led to programs compiling into machine language successfully but executing incorrectly due to a Keypunch Operator's typing error.

Due to Taylor's ship crashing into the water and sinking Taylor did not have time to review the data to verify where they were.

Granted, but even before the opening credits roll the 320 light year distance is in trouble. When Taylor is making his last log entry/transmission before joining his crew in hibernation, he notes that they've just completed six months out of Cape Kennedy and adds that nearly 700 years have passed on Earth. That's in line with the calculations I cited in my post, and there's no way you can square that level of time dilation with a 320 light year target point. I've known that since I learned the equation for time dilation back in the '70s. It doesn't affect my enjoyment of the film in the slightest.

 

[Christopher]

^I've found that most works of mass-media fiction that address time dilation at all (and they're pretty sparse) tend to overestimate its effects greatly. In fact, I've found that to be a common misconception among the public in general. They expect time dilation to much more substantial than it is, or to think it scales linearly with speed, rather than kicking in mainly at really high velocities and increasing asymptotically (only about a factor of 2 at .9c, 3 at .95c, 7 at .99c, 22 at .999c, and so on).

But as I said, PotA was going for allegory, not accuracy.

 

[Navigator_NCC2120]

Granted, but even before the opening credits roll the 320 light year distance is in trouble. When Taylor is making his last log entry/transmission before joining his crew in hibernation, he notes that they've just completed six months out of Cape Kennedy and adds that nearly 700 years have passed on Earth. That's in line with the calculations I cited in my post, and there's no way you can square that level of time dilation with a 320 light year target point. I've known that since I learned the equation for time dilation back in the '70s. It doesn't affect my enjoyment of the film in the slightest.

MLJames,

At the opening credits the ship may be 700 light years away from Earth and it has already automatically scanned/surveyed the first or possibly second targeted star system in the constellation Orion from outer space and has not turned around yet to return to the habitable Earth type planet that is 320 light years away from Earth, to touch down there. I too enjoy this film regardless of any errors.

^I've found that most works of mass-media fiction that address time dilation at all (and they're pretty sparse) tend to overestimate its effects greatly. In fact, I've found that to be a common misconception among the public in general. They expect time dilation to much more substantial than it is, or to think it scales linearly with speed, rather than kicking in mainly at really high velocities and increasing asymptotically (only about a factor of 2 at .9c, 3 at .95c, 7 at .99c, 22 at .999c, and so on).

But as I said, PotA was going for allegory, not accuracy.

Christopher,

Agreed.


Navigator NCC-2120 USS Entente
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