...ok... and how large was this minefield which was separating two galaxies..?
Space:1999 on Comet TV
- Thread starter Shaka Zulu
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It's around the edge of galaxy (and it's actually a zone of antimatter projected by a network of satellites). But yep, a diversion of a few degrees during the intergalactic trip really ought to allow the Andromedans to go round it, as the Federation isn't that big...
Well, there are fanon explanations you could try and come up with - like the Andromedan ships are at the very edge of their fuel endurance and can't afford to divert around the minefield (which of course they're expecting to be shut down by the time they arrive). But you have to roll with it, otherwise we wouldn't get the brilliant season cliffhanger.
Best I know of is that the intergalactic drive can only be used for galactic jumps, not normal flight (like using impulse but not warp within solar systems... except when they can), and on emerging from it the Andromedan ships had to head for a rendezvous point.
and years later Big Finish released an audio called Warship that filled the gap between Star One and Aftermath.
It makes me smile thinking how tv sci-fi has changed. I doubt that any contemporary tv shows would use similar implausible (from a scientific point of view) plot devices. I mean, you can use The Expanse to teach physics!
It still contains some unrealistic aspects for the sake of plot convenience. Not a big deal though.It makes me smile thinking how tv sci-fi has changed. I doubt that any contemporary tv shows would use similar implausible (from a scientific point of view) plot devices. I mean, you can use The Expanse to teach physics!
But fiction isn't textbooks. So some sci-fi is more scientifically accurate than others. Is it an issue? The story is the important thing - how it affects the characters, what subtexts it might be illuminating, what ideas or emotions it invokes in the audience, Gerry Anderson himself pointed out that Westerns were extremely popular, but were frequently very historically inaccurate. It didn't detract from the story being told.
Last night's episode on Comet TV 'The Last Sunset', had probably one of the most WTF moments in the entire series.
When Victor announces that the alien probe has brought oxygen and water to the surface of the moon, Koenig walks over to a window in Main Mission and opens it up to breathe the fresh air.
Who builds a Moonbase with windows that open?
When Victor announces that the alien probe has brought oxygen and water to the surface of the moon, Koenig walks over to a window in Main Mission and opens it up to breathe the fresh air.
Who builds a Moonbase with windows that open?
Folks who build submarines with screen doors.
I have a love-hate relationship with Space:1999. It was “sci-fi” and had spaceships, so when it showed up on local TV stations here in the Northeast in the mid-70s, I watched it. The theme song, Moonbase Alpha, and especially the Eagles were just plain cool. I didn’t understand or care at the time about the scientific implausibility, it fit right in with my other childhood favorites like Star Trek and The Six Million Dollar Man.
I purchased both seasons of 1999 a few years ago on Prime, and made it about halfway through the first season before giving up. Much like the BSG reboot, 1999 is a horribly depressing show, but at least nu-BSG was a bit more plausible and hopeful. When you realize that the poor AIphans are stuck on this base, seemingly forever, with no hope of ever getting home or settling on another planet, it makes the show all the more painful to watch. At least the Colonials in nu-BSG eventually escaped the Cylons and reached earth.
I purchased both seasons of 1999 a few years ago on Prime, and made it about halfway through the first season before giving up. Much like the BSG reboot, 1999 is a horribly depressing show, but at least nu-BSG was a bit more plausible and hopeful. When you realize that the poor AIphans are stuck on this base, seemingly forever, with no hope of ever getting home or settling on another planet, it makes the show all the more painful to watch. At least the Colonials in nu-BSG eventually escaped the Cylons and reached earth.
It makes me smile thinking how tv sci-fi has changed. I doubt that any contemporary tv shows would use similar implausible (from a scientific point of view) plot devices. I mean, you can use The Expanse to teach physics!
*cough* spore drive *cough*
But that's not the premise. The idea is they keep passing by one solar system after another and once one is suitable for colonization they'll settle there. There was one episode where they were seriously considering just that but of course it wasn't as good as it seemed.
The matter was left unresolved, as the series ended. I don’t know if there was ever a plan for the Alphans to find a new home in or before the series finale, had the show lasted long enough to have one.
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Arra's prophecy in Collision Course does offer some hint to the Alphans' fate though:
"You shall continue on. Your odyssey shall know no end. You will prosper and increase in new worlds, new galaxies. You will populate the deepest regions of space."
"You shall continue on. Your odyssey shall know no end. You will prosper and increase in new worlds, new galaxies. You will populate the deepest regions of space."
- Generational increase. 300 hundred could become billions in a few millenia.
Though season two does rather forget about new births, or trying to find somewhere to settle (Matter of Balance infamously has a moonbase teenager who would have been about 12 at Breakaway).
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There was an unused script where the Alphans encounter god-like children who turn out to be their own, far future, descendents. Not an ending, but a hint that there would be one.
Yep, a bit odd. A missed opportunity was that in Last Sunset they have corrosion proof the Eagles: that should have been a plot point that carried over into letting them make planetary landings. Ditto for Black Sun...
Victor: John, the force field, I've just realised. I think I can make one that would fit in an Eagle...
Koenig: You mean it could produce a heat shield?
Victor: Yes. Planetary landing capacity!
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