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Gord Green Galactic Ambassador
Joined: 06 Oct 2014 Posts: 2944 Location: Buffalo, NY
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Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2019 8:37 pm Post subject: |
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Eadie, scientists have realized that skintight suits made to compress the muscles in the extremities and torso applies enough pressure so that there is no need to fill them with pressurized air to allow circulation etc. Only the helmet needs to be pressurized the conventional way.
Future suits developed for use on Mars will no doubt be along these lines. The suits in THE MARTIAN were more accurate than you would suppose! _________________ There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child. |
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Krel Guest
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Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2019 11:55 pm Post subject: |
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Part of the problem with skintight suits, is that there can be no voids. Any area that could have one will have to be filled for the suit to work. An example is the back. There is some thought that in the future the suits could be sprayed onto the user. Another advantage is that if the suit tears, it would not mean the death of the wearer, just a bruise. To protect the suit, the Astronaut would probably wear a coverall, like the space suits in "Destination Moon", which was another skintight suit based on the suits jet pilots wore.
David. |
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Gord Green Galactic Ambassador
Joined: 06 Oct 2014 Posts: 2944 Location: Buffalo, NY
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Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2019 1:28 am Post subject: |
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That's true, Krel, but the point is that the compression on the vascular system provided by the elasticity of the suits' fabric provided the necessary pressure to effect the same benefit as the air pressure would provide.
It may seem counter-intuitive but it is so. An overall coverall may be required to protect the inner suit from harm, but it is the tensile pressure from the tight inner wear that provides the needed protection to the vascular system from the zero pressure without.
The earlier suits used air pressure to expand the fabric to apply pressure on the lower extremities to force blood flow into the upper body (Especially the brain.) to prevent blackout at high Gs. _________________ There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child. |
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Bogmeister Galactic Fleet Vice Admiral (site admin)
Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 574
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Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 11:15 am Post subject: |
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____________
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This was the original, unaired pilot for the show. It has a 'Swiss Family Robinson-in-outer space' feel, but also was influenced by Forbidden Planet and uses music from The Day the Earth Stood Still.
There were no Dr. Smith or Robot characters in this one, as yet. It was in b&w like all first season episodes. Footage from this pilot would be incorporated into and spread out among the first few episodes of the regular series, so this was like a concise version of those first 4 or 5 episodes.
In the plot, the family of 5 Robinsons (parents — headed by patriarch John, played by Guy Williams — and 3 children) along with Dr./Major Don West (Mark Goddard) are getting ready to take off in a spaceship. It's Oct. 16, 1997, in a large control room.
There is a surprising amount of detail in telling the audience of the crew's qualifications, such as the wife/mom (June Lockhart) being a biochemist. Info is supplied by a voice-over from an announcer, who doesn't change his tempo later, even as the saucer is pummeled by a swarm of meteors. The crew is in suspended animation, and they end up on a desert-like planet about 3-and-a-half years later (going by their atomic clock), Then the story skips to 6 months later, after they have already settled in.
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The action kicks in when the men run into a resident one-eyed cyclops creepy-looking giant, about 50 feet tall. It's Will Robinson (Billy Mumy) to the rescue with a ray gun! Then they all have to move in their 'Chariot' (a tractor-like all-purpose vehicle) to another region due to a cold freeze.
There's a pointless scene of John showing off their flying jet pack before they have to rush off. They explore a cave for some reason, which turns out to be a crypt for aliens. An earthquake chases them out.
Oh, and, they run into a one-eyed cyclops giant again.
Finally, they reach some inland sea and traverse this just as a storm hits — bad luck all around, but the excitement never stops! They make it, of course, and it ends on an intriguing note, suggesting more mysterious aliens.
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This pilot episode functioned as a travelogue on another planet, displaying several sources of adventure for the lost family, in a systematic fashion. The pilot was almost like a fifties sf film, truncated to about 50 minutes. It switched to different locales, seemed well-budgeted for TV, and was straightforward adventure (without the comedy that began midway through the first season). It presented the various possibilities that would be confronted by a civilized small group or family in outer space and, in this respect, Irwin Allen obviously succeeded — the show was a go and went on for 3 years.
BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10
BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus |
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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17099 Location: North Carolina
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Bogmeister Galactic Fleet Vice Admiral (site admin)
Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 574
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Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 12:24 pm Post subject: |
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_________________ Lost In Space - Dr. Smith
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This was the revised first episode from the unaired pilot, adding in Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris) and the Robot.
It's 1997, and the saucer ship, the Jupiter 2, is almost ready for take off from Earth, with its 6 planned occupants — the Robinson family and Major West. Ford Rainey appears, as in the unaired pilot, on a screen as a very somber President of the U.S..
Dr. Smith is a military doctor, but he's also a double agent & saboteur. He programs the on-board Robot to raise hell at a certain time after take off. Smith was more serious and sinister here than the bumbling clown he would later become, even karate-chopping a military guard (the guard was then disposed of into the trash. Was he dead? It was left vague).
But he was still something of a fumbler. He manages to get stuck on board as the ship takes off.
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This was that one big irony which began the series and permeated most of the first season at least: Smith getting whisked away on a mission which he had tried to make fail. Moreover, his added unplanned weight threw the saucer off course, which is how the crew get lost in space.
The saucer flies into a meteor swarm (as in the unaired pilot). The crew have been in suspended animation until this point. Smith awakens West first, the pilot, and then the family is awakened. They wonder about Smith, but no one suspects him of his underhandedness as yet. Smith then remembers that the Robot is scheduled to go berserk in a few minutes and surreptitiously tries to deactivate it, but he fumbles this also (thanks to Will Robinson, however).
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The first episode ends with John Robinson in jeopardy outside the ship as his line snaps. Earlier, he and his wife have a near-argument - almost unheard of in the remainder of the series. There was a realistic tone here which was lost just a few episodes later.
This was a solid TV outer space adventure to start things off. There was a 'serial'-type nature to this and the next few episodes. They form an almost continuous story, like an expanded version of the unaired pilot.
BoG's Score: 7 out of 10
BoG
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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17099 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 12:47 pm Post subject: |
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________________________________
The excellent CGI in these fan-made videos make the Jupiter 2 look really good.
The second one is just a preview of the unfinished project.
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__________ The Launch of The Jupiter 2 ! Part 1
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____PREVIEW The Launch of the Jupiter 2 - Part 2
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
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Bogmeister Galactic Fleet Vice Admiral (site admin)
Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 574
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Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 1:08 pm Post subject: |
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____________
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Continuing from the first episode, now both John and Maureen Robinson, the husband & wife, are stuck outside the spaceship. The door is stuck due to the heat. There's an approaching comet and things are heating up.
According to Don, its passing just 5,000 miles away will burn them all up (a strange comet, to be sure , though the approach was serious, they were already getting the science mixed up). If they don't get the duo inside quickly, they'll have to leave without them.
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The bulk of the episode deals with the Jupiter 2 saucer coming across a much larger, rather ominous spaceship which seems to be drifting. Don wants to avoid it, but John is governed by scientific curiosity. As expected, Smith manages to make a mess of it when the eventual strange aliens are encountered. The aliens are hard to make out in b&w. Some of this story was reinterpreted in the Lost in Space movie remake (1998).
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The pace is kind of slow when Will follows the men to explore the other spaceship. The other ship is kind of spooky, however, and does look alien (if low budget & minimalist). The story employs the often-used plot turn of a kid not listening to the adults by going off somewhere - the function of Will for several early episodes. But, the kid - a genius - behaves more adult-like than Smith.
BoG's Score: 5.5 out of 10
BoG
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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17099 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 2:22 pm Post subject: |
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________________________________
The first video below is a brief but well-done test of a CGI rendering of the robots.
The second video is a six minutes of very amusing clips from the series. Even non-fans of the series will enjoy this generous collection of the shows funniest moments.
The robot's singing and dancing is especially funny.
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________________ Lost In Space - Robot Test
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__ Lost in Space STS-117 B9 Robot Presentation Video
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
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Bogmeister Galactic Fleet Vice Admiral (site admin)
Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 574
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Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 2:55 pm Post subject: |
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___________
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This episode had a lot going for it — there was a lot going on, a sense of adventure and enough suspense as the middle episode of what I consider a 5-episode arc or serial.
The science was still bad, or was it the FX? Early on, Don states that John Robinson is 10,000 feet above a planet (this is lower than Mt. Everest on Earth), but it looks more like 10,000 miles going by the small size of the planet.
Also, we are expected to believe John will survive entry into the planet's atmosphere? The crew were planning to send the Robot down to the planet first, but Dr. Smith nixes this, so John goes, using that James Bond-like jet pack. It doesn't go well, thanks to Smith probably. (More sabotage!).
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The crew had their suspicions about Smith in the past couple of episodes, but here he shows his true colors. He demands that they abandon John and head back to Earth. His enforcer is the Robot, which only Smith seems able to command.
However, the plot establishes a kooky though amusing development in which Will is also able to command the Robot, by imitating Smith's voice! (Done in the previous episode — this is briefly theorized about by Don, in regard to the quality of the voice). Eventually they all do make it down to the planet, where the first priority is to search for John.
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This episode must have been pretty exciting to audiences who first watched it back in 1965. There's the scene of the Jupiter 2 heading in for a crash landing (footage from the unaired pilot), accompanied by the now-familiar thunderous action music of Lost in Space. There's the adventure of being in unfamiliar, alien terrain (resembling a desert region of Earth). There's the question of what happened to John, the leader of the group.
And Smith gets more dastardly than ever here, planning to "liquidate" the crew via the Robot. The show also made the best use of the epilogue tag here — the Robot about to attack Will (his commands no longer work) must have had kids frantic to see the next episode back in '65.
BoG's Score: 7.5 out of 10
Lost in Space Trivia: Some firsts here — The Chariot is first assembled and put to use (seen in the unaired pilot also). The first appearance of the alien chimp, popularly known as Gloop, but named Debbie by Penny. The first hostile alien life form turns out to be a giant electrified tumbleweed which drains all electrical power from the Chariot.
BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
Last edited by Bogmeister on Sat Jun 22, 2019 11:28 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17099 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 3:27 pm Post subject: |
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This is the crashing landing scene that Bogmeister describes above. Not bad at all, I must say. I like the way Don uses one of the cryogenic tubes to protect himself during the crash.
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_________ Lost In Space Jupiter 2 crash landing
__________ _________________ ____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
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johnnybear Mission Specialist
Joined: 15 Jun 2016 Posts: 441
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Posted: Sat Jun 22, 2019 7:08 am Post subject: |
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Wasn't there some speculation that they really left Smith in cryogenic freeze in this episode and that everything that happened afterwards was all in his fevered dreams?
JB |
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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17099 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Sat Jun 22, 2019 10:59 am Post subject: |
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Possibly, but I should point out that's it's quite difficult to have "fevered dreams" while one is in "cryogenic freeze".
But the story that I heard was that Smith woke up from cryo-sleep and stumbled into the bathroom (we all do that in the morning), and he found Bobby Ewing in the shower, thereby proving that the entire 9th season of Dallas was just dream, and Dr. Smith was actually Pamela Ewing!
_________________ ____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Last edited by Bud Brewster on Fri Nov 01, 2019 9:04 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Maurice Mission Specialist
Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 485 Location: 3rd Rock
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Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2019 1:14 am Post subject: |
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"The Derelict"
Many of the alien ship interiors were leftover sets or elements from the movie Fantastic Voyage.
"Island in the Sky"
John descends to the planet in a spacesuit with "parajets" on his arms, not the jetpack.
Don freezes himself during the crash landing for the eminently practical reason that he's seen in the tube in the crash footage from the unaired pilot. You can tell this because the forward control consoles are missing in the shots from the pilot.
The failure of Will's commands to stop the Robot at the climax are because he's not imitating Smith. _________________ * * *
"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art."
― Orson Welles |
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Krel Guest
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Posted: Sun Nov 03, 2019 5:22 pm Post subject: |
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On the LIS board, someone mentioned that in the show's documents they stated that the JII was suppose to be 80 feet in diameter. The crashed JII set, and JII lander are a little over half that diameter.
David. |
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