XPost: alt.tv.babylon-5, rec.arts.sf.tv, rec.arts.tv   
   From: northentiger@outlook.com   
      
   On 2018-09-11 06:28, Ubiquitous wrote:   
   > • Space 1999   
   > • Babylon 5   
   >   
      
   Babylon 5 wasn't bad. There were some subpar episodes ("Gray 13 is   
   Missing" and most of Season 5) but overall it was superior to most SF on   
   TV at the time. As the competition was Star Trek DS9, Star Trek Voyager   
   (ick) and Space Above and Beyond (shudder), this wasn't hard. I'd have   
   loved to see Babylon 5 with a Trek CGI budget. (And without the Trek   
   Funny Forehead Of The Week)   
      
   Space 1999 was nowhere as good as Babylon 5. It wasn't even as good as   
   Space Above and Beyond, which is setting the bar very low indeed. I was   
   about 15 when I saw the first episode, which inspired me to do some   
   math, which made me wonder three things:   
      
   1 how did the Moon hold together during the initial explosion and   
   departure from orbit? To achieve the apparent velocity in the limited   
   boost time frame, there would have had to be acceleration of over 10   
   gees. Probably well over 10 gees. The Moon is rock. Rocks subjected to   
   very high accelerations over a prolonged period tend to break up. This   
   would be especially so given that the source of the acceleration was a   
   series of really big nuclear explosions in a small area, concentrating   
   the force of the acceleration into a limited zone.   
      
   2 assuming that anyone on Moonbase Alpha survived the departure, not a   
   given as the base would not have been built to survive multiple gees for   
   a prolonged period, why didn't they use the substantial number of Eagle   
   craft to get the hell off the rock?   
      
   3 where did they get the volatiles required to continue operations once   
   the Moon got out of Eagle range? At a minimum Alpha would require lots   
   of air and water as its recycling systems could not be close to 100%   
   efficient, and in any case there would be losses every time someone   
   opened an airlock. The Eagles would require reaction mass, and there   
   were a _lot_ of Eagles. Not quite up to Voyager shuttle numbers, to be   
   sure, but then Alpha didn't have a handy replicator to make replacements.   
      
   The second season, when several first season regulars simply vanished   
   and no-one seemed to notice, and she who was an alien and could shift   
   into various animals, but only Earth animals, appeared, dropped my   
   already low level of support for the show right through the floor.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)