XPost: alt.tv.babylon-5, rec.arts.sf.tv, rec.arts.tv   
   From: northentiger@outlook.com   
      
   On 2018-09-12 16:41, Ubiquitous wrote:   
   > northentiger@outlook.com wrote:   
   >> 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.   
   >   
   > I think a science person, I believe it was Issac Asimnov, wrote an essay   
   about   
   > that.   
   >   
   >> 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?   
   >   
   > I think they were too far to make the trip by the time things had settled   
   > down.   
   >   
   >> 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.   
   >   
   > Heh. We used to joke about the number of Eagles that got wrecked.   
   >   
   >> 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.   
   >   
   > She was not limited to Earth critters (how did she kow about them?).   
   > She could also turn into whatever rubber monster suit was handy.   
   >   
      
   I only watched a few of the Season 2 episodes, and don't remember much   
   of those, so I probably missed her shifting into anything which wasn't   
   an Earth animal.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)