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Cushman's three volumes on Star Trek TOS have a lot of little errors and false assumptions. Their greatest value is in the production memos and other actual documents included with the text. That said, if the LIS book contains behind the scenes memos and so forth, that would be a big deal for serious fans.
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Posted: |
Jul 26, 2016 - 7:02 AM
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By: |
Solium
(Member)
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However the concept was great.
Great for a TV show, which you just said was always awful, or great as an actual, real world endeavor?
Realistically, it's a stupid idea. Sending a family out—with children as young as 10—as the vanguard of an interstellar colonization effort is absurd. Granted, they painted Will and Penny as precociously well educated and trained in practical science and engineering, while Judy "gave up a promising career in musical comedy." The TV announcer also states that the plan is to launch 10 million families per year to offset overpopulation. Space colonization could never offset overpopulation, and an effort so vast would deplete resources more rapidly.
Logic be damned. The show was meant to capitalize on the then-accelerating space race. "To infinity, and beyond!"
It was a believable concept in it's time. Just like in the 50's we all thought there would be flying cars by the 1980's. The family was supposed to be in hibernation until they reached their destination at Alpha Centauri. It was also made clear Alpha Centauri was already colonized, so they weren't so much facing an unknown frontier, but traveling to a pre-settled location.
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Posted: |
Jul 26, 2016 - 7:08 AM
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By: |
RoryR
(Member)
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When I was a kid I was absolutely obsessed with Lost in Space.
When I caufght up with it again as an adult, I couldn't believe how terrible it was! Seriously, awful, awful stuff which has dated very badly.
The B9 robot remains one of my all time favourite robots - and the FX of the Jupiter II still Ho.d up today. But as for the rest of the show, sorry, it's horrendous.
Agreed. Dramatically, it was little more than Captain Video with better production values, but much of that is due to Irwin Allen's simple-minded approach to entertainment in general. Everything he did was pretty hokey. His best production was probably THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE and the opening scenes of that are horrendous and the rest of the movie really doesn't rise much higher.
As a kid I can remember the visual appeal of "Lost in Space" but that was about all it had. It quickly bored me even as a seven-year-old. I really can't recall watching that many episodes when it was on the network. Probably no more than a dozen or two in its three year run. When the show was cancelled, I doubt I even noticed.
It was in syndication when it was on nearly everyday that I saw most of it, and in the afternoon after school it's sillier aspects were easier to ignore. This was not just the case with "Lost in Space" though. It wasn't until they were in syndication that I got hooked on "Twilight Zone," "The Outer Limits," and even "Star Trek." I can remember when "Star Trek" was on the network. I was a fan of it and didn't want it cancelled and had a model of the Enterprise, but still, I doubt I saw much more than a dozen episodes during its original run.
Anyway, it's mostly nostalgia when I collect this stuff now. The entertainment value it has now is almost entirely limited to that -- and enjoying the production values.
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If I'm not mistaken there was also some accusations they used photographs without permission. Literally grabbing images off the web and printing them, without permission from the copyright holders. Glad I never got around to getting them. I have no need for inaccuracies or falsehoods, nor do I want to spread them.
Well, "copyright holders" might be a stretch. As I understand it, Cushman used web-found images of Lincoln Enterprises film clips that had deteriorated badly, been scanned to computer, and restored to like-new condition in Photoshop.
The guys who did the stunning photo restorations, especially startrekhistory.com, were upset about not being asked and not receiving credit for their work. But Paramount would surely argue that you can restore deteriorated Star Trek images to your heart's content, and still not own the copyright.
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Posted: |
Jul 29, 2016 - 3:36 AM
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By: |
Metryq
(Member)
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It was also made clear Alpha Centauri was already colonized, so they weren't so much facing an unknown frontier, but traveling to a pre-settled location.
What? Which line are you imagining now? A TV narrator states, "Reaching out into other worlds from our desperately over-crowded planet, a series of deep thrust telescopic probes have conclusively established a planet orbiting the star Alpha Centauri as the only one within range of our technology able to furnish ideal conditions for human existence."
I don't know what the author meant by "deep thrust," but telescopic implies observational evidence, only. In this case, "established" means "accepted", "demonstrated to be true." Nowhere in all of LIS is it "made clear" that the destination is pre-settled. If they were bound for a pre-settled colony, explain the chariot, the robot, the pod and all the other frontier equipment on board.
As for LIS being a believable concept in its time, we still have people today who believe the Apollo landings were faked because they were not technologically possible.
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Posted: |
Jul 29, 2016 - 6:40 AM
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By: |
Solium
(Member)
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It was also made clear Alpha Centauri was already colonized, so they weren't so much facing an unknown frontier, but traveling to a pre-settled location.
What? Which line are you imagining now? A TV narrator states, "Reaching out into other worlds from our desperately over-crowded planet, a series of deep thrust telescopic probes have conclusively established a planet orbiting the star Alpha Centauri as the only one within range of our technology able to furnish ideal conditions for human existence."
I don't know what the author meant by "deep thrust," but telescopic implies observational evidence, only. In this case, "established" means "accepted", "demonstrated to be true." Nowhere in all of LIS is it "made clear" that the destination is pre-settled. If they were bound for a pre-settled colony, explain the chariot, the robot, the pod and all the other frontier equipment on board.
As for LIS being a believable concept in its time, we still have people today who believe the Apollo landings were faked because they were not technologically possible.
There's at least one episode where the Robinsons thought they reached Alpha Centauri and John or Dr. Smith got on the radio and tried to make contact with an Earth settlement. This suggests there's already human colonies in that solar system. If they were the first humans to reach Alpha Centaui who were they calling?
Why bring the robot, chariot and space pod? Because they're in the act of colonizing another solar system. They could always use additional equipment when they reach their destination. Things break down.
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