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From: patcl@tekecs.UUCP (Pat Clancy)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: 2010 letdown (semi-SPOILER)
Message-ID: <4212@tekecs.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Dec-84 01:22:02 EST
Article-I.D.: tekecs.4212
Posted: Tue Dec 11 01:22:02 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 12-Dec-84 05:23:15 EST
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 30



All true SF lovers and tech-nerds in general should be
very disappointed in 2010. Where 2001 was one of the first
(or *the* first?) truly intelligent attempts to convincingly depict
a not-to-distant future technology, and show a voyage through
deep space with stunning and painstaking realism, 2010 is just
Battlestar Galactica level cheap thrills for the kiddies.
It's OK for spaceships in a vacuum to noisily roar by
in Star Wars, because that's "fantasy". Its not OK in 2010;
in fact, it's practically blasphemous. Perhaps the general
"sci-fi" audience of the 1980's is simply unaware of the difference
between Hollywood-style pseudo-science and physics.
Besides sound travelling through space, other failings in
the effects/realism department included:
(1) "Air-braking" (passing through Jupitor atmosphere) sequence that 
resembled a burning marshmellow being held in front of a fan;
(2) entire circumnavigation of Jupitor appearing to take about
10 minutes, yielding effective velocity very close to c;
(3) people walking around normally in 0 g;
(4) sloppy paint job evident on close-ups of space pod and
instrument panels in Discovery;
(5) "blat-blat-blat" sound (radar?) coming from probe monitor on
board ship as probe nears moon, which purely for dramatic effect
increases in frequency and loudness as probe nears area where
chlorophyll is present, as if all their instruments were designed
by Mattel.

Pat Clancy
{ucbvax,decvax,ihnp4,allegra,uw-beaver,hplabs}!tektronix!tekecs!patcl