And lo on Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:25:52 -0000, Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> did  
spake, saying:

> Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> #2 2001 Space Oddessy.
>
>   I just rented it because it's more than 10 years since I last saw it.

Heh and I just watched it over the weekend

> It's surprisingly good, especially considering that it was made in 1968.
> While not perfect, many space movies made decades later with better
> movie-making technology look worse and have more physical inaccuracies.

Oh I liked the physical stuff and the interspersion between the raspy  
breathing and total silence of space is something every SF film director  
should take a note of, but it was the design flaws that drove me nuts. Hmm  
the most likely reason to perform EVA would be to get to the engines or  
dish so we'll put the pods at the front of the ship so they have to rotate  
180 degrees then move around the cockpit to get there. Hard points to  
attach the EVA pod to the ship so I don't need to float so far? Nah. The  
ability to dock the EVA pod to the emergency door? Nah. An easy to access  
emergency computer override system? Nah the 9000 series is perfect which  
is why they had a Computer Malfunction alert on the hibernation pods.  
Ducking through doors - just make them taller. Ladders to climb up/down  
things that only allow one person at a time. Door control panels on said  
ladders that are at the top/bottom of the shaft rather then next to the  
door. Put the engines well out of the way along this spindly connection so  
they're difficult to get to and easily severed from the rest of the ship.  
Etc., etc.

>   Anyways, as for being incomprehensible... Only the last 15 minutes or
> so were incomprehensibly abstract (and, according to the director,
> completely on purpose), but everything before that was quite clear and
> straightforward.

Well you do also go to a jump from radio burst on the Moon to a 18 month  
later ship heading to Jupiter, which may make you go 'huh, what happened  
then?'

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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