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Can you believe it, 50 years old. — Parallax Forums

Can you believe it, 50 years old.

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  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2016-09-09 00:09
    Can you believe, I still think ST is new stuff.

    But then I'm ancient enough to have watched the first episode of Dr Who. November 23, 1963.

    I think some president or other was in the news for being killed the day before, but who let that spoil the fun.

    I'd love to link you to a youtube record of "An Unearthly Child" but it seems that the BBC, having casually recycled all their original video tapes back in the 1960's, now sees fit to taken down the youtube copies that have been uncovered since.

    Copyright sucks that way.



  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    Nice! And it's 51 years for "Lost in Space" (Sept 15, 1965) per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Lost_in_Space_episodes

    I WAS Will Robinson. But yes, Star Trek has fared much better over the last half century.

    Funny, I was just watching "Raiders of the Lost Ark" this week, and I recognized the opening score as rehashed Lost in Space music. John(ny) Williams scored both. They are nearly identical orchestral pieces, with lots of bassoon. I played bassoon in symphonic band, so I have an ear for the unique sound of the "clown of instruments", AKA the "burping bedpost".
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    I'm watching "The Cage" to celebrate!

    (Yeah, I know but i've never watched 'Episode 1' first before!)
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2016-09-09 00:50
    Oh yeah, who could forget "The pain, the pain"



    I would dispute the idea that ST has fared better over the last half century. Dr Who has been a big hit for a long while now. Besides, whereas ST has been nothing special since Captain Kirk, the Dr lives on!

    I always loved that "burping bedpost" of Lost in Space.
  • MikeDYurMikeDYur Posts: 2,176
    edited 2016-09-09 01:50
    mindrobots wrote: »
    I'm watching "The Cage" to celebrate!

    (Yeah, I know but i've never watched 'Episode 1' first before!)

    I would of remembered "The Cage" as the first episode I had seen, but I was a week late on catching the series.

    I had seen it for the first time in re-runs.

    I should have said "The ManTrap" instead of "The Cage".

    http://trekmovie.com/2016/09/08/happy-50th-anniversary-the-man-trap/
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    My sister was an avid Jeffery Hunter freak (passion runs in our family). He appeared in the STrek pilot as Captain Pike. In the time before VCRs, she would shriek with delight every time he appeared briefly in the series' only two-part episode, "The Menagerie".

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Hunter
  • MikeDYurMikeDYur Posts: 2,176
    That is a sad story of a life cut short at age 42, Jeffery Hunter had great talent and screen presence. Surprised there wasn't a stunt double used in the shot that caused his concussion. Maybe things would have turned out different if he had excepted the role of captain of the Enterprise. Look at Shatner's career, if he isn't in a rerun of something, he's on a commercial. Sometimes you just get plain tired of seeing him, and his bloated ego.


    EDIT: Bill, please don't let me deter you from stopping by at a Propeller Expo sometime!
  • potatoheadpotatohead Posts: 10,261
    I will have these playing as background ambience fairly regularly. The sound is just compelling. Well produced, distinctive and adventurous.

    They take me back to young spud, thinking happy thoughts while exploring and playing with tech.

  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    MikeDYur wrote: »
    Look at Shatner's career, if he isn't in a rerun of something, he's on a commercial. Sometimes you just get plain tired of seeing him, and his bloated ego.

    I love Shatner's small but funny cameo in "Showtime" with Robert DeNiro & Eddie Murphy, where "TJ Hooker" gets raked over the coals.

    Nearly as self-deprecating as "Get a Life!"

  • MikeDYurMikeDYur Posts: 2,176
    One big difference between Lost In Space and Star Trek is, their view. The latter had a main view screen, as opposed to just a window. I couldn't imagine seeing this on Lost In Space, but I could Star Trek.

    Using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other X-ray observatories, astronomers have found evidence for what is likely one of the most extreme pulsars, or rotating neutron stars, ever detected. The source exhibits properties of a highly magnetized neutron star, or magnetar, yet its deduced spin period is thousands of times longer than any pulsar ever observed.

    For decades, astronomers have known there is a dense, compact source at the center of RCW 103, the remains of a supernova explosion located about 9,000 light years from Earth.andnbsp; This composite image shows RCW 103 and its central source, known officially as 1E 161348-5055 (1E 1613, for short), in three bands of X-ray light detected by Chandra. In this image, the lowest energy X-rays from Chandra are red, the medium band is green, and the highest energy X-rays are blue. The bright blue X-ray source in the middle of RCW 103 is 1E 1613. The X-ray data have been combined with an optical image from the Digitized Sky Survey.

    Observers had previously agreed that 1E 1613 is a neutron star, an extremely dense star created by the supernova that produced RCW 103. However, the regular variation in the X-ray brightness of the source, with a period of about six and a half hours, presented a puzzle.andnbsp; All proposed models had problems explaining this slow periodicity, but the main ideas were of either a spinning neutron star that is rotating extremely slowly because of an unexplained slow-down mechanism, or a faster-spinning neutron star that is in orbit with a normal star in a binary system.

    On June 22, 2016, an instrument aboard NASA's Swift telescope captured the release of a short burst of X-rays from 1E 1613. The Swift detection caught astronomers' attention because the source exhibited intense, extremely rapid fluctuations on a time scale of milliseconds, similar to other known magnetars. These exotic objects possess the most powerful magnetic fields in the Universe '“trillions of times that observed on the Sun '“ and can erupt with enormous amounts of energy.

    Seeking to investigate further, a team of astronomers led by Nanda Rea of the University of Amsterdam quickly asked two other orbiting telescopes '“ NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR '“ to follow up with observations.

    New data from this trio of high-energy telescopes, and archival data from Chandra, Swift and ESA's XMM-Newton confirmed that 1E 1613 has the properties of a magnetar, making it only the 30th known. These properties include the relative amounts of X-rays produced at different energies and the way the neutron star cooled after the 2016 burst and another burst seen in 1999. The binary explanation is considered unlikely because the new data show that the strength of the periodic variation in X-rays changes dramatically both with the energy of the X-rays and with time. However, this behavior is typical for magnetars.

    But the mystery of the slow spin remained. The source is rotating once every 24,000 seconds (6.67 hours), much slower than the slowest magnetars known until now, which spin around once every 10 seconds. This would make it the slowest spinning neutron star ever detected.

    Astronomers expect that a single neutron star will be spinning quickly after its birth in the supernova explosion and will then slow down over time as it loses energy. However, the researchers estimate that the magnetar within RCW 103 is about 2,000 years old, which is not enough time for the pulsar to slow down to a period of 24,000 seconds by conventional means.

    While it is still unclear why 1E 1613 is spinning so slowly, scientists do have some ideas. One leading scenario is that debris from the exploded star has fallen back onto magnetic field lines around the spinning neutron star, causing it to spin more slowly with time. Searches are currently being made for other very slowly spinning magnetars to study this idea in more detail.

    Another group, led by Antonino D'Aì at the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) in Palermo, Italy, monitored 1E 1613 in X-rays using Swift and in the near-infrared and visible light using the 2.2-meter telescope at the European Southern Observatory at La Silla, Chile, to search for any low-energy counterpart to the X-ray burst. They also conclude that 1E 1613 is a magnetar with a very slow spin period.

    A paper describing the findings of Rea's team appears in the September 2, 2016, issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters and is available online. The authors of that paper are Nanda Rea (University of Amsterdam and IEEC-CSIC, Spain), A. Borghese (Univ. of Amsterdam), P. Esposito (Univ. of Amsterdam), F. Coti Zelati (Univ. of Amsterdam, INAF, Insubria), M. Bachetti (INAF), G. L. Israel (INAF), A. De Luca (INAF).

    A paper describing the findings of D'Aì's team has been accepted for publication by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and is also available online.

    NuSTAR is a Small Explorer mission led by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

    NASA's Swift satellite was launched in November 2004 and is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

    NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, controls Chandra's science and flight operations.

    Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/University of Amsterdam/N.Rea et al; Optical: DSS
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  • MikeDYurMikeDYur Posts: 2,176
    edited 2016-09-10 00:47
    BTW: @Heater, I need an off-site repository for my ST movie collection, what better place than the other side of the planet. Only if it's new to you.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    I'm not sure what you are suggesting MikeDYur.
  • Buck RogersBuck Rogers Posts: 2,185
    MikeDYur wrote: »
    Aired fifty years ago tonight on NBC.


    http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/star-trek-lives-long-prospers-50th-anniversary-n644801

    Actually yes. It also happens I was at the NYC Con for part of Friday and Saturday....

  • MikeDYurMikeDYur Posts: 2,176
    edited 2016-09-10 12:13
    Heater, it sounded like you may not be caught up on Star Trek movies, just wanted to make it easy, if there not accessible where you live.

    Buck, Heater and erco, here's one for you. I didn't follow the show that much, just too whacky. But it is a surprise.

    http://www.monkees.com/article/monkees-50th-anniversary-tour
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2016-09-10 13:17
    MikeDYur,

    Ah, I see, thanks.

    I have seen a few Star Trek movies. They were nothing memorable. Or at least I don't remember much about them. Was never inclined to follow it further.

    I prefer Star Wreck:



    Wow, the Monkees.

  • MikeDYurMikeDYur Posts: 2,176
    edited 2016-09-11 17:16
    Interesting, never knew that existed, the Finn's have their own style of comedy. May have to try to watch one of these CG foreign films with subtitles. I bet these weren't made for the little kiddies.


    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wreck



    potatohead wrote: »
    I will have these playing as background ambience fairly regularly. The sound is just compelling. Well produced, distinctive and adventurous.

    They take me back to young spud, thinking happy thoughts while exploring and playing with tech.



    Agreed, a few of other words come to mind: bold, intriguing, mysterious.

    EDIT: IMO the score written for the Voyager series expressed most of those elements.
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    Anybody interested, I have two boxes of original Tv Guides from 2002 celebrating the 35th anniversary. One box opened to take pictures, the second box sealed.

    Similar to this auction:

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/TV-GUIDE-Lot-of-35-STAR-TREK-35th-Anniversary-Collector-Magazines-April-2002-B-/282130504535?hash=item41b049db57:g:fjsAAOSwZVlXoKw~&nma=true&si=HlkVqu%2FAHBOZRluIheb%2FnbpCGJE%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    19 years ago today, the Robinson family & crew blasted off and instantly got LOST in SPACE! Yes, their fictional launch date was October 16, 1997, which seemed plausible to Irwin Allen in 1965. God bless the space castaways and everyone's favorite wise-cracking robot, the Bubbleheaded Booby!

    https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2j9xb2_lost-in-space-the-reluctant-stowaway-first-and-full-episode-aired-september-15-1965_tv
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    edited 2016-10-16 20:02
    Funny. Couldn't sleep this morning. Was watching LIS at 3:00 AM. :) (Will got teleported back to earth).

    Missed the end.
  • TtailspinTtailspin Posts: 1,326
    edited 2016-10-16 17:43
    Meanwhile, back on Earth, Frankie and Annette are shredding the surf and saving the day in "Beach Blanket Bingo"... :)


    And, an assembly line somewhere in Detroit is stamping out the second vehicle I owned. An Oldsmobile, Delta 88,
    A four door monster with power Everything, and a trunk that would hold Everyone that wanted to go to the Drive-in theater.

    1965 was a good year...


    -Tommy







  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2016-10-16 17:48
    erco,

    Thanks for that.

    Thank God for the internet. Never thought I would see that again.

    Seems they got some predictions spot on. Mission control looks like what was used for Apollo 11 five years later.

    Also so 2 million volunteers to leave the planet by 1997 sounds about right.

    Of course I had been watching Dr Who since 1963 so none of this was surprising :)

    The pain, the pain...
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    Hmm...Their central control console looks amazingly like the one in the Dr Who Tardis....

    Sorry, commenting as I watch.

  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    Oh man. The robot turns his own power back on. "Damage averted".

    This is even better than when I was 9 years old!
  • MikeDYurMikeDYur Posts: 2,176
    erco wrote: »
    God bless the space castaways and everyone's favorite wise-cracking robot, the Bubbleheaded Booby!

    Robert Kinoshita the designer of the Lost in Space robot, also designed "Robbie The Robot" some nine years earlier. I never knew the reason for the resemblance.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    Oh my God. So there is a reason why my favorite robot, Robbie from Forbidden Planet, turned up in LIS and other places later.

    Starts googling for Robert Kinoshita ...

    How is it possible I have never heard that name before? Perhaps one of the biggest influences on my whole life!




  • MikeDYurMikeDYur Posts: 2,176
    Heater. wrote: »
    my favorite robot, Robbie from Forbidden Planet



    My favorite to, the sounds emulated from him gave you the impression that some serious computing was going on.
    Robby The Robot.gif
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  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    Yep, it's all Hollywood illusion going on. Mixed up with some anthropomorphism. Total fiction.

    Still, that creates the Robbie we all know and love.

    The English accent helps with making him sound weird but logical.

    :)


  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    @Publison: "Return from Outer Space" is a classic. Carbon Tet! http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4rkp5i_lost-in-space-s-1-e-15-return-from-outer-space_tv

    @Others: Campy but classic quips:


  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    Ah, yes. Carbon Tetrachloride. I can still smell it when I cleaned all the 16mm films for the schools in my town for a summer AVA job.
  • MikeDYurMikeDYur Posts: 2,176
    edited 2016-10-17 00:43
    erco wrote: »
    Campy but classic quips:

    A great compilation of campy quips, around 5:10 the two famous robots are on screen together. Remember the name of the episode?


    BTW: Local station air's the LiS series at 1:00am here.
    Robbie and Lost in Space Robots together.png
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