Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets

i was part of the cast of Space Odyssey, playing FIDO in mission control. i just want to say that none of us actors, specially those in mission control who had to react to a green screen most of the time, had any idea how amazing it would turn out to be. i knew it was going to be good, if only for the sheer camaraderie and professionalism that the production team at Impossible Pictures provided for everyone involved. but when we all saw it for the first time at the screening at the Curzon Mayfair, well, i for one felt very proud. I was so glad that none of us looked like we were in Star Trek. Joe Aherne, the screenwriter and director, is the most amazing man to work for. He pretty much gets a good team together and then just trusts them implicitly to freely do what they do best. I'm really lucky to have been part of this show. Who knew something this epic and complicated to understand would turn out to be so enticing to watch. and my god it's a beautiful universe out there.

Duck_of_Death needs to watch this film again, as his major criticism is completely baseless. The film never once forgot about the time delay, and it was mentioned explicitly in a couple of places. The crew were never shown having conversations with mission control that didn't obey the time delay rules.

One thing I did think was a bit far-fetched was the amount of risk involved - would a crew land on a planet on which pressure suits would only last two hours? I doubt it. Would a manned space ship go into a star's corona? I doubt it. Would humans land on a moon that was being bombarded with huge amounts of radiation? I doubt it. Also, the ship seemed overly sturdy. Would a ship designed like that risk atmospheric flight to slow it down? I doubt it. Would it survive being hit by comet debris? I doubt it. I think in both cases the stresses on the structure would be too much. But all-in-all, the unlikely scenarios were compensated by some nicely done special effects, good editing and production, and some good acting, especially by the actors portraying the ship's commander and the Russian cosmonaut.

...programs I have seen on TV in many years.

As far as I can tell, they really did get everything right. I have been interested in astronomy and the Solar system for some years and the scientific information in the program, such as surface conditions on Venus and Mars, the volcanic activity of Io, and magnetic fields of Jupiter, all seems very convincing. There's a lot of education in this show and it gives the layman the best possible feel as to what the solar system is really like.

The factual element combined with the excellent drama makes for a great show. The acting is first rate. So much so they don't really appear to be acting at all. It could easily be a fly-on-the-wall documentary. You get to care about the characters.

I can't rate this highly enough. Truly wonderful. Worth the price of a big TV even if this is the only show you ever watch!

An excellent series, part drama, part documentary. Just a point of information about the communication lag mentioned by a previous poster. They did refer to a communication delay, but of course they edited things out to make the story flow faster. At one point on Mars, mission control detect a huge dust storm the landing crew can't detect yet and warn them with a message "dust storm on its way 6 minutes behind this message" which illustrates the time lag and just to clear up another point made, the lander on the comet isn't automatically controlled from Earth, but by the crew on the Pegasus. As for the Pegasus, it surely must be one of the best spaceships ever designed for a sci-fi show. A cross between the Discovery and the Leonov from the 2001/2010 saga.

The subject of this film has always been of interest to me so I viewed it both for its scientific, visionary and entertainment value. Every time a film about space exploration is made, expectations rise as new image technology enables productions to be more realistic and precise. The production team succeeded in doing this to the point where, for someone less aware, the event could have actually been taking place. The landscapes on the planets, from the hot surfaces of Mercury to the frozen rocks on Pluto were just as I imagined them. Until recently we had to use our imaginations based often on artistic impressions gathered from visual astronomical data. But now that probes like the Pioneer and Explorer series have actually been close enough to take real pictures, then what we saw in this film I assume, is close to reality.

I also was glad that Pegasis, the space vehicle, looked realistic and had a crew, it added some drama and again realism. They did not use silly-looking people dressed up in combat uniforms or looking like ex- army drop outs in the crew but members who could have easily been trained astronauts, carefully making sure that both gender and race were included. That is what a international crew would be.

The space walk in Saturn's Rings and the release of the dead astronaut into them was extremely poignant and established the dangers of long term space travel. The hazardous landing on the Comet and the subsequent expelling of black ice from it as turned into the sun, nearly destroying the space vehicle, further demonstrated the dangers. One problem that the film did not deal with was the time delay in signal propagation from Earth control to the space vehicle, although being stated as being many hours it seemed that there was a direct link which is not possible over such vast distances. Earth took control over the space vehicle to move it so its shield blocked the bombardment from the Comet's tail when some members of the crew were injured during the bombardment, thus saving it from destruction but they could not have done that so quickly. This technical issue of transmission time always gives producers of space films a problem and although it did not spoil the film for me, it needs to be addressed if films are to be realistic.

Finally and most importantly, films like this give us a vision of the future - one that is not so far away. It stimulates our imagination and invokes our quest for discovery. Most of the technology and knowledge to make such a journey is available. Reducing the costs and risks to an acceptable level is the challenge that confronts us. Earth is a home but not our prison, a point this film makes very well. Space exploration is there for everybody irrespective of nationality, religion, or culture and ultimately, maybe sooner than we think, we shall make the journey so vividly portrayed in this BBC production.