Space Patrol / Planet Patrol - Space Patrol 01x02 The Wandering Asteroid

RSS Bot · January 18, 2017

Tonight's episode can be found here:

[[i've decided in this series of Space Patrol review when someone mentions something other worldly sciency, (or in other words contrary to science) I will declare "Science!"]]

01:00 So the scientist, on Mars, looks into a telescope and sees Mars and two moons. Science!!!
02:10 Col. Raeburn is a old grouch. Complaining on why they would alert them in a rogue asteroid and ask to run a computation. Why? Because it's your job! (Nice Teletype) Wotan, is the Martian capitol.
04:20 Marla "A Venusian has the facility to anticipate what her employer wants." (Also confirms there
04:30 Professor Haggerty. And his eggs. He is famous for eggs. Don't call him Pop.
Katherine wants to be called Cathy.
05:30 So Professor Haggerty is asked to help with an asteroid heading towards Mars and his answer is "I'm a scientist Colonel, how can I help you with this?" Why would he be asking you? Because it's your job!!
BTW, YouTube has a Close Captioned option for videos. It was hilarious to see what Closed Captioned came up with when Professor Haggarty gave his full name (Professor Aloysius O’Brien O’Rourke Haggarty)

05:53 So we just established it will take seven months for the asteroid to hit Mars and within the span of five minutes people on Mars are getting concerned? Well that's advancing the plot for you.
06:24 to Paraphrase Professor Haggarty "Damnit Raeburn! I'm a Scientist not a demolition man!"
07:23 Venusians, complete with pointy ears, are known for being logical. Mind you, Star Trek would not air for another three years. (September 8, 1966) This episode aired for the first time in the UK on July 5, 1963.
09:21 So the crew of Gallisphere 347 give up their leave when they learn that an asteroid heading towards Mars must be stopped. Dart asks Slim if he wants to stay and he simply replies in logical fashion "that is a suggestion of Nonsensical import". Love that answer. Then Dart answers in this age of future enlightenment "Good, I would be lost without your slang way of talking." Wow, there is 22nd century open mindedness for you. But then it is only early 22nd century.
10:31 So here we learn of the stakes of this mission: Blow up the asteroid completely or the little pieces will do just as much damage. And no pressure Dart, but if you fail the capitol of Mars will be destroyed and millions will be homeless. (But cool that they evacuated the capitol just in case.)
10:55 So Dart would like to pull the freighter with the dynamite to blow up the asteroid from the Moon. Raeburn says he will have to pull it from Earth. Dart objects that pulling the freighter from Earth will slow the gallisphere down. But relatively speaking, when traveling to Mars, there seriously is not THAT much difference between hauling from the moon or Earth. SCIENCE!!!
11:10 So in the first episode they had to use gallisphere 024 instead of 347 because they had to get to Jupiter in a hurry. So, for most of the episodes they go through this launch sequence saying the wrong ship designation.
13:08 Cruising at 500,000 MPH. Gallispheres are known to reach 800,000 on average, and can increase with a dangerous boost speed beyond that.
13:30 So they are dealing with an asteroid 50 miles in diameter. Takes the gallisphere about 12 hours to reach the asteroid. Takes them two hours to get the line for the freighter back which had floated off into space due to the low gravity of the asteroid. Not sure about the time involved though. I know transits to Venus and Mars only take a few days in this show. Have to look into this some more.
18:50 It struck me as funny that the Martian professor suggests that Professor Haggarty should have gone along on the mission. The reason for this is that in the contemporary puppet Sci-Fi show, Fireball XL5 they have Professor Matthew Matic that was part of the XL5 crew.

19:30 So we have the whole plot that we would again see in the movie Armageddon in 1998. They have to drill into the asteroid to plant the charges. They have trouble using the Gamma guns as the asteroid is not made of a material they are used to. I'm thinking to myself what a pity to blow up a rare asteroid. Then again, wasn't this an asteroid from the asteroid belt knocked off it's course by the asteroid that flew in from outside the solar system? SCIENCE!!
20:02 Husky does one of this moments where he bungles a word this time "disintegrated" and Dart corrects him. So they have a universal translator, but everyone in the Space Patrol, Earth, Venus, and Mars alike all have to speak English? What a rip! And Dart sets the charges to blow in THREE MINUTES? What the Fu..?!?!
23:23 So Dart manages to get the fuse working 60 seconds before it is all going to blow. The most funny moment is when they try to distance the gallisphere from the asteroid they realize they do not have enough speed. Husky offers to throw himself off the ship since he is the large one. But naturally they ditch the freighter, that lightens the load, and they are free at that point. And big surprise, once Mars is safe, Husky is hungry again.

Great episode all and all. Seems at most we are only a few days removed from the last story. Wonder if they ever got the eight weeks of leave after working for a year? What a life. Sure their lives are displaced by all the sleep time, but they have probably only been awake for under a month of the year they have been on patrol. So work under a month for a year, and get eight weeks off? What a deal!

As a extra bonus, a video someone did showing the gallisphere in more detail!

Tune in next time for....
Space Patrol 01x03 The Dark Planet