MovieChat Forums > Space: 1999 (1975) Discussion > The Black Sun

The Black Sun

posted 9 years ago by ewaf58
20 replies | jump to latest

As it was actually the 3rd episode produced it should have at least been shown as no 3 or better still episode no 2 to explain how the moon got so far away.

Perhaps even incorporate it into the opening episode.

The execs who decided on the running order in both the UK and America probably had no understanding of the distances involved.

Clearly when the moon encountered its first exoplanet it must have been several light years from Earth. As to how it reached other planets around different stars is anyone's guess unless there was a group of tightly clustered stars with large groups of planets around them.

By the way if you want to see model making at it very best get the DVD Blueray. I've got season one and the special effects are beautiful. It's just a pity that they didn't have motion control cameras a few years earlier so that some of the shots of the Eagles didn't look so static.

Regarding Space 2099 I don't think it's going to happen given by the lack of activity.

[–] Fletcherj119 9 years ago

I would've "Another Time, Another Place" early on, as the space phenomenon left them in completely uncharted space at the end. Then after the Earth-related episodes are shown ("Dragon's Domain", "Matter of Life and Death", "Death's Other Dominion", "Voyager's Return", "Earthbound"), it's time for "Black Sun", bringing the moon into a completely alien galaxy.

[–] ewaf58 9 years ago

Yes your order would make sense too.

[–] ewaf58 9 years ago

Yes your order would make sense too.

[–] kerryedavis 9 years ago

Even "tightly clustered" stars and planets would take more than days or weeks to get between. And if you were moving fast enough for THAT, you wouldn't have enough time in any given system to do exploring let alone "Operation Exodus" if you actually decided to live on one of them.

But back then, even though I UNDERSTOOD it was impossible, it had spaceships and Sandra Benes so I watched every week. 😀

[–] ewaf58 9 years ago

Yes I had thought of that and was just trying to put forward some type of explanation. Actually even the closest stars in our galaxy are still on average about 1/2 a light year apart.

Even If the moon was somehow moving at near light speed (and it would need to to get to each new solar system in a reasonable time) it would never be able to go into any planet's orbit without some form of braking. I'll let you do the maths as to how much energy it would take do de-accelerate something with the mass of the moon. (far more than a nuclear dump could provide)

The only way it would work is if the moon basically arrived at a solar system with hundreds of planets -enough for plenty of adventures.

[–] Fletcherj119 9 years ago

I just assumed some of the planets the Alphans had visited were within the same solar systems, and it just went unmentioned.

[–] ewaf58 9 years ago

That could be although unlikely due to the diversity of races and the fact that in one episode two nearby planets were always attacking each other so I would suspect that would have attacked any other planets in their solar system as they had advanced spaceships.

I just think the writers were forced to take liberties with science and being science fiction it doesn't really matter in my mind although I would love someone to come up with an answer.

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] Fletcherj119 9 years ago

Planets such as the ones seen in "Death's Other Dominion" and "The Full Circle" for example could've been part of the same solar system.

[–] ewaf58 9 years ago

Yes they could but I'm sure the characters in DOD would have been able to see other planets and planned for a less ambitious target than Earth.

I think I need to find the original format to see what the producers intended regarding the grouping of planets ( all in one solar system or otherwise)

[–] Fletcherj119 9 years ago

The Thulians had a much grander plan ahead of them other than to check out nearby planets. They wanted to go "from solar system to solar system and from galaxy to galaxy".

[–] ewaf58 9 years ago

Ps Sandra Benes.... swoon

[–] Fletcherj119 9 years ago

I preferred Catherine Schell.

[–] MuggySphere 9 years ago

Why did they use the words "Black Sun?"

Isn't it just a black hole?

[–] ewaf58 9 years ago

Hi in 1975 I'm not sure the term 'black hole' was in general use although it had been coined in 1967 by John Archibald Wheeler.

[–] Fletcherj119 9 years ago

Black holes supposedly are the result of a massive star having collapsed.

[–] magolding-94772 7 years ago

The terms "black sun", "black star", "dark star", etc. were used a lot in old time science fiction.

Sometimes they meant a star that had gradually cooled and no longer emitted visible light. Every white dwarf star is going to become a black dwarf star sometimes far in the future, but since the universe is only 13,000,000,000 years old no star is old enough to be be black dwarf yet.

And sometimes they meant a pre relativistic version of a black hole, first postulated in 1783. A star with such intense gravity that its escape velocity was greater than the speed of light.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_star_(Newtonian_mechanics)

In The Skylark of Space (1928) a spaceship is trapped in the gravity well of a massive dead star.

In the early 1930s John W. Campbell wrote a story "The Black Star Passes".

In the Star Trek episode "Tomorrow is Yesterday" the Enterprise encounters "a black star of high gravitational attraction".

http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/21.htm

[–] Fletcherj119 7 years ago

It may have been a black star that the moon had encountered, which in theory, could possibly transport an object to a different area in space.
The moon did somehow end up in a different Galaxy (mentioned on "The Taybor").

[–] john_harley63 7 years ago

It has since been proven that planets and stars are closer together in different parts of the universe! Which once the moon had either been thrust through the black sun or the ion storm they would now be a part of!
Shut the door, Mary...

[–] Fletcherj119 7 years ago

There you go.