Mars

[Thumper]

Anyone watching the NatGeo series that mixes modern day interviews with a fictional human Mars landing mission set in 2033? The third episode aired last night (check local listings). We watched the second one on DVR.

[vendic]

That would be fun.

[pumpkinpi]

No cable/satellite, but I'm interested. I have heard good and not so good reviews. I think they are making it available online, too, so I have to check!

[geonuc]

I've been watching it.

[SciFiFisher]

I have two hobbies in addition to my FT job. Playing army and raising a 6 year old. My TV watching usually consists of children's programming. Would you like to know how many versions of Power Rangers they made?

[Thumper]

I have two hobbies in addition to my FT job. Playing army and raising a 6 year old. My TV watching usually consists of children's programming. Would you like to know how many versions of Power Rangers they made?

You know I would! My child grew up. So usually on the TV is Grey's Anatomy, House, or Law and Order SVU. She's had alot of homework lately and I was actually able to take control of the remote.

[SciFiFisher]

I have two hobbies in addition to my FT job. Playing army and raising a 6 year old. My TV watching usually consists of children's programming. Would you like to know how many versions of Power Rangers they made?

You know I would! My child grew up. So usually on the TV is Grey's Anatomy, House, or Law and Order SVU. She's had alot of homework lately and I was actually able to take control of the remote.

There are currently 22 different variations of Power Rangers. The first, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, is the only one to have more than one season. Although many seasons had as many as 30+ episodes.

[Thumper]

Hey, isn't there a Power Rangers movie due out early next year?

[SciFiFisher]

Hey, isn't there a Power Rangers movie due out early next year?

Yes. Previews seem to show a slightly more serious take on the franchise. It's being released in March 2017.

[Thumper]

Yeah, pretty sure The Kid and I saw a preview for it when we went to Deepwater.

Haven't gotten around to watch the 3rd episode of Mars yet. Since no one else is currently watching it, it doesn't really matter that I can't comment on it/tiptoe around spoilers.

[geonuc]

Yeah, pretty sure The Kid and I saw a preview for it when we went to Deepwater.

Haven't gotten around to watch the 3rd episode of Mars yet. Since no one else is currently watching it, it doesn't really matter that I can't comment on it/tiptoe around spoilers.

Hmmph. So now I'm no one?

[Thumper]

Whoops. Sorry.
What did you think of episode 3?

[Swift]

We watched about the first 20 minutes or 30 minutes of episode 1 (up to the malfunction just as they are doing re-entry). I didn't like it; I'm not sure why. The emergency seemed rather contrived, and I thought the whole thing was rather choppy. My wife, who is not very sciencey, got very confused about what parts were fiction and what were fact.

We haven't watched any more of it.

[geonuc]

Whoops. Sorry.
What did you think of episode 3?

Well, hard to say without giving spoilers but it kept my interest. Things were looking kinda dire. One thing maybe I don't care for is the show's tendency to have things go badly until the very last moment, then it all works out. They get saved/figure it out/find the pot of gold.

[Thumper]

I thought the landing emergency was contrived. I also thought if it would have happened, they surely would have had contingency, after contingency, after contingency. I thought the "accident" that injured the commander was silly. I didn't get a chance to watch episode 3 yet. We've apparently switched to Christmas Videos. Both Mrs. T and The Kid were like, "So part of this is real life interviews?" It was confusing to them. I understood ahead of time how they were presenting it so it made sense to me. I'm starved for this kind of stuff, so I'll take what I can get.

[geonuc]

I'm getting overloaded with new shows and mistakenly thought I'd seen three episodes of Mars. I've only seen the first two.

[Thumper]

So are you watching it or not!?! Quit messing with me.

[SciFiFisher]

So are you watching it or not!?! Quit messing with me.

Mess with him!

[geonuc]

So are you watching it or not!?! Quit messing with me.

I apparently have no fucking idea. I've seen three episodes. The last episode I saw, they found a big hole in the ground and were very happy to do so.

[Thumper]

I've seen 2. They had made it to the work shop and operated on the commander and.....
So I haven't seen the big hole yet. So I have that episode to see and then the 4th if it recorded last night. Falling behind as usual.
Mrs. T was watching Love it or List it when I finally made it inside and I fell asleep on the couch before I was able to wrestle the remote from her.

[Thumper]

Watched another episode and a half last week and was going to post a really long critique of them. Didn't get around to it and have now decided that it's not worth my time. I'm still going to watch the next episode or two. I'm still interested. But they seem to be turning it into a soap opera. They fast forwarded 4 years. The original 5 were successful in starting a permanent colony. Other ships have come with more people and supplies. Now we get to flesh out conflicts between the original 5 (the rugged realists who have been through the fire) and the newby know it alls (the idealists who have been "through the sims hundreds of times" and are trying to take over control.) It should be completely clear who is in charge on Mars and most likely it would be the mission director on Earth.

I'm sure mission control would have planned for this with mission rules and command and control structures. Also, the way they play it, they're not getting any orders/info from Earth. It's like they're totally on their own. Yes, I know there's a communication delay, but it's not that long, and they would have accounted for it in mission planning.

Sigh.

[Thumper]

Watched another episode and a half. I told Mrs. T I think I enjoy the modern day documentary parts better than the over dramatic soap opera set in the 2030's. The segments on Antarctica were fascinating. As for the soap opera, the guy crying talking to his dying plants because they don't get enough light while the station is enduring a complete life threatening power failure was just annoying. Yes Jim Lovell lost his one and only chance, his lifelong dream to walk on the Moon. But he at least appeared to be somewhat concerned with getting his crew mates back to Earth alive.

[geonuc]

But the point of all that ridiculous crying was to show that he was going insane, and the documentary part went into the need to ensure people could handle the stresses of isolated space missions without going crazy. I think part of our negative reaction to his emotional state is that he was a bit of an asshole to begin with.

I don't like how the base commander and the doctor stood watching the monitor getting worried about the guy without doing anything until it was too late. And the project commander totally failed in her duty to the station by running in a panic towards where he was when she saw what he was going to do without first quickly explaining to the base commander, who was standing right there in the room and needed to know what was happening. Professionals don't do that. There're trained to react quickly, including informing people who need to know quickly. She failed.

So, yeah. They could be doing a lot better with the future Mars part of the show by making it more what we would expect from highly trained astronauts.

[vendic]

So, yeah. They could be doing a lot better with the future Mars part of the show by making it more what we would expect from highly trained astronauts.

Maybe he was related to William Oefelein or or Lisa Nowak?

[SciFiFisher]

So, yeah. They could be doing a lot better with the future Mars part of the show by making it more what we would expect from highly trained astronauts.

There are those who have a clue about how to handle a crisis. And there are those who want drama. Unfortunately, when you are trying to entice people to watch a show you have to cater more to the crowd who wants drama and excitement.