Identical BA twins

[David Hall]

A few days ago I turned on the Discovery channel and caught a show titled Alien Empire. It was actually a documentary about insects, but they had some CGI opening credits that were kind of like the opening to Contact in reverse. The perspective started from space, and then moved in towards the Earth.

The bad astronomy comes in when they near the Earth itself. The camera approaches from the far side of the Moon and flies over it's north pole creating a kind of "Earthrise". The problem is, the far side of the Moon is in darkness, while the side of the Earth we see is completely lit. This means that the Moon and the Earth are being lit from two opposing light sources. This is of course, impossible.

And to make it worse, this evening I turned on the Cartoon network. They are busy promoting the live-action Scooby Doo movie over here, so the network is broadcasting several animated Scooby Doo movies. Anyway, the movie tonight was something like Scooby Doo: UFO Mystery (I didn't catch the exact English title). Well, what do you know? They had an opening sequence that was almost exactly like the Alien Empire documentary, including the same BA Moon and Earth effect.

So I caught identical instances of BA from two completely different sources. Quite amusing, I thought.

BTW, I only watched a few minutes of the Scooby Doo movie, but what I did watch obviously had a lot of Contact influences. The setting was a radio astronomy facility in the American Southwest where they had a SETI-like setup. The office these guys worked in was very similar to the VLA office in the Contact movie, and one of the guys there even listened to static on headphones. The opening was probably also a homage to the movie. /phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

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<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: David Hall on 2002-08-23 13:24 ]</font>

[beskeptical]

On 2002-08-23 13:23, David Hall wrote:
BTW, I only watched a few minutes of the Scooby Doo movie...

Sure you did. snicker snicker

[David Hall]

On 2002-08-24 03:52, beskeptical wrote:

Sure you did. snicker snicker


Busted. /phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

To be more honest, I used my standard viewing technique for when I'm only half interested in a show. I keep flicking back and forth between two or three channels, mostly when a commercial comes along. I was also only half watching, as I was busy posting here on the BABB as well. /phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif

When it comes to shows like this, the technique works well. You can get most of the story without actually watching the whole thing.

[Conrad]

Scooby Doo has been compared with Shakespeare, actually.

What, you doubt me? No, really. A stand-up comedian, Eddie Izzard (notable for including SF pop culture in his routine) went through the cowardly characteristics of Shaggy and Scooby and asked the audience for comparisons. "Falstaff" was the sole response. "Exactly!" quoth Eddie. "You have to go back to Shakespeare to find a character as cowardly as Scooby!"

I suppose the answer to an anomalously-lit Moon and Earth would be that old stand-by - poetic licence - it may not be accurate but it looks good.

Hmm. Is that whirring sound Stanley Kubrick?

[Sarcastronaught]

Wasn't that the Scooby-Doo episode where the "monsters" turned out to be authentic aliens from outerspace?

(BTW I'm not being sarcastic)

[David Hall]

Actually, I used to kind of like Scooby Doo. It was a guilty pleasure. But I always hated the fact that the ghosts and whatnot always turned out to be some guy in a costume. I kept wishing that it would turn out to be for real just once.

From what I saw of the end of this movie, the "aliens" turned out to be the SETI crew for some reason. The crime had something to do with a lost gold mine. But Shaggy and Scooby's "love interests" turned out to be real aliens sent to Earth to investigate signals they received. (Uggh, I can't stand on-screen romances. That's why I kept turning the channel.)

[beskeptical]

On 2002-08-24 11:18, David Hall wrote:
To be more honest, .... I was also only half watching, as I was busy posting here on the BABB as well. /phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif


Sure you were. snicker snicker

[honestmonkey]

On 2002-08-24 11:18, David Hall wrote:

To be more honest, I used my standard viewing technique for when I'm only half interested in a show. I keep flicking back and forth between two or three channels, mostly when a commercial comes along. I was also only half watching, as I was busy posting here on the BABB as well. /phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif



I'm glad to see someone else has this technique. I used to go to work and when the conversation came around to what people watched, everyone would say something different. I would say that I'd watched all of the shows they mentioned. A bit here, a bit there. Most of the stuff on TV is so predictable that you don't even have to watch the whole thing, just enough so you get the jist. I make the inferences and turn out to be right most of the time. I can watch 3 or 4 different shows at once, and not miss much at all.

Oh, and some of the show are about astronomy. /phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif (attempt to stay on topic)

Actually, I can stay on topic! The movie "The Time Machine" (2001 version) has just about the same scene in it - pull out from Earth (which is lit) and fly a shuttle to the other side of the moon (dark). Neat scene, but probably BA. (I know the movies already been discussed here, but it wasn't too bad if you ignore the BA involved.)

[David Hall]

On 2002-08-25 05:13, beskeptical wrote:

Sure you were. snicker snicker


I just get no respect, do I? /phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif

Ok, one last time. I caught about 10 minutes of the beginning, bits and pieces of the middle, and switched back in at the end as they were wrapping things up. Most of the rest of the time I was watching a Discovery channel documentary on people trying to break various speed records...another one I was only half interested in, as they have shown several shows like that recently.

(And I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those pesky BABB members.)

[beskeptical]

On 2002-08-25 16:38, David Hall wrote:

(And I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those pesky BABB members.)



When it comes to shows like Scooby Doo, try the ol' "the kids had it on". Works every time. /phpBB/images/smiles/icon_lol.gif