"When We Left Earth" on the Discovery Channel

On Mon, 9 Jun 2008 17:24:47 -0700 (PDT), Lhead
wrote:

On Jun 9, 5:12 pm, "Ralph" wrote:
Maybe I have to rewatch this first episode, but didn't they state that the
original mission plan for Gemini 6 and 7 was the first rendezvous in space
between two manned spacecraft?
Best of my memory as a kid, Gemini 6 was originally to be the first docking
in space, but the Agena target vehicle failed to achieve orbit and the whole
mission was rewritten to include Gemini 7. I remember the delay and the
announcement that plans were changed to include the first rendezvous, and
the mission renamed Gemini 6-A. They launched Borman and Lovell first in
GT-7, then GT-6, which had the shutdown on launch.
Am I wrong with this?

You are correct. GT6 was the first scheduled res/docking and was
scrubbed when the Atlas/Agena splashed on the way to orbit. And the
Titan II smoke was orange. Red fuming nitric acid and hydrazine
igniting in a hypergolic manner produced that color smoke. Another
thing that drove me batty about the show last night was showing Titan
I launches and explosions when speaking of the Titan II. I'm not
picking nits - they were two totally different missiles.

....Kids, having worked in TV, and having dealt with this sort of
frackup, I can shed a little light on this...not that it'll help
un-****off us by one iota:

....The problem lies in the fact that documentaries, like any TV
programs, are run on budgets. A program is given a set time and a set
amount of money to be filmed and/or compiled from existing or "stock"
footage, and then delivered to whatever network is going to broadcast
it. At the same time, about 95% of the TV directors and producers of
anything space-related have almost no clue as to whether or not a
specific piece of footage actually represents whatever is being
discussed at the portion of the program in which it airs. Unlike, say,
NFL Films and a documentary on Joe Willie Namath, only about 5% of the
TV producers are well-versed in the history of the space program
enough to tell, say, a Saturn IB from a Titan II, much less the
arguably subtle-to-anyone-but-us differences between a Titan II and a
Titan I. So they usually just use whatever footage looks cool and/or
happens to *appear* to relate to what's being discussed by whoever's
narrarating and/or is being interviewed; i.e., our pal Sy Liebergott
talks about a rather messy abort sim dumped on them by the SIMSUP for
Apollo 11, and they show footage of the old Mercury Mission Control
followed by an Atlas exploding at Max-Q.

....Now, one can argue that this could easily be solved by hiring a
technical advisor - yeah, one of us - but again, we're dealing with
budgets. Even if we'd work for minwage, screen credit, and ten copies
of the DVD to share with our family and friends at Chrisnukkah, some
beancounter *and* the scum that call themselves the "unions" would nix
the idea over costs. Especially when we'd insist on accuracy, which
would require tracking down the correct footage, which may or may
*not* be usable due to film and/or tape deterioration unless it's
restored, and -that- costs $$$ as well as time. And to make matters
worse, the beancounters will always argue "Who the **** cares? Joe
Punchclock just wants to see Buck Rogers zoom around in space, he
doesn't give a rat's ass whether we're showing Space Conquerer III in
one scene, and then his Cosmos Chariot IV in the next!"

....If there's one saving grace about this series, it's that Discovery
Channel has done the digital remastering of somewhere between 75 to
100 hours of old NASA footage - there's been differing counts on this
- on their own nickel, and then turned around and donated it all back
to NASA gratis. They're going to recoup their losses only through the
DVD sales and *maybe* a deal to upscale it all to IMAX, depending on
the public response to the DVD. The reason it's supposedly a "maybe"
is that, according to one of my OMBloggers who knows someone in
marketing at Discovery Channel, the suits there were reportedly
impressed by last year's IMAX moonwalker film, but were - retardedly,
I gladly add - *not* impressed by what they did with the Apollo 17 LM
ascent footage. Personally, I thought it was the best part of the
whole event, although I still kick myself in the balls for not
thinking about it first after all the panorama work I've done in the
past few years! But then again, if TV execs always did the right
thing, "Star Trek", "WKRP" and dozens of other shows would have never
been cancelled, and Jerry Seinfeld would have never had a TV career.

....So essentially, the reason the footage doesn't match the VO can be
explained by simple economics combined with a "who gives a ****?"
attitude by those holding the purse strings. Which is why when the
revolution comes, all the beancounters will be lined up against the
wall so their blood can mingle with that of all the lawyers who
preceeded them :-P

OM
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