S03.E06: New Eden

[tessaray]

Release Date: July 15, 2022

The astronauts move quickly to build Martian bases.

[whiporee]

I don't know whether it's budget cuts or condensed seasons or whatever, but this is the second week in a row that something really major has been revealed between episodes. Because if it weren't for Helios, and Ed pulling up, they are all, to quote Mark Watney, fucked. 

I thought it would be Pam that outed Ellen out of principle. Instead it's going to be tabloid destruction.

The Soviets continue their suckitude. Margo's inability to keep her mouth shut just fucked up the mission again. And why is Dani getting self-righteous with Ed for his company making a deal?

It was a good episode. I liked that Kelly didn't hold Helios's decision against Ed. Ed's reaction to her boyfriend was awesome.

All I can assume is Danny is going to kill Ed, or die trying.

Is the showing that Don't Ask Don't Tell was inevitable at that moment in time? Since Clinton did the same thing?

[Accidental Martyr]

The Danny storyline continues to be awful. 
Mazzy Star 👍

[Glade]

Ellen is a disgustingly selfish coward; this better lead to her outing herself and abandoning this homophobic policy. 

[watch2much]

so the foolishness on all but Ed's part (who reluctantly aborted the landing) left them with only one way home. make an easy, safe landing but then being all disappointed??????  they all could have been stranded on Mars.

poor guy who decided to come out on Mars????? would have been much more effective doing it at the successful completion of the mission.

I think the guy at the end was talking to the vice president.....so if her husband is outed, then what will Ellen do?

[marinw]

There seemed to be a LOT of sweat and condensation in the HAB. Surely there must be a way to gather and use that moisture. I have a heat pump that collects a lot of moisture, Maybe the HAB's heat pump is part of their  "Thermal Controls?"

Edited July 18, 2022 by marinw

[xaxat]

I liked how Karen called out Dev's bullshit when she negotiated for the title of COO and an office with a door..

"Graham made a statement", I see what you did there writers.

On 7/15/2022 at 12:45 AM, whiporee said:

And why is Dani getting self-righteous with Ed for his company making a deal?

I thought her anger was justified. She considered him a friend (Hi Bob.) and he withheld information about finding water, a resource they desperately need.

I am firmly on Team Dani. She has a history of sound leadership going back to bailing out Gordo at Jamestown, Apollo/Soyuz and the obstacles put in her way on the Mars mission.

On 7/15/2022 at 1:44 AM, Accidental Martyr said:

The Danny storyline continues to be awful. 
Mazzy Star 👍

And the show managed a way to give him access to oxy and amphetamines! I wasn't familiar with Mazzy Star, but as soon as that song started playing it was clear who the person in the seat was.

That mobile hab is sweet.

[whiporee]

He is a friend. He's also someone NASA screwed over for the most important mission in history to date. You can think what you want about entitlement, but he was in consideration for the position, was told he had the position, and then was told the position was being taken away. People compare Dani's and Ed's reaction, but they overlook the difference is that Ed had it taken away for arbitrary reasons by a single person who broke protocol to do so. For 30 years NASA had done things one way, and Margo overruled because she didn't like the outcome. For history's sake, Nixon told Deke to drop Molly and the rest of the women -- including Dani -- fromt her space program. Deke  didn't. Payne was every bit as opposed to Ed putting Dani in charge of Apollo-Soyuz, but he didn't overrule him. Dani benefitted from the old rules, and then benefitted from the old rules being overruled. But to her -- and the way the show is portraying her -- every action that benefits her is justified. 

But the glossing over of Dani's ills gets worse. At least one astronaut is dead because of a command decision she made to film Mars 94. That wasn't part of her mission objectives, and she did it only to enhance her team's chance of making it to Mars -- a noble idea, but a risky one. Now, thanks to her reckless decision to land in less than ideal circumstances (and Ed's decision to not risk his crew) he's her only ride home. Her team is flat-out screwed without Helios's help -- not just because of the busted engine, but because they don't have water at their site and have no real way of seeking it long-range.

Ed owes Dani and NASA nothing in regard to this, but he came bearing gifts anyway. He congratulated her. He accepted her gloating dig. And then she yells at him for not breaking an NDA. 

Edited July 17, 2022 by whiporee

[xaxat]

Dani has known Ed for decades. They have been competitive, but she she has always been supportive of him.

Yet, instead of trusting her (or his own freakin' daughter) with the information about the water, he decided that he would follow an NDA created by the Soviets, who he has a decades long history of not trusting, and Dev, who he shouldn't trust after he took remote control of Polaris.,

Given their history, (especially Jamestown)I still think she has a right to be pissed.

This week is the anniversary of the Apollo 11 Mission. NASA has created a fantastic multimedia site site where you can follow the flight as it happened

Apollo 11 in Real Time

[Joimiaroxeu]

Stupid, Danny. It's your fault Ed opted not to crash land on Mars. Now watch Danny get a painkiller addiction with his ungrateful self.

So the VP was indeed utterly cluelss about Ellen's sexuality. So much for fan speculation that he was keeping an ace in the hole to use against her at the most opportune moment.

How deep in the closet was Will Tyler? Seems like a major security check would have been done on the entire crew since the mission was so important both technology-wise and PR-wise.

Whoa, they kept the medication unlocked on Phoenix? Wait until Danny ODs. Ed will be shocked but Karen will know what's up.

Kelly up there working hard on making that first Mars baby.

Ellen issues DADT. Meh. I get why Clinton made that mistake but she should've known better.

Sergei is slick but he took a huge risk telling Molly about the water on Mars. He's  already skating on thin ice with his bosses, and his family hasn't been extracted yet, have they?

Uh oh, now Danny is gonna kill Ed for sure. Like he wasn't psycho enough before he got addicted. 🙄

Quote

Ed owes Dani and NASA nothing in regard to this, but he came bearing gifts anyway.

Yes but Ed wasn't going to leave Kelly stranded under any circumstances. The gifts were his way of looking like a good sport.

Quote

But to her -- and the way the show is portraying her -- every action that benefits her is justified. 

I think the show is trying not to portray her as the Angry Black Woman, so much so that they've almost made her look like a self-entitled martyr. She tries to divert attention away from what many would perceived as unfair advantages by going out of her way to prove she's earned her gains and accolades. Her getting NASA the win by landing first on Mars will be all most people remember so from her perspective it was worth the risk.

[PurpleTentacle]

What I want to know is: Where did they get that flag pole for the two flags from?

When Will Tyler outed himself, I totally had forgotten which years this is set in, so my only thought was "another gay astronaut. Representation, neat". What came afterwards was rough. So this is the origin of this universes don't ask don't tell. At least here it wasn't a complete backstab from a democrat president, but all a republican president could reaslistically do.

Kinda seems like the writers grasp on history is slipping the closer we get to modern day. It's like the Soviet Union under Stalin, not under Gorbatschow, we are shown here. Then there is HIV. It's the mid 90s, not the mid 80s. I get that your avarage Joe might still be worried about catching it through holding the same flashlight. But an astronaut and scientist? Come on. Even Daniel didn't say "don't be ridiculous, as long as you don't fuck him you've got nothing to worry about", instead she came with them all getting tested, which sure, is valid, but shouldn't have been her main and only point.

Danny really is cuco for cocopuffs. Any reasonable person would have been touched by Ed declaring that Danny felt like his son and maybe took that as an opportunity to reassess and mellow out a bit.  Not Danny. He took it as an opportunity to go even more off the rails. Could he maybe just get hit be a stray meteorite or something? Would be nice for this storyline to be over. Speaking of dumb storylines. We haven't heard of Danny's brother and the "dey took er jebs!"- people for a while. I thought that was going... somewhere...

Are we going to find out that Kelly and russian boyfriend didn't use protection and so we'll have the first Mars-baby? Please no.

16 hours ago, whiporee said:

The Soviets continue their suckitude.

To a really unrealistic degree. I can understand that the Soviets would want the rights to that water and so would make the deal with Helios before telling the americans. Fine. But why keep lying to the americans after that deal is made? The americans currently don't have any means to lay claim to that water or even pump it. So why not get some good will by disclosing it and offer to share it until the americans can get water of their own? It would be a gesture of good will and giving back for living in their habitat that would cost them literally nothing.

On 7/15/2022 at 11:12 PM, watch2much said:

poor guy who decided to come out on Mars????? would have been much more effective doing it at the successful completion of the mission.

How would that have been more effective? Nobody is going to pay more attention than on the first few days on Mars. The consquences for him are the same regardless. Plus, I think it wasn't very calculated on his part. He was overwhelmed by the majesty of this new world and didn't want to live a lie anymore.

On 7/17/2022 at 12:54 AM, whiporee said:

At least one astronaut is dead because of a command decision she made to film Mars 94. That wasn't part of her mission objectives

I'm not sure what you mean here. Could you elaborate?

[PurpleTentacle]

10 hours ago, xaxat said:

Yet, instead of trusting her (or his own freakin' daughter) with the information about the water, he decided that he would follow an NDA created by the Soviets, who he has a decades long history of not trusting, and Dev, who he shouldn't trust after he took remote control of Polaris.,

An NDA is an NDA. What would breaking it have accomplished other than getting him in a lot of legal trouble? Danielle knowing about the water a few hours earlier (it's not like the soviets could have hidden it long term)? That seems totally worth getting sued into oblivion over...

8 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

How deep in the closet was Will Tyler? Seems like a major security check would have been done on the entire crew since the mission was so important both technology-wise and PR-wise.

Since he was in the military before DADT, pretty damn deep.

[paulvdb]

3 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

I get that your avarage Joe might still be worried about catching it through holding the same flashlight. But an astronaut and scientist? Come on. Even Daniel didn't say "don't be ridiculous, as long as you don't fuck him you've got nothing to worry about", instead she came with them all getting tested, which sure, is valid, but shouldn't have been her main and only point.

I assumed that the concern was more about potentially cutting himself on something sharp in that confined space where they were working. Because you can also get HIV from blood contact. Of course straight people can also have HIV so any potential infection could have just as easily spread the other way.

[PurpleTentacle]

1 hour ago, paulvdb said:

I assumed that the concern was more about potentially cutting himself on something sharp in that confined space where they were working. Because you can also get HIV from blood contact. Of course straight people can also have HIV so any potential infection could have just as easily spread the other way.

He was hesitant about taking the flashlight and he was talking about how they could all die if Will had HIV, since they had weakened immune systems due to the radiation in space anyway. So no, he wasn't worried about potential blood contact. I wish it was something this half way rational.

Edited July 18, 2022 by PurpleTentacle

[marinw]

So where did the vodka come from if the Russians had to abandon thier ship? And do the Russians have thier own HAB somewhere or was thier original landing site on the other side of Mars?

Edited July 18, 2022 by marinw

[maczero]

This is the first ep where I found the political stuff more interesting than the space stuff.  I imagine that Ellen has got to feel like shit for throwing Tyler under the bus after he had the bravery to come out.  Also, I'm really surprised that Larry is still fooling around on the side.  One, it seems almost impossible that he could get away with it and two, I thought them having a kid together pointed toward them actually developing romantic feelings toward each other.

[marinw]

51 minutes ago, maczero said:

I thought them having a kid together pointed toward them actually developing romantic feelings toward each other.

It wasn't specified wheather the kid was biological or adopted. Given Ellen's age (40 at the start of Season Two, IIRC) I'm assumeing the later. Poor kid, but it looks like he is genuinely loved as opposed to being adopted to present a image of hetro normality. That would be cynical even for those two.

[jcin617]

6 hours ago, marinw said:

So where did the vodka come from if the Russians had to abandon thier ship? And do the Russians have thier own HAB somewhere or was thier original landing site on the other side of Mars?

The Soviet HAB was on their ship.   Dani mentioned it briefly.

[PurpleTentacle]

6 hours ago, maczero said:

it seems almost impossible that he could get away with it

There are a bunch of conservative politicians around the globe having gay sex. Now and then a few get caught, but you can be sure that the vast majority are not. I remember a few getting caught two years ago because their gay orgies were against covid regulations and so the police came in to break them up. Would have never been caught under normal circumstances.

6 hours ago, maczero said:

I thought them having a kid together pointed toward them actually developing romantic feelings toward each other.

They gay. That's not how that works.

5 hours ago, marinw said:

It wasn't specified wheather the kid was biological or adopted. Given Ellen's age (40 at the start of Season Two, IIRC) I'm assumeing the later.

She was born in 1943. The episode we see her kid took place in 1992. The kid was like 6 maybe a bit older, so born in about 86. That would have made her 43 at the time.

43 year old women have babies all the time (the risks are very much overstated. Yes, risk of complications "double" compared to a 20 year old, but that is from like 1% to 2%, big whoop) and gay people also have kids all the time. Methods go from a cup and turkey baster to closing your eyes and thinking of queen president and country.

6 hours ago, marinw said:

Poor kid

Why poor kid? His parents seem to love him and are good friends. That's a lot more than you can say about most parents.

[marinw]

4 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

She was born in 1943. The episode we see her kid took place in 1992. The kid was like 6 maybe a bit older, so born in about 86. That would have made her 43 at the time.

My math was off! Thanks for the clarifacation.

[whiporee]

On 7/18/2022 at 4:38 AM, PurpleTentacle said:

I'm not sure what you mean here. Could you elaborate?

Dani told Suzy (?) to go out and shoot video or Mars 94 in order to see if there was a way to transfer their fuel to Sojourner. It wasn't part of the rescue, or a part of the mission plan that had been spelled out pre-mission. She decided on her own, but the astronaut in a dangerous position near an unstable ship, in order to try to preserve her chance at reaching Mars. She ended up getting squashed. 

Was it a reasonable plan? Sure. But it went wrong, and she was the only one made the decision.