S01.E02: Another Trip Around the Sun

[CooperTV]

 

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Darius and Liam need to invent a theoretically impossible piece of technology to divert the asteroid, and Grace risks everything to help Darius. Also, Liam heads home to Boston to track down critical research, but finds something shocking instead

 

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[shapeshifter]

Oh dear. I thought I knew all the characters when I was watching, but now I come here, and read the synopsis, and realize I have absolutely no idea which slim, dark haired, light complected, handsome, intelligent man is which.

[Sentient Meat]

It's smarter than Scorpion, but not by much...  I like this type of show so I'll give it a little longer to improve... but for supposedly MIT level intelligence, the kid makes so many dumb moves not to mention the ridiculous scene involving the hijacking of nuclear materials.

[Driad]

9 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Oh dear. I thought I knew all the characters when I was watching, but now I come here, and read the synopsis, and realize I have absolutely no idea which slim, dark haired, light complected, handsome, intelligent man is which.

Right. Diversity helps viewers too. The leads are all white and the techies are all male. Nobody looked at real MIT students, eh? Reminds me of Downton Abbey when Mary's suitors were identical triplets as far as I could tell.

At least we found out (a little of) what happened to the professor.

[Llywela]

7 minutes ago, Driad said:

The leads are all white

Santiago Cabrera is Latino, not white (light skinned Latino, sure, but he's talked a fair bit about the barriers he faces as a South American actor classed as brown by the industry), and Ian Anthony Dale is half-Japanese. They don't look at all alike to my eyes, beyond both being dark-haired. Maybe it helps that I'm already very familiar with Cabrera and therefore less likely to confuse him with another dark-haired man of similar age.

Haven't managed to see this episode yet - will be back with comments when I do.

[Princess Lucky]

1 hour ago, Driad said:

The leads are all white

This is pretty much the only current CBS show for which that is not true. When I found out Santiago Cabrera and Ian Anthony Dale would both be on Salvation, my only question was "and who's gonna be the talentless white guy who'll be the star of the show?" To my surprise, this is more of an ensemble,

So, Jennifer Finnigan is friends with the ambassador of "Africa" huh? Great.

Wait, Ian Anthony Dale lied about the test because she didn't have clearance? And then he got her the appropriate clearance, and then he told her (almost) everything? Aw. I knew I liked him. Also, she's the one keeping most of the (treasonous) secrets now. And using his (sexy) body to cover up her failed spy tricks. Rude. Meanwhile, she's using his specific clearance codes to steal uranium, plus she's dropping his name to soldiers, but she doesn't want to "implicate" him? Like...

Nice to see Dennis Boutsikaris wasn't just hired for that one-off role in the pilot. But I do agree, why not include a female genius? The show has too many dudes right now.

Darius is charismatic, but he's getting on my nerves. And I still don't care about the white guy, I skipped all his scenes.

Speaking of me not caring, that teen reporter is gonna have a whole storyline to herself? And so will the random girl the white guy hooked up with, whom I assumed we'd never see again (read: until the finale)? Yeah, I'm not so sure I'll keep watching this show. Not if that's their idea of filling airtime.

That said, "Atlas" is "Destiny" right? From The Core? Which, like I said last week, is clearly the inspiration for this show? Namely, it's the military program which somehow caused the upcoming disaster? I gotta say, Ian Anthony Dale is much better looking than Richard Jenkins. And he looks way better shirtless. Santiago Cabrera is Stanley Tucci, I guess, which is a slight downgrade. And the MIT guy is Aaron Eckhart? That's a total downgrade.

Edited July 20, 2017 by Princess Lucky

[Free]

10 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Oh dear. I thought I knew all the characters when I was watching, but now I come here, and read the synopsis, and realize I have absolutely no idea which slim, dark haired, light complected, handsome, intelligent man is which.

It doesn't help that most of the show so far has been exposition dump and the characters don't really stand out.

[Driad]

I don't keep track of actors' ancestry.  The point was that they all look rather similar.

[thuganomics85]

Nice to see that Zuleikha Robinson used her off day from Still Star-Crossed this past episode, to appear here as some kind of rich billionaire, who agrees to back Darius little project, since Harris and the government could only provide one billion of the two billion dollars he needed.  And, of course, they have a thing.  Pretty people on TV do what pretty people on TV always do.

So, it turns out that Harris was actually planning on telling Grace the truth after-all, once he got her the proper clearance, so the whole behind his back and accidentally getting the tech killed was all for naught.  And now he knows that she is going behind his back, since I'm guessing he found her earring in the suitcase where he has all the clearance codes.  Yeah, this relationship is already in trouble.

Liam mainly just stumbles around Boston trying to find his professor's research, but not before he briefly gazes has his beloved sci-fi writer crush from afar, and then pays a whole bunch of people to sit in on her reading (and hopefully buy her book?)  But in the end, not only does he find the research, but the professor himself, so now they're all with Darius.  Also, Darius views the girlfriend as a "complication."  Not sure why, really.  He's still a fucking rich guy; just have her shipped to D.C. with them, and she can keep writing, while Liam does the whole "save the world" thing.

I don't care what this show tries to tell me, but I'll never believe that this reporter works for anything but the local high school newspaper.  The actress is just way too young looking. 

[Free]

8 hours ago, Driad said:

I don't keep track of actors' ancestry.  The point was that they all look rather similar.

The problem is more that they don't stand out at all, none of the characters have been memorable.

I only know like the woman who lost her earring or that guy from Hawaii Five-O.

[shapeshifter]

5 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

…So, it turns out that Harris was actually planning on telling Grace the truth after-all, once he got her the proper clearance, so the whole behind his back and accidentally getting the tech killed was all for naught…. 

Yeah, I can't figure out the storytelling rationale for that bit.

[kieyra]

3 hours ago, Free said:

The problem is more that they don't stand out at all, none of the characters have been memorable.

I only know like the woman who lost her earring or that guy from Hawaii Five-O.

Yeah. Much was made of the "eye candy" here but they're all blander than bland. Writing too. 

[Llywela]

Well, I'm not having a problem telling one character from t'other - they are all very distinct to me, both in appearance and character set-up/personality. The storytelling isn't perhaps as dynamic as it might be, but the characters aren't giving me any trouble at all. I know who everyone is, what drives them and what inhibits them, which is where I feel we should be after two episodes.

[Bobbin]

21 hours ago, Princess Lucky said:

But I do agree, why not include a female genius? The show has too many dudes right now.

The women, including an evil genius, are on "Zoo" the following night.

[DoubleUTeeEff]

The premise of this show is interesting to me. An asteroid is hurtling toward Earth and we need to stop it! A few select people know the world might end in 6 months while the rest of the suckers walk around in ignorant bliss! But I was completely bored by this episode. The dialog is pretty bad. The characters are not that intriguing. The whole girlfriend going behind the back of the DOD guy seems ridiculous, as well as lying to the rich attractive woman to get 1 billion dollars and the Professor running around in danger--because he might know how to save everyone? 

19 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Also, Darius views the girlfriend as a "complication."  Not sure why, really.  He's still a fucking rich guy; just have her shipped to D.C. with them, and she can keep writing, while Liam does the whole "save the world" thing.

Right? You can literally write sci fi anywhere.

I'm down with a cheesy apocalyptic TV show but I'm not sure if this will have enough to interest me.

[orza]

16 minutes ago, DoubleUTeeEff said:

Quote

Also, Darius views the girlfriend as a "complication."  Not sure why, really.  He's still a fucking rich guy; just have her shipped to D.C. with them, and she can keep writing, while Liam does the whole "save the world" thing.

Right? You can literally write sci fi anywhere.

The girlfriend is an unwanted distraction because if she is in the picture Liam will not be 100% focused on the work like he needs to be. A young guy in love will want to spend time with his girlfriend every day, preferably in bed, and will be thinking about her when they are apart. They don't have time for that. They have a very limited amount of time to solve a hugely important problem. If they are successful there will be plenty of time for young love to bloom. If they are not successful it won't matter.

[shapeshifter]

On July 20, 2017 at 3:21 PM, thuganomics85 said:

…I don't care what this show tries to tell me, but I'll never believe that this reporter works for anything but the local high school newspaper.  The actress is just way too young looking. 

She does have a baby face, but she also has line claiming that she has a masters degree in journalism, which would make her about 24. I'm not sure, but some online social media detritus—if it really applies to her at this time—states that someone with the actor's name is 23.

[Latverian Diplomat]

So, when Darius started describing the propulsion I thought he was talking about an ion drive, which is a real thing, that has the properties described (small thrust sustainable over a long time) and it seemed like a good fit for what's needed. But then when "never been built", and "breaks Newton's Third Law" came up, it finally sunk in that they really meant "EM drive".

Which is a "real thing" in the sense that people are arguing about whether it's real or not. The show has it exactly backwards though. It's the theoreticians all say it's impossible, a few experimentalists claim to have built ones that deliver tiny, "reactionless" thrust. Part of the argument is that the thrust is so small it's at (some say under) the very limits of reliable detection. In the show there's a a theory that says it should work, but no one knows how to build it. 

So, I thought they were doing some actual realistic extrapolation, but I guess that wouldn't be dramatic and "rule breaking" enough.

[wilnil]

23 minutes ago, Latverian Diplomat said:

So, when Darius started describing the propulsion I thought he was talking about an ion drive, which is a real thing, that has the properties described (small thrust sustainable over a long time) and it seemed like a good fit for what's needed. But then when "never been built", and "breaks Newton's Third Law" came up, it finally sunk in that they really meant "EM drive".

Same here. I'd figured the reason he needed the refined uranium was as the most easily accessible (to Darius) radioactive substance for building a reactor to power an ion drive (which was pretty realistically described in a recent novel, Saturn Run). As for an "actual" EM drive, I've heard the same arguments, and so far the "impossible" side appears to have the edge.

I don't mind too much when reality gets bent a bit in TV fiction, but this episode -- and, even more so, the next -- is threatening to break it altogether.

[Guest]

I'm distracted, and annoyed, by the commercials CBS runs that take up the bottom quarter of my tv screen blocking whatever is happening there.

[Miles]

On 28.7.2017 at 2:52 AM, Latverian Diplomat said:

So, when Darius started describing the propulsion I thought he was talking about an ion drive, which is a real thing, that has the properties described (small thrust sustainable over a long time) and it seemed like a good fit for what's needed. But then when "never been built", and "breaks Newton's Third Law" came up, it finally sunk in that they really meant "EM drive".

Which is a "real thing" in the sense that people are arguing about whether it's real or not. The show has it exactly backwards though. It's the theoreticians all say it's impossible, a few experimentalists claim to have built ones that deliver tiny, "reactionless" thrust. Part of the argument is that the thrust is so small it's at (some say under) the very limits of reliable detection. In the show there's a a theory that says it should work, but no one knows how to build it. 

Yeah I was rolling my eyes hard at that one. Nobody knows if the EM drive works. The smart money is on: no, it doesn't. So who in their right mind would stake the future of humanity on this?

Even if it does work it's not suited to this application. The distances we are talking about here are way too short. The EM drive, if it works, is so amazing, since it can output constant thrust without porpellant, which means it can do it over a very long time and thus get to increadible speeds. But it's thrust (if it exists) is very tiny. So building up speed would take a long time. They don't have that kind of time.

It would have been more realistic if they had staked everything on the warp-drive...

 

In general I'm annoyed at their apporach. I get why they don't want to make it public. They don't want people to panic and society to colapse. But at this point, they don't really have a choice. They need the whole worlds economic output that doesn't go into food production and necessary infrastructure to go into projects to prevent the extinction of the human race. Some arcs to Mars and a ton of ways to try and stop that asteroid.

I think if you can show that you have a plan on which humanity can work together to prevent the end of the world, you could prevent a panic and focus people on what's important.

Edited April 3, 2018 by Miles