MINDBENDER

As it's the subject of our current episode-based discussions, I watched
MINDBENDER tonight for the first time in nearly four years - the first
time I've watched the DVD edition. Since it's one of the poorer
episodes, I rarely watch it.

After watching it I dug out the mail I sent last time, in May 2000 -
since I don't have a lot to add to it and it was nearly 4 years ago,
I'll cop out and resend it the salient points:

I don't much like MINDBENDER I'm afraid. The scenes where Straker
starts to experience his life as if it was a TV programme being made
ruin it for me - because, as we all know - it IS really just a TV
show, and this just serves to remind us. We see that the impressive
moonbase console and equipment are really just made of hardboard. We
see that Paul Foster is really an actor called "Mike". In short, the
whole illusion and magic of UFO is deconstructed before our very
eyes.

Of course, it's just supposed to take place in Straker's head, but we
all know that we _are_ really getting a behind-the-camera view of the
UFO set, and Paul Foster really _is_ called Mike, etc etc. So it's
all a bit of a bummer really.

Apart from that, it's obvious that Straker is just having a
hallucination, and for me that isn't really a terribly exciting
idea for an episode.

One thing that amused me on watching it this evening was the scene where
the Moonbase girl follows a UFO 15 miles away on the surface of the Moon
with a pair of binoculars. The image is remarkably stable considering
the extreme magnification.

the only thing i really liked about Mindbender is Stuart Damon. sc


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

----- Original Message -----
From: "James Gibbon" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Sunday, March 21, 2004 7:42 PM
Subject: [SHADO] MINDBENDER


>
>

> One thing that amused me on watching it this evening was the scene where
> the Moonbase girl follows a UFO 15 miles away on the surface of the Moon
> with a pair of binoculars. The image is remarkably stable considering
> the extreme magnification.
>
>

---------------------------------------------------------

Contrast that with how shaky the view out the flightdeck windows of the
SST is in the first ep; "Identified".... and that has *no* magnification.
Think maybe they got their scripts switched up?

Dave H.

> the Moonbase girl follows a UFO 15 miles away on the surface of the
Moon
> with a pair of binoculars. The image is remarkably stable
considering
> the extreme magnification.

Indeed,this shows the inconsistancies of science fiction
stories where writers sometimes fail to check important factors.
On the Earth the horizon is about 7 miles away when viewed
at sea level, with the moon at one sixth the size of the Earth,
this puts the horizon at just over one mile away.
Beyond this the curvature of the moon would cut off any
vision of any UFO at low heights.
This means the UFO is less than one mile from Moonbase if
Nina can observe it. But if it was 15 miles away,as mentioned
in the script, it certainly is a stable image.
Also with no atmosphere on the moon to reflect radar around
the curvature like it does on Earth,this could also restrict
Moonbase radar images to line-of-sight. No problem for space
detection but very restrictive on the moon's surface.
Most science fiction shows I see don't stick to facts,
I suppose that's why they are called science fiction.

Kevin