SUBSMASH

I would have to say SUBSMASH is a very good episode in terms of its dramatic situation allowing the characters some
less then usual interaction for a series like UFO.

In fact it is to Gerry Andersons credit that he allowed scripts like SUBSMASH to be filmed at all considering the fickle attitude of its American backers.

There maybe faults in the scripting of SUBSMASH and its certainly not my favourite,but from the point of view of immediacy it is very absorbing.Who after all remained detached enough to realise that in Stephens Spielbergs JAWS , enviornmental continuity (the weather) was all over the place.

You only realise this after the event,but its your initial response that is all important.Its called empathy and film makers have known about it for years.

Mark UK


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

By the way, now that we are talking about "Subsmash", if you really think about it, this whole concept of Skydiver is somewhat ludicrous :-). I mean, I love Skydiver and what it did on various episodes, but there would really be no reason to have a craft like this.
First of all, submarines are mainly for spying, destroying ships, or launching missiles. No need to conceal this weapon from the aliens (they knew where SHADO headquarters were). Sky, although very cool, would probably be a major technological headache to develop (due to its required ability to witstand water pressure and the harsh environment of sea water, ability to be launched from inside the ocean, etc). This thing appeared to have had a long range and could be where it was needed in almost no time :-). I know there were supposed to be at least 2 Skydivers, but it probably would had been easier and more effective to have several intercepting planes in different parts of the world, maybe even stationed in an old oil platform (or something like that) if it was necessary to have them on open sea. Also, after Sky mission was complete, how would it aqualand over the ocean, and even more challenging, how would it attach again to diver?
Comments?
David



---------------------------------
Do You Yahoo!?
Sign-up for Video Highlights of 2002 FIFA World Cup

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

David Levine wrote:
>
> By the way, now that we are talking about "Subsmash", if you really
> think about it, this whole concept of Skydiver is somewhat ludicrous
> :-). I mean, I love Skydiver and what it did on various episodes,
> but there would really be no reason to have a craft like this.
> First of all, submarines are mainly for spying, destroying ships, or
> launching missiles. No need to conceal this weapon from the aliens
> (they knew where SHADO headquarters were).

Not sure - although the aliens knew where SHADO HQ was, there is
still a tactical advantage in being able to conceal Sky 1
beneath the waves, and of course it's a way of being able to move
around in secrecy.

In 'reality' (if you can conceive of such a thing with respect to
a war against invading UFOs!) I'm sure an aircraft carrier would
be used - no development costs, could use conventional aircraft and
wouldn't arouse suspicion of any kind. Maybe a bit more
vulnerable, but then again you could have half a dozen aircraft
instead of one.

> Sky, although very cool, would probably be a major technological
> headache to develop (due to its required ability to witstand water
> pressure and the harsh environment of sea water, ability to be
> launched from inside the ocean, etc).

Yes I agree here, but then again - of course it's sci-fi, where
anything is possible in the 'future'. How expensive would the
Enterprise's transporter be to develop? :)

Actually having said that I heard this week that a team of
Australian scientists had managed to teleport photons within a
laser beam, so maybe it's possible ..

David Levine wrote:
> Sky, although very cool, would probably be a major technological
> headache to develop (due to its required ability to witstand water
> pressure and the harsh environment of sea water, ability to be
> launched from inside the ocean, etc).

I still think that Sky 1 is a very un-aerodynamic shape with e.g. its
big square rear end, and that if a submarine carried jet fighters
they would have folding wings and be cylindrical and would be
launched out of a tube like missiles. To recover them they would land
on thw water and be designed to stay afloat and the sub would scoop
them up, or something like that.

Anthony wrote:

>I still think that Sky 1 is a very un-aerodynamic shape with e.g. its
>big square rear end, and that if a submarine carried jet fighters
>they would have folding wings and be cylindrical and would be
>launched out of a tube like missiles. To recover them they would land
>on thw water and be designed to stay afloat and the sub would scoop
>them up, or something like that.


If you haven't already, try and see the 1995 anime release "Super Atragon".
In the opening scenes is a sub-launched fighter jet which, I think, is close
to what you're suggesting.

Michael





_________________________________________________________________
Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.
http://www.hotmail.com

Anthony Appleyard wrote:
> I still think that ... a submarine carried jet fighters
> they would have folding wings and be cylindrical and would be
> launched out of a tube like missiles. ...

--- In SHADO@y..., "Michael Wolff" <phydeaux44@h...> wrote:
> If you haven't already, try and see the 1995 anime release "Super
> Atragon". In the opening scenes is a sub-launched fighter jet which,
> I think, is close to what you're suggesting.

Sorry about the OT, but has anyone got any screen captures of (stills
from) this sequence? I would have asked on an Atragon-related email
group, but I called text search in Yahoo's list of email groups
for "Atragon" and found nothing.

Anthony wrote:

Anthony, you might have better luck searching for an anime email group.
I've got the video in question, but no way of making screen captures. Any
video rental outlet with a decent SF/Japanimation section should carry the
video (released domestically by AD Vision, Inc.).

Michael



_________________________________________________________________
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com

<<If you haven't already, try and see the 1995 anime
release "Super
Atragon". >>

Better than that, check out the ORIGINAL feature film
from 1963, "Atragon."

JF

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com

Even better than that, check out my review of Atragon at
http://icydeath.www.50megs.com/

Michael





_________________________________________________________________
Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.
http://www.hotmail.com

--- In SHADO@y..., James Gibbon <james.gibbon@v...> wrote:
> Yes I agree here, but then again - of course it's sci-fi, where
> anything is possible in the 'future'. How expensive would the
> Enterprise's transporter be to develop? :)

In the future?? Don't you remember that the series was supposed to
occur in 1980?? :-)

A couple of other things that I think don't make much sense:
SID: You would need at least two of these things, and probably on a
geo-sync orbit. SHADO's SID looks to be on a low earth orbit. Maybe
you could have gotten away with only one of these birds, but then
maybe in some circunstances, the earth would had blocked SID's view
when an ufo was approaching.

They never payed attention to try to reflect a lower gravity inside
moonbase (or did they have "something" to make the people inside
moonbase to feel normal gravity?) And the episode "Conflict" was
very unrealistic. You would never destroy space garbage like that,
you would only make a large cloud or small debri that would be a
bigger hazard for other spacecraft (the thing to do would had been
to attach small rockets to deorbit the craft). And they made it
sound like you can just move from point A to point B in space easily
(without following an orbit), and you could pass very close to space
garbage. In reality, you would like to pass several miles away from
known space garbage, and the intersecting speeds would usually be
huge. But I know, I know, this wasn't supposed to be a "realistic"
show but just a fun sci-fi series! And obviously when I was about 7
years old and watched the series these thoughts never crossed my
mind :-).

David Levine