right or wrong special effects

Someone wrote:-
> Again, what are the UFOs firing with? Some sort of light weapon
> (like a Laser)? In fact that couldn't be, could it? You can
> clearly watch the beam coming out of the UFO and moving toward the target.

Marc Martin <[hidden email]> wrote (Subject: Re: THE COMPUTER AFFAIR (1)):-
> Well, that's the same as most any other sci-fi movie or series. It
> just looks "wrong" if the beam is instantaneous. Just like it sounds
> "wrong" if there's no sound in space... :-)

Meaning, that we are so used to seeing the wrong that the right looks wrong.
People will just have to get used to the idea that in reality laser and other
energy weapon beams travel far too fast for the human eye to see.

"Anthony Appleyard" wrote:

> > Well, that's the same as most any other sci-fi movie or series. It
> > just looks "wrong" if the beam is instantaneous. Just like it sounds
> > "wrong" if there's no sound in space... :-)
>
> Meaning, that we are so used to seeing the wrong that the right looks
> wrong. People will just have to get used to the idea that in reality
> laser and other energy weapon beams travel far too fast for the human
> eye to see.
>

To be fair I think (from memory) that the phasers in Star Trek
have always been instantaneous, like a conventional laser or
beam of light in 'real life'. But the slow-moving rays do look
more dramatic.

In fact, neither the UFO death rays nor Star Trek's phasers
should be visible at all in space, or even in an atmosphere
unless it's particularly foggy ..

Another thing that looks 'wrong' to me is the way computers are
often shown writing a screenful of text very slowly, a character
at a time like an old teletype. The first Alien film has this
feature, so does Star Trek TNG. Even in the 1970s a computer
was capable of displaying a screenful of text in less than a
second, over a terminal line.

Hey ho,
James