Pathfinders to Mars (conc)
Feb. 13th, 2013 03:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dormouse1953This series is oddly structured. Of the six episodes, three are to do with getting to Mars and one mostly about getting home, leaving very little of the show actually set on Mars.
Alas, Harcourt Brown finds none of the Martian civilisation he was expecting. The only life they find are lichens, and these are represented by what look like polythene tubes about 10 cm in diameter as you might find in a garden store. These keep coming out of the ground and wrapping themselves around the crew, and even invade the spaceship as it is about to take off. This is fortunate, as Harcourt Brown, in a effort to get away from Mars before Earth is too far away for the return trip, decides to leave the others behind.
The final episode involves a desperate attempt to use the Sun as a slingshot to get home. Of course, they get too close to the Sun (did they learn nothing from Icarus) and all pass out from the heat and radiation - only to be reprived when they fall into the shadow of Mercury. By some odd coincidence, this happens at exactly the point that Mercury and the Sun's angular diameter are the same, so they can use footage of a solar eclipse.
And as they get away from the Sun, Harcourt Brown spots Venus nearby. Well, after the closing credits, you see the message, "Pathfinders to Venus starts 5th March". What a surprise. Just as well they also included that in the DVD box.
Alas, Harcourt Brown finds none of the Martian civilisation he was expecting. The only life they find are lichens, and these are represented by what look like polythene tubes about 10 cm in diameter as you might find in a garden store. These keep coming out of the ground and wrapping themselves around the crew, and even invade the spaceship as it is about to take off. This is fortunate, as Harcourt Brown, in a effort to get away from Mars before Earth is too far away for the return trip, decides to leave the others behind.
The final episode involves a desperate attempt to use the Sun as a slingshot to get home. Of course, they get too close to the Sun (did they learn nothing from Icarus) and all pass out from the heat and radiation - only to be reprived when they fall into the shadow of Mercury. By some odd coincidence, this happens at exactly the point that Mercury and the Sun's angular diameter are the same, so they can use footage of a solar eclipse.
And as they get away from the Sun, Harcourt Brown spots Venus nearby. Well, after the closing credits, you see the message, "Pathfinders to Venus starts 5th March". What a surprise. Just as well they also included that in the DVD box.
