From: djlerda@juno44.com Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 23:32:33 EST Subj: Space1999: On seeing the Black Sun for the first time in 20 years I just got a chance to see "Black Sun" again for the first time in more than 20 years. What a great episode! I wasn't expecting much because I remember as a kid that I didn't care for it. Well, it certainly proves that all of those reviews in 1975 about the Year 1 characters being a bunch of robots missed the boat. Obviously they didn't understand SF. Some observations: Victor bitching "I should have known better than to ask you" at the computer when it chirps that his equations are incorrect. Kano griping with computer the way one might quarrel with a person yet at the same time pleading not to disconnect the computer. Sort of the way a parent will scold a child in private but defend it in public. Alan storming in and demanding to be allowed to fly the ship. At first I thought he was going to accuse Koenig of deserting a sinking ship and then when he said he should be the one to fly the Eagle I was stunned. I thought he was acting out of character (Alan chickening out). Then I realized that this was his typical aggressiveness. John's "No Goodbyes" speeches. Paul comforting Sandra before they leave. Was Paul only able to show his true feelings for Sandra now that Mike Ryan was dead? John's admonishment to Victor about smoking and then realizing that, what the hell, we all may be dead soon anyway so let the guy have a stogie. Tania coming into Paul's quarters to "share the music" (and more, perhaps?). The actual trip through the Black Sun. And of course, the reunion sequence where John calls Alpha "home" and it sinks in to everyone that Alpha IS their home. Great show. David J Lerda djlerda@juno.com, Parsonsburg, MD, USA "Just because we haven't experienced something doesn't mean it doesn't exist" - John Koenig
From: aritz1622@juno44.com (Anthony J Ritz) Date: Thu, 27 Nov 1997 09:03:43 EST Subj: Space1999: Black Sun / Black Hole >I just got a chance to see "Black Sun" again for the first time in more >than 20 years. What a great episode! I wasn't expecting much because >I remember as a kid that I didn't care for it. Well, it certainly proves that >all of those reviews in 1975 about the Year 1 characters being a bunch >of robots missed the boat. Obviously they didn't understand SF. Yes! That was put absolutely fantastically, David! Black Sun is one of the best episodes of the series. It has many fantastic moments between the characters. Moments that are meaningful, emotional, and moving in many ways. I thought Petter's and Ggreg's conversation about Black Sun was also very good. I saved the whole conversations to my hard disk in a text file, to keep forever as a reference. There is a good building up of the inevitable doom, brought by the black sun. In reality black suns or black holes are very similar in nature to that of the Space: 1999 black sun, but look quite different. Advances in the vision capabilities of the Hubble Telescope have brought some fantastic pictures. Black Holes looks like a spiral of space matter, consisting of the surrounding galaxy, all centering around and traveling into the center of the black hole. The rotation of this galaxy is so fast, that the only thing keeping it in it's circular formation, could be something as dense as a black hole. From the center of the black hole projects a jet of debris or sparks. This jet travels for forty thousand light years into space. It is believed that this jet is the result of the massive collisions taking place in the center of the hole. Black holes are formed when the largest of suns exhaust their fuel, begin to die and collapse upon themselves with such force, it creates a whirlpool effect, sucking in everything behind them. Objects inside are crushed into a small point which has far more mass than even the sun. Nothing can escape the black hole, not even light. And without light, it is impossible to see the actual black sun itself. Our sun is far too small for this to occur. In 4 or 5 billion years, it will collapse down about to the size of our earth, and the outer part of the star will be torn off and become planetary nebula. As far as the episode is concerned, there are many points where the feeling of certain fatalism is being generated. A fatalism that is only paralleled to the last hours of the sinking Titanic (a movie I desperately want to see). The reality sinks in fast for John and Victor. John's first words being "What can we do, we'll all be dead in 3 days." The force field is put in place as a point of being a moral builder, but Helena soon is told the truth by John and VIctor, when she asks for the "point of the force field," and is told in quite bluntly by victor, "The same point that keeps you, from giving up on a patient, until he's dead." My favorite part of the episode, and the whole series in fact, is when John and VIctor are talking in the office, and victor goes off and starts saying: Well we'll all believer what we want to believe, that is what reality is. One thing for certain, the line between science and mysticism, is just a line. And sometimes it makes me feel quite old." That scene, and the sharing of the 60 year old brandy on the stairs of Main Mission, is what Space: 1999 is. Ellen C. Lindow Writes: >Just wanted to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. And to you, all of you! Take Care Tony
From: "Petter Ogland" (petter.ogland@dnmi44.no) Date: Fri, 28 Nov 1997 09:42:52 +0000 Subj: Re: Space1999: Black Sun / Black Hole Tony writes: > I thought Petter's and Ggreg's conversation about Black Sun was > also very good. I saved the whole conversations to my hard disk > in a text file, to keep forever as a reference. Wow! This is certainly one of the greatest compliments I've received.
From: Adrián H. de la Vega (adlv@satlink44.com) Date: Thu, 27 Nov 1997 19:23:00 -0300 Subj: RE: Space1999: Black Sun / Black Hole Tony Ritz wrote about the Black sun episode: "That scene (John and Victor in main mission), and the sharing of the 60 year old brandy on the stairs of Main Mission, is what Space: 1999 is." I could not agree more. Take care Adrian