# First Men in the Moon



## Fried Egg (Oct 25, 2010)

Did anyone see that new adaptation of the*H. G. Wells* novel made by the BBC the other day?

I haven't read the novel but I thought it was interesting how they managed to reconcile the ideas and events of that novel with what we actually know about the moon.


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## iansales (Oct 25, 2010)

I was amused by the mention of the 1202 alarm as they approached the Moon.


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## Fried Egg (Oct 25, 2010)

iansales said:


> I was amused by the mention of the 1202 alarm as they approached the Moon.


I must admit that the significance of that was lost on me.


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## iansales (Oct 25, 2010)

During the Apollo 11 LM's approach to the lunar surface, the guidance computer kept on throwing an error. The computer had only a single display, which displayed numbers. The error was number 1202. There was a brief panic in Mission Control, until one of the guys there, Steve Bales, said there was no nood to abort. 1202 was onlya warning and meant that computer was being sent too much data - this was because aldrin had left the rendenzvous radar switched on, and the guidance computer couldn't handle data from that and the landing radar at the same time.


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## chopper (Oct 25, 2010)

quite a faithful adaptation as far as i could remember (not read it for some time, but most of it rang very clear).


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## Anne Lyle (Oct 26, 2010)

I enjoyed it - I have only faint memories of the Lionel Jeffries version that it is dedicated to, but I loved the George Melies tribute (the b&m dream sequence) - and I thought the framing device of the Apollo landings added some nice tension to the rather un-PC conclusion of the main story.


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## Starbeast (Oct 26, 2010)

Positive reviews and the trailer makes me want to see the new version, I still enjoy the original movie. H.G. Wells stories are awesome!​


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## blacknorth (Nov 11, 2010)

I thought this was utter tripe. The BBC shouldn't really allow its current housepets (like Gatiss) these ego trips at the licence payers' expense. And I say that as a supporter of the beeb.


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## Anthony G Williams (Nov 14, 2010)

My take on it:

This is a new adaptation of the famous 1901 novel by H.G.Wells, made for British television in 2010. It is remarkably faithful to the original (judging by the book's Wiki plot summary - I read it too long ago to recall anything about it), with few changes. One of them is evident from the start, which is set in 1968 at a fête to celebrate the imminent Moon landing. A boy wanders into a tent in which a very old man is showing an early film, purporting to be of the Wellsian story; for the old man is Bedford, who really was the first man in the Moon.

The scene then switches to Edwardian England and follows the plot of the novel very closely. We see Bedford, then a young, failed businessman, meet the brilliant and eccentric Professor Cavour and learn of his invention of cavorite - a liquid which, when it cools and dries, shields the force of gravity. They construct a space capsule which can be steered by rolling and unrolling blinds coated with cavorite, and arrive at the Moon. There they find that a local atmosphere, frozen in the long nights, forms in the heat of the lunar day, and they leave the capsule only to be captured by Selenites, large intelligent insects. One change from the book, necessary for even minimal acceptability, is that the fast-growing surface plants described by Wells are missing: the Selenites live entirely underground in a huge system of deep caverns with a permanent breathable atmosphere. In their attempt to escape, Bedford and Cavor split up. Bedford manages to reach the capsule and return to Earth but Cavour remains behind, working with the Selenites who learn his language and are very curious about the Earth - and cavorite. The ending differs from the original, in that the film neatly explains why the Moon is lifeless and airless today (although the very last scene rather spoils that).

There are some technically shaky aspects - BBC4 doesn't exactly have a Hollywood budget to work with, after all. While the initial action on the Moon's surface features the obligatory low-gravity slow-motion antics we are familiar with (plus an amusing Edwardian version of Armstrong's first words), this gets forgotten underground, with some vague hand-waving about gravity being stronger there.  Despite this, it's an entertaining production, rich in period flavour, and well worth seeing.

(An extract from my SFF blog)


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## FeedMeTV (Nov 15, 2010)

Anthony's post reminded me of what particularly annoyed me about this program. What was going on with the alien at the end? The atmosphere had been destroyed, what was it breathing? Maybe there is a logical/scientific reason for this that passed me by but it seemed silly to me.

I didn't really enjoy this much at all, the second half was better but I wouldn't watch it again if/when it gets repeated.


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## Anthony G Williams (Nov 15, 2010)

FeedMeTV said:


> Anthony's post reminded me of what particularly annoyed me about this program. What was going on with the alien at the end? The atmosphere had been destroyed, what was it breathing? Maybe there is a logical/scientific reason for this that passed me by but it seemed silly to me.


Yes, that was the "very last scene" I was complaining about. If there had been enough atmosphere for the Selenite to breathe, the astronauts would surely have detected it.


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## Who? (Nov 23, 2010)

I thought it was utterly charming.


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