HBO's Chernobyl...

[-K2-]

Is anyone else watching this? Wow... I'm very impressed and cannot suggest watching this enough. Tonight episode-2 aired. It is available on-demand.

K2

 

[L.L.Lotte]

Thanks for reminding me about this. Completely forgot I flagged this one, have the episodes sitting there to watch... will be back with comments once I've had a chance to watch it. Looks promising!

 

[ctg]

Is anyone else watching this? Wow... I'm very impressed and cannot suggest watching this enough. Tonight episode-2 aired. It is available on-demand.

I am and I really like it. I'm also glad that someone else put up the thread. If you want to see how the real world science happens this docudrama is for you. I warmly recommend it to all writers and SF geeks.

 

[-K2-]

I am and I really like it. I'm also glad that someone else put up the thread. If you want to see how the real world science happens this docudrama is for you. I warmly recommend it to all writers and SF geeks.

Well beyond that, the whole Cold War aspect often based upon keeping your own people ignorant, hiding your mistakes, flaws, passing off blame and so on is some real world stuff that 'dystopian' writers should take note of. The music is also extremely intense.

K2

 

[ctg]

That radimeter going mental at the end of the episode 2 was horrifying. I've played my fair share of Fallout games, and explored irradiated places, but never have I heard it going like that. Not even in the Stalkers games. Never in real life. To decode what it means, a one click is one bullet and that noise at the end was pure death. Poor men. Poor volunteers. Poor USSR and their inability to handle the most dangerous substance known to modern man. All those polibureaus, what good did they do?

 

[-K2-]

I've played my fair share of Fallout games, and explored irradiated places, but never have I heard it going like that. Not even in the Stalkers games.

Actually, last night I downloaded the demo to an old Thermonuclear War game you might enjoy... DEFCON - Introversion software

All those polibureaus, what good did they do?

Well, as we saw last night in episode-2, when the physicist from Minsk visited the party office... the party leader formally a shoe factory worker (though could have been a CEO), it's about people who feel without power, wanting power over their own people. That's the thing... We read about it in every dystopian novel from 1984, Brave New World, Animal Farm and so on. Those who feel powerless wanting power for power-sake. Oddly, the excuse is always 'in defense of the people.' Like we saw in the first episode, it's actually always about 'power over your own people.' I looked for that speech in the first Chernobyl committee meeting by the older party member... Classic propaganda nonsense.

"When people ask questions not in their own best interest... keep their minds on their labors and leave matters of the state to the state."

That's what really struck me most about each episode. Everyone is about taking credit for success, pointing fingers and laying blame for the failures, mistakes are twisted to come off as treason, and the truth of it is only those who demand to be in power are to blame... everyone else fodder for their egos.

That's really what my whole series is about. People seeking power over the masses claiming that it is for the people's own good. Yet in reality using it to oppress the people simply to be the one at the top.

Past that, I love this from 1984. From the Audio Book:
1984
Ignorance is Strength ~ from 1984 by George Orwell
Novel: 1984
Original Release Date: 1948
Copyright: © 1949 Estate of Sonia Brownell Orwell
Recording By: Recorded Books Inc.
Recording Copyright: © 1986 Recorded Books Inc.
Narrated By: Frank Muller
Editing By: K2

https://soundcloud.com/user-413328199%2Fignorance-is-strength-1

K2

 

[AlexH]

I signed up to NowTV last week specifically for the final series of Game of Thrones, and Chernobyl airing at the same time is a great bonus. The first two episodes have been superb, and I'm looking forward to the next one more than I am the final GoT episode. The only downside is I find almost everything being in English distracting. Just as I was getting used to it, they throw in some Russian to take me out of it. I also couldn't stop myself thinking about Martin from Friday Night Dinner whenever a certain actor was onscreen.

Highly recommended. The atmosphere and sense of dread they've captured seems perfect. I wonder how many of the shots of Pripyat in episode 2 were based on scenes there now? I think I recognised the school and glasses on a desk.

 

[AlexH]

 

[ctg]

. I wonder how many of the shots of Pripyat in episode 2 were based on scenes there now? I think I recognised the school and glasses on a desk.

There are quite many, especially now that they have that sarcophagus in place. The radiation is still there, but while they doing the work, a lot of grounds were cleaned from the contaminated particles. You can see the Red Forest, Powerplant, Pripayat exterior (minus the amusement park) and few others. They might even have filmed the power plant interior shots at the surviving reactors.

I think I recognised the school and glasses on a desk.

I think those were remade, as you cannot see the deterioration in those shots.

 

[ctg]

The third episode is a kind of horror episode. More so than the previous two. I don't know how the nuclear scientists managed to get strength and will to interview the control crew in the Moscow hospital. All those first responders died a horrible death.

The only mildly amusing part was the miners protests on their working condition. Like most of the Russians, they responded with a sarcasm, but what else they could have done? Nothing. Soviets weren't prepared for this incident. Nobody was.

What I don't understand is the secrecy. Even today, and after the Fukushima, the secrecy remains. It is like nothing has changed. The common people are still in the dark for most of the time. We aren't allow know, and we do, it is so long time after that most people from the incident has died ... or was made to disappear.

 

[AlexH]

I found it amusing when the head of KGB talked about KGB following the KGB.

I'm not one for binge-watching, but show me the next episode already!

 

[ctg]

I found it amusing when the head of KGB talked about KGB following the KGB.

Well, what can you do? The system was designed that way.

 

[-K2-]

I found it amusing when the head of KGB talked about KGB following the KGB.

True or not... I recall reading about how the old East German Stasi supposedly made it a point to collect blood, saliva, skin, hair and even breath samples of every East German citizen so they had various means, both then and in the future, to be able to track their own people. I bring that up because... I would like to learn what it was really like in the old Soviet Union/Soviet Bloc, but fear I'll never know.

In the U.S., what went on in the USSR was always portrayed like some Orwellian nightmare that went really bad, making 1984 seeming mild. Adding to that, hear it straight out of a Soviet defectors mouth (we have a couple friends (now very old) that 'escaped' notably from Siberian prisons (at least that was the story I was told)), and naturally they support that... Conversely, you'll speak with some who claim the CCCP was close to a utopian society. Naturally, the stories about the West on the other side of the wall are equally extreme.

Point being, with all of the propaganda from both sides, it makes me wonder if some of the constant blame game, fear of being the scapegoat, and stonewalling under the guise of protecting technology to appear as flawless to the rest of the world was actually that extreme. It plays right into what we in the West were taught. So, naturally, we nod in agreement, then shake our heads in disgust... most often to convince ourselves how right we were all along.

In the end, with so many extremes portrayed from both sides, it makes it impossible to know the actual truth of the matter.

Then again, that's the whole point of it I suppose.

K2

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I lasted ten minutes and then it triggered all sorts of anxiety in me and I’m out. That shows it’s very good dystopia

 

[-K2-]

I lasted ten minutes and then it triggered all sorts of anxiety in me and I’m out. That shows it’s very good dystopia

Sorry it bothered you, but I appreciate you taking the time to check it out.

K2

 

[AlexH]

True or not... I recall reading about how the old East German Stasi supposedly made it a point to collect blood, saliva, skin, hair and even breath samples of every East German citizen so they had various means, both then and in the future, to be able to track their own people. I bring that up because... I would like to learn what it was really like in the old Soviet Union/Soviet Bloc, but fear I'll never know.

In the U.S., what went on in the USSR was always portrayed like some Orwellian nightmare that went really bad, making 1984 seeming mild. Adding to that, hear it straight out of a Soviet defectors mouth (we have a couple friends (now very old) that 'escaped' notably from Siberian prisons (at least that was the story I was told)), and naturally they support that... Conversely, you'll speak with some who claim the CCCP was close to a utopian society. Naturally, the stories about the West on the other side of the wall are equally extreme.

Point being, with all of the propaganda from both sides, it makes me wonder if some of the constant blame game, fear of being the scapegoat, and stonewalling under the guise of protecting technology to appear as flawless to the rest of the world was actually that extreme. It plays right into what we in the West were taught. So, naturally, we nod in agreement, then shake our heads in disgust... most often to convince ourselves how right we were all along.

In the end, with so many extremes portrayed from both sides, it makes it impossible to know the actual truth of the matter.

Then again, that's the whole point of it I suppose.

K2

I think there must be truth when there are so many testimonials - on both sides of the coin. I've read about Bulgaria and Romania under Communist rule, and it was terrible for many but a good standard of living for others.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Sorry it bothered you, but I appreciate you taking the time to check it out.

K2

It's cool. I can't watch District 9, either. And Life freaked me out too. It looked good but I'll maybe pick up a book about it all, sometime.

 

[Phyrebrat]

It's cool. I can't watch District 9, either. And Life freaked me out too. It looked good but I'll maybe pick up a book about it all, sometime.

Me too. Come with me for some saccharin guilty dross this weekend

 

[ctg]

It's cool. I can't watch District 9, either. And Life freaked me out too.

How can you be squeamish about the D9, when you write about alien prisons, the destruction of mankind and torture scenes in your books?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

How can you be squeamish about the D9, when you write about alien prisons, the destruction of mankind and torture scenes in your books?

Not sure, but I've never been able to reach the end of it. I think it's because it's about mutation and that kinda of triggers something in me. Life was about that, too. Also, I can read about just about anything, it's the visual medium that I can't always watch, so maybe that's why.

Or maybe I just like to scare the living ... out of myself.