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From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin )
Newsgroups: net.tv,net.aviation
Subject: Re: Space (the mini-series)
Message-ID: <10114@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 22-Apr-85 16:59:31 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.10114
Posted: Mon Apr 22 16:59:31 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 24-Apr-85 03:19:55 EST
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Xref: watmath net.tv:2818 net.aviation:1546

I waded thru SPACE, which I found to be, shall we say, "not dense" -- it
would have made a nice 4-hour two-night movie if they had left out the
soap opera and kept in the space-related parts...

Anyway, why I am copying net.aviation on this -- I seem to have seen
some wildly anachronistic aircraft shots in this mini-series. I didn't
take notes, so I can't be too specific, but I kept seeing aircraft
in shots that were supposed to be in the 50's and 60's that appeared to be
of much more recent vintage.

The ironic thing is that there was a half-hour program about the making of
"Space" in which the producer/director/whatever were discussing all the
pains they took to make it authentic and accurate, emphasizing there
the moon scenes. Yet I recall shots of what was supposed to be the mid 50's
when John Polk was in Colorado, as a Navy pilot on educational leave 
studying for his doctorate, where they showed shots of an USAF plane over
the Rockies that he was supposed to be flying. I can accept some sort of
inter-service courtesy to allow pilots in the other services to use another
service's aircraft for keeping flight pay and in monthly training/
familiarization flights, but the aircraft appeared to be some modern
century-series craft, which, even if it was operational at the time,
would not have been available for such galivanting around in; he should have
been flying some sort of older craft, like something in the F-90's series.

Also, the planes they were supposed to be TESTING, as brand new prototypes,
at Pax River, seemed to be the same planes earlier shots used as their
ordinary ferry-craft, used for getting from one station to another!

Maybe I'm wrong here; I've lost a good deal of the instant-recognition
knowledge I used to have for fighter craft, so I can't rattle off
designations and specifics. But maybe somebody out there who knows
this stuff better caught some of this show and can comment...

Regards, 

Will Martin

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