Timeless - 1x8 "Space Race" Full Reaction
Added 2021-08-30 03:30:27 +0000 UTC
Comments
This was one of my favorite episodes as well. I really loved how they showed Catherine Johnson in a hero role which was much deserved!
BunkerGirl
2022-08-27 22:31:25 +0000 UTCI got so wrapped up in my previous long historical comment that I forgot to mention that one of the most powerful things for me was seeing Flynn save his brother! It shows us a softer side of Flynn and reminds us that he was once a good man before the loss of his wife and daughter convinced him that "the ends justify the means" and he became willing to do anything to destroy Rittenhouse.
Paul Fisher
2021-08-31 01:55:27 +0000 UTCThanks for suggesting this in the first place Ryan! I may take a short break from Timeless and pick something else for my next suggestion but don't worry - I'll be coming back to Timeless. In the meantime, I'm sure you'll keep us going. It is impressive that the writers had apparently read "Hidden Figures" and knew about Katherine Johnson before the movie came out!
Paul Fisher
2021-08-31 01:49:51 +0000 UTCThis is one of my favorite episodes. It was especially nice to see the depiction of Katherine Johnson. If Shelly hadn't mentioned that she already saw "Hidden Figures," I was going to suggest it. If any of you haven't seen it, I highly recommend both the book and the movie. The minor historical errors in the episode didn't detract much from my enjoyment of the episode, but I'll mention a few just to set the record straight for any who might be interested. One of them was the first thing we saw in the episode: the descent to the moon shown on the big screen in Mission Control. In reality there was no TV during the descent. The TV camera was packed away in a cargo area of the lunar module ("LM") descent stage and wouldn't be available until Neil Armstrong pulled a cable to deploy it while climbing down the ladder. The images of the approaching lunar surface shown in the episode were actual footage but not from the TV camera. They were taken by a 16 mm film camera mounted above Buzz Aldrin's head, looking out his window. We had to wait a couple of weeks to see those images after the crew returned to Earth and the film was developed. But the big error was the whole premise of the episode! Disabling the computers on the ground would not have stranded the astronauts, nor would it have affected their communications. The radios were analog and were completely independent of the computers. While the astronauts did normally use the most up to date instructions computed on Earth to determine their trajectories, they had backups available on board which they could use if they lost communication with Earth. In fact Buzz Aldrin did his doctoral thesis at MIT on orbital rendezvous techniques. The other astronauts nicknamed him "Dr. Rendezvous." Months before the launch, Aldrin worked with Katherine Johnson and many others at NASA to calculate many possible trajectories that might be needed if they lost contact with Earth and had to abort the mission at any time. He carried a "cheat sheet" in the LM which summarized the results of all these calculations. It listed the instructions for the direction and duration of engine burns that might be needed at many different times to achieve rendezvous with the orbiting command module (CM), as well as the those for the return to Earth. A lot of possible cases to cover since the CM, the LM, the Moon, and the Earth were all moving and they had to have a unique set of numbers for different times! They also had a sextant aboard so if they had to launch from the moon using the pre-computed numbers, they could check their positions by celestial navigation.
Paul Fisher
2021-08-31 01:43:31 +0000 UTCThanks for this great episode reaction! And thank you Paul for continuing to request this show with me π This episode actually aired the month before βHidden Figuresβ was released in theaters.
Ryan
2021-08-30 04:23:16 +0000 UTC
