Author Topic: TV Series: "Salvation" Pilot Tonight CBS  (Read 18168 times)

Offline Rocket Science

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TV Series: "Salvation" Pilot Tonight CBS
« on: 07/13/2017 02:01 am »
When an MIT grad student realizes that an asteroid is set to collide with Earth in 186 days, he joins forces with a tech billionaire and the U.S. government in hopes of preventing a disaster; a conspiracy comes to light. There is an "Elon Musk like" character who wishes to send people to Mars in advance of impact.
« Last Edit: 07/13/2017 08:49 am by Rocket Science »
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Offline ccdengr

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Re: TV Series: Salvation Pilot Tonight CBS
« Reply #1 on: 07/13/2017 02:29 am »
Sounds like it ticks off every stupid trope previously trod by ARMAGEDDON and DEEP IMPACT despite having Phil Plait as a science advisor (all of whose advice was ignored, it seems) but what the heck, I'll give it a whirl anyway.

Offline Blackstar

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Re: TV Series: Salvation Pilot Tonight CBS
« Reply #2 on: 07/13/2017 04:04 am »
There's probably a funny story waiting to be written about how science advisers to shows get treated.

Some show runners really care and they listen to their science advisers. Some really care, but don't understand anything, so they don't even know when they're messing up the science. Lots don't care enough to turn to their own science adviser much, and generally only do it when they need some sciency dialogue or a sciency plot device to move the story along.

I knew a guy who was a science adviser for a well-known show and I asked him how come, if he was a science adviser, there was so little science in the show. His response was "You should see the scripts before I get them!"


Offline MATTBLAK

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Re: TV Series: Salvation Pilot Tonight CBS
« Reply #3 on: 07/13/2017 05:01 am »
I know these shows are usually flawed; in more than one way. But then I realize it's a miracle that those of this genre get made at all. I know that 'The Expanse' is doing well in it's own way. But I do get weary of hard-science fiction shows and films getting bogged down in brutal violence and downbeat conflicts. If only there was a hard science or semi-hard SF show that could be uplifting in some way?

Nah - it'll never work... 'Joe Public' just loves their brutal, video game-style conflicts with attention deficit disorder, shaky-cam editing...

(whinge, grizzle - listen to the old f4rt moan...)
« Last Edit: 07/13/2017 07:07 am by MATTBLAK »
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Offline sanman

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Re: TV Series: Salvation Pilot Tonight CBS
« Reply #4 on: 07/13/2017 06:38 am »
Here's the trailer:



Here's the first 15 min:





The premise reminds me a bit of an older sci-fi movie from 1950s:




Offline MATTBLAK

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Re: TV Series: Salvation Pilot Tonight CBS
« Reply #5 on: 07/13/2017 07:09 am »
'When Worlds Collide' is a good film. It's one of the few movies that I would absolutely advocate being remade. Would need a decent script, a really good director, and better-than-good science accuracy. But then again; don't they all. I think Spielberg could make a good stab at it.
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Offline Star One

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Re: TV Series: "Salvation" Pilot Tonight CBS
« Reply #6 on: 07/13/2017 10:46 am »
'When Worlds Collide' is a good film. It's one of the few movies that I would absolutely advocate being remade. Would need a decent script, a really good director, and better-than-good science accuracy. But then again; don't they all. I think Spielberg could make a good stab at it.

It would probably end up being directed by Michael Bay!!!

Offline Zed_Noir

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Re: TV Series: Salvation Pilot Tonight CBS
« Reply #7 on: 07/13/2017 11:42 am »
'When Worlds Collide' is a good film. It's one of the few movies that I would absolutely advocate being remade. Would need a decent script, a really good director, and better-than-good science accuracy. But then again; don't they all. I think Spielberg could make a good stab at it.

The SpaceX CTO bankrolled a portion of a  movie

;D Maybe he will take up the reins again as a side project. Also he have the shiny props for the re-make.

Offline MATTBLAK

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Re: TV Series: "Salvation" Pilot Tonight CBS
« Reply #8 on: 07/13/2017 12:12 pm »
I watched the 'Salvation' pilot tonight. Not bad at all. It actually makes me want to see what happens next. The timeframe of the impending disaster does seem a little compressed to me - and the 'Macguffin' to attack the problem; a bit unlikely. But I have a feeling that the writers know that already. But then; that's probably artistic license to see if they can resolve the main issue before 10 or 12 episodes have gone by.
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Offline MATTBLAK

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Re: TV Series: "Salvation" Pilot Tonight CBS
« Reply #9 on: 07/13/2017 12:19 pm »
'When Worlds Collide' is a good film. It's one of the few movies that I would absolutely advocate being remade. Would need a decent script, a really good director, and better-than-good science accuracy. But then again; don't they all. I think Spielberg could make a good stab at it.

It would probably end up being directed by Michael Bay!!!
God; I hope not! This is somebody's chance to get this right. Even in 1979 when I saw the Sean Connery film 'Meteor' - I thought that was cheesily done even back then. That film, though earnest and accurate in some ways; needed double the budget and some script tweaking to do better. I've always thought the 1970s novel "The Hermes Fall" by John Baxter was rather a good book on the subject matter, though a bit dated now. To tell you more would spoil it:  https://www.amazon.com/Hermes-Fall-John-baxter/dp/0671240552
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Offline Rocket Science

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Re: TV Series: "Salvation" Pilot Tonight CBS
« Reply #10 on: 07/13/2017 01:25 pm »
'When Worlds Collide' is a good film. It's one of the few movies that I would absolutely advocate being remade. Would need a decent script, a really good director, and better-than-good science accuracy. But then again; don't they all. I think Spielberg could make a good stab at it.

It would probably end up being directed by Michael Bay!!!
God; I hope not! This is somebody's chance to get this right. Even in 1979 when I saw the Sean Connery film 'Meteor' - I thought that was cheesily done even back then. That film, though earnest and accurate in some ways; needed double the budget and some script tweaking to do better. I've always thought the 1970s novel "The Hermes Fall" by John Baxter was rather a good book on the subject matter, though a bit dated now. To tell you more would spoil it:  https://www.amazon.com/Hermes-Fall-John-baxter/dp/0671240552
The best thing about Meteor was Natalie Wood... R.I.P. :'(
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Offline notsorandom

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Re: TV Series: Salvation Pilot Tonight CBS
« Reply #11 on: 07/13/2017 01:34 pm »
I know these shows are usually flawed; in more than one way. But then I realize it's a miracle that those of this genre get made at all. I know that 'The Expanse' is doing well in it's own way. But I do get weary of hard-science fiction shows and films getting bogged down in brutal violence and downbeat conflicts. If only there was a hard science or semi-hard SF show that could be uplifting in some way?

Nah - it'll never work... 'Joe Public' just loves their brutal, video game-style conflicts with attention deficit disorder, shaky-cam editing...

(whinge, grizzle - listen to the old f4rt moan...)
If a show like that were to have been made it certainly wouldn't go on to spawn 5 more TV series (almost 6 more) and 13 movies.  ;)

Offline Thorny

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Re: TV Series: "Salvation" Pilot Tonight CBS
« Reply #12 on: 07/13/2017 01:45 pm »
I've always thought the 1970s novel "The Hermes Fall" by John Baxter was rather a good book on the subject matter, though a bit dated now.

Or "Lucifer's Hammer" by Niven and Pournelle.

People have always knocked "Deep Impact", but I thought it was well done. The 'Messiah' stuff was about as realistic as they could make it without bogging down general audiences with sciency-stuff (it is certainly far and away more realistic than "Armageddon".) Remember, it was never supposed to be an outer space action flick, it was supposed to be only about how people on Earth react to the imminent end of civilization (hence the double meaning of the title.)

With cable TV doing famous science fiction novels for TV again ("Stranger in a Strange Land" and "Hyperion" are said to be in the pipeline at SyFy, the Robinson "Mars" trilogy and "Foundation" at Spike) I'd like to see Niven and Pournelle's "Lucifer's Hammer" and "Footfall" be filmed.

Offline oldAtlas_Eguy

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Re: TV Series: "Salvation" Pilot Tonight CBS
« Reply #13 on: 07/13/2017 07:02 pm »
For those of us who follow space activities and news we immediately see the connection to real life persons and real projects ongoing although not in 1/2 year but in the next 10 years.

The sad part is that the majority of viewers which will probably be significant for a CBS summer series will never realize that the basis for many of the character and capabilities presented actually exist or is actually under development.

On another note, the N body problem solution is something that could be done but for one minor point. The accuracy of the tracking data we currently can produce. The accuracy is just not there to be able to solve for hidden bodies by the effect they have on other tracked bodies unless the item is massive like the size of Ceres. In which case we would would already know about it. Smaller bodies get lost in the S/N and no amount of computer filtering will retrieve enough accuracy to be able to make the data useful for such a program. But once tracking accuracy improve such as using LIDAR then there is some possibility that this type of program could hypothesize existence of additional unknown bodies.

Offline Jarnis

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Re: TV Series: "Salvation" Pilot Tonight CBS
« Reply #14 on: 07/13/2017 07:50 pm »
If we are nitpicking, I also don't think you can have something like that happen at Wallops and it somehow not be all over the news...

But it was better than I expected. Will probably watch a few more episodes to see where it goes.

Offline oldAtlas_Eguy

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Re: TV Series: "Salvation" Pilot Tonight CBS
« Reply #15 on: 07/13/2017 08:24 pm »
If we are nitpicking, I also don't think you can have something like that happen at Wallops and it somehow not be all over the news...

But it was better than I expected. Will probably watch a few more episodes to see where it goes.
I believe the Wallops imagery was the real footage from the Antares launch failure. Or at least the before and after images with some CGI to link the two images.

Offline su27k

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Re: TV Series: "Salvation" Pilot Tonight CBS
« Reply #16 on: 07/16/2017 01:25 pm »
Saw this today, not impressed, I was hoping it would be like Seveneves but it's just a low budget Deep Impact clone. Suspension of disbelief breaks down when:
1. Use of a gravity tractor to deflect an asteroid in just 100 or so days. Should immediately raise red flag but instead the tech billionaire had to use his skill of reading people to tell this is Incorrect.
2. The tech billionaire design his big rocket alone, in his man cave. I guess the writers watched too much Iron Man, not enough youtube video of rocket factory tours.

Offline Thorny

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Re: TV Series: "Salvation" Pilot Tonight CBS
« Reply #17 on: 07/17/2017 09:38 pm »
2. The tech billionaire design his big rocket alone, in his man cave. I guess the writers watched too much Iron Man, not enough youtube video of rocket factory tours.

I must have missed that. He had a big Man Cave, but did he say he designed the rocket there by himself?

Offline Rocket Science

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Re: TV Series: "Salvation" Pilot Tonight CBS
« Reply #18 on: 07/20/2017 01:09 am »
Episode 2 tonight...
"The laws of physics are unforgiving"
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Offline ccdengr

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Re: TV Series: "Salvation" Pilot Tonight CBS
« Reply #19 on: 07/20/2017 07:10 pm »
Episode 2 tonight...
The first episode was actually somewhat better than I had expected, but episode 2 was pretty awful.  Making an "EM drive" a major plot point, moving the WIPP from New Mexico to Virginia (!?), etc.  It's a bad combination of implausible and kind of boring.  I'll give it another week but that'll probably do it.
« Last Edit: 07/20/2017 07:12 pm by ccdengr »

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