Small steps.

Today at 8:40 AM, Virgin Galactic finally conducted its first fully crewed suborbital space mission.  Sir Richard Branson, three other passengers, and two flight crew successfully ascended to 86 kilometers above the Earth's surface, and safely returned to the Virgin Galactic spaceport.

Whether or not this was prompted by the possibility of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos beating him to the punch with his own flight on July 20th, Branson has undeniably accomplished his goal of launching the first passenger spaceship, and plans to restart ticket sales, which have been on hold since 2014's fatal test flight incident, which took the life of co-pilot Michael Alsbury.

How do we feel about Virgin Galactic's long-awaited first flight?

Logic says that there is no such thing as bad space travel – everything that broadens the boundaries of our ability to leave the planet is good.  Emotion says that Sir Richard is a dilettante, who has essentially created an expensive amusement park ride for his own entertainment and that of fellow billionaires. 

But, to be fair, the nature of exploration is such that for every Charlies Lindburgh who flies across the Atlantic solo, there will be countless people who desire to make the trip on less challenging terms.

Perhaps more appropriately, for every Commander Hadfield who endures a 5-G takeoff on their way to the International Space Station, there will be hundreds or perhaps thousands of people who want a more accessible opportunity to see Earth from orbit, to live their dream, to take one of the small steps that makes up the giant leap. 

To call those thousands of dreamers space tourists seems unfair, it somehow diminishes the experience, but that approach may well be the method through which commercial space travel actually becomes a practical prospect.  For all the talk about how exploitation of natural resources on other planets will be controlled, we’re a long way from mining the Moon or shipping minerals from Mars, whereas Virgin Galactic has actually demonstrated proof of concept for repeatable passenger travel to space.  

As of today, Sir Richard Branson has made space travel accessible to everyone - admittedly, right now to a very small definition of everyone, that being the number of people who can afford a $450,000 USD ticket, but that's how it starts, with a limited expensive service that eventually becomes affordable to the general public. It may be one small step, but it's a small step that everyone will eventually be able to take.

- Sid

The Tomorrow War: Never Have I Ever.

(Minor spoilers for The Tomorrow War follow.)

Over the course of the last two days I watched The Tomorrow War, starring Chris Pratt and a cast of thousands. I've often said that the two things I look for in a movie are aliens and explosions, and whatever other flaws this film may have, there's no denying that it delivers on those two criteria.

The plot is simplicity itself:  thirty years in the future, humanity is losing a war with alien invaders that are somewhere between the aliens from Alien and the monsters from A Quiet Place.*  In their desperation, they travel back in time to recruit soldiers from 2022, including ex-soldier, biologist and high school teacher Dan Forester, as played by Mr. Pratt.  

The recruits are essentially cannon fodder, warm bodies to throw into a losing war, shown how to pull the trigger and then dropped (literally) into apparently futile combat.  However, there's a chance that a biological agent designed to kill the aliens can turn the tide and save the world, and Forester finds himself part of the future team attempting to create an appropriate compound.  But the clock is ticking, in more ways than one...

The Tomorrow War paints with such a large brush that it's almost a roller, and I'm very curious as to how this movie would have performed at the box office in an alternate timeline where there was no pandemic.  (It was originally intended to debut in movie theatres last Christmas, but following the continued theatrical lockdown it was sold to Amazon™ for streaming on Prime instead.)  

It certainly rings the summer blockbuster bell in terms of shootouts and clever dialogue, but overall it feels a bit derivative, overly simplistic, and conveniently scripted**, and I'm sorry to say that I never completely accepted Chris Pratt as the right person to anchor this particular plotline.

But, all other considerations aside, I have to give The Tomorrow War full credit for two things.

First, the cast commits entirely.  Not since 1998's Armageddon have I seen a group of actors treat a dubious if not somewhat ridiculous premise with such utter and complete seriousness - not a wink, not a nod, not a smirk, everyone delivers their performances with a degree of gravitas suitable for Citizen Kane or Schindler's List.  (Well, okay, Chris Pratt maybe makes one joke too many, but you can make a case for it in context.)

Second, as a long time science fiction fan, never have I seen a group of people - or a script - so indifferent to the possible consequences of time travel.

All the soldiers from the future are under the age of 30 so as to avoid co-existence with their past selves, and the recruits from the past are being chosen for one grim qualification:  they've died sometime in the 30 years before the war begins.  Which is all well and good, but given that the recruits serve a week and then return to 2022***, WHY WOULD YOU TELL THEM THAT THEY'RE GOING TO BE DEAD?  AND HOW THEY DIE?

And if they die in combat instead - as some 70% do, apparently - wouldn't that have some kind of serious repercussions for the future timeline?  

Or why did they not jump back to six months before the aliens first appeared and bomb that first appearance into ash if they're willing to risk changes to the past for their effect on the future?

Nope, nothing, not a word about the space-time continuum, the Butterfly Effect, the Grandfather Paradox, or even wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff, no one seems to give it a moment's thought. 

Perhaps watching a few carefully chosen episodes of Doctor Who would have been useful research for the writers - or maybe just Looper, it's hard to think of a better example of how to use the past to change the future, and vice versa.

- Sid

* One reviewer commented that "these things would give Cthulhu nightmares".  Good to see Cthulhu getting some representation.

**  You know, convenient - like when they need to get to Russia in a hurry and the Department of Defense won't help, and it's already been established that Dan's estranged father has access to a C130 transport plane.

*** As explained:  "At the end of your tour of duty, if the jump band attached to your arm determines that you are still clinically alive, you will automatically be jumped back and your tour of duty will be over." 

Clinically alive - or, as my old office mate Bill used to say, able to fog a mirror.  One feels that the sets the bar a bit on the low side in terms of the degree of damage that someone could suffer and still be "clinically" acceptable.

"We can work it out, we can work it out."

And that was the expression that I was wearing this morning  - sans cigarette - when I randomly switched on the TV and discovered that, once again, CTV's Sci-Fi Channel was showing Jaws.

Based on blog postings, Space and its inheritor Sci-Fi have been sneaking Mr. Spielberg's masterpiece into the broadcasting lineup for a decade now, and I'm baffled as to the reason why.

And, to be honest, this time I almost want to give it to them:  the movie lineup for the day is Jaws, Deep Blue Sea (which is a legitimate science fiction shark), Deep Blue Sea 2, and The Meg, which may not be great science fiction, but at least it IS science fiction - broadly speaking.  It's a logical playlist and a reasonable concept for a different channel (or Channel) but still, in the words of Sesame Street, one of these things is not like the others.

Some very small part of me wonders if someone who has been working there for the last ten years actually reads this blog and is programming Jaws just to troll me, but my ego doesn't extend to an archenemy in the broadcasting profession.  However, if that is the case, however unlikely it may seem - hello.  If you're reading this, please, leave a comment, send me an e-mail, get in touch, do something, surely after all this time we can work this out before it ends badly.  Face it, sooner or later someone in charge is going to demand an explanation as to why you keep showing this damn shark movie - is this really worth your job?

- Sid