Flare Sci-Fi Forums: The Final Countdown on DVD

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Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :

Okay, so SW coming out on DVD is a bigger deal, but when I found out about this I felt like mentioning it.

The Final Countdown came out in 1980 starring Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen. It's about the USS Nimitz CVN-68 leaving Pearl Harbor and after passing through an unusual storm finds itself in December 1941, days before the Japanese attacked the island of Oahu. The Nimitz aircraft are far superior to the Japanese and could easily defeat their fleet without America never knowing what would have happened. The question is, if you could change the past would you, should you?

Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :

Excellent film - and the one that introduced me to actually THINKING about the mechanics of time travel in sci-fi rather than just accepting it. Gonna snap this one up, yup.

Mark

Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :

First, you'd have to figure out whether you live in a universe that resolves time travel with predestination, splitting into alternate realities, a big paradox which destroys reality, allows you to change history willy nilly, or with silly big pink hats.

Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :

Wouldnt traveling backward in time to the 40's just make them materialize where Earth was in space back then?

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

Relative to what, though?

Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :

Fuck all that, what's the release date, eh?

Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :

Relative to what, though?

Exactly. The idea of traveling back in time and staying where you are in space is meaningless, because the idea of where you are in space is meaningless. Oh, for an ether...

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :

The special edition DVD comes out March 30th

Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Omega:
Relative to what, though?

Exactly. The idea of traveling back in time and staying where you are in space is meaningless, because the idea of where you are in space is meaningless. Oh, for an ether...

Not really: if you traveled back say, six months, and your time machine couldnt move physically, you'd wind up in space where earth was six months back in it's orbit.

Really, it depends on how the time machine works: does it move time or just move you in time.

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

You're not getting it. There are no absolute points in space. It's all measured relative to something. Are you suggesting that the ship would reappear at a point along the Earth's orbit, only on the other side of the sun? Except, the entire solar system is moving through the galaxy, also. And the galaxy itself is moving, too. So, how are you going to find this magical "space" where the Earth was previously located?

Posted by Pensive's Wetness (Member # 1203) on :

quote:
Originally posted by TSN:
You're not getting it. There are no absolute points in space. It's all measured relative to something. Are you suggesting that the ship would reappear at a point along the Earth's orbit, only on the other side of the sun? Except, the entire solar system is moving through the galaxy, also. And the galaxy itself is moving, too. So, how are you going to find this magical "space" where the Earth was previously located?

even though it's been a few...years...since i read the Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy, did they have road maps? im mean, they had to have . how else do you enforce an eviction notice for highway construction? [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :

Jason, you're saying that the time machine would stay in the same place relative to the sun? Well, why would it do that any more than it would stay in the same place relative to the earth? Or the uber-hole at the center of the galaxy? I mean, it probably COULD use any of those things as its reference point in space, but... why would you make it?

Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :

That's something that's always bothered me about time-travel.
I suppose the real answer is that there is no (theoretical) known way of navigating backwards through time and space simultaneously.
Although sending probes back in time and charting where they reappeared in the past may give a reference point to 'absolute space' if there is such a thing.

One wonders if gravity will have the same effect one on a backwards-time traveller as it would on a forwards traveller, although by my logic it should have the opposite effect, which means staying on the surface of the earth would be very difficult with such a strong repelling force in effect. [Big Grin]

Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :

I guess I just missed out on this, like Transformers. At the time my little brother was going on about how cool this film was. Finally saw it last year, wasn't that impressed.

Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Omega:
Jason, you're saying that the time machine would stay in the same place relative to the sun? Well, why would it do that any more than it would stay in the same place relative to the earth? Or the uber-hole at the center of the galaxy? I mean, it probably COULD use any of those things as its reference point in space, but... why would you make it?

I'm saying that if the machine really removes itself (and occupants) from time/space, there would be no refrence point at all unless the machine could move through space and make the nigh-impossible calculations needed to acciount for everything from the Earth's rotation to the movement of the galaxy (getting far more complex the further back you go in time).
If the Earth was your refrence point (somehow), you'd still have to set up your machine somewhere untouched by man for the duration of the time you wanted to travel or you'd materilaize into something occuping that space in time, thus fucking up both the continuity and yourself as you materilize into Abe Lincon's mother or something equally unpleasant.
There'd also be the small matter of all the air or other particles either displaced by your arrival or their sudden incorporation into you.
Nothing like materializing into a swarm of gnats, I'd imagine.
[Eek!]

Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :

I suppose the real answer is that there is no (theoretical) known way of navigating backwards through time and space simultaneously.

Wormholes.

Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :

Oh, speaking of DVD releases, "Freaks & Geeks" is being released on DVD April 6th. Hooray!

Finally, I won't feel alone!

Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :

Hey, that's cool. Always liked that little show.