Earth Star Voyager |
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USA • 1988 • 240m •
  • Directed by: James Goldstone. • Starring: Duncan Regehr, Brian McNamara, Julia Montgomery, Jason Michas, Tom Bresnahan, Margaret Langrick, Sean O'Byrne, Peter Donat, Ric Reid, Frank C. Turner, Dinah Gaston, Bruce Harwood, Bill Croft. • Music by: Lalo Schifrin.    The Earth Star Voyager is a spaceship sent to another solar system to prepare it for colonization. Earth itself is horribly polluted, so the mission is vitally important. But as the departing starship gets under way, signs begin to emerge that their mission may unwittingly be part of a larger conspiracy.
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Review:
The movie was part "Star Trek," part "Lost in Space," part "Space Academy" and part "SpaceCamp" I actually enjoyed this much more than the early episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" broadcast in the months preceding this, which were so serious and self- important. Bienstock was a dead ringer for Will Robinson, redheaded kid super-genius (with a dollop of Wesley Crusher added). In fact, this is actually much more enjoyable than the 1998 "Lost in Space" movie, which had the splashy effects but not the fun. The cast was generally fine, if a little stiff at times, even veteran Duncan Regehr, whose head-thrashing electrocution spasms in the climax were hilariously amateurish. Pity the show was never picked up, so the young actors never had time to hone their craft.
Alas, aside from the relatively stock plot (including the transparent ruse at the end), the writer really played fast and loose, betraying a poor understanding of science. Here they are, just starting out their mission, and they almost immediately find the Vanguard Explorer. How could the Vanguard Explorer find Demeter with its probes so quickly when it was so close to Earth? (They weren't out there that long since much of the crew including Vance was still young.) They also catch up to a whole passel of radio transmissions from Earth, ranging from Lindbergh's flight to stuff from the '80s. But seeing as how the speed of light (and radio waves) can't vary, there's no way all those signals could all be in the same spot for them to be received simultaneously. In fact, even the newest signals they intercepted, Oliver North's Iran-Contra testimony, should have been 100 light years from Earth (100 years old at the time, traveling away at the speed of light). They were taking 12 years just to get the 18 light years to Demeter, so catching up to signals that should have been up to 160 light years out at the beginning of the mission is supremely silly.
It looks like the show would have had Admiral Beasley chasing them all the way. But since the Triton Corsair was faster than Earth Star Voyager, why did they need Voyager? And transporting billions of humans almost 20 light years to another planet? How long would the trip have taken? With that much life support needed for 6+ billion humans on a 12-year trip, couldn't they just have cleaned the Earth? Was the hitherto rare Baumann Drive that easy to manufacture that they could build them by the millions? That has to be one of the silliest "science fiction" ideas I've ever heard. They would have been better off spending their resources building O'Neill space colonies, especially since they had to build the giant Voyager just to transport a small crew.
Do you want to feel old? Imagine first watching this movie where they say it will be a 26-year mission. Feels like a very long time in the future, right? Guess what? If it were real, we'd be closing in on the end of the mission today, after 19 years.
Review by TVholic from the Internet Movie Database.
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