If reality TV has taught us nothing else (and it hasn’t), it’s that there is no shortage of people in the world who are dumber than anyone could possibly have imagined.
Long article on the show in a newspaper a couple of weeks ago.
And yes, I’m familiar with the theory of gravity. I didn’t even make it past the application stage. 
Apparently there’s cash prizes for those who don’t figure out that it’s a hoax…those that twig it win nothing.
If they don’t twig, they get a stack of cash and a real visit to Russia (like they’re going to trust anyone after this).
Stooge Steve is gone, after suffering a bout of D&V, and generally being a liability - I thought he was the one most likely to spill the beans.
Astronaut training was interesting; they’re feeding them a subtle blend of real history of spaceflight, and complete bullshit, for example they were told about Laika (first dog in Space), then they were told about (and shown the stuffed remains of) ‘Minski’ - the first monkey ever to return alive from orbit, and that the town of Minsk was named after the monkey. Only the actors batted an eyelid.
I missed fridays episode but what I’ve seen looks interesting. Didn’t like steve so I’m glad he’s gone.
Oh I remember a quote from a David Eddings book I read once. Went something like; “if you want them to swollow it mix 2 parts truth to 1 part fiction”. Seems the producers are doing the same here.
Well, tonight’s installment was… interesting. They were fed some complete BS about artificial gravity generators, which they all swallowed without blinking. They were made to ponce around in skin-tight white lycra body suits.
Apparently, they’re going to stay in the simulator for five days and they’re going to do an EVA; I can’t see how that is going to work at all, since the projection screen outside the simulator is only big enough to cover the views from the front cockpit viewports.
Nahh, they’ll ‘find’ an emergency reason for the EVA being cancelled at the last moment (meteor storm?)
I’m just watching the re-run on E4 now, it’s amazing nobody has rumbled the setup yet, especially considering the fact that the bearded boob who was giving one of the lectures let slip that they were infact in the U.K. Fortunately he was mumbling and the ‘contestants’ are complete fools so it passed without incident.
OK, since it’s now been mentioned, I’ll tell what I heard from someone working on the programme:
The EVA (though how on earth anyone would think they’d be able to do this in 1g I don’t know - to me that’s a wing walk, or a long fall) is the finalé - each person dons their space suit, goes into the airlock, then exits the “spacecraft” to be confronted not by space, but a studio full of their friends and family laughing at them.
The cruellest stunt ever perpetrated on TV anywhere. Though I still have my doubts…
That makes sense.
Apparently, the approval to perpetrate this hoax has been sought and obtained from those nearest and dearest to the contestants (althought I’m not sure it actually counts for anything). I suspect the contract they signed (even though they didn’t know the nature of the show) will have contained a waiver against any anguish caused by public humiliation. They knew (at some point before committing) that they were to be on a reality TV show, they must also realise that reality TV shows often lead to public humiliation, although it is pretty much guaranteed here.
Well, I’m finding it quite absorbing. Mind you, I’m also laughing at Johnny Vaughan’s jokes, so maybe my critical faculties have finally shut down completely after the years of neglect. But I think this is turning out to be a very entertaining pop psychology stunt, reminiscent of the first Big Brother series, before that show’s contestants knew the score and it turned into a mass audition for wannabe TV presenters.
The fun is in trying to work out to what extent each of them realises that it is a hoax. For they surely do, at some level. There is a suspiciously large number of apparently light-hearted comments along the lines of “what if this were all fake?” (or “what if this was”, this lot being unlikely to use the subjunctive).
I suspect that the spectrum of credulity runs from Keri (knows it’s a hoax but wants to be part of it, whatever it is), through Paul (supressing scepticism because he wants it to be true) to Billy (most of the time appears to actually believe it). Even the stooge Charlie seems to sometimes forget that it’s make-believe, and I find myself forgetting too.
I’m not sure that they actually do genuinely suspect anything; I think all these comments (at least those I’ve seen so far on C4 - I don’t have E4) might just be expressions of their own astonishment that it’s all actually happening to them - more a case of “I just can’t believe it’s happening” rather than “I don’t really believe it’s all as it seems”.
Sometime though, the penny will have to drop - they can’t keep them in there forever - I fully expect that we’ll see a lot of face-saving comments at that point to the effect that “see, I told you we never left the ground!”, when in fact what they actually said was “Wow, it’s such a smooth ride, it feels almost like we never left the ground” - which is not the same thing.
I think though that this programme can only ever be done once. In future, anyone signing up for any kind of reality TV show will be aware of the “Space Cadet Hoax” possibility. So even though the programme does have many moral (Oh my God, it’s the Truman Show) problems, you have to remember that they can only do this once.
As to the Big Reveal, I’m torn between making a Klingon Bird of Prey decloak off the starboard bow, having a Borg cube hove into view or just suddenly the door opens and Johnny Vaughan walks in.
If the plan for the Big Reveal is to tell them they are going on a spacewalk and then have them walk through the airlock and out into the warehouse where their friends and family will be laughing at them, then the problem will be that they will be wearing helmets so you won’t see their faces at the moment of reveal.
For me, one highlight was that dog. The Cadets have indicated that they think there’s loads of these rottweilers about but I bet they’ve only got one and they keep re-using it. But it’s fantastic - the way it was barking and straining at the leash as their bus came into the Russian camp, the way it always strains at the leash when the guy is walking it. It just looks such a badass dog, they must have had to hunt around to find one that would bark and strain on cue.
I’m starting to wonder if there will be no big reveal; close the cockpit viewport shutters and put them through a fake landing sequence, followed by a fake tow back to the hangar, let them exit the simulator through the same tunnels and gantries by which they boarded it, award them a certificate, helicopter them back to Lydd under cover of darkness, jet them back to Heathrow (via the North Sea Scenic Route), then follow them as they try to re-enter their lives. Everyone will of course be telling them it was a hoax, but will they believe it?
I particularly liked their comments after they viewed the fake nose cone; they kept saying that it was just like something in a movie; that the guy in the silver suit appeared right on cue, like it was scripted, etc. Tee hee.
Something interesting I noticed last night, not while watching show but watching something else on a different channel.
I don’t remember the name, but I spotted the Scottish guy with the big hair on a completely unrelated advert. If anyone in the UK knows it, it was the ‘Give Blood’ ad with all the different celebrities, he’s the guy that apparently helped Gordon Ramsey. That says ‘actor’ to me, and makes me even more suspicious that the joke’s on us…
BUSTED! it’s definitely him!
http://www.channel4.tv/entertainment/tv/microsites/S/spacecadets/cadets/ryan-mcbride.html
Wow, that was an excellent spot Wayward. Of course it is still possible that he is a joe public, it would be even more compelling evidence if you could find proof that the other blood donators in the advert are actually actors.
After I spent a while digging up that advertisement, I discovered that talk of the double-hoax is all over the Space Cadets forum. If this is a double-hoax, it definitely takes the shine off the whole thing.
Thanks. It was a real “Hey!” moment, sadly there was no-one else around to point out my smartness to at the time so I decided to do it here instead. 
Like Mangetout, I’ve just been looking at the official Channel 4 forum for the show where there’s lots of this sort of discussion going on. It seems they’ve spotted him too but there have been several posters pointing out that the sort of person who would apply for a bit part in a TV ad is exactly the sort of person who’d also apply for a reality TV show…
My own pet theory is that there’s actually three or four groups of actors, each told that all the other contestants are real. Only trouble is, I can’t work out who the butt of the joke would be.