Well, I think ‘certifiable looney’ is unfair. An unfeeling technocrat best-way-to-keep-the-peace-is-to-prepare-for-war believer would be a better description. As well as an arrogant SOB whom the other scientists hated. Especially after the war ended and they all kind of regretted building the thing in the first place and yet all he did was lobby hard to go ahead and build his ‘super’ (i.e. the H-bomb). And personally I think he was right. The genie was out of the bottle and I have absolutely no doubt that regardless of what we did the Russians would have built a Hydrogen bomb asap. In fact, they did. They actually had an air-deliverable H-bomb before we did!
And ***all ***the Los Alamos scientists, Oppenheimer included, didn’t realize radioactive fallout would be as dangerous a thing as it turned out to be. Before Japan surrendered they planned on having at least a dozen A-bombs ready for use in the invasion of Japan right along with all the conventional forces.
His whole notion of nuclear engineering to dig harbors and move mountains was crackpottery. He also lied about test radiation levels to further his agenda. If a determined few hadn’t stopped him, he would have detonated nuclear devices in Alaska, putting both people and the local environment at risk. Seems fairly nutty to me.
Well Operation Plowshare was not his idea alone, it was tested, and rejected because of radiation contamination (and the USSR did it as well). And we did detonate (an extremely large) H-bomb in Alaska, in the Aleutian Islands anyway. Largest underground US test ever. Worst thing it did IMO was form Green Peace! Seriously though, regardless of Teller I think that test showed that we couldn’t do those types of multi-megaton test, even underground, anymore.
One man’s ‘certifiable looney’ is another’s ‘over-enthusiastic, originally genius, now semi-senile and in love with the monster he created’ scientist.
I was stationed on Adak Island in 1971, not all that far from Amchitka Island, where the blast took place. They had everybody move to high ground when the test was done, just in case of a tsunami. The result was the nuclear equivalent of Capone’s vault: a big zero.
Plowshare was defeated because of the first ever environmental impact study, which determined that the fallout would contaminate all of the lichen over hundreds, if not thousands of square miles. Lichen is what caribou eat. Caribou are what Eskimos eat. Teller pushed the project up to the bitter end, until a group of “ignorant” indigenous people refused to roll over and be screwed, and some uppity college types finally proved that Teller’s claims were lies, and his conclusions were based on personal zeal, not on science.
Anyhow, I still hope they bring him into the story.
I haven’t seen the show. My heart sank though when I did hear of the series. I assume it was commissioned due to the popularity of Mad Men, Masters of Sex and House of Cards.
The second ep was okay, although I still don’t understand the cold opening. I’m pretty sure “tailgate party” was an anachronism. I thought perhaps “D-Day” was, also, but apparently that dates back to WWI. They’re going to have to introduce more interesting plot lines, because the existing ones won’t hold up over time: harried scientists and frustrated housewives don’t a series make.
I think there was a guy who was couriering Plutonium across the country, and he was super-nervous all the time, because it was so valuable, and we were meant to assume that he was smuggling moonshine, or something like that. Not quite sure what he was doing in the bathroom, maybe there was some periodic cooling process or something of that sort.
I thought the second episode was quite promising. The acting and production values continue to be good, and there were some nice non-cliche moments:
(1) Dr. Green is clearly the moral hero and main protagonist, and he ran up against a situation where it would be convenient for him to compromise his ideals… and he DID. Normally heroes in stories refuse to compromise their ideals for practicality and yet it somehow works out for them
(2) They set up this big test to prove their theories correct… and it failed miserably even though as an audience we expected it to succeed at the last minute
So, I’m definitely in for a few more episodes at the least, I think there’s a lot of promise. (I do definitely wish there was a “here’s the real history behind what you saw, here’s what we made up” page we could go to after each episode. Did they REALLY ship plutonium across the country in a taxi cab? I dunno, that’s plausible…)
Couriering plutonium for whom? I can buy the US gov’t being skipping on containment procedures out of ignorance, but it’s beyond absurd that they’d transport plutonium like that.
Well, I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up. Ironically, it looks like the series can’t be seen here in Chicago. The regular WGN rebroadcast the first episode, but WGN America isn’t on the local cable systems.
Well, that’s why I’d like to have a fact-checking page. Was that made up out of whole cloth? Or was it a real life event exaggerated for comical effect? Etc. I did find one description of a guy couriering plutonium around who was told “if anything weird happens, run away from your car” without any further explanation, but it didn’t sound like he had just hired a taxi.
You could make a drinking game out of the anachronisms. Pink foam and plastic hair curlers? No, the curlers up until the mid-60s were made out of wire, with bristle brush stuck in them. And the other MPs must’ve been pissed when that .45 slug…I’ve said too much. But I’ll keep watching despite having quit drinking.
However, how in fuck could Winters have expected to implode a foot of pipe with a pound of plastique hanging off a stovepipe containing the pipe? It’s obvious to anybody with two brain cells to rub together that everything needs to be symmetrical, as in spherical, to get an even, symmetric implosion. Well, obvious to everybody but the him and Seth Neddermeyer. Oppenheimer must’ve been crazy to put Neddermeyer in charge of the implosion device.
And maybe someone could explain what sort of fun you can have with a measly 150 micrograms of plutonium.
I’ve been fascinated with the early years of the nuclear weapons effort for a long time, and while I’m not seeing faithful historical accuracy, I’m enjoying the show overall, with reservations. There’s no question that the actual history is heavily fictionalized; I’ll be happy if they at least get most of the major milestones right. I do wish the main leads weren’t quite such big ol’ jerks, however. The conflict between Fisher and Isaacs seems contrived and completely against their own interests, although the actors seem to be doing their best to sell it.
On the other hand, I’m enjoying some of the secondary roles. Olivia Williams is quickly establishing a complicated and fascinating character, and for me is the best of the bunch. Daniel Stern, almost unrecognizable, cracks me up from appearance alone, although he hasn’t been given much to do yet. Fisher’s team seems to have some potential as well.
Also the production design and camerawork are first-rate. Yes, one can easily find anachronisms here and there, but given the TV budget, I think they’re doing a remarkable job. Just for one example, although it may not have been entirely intentional, the hollow thumping as characters move back and forth across the board floors of their houses and offices, is kind of evocative to me.
Obliterates The Last Ship on quality, I’ll say that much. I’ll keep watching.
I feel like the show is a bit less than the sum of its parts. Lots of individual things that are good, but the whole thing doesn’t grip me the way it should.
For instance, it’s a quite interesting idea that the guy who shot the chinese guy is now a character, and clearly feels conflicted about what he did, but at the same time lots of other people are congratulating him. But… I don’t honestly care. It’s nice that he’s not just a cardboard cutout order-following guard like he stereotypically should be, but it still just comes off more interesting in theory than in practice.
I also have ZERO patience for “well, you have to get a working prototype of your compression thing in 24 hours or you never get any plutonium”. Really… so if it takes them 28 hours to come up with an experiment that unquestionably demonstrates that their idea is sound they get NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING? That’s not how science works.
I’ll definitely keep watching for now, but I feel like I should be enjoying it more than I am, for whatever reason.
Is this show on YouTube? I get a WGN affiliate but unfortunately not the main WGN America superstation and so my TiVo season pass hasn’t recorded anything (other than the pilot).
Seriously though, regardless of Teller I think that test showed that we couldn’t do those types of multi-megaton test, even underground, anymore.
I can buy the US gov’t being skipping on containment procedures out of ignorance, but it’s beyond absurd that they’d transport plutonium like that.