# Things you want to know about TV and movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 9, 2013, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-want-to-know-about-tv-and-movies/660548 "2013-06-09T14:17:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-want-to-know-about-tv-and-movies/660548/41 "2013-06-10T16:24:24Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Not an Emacs or Vi user, I take it. Nor is anyone in any movie scene where this happens. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-want-to-know-about-tv-and-movies/660548/42 "2013-06-10T16:25:01Z")
Ever notice how many TV and movie space ships make sounds as they whoosh by the camera? That is simply not going to happen in a vacuum. Oh, and for the record, when I become an Evil Overlord any self-destruct device I have will go off before the countdown reaches 0. And the button to cancel the self-destruct will neither be red, labeled “Abort”, or “On/Off”. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-want-to-know-about-tv-and-movies/660548/43 "2013-06-10T18:39:22Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > Ever notice how many TV and movie space ships make sounds as they whoosh by the camera? That is simply not going to happen in a vacuum. > > Oh, and for the record, when I become an Evil Overlord any self-destruct device I have will go off before the countdown reaches 0. And the button to cancel the self-destruct will neither be red, labeled “Abort”, or “On/Off”. Because the red “Abort” or “On/Off” button will cause a 16-ton weight to drop onto the person pressing that button. The real cancel command will be on my laptop, attached to an icon that says “Solitaire” or “Vacation 2011 Photos.” ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-want-to-know-about-tv-and-movies/660548/44 "2013-06-10T20:17:31Z")
No one has ever explained how all ships, vessels, stations, death starts in movies have gravity. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-want-to-know-about-tv-and-movies/660548/45 "2013-06-10T21:02:42Z")
> [@Laggard](#): > > No one has ever explained how all ships, vessels, stations, death starts in movies have gravity. Not all; in some, the rocketeers use magnetic boots. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-want-to-know-about-tv-and-movies/660548/46 "2013-06-10T21:14:29Z")
> [@Laggard](#): > > No one has ever explained how all ships, vessels, stations, death starts in movies have gravity. Sure they have. “Artificial gravity.” Hell, _Star Trek: The One with the Hot Japanese Chick_ even showed the a malfunction in said AG. You want them to stop in mid-episode to give a lecture? ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-want-to-know-about-tv-and-movies/660548/47 "2013-06-10T21:40:00Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > In _NCIS_ the agency is chockfull of cutting-edge technology. Why do agents still have CRT monitors on their desks? They’re still using VT-100 terminals. > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > We all like a bit of grave-robbing, and in Mary Shelley’s time it was a good way to show the ethics of certain people. But in _Frankenstein_, why bother gathering a collection of parts and sew them together? Wouldn’t it be more efficient to find a suitable intact body, and only replace the parts that needed replacing? I don’t really know, but I remembered this: > [@](#): > > As the minuteness of the parts formed a great hinderance to my speed, I resolved, contrary to my first intention, to make the being of a gigantic stature; that is to say, about eight feet in height, and proportionably large. So, I guess Dr. F. couldn’t find an eight-foot tall giant to re-animate, but he could find large parts, which could be combined into a giant frame? It could be. My long study of adult films has suggested there is quite a bit of variability in certain organ sizes. Maybe that’s true of other organs as well. There could be a struggling actor / junkie somewhere with a huge pancreas, and he just can’t find a way to show it to the world. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-want-to-know-about-tv-and-movies/660548/48 "2013-06-11T18:26:22Z")
Oh, I’ve posted it before, but I’ve posted it again. When people are awakened by a phone call in the middle of the night, why do they turn on the bedside lamp before they even know if it’s a wrong number? And when they do turn on the lamp, why don’t they put their hands over their eyes? I would just pick up the phone. If it were an emergency and I had to get up, then I’d turn on the light. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-want-to-know-about-tv-and-movies/660548/49 "2013-06-11T18:43:26Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I could buy something like this, but they never go into this detail. It’s always an unemotional female computer voice saying something like “self destruct sequence cannot be terminated in… 15 seconds.” A plausible physical explanation would go a long way toward credibility. You want a self-destruct device that does exposition? “As you know, the self-destruct system is based on the antimatter reactor reaching critical mass, which will occur in fifteen seconds. After that point, the process cannot be terminated but there will be a period of two hundred additional seconds before the containment fields fail and the ship explodes.” ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-want-to-know-about-tv-and-movies/660548/50 "2013-06-11T20:18:37Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > How do the villains in the James Bond movies find so many people to help carry out their plans, especially the ones who want to kill everybody on earth? In _Moonraker_, there were the scientists making the satellites that were going to dispense the nerve gas. When a vial broke, they got scared because they knew it was lethal. What’s the big deal; Drax was gonna spray this stuff in the atmosphere and kill you in a couple days, anyway. You don’t know how many times I saw Moonraker and thought the same thing. Drax has this vast network of people carrying out his plot to kill 99.99999% of the Earth’s population and it doesn’t occur to them that they’re doomed, too? After the shuttles take off, the launch personnel are all seen going off somewhere. Where? To have one last orgy before the end? ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-want-to-know-about-tv-and-movies/660548/51 "2013-06-11T20:30:55Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Why would you built a self destruct capability in a spaceship, and have a point in the countdown where it becomes irrevocable? Okay, maybe you want to have a way to ensure that other crews won’t enter a ship and be overcome by hostile aliens or infected with parasites, but why make it so someone could be on a ship and unable to rescind a self destruct order? “Alien”, right? When I saw it in a theater I was screaming, "Why are you idiots making it so hard to cancel a self-destruct on a billion dollar commercial spaceship? " ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-want-to-know-about-tv-and-movies/660548/52 "2013-06-12T01:28:31Z")
> [@Laggard](#): > > No one has ever explained how all ships, vessels, stations, death starts in movies have gravity. The Death Star may have been massive enough to have some natural gravity. However, assuming relatively uniform mass distribution, the gravity would have drawn things toward the center; if the various levels were concentric spheres, like layers in an onion, that would work. But when the Millenium Falcon is brought on board, the deck is seen to be perpendicular to the surface, like cutting through a globe at the equator. So not only did they have to generate an artificial gravity, they must also have had the capability to cancel out the natural gravity that would pull things toward the center. > [@AtomicDog](#): > > You don’t know how many times I saw Moonraker and thought the same thing. Drax has this vast network of people carrying out his plot to kill 99.99999% of the Earth’s population and it doesn’t occur to them that they’re doomed, too? After the shuttles take off, the launch personnel are all seen going off somewhere. Where? To have one last orgy before the end? I think there’s a distinction to make about who among the ground personnel must have known all the details of the plan. The launch techs may have all figured “oh, it’s just the boss going up to his space station again.[sup]\*[/sup] We can slack off for a while until he gets back.” But there must be some who do know, like the guys building the nerve gas globes. The same thing goes for _The Spy Who Loved Me_, and _You Only Live Twice_; not all the henchmen probably know how much shit the boss is planning to bring down on their heads. Blofeld was a right bastard in that last one. As soon as his spacecraft captured the American one, he was going to blow them both up. I’m pretty sure his astronauts didn’t know about that part. Although, now that I think about it, how many shuttles did Drax have? Bond checks out the warehouse in Rio and is later told that everything is being shipped out on cargo planes. Presumably those are the nerve-gas globes going to his secret hideout. But by the time Bond gets there, which seems only a day or two later, it seems like everything has already been taken up to the station except the frisky astronauts (none of whom seem to have a problem with their boss killing all their friends and family). Just the logistics of it all are frightening. - Considering the passenger manifest, the ground controllers probably figured the orgy left without them. ---
**Author:** ![paradigm001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@paradigm001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paradigm001)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-want-to-know-about-tv-and-movies/660548/53 "2015-02-09T21:51:28Z")
There is no logical reason, except to have a visual variety for the show, to still have CRT monitors. When people say that the government is trying to save money and CRTs are more reliable, this is bull! CRT take 4 times the electricity and are very inconsistent to flat panels. I just think they have them to take up space. And also their big flat screen TV behind them is a PLASMA!!! yes plasma, they also are known to not last long (only a couple of years) and they also use 4 times the electricity of a modern Inner plane switching LED LCD. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-want-to-know-about-tv-and-movies/660548.md?page=2)