u/7stroke

So many howlers I can’t list them all, but here are a few (spoilers):

1. Alex easily defeats IP security by using someone else’s computer to access restricted files. That’s just not how it works. (btw, Alex Baldwin??? Seriously?)

2. The characters needlessly repeat expository material that they (and we) are all aware of. Several instances of this.

3. The dialog is at times ridiculous, like when the crew on Titan is discussing how to get to the probe. Just full of sci-fi ‘stressful situation’ cliches that are disconnected from each other. This is not a conversation actual people have.

4. How does Celia Boyd all of a sudden know how to pilot a spacecraft in E8? She’s a cop who’s been in space less than a year.

5. Irina Morozova wants to give Miles leverage over the M-6, to avoid surrendering to Earth, but then recoils at his plan to destroy the docking station. WTF?

6. For that matter, her stint in prison was silly. Some magic Morse code water pipe is all it takes to get out? And I guess every interrogator seems empowered to be able to release someone from jail? Also, what, does Uber have drivers near Siberian prison camps to pick her up?

7. The Marines are sent on recon to the asteroid as their first mission. First of all, I thought they were still two days out? Also, what are they reconning? Like, isn’t taking the asteroid one of the main goals of the mission?

Etc….. (Incidentally I love the random callout of ‘max Q’ overheard on the radio from a ship in the vacuum of space)

So, I finally decided to watch this show after meaning to get around to it forever ago. I’m up through S4, so I’ll have to dodge any spoilers in the comments… anyways…

I love it—don’t get me wrong—but man did the writers drop ball on a couple important facts (so far!). Being an American living in the US, I’ve surely missed a lot of things that a British audience wouldn’t. Also, I’m not a historian, just some guy who likes period dramas. These two were bad enough to bug me.

1. When Polly reunites with Michael in S2, we’re told he has to wait until his 18th birthday to legally make his own decisions. This struck me as odd enough to check. Turns out the age of majority in the UK wasn’t 18 until Family Law Reform Act 1969, which lowered it from 21 (which it had been during the era in question). Incidentally, in the 1920s, the School Leaving Age was 14—so you could get several good years out ‘em in the mines first I guess.

2. In S4E6 Tommy places a transatlantic phone call like it’s no big deal. This season ends in May 1926, but the very first commercial transatlantic phone call was made in Jan 1927. The service was simply not commercially available to anyone in 1926. Honestly that’s not as big a miss as I thought before googling, but it stuck out enough for me to pause the episode and write all this!

Any others?