Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets
Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets
| 09 November 2004 (USA)
Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets Trailers

A programme revealing the dangers and spectacles of exploring other planets in the Solar System. Join in the journey and dive below the ice of one of Jupiter's moons or get lost in a Venusian sulphuric acid storm...

Reviews
Organnall

Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

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Gutsycurene

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

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FrogGlace

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

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Neive Bellamy

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

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tankace

Space Odyssey is, unfortunately, largely forgotten from the variety of documentaries whose were shown during the early 2000' and they try to use CGI to make the show more attractive to the public. The majority were nevertheless quite ugly to watch ,due to the technology of the time. To put it in simple words that CGI back then were quit expensive for a TV documentary budget. There is where this lost gem makes the difference, it doesn't try to show the space travel as epic as it is possible, rather realistic enough so the watcher to fill that the crew truly travels in our solar system. Although the effects here and there are a bit dated,they have aged well and the acting is pretty good to. So go and give it a watch ,it really deserves more love than it usually gets.

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drystyx

This movie is an attempt to give a realistic portrayal of an extravagant space voyage. Instead of the usual small shuttle, we have a very large station.It may have been a good idea. But no one will ever know, unless it gets another edit. This is because the production value is probably the worst ever.I'm reminded of my days in a studio for free public access, and speaking with the technicians there. The common joke was "sound people don't know what the Hell they're doing." And here is a prime example.The director painstakingly tries for realism, and he gives a realistic look, but the cost is too great. You can't understand a word that is spoken in this poor sound environment. True, that's how NASA sounds on the TV set, but that's why few people bother to watch real live NASA space coverage, because it is impossible to know what people are saying.And anyone who avers that he or she does understand the dialog is a liar. Fact.I watched the show, but still have no idea what was ever going on. None of the actors could enunciate, and that is suspicious. Either they were poorly selected, or the sound crew was the worst ever. Since none of the actors were intelligible, that makes the sound crew look almost certainly to be the guilty party.The attempt for realism gave it an atmosphere of reality. This is what the director obviously intended, and the director was successful.Too bad you need a scorecard to follow along with what is happening. It is a poorly produced movie.

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Audax67

My main criticism is quite simply that it isn't long enough or detailed enough. I would have loved to see more of everything: the building of the vessel, the engineering, the training, the first lift to orbit, preparations for departure, Venus Orbital Injection, everything. I would have liked to see more of the first leg, Venus to Earth, instead of zipping there like a n°10 corporation bus. In fact, I would have liked to see a series on the scale of Earth Story made of this, with a full hour dedicated to every planet and maybe another to the loop around the Sun. As it was, I was left hungry. On the other hand, I do understand budgets and viewers' attention-spans.Re the science: Let's be fair about the speed-of-light time-lag: they did mention at the beginning that there was a lag in conversations, but they let this evaporate once they reached the outer planets. Some kind of conversation had to be presented to the viewers, and we have to assume that the lag was edited out for the sake of palatability; so no complaints there. But zero for noisy spaceships. The only film in which spaceships make no noise was Kubrick's 2001, and even then he copped out by using the noise of the crew breathing in their helmets - which *was* pretty effective. I wish the makers of Space Odyssey had realized just how eerie the sight of vast rocket-motors blasting in absolute silence might be but alas, Pegasus lets out much the same roar as every other cardboard spaceship in every other cardboard SciFi film.But the rest of the science was excellent. No complaints there, in fact praise for bringing out the radiation problems as well as they did. I just hope that having done this film won't discourage the BBC from making a really detailed version, but I suppose that's not for next week or next year either...

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ubercommando

An excellent series, part drama, part documentary. Just a point of information about the communication lag mentioned by a previous poster. They did refer to a communication delay, but of course they edited things out to make the story flow faster. At one point on Mars, mission control detect a huge dust storm the landing crew can't detect yet and warn them with a message "dust storm on its way 6 minutes behind this message" which illustrates the time lag and just to clear up another point made, the lander on the comet isn't automatically controlled from Earth, but by the crew on the Pegasus. As for the Pegasus, it surely must be one of the best spaceships ever designed for a sci-fi show. A cross between the Discovery and the Leonov from the 2001/2010 saga.

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