A few weeks ago I treated myself to the "Tomorrowland" DVD set. I'm slowly working my way through it, and am I enjoying it.
If you're interested in the history of space flight, especially the American efforts, you really can't discount the influence of the "Tomorrowland" series on space flight, or the Collier's Magazine series that preceded it. Both were big, beautiful expressions of a future in space. The "Tomorrowland" programs aren't exactly like the Collier's pieces -- there were changes for technical and legal reasons, among others -- but you see the concepts brought to life on the screen, through animation and live-action footage. There's also expert testimony on rocket science, space medicine and spacecraft design from Willy Ley, Heinz Haber and Wernher von Braun.
Watching these programs, you think about how they'd never get on the air today. A good bit of the introductory portions of the programs is hosted by producer/director Ward Kimball, who looks like an older Scott Adsit and speaks in plain, patient, almost teacher-like tones. The three experts all have accents of varying thicknesses and speak haltingly at points. Nowadays, they'd be relegated to sound bites, with their main points made by a narrator. In these programs, they're allowed to speak at length.
(Of course, there's also the issue of von Braun, our space program's own Faustian tale. In the "Man in Space" feature, there's brief coverage of the German rocket program and how it culminated in the V-2. No real mention is made, of course, on the V-2's wartime implications. But, I digress.)
For the space historian, it's great to see these people come to life on the screen. They're no longer names in a history book; there's Willy Ley talking about rockets, and Uncle Wernher talking about how a flight to the moon would unfold and sharing a vision of a space plane that's roughly like what became the Space Shuttle. And from a viewing standpoint, it's a treat. The production values are so good that it's easy to forget these were films made for television. Yeah, you can tell they're done with models, but I prefer models anyway. CGI bores me to tears. Models have the virtue of being real. There's also some gorgeous animation done with a lot of wit and style, too.
Then there's the dream, compared to what happened. These films show the dreams of 1955 and 1956, and talk of space flight as something that could be achieved within the next decade. But we know what happened in 1957 and 1958, and how people first flew in space in 1961. Indeed, while von Braun talks of a voyage to the Moon in 1955, within a few years he'd be overseeing the development of the Saturn rockets that would propel Americans to the first real-life lunar voyages, following a flight plan that didn't differ that dramatically from those he outlined on the Disney series.
Within 15 years, Americans would have flown around the moon and landed multiple times. The dream that electrified the viewing audience of 1955 would, by 1970, become commonplace, and by the time of Apollo 17, the television networks would devote little, if any, time to the last flight to the Moon. The real flights to the Moon were, for the most part (and with the obvious exception of Apollo 13), mostly devoid of the tension and drama you see in the Disney versions. It looked so dramatic and glamorous in the Disney telling; in real life, it was up to 12 days in tiny spacecraft for a group of guys, eating from tubes, pooping in plastic bags, and after splashdown, frogmen reeling when they opened the hatch and the smell from inside hit them in the face.
I'm glad we went to the Moon, and I can't wait for our return. The ways we actually got there worked fantastically. But when you see the vision of tomorrow that existed yesterday, you really wish that today didn't end up being so much like yesterday. I love that we have iPods and digital cameras and Trivection ovens and cars with built-in hard drives to hold MP3s, and it's a great time for gadgets in general. But, man, I'd trade a lot of that in a second if the vision of 1955 could have become the reality of 2010.
Watching these programs, you think about how they'd never get on the air today. A good bit of the introductory portions of the programs is hosted by producer/director Ward Kimball, who looks like an older Scott Adsit and speaks in plain, patient, almost teacher-like tones. The three experts all have accents of varying thicknesses and speak haltingly at points. Nowadays, they'd be relegated to sound bites, with their main points made by a narrator. In these programs, they're allowed to speak at length.
(Of course, there's also the issue of von Braun, our space program's own Faustian tale. In the "Man in Space" feature, there's brief coverage of the German rocket program and how it culminated in the V-2. No real mention is made, of course, on the V-2's wartime implications. But, I digress.)
Then there's the dream, compared to what happened. These films show the dreams of 1955 and 1956, and talk of space flight as something that could be achieved within the next decade. But we know what happened in 1957 and 1958, and how people first flew in space in 1961. Indeed, while von Braun talks of a voyage to the Moon in 1955, within a few years he'd be overseeing the development of the Saturn rockets that would propel Americans to the first real-life lunar voyages, following a flight plan that didn't differ that dramatically from those he outlined on the Disney series.
Within 15 years, Americans would have flown around the moon and landed multiple times. The dream that electrified the viewing audience of 1955 would, by 1970, become commonplace, and by the time of Apollo 17, the television networks would devote little, if any, time to the last flight to the Moon. The real flights to the Moon were, for the most part (and with the obvious exception of Apollo 13), mostly devoid of the tension and drama you see in the Disney versions. It looked so dramatic and glamorous in the Disney telling; in real life, it was up to 12 days in tiny spacecraft for a group of guys, eating from tubes, pooping in plastic bags, and after splashdown, frogmen reeling when they opened the hatch and the smell from inside hit them in the face.
I'm glad we went to the Moon, and I can't wait for our return. The ways we actually got there worked fantastically. But when you see the vision of tomorrow that existed yesterday, you really wish that today didn't end up being so much like yesterday. I love that we have iPods and digital cameras and Trivection ovens and cars with built-in hard drives to hold MP3s, and it's a great time for gadgets in general. But, man, I'd trade a lot of that in a second if the vision of 1955 could have become the reality of 2010.
Comments