Tom Swift Jr. and His Outpost in Review
Feb. 10th, 2010 12:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHey,
So last night I finished up Tom Swift Jr. and His Outpost in Space. That cover is awesome. What's between it? Not so much.
Oh, wait, the solar batteries that are as light as a feather and could power a car for a year? Awesome. Totally worth building a factory in space to make them.
Also awesome, the outpost is mostly funded by television and radio broadcasters who need a manned telecommunications relay. There's also Swift Enterprises and government money pouring into this, but it's the broadcasters who initiate things. Double awesome is the sticker shock when Tom shows them the bill, but on and 8 to 5 vote, the broadcasters pitch in (and the minority go along rather than just walk out on the project which is what you'd expect to have happen).
The science, when not complete fantasy is actually pretty decent given 1950's knowledge.
Not so awesome:
To be fair, if that battery had been a real or realizable thing? It totally would've made up for the not-so-awesome because we'd have energy to spare. But I'm still gonna keep reading these things because they're fun.
later
Tom
So last night I finished up Tom Swift Jr. and His Outpost in Space. That cover is awesome. What's between it? Not so much.
Oh, wait, the solar batteries that are as light as a feather and could power a car for a year? Awesome. Totally worth building a factory in space to make them.
Also awesome, the outpost is mostly funded by television and radio broadcasters who need a manned telecommunications relay. There's also Swift Enterprises and government money pouring into this, but it's the broadcasters who initiate things. Double awesome is the sticker shock when Tom shows them the bill, but on and 8 to 5 vote, the broadcasters pitch in (and the minority go along rather than just walk out on the project which is what you'd expect to have happen).
The science, when not complete fantasy is actually pretty decent given 1950's knowledge.
Not so awesome:
- Chow is in danger! Nope, he just fell asleep during a space fitness test.
- Chow, a middle-aged cook rarely described as "fit", turns out to be qualified for space flight when lots of other potential candidates are turned away. Perhaps they should've fallen asleep.
- The FBI is happy to have informant Tom Swift Jr. help out during a bust.
- Native people are friendly and eager to help but incredibly superstitious.
- Native people who go to America to learn science aren't superstitious but that just makes them smart bad-guys.
- So your plan is to take out America's top scientists, but you don't, I dunno, hire some hit-men or something? You just sort of threaten and sabotage, but that's it?
- The lever won't work! Give it a good whack! It's working again!
- What did that resistor left at the crime scene mean? Flying saucer, what now? These and many other plot points will be mentioned once never to be heard from again!
To be fair, if that battery had been a real or realizable thing? It totally would've made up for the not-so-awesome because we'd have energy to spare. But I'm still gonna keep reading these things because they're fun.
later
Tom
