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LorenPechtel
Reviews
Salvation (2017)
Forget it!
This one so disgusted me that I didn't even watch the whole first episode. This is a dinosaur-killer level impact in 6 months and they think they can mount some behind the scenes effort to deflect it in time? Hah! And with a couple of engines intended to push spacecraft? Hah! An intercept of something like this is all-hands-on-deck, nine-women-and-a-month, try everything you can think of simultaneously project. Instead, they plan to pull it with a one launch of a gravity tractor. Gravity tractors are slow and your tractor must supply just as much energy as if it landed on the target and pushed it--and no chemical engine has anything like what it would take.
There's exactly one answer with any chance of success: Orion, both for the launch itself and for shoving the target--and given the time frame that's still a Hail Mary level attempt.
The Search for Life: The Drake Equation (2010)
Rather lacking in the discussion of filters
I think there was too much focus on the equation and too little on the filters. The physical factors aren't really that important--the product of the physical terms will no doubt end up somewhere within a few orders of magnitude of 1. The prevalence of ETs clearly comes down to the biological factors and the filters he was talking about. Unfortunately, I do not feel he handled this well at all.
The thing is, there aren't three filters, there are four. He touched on the L parameter but only in reference to external threats. The really scary threat is internal--there are many ways we could do ourselves in and we've already had multiple close calls. We might not see any ETs out there because L is always very short.
The Last Ship (2014)
Not excellent but not the trash many on here think it is
I'm writing this because I see a bunch of unfair criticism being leveled on it.
Those helicopters showing up from nowhere in the arctic? Just because we never saw the Russian ship doesn't mean it wasn't somewhere out of sight. Just because we didn't know of it's existence until episode 3 doesn't mean it wasn't there in 1 and 2.
The helicopters getting in undetected? Of course--they weren't transmitting. A radar that's not transmitting doesn't see anything.
The gripes about marksmanship are on target--but they're typical Hollywood, nothing unusual. When is any Hollywood explosion dangerous beyond the fireball itself? There's a very good reason they didn't use the Sea Sparrows against the helicopters--the copters were way too close. The Arleigh Burke use a vertical launch system for all of their missiles--that means you can't aim at a nearby target. The missile will go straight up and then steer towards it's target. To engage the helicopters the missile would end up pretty much heading for the ship. I do agree they should have used the Phalanx rather than the 5" but I don't think a helicopter kill with the 5" is out of the question. Yes, the 5" can't slew fast enough but that doesn't mean they can't guess where the copter is going and shoot when it comes close enough.
As for why he didn't shoot at the Russians--they were ridiculously close. Yes, he could have blown them out of the water--but missiles take time to fly. Think the Russians wouldn't have launched when they saw his missiles? And it would be the same problem as with the helicopters--guns only. He would be betting the ship that his Phalanx guns could knock down everything the Russians could put in the air (And he's only got 40 seconds of Phalanx fire before the guns are empty.) Finding a vaccine and/or cure is his mission, he's not there so sink Russians. Disengaging was the right thing to do.
One thing they did get wrong that I didn't see anyone note--they engaged that rock at far too close a range. The torpedo detonation would have done bad things to the ship (if it was even armed at that point.) Again, though, Hollywood explosions.
To any other reviewers who are going to say things don't make sense--this is obviously one of those shows where they leave mysteries to be explained in later episodes.