Dark Side of the Moon
From The Bionic Wiki
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| Production 47303 Original Airdate: 6 November 1977 | |||
 Steve shows off | |||
| Produced by Richard H. Landau | |||
| Teleplay by John Meredyth Lucas | |||
| Story by Richard H. Landau | |||
| Directed by Cliff Bole | |||
| Guest Cast | |||
| Uncertain billing (please edit into appropriate category if you have access to this episode) Skip Homeier as Ted Harmon Simone Griffeth as Beth Fowler Jack Colvin as Dr. Charles Leith Quinn Redeker as Frank Tracey Bob Neill as Eric Walter Brooke as Dr. Tellman Rick Richards as Air Policeman | |||
| Broadcast Order | |||
| Season 5 | |||
| ← Previous | Next → | ||
| "Rollback" | "Dark Side of the Moon (Part II)" | ||
| Related episodes | |||
| - | |||
Contents |
[edit] Summary
Dr. Charles Leith is not suspected when the moon's orbit changes, as his government-sponsored space expedition is supposedly on an asteroid. But he leaves an antenna on the asteroid to relay communications to Houston Mission Control, and goes to the moon for his own mysterious purposes. When the moon's orbit changes--causing cataclysmic storms throughout the world--Steve Austin takes off for its dark side to investigate the cause.
[edit] Deconstructed
[edit] Quotes
[edit] Trivia
[edit] Storyline
- The episode seems to take place entirely within a short span of days around the full moon, as Steve lands at his old landing site, and in bionic walking distance is the terminator between day and night sides, with Leith operating just over on the far side. Steve's landing site must have been right at the edge between near and far sides.
[edit] Gaffes
[edit] Real World
- The visit to the asteroid is shown to use what appears to be standard Apollo hardware, except that it appears to have capacity and capability greater than the lunar module built by Grumman. For a start, after Leith leads his own four-person mission to the asteroid, they lift off and still have a descent module to land on the Moon. Secondly, they somehow can carry four people in the ascent module, and have a way to descend to the ground through a pressurized passageway and into a mine shaft.
- Libration of longitude would mean that Steve's old landing site and Leith's operating area would move in and out of view from Earth as a month goes by.
- If this episode is intended to imply that the far side of the moon is always dark, then it is incorrect.
- The communications time between Earth and the Moon is 1.3 seconds, for a round trip of almost 3 seconds. The asteroid must be at least two million miles further out from Earth or closer to the sun, or it would be remarkable as an Earth-grazing asteroid. Therefore, if the asteroid is only two million miles further, it would add 13 seconds to the round trip communications, keeping Steve and Oscar from having a real-time conversation without significant waiting.
[edit] Gallery
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