Aliens put into a spin
QUESTION I have strong memories of a science fiction film or series of the Fifties in which the hero and villain face each other around a circular table that has six nozzles. Five nozzles produce a harmless puff of smoke, but the sixth hides a deadly laser. The table rotates each turn, so the adversaries play futuristic Russian roulette. Does anyone know what it was? THis was from an episode of the cult sixties series Lost in space, that followed the travails of the Robinsons, a family of pioneering space colonists.
in the year 1997, Earth is threatened by massive overpopulation, so Professor John Robinson, his wife Maureen, their children, Judy, Penny and Will, and Major Don West, are dispatched to a planet in the alpha Centauri star system to establish a colony. But their spaceship, Jupiter 2, is sabotaged by Dr Zachary smith, and the crew and smith become Lost in space.
The episode The Deadly games Of gamma 6 (season 2, episode 8) first aired in november, 1966. While John Robinson inspects a new weather station, intergalactic gladiators arrive on the planet, to stage a competition. sinister gamesmaster, Myko, appears and explains the games are broadcast throughout the galaxy. He wants John to enter the contest as an Earth representative.
When John refuses, the dastardly smith lingers behind to make a deal. Myko shows him the supreme test of courage — The Wheel Of Life, a Russian roulette machine using laser beams. Myko allows smith to choose his own opponent for the bout. He chooses geoo, an alien half his Deadly: Futuristic Russian roulette in TV’s Lost In Space. From left Bill Mumy, Mike Kellin and Jonathan Harris size. Meanwhile, John and Don discover that the losers of the fights incur invasion of their respective planets.
The pair are unable to stop smith from taking part in the bout, and he is duly thrashed by geoo, who can become invisible. When John learns what has happened, he explains to Myko that Earthlings are tougher than smith.
in a desperate effort to prevent an invasion of Earth, John fights geoo and beats him. Then, he challenges Myko to a tense game on the Wheel of Life. Myko moves before pressing the button, concedes the bout and agrees that the human’s display of courage has convinced galaxy military leaders that war with Earth would be foolish. Had John pressed the button, he would have been zapped.
archie Gooley, Ramsbottom, Lancs. QUESTION How are tins of sardines or baked beans sealed? WHiLE the bottom and side of a can is soldered, the top is not. The top has an overlapping lip. The lid also has a corresponding lip. When put into the sealing machine, the lips are pressed together and folded over, making an airtight seal.
The can is then put into a machine called a retort — a giant pressure cooker. Under pressure in the retort, the top seal opens slightly. This process does no harm to the contents and kills harmful bacteria.
When the retort is cooled, and the pressure is lowered, a small amount of cooling water gets into the tin. as this water is chlorinated, it does no harm to the contents. if a retort is depressurised wrongly, the filled tins can sometimes explode, making a nasty mess.
ted Guile, London N16. QUESTION Kate Atkinson’s book Life After Life contains the quote: ‘She had married a Casaubon, she realised.’ What is a Casaubon? FURTHER to the earlier answer, while atkinson was clearly referring to george Eliot’s Casaubon, Eliot’s choice of name for her character was deliberate. isaac Casaubon (1559-1614) was the genevaborn son of two French Huguenot refugees, who returned to France after the Edict of saint-germain in 1562.
Casaubon became a classical scholar and diplomat. He worked in geneva in the 1590s and in Paris from 1600. after the assassination of Henri iv in 1610, he accepted a position in England from James i and was employed to defend the English Church’s place in Europe against its Roman Catholic detractors.
Casaubon was responsible for a large body of poetry, prose and letters, and was considered the foremost scholar of the era. interest in Casaubon was revived in the second half of the 19th century with the publication of his diary in 1850.
Casaubon’s diary showed him to be a meticulous student of ancient literature, and he struck 19th-century scholars as a pedant. This led to Eliot’s memorable portrait of Casaubon as a man with a sterile passion for information.
isaac Casaubon has since struggled to emerge from Eliot’s influential depiction as a man engaged in enormous but futile scholarly labours.
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