'Falling Skies' on TNT HD - Page 6

Though not a complete explanation, they did say in the episode that MOST of the aliens left after the initial attack and only left a small garrison behind. They may have scouted enough to have somewhat of an idea as to regular alien movements, or at least know where they likely aren't. And with a small garrison, it would imply that the aliens can't cover every area at once. I tend to believe it's bad writing.

Don't forget that automotive alternators use diodes for rectification and would be fried so the not-GTO (I'm not buying it 'til I see a rear view) would not be charging the battery. GM started using solid-state ignitions (HEI) in the mid-70s when starting to use cats.

That being said, I figure a bad sci fi series is better than none. As I said previously, it can only get better.

Ah yes but what you've not taken into account is that it was an alien weapon and the only reason the show refers to it as an EMP is because that's what the primitive Earth-people likened it to.

It could have been an electronics death ray that could indeed fry circuits and turn silicon into goo.

Thrones wasn't that good. Justified, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, True Blood, Dexter, Boardwalk Empire, The Walking Dead, are all great shows and better than Falling Skies - but they're not on! Sons of Anarchy used to be good but got ridiculous. Fringe is pretty good. The Good Wife I haven't watched. Friday Night Lights is really good, although I missed one season and plan to watch it on DVD. So there may be a couple on now that are better - but sure not many. I guess I should have specified "current shows".

I stayed with the 3 you mentioned .. and I'll stay with Falling Skies .. I think one reason is I watch on a 110" screen and my HD feed is pretty solid, so size and immersion does make a difference .. for me anyway ..

It's a tough genre, and that's the real bottom line, IMO .. as a person that came of age in the late 1950's, early 1960's where Jules Verne, HG Wells, Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Heinlein etc were my basis, as well as the original Twilight Zone / Outer Limits .. I tend to just roll with the modern material, taking it for what it is ..

I had a dream that the V's would meld with the Event aliens .. or perhaps the Event aliens would become the V's .. can't remember ..

as Heinlein said .. "Thinking doesn't pay. Just makes you discontented with what you see around you." (Stranger in a Strange Land)

Well I was just impressed that when their bomber dropped it's glowing projectile it made an explosion large enough to justify using an airstrike in the first place and one that was more powerful than something you could buy for July 4th.

I always find it hilarious on SF shows that have powerful alien ships attacking ground forces and whenever they drop their ordnance it only creates a small fireball that knocks three people over.

Stargate was a prime example of that. Their Alkesh bombers could fly at hyperspeed but only packed bombs as powerful as a block of C4.

Yes you really should.

But that's not really a good argument either because depending on the scheduling then any show on television could instantly become the best thing on air for a few weeks just through lack of rival programming!

Thanks for the clarification - I was under the assumption this could only happen under load. However, this still wouldn't be an issue for devices without them and any device with them would likely be unusable due to the lack of any data instruction from memory or storage anyway.

The short of it is, a Ford or Chevy from the 70's or earlier would definitely not be affected. Some other economy vehicles from the 80s would likely be OK, as well....and flashlights would work.


While I'm not sure about standard AA or AAA LIon batteries, I do know many packs found permanently installed in devices are what are known as "smart" batteries. They have protection circuits built in that monitor voltage and allow a steady discharge even when idle. That circuit communicates with the charger to ensure a proper charge (it's like an internal clock) - and ensure they don't blow up. In short, the "non-dumb" LIon batteries have electronics in them. Because of that tech, some batteries won't charge properly with the wrong power cycles applied (such as 50-60hz or the reverse). Further, generator power would possibly destroy them from the dirty power the non-regulated models produce.

As far as trickle chargers, the older type would only work with batteries like Lead Acid or NiCad. I doubt one of those could even initiate a charge on a modern LIon battery. Modern trickle chargers (like a Battery Tender for a vehicle battery) detect the voltage of the battery and go into "storage" mode when capacity is nearly reached. It essentially provides current to the battery as voltage drops in the battery's natural resting state. However, they are intended for vehicle batteries, which are not LIon. You can't charge your Ipod with one.


Gas in a car tank will go bad in a matter of a few months, based on volume. They aren't "sealed" like you think. It's just essentially a check valve. It's like a banker's box or a cash register type of protection. The tank at the station, on the other hand, is like the actual bank vault in terms of protection, provided the area doesn't flood or succumb to anything that could breach the tank.

In a car, most fuel researchers agree that the fuel will have been compromised in anywhere from 4-8 weeks. At that point, a good amount of the butane in gas will have evaporated and lacquer will begin forming. The other issue is, as soon as a container seal is broken, the clock starts ticking faster. Resealing it won't help - the damage has already started. So, even if your tank could fully seal, as soon as you try to put gas in, the seal gets broken. Fresh gas mixed in can allow old gas to fire again, but only so much. After a while, it's like recycling plastic: it just becomes too corrupted to continue the practice.

If they're still driving around next season, that will be an issue.

Now, I did some reading and it appears a diesel engine with a mechanical governor will operate in the conditions we saw, but the problem is the fuel. It doesn't "go bad" the way gas does, but instead it can be infested by fungus due to it's biological formation. So, those buses, trucks and trains would likely eventually contain fuel that is essentially full of mold.


Yes and no.

You're right, that unless they settle down and plant stuff, they're going to be hard up for food eventually. However, keep in mind that the major populations were decimated. That leaves a lot of supplies for the survivors. One grocery store could feed several hundred people for 6 months or more before non-perishables became scarce. I have over a dozen supermarkets within 5 miles of me in a town of 30,000 people.

3 months in, they would still be under moderate rations while they remained in the city, though getting to the food would be the biggest obstacle. I didn't notice any particularly fat people. Further, we've mostly been seeing people that are "operationally important", not the groundlings tagging along for protection. If the ones doing the fighting and such get to sleep in houses while the civies are in tents, it's likely they're eating better, too.

But, meat would be a problem in the city and even in the country for several hundred people in one "community". Even in the mountains, hunting that much food would be difficult, especially quietly, unless you happened to come across a herd of feral cows or something.

I will agree that they need to get somewhere remote and pursue some farming tasks immediately.

While gas does go bad eventually, mostly from evaporation of the volatiles leaving behind a gooey mess, I don't subscribe to the Stabil ads that show the guy who left his boat/mower/chainsaw over the winter and it won't start cuz he didn't put Stabil in it. I've heard stories about old gas going sour but never have experienced it and I've kept gas in sealed containers for over six months w/ no apparent harmful effects.

Maybe... though it could be they are new at the conquering-others phase... also, they might be relying on the shock-and-awe of just showing up from another planet to freak out most inhabitants of the target planet.


Aside from bad writing, this is the most likely/plausible explanation... and the scouts could find these smaller groups of aliens and make sure they re-route the human population to a different route away from the alien troops. I will buy this explanation unless it gets dis-proven somehow.

This show qualifies as a POS. There is NOTHING unique or original in any way, we've seen it all before and done better. I can't think of any reason to keep watching and will be curious to see how it performs in the ratings.

I can see why it was dumped into the slow summer months, if it had ANY competition it would be DOA, not that it's far from it now. You know what might have made it interesting, show it from the invaders perspective. Not like V, but a race desperate for resources encountering and fighting the human population. Show what knowledge they gleaned from our broadcast wafting out to space, and see how they interpret and misinterpret that info.

Anyting would be better than this tired retread.

Just finished watching from my DVR - I rather enjoyed it.

First thought - Jericho, without the Santa Monica mountains in Kansas.

Second thought - I've missed Moon!

I have been one to avoid watching previews at the end of shows. I just like it that way. I found it way too distracting to have a preview for every single commercial-separated segment. Thankful for FF. Will they continue to have previews prior to each segment? Is this a regular TNT thing?

Kind of like a reverse Avatar?

I sort of think of the EMP as not so much as a "Pulse" but a "field" that's covering the planet (or at least the parts they need). If the aliens are smart enough to traverse the stars they sure as hell are smart enough to figure a way to disable only their enemy's tech.

Watched it last night. OK but pretty much a rehash of the WOTW movies, with a splash of Terminator & shows like Jericho & BBC's Survivors thrown in. It also reminded me of the BBC show Tripods - "harnessing" children similar to "capping" them in Tripods and the machines over the cities.

Very very derivative show, sigh

But I'll stick with it & see how it develops, better than the usual dreck on mainstream channels. At least the acting & characters have potential.

But it's not sci-fi's savior on mainstream US TV as a recent article on CNN was suggesting it might be

I can see the show lasting 2 seasons, but not sure how they keep it going after that. Time will tell....

Watched both episodes last night...
To quote old Biff "There's something awfully familiar about this"
Not very original at all.
Would have expected better from Steven Spielberg
Oh well it's summer and you have to stay home at least one or two nights a week- so I'll watch for a while because; see below...

+100 Best thing about the show!

I'm ashamed to admit that I'd never noticed this and it's funny as hell now that you point it out. I just assumed ailens were concerned with limiting unnecessary civilian casualties. In defense of the alien military scientists, they've generally limited weapon development to a primary (destroy the earth type bomb) and a single secondary (death ray, laser, photon canon, etc). There's not much funding for intermediate level bombs. This is a recession afterall...

"the premiere of the Spielberg-produced TNT drama Falling Skies delivered the biggest audience for any cable premiere this year. Per Nielsen, just over 5.9 million folks watched Noah Wyle deal with the aftermath of an alien invasion; around 2.6 million were in the key demo of viewers under 50. By comparison, AMC's The Walking Dead premiered to 5.3 million last fall, while USA's Covert Affairs drew 4.9 million for its July 2010 debut."

"What's more, Sunday night was also filled with big competition from the season finales of HBO's Game of Thrones and The Killing, along with the third-season premiere of Drop Dead Diva over on Lifetime."

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment...erg_score.html

The Goat was produced starting in 1964. Someone made a comment about the alternators, interesting. Ford started the 64.5 Mustang with Generators, and switched to Alternators in 1965. My friends '62 Ford Galaxie has a Generator so it would work, as long as the ignition system was not up-graded. Best car for the Apocalypse is an old Volkswagen Beetle.....

Unlike Earth weapons where a larger gun usually means more powerful rounds, alien television weapons generally don't scale.

So alien rifles will do the same damage as alien pistols - which is usually make a small burst of flame not powerful enough to go through a piece of wood on a park bench.

Alien weapons on tripods are also pointless usually too (hello Goa'uld!). They fire one round a minute, don't have recoil and still probably can't go through wooden boards. So why the tripod?

The tracking system seems to be a major design flaw in the Skies aliens too. It takes forever to lock on, you can see it coming and unlike say an Earth Javelin AT weapon it doesn't fire a very powerful round to justify the tracking device to begin with.

M1A2 Abrams

I noticed the mechs hardly ever "got" their target even when the beams were square on someone's chest

They are infinitely more effective against red shirts.

Terrible choice if you're outgunned - which even the tank would be under those conditions.

Tanks are loud, big and you can't see what's coming. They also get about 2 miles per gallon of diesel. They're surprisingly fast, though.

The ultimate vehicles for an alien-induced apocalypse are actually - drumroll, please - the VW Microbus and a Willys Overland model Jeep (MB or early CJ era).

The Jeep will get you around in the hills with the 4WD and the microbus gives you cargo capacity. In a pinch, you can disconnect the rear roof section and make it an open bed vehicle. Both are air cooled vehicles that will practically run on dog crap for fuel - and conserve it, too.

If you raid a car museum, you can take off with any F6's (a bulletproof stakebody or flat bed) or F-100's (50's era version of the F150) they have laying around. If they have any 1st or second generation Nomads, you've scored a jackpot. Cut the top off the cargo area and you've got yourself an El Camino that will still be operational.

As far as motorcycles, as long as they were still in the city, I would have traded out the dirt bikes for something a Honda CB or Magna series with an Inline 4 or V4. The 250's and and 500's could get 60 miles to the gallon (or more) and were whisper quiet. A Nighthawk 550 (CB550) could go over 100MPH if you needed it to. If you were willing to take a hit in mileage (50MPG or so), the Nighthawk 650 had a bigger tank and could pass 150MPH. Fast and quiet as a mouse.

Save the trail bikes for the trails.

Of course, if MPG were more important than stealth, the old Honda Monkey minibike (Z50 series) would get over 100MPG and was small enough to toss into a trunk of a car. It had a pull start, too.

Of course, the ultimate survival motorcycle is the original Russian Ural with side car and 2-wheel drive.

If they can't track any less than 500 people, they probably can't track a tank.

But it's the roughly 3 gallons of fuel per mile that would be the biggest issue.

Really?? Since when is "Drop Dead Diva" considered a ratings powerhouse that other shows should aspire to conquer? I guess the fact that "Miss USA" pulled 7.42 million on NBC directly against "Falling Skies" couldn't be mentioned because that is "broadcast TV" (however they did compare to HBO's paid programming). Also, the case of "Rizzoli & Isles" premiering on TNT last July with 7.55 million viewers means that this summers debut is down from last year's.

It seems like the media is flooded with articles this week with fluff about how good "Falling Skies" is doing. I guess the Spielberg name and marketing machine are still an intimating factor among the Hollywood reporting media.

It's week 1. Wait for week 2 and 3. numbers will drop significantly I think.

Rizzoli and Isles had a wider appeal than a sci fi show as well.

Don't forget, they can track heat, though. That tank generates a lot of it. Plus, it spews all kinds of visible black crud from the exhaust system. It's far from a stealthy vehicle. It's an intimidation vehicle. The idea is, your enemy bugs out and you don't have to ever fire a shot. These aliens wouldn't be scared like that, though.

The problem is, when the enemy fires back, a tank is a death trap during combat unless it can shoot. If you don't have shells, it's just a big oven to cook the occupants in.

It may be a great hideout from zombies, but aliens with lasers are a different story.

I have many of the same questions about the show. They have only shown two episodes of the show.

There is just suspend some stuff for a sci fi show. In reality - aliens that had the ability to just find our planet much less travel to it wouldn't let us walk hundreds of people down a street without noticing. Of course if they came and wiped out everyone - we wouldn't have a show.

I will say this is far better then "V"

Yeah, but it will burn about any fuel that can be put in it .. 500 gallon fuel tank will take you a long way .. it may have some downsides, but I'll take it ...