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Boards Chief Administrator Emeritus Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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Boards Chief Administrator Emeritus Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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I was asked to post this for a FoLC: Fanfic challenge idea inspired by the LnC episode All Shook Up and the 1933 science fiction novel, When Worlds Collide, by Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie. When Worlds Collide What if astronomers detect an asteroid coming that is too big for Superman (or any other option) to handle? In the aforementioned book, there were two planets heading toward Earth and some people were able to leave (in hastily constructed spaceships heading toward the second planet) before the first planet hit Earth (hence, the follow-on book, After Worlds Collide). Considering the size of the asteroid/planet, some escape plans could be made and Superman would help in building spaceships for some, knowing that not all could be saved. I imagine this taking place after Lois and Clark were married. Any takers on what could become an epic story?
Athos: If you'd told us what you were doing, we might have been able to plan this properly.
Aramis: Yes, sorry.
Athos: No, no, by all means, let's keep things suicidal.
The Musketeers
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Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
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I read both of those books ages ago, but I remember them vividly. It could make for an awsome story.
Herb replied, “My boy, I never say … impossible.” "Lois and Clarks" My stories can be found herekj
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Kerth
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Kerth
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I suppose they could get a few people into the space station and fly that clear somehow, but unless they can do some remarkably fast development of the technology the human race is doomed - I think I'm right to say that you need a couple of hundred people minimum to maintain a viable breeding pool.
If we think really big, there's an old SF story where a problem like this is going to destroy a planet where some explorers have landed - their ship is wrecked and they have about six months to develop an alternative, some sort of perfected version of their space drive. The end of the story is that
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They develop the space drive then realise that they haven't got time to make the rest of the spaceship. But it's a very, very powerful space drive... so they end up taking the entire planet with them!
Marcus L. Rowland
Forgotten Futures, The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game
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Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
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In this particular case, since they have Superman they don't need a drive since he can supply the motive force. All that would be needed is a series of airtight containers with air supplies that he could fly to the new planet.
Herb replied, “My boy, I never say … impossible.” "Lois and Clarks" My stories can be found herekj
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Beat Reporter
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Beat Reporter
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Marcus, which story is that?
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Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
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I remember reading these stories many years ago, very well written, but dated.
Nonetheless they would make an absolutely fantastic story. Imagine Clark going through the last days of planet Earth and having to save his wife and family?
It would be an epic....
Morgana
A writer's job is to think of new plots and create characters who stay with you long after the final page has been read. If that mission is accomplished than we have done what we set out to do, which is to entertain and hopefully educate.
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Kerth
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Kerth
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Originally posted by Meadowrose:
Marcus, which story is that? Really can't remember, I'm afraid. Think it was from Analog magazine in the sixties. I'll ask around, maybe someone can tell me.
Marcus L. Rowland
Forgotten Futures, The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game
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Top Banana
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Top Banana
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I think I remember it - many many moons ago. A more recent one is by Alan Dean Foster - aliens visit a future Earth to recruit humanity for a war. The aliens offer transport but the humans say 'no thanks' and the planet sprouts engines to follow the ships - bringing the Moon with it. Which, of course, leaves the aliens wondering what they're going to do with the humans once the war is over.
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Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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Your initial description reminded me of a movie trailer I saw a while back. It took me a while to remember the title: Another Earth . Rewatching this trailer, I guess the plot isn't the same, but in the images it looks like the two Earths could collide, which is why I thought of this trailer.
VirginiaR.
"On the long road, take small steps." -- Jor-el, "The Foundling"
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"clearly there is a lack of understanding between those two... he speaks Lunkheadanian and she Stubbornanian" -- chelo.
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Columnist
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Columnist
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There's a similar plotline in Larry Niven's Known Space--the Puppeteers use a planet drive to escape their dying sun (and worse).
I read When Worlds Collide and After Worlds Collide in high school. Really enjoyed When Worlds Collide, but I didn't care for After as much. I thought it awfully convenient that there was an abandoned alien civilization move-in ready circling the sun that destroyed Earth.
Shallowford
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Kerth
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Kerth
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Originally posted by VirginiaR: Your initial description reminded me of a movie trailer I saw a while back. It took me a while to remember the title: Another Earth . Rewatching this trailer, I guess the plot isn't the same, but in the images it looks like the two Earths could collide, which is why I thought of this trailer. Don't worry - both Earths are doomed anyway - they're close enough that tidal forces will cause massive earthquakes, tsunamis, etc. and eventually rip them apart. Earth is 80 times more massive than the moon, so imagine all tidal forces and effects similarly magnified on both worlds...
Marcus L. Rowland
Forgotten Futures, The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game
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Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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Originally posted by Marcus Rowland:
Don't worry - both Earths are doomed anyway - they're close enough that tidal forces will cause massive earthquakes, tsunamis, etc. and eventually rip them apart. Earth is 80 times more massive than the moon, so imagine all tidal forces and effects similarly magnified on both worlds... It looked like a doomday (no relation) type scenario to me, too. I wonder what would happen tidal etc wise if they didn't orbit around each other but stayed close in a stationary orbit around one sun? Contra-wise, what if they *did* ordbit each other in opposite directions? Or the same direction? I don't have the science brain to figure this out, but the answers would interest me. Would one Earth be destroyed before the other? I recommend Shayne Terry's Veritas for anyone interested. I won't explain how this story might have anything to do with this thread, due to spoilers, but it's a good read. 
VirginiaR.
"On the long road, take small steps." -- Jor-el, "The Foundling"
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"clearly there is a lack of understanding between those two... he speaks Lunkheadanian and she Stubbornanian" -- chelo.
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Kerth
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Kerth
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The only way it possibly works is if they're orbiting around their common centre of gravity - e.g. each world is the other's moon - and both are orbiting around the sun. Otherwise they're either going to collide or fly past each other and get thrown off into space.
There's no particular reason to think that binary planets like that are impossible, but they would almost certainly be tidally locked to each other with a day of e.g. 28 earth days if they were at the Moon's distance and there would be constant earthquakes, volcanos, etc.
Marcus L. Rowland
Forgotten Futures, The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game
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