| Novelization Makes the Most of 'Red Planet'
By Chris Aylott
posted: 11:55 am ET
31 October 2000
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Peter
Telep has churned out his share of novelizations and media tie-in books,
and he’s put that experience to good use in his novelization of the upcoming
movie Red Planet (Ace Books, $6.99 paperback). Like the stranded
astronauts of the story, he makes the best of what he has, and the result
is a decent though slightly ludicrous adventure novel.
In the year 2050, humanity
has been terraforming Mars for 28 years. Nuclear blasts have melted some
of the polar
ice caps and thousands of packages of algae have been dropped on the
surface. Everything seems to be going well – until the oxygen level takes
a nose-dive and the automated probes on the surface stop sending readings.
Somebody has to find out
what happened, so NASA sends a hastily assembled spaceship – with the rather
disturbing name of "Medea" – to investigate. Six mismatched astronauts
are along for the ride, including no-nonsense mission commander Kate Bowman
(played by Carrie-Anne
Moss in the movie) and "space janitor" Robert Gallagher (Val
Kilmer).
Bad day at Red Rock
Everything goes wrong, of
course. A massive solar flare mangles the Medea, forcing most of the crew
to attempt an immediate landing on Mars. The landing also goes badly, killing
one crewman and stranding everyone else with just enough air to get to
the habitation module dropped in an earlier unmanned mission.
Once they arrive at the module,
they discover that it too has somehow been destroyed. Fortunately, Gallagher
defiantly opens his helmet just in time to discover that – surprise surprise!
– the atmosphere of Mars is actually breathable. There is much wonderment.
Unfortunately, air is only
one of the crew’s problems. They have no food, no water, no radio, no way
home and the surface temperature of Mars drops to -160 degrees Fahrenheit
at night. What they do have is Gallagher, who is resourceful as only a
man played by Val Kilmer can be.
Gallagher solves the radio
problem with a little help from a certain world-famous space probe, and
NASA soon has a way home for the crew: a failed Russian sample rocket.
If Gallagher and his fellow explorers can make the 100-kilometer hike and
fix the rocket in the 23 hours before Bowman has to blast for home in the
Medea, they’ll survive.
It’s a tough hike, made even
tougher by the fact that the cute exploration robot in the lander has gone
berserk, reverted to its original military programming and is now stalking
and killing the crew. The usual adventure movie things happen: one character
turns Coward, another makes the Ultimate Sacrifice, Manly Philosophy is
Discussed and the inevitable Strange Alien Life Which Explains the Oxygen
Level is discovered.
Why? Because the plot
says so!
On an A to B to C level,
the plot makes sense. Events follow logically after each other, and the
characters take reasonable actions based on their knowledge of the situation.
That in itself puts Red Planet a few light-years ahead of Mission
to Mars or Battlefield
Earth.
It also helps that Telep
is a decent writer. The descriptions and dialogue hang together, and the
screenplay he’s working from even has a touch of wit to it. Hopefully one
character’s remark that Mars looks a lot like Coober
Pedy -- where Red Planet was filmed -- will make it onto the
screen.
Behind the basic plot, however,
is a morass of questions and contradictions. Why does the robot still have
military programming buried under its regular programming? Why would NASA
launch 2,200 terraforming missions in 28 years without one manned mission?
Never mind getting there
– what’s keeping Val Kilmer’s warm smile from freezing off when he walks
around with his face exposed in –160 degree air? And isn’t it convenient
that the story ignores the fact that Mars is well below freezing even during
the daytime?
As for the Inevitable Alien
Life, it’s fairly primitive -- a welcome touch of realism a few short months
after Mission to Mars and the Great Face -- so how is it intelligent
enough to stalk our heroes? Where is it getting the energy to pour oxygen
into the atmosphere and move so fast?
The best you can say about
this story’s science is that it’s slightly less ridiculous than most Mars
movies. It may even pass muster with the typical American audience – but
that says more about our country’s willful ignorance than the movie’s intelligence.
Red Planet has a reasonably
engaging story, and should be an enjoyable adventure movie – but it’s still
lousy science fiction.
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