*laughter* Ah yes. THAT little amusing and inconvenient detail.
Well see - the original series was made in 1973-4. Long before they had ever discovered the remains on the ocean floor IRL. So, not knowing what had happened to her, they simply assumed the wreck was in one piece. Not unreasonable. But sadly wrong.
Which is an oddly similar situation to the relation between Clive Cussler's novel "Raise the Titanic" and the real situation - Titanic breaking in two and then sinking in two pieces - as discovered by Bob Ballard nearly a decade later. Also "invalidating" the premise of his story and the 1980 movie of the same name.**
So yeah. The wreck in real life doesn't support the original premise of the show. Fans of Yamato/Starblazers pretty much deal with this in one of two ways:
- Ignore it. It's an alternate universe. In THAT continuity, the Yamato DID sink keel down and in one piece. We move on from there.
- Or come up with some rationale that fits the premise together with reality.
One popular theory that makes the fanfic rounds sometimes goes a little like this - that the Earth Defense Command forces knew approximately what size of ship they needed to build. But had no facilities for anything that large (Yamato is at least 3 times longer than Captain Avatar's battle cruiser from the first episode.) that could be defended or hidden. And came up with the idea of building the Space Battleship Yamato in the spot of the old wreck as an effective disguise. It's NOT the original ship at all (though some versions of the theory say that the raw materials/metals from the wreck are recycled and re-smelted as an alternative to mining them from elsewhere, thus preserving the metaphysical link). It was built in place from scratch with the shell/disguise of the wreck over it. And it was made in the proportions it was partially because in ground scans, the Gamilons would chalk it up to "oh - we already know there's a big concentration of metal there. We know what it is already. Nothing unusual here." ("This is not the space battleship you're looking for." "This is not the space battleship we're looking for." "Move along." "Moving along to the next site!")
And then there's the truly strange idea Bruce Lewis once came up with - that the message capsule from Iscandar had not just the PLANS for the wave-motion engine, but that it was something like a "nano-tech seed" for growing it and much of the ship structures in place! They just plug the thing into the wreck of the Yamato and it uses the raw materials and it builds most of the ship by itself! I think IIRC that his idea was that the Iscandarian tech was semi-telepathic and it got the idea for what the ship should look like from people around it that knew what the ship looked like originally combined with what it needed to do to it. Think "handwavium" but on a truly grand scale!
Personally I think that last idea is -really- reaching too far myself. But I thought I'd pass it along anyway. *shrug*
But now that you bring it up - I wonder if a remake of the show will try to address that? Or just ignore reality and go with the original premise?
-Logan
--------------------
(**The movie based on the novel "Raise the Titanic" is sadly not very good for the most part. It has some truly miscast actors (particularly the hero) and a poor script that has some exceptional groaners in it. There are three things that stand out though. One is the actual effects sequences depicting the raising of the ship herself, which - although dated by today's standards, were very well done for the time. The other is the music score by the late great John Barry. If you are curious, find a clip of just the raising sequence itself on Youtube. John Barry's score combined with the effects shots turns what is otherwise a patently silly idea into something that will send chills up your spine. The third thing is a cameo by Alec Guiness as one of the last survivors of the crew of the Titanic. He only has one scene about 10 minutes long. But his portrayal is a real gem. In 10 minutes he out-acts every other person in the film by a league and really evokes the wistful nostalgic melancholy of Titanic and a bygone age. )
Well see - the original series was made in 1973-4. Long before they had ever discovered the remains on the ocean floor IRL. So, not knowing what had happened to her, they simply assumed the wreck was in one piece. Not unreasonable. But sadly wrong.
Which is an oddly similar situation to the relation between Clive Cussler's novel "Raise the Titanic" and the real situation - Titanic breaking in two and then sinking in two pieces - as discovered by Bob Ballard nearly a decade later. Also "invalidating" the premise of his story and the 1980 movie of the same name.**
So yeah. The wreck in real life doesn't support the original premise of the show. Fans of Yamato/Starblazers pretty much deal with this in one of two ways:
- Ignore it. It's an alternate universe. In THAT continuity, the Yamato DID sink keel down and in one piece. We move on from there.
- Or come up with some rationale that fits the premise together with reality.
One popular theory that makes the fanfic rounds sometimes goes a little like this - that the Earth Defense Command forces knew approximately what size of ship they needed to build. But had no facilities for anything that large (Yamato is at least 3 times longer than Captain Avatar's battle cruiser from the first episode.) that could be defended or hidden. And came up with the idea of building the Space Battleship Yamato in the spot of the old wreck as an effective disguise. It's NOT the original ship at all (though some versions of the theory say that the raw materials/metals from the wreck are recycled and re-smelted as an alternative to mining them from elsewhere, thus preserving the metaphysical link). It was built in place from scratch with the shell/disguise of the wreck over it. And it was made in the proportions it was partially because in ground scans, the Gamilons would chalk it up to "oh - we already know there's a big concentration of metal there. We know what it is already. Nothing unusual here." ("This is not the space battleship you're looking for." "This is not the space battleship we're looking for." "Move along." "Moving along to the next site!")
And then there's the truly strange idea Bruce Lewis once came up with - that the message capsule from Iscandar had not just the PLANS for the wave-motion engine, but that it was something like a "nano-tech seed" for growing it and much of the ship structures in place! They just plug the thing into the wreck of the Yamato and it uses the raw materials and it builds most of the ship by itself! I think IIRC that his idea was that the Iscandarian tech was semi-telepathic and it got the idea for what the ship should look like from people around it that knew what the ship looked like originally combined with what it needed to do to it. Think "handwavium" but on a truly grand scale!
Personally I think that last idea is -really- reaching too far myself. But I thought I'd pass it along anyway. *shrug*
But now that you bring it up - I wonder if a remake of the show will try to address that? Or just ignore reality and go with the original premise?
-Logan
--------------------
(**The movie based on the novel "Raise the Titanic" is sadly not very good for the most part. It has some truly miscast actors (particularly the hero) and a poor script that has some exceptional groaners in it. There are three things that stand out though. One is the actual effects sequences depicting the raising of the ship herself, which - although dated by today's standards, were very well done for the time. The other is the music score by the late great John Barry. If you are curious, find a clip of just the raising sequence itself on Youtube. John Barry's score combined with the effects shots turns what is otherwise a patently silly idea into something that will send chills up your spine. The third thing is a cameo by Alec Guiness as one of the last survivors of the crew of the Titanic. He only has one scene about 10 minutes long. But his portrayal is a real gem. In 10 minutes he out-acts every other person in the film by a league and really evokes the wistful nostalgic melancholy of Titanic and a bygone age. )