#gnt

The Good: the space warps are a known, albeit unexplained, phenomena, that airports are aware of enough to mention on the weather reports during the pre-flight checks, including naming 2 ships that may have gone missing due to the warps: the Marintha (departed from tokyo) and the Anne (cape town to seattle)

the Anne even managed to get some photo evidence of distorted star patterns

the reason the spindrift passengers are so few is the simple fact the rest of the passengers panicked at the discovery of the space warp and didn't want to take the risk so they cancelled (great fodder to add onto the remake/update because it only enriches the reasons why berry, mark, val, and fitzhugh still hopped on anyway)

steve and dan have known each other a long time (as was also stated on the show, they went to flight academy together) and they know they have nothing to fear from a space warp...despite the fact 2 ships of the spindrift's sub-orbital class went missing without a trace

"i won't invite more [publicity] for the spindrift, by letting her vanish somewhere between los angeles and london and never more being heard of." oh steve. oh steve oh steve oh steve. wait til you have to eat those words

"apparently nobody thought about cancelling his reservation." oof, barry, bud, that absolutely sucks shit. bad for barry, but great for the plot

i love you book!betty for bitching about your passengers before you've even taken off, giving us a view into their personalities, and for book!steve to not give a shit about your bitching

yeah it makes sense that there are like 40+ pre-flight checks to make on a sub-orbital ship, it's practically a spaceship already

"in the meantime, nobody cared" <- concerning the presence of space warps, and since no one has tried to monetize them yet why should anyone be concerned? bad for the spindrift, good for the plot

the description of the "modern" tech and how easy shit is to do or talk or make is setting up a nice contrast to how they'll all have to survive on the giant world. same with describing the familiar planets and stars as they lift off

the mention of how the spindrift could fly for 8 hours straight every 24 hours due to their atomic battery, which is a nice explanation why they can't just keep in the air later on

it's actually nice to know the airline/airport/tower control wants them to keep in constant communication as a precaution, as well as steve pointing out the magnetic field is fucking up

the space warp description being equated to the stars reflected in a lake so everything looks wobbly is a nice touch, and if the stars suddenly disappeared i'd be extremely concerned too

honestly having the radio slowly but surely losing strength and the desperate cries of voices trying to reach you would freak me the fuck out

"then, quite suddenly, gravity ceased to be. there was no weight. the sensation was appalling." ooo that is such a good line i may have to steal it for...something. something else. or maybe this. we'll see

The Bad: continuity error on the first page, where the show and the book (both released/published in september 1968) have different flight numbers. the tv series is flight 612 whereas this book series has flight 703. one or the other was switched at the last minute because i can't believe this was approved before it went to print if the show's flight number was locked down beforehand

"dan ericson, a dark man" i don't...i don't know what i was expecting, this was written and published in the 60s, but it still feels like a bad way to describe a black person

another continuity error, not sure if the book is inaccurate or the show itself was changed before printing (stefan arngrim being cast perhaps?), but book!barry is so far described as 14 and not 11-12 like in the show, as well as mark being described as bespectacled and nervous (again, maybe a change made due to don matheson being cast?)

Salvageable: 75% i'd say

i'll be honest, i'm dead set on keeping the og series cold open (with the credits moved to AFTER it's discovered they're tiny in a giant land) to give it some suspense, but this certainly sets up a potential flashback scene well enough. the only thing keeping me from using it as is would be, as stated, the idea of the credits/logo popping in too early and ruining the suspense. "but they already know they're watching a show called 'land of the giants'" I KNOW BUT MY VISION DEMANDS SOME ATTEMPT AT SURPRISE

we don't get much insight into the passengers right away, but we don't need to, not when the characters themselves don't know they're about to be yeeted across the galaxy for thrombeldinbar only knows how long