Notices by Floaty Birb (floatybirb@mastodon.social)

I rather like how the universal translator thing doesn't work automatically but the Selenites have to spend some time programming it by getting Kate to scream at them in English and talk to the Professor for a while.

#monsterdon

correction... only the professor guy was captured, we don't know where the playwright is. Anyway, the girl was captured offscreen, and the selenites are analyzing her in their erratically lit laboratory. Their scientific equipment includes:

1) an xray screen which lets them observe Kate's skeleton
2) some a glowing crystals that I guess are a universal translator that is studying English
3) a pointy control crystal, which is an interesting choice of user interface.

#monsterdon

Action sequence:

giant caterpillar chases puny humans, breaking some rocks in the process.
this leads puny humans to wander into a force of moon people armed with sticks, who capture them.
the moon people use their green lightning guns to subdue the giant caterpillar.

I guess the selenite arsenal consists of A) sticks and B) lighting guns. Maybe the sticks shoot lightning sometimes and I just missed that detail?

#monsterdon

So Bedford finally catches up with the more interesting Earthlings, only as the sun goes down, freezing the giant oxygen creating glowing rock cactus and also freezing all the Selenites in place. I'm guessing that they also expected that the Earthlings would freeze, since they didn't take any precautions to detain the humans or otherwise stop them from potentially messing with stuff in their city.

#monsterdon

Having played X-Com before, the moon people know that reverse engineering alien technology is a good way to deal with invaders and so are melting the cavorite to try to figure out how to synthesize it.

They also freeze some of their workers when their jobs are done, by putting them into some kind of cocoon that Cavor rudely messes with. He thinks this is a good way of handling unemployment, while Kate points out that they might freeze them later also, which scares her.

#monsterdon

The moon people have apparently stripped the dead caterpillar of meat, leaving a giant caterpillar skeleton behind. While caterpillars don't have skeletons, this is a space caterpillar so I guess its fine.

Kate and the Professor are given a self-guided tour of the Selenite city, where they discover a huge solar powered goo machine that generates oxygen... I guess its like a tree with extra steps. They also find the Selenites are taking their spaceship apart, which upsets them.

#monsterdon

So far the Selenites seem actually rather chill about the alien visitors from Earth. They take them to their city, learn how to talk to them and then just... kind of let them wander around unsupervised.

Like the worst they've done is dismantle their spaceship a little bit.. but they don't really treat the astronauts as enemies really, at least not yet?

#monsterdon

Turns out the sun down was just an eclipse, after which the machine turns back on and the Selenites wake up.

In a bit of foreshadowing, we see a lens directing the sunlight to the machine.

#monsterdon

From how easy it is for two earth astronauts to open a giant bulkhead door on the moon with their bare hands (what?), I am forced to conclude that the moon people need more secure door technology.

#monsterdon

So I also like this interior moon cave set with the weird mushrooms and weird crystals. That seems appropriately unearthly to me.

I also like the giant stop motion caterpillar that chases them... it's not a modern special effect and is chopped into the scene oddly but it is a very detailed looking monster.

#monsterdon

As the boys start wandering through a tunnel, we cut to the space orb, which the moon people have dragged into a cave and are crawling over it and trying to open it like a giant puzzle box. Kate is scared by this and so grabs the elephant gun and tries to deter them by shooting it.

This noise alerts the boys, who start moving toward the orb through a fields of crystals and cave mushrooms, whence they are ambushed by a giant stop motion caterpillar.

#monsterdon

Okay, so while bumbling on the moon we encounter civilization, in the form of a giant skylight that opens revealing a long tunnel going deep into the moon, and some air is blowing out of it, which seems like a waste of air.

The two boys decide to go down because one of them dropped his helmet down the tunnel (which has air) it but they don't tell the girl first so she probably doesn't know where they are.

They find a shiny rock prism and some bubbling slime soup.

#monsterdon

I also like the shot of the earth over the mountainous lunar landscape in this movie. That was pretty cool.

#monsterdon

Wandering out of the moon tunnel, the boys discover that the sphere is gone, and conclude that the girl probably touched the controls. Then they are like... "wait no... there's some skid marks here, so the Selenites probably dragged it back to the moon." They follow the tracks and find a giant door, that the moon people dragged their spaceship to. Somehow it opens easily and there's more air inside.

#monsterdon

Perhaps wisely realizing that the British have come here to fuck with them, they decide to swarm the two boys and capture them; even though they are armed with some kind of sticks (maybe spears?) because they are bad at warfare the two bumbling boy astronauts repel them.

However, this might have been enough to repel imperialism, because the two boys then decide the Selenites will come back with reinforcements and decide to leave.

#monsterdon

So we manage to find our helmet, but then we also find some moon people, which we call "Selenites" because that sounds more scientific than "moon people".

They look like little bug eyed green guys with horns and kind of an elephant nose, sort of like a cross between Greedo from Star Wars A New Hope and a goblin.

#monsterdon

The science master managed to break the greenhouse testing his antigravity material, which causes an understandable neighborhood consternation. This incident, and the scientist gushing over his diving suits that he wants to use as space suits, reveals the moon plot to the fancy lady, who thinks going to the moon is a dumb idea that will kill her husband/fiancee/boytoy, so she is upset.

#monsterdon

After passive aggressively handing him thoughtful moon supplies (chickens and guns, the machinery of life and death, respectively), Kate decides to give the playwright an ultimatum where she can either go with the science weirdo and probably die or stay with her.

So, you can have either love or cool moon adventures, but not both!

#monsterdon

After being upset, Kate (the fancy lady) decides to help, by gathering useful foraging supplies for the moon expedition. These supplies include:

* live chickens (for fresh food)
* a giant elephant gun

In her defense, if you asked a 19th century person what supplies people would need for a moon expedition most of them would probably include "live chickens" and "giant guns" on that list. At least she's not handing him a Maxim gun to shoot the moon natives.

#monsterdon

I like how the cavorite makes a goopy bouncy sound when the professor applies it to the side of his spaceship with a literal paintbrush.

#monsterdon