dg comments

please empty your brain below

I was in the room (albeit doing something else) when MrBW was watching one of the episodes.

What amused me was that the people who'd been selected believed (I think, but correct me if I'm wrong, I was only less-than-half watching) that they had been chosen as they were the elite, on a number of measures, including intelligence.

Just by looking at them one could see that they'd been selected because they weren't bright, and therefore less likely to see through the deception.
Blue Witch | Homepage | 12.11.05 - 9:54 am | #

Indeed... as Witchy hints....the self deception is perhaps the greatest one of all.

I'm just hoping that there's more of a twist somewhere in this sorry show...
NiC | Homepage | 12.11.05 - 10:09 am | #

Glad you've written about this, as I'm enjoying the programme, but missed the first one. Can someone please explain how the contestants can possibly NOT know about the deceit, as I heard about the concept of this programme several weeks ago. Have they been kept away from the media for that long? I can't help thinking that some of them know about the hoax, but are just going along with it anyway to get on TV. (I would.)

Someone probably has a GPS device on their watch and has worked out they're not in Russia anyway...
Cosmonaut Chig | Homepage | 12.11.05 - 12:19 pm | #

The publicity for Space Cadets started immediately after the contestants headed off to their 'Russian airbase' for three weeks of pre-flight training. So they should know nothing about it.

But three of the contestants are actors, planted by the production company, to keep the others on the straight and narrow just in case the deception might be rumbled.
diamond geezer | Homepage | 12.11.05 - 12:28 pm | #

This is PROPER car crash TV, and gets an enormous Scary thumbs up.
Scaryduck | Homepage | 12.11.05 - 12:44 pm | #

There's only one phrase that should strike more fear into viewers than "hosted by Johnny Vaughan" and that is, of course, "hosted by Jimmy Carr".

Mind you, in the 5 minutes I watched, I found the "Hazelnut Cluster" comment amusing - especially as one of the dupes asked the "lecturer" to repeat it and still nobody challenged the "fact".

Has anyone referred to "Capricorn One" yet on the show?
Em³ | Homepage | 12.11.05 - 1:00 pm | #

I'm yet to have watched this - I've either been out or watching something else more important every day since it started. But tonight - 9pm - I'll be there. Sounds a great idea for a show

Kirk | 12.11.05 - 2:06 pm | #

Reminds me of that film with OJ Simpson....

Oh, yeah. Naked Gun. Funny, peculiar, and funny, ha-ha.
Max C | Homepage | 12.11.05 - 2:08 pm | #

Erm, and don't most people realise that, generally speaking, it's well, A LOT, colder in most parts of Russia (or Kazakhstan, if that is where they are meant to be, or wherever) than East Anglia? Do they not find the lack of sub-zero temperatures and many inches of snow a little, erm, puzzling. Clearly some people will believe any thing they are told.
venichka | 12.11.05 - 2:16 pm | #

I thought for sure they'd get up and walk out when they were told they'd be flying at such a height that would not induce zero gravity conditions. But no. I think these people may have serious mental deficiencies.... In all honesty it's not as good as I was hoping it would be.
Monica | Homepage | 12.11.05 - 10:59 pm | #

It's a strange mixture of interesting and boring. Nice idea, but one to half-watch, I think. Can only pay attention for so long before I start to find the contestants annoying. You'd think that'd help, and that I'd be heartily laughing at the idiots, but instead I just feel... sullied, somehow.
Ant | Homepage | 12.12.05 - 11:57 am | #

The media column in the Guardian today reckons all the contestants are actors, not just the three we know about.

Could well be...
Catherine | Homepage | 12.12.05 - 12:00 pm | #

My 14 year old reckons we are the ones being fooled ('may the farce be with you') Having watched tonight's episode I reckon he's right. Not a flicker of fear when the countdown led to nothing, then another countdown. Any real launch would have been aborted. Every authentic launch has been done in daylight hasn't it? It's a set up and we are the ones being had. Mind you, I have my doubts about the moon landings too, but I won't go into that.
Charis | 12.12.05 - 10:47 pm | #

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