Theme: It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel … angst.

Episode Connections
Authors, stories. Larry Niven, Ringworld series. Fritz Lieber, “A Pail of Air.” Arthur C. Clarke, “Rescue Party,” and “The Star.” Jerry Pournelle. Ursula K. LeGuin.
Films. Finch. Castaway. Solar Flare. Sunshine. Sharknado. The World’s End. Knowing. Apollo 19.
TV episodes, series. The Land of the Lost. Star Trek: The Animated Series. The Outer Limits. The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Music. Nickel Creek, “The 21st of May.”
Ideas. More post-apocalyptic sci fi. What would happen to the Earth if the Sun went nova? What would you do if you had only one night left to live? Would people figure it out if the world were really about to end? And what if everyone didn’t die right away … what then? Which is worse … dying in a catastrophe or living through it? The science in “Inconstant Moon” is much more plausible than what we saw in “A Pail of Air.” There are not a lot of stories like this one. Our sun cannot go nova, but we have not seen a lot of speculative fiction about problems with the sun, regardless. But we do LOVE a good disaster movie. Even better when we combine catastrophes. Doomsday stories often explore the psychology of living and dying. The story is set long before social media, so the events are not subject to broadcast. How might the story be different today? Ships (the coffee shop in the story) was a real place. How often does someone claim that the world is about to end? Prophecy. Nostradamus. Heaven’s Gate. There is a lot of profit in being a prophet. Recent events have spawned the prepper movement. Let’s stockpile weapons and food and water. Y2K. Media builds much more hype around doomsday scenarios today. EMP … the new apocalypse. Niven contextualizes the story in contemporary details. Niven calls this a love story in a sci-fi context.
Whoa - Hmmm - WTF. Dan says it falls between Hmmm & Whoa. Bills suggests it is a rising and falling Whoa, like a roller coaster.

Previous episode: Fritz Lieber, “A Pail of Air”
Next episode: James Tiptree Jr., “The Last Flight of Dr. Ain”

Music Credit: "Ouroboros" Kevin MacLeod (Incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
Link: Creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/