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Space stations are supposed to
have cool names like Skylab, Mir, Babylon 5, Deepspace Nine or That
Thing That Looks Like A Bunch Of Mexican Hats That Got Overrun By
Tribbles. But it's a rare station that has the self-confidence
to carry off a dorky moniker like "The Wheel."
 The Wheel is the
Collier's space station
given life-- or at least as much life as a Hollywood model department
can infuse. Manned by a crew of handpicked film stereotypes and
clichés, the Wheel orbits a thousand miles above the Earth, rotating
at about 3 RPM to produce ⅓ normal gravity.
Solar powered, it acts as a watch post for the UN peacekeeping force,
a weather station, and a construction platform for the ships that will
reach the Moon and beyond.
But all of this is secondary to
it's primary function as a a staging area for vital character
revelation and plot exposition without which no space mission can hope
to get started. |
