Smoking On Spacecraft

[Simon]

I was thinking about changing SF values over the last 60 years, and it came to me "did people used to smoke in Sci Fi spaceships?".

So, to take it further.. Has anyone got any examples for me: did they light up a joint on board Dark Star or Silent Running?  Did Barbarella sexily grasp a Marlboro between her dainty fingers?

All examples, in movie comics and books gladly taken.

[ClintMemo]

Not really a specific example, but I know that in (the original) Jonny Quest and the Thunderbirds TV show, people smoked all over the place.

[oddpod]

i am farly shur thare are a few exampels,
was the origanal starbuck not ofter sean tooting on a cigar?

[Listener]

i am farly shur thare are a few exampels,
was the origanal starbuck not ofter sean tooting on a cigar?

The new one does it too.

I think I can forgive the smoking on Galactica, though, because these people are refugees, even if they're also officers.  Plus, pilots are traditionally the mavericks of any fictional (and maybe nonfictional, but I don't know for sure because I was never in the military) army.

[Zathras]

I was thinking about changing SF values over the last 60 years, and it came to me "did people used to smoke in Sci Fi spaceships?".

So, to take it further.. Has anyone got any examples for me: did they light up a joint on board Dark Star or Silent Running?  Did Barbarella sexily grasp a Marlboro between her dainty fingers?

All examples, in movie comics and books gladly taken.

Funny.  On Time Tunnel I believe the first astronauts to the moon were smoking on the way there.  I may be wrong.  Pretty funny episode, by the way.     

[Leon Kensington]

Well I'm pretty sure that there was some dope on the Enterprise for some of those Star Trek movies.

[DKT]

People definitely smoked in Alien.  I'm pretty sure one of the marines smoked in Aliens, but not 100% if it was on the spaceship or not. 

There's some funny dialogue in the movie, "Thank You For Smoking" in which they're talking about advertising cigarettes in a SF movie:

Nick Naylor: Cigarettes in space?
Jeff Megall: It's the final frontier, Nick.
Nick Naylor: But wouldn't they blow up in an all oxygen environment?
Jeff Megall: Probably. But it's an easy fix. One line of dialogue. 'Thank God we invented the... you know, whatever device.

[Jonathan C. Gillespie]

In "Aliens", early in the film, there is a long shot of Ripley's cigarette -- ashes down to the filter -- after she finds out Weyland-Yutani sanctioned a colony on LV-426.  This is while she's still on Gateway station.  I'm not sure I ever saw the marines actually smoke (although I think Vasquez does during Ripley's briefing), but Apone seems to constantly chew on an unlit cigar during the prep for drop to the surface.

I'm fairly sure there was smoking in "Galaxy of Terror", as well.

[DKT]

Ah, it must've been Apone's unlit cigar I was thinking of.  I didn't remember that he never lit it.  That's a nice touch.

[lowky]

IIRC there is smoking in Event Horizon. 

[Leon Kensington]

Is there smoking in 2010?  I think one of the russians smokes.

[slic]

I really don't have a specific example, but I'm not sure I understand either.

Kinda like the "Smoking Guy" quote, air scrubbers or whatever fancy tech would certainly make living in outspace/spaceships as much like living on a planet.  And considering the type of cargo freighter in "Alien" the crew would likely indulge in all sorts of vices to kill time.

On the Holodeck on a ST:NG episode they had a smoke filled bar....

[Leon Kensington]

Yah, there was smoking in First Contact.

[Planish]

Most of the examples i can think of involved doctors of one kind or another.

I think Dr. Baltar has a cheroot onboard the Galactica in some episode of the new BSG series.

I think Dr Cottle (played by Donelly Rhodes) has a few cigarettes (in Sick Bay, yet) also on New BSG.

And didn't Dr. Boyce, the ship's doctor in ST-TOS episode(s) "The Cage"/The Menagerie" fire up a pipe when he was chatting in private with Captain Pike?

Not-the-doctor:
Doesn't Zefram Cochrane light up a cigar when he fires up the Phoenix in "ST: First Contact"? (along with playing "Magic Carpet Ride")

[Leon Kensington]

Yes, both Baltar and Cottle smoke in BSG.  As well as Adama and Roslin on the planet (Boxing Episode Flashback).

[Listener]

Once the War on Smoking is completed, and futuristic stories turn to other forms of bad-for-you drugs (ie: I have one where the main character is addicted to demerol, delivered by "push" injections into his hand), will those make movies automatically R-rated too?  Do they already?  I don't even know.

[Planish]

As well as Adama and Roslin on the planet (Boxing Episode Flashback).

Ah, but the key element (in this discussion) is "on spacecraft".

I think the idea is to suggest that the technology is so sophisticated and space travel is so commonplace that the problem of using up valuable oxygen becomes trivial, as opposed to a kind of space travel where the resources are pushed to the limits in experimental craft.

I've seen a number of relatively recent movies or shows (not in futuristic settings) where they'll pointedly have, say, a doctor lighting up a cigarette, or a Suburban Dad with a pipe, in order to give it a '50s look. More likely, it's intended to be a bit of a satire of '50s shows.

[Chodon]

I think the idea is to suggest that the technology is so sophisticated and space travel is so commonplace that the problem of using up valuable oxygen becomes trivial, as opposed to a kind of space travel where the resources are pushed to the limits in experimental craft.

I think the biggest concern would be fire.  Zero-g fire is BAD.  All the flames become spherical instead of pointed, so they go out in all directions instead of straight up.  Plus you would have to be surrounded by all kinds of high-energy fuel.  Very bad news.

Some videos of fire in space:
http://microgravity.grc.nasa.gov/combustion/cfm/cfm_index.htm

I'll bet spaceships that allow smoking have HUGE insurance rates.

They smoked in the Fifth Element too.  They had those crazy cigarettes that were almost all filter.

[Planish]

I think the biggest concern would be fire.  Zero-g fire is BAD.  All the flames become spherical instead of pointed, so they go out in all directions instead of straight up.  Plus you would have to be surrounded by all kinds of high-energy fuel.  Very bad news.

That was my point, that the hazards would be gone. Artificial gravity (or constant acceleration), non-chemical drive systems, fire-resistant materials, air to spare, etc.

[Russell Nash]

I think the biggest concern would be fire.  Zero-g fire is BAD.  All the flames become spherical instead of pointed, so they go out in all directions instead of straight up.  Plus you would have to be surrounded by all kinds of high-energy fuel.  Very bad news.

That was my point, that the hazards would be gone. Artificial gravity (or constant acceleration), non-chemical drive systems, fire-resistant materials, air to spare, etc.

I think the biggest technical reason is that the air is recirculated and you need to filter out all of the smoke.  Given how little room for extras and the limited supply of energy spaceships have, it's just an unneccessary luxury.

Mostly I think it will be a common sense thing.  Most places will be built non-smoking for technical reasons and will stay that way well past the time they could switch over.  This will be because of health reasons.  With all of the dangers of being in space, why add lung cancer?

As far as fiction goes, Charactors smoke in SF for the same reason as in any fiction.  It helps describe the charactor.

[Simon]

I think the biggest concern would be fire.  Zero-g fire is BAD.  All the flames become spherical instead of pointed, so they go out in all directions instead of straight up.  Plus you would have to be surrounded by all kinds of high-energy fuel.  Very bad news.

That was my point, that the hazards would be gone. Artificial gravity (or constant acceleration), non-chemical drive systems, fire-resistant materials, air to spare, etc.

I think the biggest technical reason is that the air is recirculated and you need to filter out all of the smoke.  Given how little room for extras and the limited supply of energy spaceships have, it's just an unneccessary luxury.

Mostly I think it will be a common sense thing.  Most places will be built non-smoking for technical reasons and will stay that way well past the time they could switch over.  This will be because of health reasons.  With all of the dangers of being in space, why add lung cancer?

As far as fiction goes, Charactors smoke in SF for the same reason as in any fiction.  It helps describe the charactor.

I was kicking at retro-SF there, but i'm willing to believe you.. Raises a question tho: Has smoking always been banned on submarines?

[Russell Nash]

I think the biggest concern would be fire.  Zero-g fire is BAD.  All the flames become spherical instead of pointed, so they go out in all directions instead of straight up.  Plus you would have to be surrounded by all kinds of high-energy fuel.  Very bad news.

That was my point, that the hazards would be gone. Artificial gravity (or constant acceleration), non-chemical drive systems, fire-resistant materials, air to spare, etc.

I think the biggest technical reason is that the air is recirculated and you need to filter out all of the smoke.  Given how little room for extras and the limited supply of energy spaceships have, it's just an unneccessary luxury.

Mostly I think it will be a common sense thing.  Most places will be built non-smoking for technical reasons and will stay that way well past the time they could switch over.  This will be because of health reasons.  With all of the dangers of being in space, why add lung cancer?

As far as fiction goes, Charactors smoke in SF for the same reason as in any fiction.  It helps describe the charactor.

I was kicking at retro-SF there, but i'm willing to believe you.. Raises a question tho: Has smoking always been banned on submarines?

I think (notice how almost everything I've said on this topic starts with,"I think") it may still be OK.  I knew a guy who was a tech on a missile sub.  We never talked specifically about smoking on the sub, but he did tell me about his smoking history.  He said he had been smoking since high school and had never gone a full day without a cigarette after that.  The type of sub he was on would leave port and submerge and then come up 4 months or more later.  If he smoked every day, he must have smoked on the sub.  He couldn't have stepped outside.

[Roney]

With all of the dangers of being in space, why add lung cancer?

That depends on how you assess personal risk.  With all the dangers of being in space, why worry about something as marginal as lung cancer?

[Planish]

I think the biggest technical reason is that the air is recirculated and you need to filter out all of the smoke.  Given how little room for extras and the limited supply of energy spaceships have, it's just an unneccessary luxury.
[snip]
This will be because of health reasons.  With all of the dangers of being in space, why add lung cancer?

Open the history cubes ... Most health issues were eliminated well over a hundred years before the Terran Diaspora.
Don't forget, also, that unlimited energy from the Phlebotinum Drive Generator is what made the Terran Diaspora possible. 

[Russell Nash]

With all of the dangers of being in space, why add lung cancer?

That depends on how you assess personal risk.  With all the dangers of being in space, why worry about something as marginal as lung cancer?

Study released in 2004 followed 34,000 subjects for over 50 years.  If you smoke, you will die on average 10 years earlier and will have a 50% chance of dying from a smoking related illness like lung cancer.  It ain't a marginal risk.