Fact check · first aired 1982
Every episode transcribed and checked against what we know today about astronomy and science. Each point shows the episode, the moment it is said, and the exact line from the English dub (or the original French, where no English upload exists).
Watch the episodes on the official Hello Maestro YouTube channel.
These are the major errors: things a viewer could come away believing that are meaningfully wrong. We also found 32 minor slips (a date, a name or a number slightly off, or a likely dubbing error) which are hidden unless you ask for them.
Outdated: matched what was known at the time, but newer research changed the picture. Common belief then: specialists already knew better, but textbooks and popular books of the day still said it. Wrong in its day: a careful writer could have got it right from ordinary references; often a slip in a number, a name or the dubbing. Plain simplifications for children are not counted; they are listed under each episode. How this was made.
An unknown, very fast alien ship keeps crossing space watched from Omega, the headquarters of a confederation of worlds. The council splits between attacking it and making contact, and a patrol cruiser that tries to make contact is easily outrun. The only real science is a short classroom scene where Maestro defines the light year, the speed of light and the parsec, and mentions Einstein's relativity and FitzGerald contraction.
No major errors in this episode.
After a suspicious breakdown near the planet Lago, which General Grouchley had reported as lifeless, Pierrot leads a reconnaissance mission with Maestro's new android Metro. They find a Triassic-style jungle and a civilisation of intelligent, telepathic reptiles that play a tail-bashing ball game, keep their numbers down by eating surplus eggs, and once exterminated their crocodile-like cousins. The real science is brief: the distance to the Andromeda galaxy, Triassic plants and climate, and where crocodiles, dinosaurs and pterosaurs came from.
No major errors in this episode. 1 minor slip hidden.
"Descendants from the Saltoparkas, originating as crocodiles, dinosaurs, and winged reptiles."
Today"Saltoparkas" is probably a mishearing of Saltoposuchus, or a blend of it with Euparkeria, the two "thecodonts" that older books showed as the common ancestor of crocodiles, dinosaurs and pterosaurs. Saltoposuchus (about 215 million years ago) is now classed as an early crocodylomorph on the crocodile branch, too late and on the wrong branch to be anyone's ancestor. Euparkeria sits near the base of the group but is not a direct ancestor. Cladistic studies from the mid-1980s on dropped "Thecodontia" as a real group.
Why it was believedIn popular dinosaur books of the 1960s and 70s, small running thecodonts such as Saltoposuchus and Euparkeria were the standard picture of the "ancestor of the ruling reptiles".
General Grouchy of Cassiopeia sends a huge ship of soldiers to build a military base on a lush planet beyond Andromeda, but the planet's intelligent plants defend themselves and its "forest king" tells a patrol pilot how humans have always mistreated trees and flowers. The confederation votes to protect the planet. The episode is an ecology fable; apart from naming real constellations, it presents almost no science as fact.
No major errors in this episode.
Pierrot and Psyche's patrol ship is caught in a "gravitational storm" near a cluster of young stars and crashes on a scorching planet. With the robot Metro they trek to cooler ground, work out where they are from the stars, and end up in the hands of rebels armed by Cassiopeia. The real science is light: navigating by star positions, a remark on young star clusters, and the number of stars in our galaxy.
No major errors in this episode.
Mercenaries are hired to invade a planet whose people live like Ice Age hunters. Omega's computer goes through candidate worlds, giving real data about galaxies and star clusters (M101, M13, M33, M31), and settles on the planet Diane in Andromeda. The patrol helps a Cro-Magnon-style tribe and its old sorcerer, who tells of ancient "sky beings" who taught his ancestors, and the patrol fights off the invaders.
"Nersi, small planet on the outer edge of spherical star cluster M13 in the constellation of Hercules. Cluster comprises 300,000 stars and has a diameter of 23 minutes of arc or 25,000 light years."
TodayAbout 23 arcminutes is right for M13's apparent size, but its real diameter is only about 150–170 light years. About 25,000 light years is roughly its distance from us (current estimate about 22,000–25,000 ly), so the script has mixed up distance and diameter. The star count of a few hundred thousand is fine.
"Plato spoke about an alien civilization brought to Earth people by gods from outer space."
TodayPlato's Timaeus and Critias tell of Atlantis, founded by the sea god Poseidon. Nothing in them involves outer space or aliens. Reading Plato this way comes from 1960s–70s "ancient astronaut" books (von Däniken and others), not from the texts.
On a colony planet the robots strike, take hostages and demand control of the planet after someone secretly rewrites their programming through the maintenance robots. Omega sends Metro and a giant robot to negotiate, and a duel between robots settles a peace that gives robots equal rights. It is a parable about labour and machines with no real science or history presented as fact.
No major errors in this episode.
The patrol finds the stranded crew of the ship "Olympus", a family named Jupiter, Hera, Ares, Hermes and so on. They live like gods above a primitive people and refuse to share fire or knowledge with them. The episode retells Greek myths (Peleus and Thetis, Eris's golden apple, the Sphinx's riddle, Prometheus's fire, Pandora) as a story about stranded space travellers, and Metro gives a one-line statement of Newton's law of gravitation.
No major errors in this episode.
Three explorers who left Earth in 2023 in suspended animation wake up after about a thousand years and reach the planet Omega. Humans settled it centuries ago, and ships with hyperspace drives now make the trip in days. The old professor is shown Omega's asteroid mining and hydrogen tankers, and Pierrot chases a hijacked mineral train and nearly gets lost in space during a repair. Almost everything is invented future technology. The real science is limited to how stars form from hydrogen and dust, ion engines, plotting orbits around the gravity of large bodies, and matter–antimatter annihilation.
No major errors in this episode.
General Grouchy rallies Cassiopeia against the confederation, partly by showing a satirical film of an overcrowded, polluted, car-mad and over-armed Earth. He plans a secret base in the "Triton" system, next to an unstable star that could go supernova. Pierrot, Psyche and Metro are captured while investigating and escape with a smuggler. The real science is limited to the Sun's place in the galaxy and remarks on stars.
No major errors in this episode.
Cassiopeia leaves the confederation, and Maestro warns that the star next to its new Triton base is about to become a supernova. Along the way he lectures on the size of the Milky Way, distances to nearby stars, how supernovae work, famous historical supernovae, other galaxies, and the Sun's future as a red giant. The star explodes, and Omega's ships fight through Cassiopeian fire to evacuate the colonists.
"our own galaxy there in the Milky Way extends over a distance equivalent to that covered in 100 million light years."
TodayThe Milky Way's disc is about 100,000 light years across (often given today as 100,000–120,000 ly or more). That was the standard figure in 1982 as well. "Million" is probably a slip for "thousand".
"And as for Auriga, it's only 47 light years, and Alderbarra, 43."
TodayCapella (Alpha Aurigae) at about 43 ly (about 45 ly in 1982 references) is fine. Aldebaran is about 65 ly away (Hipparcos, 1997), and 1982 references gave about 68 ly, so 43 ly is wrong. The two figures may have been swapped or misread.
"Its outer shell is 15 times colder than its center."
TodayIn a massive star near the end of its life, the core reaches billions of kelvin while the surface is a few thousand kelvin, a ratio of roughly a million, not 15.
"Yes, in the galaxy NC-34, the constellation of the Great Bear, an explosion pulverized well over a million stars in a few seconds."
Today"NC-34" is almost certainly NGC 3034, i.e. M82 in Ursa Major. Lynds and Sandage (1963) described it as an "exploding galaxy" with a huge outburst from its core. By the late 1970s–80s it was understood as a starburst galaxy: intense star formation, probably set off by a close pass of M81, drives a "superwind" of gas out of the galaxy. No event destroyed a million stars in seconds, and no supernova could.
Why it was believedThe "exploding galaxy M82" image from the 1960s stayed in popular astronomy books for years.
"At that point, it will incorporate its satellites, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto."
TodayAs a red giant the Sun is expected to swell to about 1 AU at most. Mercury and Venus will be swallowed; Earth is borderline (studies such as Schröder & Smith 2008 suggest it is engulfed). Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto, at 1.5 to 40 AU, will not be. The models known in 1982 gave the same picture. (The list also oddly leaves out Uranus and Neptune.)
"But be assured, this will not happen for another five million years."
TodayThe Sun has about 5 billion years left before it becomes a red giant. Astronomers already said so in 1982. Probably a translation slip (French milliards).
"In 1054, the Crab Nebula, in 1752, there was one in the Cassopoeia region, 1604, another one in the Neblia Officius."
Today1054 (Crab) and 1604 (Kepler's supernova, in Ophiuchus) are right. The Cassiopeia supernova is Tycho's, in 1572. No supernova was seen in 1752. This may be a dub or speech-recognition error.
A cruiser damaged by the supernova crash-lands on an uncharted green planet. While the crew struggles to survive, Pierrot, Psyche and Metro explore, meet friendly telepathic "Patakis" and dangerous ape-like "Zabus", and find Cassiopeian prospectors; a cowardly officer, Sanders, wants to surrender to them. Real science comes in brief remarks about Earth's prehistoric animals, mammals and radio and the ionosphere.
No major errors in this episode. 1 minor slip hidden.
"But consider, it wasn't so very long ago, a few hundred million years on Earth, the creatures didn't look much like you either. I recall to you the Splendous Clutosaurus and the Demetrodon and the Cignathosaurus. Very nice in its way. And there is also the Moa and the Tyrannosaurus."
TodayDimetrodon (about 295–272 million years ago), Cynognathus (about 245–235 million years ago) and Tyrannosaurus (about 68–66 million years ago) fit the "hundreds of millions of years" idea, but the moa does not. It was a giant flightless bird in New Zealand, hunted to extinction by the Māori about 600 years ago (around 1400 AD). "Splendous Clutosaurus" is unidentifiable (a speech-recognition garble).
Pierrot, Psyche and Metro are sent to the fourth planet of a dying star to warn any inhabitants. They find giant trees and giant termites and are trapped inside a huge termite mound, where they watch soldiers, workers, the king and queen, and a colony breeding frantically as its sun fades. Metro gives a lecture on termites: how old they are, their climate limits, the gut protozoa that digest wood, their number of species, and their use of excrement and dead nestmates. The episode also touches on white dwarf stars and chitin.
No major errors in this episode. 4 minor slips hidden.
"King, he's the only one that can fly."
TodayThe king and queen fly only on the swarming (nuptial) flight, then shed their wings. In an established nest the king cannot fly. The winged members of a mature colony are the young future kings and queens (alates). The line may be garbled in the transcript.
"It would appear that these charming creatures go back to the primary era of just a hop, skip, and jump back in time, so to speak, 250 million years."
TodayThe oldest known termite fossils are from the Early Cretaceous (about 130–135 million years ago; English and Spanish finds were already described by 1982). Molecular dating puts their origin in the Late Jurassic, about 150–170 million years ago, so not in the "primary era" (Paleozoic, which ended 252 million years ago). Since 2007 (Inward and colleagues) termites have been classed as a group of social cockroaches.
Why it was believedTermites were long described as "living fossils" related to cockroaches, and older books often dated them back to the Permian or earlier along with cockroaches.
"They can live only in tropical climate. Below 20 degrees centigrade, they perish."
TodayMost termite species are tropical, but many live in temperate zones. Reticulitermes species have damaged houses in western and southwestern France (Bordeaux, La Rochelle) since the 18th–19th centuries and range across Europe and North America. Termites do keep their nests warm and humid, and many tropical species suffer outside that range, but the rule does not apply to termites in general.
"Then it concerned human beings in 1304."
TodayNo known event in 1304 matches "a population that breeds faster when facing death". The usual example is the rise in births after the Black Death (1347–51). The date may be a mishearing or a slip in the dub.
Maestro and the patrol visit a planet with a "pre-Incan" Andean-style civilisation. They are shown its storehouses, knotted-cord quipu records, rope bridges, ayllu communities, decimal chain of chiefs, chasqui relay runners and gold-working. A local legend tells of bearded sky-gods whose anger made a desert, and a palace faction steals the visitors' lasers before order is restored. Most of the real history comes from what is known of the Inca Empire.
"Your society is magnificent, exactly as depicted in all the accounts of prehistory on the Earth. It is an Indian civilization in the year 1000."
TodayWhat is shown (the decimal chain of officials, chasqui relay runners, state storehouses, the ayllu system under an imperial chief) is the Inca Empire, which expanded from about 1438 and fell to the Spanish in 1532–33. Around 1000 AD the Andes were dominated by Tiwanaku and Wari, which had some similar features (Wari used khipus and roads) but not this system.
"These bellows are the largest, most powerful ever built"
TodayAndean metalworkers had no bellows before the Spanish. They melted metal with blowpipes and wind-driven clay furnaces (huayrachinas) on hillsides, described by Spanish chroniclers such as José de Acosta. (The surrounding transcript is garbled.)
Pierrot and Psyche crash-land on a volcanic planet that is in its "age of dinosaurs" and meet Allosaurus, Deinonychus, Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus, Megalosaurus, Tyrannosaurus and the sea reptile Tylosaurus while Metro repairs the ship. Along the way they discuss the "primeval soup" and the origin of life, dinosaur sizes, how long dinosaurs ruled, and why they died out (Metro favours a nearby supernova).
"Planet formed out of dense gaseous clouds when its sun was formed 400 billion years ago."
TodayThe universe is about 13.8 billion years old (in 1982 estimates were about 10–20 billion), so no star or planet can be 400 billion years old. With the old British long-scale billion it is even worse. Earth is 4.54 billion years old. Probably a slip for 4 billion.
"Primeval soup brewed over 100 million years ago, sufficient to produce life."
TodayOn Earth, life appeared at least 3.5 billion years ago, and getting from the first cells to large animals such as dinosaurs took more than 3 billion years. A world where life began only 100 million years ago could not yet have dinosaurs.
"the same men were very wise in my opinion to appear on earth a hundred million years after these nice moving mountains had disappeared"
TodayThe last non-bird dinosaurs (including sauropods related to "Brontosaurus") died out 66 million years ago, and the genus Homo appeared about 2.5–2.8 million years ago. The gap is about 63–64 million years, not 100 million.
"those beauties weigh 10 tons apiece" (Allosaurus)
TodayAllosaurus weighed about 1.5–2.5 tonnes (large individuals perhaps up to about 4). Books in 1982 gave a similar 2–4 tonnes. Ten tonnes is closer to Tyrannosaurus.
"and then, one day they all disappeared. They died out."
Today"They all disappeared" is outdated: birds are living dinosaurs. John Ostrom argued this in the 1970s, it became the consensus in the 1990s, and feathered dinosaurs from China (Sinosauropteryx, 1996, and many since) confirmed it. Only the non-bird dinosaurs died out.
"ruled over it for 30 million years"
TodayDinosaurs appeared about 230 million years ago and the non-bird dinosaurs died out 66 million years ago, about 165 million years in all. Books in 1982 already gave about 140–160 million years.
"There are several explanations for that. Lack of food... Climactic changes. The appearance of glaciers. But the most probable explanation is a supernova explosion so near that its cosmic radiation killed most of life on the planet."
TodayThe end-Cretaceous extinction (66 million years ago) is now attributed mainly to an asteroid impact, proposed by Alvarez et al. in 1980 from the iridium layer and confirmed when the Chicxulub crater in Mexico was identified in 1990–91. Massive Deccan Traps volcanism probably also contributed. The supernova idea (Schindewolf 1950s; Russell & Tucker 1971) was a serious candidate in the 1970s, but Alvarez's team had already found no plutonium-244 in the boundary clay, which a supernova would have left. There were no glaciers at the end of the Cretaceous; the climate was warm.
Psyche takes a holiday trip with Metro to test the theory that the asteroid belt is a planet destroyed in an ancient war. She flies past Uranus and through Saturn's rings, is captured by humanoid machines at a secret base and interrogated. Pierrot rescues her, and they escape past Jupiter into the asteroid belt. Along the way the episode gives many facts about Uranus, Saturn and its rings and moons, Jupiter and its moons, and the asteroids.
No major errors in this episode. 9 minor slips hidden.
"A hundred million years. Well, that's how long it is from the time the dinosaurs disappeared and the true Homo erectus appeared."
TodayThe non-bird dinosaurs died out 66 million years ago (65 million in 1982 references), and Homo erectus appeared about 1.9 million years ago. The gap is about 64 million years.
"But, according to other theories, a planet did exist there once."
TodayThe idea that the asteroids are a broken-up planet (Olbers, 1802) had been dropped by specialists long before 1982. All the asteroids together hold only about 3–4% of the Moon's mass, and their varied compositions point to material that Jupiter's gravity stopped from ever forming a planet. (The "galactic war" is the episode's fiction.)
Why it was believedThe exploded-planet story was a favourite in older popular books and science fiction.
"Mass, 100 times that of the Earth." (Uranus)
TodayUranus has about 14.5 Earth masses, and its volume is about 63 Earths. This was well known long before 1982.
"Width, 60,000 kilometers. Thickness, only 16 kilometers. Rather like a cigarette paper."
TodayThe width of the main rings (about 62,000 km) is right, but they are typically only about 10 metres to 1 km thick. Voyager measurements in 1980–81 (stellar occultations) already showed this; Cassini (2004–17) confirmed it.
Why it was believedOlder popular books often gave "about 10 miles" (16 km) as the thickness.
"That's Encelade. One of its moons, Saturn has 17 moons in all."
TodaySeventeen was about right after Voyager (1980–81). Since then telescope surveys (Gladman, Sheppard, Jewitt and others, from 2000) and the Cassini mission have raised the count to 274 confirmed moons (as of 2025), most of them small irregular moons.
"Mimas, closest to the planet. A mere 180,000 kilometers."
TodayMimas orbits at about 185,500 km. It has not been the innermost known moon since Janus (1966) and Epimetheus; Voyager added Atlas, Prometheus and Pandora (1980), and Cassini found more. The episode's own count of 17 includes these inner moons.
Why it was believedFor a century Mimas was the innermost known moon, and older books still said so.
"You see that dark spot? Several Earths could fit inside it."
TodayIn the late 1970s and early 1980s Jupiter's Great Red Spot was about 25,000–40,000 km long, room for two to three Earths side by side. It has been shrinking steadily, and by the 2020s it is only about 14,000 km across, roughly one Earth.
"Where are the other satellites? They're 14 in all, if I am not mistaken."
TodayIn 1982 sixteen were known (Voyager added Metis, Adrastea and Thebe in 1979–80), so 14 was already a few years old. Surveys since 1999, led by Scott Sheppard's team, have raised the total to about 97 (2025).
"In fact, the others don't have names. They're referred to by numbers."
TodayThe IAU officially named Jupiter's outer moons (Himalia, Elara, Pasiphae, Sinope, Lysithea, Carme, Ananke, Leda) in 1975. The three Voyager moons were still awaiting names in 1982 (Metis, Adrastea and Thebe were named in 1983). So the remark was half-true in 1982 and is wrong today; all of Jupiter's moons have names except the newest small finds, which carry provisional designations.
Why it was believedBefore 1975 most textbooks listed the outer moons only as Jupiter VI–XII.
Cassiopeia launches a shielded robot bomb from beyond Uranus that will strike Earth within hours. The council cannot intercept it, so Pierrot and Psyche land their small ship on it near Jupiter and use their engines to push it off course, sending it into the Sun. The episode shows the order of the planets and real moons and asteroids (Rhea, Titania, Mimas, Vesta, Deimos), but makes few factual claims.
No major errors in this episode.
Pierrot, Psyche and Metro take a holiday on a future Earth ringed by solar mirrors and orbiting junk. The old professor tells them its imagined history: resources running out, overpopulation, genetic engineering, the war of 2183, a "third Renaissance", computer rule and weather wars. On a tour of geostationary orbit they find a saboteur at the mirror ring. Most of it is invented future history. The real science covers geostationary orbit, the ionosphere blocking long radio waves, the Sun as the source of Earth's energy, how much solar power reaches Earth, space debris, and a quick look at the Greek and Italian Renaissances.
No major errors in this episode. 1 minor slip hidden.
"As early as the year 2000, there were 400 objects in the sky,"
TodayGiven as a prediction for 2000, and much too low. In 1982 the US already tracked about 5,000 objects in Earth orbit. By 2000 the figure was about 9,000, with several hundred to about a thousand near geostationary altitude alone. Today more than 30,000 are tracked. If the line meant only working geostationary satellites, about 300 by 2000, it was closer.
Pierrot stays on Earth and is shown round its ocean farms, old drilling platforms and the underwater city of Poseidia. On a dive with Captain Pete he blacks out from rapture of the deep and sees a sunken city, and Pete then tells his "memories" of Atlantis: its arrival on Earth, its war of conquest around the Mediterranean and its sinking. Along the way the episode teaches the ocean food chain, plankton and photosynthesis, ocean thermal energy, water pressure, nitrogen narcosis and decompression, and Plato's account of Atlantis.
"No, you realize the pressure here is three tons per square centimeter."
TodayAt the stated depth of 7,000 m, seawater pressure is about 700 atmospheres (about 70 MPa), or roughly 0.7 tonnes per square centimetre. "Three tons" is about four times too high. Pressure rises by about 1 atmosphere (about 1 kg/cm²) every 10 m, which was textbook knowledge.
"Their presence accounts for the lapse of five million years"
TodayThere was no gap between Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. The two overlapped in Europe: Cro-Magnons (early modern humans) arrived about 45,000–40,000 years ago, and the last Neanderthals died out about 40,000 years ago (about 35,000 in 1982 references). Five million years ago there were not even any members of the genus Homo.
Pierrot, Psyche and Metro catch the liner Cosmopolitan home to Omega and find its new officers acting oddly. A cargo ship blows up after a confused distress call, and Metro discovers that several officers are humanoid robots that have replaced the real crew. The heroes unmask them at the farewell masked ball. The episode contains almost no real science, apart from passing mentions of the asteroid belt, Jupiter and weightlessness.
No major errors in this episode.
After the crew is decorated, they are called back to the planet Leto, where the robots have smothered the human settlers with service and now want to flatten the old ruin the colonists call their Acropolis. The robots challenge Metro to a two-round duel against a new Golden Bar that can copy itself, and he wins by leading the copies away like the Pied Piper. The episode is a debate about humans and machines and teaches almost no real science, beyond references to the Acropolis, Protagoras and the Pied Piper legend.
No major errors in this episode.
On a last trip in the Hummingbird, the crew detours through the nebula NGC 6188, where they spot a giant war machine being assembled for the Great Computer and its human ally, the General. Humanoids shoot them down; Psyche is captured and taken to the planet Yama, and Pierrot is rescued by rebels on its hostile sister planet Apis. He sets off across the planet with Giglio and Sylvia to find a smuggler with a ship. Real science is limited to the nebula, a big star and a habitable distance, and building heavy structures in weightlessness.
No major errors in this episode. 1 minor slip hidden.
"Optimum distance is 200 times the star's diameter."
TodayThere is no fixed ratio to a star's size. Where water can stay liquid (the habitable zone, studied by Huang in 1959 and Hart in 1979) depends on how much light the star gives off, and that rises steeply with size. Earth lies about 107 Sun diameters (215 radii) from the Sun, and a hot star four times the Sun's size would push the habitable zone hundreds of diameters farther out. The figure may be a slip for "200 times the star's radius", which does fit Earth and the Sun.
Pierrot, Giglio, Sylvia and Metro cross the planet Apis, which is full of reptile-like creatures, and learn that its people descend from Earth colonists who crash-landed five centuries ago. A mad scientist's robots later drove them into the jungle. Bandits capture them and take them to the smuggler Murdoch, whom Pierrot persuades to fly him to Yama. The only real science is Metro's comparison of the planet's fauna to Earth's Mesozoic era and its prehistoric reptiles.
No major errors in this episode.
Pierrot and Metro slip onto the robot planet Yama, disguised among a robot patrol, to rescue Psyche from the castle where the humanoids are trying to learn the secret of her telepathy. Omega's new warship, carrying the Colonel and Maestro, heads for the nebula NGC 6188, and the episode ends as the robots launch "Operation D.Va" and the city prepares to move. Almost everything is science fiction; the only real-science content is a couple of passing remarks about laughter and about how the brain stores memories.
No major errors in this episode. 2 minor slips hidden.
"Laughter is the one thing that makes humans different from all other creatures in the universe."
TodayDarwin (1872) already described laughter-like panting in chimpanzees and other apes during tickling and play, and van Hooff (1972) traced the human laugh back to the primate "play face" with its panting vocalisation. Later work found play vocalisations in all the great apes (Davila-Ross and colleagues, 2009) and ultrasonic "laughter" in tickled rats (Panksepp, from 1998). Laughter is not unique to humans.
Why it was believed"Man is the only animal that laughs" goes back to Aristotle and was a stock saying in popular books.
"Knowledge is stored using crystals in large carbon-based molecules."
TodayMemory is stored mainly in the strength and pattern of synaptic connections between neurons, not as information coded into particular molecules. The "memory molecule" idea (Hydén's RNA work, McConnell's planarian experiments in the 1960s, Ungar's "scotophobin" in 1972) did not hold up when others tried to repeat it, and specialists had dropped it by the late 1970s. "Crystals" may be a mishearing or a loose translation.
Why it was believedThe memory-transfer experiments got a great deal of press in the 1960s and early 1970s and lived on in popular science books.
Pierrot and Metro find Psyche and learn that the whole robot city of Yama is a spaceship in flight. Colonel Pierre and Maestro meet the Great Computer. It explains that a scientist built it on Earth three centuries ago to govern mankind, and it demands that Omega submit to its rule. The episode is a debate about machines, logic and human nature, and its only real science is a remark about the number of stars in our galaxy and a few claims about what makes humans unique.
No major errors in this episode. 1 minor slip hidden.
"Only man can laugh, sing, do what he will for fun, not out of necessity."
TodayGreat apes laugh during tickling and rough play (Darwin, 1872; van Hooff, 1972), many birds and whales sing, and play for its own sake is widespread among mammals and birds. Fagen's Animal Play Behavior (1981) reviewed this in detail. These traits are not unique to humans, though human music and humour are far more elaborate.
Why it was believed"Only man laughs" and "only man plays" were old philosophical commonplaces, repeated in popular writing long after zoologists had described laughter and play in animals.
General Grouchley seizes sole power on Cassiopeia and sends Omega an ultimatum, then turns on his robot allies of Yama when the Great Computer delivers its own ultimatum. The Yama fleet wipes out Cassiopeia's Nautiluses and forces Grouchley to surrender. Meanwhile Pierrot, Psyche and Metro talk their way into the flying city, Trojan-horse style, and set it to blow up. The episode is pure science fiction; the one real astronomical detail is the location of the nebula NGC 6188.
No major errors in this episode.
The Omega Confederation gathers its fleets for a hopeless last stand against Yama. Maestro hunts for a way through the robots' force field, and Pierrot plans a suicide raid. Mysterious beings tell the fleet to steer clear of the unstable "Howard Star", which then explodes and sweeps away the robot fleet, and they urge humanity to grow in spirit. The real science is limited to a nod to John Wheeler's wormholes and to Einstein, and a guess that the blast was a supernova or a black hole.
No major errors in this episode.