Lost in time

As an aside to the main writing themes of the Lighthouse Keeper blog a number of people have asked me about some of the titles used for the various entries about the final Space Shuttle mission.

Well, apart from the obvious ‘label’ headings, there was a musical bent to some of the others - ‘A beautiful day’ (the U2 song), the rather obvious ‘Final countdown’ (explained in that blog), ‘Big boys don’t cry’ (lyrics from 10cc’s' 'I’m not in love') and ‘Tears in the rain’.

The latter is perhaps the least evident but has two potential origins - the 1988 television movie directed by Don Sharp and starring Sharon Stone and Christopher Cazenove, which was based on the romantic novel of the same name written by Pamela Wallace. How likely is that? Or, the science fiction film Blade Runner.

As the 1982 film Blade Runner - directed by Ridley Scott and based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick - is an all-time favourite of the Lighthouse Keeper then there was no contest.

‘Tears in the rain’ is the title of one of the Vangelis compositions on the soundtrack and also forms part of an introspective phrase used by Roy Batty (played by Rutger Hauer), one of the replicant characters, regarding his own death during a rain downpour.

"I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments, will be lost in time like tears in rain..."

It is far too early to know for sure how long-lasting the legacy of Atlantis and the other Space Shuttles will be for future generations - or will these fine flying machines become ‘lost in time’ themselves?

Either way, maybe the Space Shuttle Atlantis was shedding a tear or two of her own during the torrential downpours on the day before launch.