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A few years ago I saw a movie, the title of which I just can't remember.

It was a movie about a crew on a spaceship travelling a long time to a distant planet or system to check on something, or to bring life to this planet.

I also remember: When they arrived OR when some problems occur they found a ship with their same name but with the number "2", like Voyager (fictional name) 1 and 2, and they could not understand why there was a second ship around.

The explanation was that, DURING their travel period, scientists developed a new faster drive, so that a new ship launched later on the same mission arrived at the planet before the first one.

I might remember that this is some known paradox. If you go on a long space journey, the scientific progress that's made can actually make a new ship reach the same destination faster, despite being launched later.

I'm dying to remember this movie - I google all the way down and couldn't find it.

Edit: It was a live action movie and I think it was streamed via Amazon / Netflix. It was an international movie.

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  • Hi, welcome to the site. In roughly which year did you watch this, and when do you think it might've been made?
    – LogicDictates
    Commented Jul 25, 2022 at 14:43
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    I think the paradox referred to is the "Wait Calculation": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_travel#Wait_calculation If an interstellar trip will take more than 50 years it is better to wait until more scientific progress has been made
    – Clara Díaz Sanchez
    Commented Jul 25, 2022 at 14:54
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    @FlaStorm32 That's a line from Van Vogt's "Far Centaurus" (Astounding, January 1944).
    – DavidW
    Commented Jul 25, 2022 at 16:02
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    Something similar happens in Heinlein's Time for the Stars -- the torchships are sent out, almost touching lightspeed at turnover, but maintaining instantaneous telepathic communication with Earth. After five or six stops, the protagonist's ship is met by Earth humans who have overtaken them with a new "fountain ship" (presumably faster than light).
    – Zeiss Ikon
    Commented Jul 25, 2022 at 16:12
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    I can't think of any films where the 'lightspeed leapfrog' trope is a part of the plot
    – Valorum
    Commented Jul 25, 2022 at 17:25

1 Answer 1

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For the past few years some vague memories of this movie kept popping into my mind, but google searches never helped. Today I finally decided to find it no matter what (during which I stumbled on your question) and... I think I finally did it. I'm pretty sure that we are both thinking about Lost in Space from 1998 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_in_Space_(film) I wonder if you'll ever see this answer :D

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    This doesn't seem a very likely match to the story described above.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jul 10 at 20:05
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    Hi, welcome to SF&F. Please describe how the crew of the Jupiter II find a successor ship with the same name.
    – DavidW
    Commented Jul 10 at 20:07

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