2010: Odyssey Two - Discontinuities Between 2010 and The Other Works

Discontinuities Between 2010 and The Other Works

• In the film 2001, the final spoken words are a recording of mission overviews, however in the novelization Dave Bowman is heard saying "My God! It's Full of stars" this quote is used in both the novel and the filmed version of 2010.
• The novel 2001: A Space Odyssey has the second half of the story take place around Saturn, with the Monolith embedded in the surface of the Saturnian moon Iapetus. 2010 follows the continuity of the film 2001, which places the Monolith and Discovery in orbit between Jupiter and the Jovian moon Io.
• When Bowman recalls the events of 2001, he remembers the incident of chasing after Frank Poole's corpse in a pod without his helmet, and then entering the Discovery through the emergency airlock. This incident only occurred in the film. In the novel, HAL opens all of the pod bay doors and the emergency airlock to kill the crew when Bowman attempts to awaken them from hibernation.
• In all of the Space Odyssey novels and the film version of 2010, HAL's instructor is named Dr. Chandra; in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, it is Mr. Langley.
• In 3001: The Final Odyssey, the Leonov mission is said to have taken place in the 2040s.
• In 3001: The Final Odyssey, the Monoliths appear to have left the Solar System, rendering the events in 20,001 (at the end of the 2010 novel) moot — however it is possible that the Monoliths could have returned after the events depicted in 3001.

Clarke acknowledged such inconsistencies in the Author's Note to 2061:

Just as 2010: Odyssey Two was not a direct sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey, so this book is not a linear sequel to 2010. They must all be considered as variations on the same theme, involving many of the same characters and situations, but not necessarily happening in the same universe. Developments since 1964 make total consistency impossible, as the later stories incorporate discoveries and events that had not even taken place when the earlier books were written.