Reception
- The pod lands in a hotel room.
- Improbable, you say? Yes. But that's science-fiction and super-advanced aliens for you. They can do anything.
- Santa Claus appears with an ice cream cone for Bowman.
- Okay, that doesn't happen. Can't have everything.
- Bowman gets out of his ship, wearing his suit, and looks around.
- The print in the books in the hotel isn't clear though.
- The food in the fridge is some kind of blue substance.
- Bowman figures if there's a hotel, there should be air.
- The logic isn't entirely clear, but it turns out to be correct; he gets out of his suit and doesn't asphyxiate.
- Out of his suit, he can try eating the blue substance. It's pretty good.
- He drinks some water from the tap.
- He turns on the television and gets various programs; he figures that TMA-1 has been monitoring earth broadcasts.
- Bowman sees a TV program with an exact replica of his hotel room. He figures the aliens designed the room based on the television program.
- And then he's tired so he takes a nap. (Not what you'd do, you say? Well, next time you're in a hotel on the far side of the galaxy, you see how tired you are.)