I have so much love for this ep. B7 crazy at its best. (Also a lighter, more S1 feel to this one, I think? With the whole "...coincidentally, an alien threat" and Blake back to being know-it-all Good Guy and everyone being more than a little bit stupid.) There are plot-holes (and stupidity) all over the place, but then I keep losing track of the plot anyway because of a.) FLAILY RUNNING and b.) VILA
I actually had a hard time trying to pay attention to what Avon and Tynus were saying to each other because I kept getting distracted by Vila's very expressive body language commentary to it in the background (including probably every possible nuance of "oh, ffs" in existence...) There are also those persistent looks that he keeps giving Avon (while Avon usually stares straight ahead) which just gives me the feeling that we've interrupted some kind of argument or other unfinished business between them which Vila is trying to get Avon to acknowledge - while Avon is either unaware or deliberately evasive. ("We need to talk - about what the hell you thought you were doing in the last ep.")
And then of course there is the whole "unless somebody ditches him first" conversation which is a strong candidate for single best scene of the show for me. In my personal fanon, this is Vila's belated response to Avon almost asking him to come with him in 'Breakdown'. <3 Alas that they are out of phase with each other... (Yes, I love these two. Does it show?)
Hmm, so "the first Earth ships to reach deep space" happened 700 years ago from their perspective. Supposing (optimistically?) that we reach this stage in the next 200 years, that would mean that we're looking at somewhere around year 2900 in the "old calendar", give or take a century or so?
Space-happy Tynus and the bug-suits*! The apparent bug-theme makes me theorise that apart from being a hobby entomologist, Tynus original career choice was clothes designer and when he was posted to Fosforon he decided to take personal charge of the dress code, working from a "nature did it first" principle with the protective clothing. The grasshoppers are probably modelling for some kind of improved space-suit. (Oh God, does this explain Avon's outfits? He is used to worse.)
"Don't ask questions, just take me to whoever is in charge." ...The Blake way of evading security. *g*
Augh, your discussion of infection vectors makes no sense whatsoever! And no, when people are dropping like flies from unknown infectious disease you do not hang around out of curiosity (Blake!) nor because you're in the middle of a job and hate being interrupted (Avon!) And whatever you do, at least please, please apply some kind of quarantine procedures when getting back to the Liberator. Seriously, none of them deserve to be alive at the end of this episode. *triple facepalm*
The fact that the virus only kills space-faring humans could have had interesting effects if it had become an epidemic - it would have effectively ended the Federation (at least outside of Earth), for one thing, and would have targeted richer, import-dependent planets while being kinder to more of the poorer but potentially self-sustaining ones. ...and the aliens, of course. Would the auronar have been sufficiently different to survive, for example? It could have made for quite an interesting (and possibly nicer!) post-apocalyptic universe. (Although just to be clear: I do agree that putting out a warning was the right thing to do...)
Yes, outfits! As far as I'm aware, this ep contains the only instance ever of one of the main characters expressing incredulity at an outfit... That's saying something, surely!
Tynus original career choice was clothes designer and when he was posted to Fosforon he decided to take personal charge of the dress code, working from a "nature did it first" principle with the protective clothing…(Oh God, does this explain Avon's outfits? He is used to worse.)
Brilliant! I think I’ll now make this part of my personal fanon :D
The fact that the virus only kills space-faring humans could have had interesting effects if it had become an epidemic
Now that I think about it, a selective fast spreading virus that kills quickly makes no sense as the cause of a galactic plague! For one thing, the plague might burn itself out without intervention, given that you need people to be alive to spread a plague far and wide. There will also be a lot of people unaffected and this may make it difficult for the virus to spread from one vulnerable group to another. There will also be plenty of people around to enforce quarantine, communicate a warning to others and try to combat the plague. I doubt a slower spreading virus would do much for the drama, mind you and I’ll ignore what I'm saying for the purposes of discussion!
a selective fast spreading virus that kills quickly makes no sense as the cause of a galactic plague Yes, very true. Now, if it had had an incubation period of a few weeks or longer, during which people were infectious without showing symptoms... That would have been really dangerous. Of course, it might be possible that non-space travellers still carry the infection in non-lethal, symptomless form, in which case they would still act as transmitters and also see to it that the virus stays in circulation in the populations over longer time-scales, to prevent humans from simply taking to space again after the plague has run its course.
OTOH, space-travelling humans would be the only ones that the aliens would actually have had the opportunity to study, so the question is, would they even know that planet-bound humans would be unaffected?
...or it could be that we misunderstand their intentions entirely. Maybe viral infection is simply how they communicate, and the rest is all unfortunate side-effects... ;-)
if it had become an epidemic - it ... would have targeted richer, import-dependent planets while being kinder to more of the poorer but potentially self-sustaining ones.
I think the direct death toll might be greater on richer planets, but I’m not so sure about the longer term effects of economic isolation. I think it is quite hard to determine how catastrophic such a plague would be without understanding the economic set up in the Federation. I don’t think it is just a question of poor planets faring better than rich ones. It would depend exactly how narrow and specialised their economies were. Space! Banana Republics would not have a happy time. Rich planets with diverse economies importing luxuries wouldn’t be so affected. Also, the more sophisticated the society the greater the likelihood that governmental bodies could re-organise the economy superfast like they do in wartime. Of course, that assumes efficient government! A lot of imponderables there, I think!
I can imagine that planets with a large, poor (or at least not overly wealthy) populations would have to have at least a subsistence level of self-sufficiency already in place, as it would be too expensive to rely on interplanetary (not to mention interstellar!) imports for bulky goods like foodstuffs. Not that shortages of things like medical supplies and various essential technology would not be a huge problem too... But in the end, the environmental characteristics of each planet would probably turn out to be the most important aspect, in whether it could actually support human life independently.
I think what really makes this scenario so interesting (in theory!) is that while disasters in general tend to strike hardest at the poor/less developed societies, this one actually incorporates a mechanism for striking selectively (if far from exclusively) at the top layers of society. The fact that the people in government may be the first to go probably will not facilitate a quick response...
But yes: far too little information on far too complex systems for anything but wild conjectures. Interesting though they are! :-)
a.) FLAILY RUNNING and
b.) VILA
I actually had a hard time trying to pay attention to what Avon and Tynus were saying to each other because I kept getting distracted by Vila's very expressive body language commentary to it in the background (including probably every possible nuance of "oh, ffs" in existence...) There are also those persistent looks that he keeps giving Avon (while Avon usually stares straight ahead) which just gives me the feeling that we've interrupted some kind of argument or other unfinished business between them which Vila is trying to get Avon to acknowledge - while Avon is either unaware or deliberately evasive. ("We need to talk - about what the hell you thought you were doing in the last ep.")
And then of course there is the whole "unless somebody ditches him first" conversation which is a strong candidate for single best scene of the show for me. In my personal fanon, this is Vila's belated response to Avon almost asking him to come with him in 'Breakdown'. <3 Alas that they are out of phase with each other... (Yes, I love these two. Does it show?)
Hmm, so "the first Earth ships to reach deep space" happened 700 years ago from their perspective. Supposing (optimistically?) that we reach this stage in the next 200 years, that would mean that we're looking at somewhere around year 2900 in the "old calendar", give or take a century or so?
Space-happy Tynus and the bug-suits*! The apparent bug-theme makes me theorise that apart from being a hobby entomologist, Tynus original career choice was clothes designer and when he was posted to Fosforon he decided to take personal charge of the dress code, working from a "nature did it first" principle with the protective clothing. The grasshoppers are probably modelling for some kind of improved space-suit. (Oh God, does this explain Avon's outfits? He is used to worse.)
"Don't ask questions, just take me to whoever is in charge." ...The Blake way of evading security. *g*
Augh, your discussion of infection vectors makes no sense whatsoever! And no, when people are dropping like flies from unknown infectious disease you do not hang around out of curiosity (Blake!) nor because you're in the middle of a job and hate being interrupted (Avon!) And whatever you do, at least please, please apply some kind of quarantine procedures when getting back to the Liberator. Seriously, none of them deserve to be alive at the end of this episode. *triple facepalm*
The fact that the virus only kills space-faring humans could have had interesting effects if it had become an epidemic - it would have effectively ended the Federation (at least outside of Earth), for one thing, and would have targeted richer, import-dependent planets while being kinder to more of the poorer but potentially self-sustaining ones. ...and the aliens, of course. Would the auronar have been sufficiently different to survive, for example? It could have made for quite an interesting (and possibly nicer!) post-apocalyptic universe. (Although just to be clear: I do agree that putting out a warning was the right thing to do...)
*...good name for a band?
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Me, I could not concentrate at all due to outfits. WTF???
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Brilliant! I think I’ll now make this part of my personal fanon :D
The fact that the virus only kills space-faring humans could have had interesting effects if it had become an epidemic
Now that I think about it, a selective fast spreading virus that kills quickly makes no sense as the cause of a galactic plague! For one thing, the plague might burn itself out without intervention, given that you need people to be alive to spread a plague far and wide. There will also be a lot of people unaffected and this may make it difficult for the virus to spread from one vulnerable group to another. There will also be plenty of people around to enforce quarantine, communicate a warning to others and try to combat the plague. I doubt a slower spreading virus would do much for the drama, mind you and I’ll ignore what I'm saying for the purposes of discussion!
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Yes, very true. Now, if it had had an incubation period of a few weeks or longer, during which people were infectious without showing symptoms... That would have been really dangerous. Of course, it might be possible that non-space travellers still carry the infection in non-lethal, symptomless form, in which case they would still act as transmitters and also see to it that the virus stays in circulation in the populations over longer time-scales, to prevent humans from simply taking to space again after the plague has run its course.
OTOH, space-travelling humans would be the only ones that the aliens would actually have had the opportunity to study, so the question is, would they even know that planet-bound humans would be unaffected?
...or it could be that we misunderstand their intentions entirely. Maybe viral infection is simply how they communicate, and the rest is all unfortunate side-effects... ;-)
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I think the direct death toll might be greater on richer planets, but I’m not so sure about the longer term effects of economic isolation. I think it is quite hard to determine how catastrophic such a plague would be without understanding the economic set up in the Federation. I don’t think it is just a question of poor planets faring better than rich ones. It would depend exactly how narrow and specialised their economies were. Space! Banana Republics would not have a happy time. Rich planets with diverse economies importing luxuries wouldn’t be so affected. Also, the more sophisticated the society the greater the likelihood that governmental bodies could re-organise the economy superfast like they do in wartime. Of course, that assumes efficient government! A lot of imponderables there, I think!
Reply
I think what really makes this scenario so interesting (in theory!) is that while disasters in general tend to strike hardest at the poor/less developed societies, this one actually incorporates a mechanism for striking selectively (if far from exclusively) at the top layers of society. The fact that the people in government may be the first to go probably will not facilitate a quick response...
But yes: far too little information on far too complex systems for anything but wild conjectures. Interesting though they are! :-)
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