Legacy questions
Two questions for today! A reader asks, "Will we see any Pegasus civilizations where all the folks don't look like they just arrived from a modern-day central casting office? So, any mention of lack of hygiene or other problems among the locals?"
Short answer, yes. For example, in Allegiance a good deal of time is spent on a world where people are trying to recover from a disastrous Culling. Of course they don't have washing machines and dentists and deodorant! This is a war zone, a place where a disaster has occurred. I don't think we've glossed over those things.
In the course of the series there are a number of worlds at different technology levels, and I think we've made an attempt to not gloss over the differences. Of course subsistence level farmers have problems that modern people from first world countries aren't used to -- rickets, for example. It was certainly common in the middle ages, and reasonably would be common in a medieval style society.
A reader asks, "In the prologue to Homecoming, why isn't Lorne taking a turn flying the city? Or is that spoilery?"
No, that's not spoilery, except in the sense of revealing that Lorne is alive and in the book! Which he is. This goes back to our discussion of the ATA gene. It seems like that there are a few things we know about it. One is that not everyone with the gene manifests abilities the same way. John, Carson and Jack O'Neill all use the same chair very differently and with different degrees of success. So it's not just about having the gene or not, like an on/off switch. It's about how you use the interfaces. It's about temperament as well as genetics.
Canon doesn't tell us whether Lorne's ATA gene is natural or a recessive activated by the gene therapy. It seems that successfully using the chair requires the natural gene (otherwise why is Rodney still getting people to turn it on for him?). I am guessing that Lorne's is an activated recessive for this reason: back in SG-1, Lorne was on an SG team during the episodes Lost City and New Order. He was already a guy with responsibility, a trusted officer. In New Order, Elizabeth Weir strongly implies to Daniel that with Jack in stasis they have no one who can use the Antarctic chair. Now, given that Lorne is there and that he already is a team member, why don't they get Lorne to try it? There isn't any logical reason, unless it's that at that time Lorne couldn't. Also, in The Rising, if Lorne has a natural ATA gene and is with the SGC, why isn't he assigned to this rather than having Rodney bully Carson into doing it? Again, it makes sense if Lorne can't do it yet. Rather than everybody inexplicably forgot about him!
It all makes sense, however, if Lorne gets the gene therapy when he arrives in Atlantis at the top of season two.
So the reason Lorne isn't third pilot in the prologue to Homecoming is because his gene doesn't manifest in the right way to fly the city, just as Rodney's doesn't. That was our thinking.
Short answer, yes. For example, in Allegiance a good deal of time is spent on a world where people are trying to recover from a disastrous Culling. Of course they don't have washing machines and dentists and deodorant! This is a war zone, a place where a disaster has occurred. I don't think we've glossed over those things.
In the course of the series there are a number of worlds at different technology levels, and I think we've made an attempt to not gloss over the differences. Of course subsistence level farmers have problems that modern people from first world countries aren't used to -- rickets, for example. It was certainly common in the middle ages, and reasonably would be common in a medieval style society.
A reader asks, "In the prologue to Homecoming, why isn't Lorne taking a turn flying the city? Or is that spoilery?"
No, that's not spoilery, except in the sense of revealing that Lorne is alive and in the book! Which he is. This goes back to our discussion of the ATA gene. It seems like that there are a few things we know about it. One is that not everyone with the gene manifests abilities the same way. John, Carson and Jack O'Neill all use the same chair very differently and with different degrees of success. So it's not just about having the gene or not, like an on/off switch. It's about how you use the interfaces. It's about temperament as well as genetics.
Canon doesn't tell us whether Lorne's ATA gene is natural or a recessive activated by the gene therapy. It seems that successfully using the chair requires the natural gene (otherwise why is Rodney still getting people to turn it on for him?). I am guessing that Lorne's is an activated recessive for this reason: back in SG-1, Lorne was on an SG team during the episodes Lost City and New Order. He was already a guy with responsibility, a trusted officer. In New Order, Elizabeth Weir strongly implies to Daniel that with Jack in stasis they have no one who can use the Antarctic chair. Now, given that Lorne is there and that he already is a team member, why don't they get Lorne to try it? There isn't any logical reason, unless it's that at that time Lorne couldn't. Also, in The Rising, if Lorne has a natural ATA gene and is with the SGC, why isn't he assigned to this rather than having Rodney bully Carson into doing it? Again, it makes sense if Lorne can't do it yet. Rather than everybody inexplicably forgot about him!
It all makes sense, however, if Lorne gets the gene therapy when he arrives in Atlantis at the top of season two.
So the reason Lorne isn't third pilot in the prologue to Homecoming is because his gene doesn't manifest in the right way to fly the city, just as Rodney's doesn't. That was our thinking.