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Time Squad (104)
Ah, now this one was better than 'Cygnus Alpha', though I always find the frozen bad guy scenes on the Liberator drag rather.
Wit
This episode has a good serving of witty quotes from several people including Blake. We get Vila and Avon's reaction to the carnivorous plants, Vila's remark about wanting to live forever, Avon insulting Vila, and several more real gems.
Corpsicle capsule
I imagine the air in the capsule was left over from when it was loaded and launched, so it's a nice touch that Blake and Jenna start to run out of it very quickly. I'm not sure how they arrived all scrunched up when they were teleported standing upright, but perhaps Zen worked that out and altered them before they were transmitted. I wouldn't care for being moved like a puppet myself.
Jargon
"Liberator is stationary and is stabilised in an anti-orbital posture." I'm with Vila: what the hell does that mean? OK, I'm guessing geosynchronous orbit (over a fixed spot on the planet's surface) which is hardly stationary, but perhaps they mean a geostationary orbit (above a spot on the equator). So far, so good. What's an anti-orbital posture though? Ooh, I know: the Lib's orbiting green glowy bulb first! Hee; did Blake and Avon get it wrong?
We also get the first mention of spacials. If they're 1000 spacials above the surface and Saurian Major is about the size of Earth (going by its gravity) then it seems that a spacial is about 36kms.
Plot holes
When that projectile hits Jenna, she doesn't react like someone with a broken arm, and she uses both of them when she closes the door on the guardian.
How did Gan know how to use the first aid box? It wasn't tech that Jenna was familiar with by her reaction so I'm guessing it was Liberator equipment. Were there little icons showing broken bones or something, or did Gan take a stab in the dark? He seemed to know what he was doing.
Gan could have attacked the guardians and broken their limbs instead of standing there with a gun he couldn't fire.
Where did Vila get his box of tricks?
Zen-shaped hole
Zen obviously knew about the danger of taking the capsule on board but:
1) Why didn't he teleport Blake and Jenna back, thus making that unnecessary?
2) Why was he unable to warn the crew--until later when he told Gan there was a fourth guardian?
Was he programmed to obey at all costs and not object, or not to warn a non-System crew before they did something stupid? He volunteers information later to Gan, so neither of those make a lot of sense.
Clothes
Avon has changed his outfit--to one of his worst. It looks as if he was painting his cabin in that tunic. If it doesn't have a name, I hereby dub it The Housepainter.
Crew
Jenna shows her competence and knowledge as she instructs the crew on how to fly the Liberator.
We hear about Gan's limiter and his need to be with others to be safe--something that also speaks volumes about the dangers of Federation society. I doubt I could kill anyone but I don’t feel the need to be with others who can--far from it.
Cally uses her telepathy with Blake who has no problem hearing her, and I note she can aim it just at him. Pity that ability was hardly used again, especially in S-L-D.
The beginning of the Vila and Avon snarkfest! :-D
When it looks as if they're all going to be blown up with the communication complex, Vila doesn't complain or panic. He just moves to stand by Blake and looks at him with what seems to me to be faith that Blake will get them out. He trusts Blake that much already?
And as for Jenna's remark at the end, I interpret that as wariness. She had just been almost killed by aliens taken on board without knowing much about them and they've just gone and done the same thing with another one.
...And at last we have our Seven!
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You know, I would probably have spent the first year or so wearing a space suit *inside the Liberator* just on the off-chance, I can't imagine why they'd just swan into an unknown capsule with no protection--it might have been launched by people who breathe nitrogen, for corn's sake.
It's possible that Jenna is a superb teacher, but frankly, the conclusion I drew was that it can't be all that difficult to fly the Liberator if that bunch of no-hopers could learn in a couple of weeks.
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After all, Tarrant could do it.I always assumed it was called Time Squad because there was a squad of Guardians who'd been floating around for a very long time. And there was an unused script called [Something Else] Squad, wasn't there? So maybe they thought they'd have several squads.
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always been one of my favourites :0)
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I quote the 'live forever or die trying' line sooooo often...
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Zen does tell them there is life support--for a limited period--on the capsule. If it had been me, I'd ask if it would support my life, and for how long.
it might have been launched by people who breathe nitrogen, for corn's sake.
Exactly--though we mainly do! This disregard of how alien other people or planets might be isn't just restricted to B7 though. Most crews happily board other ships / stargate to other worlds under the assumption that everyone breathes the same mix of gases--and speaks English. They're usually right too. :-P
I think piloting spaceships is as easy as driving a car. The crew can learn quickly enough, but they're never going to be rally or Formula One drivers like Jenna.
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That line is a classic! And so far I've managed it too. ;-)
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Its preferable to finding your head half way through a bulkhead! Evidently it has an "avoid obstacle" fail-safe. Which is why none of the crew ever end up half in ot out of anything other than water.
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But yes, there must be built-in compensation so that they don’t end up in mid-air or with their feet inside uneven ground. I suppose Blake stumbled that first time on CA because his feet got moved to fit the slope which would be rather disorienting. Maybe that's another reason the teleport needs the teleportee's living mind to work.
I put Avon and Vila into a vault full of credits once (http://community.livejournal.com/b7friday/45386.html); I can even fit that into the theory: if there wasn't any relatively empty space to fit them into, then they end up, well, in the money.
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It depends on whether you envisage the physical matter remainng in phase with the rest of the universe when you teleport.
If this is a gradual process (hence the wavy line effect) then there is sufficient time for the air's constituents to "compensate" for your absence and hence there is no "sudden" hole in the air in the teleport. So no thunderclap.
By the way air is made up of empty space (mostly) with oxygen etc whizzing around at random so sudden disappearances and reappearances wouldn't be as dramatic as you imagine. Maybe a slight breeze at best, no thunderclap.
Interestingly enough statistically there is no reason all the particles of air shouldn't move into one corner of the room and leaving the rest in vacuumn (one of the comforting things you learn in chemistry!).
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Only if the air was moved away first, and there's not a lot of time to do so. There'd be a big shock wave. Air only feels empty.
Interestingly enough statistically there is no reason all the particles of air shouldn't move into one corner of the room and leaving the rest in vacuum
Only in statistics. Other laws like those of pressure come into play.
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Air is mostly made up of space, the gases in it make up only a small percentage of it's volume.
Note the website below and read what it says of the main constituents of "air"
http://www.ems.psu.edu/~bannon/moledyn.html
This gives a good explanation why such an event, although statistically possible, is unlikely to happen. Though again even if it did occur such eventuality would be of such a short duration we are unlikely to notice it.
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It could be a thunderclap or the sound of one hand clapping.
You have your idea of what it involves, I have mine. Either is equally valid.
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Agreed. I like your theory too, and who knows, maybe if the teleport's that clever, it just removes what's at the destination and creates more of the atmosphere in the teleport bay.
I just objected to being lectured.
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I might have got a little enthusiastic, but its rare that you actually get to discuss the science of science fiction.
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