Prog 2294: East Wired

[Funt Solo]

I also found the time-jumping confusing - I've seen it done more helpfully in other stories, where the (hopefully only two) time-zones are clearly demarcated through the use of a different color palette or art style.

I would assume that the "n days after hack" boxes are referring to the Sov hack of the video footage.

Time zones in the very first episode:

 - The Sov's hack the video footage of the Mechanismo's gunning down their own side.
 - 22 days after hack, Dredd is called to the mission.
 - 12 days after hack, Brit-Cit appear to have been informed of what the Sovs have found.
 - 23 days after hack, Dredd is en route to Atlantis.
 - 20 days after hack, Brit-Cit annex Atlantis


Throwing us backwards and forwards like this is terribly confusing without some sort of graphical clue - unless we take notes while reading, as I've done just now. Now I understand the episode a little better.

2nd Episode adds a fourth (depends how you're counting them) time stream immediately, then forwards the two main streams (Brit-Cit and Atlantis):

 - Three months prior to hack (Atlantis hearing)
 - 23 days after hack, Dredd's team arrive at Atlantis.
 - 16 days after hack, Brit-Cit CJ views the footage.
 - 23 days after hack, Dredd's team arrive at Atlantis.


3rd episode introduces a new narrative caper, as we get text from the Brit-Cit time stream overlapping the Atlantis time stream.

 - 23 days after hack, Dredd's team arrive at Atlantis.
 - 16 days after hack, MC-1 and BC CJs arguing.
 - 19 days after hack, Brit-Cit cloak and daggers about meeting the Sovs.
 - 21 days after hack, Brit-Cit annexes Atlantis (contradicting the first episode, where it happened the day before).
 - 19 days after hack, someone has shot the dog. I don't actually understand who.


4th episode:

 - 20 days after hack, the Sovs suggest the assault on Atlantis (agreeing with the previous episode but not the first episode).
 - 23 days after hack, Dredd's team battle for control at Atlantis.
 - 20 days after hack, Domino Blank-One kidnaps dead-dog-man, Bernard, of Brit-Cit.


5th episode:
 - 23 days after hack, Dredd's team battle for control at Atlantis.
 - 21 days after hack, while Brit-Cit is annexing Atlantis, Domino is trying to take down Modric.
 - 23 days after hack, Dredd's team battle for control at Atlantis.


6th episode:
 - 24 days after hack: the CJs summit in Greenland.
 - 21 days after hack, Domino is trying to take down Modric, but he kills himself.
 - 24 days after hack: Dredd's team leave Atlantis.
 - 30 days after hack: denouement.


Seems like a lot of effort to go to in understanding a comic, but there you go. A bit convoluted.

Domino calls Modric a Sov, but it wasn't clear to me whether we were supposed to know that all along, or whether he was a double-agent of Brit-Cit intelligence.

[Colin YNWA]

I've mentioned it before but I think the time jumps were done really poorly in this story, obstucting storytellign rather than enhancing it. They made little narrative sense to me, it wasn't as if there was a load of reveals helped the story retain tension and mystery to justify them being there. They made the story unecessarily oblique and added little. Maybe on re-read that will chnage we'll see.

[IndigoPrime]

The question: would this story have been worse had it been told in straightforward linear fashion? (I don’t think so.)

[Colin YNWA]

The question: would this story have been worse had it been told in straightforward linear fashion? (I don’t think so.)

Exactly that. I just don't see what the benefit was of the convulted timeline. In many ways it could have been better as it'd have been able to build tension between to 'allies' slowly falling out and escalating the consequences of that.

[Funt Solo]

To be fair (and despite my agreement that ultimately it didn't work as intended), the intention was to present a puzzle first (why is Dredd assaulting Atlantis, why have Brit-Cit annexed it and what's that got to do with the Sovs) and then dropping in the missing parts to provide the solution. Like that fella le Carré does.