If... the lights went out

[Pyroxian]

Just a heads up to say that this is on BBC2 in about 30 minutes - it appears to be a series of documentaries about post-apocalyptic/future scenarios. Sounds interesting...

    Steve

[VampiraJen]

i hate these programmes, telling me i won't live to see 30, scaremongering, that's what it is, if the end of the world is coming, i'd rather i didn't notice the incoming meteorite/tidal wave/swarm of killer bees...

[Mr D]

Lol
I welcome the end of the world, should be a laugh.

[-=>DEMONIZER<=-]

Yes, mother earth needs a break doesn't she?

Just a chance to re-charge is all.

Before we kill her.

[Queen Firey-Bou]

well we've already had the who'll be in my post apocolyptic tribe thread, & i imagine the programme will be dumbed down scaremongery shite, so i think i gie it a miss.

i thought this thread might present an opportunity for me to lecture about how to find your way around a pitch black room... oh well. ( personal protection sweeps of the arms & legs at all times children & NEVER leave the wall )

[Pyroxian]

Well, the basic premise was that we could be facing an energy shortage by 2010 due to the way the current infrastructure works etc. etc.

The major power cut in the SE shown in the program was a result of several factors coinciding, so the risk would still be fairly low.

Still, its interesting. Personally I would've preferred a more 'Tower King' style program, with everyone having to resort back to steam power (hands up who knows how a steam engine works?)

    Steve

[opaque]

It was good but did assume an awful lot of things happening at once.
I do like these programmes but in many ways they don't go far enough. And are too short.

Also if this problem was so bad it would take one hell of a long time to get things sorted back to normal again.

[VampiraJen]

"we could be facing an energy shortage by 2010"

AH! so i'll JUST make it to 30.  pheeeewww.

[Dudley]

I thought it was pretty well-presented.  They made no secret of the fact that this was what *could* happen if all present trends in energy production continued without change for the next 6 years.

Really, all it was was an oldfashioned polemic about the badly-managed state of Britain's energy grid, they just added a drama element to make it watchable and I like that kind of attempt to reach out to the audience.

[Smiley]

"Our chances of being hit by an alarmist factumentary are like cosmic musical chairs... and every seat has a drawing pin."

[House of Usher]

Thanks for mentioning The Tower King, Pyroxian. I was telling my other half about it the other day after yet another trailer for that powercut docu-drama. We didn't watch it. The Radio Times had a preview of the other 'menaces' to be tackled in future programmes: the terrible consequences of equal rights for women, the elderly having it all their own way and pulling up the ladder after them (surely some mistake?).

The Tower King was the strip I used to look forward to most every week in the 1980s Eagle comic. It was set in the 21st Century, after a meteorite collision with a weapons or communication satellite bathed the whole world with a damping field that stopped all electrical power. But presumably didn't prevent bio-electrical signals in living organisms.

The whole world went medieval, but anyone over about 30 or 40 could remember the world before the disaster, so it couldn't have happened all that long before. The Tower King had a feudal army based in the Tower of London, and they fought bands of hostile survivors led by rival warlords. Best of all was the artwork by Ortiz.

[Pyroxian]

>that stopped all electrical power. But
>resumably didn't prevent bio-electrical signals
>in living organisms.

   I assumed it stopped current from flowing, but static-electrical sparks still work - hence people still living, car (well, tank) engines working and presumable lightning as well.

    Steve

[House of Usher]

A bit of technical know-how goes a long way. I'm totally out of my depth with anything like this. If I was a Marvel comics editor I'd give you a 'no-prize' for that nugget, Steve (for Superman readers, that's a 'Baldie').

[Dudley]

It would have been a steady stream of EMP's (electro-magnetic pulses), I guess.  the effect these have is to knock out electronic systems rather than electricity.  I don't think you could knock out electricity without fundamental changes to the physics of atomic structure.

...dudley (not a scientist)

[House of Usher]

It was a long time ago. I can't remember what exactly couldn't work, but I don't remember batteries or spark plugs being able to work after the satellite accident. What would still work in spite of electro-magnetic pulses? Don't they damage micro-circuitry? In The Tower King, the problem was it was quite simply impossible to generate electricity.