Prog 1441... Earth Shattering!

[McNulty]

It's not just you. I thought that as well.

[Dudley]

as a past Future Shock said, surely if one side lost in such a war, it would simply launch everything it had on the victor, rather than submit to them?

To cover themselves (as such a sneaky thing wouldn't be the best advertisement for their brand), presumably your war planet vendors would build in a couple of penalty clauses.  

First off, were I a war planet exec, I'd make sure that combatants had to send their entire army over to the rented planet.  You could build in transportation devices that would take care of getting the troops back home in nanoseconds if their home planet were sneakily attacked.

Secondly, I'd make sure that the refundable deposit laid down by the suckers, sorry, customers would be the equivalent to two or three year's GDP for the entire planet.  The sort of money they couldn't afford to lose.  If either side failed to stick to the peace declarations at the end of the war game, or to honour their surrender, their monies would be forfeit.

Thirdly, your average war planet solutions supplier tends to have better technology available to them than most of the races taking advantage of their offer.  If a really serious breach of contract occurred, they could simply lend their tech to the side that had honoured its agreement, and blast the bad faith customer's planet back to the Stone Age.


Finally, weren't the last couple of panels of Shakara among the best art ever seen in the Galaxy's Greatest?

[Funt Solo]

In order, worst to best:

5: The VCs
This sort of reminds me of a lot of the goings on in Iain M. Banks 'Culture' novels.  From that point of view, it's a disappointing comparison.  As a plot development, it is interesting that human and geek are going to attempt to make a deal.

4: Droid Life
The first time I've laughed out loud at this.

3: Slaine
Oh boo!  It was a "Flash Gordon" cliffhanger.  For Slaine to escape being gholamised when nobody else seemed able to, he should at least have warp-spasmed:  which (according to the rules of early Slaine) would have produced an ink cloud which could have played some tactical part in the underwater engagment.

2: Judge Dredd
Like wot the person up above said:  this episode really shines in comparison to the first.  I guess it's a tactical dramatic choice, though:  do you go for the "audience don't know what's going on and keep 'em guessing" approach or "let the audience know she's in danger to up the tension ante"?

As it is, we're still in the dark about what those sov-a-likes want Vienna for.

1: Shakara
My only criticism would be that the art is so busy in places that it's a bit hard to tell.  But then, this is art, as opposed to computer-colouring blocks (The VCS) or cartoon antics (Bec & Kawl).

Someone up above gave a great (and hefty) review about this that I can't really add much to, except to say I loved the first series, and this opening episode drew me in completely.

Overall:
A solid prog, and not a log.

[Tiplodocus]

Yeah, I thought the George Clooney thing was good too.

And I also liked the rather obvious depiction of a Hottie as, well, a pe*is.  Was this down to the artist or the writer?

[Dan Kelly]

Great prog.  Really liked the double sized Shakara.   Now with added Plot ;)

I suspect that the missing thrill from next week gives us space for a double-sized finish for Slaine.

Dan

[Funt Solo]

Ditto on George Clooney.

Not only did the hottie look like a penis, but the cover featured the thrusting, bulbous-headed phallic symbol that is Shakara's spaceship.

Exactly the kind of thing that would have my Dad (when I was a teen) telling me that 2000AD was "ideologically unsound".  Parents just don't understand.

[Oddboy]

And he wanted to die. And for the first time, I think I saw Shakara hesitate before delivering the killing stroke.

I thought that bit was really interesting - the doctor said he was repentant, guilty and deserved to die, and Shakara hesitated.
Then he begged ("Please.") and Shakara killed him.

Shakara had mercy on the doctor, but only while he was truely repentant - as soon as he showed that he didn't want to die, Sharaka's mercy was lost.

[Dan Kelly]

My reading of it was that although repentant, the doctor still wanted to die, as he'd realised that he couldn't atone for his actions.

The "please" was requesting the end, not mercy.

Agree about the pause being genuine tho'

[Oddboy]

Could've been...

Either way - it looked like Shakara had accepted the doctor's repentance based on him accepting his fatal punishment.

1) "Please... don't kill me" - Shakara's showing mercy, until the doctor shows that he isn't truely repentant - therefore doesn't deserve mercy.

2) "Please... kill me" - Shakara's showing mercy, and then even shows 'reward' (mercykilling) at the doctor's insistance for his punishment.

Or maybe neither of these - Shakara was hesitating just to up the terror/tension before his relentless killing spree continued (most likely!)

[Funt Solo]

Yeah, I read it as "please kill me" as well.  I think he was truly repentant, and therefore he did want to die.

Shakara definitely paused.  The first glimpse of a character trait beyond "swift and violent retribution" that we've seen.

[Carlsborg Expert]

Off I pop to the shop to get me wan

[Bad Andy]

I thought it was a girl myself.

[Wake]

This just in from Henry:

"Both of your interpretations could be right, you'd have to ask Robbie but the way I see it she truly hates herself. One thing I need to put right and I'm sorry that it was a little unclear, is that Dr Procopio is female."

[Bad Andy]

Told ya

[Funt Solo]

Male...female...what's the difference?

(I'll just sit back now and wait for the flood of nude photographs.)