What happened to the Mega City Domes?

HiEx · 13 December, 2002, 10:13:23 AM

In early Dredd Stories, MC1 and MC2 were clearly shown, covered with big domes. Whatever happened to these?

HiEx

HiEx · 13 December, 2002, 10:24:05 AM

Is it just me, or does the Cursed Earth seem to have become much tamer as the years go by.

I mean in the Cursed Earth Dredd Epic, Dredd only just managed to make it across and then he had the Land Raider vehicle, Judges Paton, Jack & Gradgrind, Tweak, Spikes Harvey Rotten and a detachment of war droids to help him.

Nowadays though, or in fact since the Judge Child Epic, Dredd frequently rides out in the Cursed Earth, just by himself and his trusty Lawmaster and often comes back with nary a scratch.

So what is it, is Dredd just much tougher now, or is the Cursed Earth less dangerous? Note, I'm not saying the Cursed Earth is a safe place, there still lots of nasty shit out there like Gila Munja, but it does seem to me like it's lost a certain something over the years.

Oh, and whatever happened to the Death Belt, that flying band of rocks and garbage in the atmosphere?

HiEx

Devons Daddy · 13 December, 2002, 12:22:18 PM

they where buiult at exceedingly high costs to the citizens. the justice dept stepped in realised it was to far gone to stop.so they spent more money on them on.in the end they where sold to an eastern state mega citiy and used for large scale synthi turkey rearing.
or was that the london one?

good question there hi ex could someone who helped pay for them in the uk answer this one to us non tax paying citizens of the board.
though i think they where replaced by the great wall which was built in cals time. if i remember rightly.

HiEx · 13 December, 2002, 01:27:56 PM

Presumably the domes were built for a reason, which I guess was probably to protect the population from radiation from the atomic war and also all the rocks, garbage and other stuff flying around in the atmosphere at the time.

If the domes were dismantled during Cal's reign and replaced with the wall, does this mean that the atmosphere was considered sufficiently safe that the protection of the domes was no longer deemed necessary? If not, why didn't Cal just bulid a wall around the dome?

I'm theorising here that perhaps the dismantling of the domes took place upon the introduction of Weather Control, which could be used to ensure a clean atmosphere for the MC1 (as well as controlling the weather).

Or more likely, the whole dome concept was just a continuity cockup. One of these things that seemed like a good idea at the time, but later on Wagner and/or Mills realised how silly it was given the size of MC1.

HiEx

Mangamax · 13 December, 2002, 01:47:47 PM

Maybe the domes you see in the early stories didn't cover the whole of the city, maybe the city was made up of a series of domes - kind of like the Eden Project but more probably (given the pilching from other SF works at the start) it was "inspired" by Logans Run which also had a series of domes

Oddboy · 13 December, 2002, 03:13:53 PM

realised how silly it was given the size of MC1

What about the continent sized domes in Asylum, then?

Mudcrab · 13 December, 2002, 03:51:54 PM

>> realised how silly it was given the size of MC1

>> What about the continent sized domes in Asylum, then?

Very, very silly!

Thread Zero · 13 December, 2002, 05:07:09 PM

None of the early stories show MC1 or MC2 covered by a big dome - you don't even see a view of MC1 until part way through 'The Day The Law Died', when Cal decides to build a big wall around the city to stop the people getting away.

Are you thinking of Luna-1, which needs a big dome over it to stop the air from getting away?

paulvonscott · 13 December, 2002, 06:01:13 PM

It could have been an energy dome as opposed to a physical material dome. I imagine it was neccesary to stop the fallout and wind borne radiation of the atomic wars. It could be it's still used occasionally if the rad count gets too high. Also could be used as a defence grid maybe.

Or you could tippex the dome out in the Cursed Earth story.

Tiplodocus · 13 December, 2002, 07:03:42 PM

Did I imagine a dome in the early Brotherhood of Mutants story (with a giant preying mantis) then?

JayzusB.Christ · 13 December, 2002, 09:14:30 PM

Wasn't there also once a little corridor in Mega-City 1 where you could cross a line and suddenly leave MC1's jurisdiction? Also fairly silly. Why didn't all the perps know about it?

Oddboy · 13 December, 2002, 09:58:15 PM

Customs at the airport it was - Brett Ewins drew it IIRC

Thread Zero · 13 December, 2002, 09:59:33 PM

>Did I imagine a dome in the early Brotherhood of Mutants story (with a giant preying mantis) then?

Yep. The domed city that you see in the last panel of 'The Brotherhood of Darkness' in prog 4 is an hallucination caused by your sick and diseased mind...

Mk13 · 13 December, 2002, 10:26:10 PM

>Customs at the airport it was - Brett Ewins drew it IIRC

It also turned up in one of the Dave Stone Dredd novels - Deathmasques, IIRC.

Smiley · 13 December, 2002, 11:59:13 PM

Wasn't there also once a little corridor in Mega-City 1 where you could cross a line and suddenly leave MC1's jurisdiction? Also fairly silly. Why didn't all the perps know about it?

Wasn't this the Northways(?) bridge in "The DNA Man"? With a big "Entering Mutieland, Cross At Your Own Risk" sign, or similar? Yeah, Brett Ewins did that one.