PROG 1646 - Off With Their Heads!

[locustsofdeath!]

I know exactly what you mean, Usher; I taught History in the States, and the only way I could get most of those batards to pass the class was to assign them "history" reports on their favorite sports teams or television shows. But, I had to laugh. That's all I could do.

My mathematics teacher used those alligators, probably for the exact people you've described in your post, but damned if every time I am confronted with < or > it doesn't pop into my mind! Ha! Pity it wasn't beaten into dear old Benton's head as well, or the world would have been a happier place for those kiddies.

[House of Usher]

'Roy G. BIV', from BIV sector! Easier than Richard of York...  

Another good Prog, 7/10

From top to bottom:

1) Defoe. Top of the Prog. 'Electrostatic telegraph'? Neat! One wire for each letter of the alphabet. Neato. Very analogue. Nonsuch house: turning a profit from the zombies. It's an all wind that blows no good. Is zombie-hunting really a war, or just business? Delicious dialogue that will bear any amount of exposition. Lovely resum^e of Robert Hooke on page 3. Looking back at part 5 I was confused, because the Clockpunks looked taller in Prog 1644, but comparing the two issues it seems they weren't the same ones. 'Chud', 'Bedlam', 'Gubu' and 'Flogger' are various production line models of clockpunk, and not unique individuals, and the ones exhibited at Nonsuch house are scaled-down show models. The ones seen running amok in Part 5 aren't the same individuals. Ohhhh. I get it now. 'Miss Poppet' is about the wrongest sex robot that ever existed! It's got a zombie brain, fer gawd's sake!! That's necrophilia in my book. And just look at that mess under her skirt. She can mimic any human movement to a most satisfactory degree? I think not! There's no way I'm sticking my prong in that. Page 4 reminds me of Westworld, so no good can possibly come of it. Pages 5 and 6 are well saucy and quite suspenseful. What a corker of an instalment!

2) The Red Seas. A very jolly and fantastical setup, with ripe comedy and fruity dialogue. "I'll thank you to cease your prodding! I am not some underdone bun!" Haha! But then, page 4, it takes a very unpleasant turn. Frankenstein automata. Yuk! A little bit of 'future-drift' there, as an C18th century artist's hands churn out The Scream 100 years early: very tongue-in-cheek. Question for the Baron: if his automata will never age or rot or decay, why not develop that technique to make it applicable to living humans instead of just their severed limbs and organs? Ahhh...

5) Equal third/fifth place goes to Judge Dredd, Future Shocks and Sinister Dexter this week. All worthy supporting strips rather than star attractions.

Sinister Dexter does nothing but introduce evil parallel versions of familiar characters and funny new chap Alan Slaughtermaim. Well done that Abnett droid for the pipe-smoking gentleman assassin alone!

The Future Shock was fine. As usual, you have to not think about it too deeply. Brennan Kingsley went shopping and got gunned down for his trouble when there are three adults with immunity who can stroll about outside with impunity. Impatient young man had it coming and shoulda ust written a shopping list instead. I liked the twist, and I didn't see it coming. Grateful to those who pointed out the significance of the boomerang/bracket symbol on his chain. I just thought it was a sort of electronic key, the way he kept fiddling with it and waving it around when talking about taking Georgina back to her room. The last panel made me wonder if his first mistake was basing the software on MS-DOS and not making it more sophisticated. You live and learn, eh?

Judge Dredd. Rehab is very high-concept for a Judge Dredd strip. It's no weaker for that; it just looks like something that needs a lot of room to expand (like novel length) and can't be wrapped up at the drop of a hat. Is this going to run for another 3 parts? I do hope so for the sake of a properly satisfying story. It's very left-field. I liked science mumbo-jumbo on Page 1 and reference to 'Helter Skelter' and thus continuity. I liked the first and last pages best. The middle bit, though well written, made me impatient. The gloves bit was seriously mental and funny, and typically for Al Ewing, over the top. I'm looking forward to the fun next week promises with the alternate reality Dredd.

[TordelBack]

Personally, I reckon Sprout is toadying up to Tharg something terrible in that Future Shock.  "See, Mighty One, see? I've written you a thrill all about how truly earth-shatteringly important it is to have an editor". 

[House of Usher]

Another thought: if the Harvesters only killed everyone under the age of 21, why are the streets deserted and where are all the humans >21 who are outside the target criteria? Sanctuary would either be under seige from everyone angry at Brennan Kingsley, or there would be loads of volunteers out there, strolling about, doing their shopping, delivering food parcels off to Sanctuary and queueing up to visit the last remaining children on Earth, and popping into Sanctuary's maternity suite to pop out their own sprogs and visit them there.

Kingsley's ineptitude (a programmer who doesn't know the difference between 'greater than' and 'less than' - which didn't require much suspension of disbelief from me at all!) also made me annoyed about all those job adverts I never responded to that used to say "must be trained in Quark Express" regardless of how otherwise thick the applicant might be. I was sure it wouldn't take me long to master something like that, and besides, I had a lot of other skills and academic qualifications that would have been useful for the job. But as these things usually go, first someone from HR checks the applications against the checklist of criteria, and the ones that don't tick the boxes go in the bin.

[Dark Jimbo]

Another thought: if the Harvesters only killed everyone under the age of 21, why are the streets deserted and where are all the humans >21 who are outside the target criteria?

Dead, presumably. Kingsley was 21 when the harvesters were created, remember - now he's an old man, looking well into his eighties. The generation that were 21+ when the harvesters were created would mostly be long since dead, I'd imagine.

[House of Usher]

Sorry! I got the names wrong! The programmer was Benton, not Kingsley. Corrections follow..

Another thought: if the Harvesters only killed everyone under the age of 21, why are the streets deserted and where are all the humans >21 who are outside the target criteria?

Dead, presumably. Benton was 21 when the harvesters were created, remember - now he's an old man, looking well into his eighties. The generation that were 21+ when the harvesters were created would mostly be long since dead, I'd imagine.

When the Harvesters went into action, there was a huge population out there aged 21-110 ignored by the Harvesters. It would only have taken between a few months and 21 years for the first inhabitants of Sanctuary to venture out safely into the outside world, by which time the outside population would be aged 42-110, not 'long dead'.

[Dark Jimbo]

When the Harvesters went into action, there was a huge population out there aged 21-110 ignored by the Harvesters. It would only have taken between a few months and 21 years for the first inhabitants of Sanctuary to venture out safely into the outside world, by which time the outside population would be aged 42-110, not 'long dead'.

Hmm... Good point.

[Emperor]

It is probably best not to over-analyse things - enjoy the story and move on.

After all you'd imagine that before releasing an army of killer robots onto the streets:

• Someone would presumably read through your code looking for schoolboy errors like this - probably wise before slughtering a good percentage of the world's population
• The problem would have come up when testing the machines on death row inmates (or even on a mixed group with the guns loaded with blanks), as you are not going to release them without a field test as any glitch in the code could have been disateruous - like leaving an unclosed comment tag higher up in the code which would have made the robots skip the exceptions (screwing up on the age front I could buy but the politicians and scientists would make bloody sure you're listing on the exceptions worked)

Even after releasing them, when it was obviously going wrong, you'd just go back and change the code and/or hit the failsafe off switch that you'd have to include.

But again that is over analysing it and I'm sure you could spoil most stories that way. It is a one-shot story and while it might be a problem if a series relied on this I'm just going to suspend disbelief, enjoy it and not worry too much about it (if it was a series you could just change the robots to a genetically engineered virus that would need to be "compiled" before being  released so you'd not have much option to change the code - viruses just aren't as much fun as killer robotts though ).

[House of Usher]

[caveat mode]

As usual, you have to not think about it too deeply.

[/caveat mode]

[Emperor]

[caveat mode]

As usual, you have to not think about it too deeply.

[/caveat mode]

Indee. After all they are your chips you are pising on.

[ukdane]

I thought there were 3 or 4 good "Quotes of the Week" this week, but for me, I think this one from Isaac Newton (Red Seas) wins.

"I'll thank you to cease your prodding! I am NOT some underdone bun!"

For me, the Prog is still currently better than the Meg.