--- Sally wrote:
Stephen asked: <Incidentally, why don't you like the Pylene thread ?>
It just grates on me horribly. I mean, I can suspend disbelief all the way to the Crab Nebula and back if I want to (I like *Kairos* after all!!) but this super-wonderdrug that's supposedly instantaneous, permanent and utterly without side effects, that turns people into happy efficient little workers *and* drugged-out zombies depending on script needs, and just happened to fall into Servalan/Sleer's lap at the moment she needed it ... it screams MacGuffin even louder that the Liberator turning up for Blake (and isn't nearly as entertaining to watch). And the way it's ditched after Traitor until Warlord (surely Our Heroes should have been concentrating on spreading the antidote around rather than collecting headless androids and Ogs?)
Ah well, I think the idea was a good one. But I agree they should have sorted out the continuity between Warlord and Traitor (Perhaps continued exposure to it makes the happy little workers drugged up zombies ? There you are - side effects) and it shouldn't have ended up in Servalan's hands.
But it fits neatly into the idea of the Federation drugging the populace and the Pylene episodes - Traitor, Warlord and Blake are better than the average.
In defence of Animals, they did originally want Justin to synthesise an antidote, not run up more Ogs for them. Dayna just got sidetracked !
And I think that you're right about the priority they give to it - a find the antidote plot thread would have been better than the weapon of the week plots which is what we got. I suppose the importance of the sand in er Sand, is the fact it acted as a preservative which was one of the issues in Warlord - this could have been made explicit.
Stephen.
===== "I always have a quotation handy, it saves original thinking" - Lord Peter Wimsey.
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