Presumably Servalan and Travis aren't up to their eyeballs in suppressants (it's really scary to think that they're heavily medicated and would be more... extreme...otherwise). But in TWB, Blake is a high-caste respectable citizen and has to be told to avoid food and drink, so he is given suppressants. Were civilians but not the military given suppressants? Or only rank and file soldiers but not officers or not senior officers?
And does the Pylene-50 pacification program show that a) after the Andromedan War, the ordinary suppressants could no longer be administered? b) the Pylene-50 was just supposed to be topped up? c) TPTB forgot about the earlier reference to suppressants?
-(Y)
Dana wrote...
But in TWB, Blake is a high-caste respectable citizen and has to be told to avoid food and drink, so he is given suppressants. Were civilians but not the military given suppressants? Or only rank and file soldiers but not officers or not senior officers?
It's not made entirely clear exactly what effect the supressants are supposed to have. I mean people presumable have to be able to work so it can't affect there thinking that much so maybe it's not too much a problem in that respect but certainly laid back dopey soldiers aren't going to be that much use. Maybe the military used a different set of drugs altogether designed to err 'improve moral'
And does the Pylene-50 pacification program show that a) after the Andromedan War, the ordinary suppressants could no longer be administered? b) the Pylene-50 was just supposed to be topped up? c) TPTB forgot about the earlier reference to suppressants?
With certain types of drugs it's possible to build up a tolerance/resistance to over time, maybe Pylene-50 was just the next round of suppressant type drugs.
Dana wrote:
Presumably Servalan and Travis aren't up to their eyeballs in suppressants (it's really scary to think that they're heavily medicated and would be more... extreme...otherwise). But in TWB, Blake is a high-caste respectable citizen and has to be told to avoid food and drink, so he is given suppressants. Were civilians but not the military given suppressants? Or only rank and file soldiers but not officers or not senior officers?
And does the Pylene-50 pacification program show that a) after the Andromedan War, the ordinary suppressants could no longer be administered? b) the Pylene-50 was just supposed to be topped up? c) TPTB forgot about the earlier reference to suppressants?
I imagine the suppressants weren't that extreme, or people wouldn't be able to do their jobs. Presumably Avon and Vila and others also got them, and that didn't stop them acting independently or even criminally. And the resistance group in TWB obviously overcame them easily enough to rebel.
Here's my theory: the suppressants work mainly on those who've been adjusted / conditioned, by reinforcing the treatments in some way. I can't see the Federation functioning if all its citizens were half-zombies, the people we get to see throughout the series certainly aren't.
In Space Fall, someone says that most of the cons are 'drugged to the eyeballs'. But with suppressants or something else? Blake and the others could hardly have gone without food and water for 4 months. I think drugs were freely available by choice. (From a dispenser? Note that the guard on the door makes Vila drink first). The prisoners took them for pleasure and to combat boredom, and the crew liked this as it made them amenable and easy to control. Anyway the other prisoners don't seem that spaced-out (sorry) to me.
And what did they use on the Space Princess? Something hallucinogenic to convince the passengers they'd seen all the sights?
Pylene 50 is something else. I don't know how the societies it was used in could function at all if people were so drugged they don't notice others being shot down beside them. You'd have to have a huge number of Feds telling them all what to do all the time; just not worth it. Can anyone explain that?
Nico
At 07:56 13/01/02 +1300, Nico wrote:
Dana wrote:
But in TWB, Blake is a high-caste respectable citizen and has to be told to avoid food and drink, so he is given suppressants.
I've always assumed suppressants were used 'when needed'. Increased when there was discontent, reduced when there wasn't. If, as suggested in TWB, food is both rationed and dispensed centrally, then dosages could even be individually calculated.
Were civilians but not the military given suppressants? Or only rank and file soldiers but not officers or not senior officers?
I suppose that it depends on how content people are with their lives, and how 'with it' they have to be to carry out their roles in the Federation.
And does the Pylene-50 pacification program show that a) after the Andromedan War, the ordinary suppressants could no longer be administered? b) the Pylene-50 was just supposed to be topped up? c) TPTB forgot about the earlier reference to suppressants?
I think one of the selling points of P-50 over earlier grugs is that it's a single-dose effect. Instead of having to keep pouring expensive suppressants down the throats of the ungrateful populace, it's administered once and that's it. And whatever it does is difficult to undo, since it's creator only came up with a block, not a cure.
I imagine the suppressants weren't that extreme, or people wouldn't be able to do their jobs.
I agree. I've always imagined that the suppressants were more like tranquillisers than anything else. And, like Valium, often given to people to provide a chemical cure for feelings that are a perfectly natural consequence of having a shitty life. So they actually improve productivity and so on, by making people more content with their lot.
Presumably Avon and Vila and others also got them, and that didn't stop them acting independently or even criminally. And the resistance group in TWB obviously overcame them easily enough to rebel.
No real-life drugs are perfect, ot affect everyone the same. This could even be some of the background to the remarks about a genetic component to resistance made in Horizon.
And what did they use on the Space Princess? Something hallucinogenic to convince the passengers they'd seen all the sights?
It you build a sensible spaceship (like Libertor) with a nice thick hull and no windows, then you can show the passangers anything you want on the screen and they'll be quite happy. Or you can put screen in and pretend they're windows, for the same effect.
Pylene 50 is something else. I don't know how the societies it was used in could function at all if people were so drugged they don't notice others being shot down beside them. You'd have to have a huge number of Feds telling them all what to do all the time; just not worth it. Can anyone explain that?
I've often wondered it the footage shown in Warlord had been, ah, 'improved' by Avon, to make his pitch to the leaders of the border systems a little more attractive.
Nico
love Anna
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Nico Mody-Nikoloff