Julia said:

A thought strikes me - is it possible that the offence for which Gan was sent to Cygnus Alpha is not the one for which the limiter was fitted?

Then again, they may have had an order to implant a limiter in some guy named Ol Eggan, and you know what it's like trying to argue with a bureaucracy.

-(Y)

Tim Dedopulos wrote:

Does anyone actually know why the Federation went to the trouble of

fitting

Gan with a limiter? It must have been done after his arrest at the very least, and probably after his conviction. Given the conditions that prisoners are shown to be held in, I doubt that anyone much could cause

any

significant harm... and delicate brain surgery must cost cash. If it was a simple job, you'd think repairing the limiter would have been a lot easier than it was.

So what made Gan so bloody dangerous? I never did puzzle that one out.

Gan does seem pretty dangerous during the breakout on the London. Remeber the moment when he threatens the guard:

GAN: Look, we only need the hand. If you want to stay attached to it, do as you're told.

It doesn't seem unreasonable that the Federation would want a way of restraining him while in custody. They could physically restrain him but this would not help if he managed to escape (or was released). They could drug him, but this would have to be done repeatedly and might prove awkward, especially if someone forgot (or was unable) to give him his next dose. Therefore, a permanent solution might prove some safeguard. Of course, as you rightly remark, the limiter is not easy to repair, but perhaps on this point the Federation simply didn't give a damn: if Gan proved a trouble in their custody, they could repair the limiter (or restrain or simply kill him, if repair was out of the question, e.g. on the London); when he was out of their hands (i.e. on Cygnus Alpha), that was someone else's problem.

The closest we get to an actual explanation is in "Breakdown", when the surgeon Kayn makes a couple of remarks relating to Gan's limiter:

1) KAYN: All right, Cally, now you tell me why this man has a limiter implant.

2) RENOR: Progress to what? Brain implantation? KAYN: A dangerous psychopath? Certainly. Or would you prefer he'd been executed?

Does this mean that Gan actually is a "dangerous psychopath"? Or that the Federation simply found it convenient to label him as such? The limiter is raised a couple of times in the series and then dropped, while Gan's background is never really explored, so I don't think it's possible to prove this one way or the other.

James

In message 005701c1ae3a$2ca2fda0$7689590c@dshilling, Dana Shilling dshilling@worldnet.att.net writes

James Mansson said:

...

It doesn't seem unreasonable that the Federation would want a way of restraining him while in custody.

[...] Therefore, a permanent solution might prove some safeguard. If it weren't for the obligation to make the series last longer than a total of half an episode, the Federation would probably have been better advised just to shoot everyone who caused serious trouble instead of twonking around with prison planets and slave pits. (NINOTCHKA: We will soon have fewer--but better--Russians.)

Shipping convicts off to settle the less salubrious colonies is ever so much more humane than hanging them.