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We take a single episode of a science fiction TV series and overanalyze it to
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within an inch of its life.
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This is the Fusion Patrol podcast. Welcome to the discussion.
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Hello and welcome to another episode of Fusion Patrol. I'm Eugene. And I'm Ben.
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And tonight we're looking at the Doomwatch episode, Train and Detrain.
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Which I'm sure is about science fiction high-speed trains and the problems that
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are going to come about from that advance in technology.
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Let's find out, shall we? In a forest in Sussex, the animals are dead,
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and John Ridge is investigating them.
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Meanwhile, Toby Wren is put on the job of finding out if there are any new pesticides
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that have been released by British companies.
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At a British pesticide company, Chief Chemist Ellis is being given some unusual hints.
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His parking spot is removed. He gets a new secretary without warning.
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They remove the carpet from his office. His phone disappears,
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and the head of the company is avoiding talking to him. Whatever could it mean?
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When Toby Wren visits the company, he overhears what they're doing to Chief Chemist Ellis.
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It seems that they're trying to give him a hint that they want him to leave.
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Instead, since he has a contract, they transfer him to a new job.
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A lesser job. This doesn't sit well with Toby.
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Ellis happens to be his former tutor at Cambridge.
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A man that he has great respect and fondness for. This also means that Toby
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takes an instant dislike to the head of the chemical company, Mr. Mitchell.
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Mitchell doesn't really want to cooperate with him, and he delays turning over
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samples of their new chemical until after they've already started shipping it.
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Quist is out of the country, so John Ridge is in charge.
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Ridge hatches a plan to smuggle Toby into the facility and have him obtain a
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sample of the chemical surreptitiously.
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They do this, however, Toby is caught. Toby gives the head of the company a
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piece of his mind about the way they're treating Ellis, and the head of the
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company uses a tape recorder to capture Toby's rant.
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Mitchell then uses the tape to try to leverage
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Quist, who's now back in the
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country, into not investigating his pesticide.
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Quist has no choice but to fire Wren.
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However, Quist knows that because Mitchell tried to leverage him with the tape,
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he does have something to hide. Ellis dies.
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Suicide. Later, both Wren and Mitchell receive copies of Ellis' suicide note.
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While Mitchell destroys his copy, Wren uses it to confront him,
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forces him to admit that he forced Ellis to perform unauthorized tests that Ellis had objected to.
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Mitchell is forced to cooperate, and he gives back the tape to Wren.
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There is justice in the world, as soon after, Mitchell loses his parking spot
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and isn't invited to important meetings. The D-train leaves Wren.
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You know, when we watched this episode, when I watched this episode,
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I suddenly remembered what it was that had happened when we were watching Doomwatch before.
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And I thought, maybe, maybe we won't go all the way through with this.
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And that was, there's not a whole lot of sci-fi in this.
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Thank you for saying that. In fact, I actually found this episode to be rather boring.
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It was just bureaucratic nonsense. Yeah, it was.
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Yeah, I mean, and so this may be a short one.
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I don't know. You know, obviously, we're still in the range of what Doomwatch is doing.
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And I suppose that, you know, episode after episode after episode,
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it could just be company comes out with new chemical company does some dodgy testing.
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Company wants to get the chemical out and not
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be bothered by regulators and doom
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watch saves the day over and and over and again and i i don't think it is but
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that that made that that bit of his plot was very just ordinary sort of government
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procedural sort of tv um and i don't think really,
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if you tried to put yourself in 1972, it was any different then.
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It's like, ooh, big chemical, you know, maybe, maybe that was a lot fresher
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in the mind of the public.
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I mean, now we just automatically assume that all companies do this.
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Maybe in the 1970s, early 70s, maybe we weren't as jaded. And maybe this was.
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You know, ooh, would they do that? Ooh, how terrible.
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This is a doomsday scenario.
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But I didn't get it.
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So I don't know. I didn't feel it at all. Yeah.
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So what I found very interesting was that to me, it seemed like,
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what would you guess, 80% of the episode had to do with a pesticide?
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Well, if we're going to get into the plot element itself, then yeah,
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it has to do with the pesticide.
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But really, I thought this really felt more like just a character study of Toby.
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Yes, I think there's a lot of that. But what I thought was interesting was the
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name of the episode, Train and Detrain.
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Yeah, it's about the 20% of the non-main plot.
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It's about how they treat the old chemist.
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And to be honest, I actually thought it was going to have something to do with trains. I really did.
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You know, the way you described in your synopsis, because I hadn't,
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obviously I've never seen this before. Yeah, me neither.
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So I had no idea what to expect. i hadn't even read the synopsis so
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i literally went into this thinking that this got something to do
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you know much like the last episode has something to do with this
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this this engine that was creating havoc
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wrecking havoc with the red yeah yeah so i thought we're gonna have something
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like that now we've got this train that either through its power source or it
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maybe it's it's waste, you know, waste exhaust.
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Atomic coast to coast train, atomic train.
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Something like that. Where have I heard that idea before? I haven't, yeah, I can't imagine.
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I honestly thought that that's what we were going to be dealing with.
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And when I saw how the phrase train and detrain was used in this episode,
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I thought, oh, okay, that's clever.
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Should I be impressed or not? I haven't decided yet.
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And of course, it's never a term I've heard before.
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Not used in that respect. No, obviously train, yes. But detrain, no.
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I've never heard that phrase used before. I'm just accepting it on face value
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that that's what it means maybe over across the pond.
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And of course, they're implying that that's what it means across the pond on
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this side. That's what the Americans do. That is true.
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So I don't know. I did a little bit of- Well, I don't think it's a question of the phrase.
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I think it's more a matter of the policy about busting people down.
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Yeah, yeah. But not the phrase. I think the phrase sounds uniquely British, but I could be way wrong.
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Yeah, I know. we'd come up with something much more a lot
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more syllables honestly you know I mean it's like elevator versus
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lift and yeah we like those we
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like those complexicated sounds and stuff yeah you know the premise of Doomwatch
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is always painted as being you know cautionary tale about the progress quote
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unquote progress and what we're willing to do for it and go and.
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You could look at this and say, we're talking about the pesticides, but we're not.
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This episode is talking about the influence of American ideas on the British way of life.
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This American company has come in and bought this pesticide company.
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They've instituted these new management techniques.
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They've put pressure on them to perform. And so they're having to behave in
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a criminal fashion to keep up with their American master's expectations.
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With the tests and getting information out, and then also with the treatment
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of elderly workers and a topic that you and I,
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looking at this episode, can say, huh,
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we're in that age. Oh, that's true.
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And I will agree that that topic, or at least that particular store point,
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that bullet point of the episode, did resonate within me for that very reason.
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So I did a little research, very little research, but I did a little research.
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The Age Discrimination Act, sorry, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act
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of 1967 in the United States.
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And this is an act that prohibited some form of discrimination for workers over the age of 40.
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And I think it's interesting that they actually mentioned that age in this episode.
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Think in America, age 40, you'd be out of here.
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So I wish we had somebody who was, my heck, we're not old enough, right?
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I mean, we're old enough now, but in 1970.
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Oh, clearly not. At that time, no.
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You
and I would have no concept of the idea of how older workers in the United States were treated.
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No, of course not. And we would also have no idea how older workers were being treated in the UK.
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No, definitely not. Maybe they didn't do that to them.
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Maybe they weren't complete jerks to them and say, no, young youth. I mean, that is kind of a.
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That is kind of an American stereotype in British stuff about how we we covet
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youth and how we, you know, turn over things new, whereas Britain is old and stayed.
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And so you get you get people like Captain Peacock.
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Are you being served and whatnot with it? You know, you just rise up through
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the ranks and you just keep getting older and older and seniority counts for something.
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Whereas in the United States, it's like, get them out of here. New, fresh ideas.
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Chuck them out on the bin. So I'm wondering if this is truly in response to
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an actual influx at that time of that American attitude.
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It's possible. I think by that point, we were definitely, you know,
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our American corporate interests were definitely going across the ocean at that particular time.
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So it's very possible that maybe there was some kind of an influence being felt
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over in the UK, and it became a talking point.
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Yeah, so if that was the bugbear that the author wanted to expose,
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because Doomwatch is a show about exposing the dangers of progress,
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call it progress, but change.
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And usually that's in some sort of a science fiction element,
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and now it's more of a social one. They push social.
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And so what they had to do was they had to go, well, how would Doomwatch get involved with this?
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We're going to have to frame a story that would get them involved for some way.
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And so that's why the whole chemical story seems so periphery in this,
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even though it dominates the entire thing.
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And I think that makes this, I want to say an unsuccessful episode,
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but at the same time, you know, if I were, if I were living at that time and I was over the age of 40,
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I would watch this and I would have concerns, you know?
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Yeah, I suppose back then. It would make me think.
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I'm sure it would. Older workers still to this day
have discrimination against
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them, even though there's, you know, multiple more laws against discrimination
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that have come on the books.
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But it still exists. It still absolutely exists. Yes, of course.
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You know, if, if I, I couldn't go out and get a job, another job in,
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in IT, I don't think, you know, at, at, with, with 30 plus years of high level
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experience, you know, it just. Oh, I understand.
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It wouldn't, it wouldn't happen. I mean, I've been working, I've been working,
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you know, I've been working in healthcare for God knows how many years, same thing with Keith.
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And at our age, if we were to successfully find another job,
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it would be at a fraction of what we're making now.
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Yeah. And they would obviously want to hire younger people. Of course. Because they pay less.
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Precisely. So, I mean, it's... I wonder if it's...
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Is it the age or is it the pay? I mean, okay, it could be both. I think it's both.
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I think it depends on circumstances. I mean, I lost out on a possible promotion
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earlier this year within my company because of my salary of where I'm at right now.
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They had one position open and instead they hired somebody from off the street.
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And I found out it was because they could start that person off at a much lower
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rate than promoting me up because I've been with the company for, oh, good grief.
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I was hired 2005 here, and then that was 2018. So I've been with the company
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for 13 years. So my salary is pretty good.
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And if I had gotten that job, they would have had to increase it.
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However, keeping me where I'm at and bringing somebody fresh off the street
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allows them to save money.
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And there's something to be said for, and I'm trying to be fair on both sides of this issue.
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I'm setting my ways. I know it. Mm hmm. I flexibility.
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Yeah. You can look at this. You can look at this two ways. I have a ton of practical experience.
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I've seen things go wrong more ways than you can imagine.
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So when I see a project, I immediately eliminate so many avenues that you might
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explore because, yeah, I've seen that fail before.
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And a younger person with less experience could come in, less practical experience
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could come in and go, well, let's give that a try.
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And they might make it work because, you know, no ideas.
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Well, there are ideas that are completely unworkable, but I agree.
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You know, you're going to follow the path of least resistance.
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And so, you know, I don't I'm not trying to say stuck in my ways in a negative
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way, but but and I think we see that in Ellis here.
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He wants to do it the right way. He wants to do it the correct way.
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The way that he knows is right. He doesn't want to take shortcuts.
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And the situation, the management demands that he take shortcuts. Right.
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So, and would the younger guy in his office, would he be willing to do what
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the boss told him even if he knew it was wrong?
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I get the feeling he would, but he struck me as, you know, a youthful opportunist to me.
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And maybe it's because he does have that lack of experience that he hasn't built
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up all these, I don't want to call them safeguards, but this,
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this, this sense of proper procedure.
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Cause that usually comes about when you've been doing the job for a very long time. Yeah, yeah.
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And there's also less fear. When you're new on a job, you get the fear.
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I don't know how I'm doing. I don't know if I'm doing work that's adequate to
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the task. I don't know if they like me.
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Even if they give me good reviews, really, there's always that doubt.
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A little bit of paranoia, yeah.
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You get the feeling. It's like, no, I know what I'm doing.
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They know I know what I'm doing. And if you've been promoted,
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especially when you're kind of young and you get promoted up or brought into
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a position of some sort of respectability, if the boss tells you to jump,
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you're not only going to say how high, but you're going to then follow up with,
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and when may I come down, sir?
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Yep. And after a period of time, and I know I've done it, they tell you something,
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you ask questions. Oh, yeah.
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Yeah, I've reached that point too in my own job. So what about this? Uh-huh.
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Yeah, I've done that. And I think and I and I think you're right that that's
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a very
good point as far as this episode goes, that we're now seeing that little
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morality play at work here.
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So, I mean, there are interesting ideas in the story that just not necessarily science fiction ideas.
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And and no, it's more for just a standard old drama.
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But I guess that's the flexibility of this framework. I mean,
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I'm hoping to see more anthropomorphic rats in the future.
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I'm definitely hoping I see more anthropomorphic rats in the future.
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But today, we just didn't get that.
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So I got a few notes. Tried to come up with some stuff that I just wanted to put out there.
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Starting with, in big print, the hilarious dead squirrel.
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Oh, yeah. Look like a cardboard cutout at first.
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I was like, wow, could that be any more? I mean, oh yeah, now the animals are
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dying and they're being petrified at the same time.
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Yeah, that part was- Instant rigor mortis.
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That part was kind of weird because I think that- There's your science fiction.
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Was a stuffed squirrel holding a nut, right? Yeah.
00:17:13.597 --> 00:17:17.777
So he actually died and froze in spot eating a nut.
00:17:17.977 --> 00:17:21.677
And then when the kid goes up and he falls out like a brick. Plop.
00:17:22.477 --> 00:17:25.617
I thought that was going to be the cool part. Like this is going to be some
00:17:25.617 --> 00:17:30.677
cool science fiction killer that freezes you in in situ.
00:17:31.017 --> 00:17:35.757
And then it's like, yeah, there's going to be dead people in a cottage somewhere. What? No.
00:17:36.077 --> 00:17:39.037
Right. We get the dead animals out of the way and then it's gone.
00:17:40.277 --> 00:17:43.017
You talked about it being a character study for Toby Ren.
00:17:43.317 --> 00:17:46.877
Now, Toby is the youngest member of the team. At least he's the youngest,
00:17:47.217 --> 00:17:50.637
the newest member of the team, which is also kind of interesting.
00:17:51.397 --> 00:17:54.857
Now that we think about it since this is talking about people who've been on
00:17:54.857 --> 00:17:59.397
the job a long time there's a scene where he comes in at the very beginning
00:17:59.397 --> 00:18:04.057
Ridge is looking at bags of dead animals and Toby comes in talks to Bradley and he says
00:18:04.308 --> 00:18:09.248
It's got to be a new pesticide. And Bradley's like, well, I prefer to wait until we get the evidence.
00:18:09.468 --> 00:18:12.928
There is the difference between young and brash. Yeah.
00:18:13.528 --> 00:18:19.108
Now, yeah, we see it the other way around now. And we see what's wrong with, frankly, Toby's wrong.
00:18:19.288 --> 00:18:21.648
I mean, he's right, but he's wrong.
00:18:21.928 --> 00:18:24.228
He's not right in the way that he thinks he is. Yeah.
00:18:25.048 --> 00:18:29.448
And Bradley is correct that we should collect the evidence and continue on.
00:18:29.688 --> 00:18:31.288
That's the methodological way.
00:18:31.968 --> 00:18:38.768
Let's talk about the technique that the chemical company used to try to get rid of Ellis.
00:18:39.188 --> 00:18:45.688
Oh, intimidation of sorts. Yeah. They removed the carpet in his office. Okay.
00:18:46.108 --> 00:18:50.388
Yeah, that's a good one. They changed his secretary without any warning.
00:18:50.908 --> 00:18:55.788
They removed his phone. They reassigned his parking spot without telling him.
00:18:55.928 --> 00:19:00.608
This I thought was interesting. Now, I would point out that the first thought,
00:19:00.888 --> 00:19:03.328
I had two thoughts that ran through my head almost simultaneously.
00:19:03.848 --> 00:19:08.048
The first thought that ran through my head was, I got the feeling that they
00:19:08.048 --> 00:19:12.328
were trying to discourage him to the point of saying, I'm out of here.
00:19:12.488 --> 00:19:16.268
Yes. The second thought that followed up almost immediately was,
00:19:16.368 --> 00:19:19.848
I have never heard of this technique before. Not to this extreme.
00:19:20.108 --> 00:19:23.208
I haven't. Not to this extreme. No, I haven't heard of anything like this. Not like this.
00:19:23.208 --> 00:19:31.008
I mean, you can give them really cruddy jobs and you can assign work to them
00:19:31.008 --> 00:19:35.368
that they don't want to do and it's beneath them or things like that.
00:19:35.448 --> 00:19:38.428
But yeah, I've never heard anything like this. I almost thought...
00:19:38.804 --> 00:19:43.644
In my, hey, this has got to be science fiction. I almost thought that maybe
00:19:43.644 --> 00:19:44.964
everyone had forgotten.
00:19:45.184 --> 00:19:49.084
Yeah, I will admit that. Okay, thank you. That it was like a parallel universe thing.
00:19:49.144 --> 00:19:53.484
Actually, that was a third thought that did come in at some point later on.
00:19:53.544 --> 00:19:57.204
And I think that happened with the phone when he goes in there and notices that
00:19:57.204 --> 00:19:59.584
his phone is gone and he goes out to complain and he's like.
00:20:00.864 --> 00:20:05.844
And I thought, I will admit at one point, I thought parallel universe.
00:20:06.104 --> 00:20:08.964
And then I completely threw that out because then I realized how would that
00:20:08.964 --> 00:20:12.684
even fit into this yeah you've got a pesticide that's creating dimensional portals
00:20:12.684 --> 00:20:16.944
of course but then I thought well maybe it's making everybody forget,
00:20:17.484 --> 00:20:24.984
that I thought might work but darn no yeah except you know the guy should have
00:20:24.984 --> 00:20:28.684
if that had been the case then the guy that was in his spot wouldn't have
known
00:20:28.684 --> 00:20:31.164
him but yeah I was like this is weird OK,
00:20:31.524 --> 00:20:35.184
I would be of all the things that they did.
00:20:35.464 --> 00:20:41.304
Right. If they took my if they took my carpet thinking about my office that
00:20:41.304 --> 00:20:46.084
I used to have, if they took my carpet, I'd be like, why did you take my carpet?
00:20:46.284 --> 00:20:49.444
But I don't care. I don't spend a lot of time on the carpet.
00:20:49.664 --> 00:20:54.104
You know, some days at lunch, perhaps I'd lie down on the floor and turn the
00:20:54.104 --> 00:21:00.064
lights off in my office and and relax. Yeah, carpet did did seem like a really
00:21:00.064 --> 00:21:02.284
ridiculously trivial thing.
00:21:02.444 --> 00:21:07.224
It costs money to send someone in and remove and rip it up. Yeah. Right.
00:21:07.864 --> 00:21:12.584
They took his phone away. If someone had come into my office and taken my phone
00:21:12.584 --> 00:21:14.584
away, I'd have done a dance.
00:21:17.729 --> 00:21:23.349
Right like okay happy days i can send email of course they didn't have that option but,
00:21:24.049 --> 00:21:28.709
but uh but you know he has a secretary out there even if it's not the same secretary
00:21:28.709 --> 00:21:32.089
he's got a secretary call him up and tell him that they can't run this experiment
00:21:32.089 --> 00:21:36.729
or whatever it happens to be so i'd have been happy as a clam later on in the
00:21:36.729 --> 00:21:40.729
episode his wall disappears his whole cubicle yeah Yeah.
00:21:41.189 --> 00:21:45.849
Or think about the cost. Yeah. Think about the cost of having a crew come in
00:21:45.849 --> 00:21:52.329
to remove his wall just to give him the hint that we don't want you here. Mm hmm.
00:21:52.849 --> 00:21:56.309
Like, I don't think they figured out how to do this. I think the British have
00:21:56.309 --> 00:22:02.769
not quite got the hang of how to to screw over one of your employees and get them to leave.
00:22:02.949 --> 00:22:05.029
Well, they haven't fully embraced all of Western culture.
00:22:05.229 --> 00:22:07.329
I mean, they still do the worst Western movies imaginable.
00:22:08.389 --> 00:22:12.609
That's true. That's absolutely true. But I just don't think this is a cost-effective
00:22:12.609 --> 00:22:14.029
technique to get rid of a guy.
00:22:14.969 --> 00:22:18.069
We've already talked about the age 40 in the United States, so I think it's
00:22:18.069 --> 00:22:19.149
interesting that they mentioned this.
00:22:19.963 --> 00:22:26.323
Was the age, apparently. Wow. You know, I look back on when I was 40,
00:22:26.383 --> 00:22:33.583
and I think I was still in my game at 40. Oh, I was definitely in mine still.
00:22:33.803 --> 00:22:37.763
You know, but something else you need to consider, though, and I know that a
00:22:37.763 --> 00:22:42.263
lot of people, you know, they kind of say, you know, rather glibly about, you know.
00:22:43.343 --> 00:22:47.863
60 is the new 50, you know, things like that, you know, how with each successive
00:22:47.863 --> 00:22:51.803
generation or with today's generation, you can have a better quality of life,
00:22:51.963 --> 00:22:54.163
even though you're older than the previous generation.
00:22:54.883 --> 00:23:02.563
And yeah, there is a lot of glib use with that, but I think that there is some truth.
00:23:02.943 --> 00:23:07.343
I mean, obviously you had it. I definitely had it in my life.
00:23:07.723 --> 00:23:11.143
When I was in my forties, I was extremely productive. In fact,
00:23:11.283 --> 00:23:17.163
that was among probably my The most productive. Yeah, I think.
00:23:17.523 --> 00:23:22.083
Well, you know, there's a distinction.
00:23:22.583 --> 00:23:25.743
So I can say when I was in my 20s, single.
00:23:26.703 --> 00:23:31.463
At the time I was working for an insurance company. I was a coder.
00:23:32.377 --> 00:23:36.017
I was the manager of the IT systems, but I was all primarily a coder.
00:23:36.397 --> 00:23:40.097
And I worked 18 hours a day. Oh, yeah.
00:23:40.977 --> 00:23:44.177
No, I did something similar to that.
00:23:45.257 --> 00:23:50.477
Back, you know, in my early 40s, I was, oh, let me see, actually,
00:23:50.877 --> 00:23:58.657
no, no, more like my, oh, very, very late 30s, extremely late 30s.
00:23:58.657 --> 00:24:02.017
I was doing 12 hours a day.
00:24:02.677 --> 00:24:06.137
No, no, no. No, I take that back. I was doing 14 hours a day,
00:24:06.317 --> 00:24:07.097
Monday through Thursday.
00:24:07.677 --> 00:24:15.057
And on, oh shoot, something ridiculous, like 18 hours on Friday.
00:24:15.257 --> 00:24:17.457
And I did that for three and a half months.
00:24:17.717 --> 00:24:19.997
And I had all the energy in the world.
00:24:20.277 --> 00:24:24.437
Yeah. I mean, there's plenty of Dr. Pepper out there and Cheetos.
00:24:25.797 --> 00:24:32.557
I fueled on Cheetos and Dr. Pepper I know that's a programmer stereotype But
00:24:32.557 --> 00:24:40.577
I absolutely just I was at the keyboard all the time Fingers flying Typing away Working at the code,
00:24:41.110 --> 00:24:47.190
I know for a fact that whereas I could crank out far more lines of code when
00:24:47.190 --> 00:24:50.910
I was 20 and, you know, I, what was the point of going home?
00:24:51.050 --> 00:24:53.850
I mean, I had everything I would do at home. If I went home,
00:24:53.870 --> 00:24:56.170
I'd just be on the computer programming.
00:24:56.450 --> 00:25:01.650
So work on it. I wasn't getting paid for overtime. I was, I was just.
00:25:01.750 --> 00:25:02.770
Yeah, nothing better to do.
00:25:03.070 --> 00:25:05.870
I was just dedicated and stupid.
00:25:06.290 --> 00:25:10.310
And as you get older, you realize it ain't worth it. Mm-hmm.
00:25:11.830 --> 00:25:14.650
You pay me for eight hours a day i'll be here
00:25:14.650 --> 00:25:17.910
eight hours a day and i know that's that sounds like you're
00:25:17.910 --> 00:25:21.410
being lazy but it's not it's it's
00:25:21.410 --> 00:25:24.330
the reality of it they're paying you for eight hours
00:25:24.330 --> 00:25:27.170
a day and you shouldn't be giving them
00:25:27.170 --> 00:25:30.290
freebies and of course that attitude leads
00:25:30.290 --> 00:25:33.130
to them wanting to get rid of you if i can find somebody
00:25:33.130 --> 00:25:35.830
young and stupid who will work 18 hours a
00:25:35.830 --> 00:25:38.710
day for the same money why should i pay
00:25:38.710 --> 00:25:41.910
somebody who's but i was far more effective i
00:25:41.910 --> 00:25:46.210
had far more experience i had far more ability
00:25:46.210 --> 00:25:53.770
to see a problem that i'd seen before and and and crush it but it doesn't look
00:25:53.770 --> 00:25:58.870
like you're more effective when when somebody sees you typing continuously for
00:25:58.870 --> 00:26:04.390
18 hours or they see you thinking for four and typing for four.
00:26:05.050 --> 00:26:09.290
Oh, well, in my case, management loved it. Yeah, I was making overtime,
00:26:09.530 --> 00:26:10.510
but they loved the dedication.
00:26:10.530 --> 00:26:14.210
So I got promoted really fast after that. Oh, yeah.
00:26:14.490 --> 00:26:18.750
And I- So it worked for me. I think, I hate to mention the guy because he's
00:26:18.750 --> 00:26:21.310
such a jerk, but the Dilbert principle, I think, holds.
00:26:21.490 --> 00:26:25.770
You will be promoted until you reach the point where you're no longer uh competent
00:26:25.770 --> 00:26:31.470
and then oh promote it to uh promote it to the level of your incompetence.
00:26:32.441 --> 00:26:38.521
Yeah, that's actually a Mark Twain quote, I think, or something to that effect.
00:26:38.641 --> 00:26:39.981
But yeah, I know what you're talking about.
00:26:40.201 --> 00:26:43.721
Yeah, I believe it. I've seen it in a lot of places.
00:26:43.981 --> 00:26:48.041
Well, I've seen it too. I've seen it where I work. I'd like to think it didn't happen to me.
00:26:50.701 --> 00:26:54.781
I got promoted to the point where I was at the end of the career path for,
00:26:55.501 --> 00:26:59.501
you know, because if you're in IT, there is no path to management.
00:26:59.501 --> 00:27:04.101
I mean, you can be an IT management, but there's no path to the management of
00:27:04.101 --> 00:27:07.621
the business because the business is about something else.
00:27:07.841 --> 00:27:10.881
It's not about computers. It's not your area. So I don't know.
00:27:11.041 --> 00:27:17.601
Anyway, a deviation there. But I think I genuinely think that this episode raised
00:27:17.601 --> 00:27:19.521
a lot of interesting ideas.
00:27:19.721 --> 00:27:24.301
I didn't think it was a particularly interesting episode. if you're looking
00:27:24.301 --> 00:27:29.081
for a very deep and thoughtful episode,
00:27:29.081 --> 00:27:35.921
which admittedly some science fiction or speculative fiction is very good at doing.
00:27:36.261 --> 00:27:41.421
Yeah, this is, this did it, but doom patrol has been,
you know,
00:27:41.641 --> 00:27:44.261
for the most part, a rather, well, it,
00:27:44.861 --> 00:27:51.561
it has had some morality that was stretched to, to the point of transparency.
00:27:51.641 --> 00:27:56.881
Uh, through science fiction. But if you were looking for science fiction entertainment.
00:27:57.581 --> 00:27:59.561
This was not the episode for it.
00:27:59.841 --> 00:28:05.801
No, no. And I think Doomwatch is at its core, it's a morality play.
00:28:05.981 --> 00:28:08.781
Oh, yeah, it is. It is. It's all
00:28:08.781 --> 00:28:15.501
about Mary Shelley and thinking about the consequences of your actions.
00:28:15.841 --> 00:28:18.501
Crashing airplanes by turning rubber into goop.
00:28:18.920 --> 00:28:23.080
Actually, I think that's a terrible one. I mean, I really enjoyed that episode,
00:28:23.080 --> 00:28:25.020
but I think that's a terrible example.
00:28:25.240 --> 00:28:31.920
That is an incredibly good idea that should be absolutely pursued, right? Oh, I agree.
00:28:32.160 --> 00:28:36.620
You are not going to convince me that that was a bad idea. The only thing that
00:28:36.620 --> 00:28:43.840
you can convince me of is that they really, really needed to be grade A strict
00:28:43.840 --> 00:28:46.380
in their quarantine and their work.
00:28:46.620 --> 00:28:51.920
And what they developed needed to be not so virulent, you know.
00:28:51.920 --> 00:28:57.960
But the Project Sahara episode where they were collecting all the data on people,
00:28:58.140 --> 00:29:02.520
which was very prescient in the computers for the government databases,
00:29:03.200 --> 00:29:07.380
that one's about the morality of what you can do with technology.
00:29:07.380 --> 00:29:12.680
And I think that's absolutely fair, even though it's dated by today's standards.
00:29:13.560 --> 00:29:18.060
That's a worthy topic to come up and say, what about this?
00:29:18.540 --> 00:29:21.960
You know, look at the people who are, what are they called?
00:29:23.160 --> 00:29:28.460
Bioethicists? The people who are looking at, you know, what are the implications
00:29:28.460 --> 00:29:36.160
of being able to edit genes in unborn children? You know, there's eliminate genetic defects.
00:29:36.820 --> 00:29:41.600
How can you argue against that? How can you say that's a bad thing?
00:29:41.740 --> 00:29:47.120
Especially if you're looking at, you know, eliminating Down syndrome or any
00:29:47.120 --> 00:29:49.900
other congenital birth defect that could come.
00:29:49.980 --> 00:29:55.000
Of course, manipulating the genetics pre-birth.
00:29:55.340 --> 00:29:58.020
But is stupid a congenital defect? No.
00:29:58.980 --> 00:30:02.680
To fix it, I mean, to fix it is a great thing.
00:30:02.860 --> 00:30:08.480
Well, no, I mean, the quality of being stupid is the quality of stupid in a genetic defect.
00:30:08.660 --> 00:30:11.480
I mean, if you knew the child was going to have the stupid gene,
00:30:11.660 --> 00:30:15.520
there is a stupid gene, fixing
that, improving that.
00:30:15.680 --> 00:30:18.340
And then there's the question of, well, if you did...
00:30:19.352 --> 00:30:26.152
I'm grossly oversimplifying this, but let's say there's a gene that you can
00:30:26.152 --> 00:30:30.272
express, and if you express it at one level, you get a stupid person.
00:30:30.272 --> 00:30:33.372
If you express it at another level, you get an average person.
00:30:33.592 --> 00:30:40.492
And if you express it at a higher level, you get an uber genius. is. Hmm. Yeah.
00:30:41.172 --> 00:30:44.412
You know, you look at it and go, oh, I see that your child's going to be 40
00:30:44.412 --> 00:30:47.972
percent lower than the average.
00:30:48.192 --> 00:30:52.572
So, you know, there's there's two options. We could fix that or he might grow
00:30:52.572 --> 00:30:57.352
up to be president of the United States because apparently that's what it takes these days.
00:30:58.372 --> 00:31:04.412
But I and then, you know, if I had an average child, we should be tempted to
00:31:04.412 --> 00:31:08.412
tweak it. Well, yeah, I could see that. I can see that.
00:31:08.732 --> 00:31:11.652
I absolutely would be tempted to tweak it.
00:31:11.912 --> 00:31:14.872
And I feel guilty about that.
00:31:15.032 --> 00:31:18.392
I feel guilty about it. And I don't know why I feel guilty about it.
00:31:18.512 --> 00:31:24.952
Because, you know, I guess maybe you might, and I put this to you,
00:31:25.192 --> 00:31:31.432
you might say, well, you know, God's got a plan. But I don't fall in that camp. There is no plan.
00:31:31.672 --> 00:31:35.772
So why wouldn't you make the kid the best of the best?
00:31:36.112 --> 00:31:39.972
Six foot eight. Well, that's the really gorgeous smart.
00:31:40.392 --> 00:31:44.372
That that's the evangelical argument. And I won't even know. Yeah.
00:31:45.272 --> 00:31:49.472
Not not not trying to not not trying to pigeonhole you and say you're an evangelical.
00:31:49.732 --> 00:31:52.412
I didn't. No, in fact, actually. No, no, I know what you're saying.
00:31:52.472 --> 00:31:55.152
In fact, I'd actually take the opposite tack on that and say,
00:31:55.272 --> 00:31:57.692
well, OK, I mean, if we're if we're going to go down that road,
00:31:57.752 --> 00:32:02.632
I say something to the effect of. well, you know, God also created science and
00:32:02.632 --> 00:32:04.672
we're using science to improve the quality of life.
00:32:04.872 --> 00:32:08.652
So therefore God created the improved, you know, improve the quality of life. Yeah.
00:32:09.152 --> 00:32:13.512
You know, that's just me. And then, and this is, this part even sucks more, right?
00:32:13.852 --> 00:32:16.532
First, you have the ethical question of whether or not you should make your
00:32:16.532 --> 00:32:20.432
kids smarter. Let's say you should, then you have the economic issue.
00:32:20.672 --> 00:32:22.812
Who's going to be able to afford to do that?
00:32:23.367 --> 00:32:28.847
That's when, yeah, well, and we've had science fiction movies that have touched on that point.
00:32:29.067 --> 00:32:33.327
Would that spread the gap even further?
00:32:33.607 --> 00:32:37.167
Would you create Eloy and the Morlocks? You know.
00:32:37.767 --> 00:32:42.747
Eventually, you know, eventually would. I mean, it's been, we've seen it in Star Trek episodes.
00:32:43.347 --> 00:32:48.807
There was a movie 15, 20 years ago that dealt with that.
00:32:48.927 --> 00:32:52.387
It's another telling of the haves and have-nots.
00:32:52.387 --> 00:32:55.307
So yeah yeah far cry
00:32:55.307 --> 00:32:58.367
from this episode but but nonetheless it brings
00:32:58.367 --> 00:33:01.347
up those ideas to me and that's i i think i
00:33:01.347 --> 00:33:04.147
think sometimes the best television does that even if i
00:33:04.147 --> 00:33:08.427
just didn't really care for the episode and that's that's really kind of kind
00:33:08.427 --> 00:33:15.927
of funny let's see i we can't we can't pass by without mentioning the fact that
00:33:15.927 --> 00:33:22.007
mr mitchell receives ellis's suicide note and if If the man had had a mustache,
00:33:22.007 --> 00:33:23.927
he would have twirled at that moment.
00:33:24.347 --> 00:33:30.247
Because he lit his cigar with it. Yeah, and smirked. He laughed at it.
00:33:30.884 --> 00:33:37.164
Has anyone ever done that in real life? I mean, somebody take a note.
00:33:37.564 --> 00:33:41.904
It was so cliche. I'm going to light my cigar. A suicide note.
00:33:42.164 --> 00:33:46.524
I mean, they really reduced Mitchell into just a caricature by doing that.
00:33:46.644 --> 00:33:48.204
It was so beyond the pale.
00:33:48.584 --> 00:33:54.724
But I mean, to what end? I mean, what were they trying to tell us by doing such a thing? Yeah.
00:33:55.104 --> 00:33:57.684
I mean, if he just- Because that was, it was too far. I mean,
00:33:57.784 --> 00:34:02.244
if they just wanted to let him, you know, or just convey that Mitchell didn't
00:34:02.244 --> 00:34:07.244
care or, you know, just was like, you know, you know, good riddance to bad rubbish kind of thing.
00:34:07.464 --> 00:34:08.984
You know, there are so many other things he could have done.
00:34:09.064 --> 00:34:11.084
He could have just torn it up and thrown it into the garbage.
00:34:11.364 --> 00:34:12.604
He could have just burned it. Yeah.
00:34:13.004 --> 00:34:15.544
You know, then fine. If he reached over and burned it and tossed it in the garbage
00:34:15.544 --> 00:34:19.744
can, it's like, I'm getting rid of the evidence that this ever came in.
00:34:19.984 --> 00:34:23.644
I'm covering up. But by lighting his cigar with it,
00:34:24.044 --> 00:34:30.484
he's sort of making a metaphor that my success,
00:34:30.704 --> 00:34:43.344
because for some stupid reason, cigars are seen as a sign of success in television and movies and society.
00:34:43.744 --> 00:34:49.184
You know, fat cats are the ones that smoke cigars when I think it's just stinky
00:34:49.184 --> 00:34:51.164
people
smoke cigars. Thank you.
00:34:52.751 --> 00:34:59.611
The road to my success is paved over the dead torture and misery of this poor
00:34:59.611 --> 00:35:01.591
man that I drove to death.
00:35:01.751 --> 00:35:05.831
And he can't make any other conclusion than he drove him to die.
00:35:06.071 --> 00:35:09.771
So, yeah, Mitchell is quite a piece of work.
00:35:11.151 --> 00:35:14.971
Yeah. Yeah, I didn't particularly like that.
00:35:15.151 --> 00:35:19.891
What I did think was poorly done in the story, if that wasn't considered poorly
00:35:19.891 --> 00:35:25.211
done. At the end, Mitchell comes in and the chemist dude has his parking spot.
00:35:25.471 --> 00:35:33.411
Now, first off, I mean, maybe. I think there was a sort of hierarchy at my work
00:35:33.411 --> 00:35:40.451
where the director got the first spot because I guess they're too lazy to walk as far.
00:35:40.631 --> 00:35:44.191
I'm guessing that's what it is. Oh, yeah. The closer to the door,
00:35:44.391 --> 00:35:48.551
then the more important you are. And...
00:35:49.951 --> 00:35:54.011
So, you know, but but the other guy just got a parking spot.
00:35:54.011 --> 00:35:58.691
He doesn't need he doesn't need the head guy's parking spot.
00:35:58.971 --> 00:36:03.831
But think about it. He was a junior chemist at the beginning of this episode.
00:36:03.831 --> 00:36:08.391
He got promoted to senior chemist, presumably not on his merit,
00:36:08.671 --> 00:36:12.451
but on the fact that he was there and they wanted to bump Ellis out.
00:36:12.631 --> 00:36:17.291
And now he's looks like he's being promoted to Mitchell's job at the end of
00:36:17.291 --> 00:36:19.891
this. Is he even qualified for Mitchell's job?
00:36:20.091 --> 00:36:24.451
Probably not. I don't think Mitchell's a chemist, right? I mean, he's management type.
00:36:24.651 --> 00:36:28.731
Right. It's just like I was saying, you know, in my work, you could,
00:36:28.891 --> 00:36:32.991
if I were a chemist, chief chemist is as far as you're going to go in that company.
00:36:33.351 --> 00:36:38.991
You're not going to move over into finance. You're not going to move over into the legal department.
00:36:39.191 --> 00:36:42.971
You're not going to move over into upper management. That's people whose job
00:36:42.971 --> 00:36:49.391
it is to run a company and drive a business and make contracts and deals and
00:36:49.391 --> 00:36:54.251
get supply chains working and not a head chemist. And it's a mistake.
00:36:54.391 --> 00:36:57.331
And there is the Dilbert principle in action.
00:36:57.331 --> 00:37:01.811
If you did promote the chief chemist to be the CIO or whatever,
00:37:02.091 --> 00:37:06.531
or CEO of the corporation, you would have promoted him into a position he's
00:37:06.531 --> 00:37:09.511
not qualified for. You would hit his point of incompetence.
00:37:10.648 --> 00:37:14.608
You're right, but that's something that we've, you know. It's definitely what
00:37:14.608 --> 00:37:15.828
they imply in this episode.
00:37:16.088 --> 00:37:19.288
Yeah, but is that another indictment against the American business model?
00:37:19.468 --> 00:37:22.908
I think a lot of this is an indictment against the American business model,
00:37:22.908 --> 00:37:30.208
because doing the tests surreptitiously seems to be something that the Americans expected them to do.
00:37:31.068 --> 00:37:36.888
Stonewalling the regulatory agency seems to be something that their Americans want them to do.
00:37:37.268 --> 00:37:40.308
Or at least it's mitchell's interpretation of
00:37:40.308 --> 00:37:44.688
what the americans want them to do so yeah this
00:37:44.688 --> 00:37:50.848
this is this is a very anti-american show i i i i think and and i would you
00:37:50.848 --> 00:37:54.948
know would you could you even do this episode now i mean obviously the whole
00:37:54.948 --> 00:37:59.308
pesticide killing thing sure we're still doing that is it does is this the way
00:37:59.308 --> 00:38:04.668
age discrimination works now i hope not i hope not no i hope not anyway.
00:38:05.848 --> 00:38:08.808
That's all i got i don't have anything else that's all
00:38:08.808 --> 00:38:11.708
i got so i mean that that does kind of that does
00:38:11.708 --> 00:38:14.608
kind of make it uh short but then
00:38:14.608 --> 00:38:17.468
hey we're not beholden we can
00:38:17.468 --> 00:38:21.188
make these as short as we want to i don't
00:38:21.188 --> 00:38:24.408
know what the next episode of uh doom watch is
00:38:24.408 --> 00:38:28.168
off the top of my head so you'll
00:38:28.168 --> 00:38:31.268
just have to listen as you'll just have to look at the list of episodes
00:38:31.268 --> 00:38:34.268
that are out there and and
00:38:34.268 --> 00:38:41.108
look it up and find out for next time but we are gonna we are at the very least
00:38:41.108 --> 00:38:47.288
we're gonna clear out through series one of of doom watch and then who knows
00:38:47.288 --> 00:38:51.408
i don't know it's gonna depend on how it goes i mean if they're all not science
00:38:51.408 --> 00:38:53.528
fiction we might might say.
00:38:54.542 --> 00:38:58.042
Ah, it is. The episode is You Killed Toby Wren.
00:38:58.282 --> 00:39:01.462
That's the next one. I thought there was the battery people.
00:39:01.622 --> 00:39:04.842
Well, that's what's showing up on April 1, actually.
00:39:05.082 --> 00:39:09.002
Maybe. Did I go too far? I think there's one called the battery people.
00:39:09.222 --> 00:39:11.442
Oh, you're right. Yes, the battery people. That is next.
00:39:11.762 --> 00:39:17.842
See, that sounds like people who've been fitted with electronic prostheses,
00:39:18.362 --> 00:39:20.982
and now they've been turned into killing machines.
00:39:21.382 --> 00:39:25.162
So we're going to find out. my prediction
00:39:25.162 --> 00:39:27.902
is right oh the doom watch yeah doom watch
00:39:27.902 --> 00:39:31.602
version of a cyberman or cybernaut british definitely
00:39:31.602 --> 00:39:35.182
cybernauts i think so and remember
00:39:35.182 --> 00:39:38.362
jerry davis and kit peddler who are the the force
00:39:38.362 --> 00:39:42.322
behind this show are of course the people who created the cybermen so that is
00:39:42.322 --> 00:39:47.202
true that this is their milieu well ben thank you for joining me oh sure thing
00:39:47.202 --> 00:39:52.362
and i'm gonna go rest my old bones in front of the fire and think about the
00:39:52.362 --> 00:39:55.702
old days when I was young and dynamic.
00:39:57.222 --> 00:40:03.242
Listeners, I do hope you'll join us all again next time on Fusion Patrol.
00:40:04.442 --> 00:40:06.722
Cheers, you young snappers!
00:40:11.122 --> 00:40:15.042
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00:40:37.002 --> 00:40:40.802
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