Outcasts

And Berger's taken my username now. They've gone too far.
(so he's got a laptop that can communicate with space, but they can't communicate with someone who's outside the gate)
 
I'm still watching, because I'm interested in where they are going with the ancient Hominidae colony, but I agree that it is far too easy to poke holes in almost everything.

Menion said:
Where did thoose CUT diamonds come from? the sea can't do that.
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My hope is that IS explained by something later on, but I'm not overly hopeful.

alchemist said:
(so he's got a laptop that can communicate with space, but they can't communicate with someone who's outside the gate)
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I thought they needed that huge aerial out in the desert to communicate; the one that bits fell off in the storm last week. Maybe communications technology has really advanced in the last ten years since they arrived, but in that case, wouldn't it be a priority to deliver it to them, rather than designer chairs, vinyl records and the display collection of rocks they have been sent, for instance? And where did Berger hide that laptop when he crash-landed?

I thought it strange that the first astronaut (or second) to step foot on Carpathia had been a mad Scotsman, Patrick Baxter. I can accept that Forthaven is formed of mostly British and Londoners, because it may have been the one ship among many others that never arrived. The original expedition would have been different though. It would be Earth's last chance to survive. I find it hard to believe that the UK is still in a position to run such a task in 2060, since it can just about organise an Olympics in 2012. More likely they would be all Chinese.
 
It's possible that they deliberately took simple technology (more liable to interference) on purpose, as it would be easy to produce and repair with limited resources.

Maybe they sent a mad Scotsman as a kind of canary? (cf Red Dwarf).
 
thaddeus6th said:
Haha, that bit was fun :p

Outcasts is developing an almost Star Trek: TOS habit. Beware, companion who gets one line to utter, for thou shalt meet thine end with great haste :D

Good ending, though.
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As will we all brother.
 
alchemist said:
It's been absolutely torn to shreds on digital spy, which surprised me. I thought it was decent, and worth watching the next episode.
Worryingly, it's setting is similar to my WIP, but my settlers have moved on from using walkie-talkies.
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I am also about to start writing something about Colonists on another world. Don't you just hate that.

In any case, it sounds interesting. I wonder when it'll come to Australia.
 
Dave said:
I thought it strange that the first astronaut (or second) to step foot on Carpathia had been a mad Scotsman, Patrick Baxter. I can accept that Forthaven is formed of mostly British and Londoners, because it may have been the one ship among many others that never arrived. The original expedition would have been different though. It would be Earth's last chance to survive. I find it hard to believe that the UK is still in a position to run such a task in 2060, since it can just about organise an Olympics in 2012. More likely they would be all Chinese.
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Well given that China and the west have had a nuclear war I doubt they will be joining hands in a joint colonising mission.

I could believe say that Europe had cooperated on such a mission, but doubt that Britain would have the resources to do so alone. I'm surprised they didn't go down such a route to be honest. It would make the colony a less mono-cultural affair and perhaps with some overseas acting talent they could have employed some actors who didn't resemble blocks of wood so much.
 
The laptop works on the Quantum Flux principle, thus obviating the need to obey the laws of the universe (some of) the rest of the plot has to.







By the way, we are all assuming that the colonist's Earth is our Earth. This may not be so. (Or maybe Ros Myers wakes up in hospital, recovering after that explosion, determined to get back to work at Thames House....)
 
As it seems to be getting into lost territory I'm going to go with they're all dead and this is some kind of limbo
 
Ah, Lost, the series that went on forever and never bloody explained anything. I stopped watching that partway into series 2 (or maybe 3).

Quite glad to see there appears to be more action on the way. Less wooden dialogue, more machineguns would be nice.
 
Why is it you will happily accept a TV series in which the future appears to be entirely US but moan about a British TV series set in the future which contains a mostly British cast? I'd be more annoyed if the cast were American, given that it's a British company that has made Outcasts.
 
Why? They weren't multi-national expeditions to the Moon. British programme, British cast. There's plenty of ways they can justify it - as someone said earlier, perhaps all the Brits were on one ship.
 
I think they should all have come from a single village in rural Dorset. And the evil mystic guy should have come from Wolverhampton.
 
Perhaps everyone on the next transporter is going to be American. But in amongst all the other beyond-unlikely goings on, the accents are a minor issue really. (And if these folk aren't the humans we think they are, their accents aren't relevant at all.)
 
iansales said:
Why is it you will happily accept a TV series in which the future appears to be entirely US but moan about a British TV series set in the future which contains a mostly British cast? I'd be more annoyed if the cast were American, given that it's a British company that has made Outcasts.
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For a TV series set in the far future it is entirely reasonable that they all speak English and Americanised English at that. English is already the language of international business and on a future colonisation programme it would be rational for all to adopt a single language, which would logically be English. The actual characters usually come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds (or indeed non-human for the Star Trek spinoffs).

Outcasts is set in 2040, and the colonists have only been there ten years. If this were set in 2140, yes all the colonists would speak the same language with no accent, but it isn't. It isn't a massive point but it would make Outcasts seem a bit less like Islington in an alien world if there were a bit more ethnic and accent diversity.
 
JagLover said:
Outcasts is set in 2040, and the colonists have only been there ten years.
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This is by far the biggest anachronism. Labrador Man set foot on Carpathia, a planet orbiting a distant (from Earth) star and he did it, at the latest, in 2030. Nineteen years from now, he will be many light years from here. Even if someone worked out how to achieve FTL travel on this very day, there wouldn't be time to organise a series of large missions to Carpathia. Who, for instance, provided the resources? (I thought there was turmoil/war back on Earth. If an advanced technology was emerging, I expect it would be diverted to the war (or coming war).

So something else is going on. Setting aside the writer stretching our suspension of disbelief beyond breaking point, what are we left with? The most likely scenario is that we will, in the next year or so, discover a convenient worm-hole. Other scenarios - aliens aiding the process - seem unlikely because even in a place as news-averse as Forthaven, someone would have mentioned it. Another candidate is that we are seeing the world as the characters are experiencing it, but not as it really is: they are still on Earth** (but don't know it); they're in some sort of after-life; they are on Carpathia but aren't there for the reasons, and by the means, they think.

If we really are in Lost/Ashes to Ashes/Life on Mars territory, I wish we'd been given more obvious clues (i.e. ones that couldn't be easily mistaken for bad writing).


By the way, who are the outcasts? The ACs? The whole human population on Carpathia? And who has cast them out?



** - That extra moon would be difficult to conjor up, though, and both seem closer to Carpathia than our moon is to us. (Being on Earth would probably require some sort of Matrix-like technology.)
 
Who mentioned the date of 2040 and when? I missed that, and when I searched online I keep seeing 2060 being given. Only twenty more years to play with though, and most of what you say still applies.
Ursa major said:
If we really are in Lost/Ashes to Ashes/Life on Mars territory, I wish we'd been given more obvious clues (i.e. ones that couldn't be easily mistaken for bad writing).
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Dead children running around. When Tate told about seeing his dead family, I thought Isen took it rather well. He told her that he wasn't going mad and she just accepted it as quite normal.

Then there are the cut diamonds (unless that is bad writing) and the Earth vegetation (the tree in the compound looks more than 10-years-old.)

Ursa major said:
By the way, who are the outcasts? The ACs? The whole human population on Carpathia? And who has cast them out?
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I also pondered that.
 
I've found a really good Blog on outcasts here with excellent comments. Quite a few people sticking up for it, but most comments are along the lines of our own complaints:
Outcasts – Boring! The King’s Speech – Immense! Dave Mc's Blog

The best post for me was quite a way in:
All the characters are misfits from the militant wing of the Ramblers Association who have been kicked off Earth because they obviously can’t integrate into a civilised society and are to dim to notice. They must WALK everywhere with only a light day knapsack. They like getting lost. On no account must they bring maps, radios, gps etc. They then find piles of CUT diamonds on a beach and think this is normal, no really!

An old man who is a total stranger!!! walks into a bar, pays with CUT diamonds and the locals instead of barraging him with questions on the lines of “We thought we were the only settlement on this planet, where have you come from?” instead try to beat him up! This might explain why they were kicked off Earth in the first place.
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The thing about them having no vehicles does need some further explanation.

And I've never heard of "Godwin's Law" before but it is so true. I'm seeing the Nazi King's Speech tonight.
 
Dave: The cut (polished diamonds) made a little bit of sense if they are the pebbles on the beach. Millions of years of scrunching against each other in the waves would do it.

As for this weeks episode, it was the least worst so far.

Which isn't saying a lot.
 
I'm no expert on gems, but I've seen diamond cutting in Amsterdam. They have to cleave them on machines to get those crystal faces, and its a skilled job. Rolling them around together would surely just give you the rounded pebbles you find on a beach or riverbed. I've seen Quartz pebbles on a beach before, but never the Quartz crystals you find inside undisturbed caves.

Anyway, I can confirm that the blogger is correct, "The King's Speech" is much better than "Outcasts".

A bit off-topic, but entertain me for a moment and I'll turn it around: "Godwin's Law" - I was wondering if some variation of that Law could be applied to science fiction and cult TV programmes, (usually at the point at which they 'Jump the Shark'.) I was thinking how often Nazis turn up in those - Battlestar Galactica: 1980, The New Avengers, The Champions, Star Trek:TOS, Doctor Who, Time Tunnel, Danger Man, etc.

Anyway, how many Seasons of "Outcasts" before Nazis would turn up in that?
 
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