Question: If Davros created The Daleks from his own cells then why don't they fully trust him? He's been shown to manipulate The Daleks on the genetic level, so couldn't he use that to some way make them more obedient?
Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more
These are questions relating to specific titles. General questions for movies and TV shows are here. Members get e-mailed when any of their questions are answered.
Question: During the first film, there is a huge battle in the middle of downtown L.A. (Mission City), witnessed by thousands of people and causing millions of dollars in damage. In this movie, this is just an Internet rumor? How did they cover this up? Did the government pay off thousands of people and repair all the damage that quickly? And, most importantly, in the first movie didn't Jon Voight go on TV and tell the whole world they were dealing with a superior technological civilization?
Chosen answer: Per IMDB Trivia: The novelization states that the government created a fake corporation called "Massive Dynamics" as a cover for the events of Transformers (2007). The cover story stated that Massive Dynamics had developed robotic search-and-rescue robots which malfunctioned during tests and caused the damage seen in that movie's finale.
Question: Why was Gunnery Sergeant Hartman so mean to Leonard Lawrence AKA Private Pyle? Why was he always mad at him?
Chosen answer: A Drill Instructor is always mad at the recruits in order to forge discipline. Private Pyle was the biggest screwup in the unit, thus creating more work for him.
Answer: It also promotes unity and brotherhood against a common enemy, the drill instructor.
Question: What caused the Nova 5 to crash?
Chosen answer: It was never stated directly in the series, although Lister does mention at one point that it was Kryten's fault. The first book based on the series states that the ship crashed after Kryten carefully washed the navigation console using soapy water, but it's unclear whether this is intended as a canonical explanation.
Question: Why did the nanobots resurrect the Red Dwarf crew?
Chosen answer: They reconstructed Red Dwarf as it was supposed to be, hence going back to the original plans, rather than the cut-down versions that were actually used to build it. A ship without a crew isn't much use, so they brought the crew back as well, possibly using the physical and personality information stored by the ship's holographic recreation unit as a template. How they might have restored the prisoners is another matter, probably best explained by the venerable science-fiction standby of "don't ask, they just did".
Chosen answer: In-universe, after leaving Red Dwarf after his first appearance, Kryten managed to crash Lister's space-bike into an asteroid. Lister found his remains and decided to rebuild him, however, due to the high level of damage and Lister's questionable repair skills, he was unable to recreate Kryten exactly, leading to changes in appearance, personality and accent. In reality, the original actor wasn't available, coupled with presumably practical concerns about one-off makeup as opposed to makeup for a regular cast member, so some visual changes were made.
Question: Why are obsolete programs given the choice of deletion or exile? Why aren't they just instantly deleted?
Chosen answer: All programs are destined for deletion, however a quick witted program would realise their time is up and try and make an escape (exile). The programs aren't given a choice, the programs make a choice.
Question: Was there anything illegal about Windows' relationship and attempted rendezvous with Rogue Leader? Would he have gotten into any serious trouble had her parents decided to take any legal action?
Chosen answer: It would depend on what they'd discussed online and his intent. If they'd planned to meet for sex, then yes, that would be illegal and charges could be pressed. Since we didn't learn the details of their conversations, we can't be certain.
Question: It is stated that Optimus is a descendant of the last remaining Primes which sacrificed themselves to stop The Fallen from destroying the sun. If the Primes were all dead, how could he be 'descended' from them and how can he himself be a Prime?
Chosen answer: We don't actually know how "descended" works in Transformer terms, but presumably the original Primes created descendants in some manner before their sacrifice. The original Primes all gave their lives to stop the Fallen, but that doesn't mean that there couldn't have been descendant Primes created prior to that point.
Question: When exactly was Harold born? Throughout the whole show, both Harold and Albert give conflicting answers about Harold's age. For example, Albert states that Harold was born in 1932, yet in earlier seasons, it's said that Harold fought in World War 2. Could someone please explain?
Chosen answer: There is no definitive answer. In the original run of the series in the early sixties, Harold was given a birth year of 1925, matching that of Harry H Corbett, who played him, making him old enough to have fought in the war. When the show was brought back in the early seventies, his birth year was, for no immediately obvious reason, revised to 1932.
Chosen answer: The details are never made particularly clear, except that the ship was, at some unspecified point, stolen by Kryten's rogue nanobots while the crew were away from the ship on Starbug. A short online comic produced by the BBC suggests that this happened directly after the events of the fifth series' final episode "Back To Reality", that the crew returned from their encounter with the despair squid to find Red Dwarf missing, although events in the recent revival, "Back to Earth" appear to contradict that.
Question: How exactly does the Voight-Kampff test work?
Chosen answer: It measures a number of involuntary physical responses, like heart-rate, breathing, eye movement and pupil dilation in response to questions designed to provoke an emotional response. By examining the intensity of these responses over a series of different questions, the subject's empathy and emotional response levels can be measured, allowing those running the test to determine the true nature of the test subject.
Question: This has been confusing me for some time. Who owns Bolt legally? The network or Penny? The opening prologue shows a younger Penny selecting Bolt at a pet store when he's only a puppy. Fives years later, during the making of the TV show, the network forbids Penny from taking Bolt to her house because they want him to think he's a superdog. This raises additional questions. How long has the show been on the air? Is what the network doing to Bolt legal? Is Penny allowed to quit the show at any time if she feels like it? Do they have deal with the studio lawyers over custody of Bolt if she resigns from the show?
Answer: Okay, here we go: Since Bolt was bought by the network FOR Penny, the network technically owns the dog. IF the dog was purchased by Penny's parent(s) or legal guardian, Bolt belongs to Penny legally. This is never really explained, but one can assume the studio owns Bolt since they lay down the law to Penny about taking Bolt off the set and keeping him in his own fantasy world. The show has been on the air for at least two years given Bolt's growing from a puppy to a dog and getting properly (fooled) trained all the while. The show is a colossal hit and it would have taken a studio at least two seasons to achieve that kind of success. Studios spend that kind of advertising money on TV shows that are major hits. (Look at "Lost" and "Heroes" and their advertising budget!)Next: Yes, what the network is doing to Bolt IS legal given the parameters of the film's content. (If a screenwriter writes that it's legal; it's legal!). If this were REAL life, PETA would have shut them down immediately! Penny is an actress and CAN quit anytime she wants provided she's NOT under any contract that prohibits her walking out. Given that fact that she almost DIES at the end, she was probably given anything she wanted by the studio to keep it out of the press and avoid any major lawsuits. This would means she could leave AND take Bolt with her as per the studio lawyers!
Question: Who made the handprints on the inside of that old house at the end?
Chosen answer: Presumably it was the children being held there.
Hide and Q - S1-E10
Question: What was the reason behind Q giving Riker the power of the Q?
Chosen answer: Q is a rather nasty entity hell-bent on proving that the human race are NOT the nice guys they make out to be. Q and Riker simply don't like each other and Q gives Riker the power of Q to prove a point...that power corrupts. And it almost does to Riker who uses his Q power to help, then to squander. Riker finally realizes that he's being corrupted by the power and gives it up, showing Q that he can't be swayed to the dark side.
Question: Where did Sam get his piece of the Allspark? There was only one piece left - Optimus pulled it from Megatron's chest after he died and I'm assuming that is the piece that is under heavy guard at the military base, so where did Sam get his?
Answer: It was stuck in his sweater/hooded top. He makes mention of it on the phone with Mikeila. Obviously he hadn't worn it since the events of the first film. It dropped out when he was getting ready to pack it in his bag.
The Sound of Drums (2) - S3-E12
Question: Why was Lucy so willing to go along with The Master's plan of murder and world domination?
Chosen answer: Because he'd driven her insane by showing her the future and humanity's fate. (There's also the possibility that she might be The Rani in human form, but that's all speculation right now.)
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Chosen answer: When Davros created the Daleks, he conditioned them to hate everything that was not a Dalek. They decided that although he was their creator, he was not one of them.
Captain Defenestrator