Persistent, Niggling Questions

[Nate the Great]

It's National Debt Day! (again, I think)

http://www.cracked.com/funny-4136-national-debt/

Yes, I know, always take statistics derived from Cracked with a grain of salt, but let's take these figures of "13.7 trillion dollars" and "the debt will match our gross domestic product in 2019" at face value.

PNQ1: Is it even possible for the debt to be repaid, or is this a high-pressure hose with no off valve?
PNQ2: Foreign interests couldn't really repossess American property, right?
PNQ3: If the debt really is owed to other countries, why are we giving them foreign aid without taking a "debt writeoff"?
PNQ4: If the debt is owed to the taxpayers, why are we still paying taxes if the nation theoretically owes us?

[Nate the Great]

Since Smallville has been renewed for a tenth season, much is being made of the fact that they are tied with Stargate SG-1 for the longest-running consecutive (sorry, Doctor Who) scifi show.

PNQ1: Is Smallville really "scifi"? Isn't it more of a drama?
PNQ2: Does this really count as the same show anymore? A few commentators have noted that we really don't focus on Smallville itself anymore, plus the only original characters still around are Clark and Chloe, so would treating the last few seasons as a successor series make more sense?

[Katy Jane]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

PNQ1: Is Smallville really "scifi"? Isn't it more of a drama?

I don't think Drama is the right words, maybe fantasy would be better than scifi, but Clark Kent is an alien i suppose, that's scifiish i guess.

PNQ2: Does this really count as the same show anymore? A few commentators have noted that we really don't focus on Smallville itself anymore, plus the only original characters still around are Clark and Chloe, so would treating the last few seasons as a successor series make more sense?

As long as the show has ran with out stopping and the name hasn't changed and the production numbers haven't reset or anything like that I don't see why it shouldn't be considered a consecutively running show. Look at ER, where there any original characters left when they wen't off the air?

my PNQ is wasn't the original Doctor who run longer, nay, much longer than 11 years? /

[Chancellor Valium]

Doctor Who was originally on-air between November 23rd 1963 and December 6th 1989, which makes 26 years for those of us who aren't maths whizzes.

A television movie was co-produced with Fox and Universal in 1996.

A range of novels covering continuing stories - the "New Adventures" was published by Virgin between 1991 (starting with Timewyrm: Genesis) and 1997 (last book published was So Vile A Sin, but, IIRC, the last in-sequence was The Dying Days).

A range of BBC tie-in novels covering continuing stories for the Eighth Doctor of the TV Movie, Paul McGann, was produced between 1997 (The Eight Doctors by Terrance Dicks) and 2005 (The Gallifrey Chronicles, by Lance Parkin).

Both book series were paired by a run of books chronicling stories for previous Doctors, often slotted in-between their on-screen serials. The New Adventures were paired with the Missing Adventures, and the Eighth Doctor Adventures with the Past Doctor Adventures.

Big Finish Productions have been producing past- and Eighth Doctor audio plays since The Sirens of Time which came out in about 1999.

There were also two stand alone Dalek films in the 1960s starring Peter Cushing as the human scientist, "Doctor Who". There was also a 1979 (?) TV spin-off pilot for a series called K9 and Company.

Oh, and Telos Publishing, which was set up in 2001, have published some DW novellas; I think the only other spin-off matter worth mentioning from before the revival is BBV.

So uh, does that answer your question?

[Nate the Great]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzDyh...eature=related

After watching sfdebris' review of "Tuvix" a number of times the following occurs to me...

PNQ: Was it necessary to present the story such that Janeway had to execute Tuvix? That's exactly what that was. Tuvix had committed no crime, and she executed him!

Being reminded that the alien symbiogenetic plant was still within Tuvix's body, I couldn't help but wonder why they couldn't have had the plant slowly kill him. After all, when the plant fuses other plants it never becomes part of the third species itself. And having a plant inside our bodies would sure cause trouble, right? If the plant was killing Tuvix anyway, the separation back into the component species would avoid the moral dilemma, right?

[NAHTMMM]

Well, but then people get annoyed that the writers went with the easy way out to avoid forcing their characters to come to a hard decision about the little dilemma that has been building through the episode. And given that there's already criticism that the show suffered from cop-outs in the form of endless shuttles and torpedoes and such, that would probably be a worse way to go.

[Nate the Great]

So I'm in a chat and we're talking about pizza toppings. One person says they like ranch dressing on their pizza.

PNQ: Is this a common choice? Or is this person a few shuttles short of an Intrepid-class starship?