Value Subtracted @ ValueSubtracted @startrek.website

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I guess the obvious question is whether it was ever attached to her or Belinda...

Direct link to "Echo Beach" because it's a banger.

That probably means you keep good company - I would trust polls over anecdotes.

It's worth noting that in the months preceding the 1995 referendum, the "yes" movement was hovering around 37%. They managed to propel that to 49.42% result in the referendum itself.

Definitely not to be taken lightly.

That poll is cited in the piece, and the fact that separatist sentiments in AB and SK are roughly on par with QC (where it's still treated as a serious threat) is kind of the central point.

We are all Robyn Gossage from "Lux", and she is us.

You wanted them to kill Belinda with a frock? You monster.

The lesser of the two evils in the race, so that's...good?

I don’t get the “sequel to “Midnight”” thing, though.

I haven't finished it yet, but the YT video I just shared to the community is shedding some light on how it came about.

TL;DW, they were having trouble getting their original idea (involving actual Nigerian gods) to work, scrapped it, noticed the similarities between what they had left and "Midnight", and leaned into it.

I don't really have a big issue with the entity's shifting motivation - and they did handwave it a bit by saying it was "leaning" during that first episode - but I think it's incredibly risky to do a sequel to an episode that's basically perfect.

Nowhere to go but down, even if you name something that's very good.

I wonder if she might recognize some scents from her holodeck...adventures with Shaxs.

In today's society, probably not - in "Unleashed", Rose Ayling-Ellis says it takes the average person about seven years to become fluent. But it's a good dream to have, and if people started learning early enough in life, and valued it enough...

As for the Lombardians, maybe they have some improved sci-fi educational techniques. But at the same time, they clearly don't have the same expectations of their soldiers...

Flood Watch 2025

So, Mrs. Flood may not be human, but rather Lombardic, a conveniently human-like species that apparently rose to prominence after Earth was destroyed on May 24, 2025.

And it's possible that she's not so much interested in the Doctor, but rather the Vindicator, which is capable of triangulating and locking on to a particular date, and "reeling it in" in order to travel to it.

Okay, I was aware of the rumours that this was going to be a sequel to "Midnight", and sure enough...

Unfortunately, I'm not sure it was worth it. "Midnight" is so perfect as self-contained story about an inexplicable, unexplainable evil, and this episode didn't really bring much new to the table.

That said, it was engaging, and I enjoyed watching it. I guess my biggest complaint is that when you lose the abject terror of "Midnight", it's easier to get distracted trying to figure out the "rules" of the entity, and how it works. The performances were all excellent, and it's always good to have a horror story of this nature, but I don't think it's going to end up on my list of all-time great episodes.

I thought the reuse of Britney Spears' "Toxic" was a little puzzling - I guess the connection is that it was the last song heard in the history of Earth in "The End of the World", which gives it some weight now that the Earth is gone?

I would imagine the devil's in the details.

Who's assessing the artifacts to make that determination?

Relevance to this story? What's the grand conspiracy in this case?

It's really not that complicated. If a typical organization is presented with two equally-qualified candidates, one of whom is a minority (of any kind, not just a racial minority), the organization will hire the non-minority candidate nearly every time. DEI policies exist to combat that sort of institutional bigotry.

This one's a little strange - I assume the province must have some information that they're not sharing, because it seems like there was at least one layer of separation between the government and the Boom Done Next (ugh) contract, and the company's co-owner says that Marni Larkin recused herself from the process.

This bit was interesting, though:

John Q's website says its profits are split between its shareholder municipalities. CBC News reached out to the 12 shareholders and only heard back from two.

The RM of Rosser said no money has been received so far by the municipality from John Q.

The RM of St Andrews says it also has not received any funds from John Q.

I don't know how much profit they're planning to make from day care centres...

For me, it's hard to top the Paramount+ ad from a few years ago that gave us this:

I just assumed every British actor had to do a tour of duty...

I have a friend who tracks the leaks and rumours pretty regularly. It's madness.

First: Maybe it’s all just a coincidence. The leaks were unintentional, and that standout line in "Lux" is simply one of those absurd, once-in-a-blue-moon alignments of fiction and reality.

It's funny that this "possibility" hinges on the notions that leaks and rumours are some kind of new phenomenon that RTD wouldn't already have been intimately familiar with, and aren't completely predictable.

Second: Somehow, Russell T Davies had a prophet-like vision, saw it all coming two years in advance, and wrote it in.

This one gets my vote. It's got to be supernatural.

Third: What if the leaks aren’t accidental at all? There were a couple from the opening episode that were accurate, and now some in the follow-up. Perhaps they were planted deliberately, but only small, mostly harmless titbits, and are meant to prime the fandom discussions without giving too much away. The rest? A bluff, just noise to muddy the waters.

This one is actually plausible. RTD knows how to play the game. I don't think I'd go so far as to suggest he's planting "leaks," but he's never been above stoking speculation.

fourth...what if every single leak was planted as part of a larger meta-marketing campaign, with the story eventually folding that chaos into itself?

Okay...I don't really think so, but with the final episodes being called "Wish World" and "The Reality War", I wouldn't be at all surprised if there's some more meta-commentary along the way. As I mentioned in the discussion thread, I do feel like the trio of fans will return.