General / Off-Topic Hope the new Tomorrow People has the same opening titles

Memnoch

M
I wonder what would happen if these people actually existed. People around the world who start to develop powers that in another time would have been described as magic and witchcraft.

Would they be locked up by the establishment?
Would they be assassinated?
 

Frank

Frank
There are people out there that believe Uri Gellar has magical powers. We should ask them how they feel about him.

An all-American action show based on the limited powers of Uri Gellar could be quite good. Imagine the interesting plotlines about how bending a spoon managed to save Western Civilisation. The only downside is that you'd have to pay royalties to Uri.
 

Memnoch

M
For those who watched Babylon 5 you may remember an episode that discusses Teeps and Teeks. Someone with telekinetic powers might not be able to lift massive objects and throw them, but they might be able to manipulate smaller things, like bursting an artery in someone's head or pinching the carotid artery! Every government on Earth would want one of those and ruthlessly hunt and kill anyone like it who isn't directly under their control.
 

Frank

Frank
Having the power to mess with people's innards would make the Uri Gellar character in my TV show too powerful. But I could have a plot where the evil baddie is tricked into missing his heart medicine when Uri stops his watch.

I haven't seen Babylon 5 in ages. I can remember it being a great series.
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
Memnoch said:
Every government on Earth would want one of those and ruthlessly hunt and kill anyone like it who isn't directly under their control.
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Ehh...not that crappy X-men line again. If such powers existed, they would conform to known rules, which would eventually be determined and defences would be created. You might even be able to employ other gifted people to provide those defences. Like with normals, you would get paranormals to police them. The whole throw everyone out with the bathwater plot is just ridiculous and unbelievable. Law abiding paranormals would have huge contributions to make to society. They're no more dangerous than someone that can mix ANFO or aim a gun. Also the idea that everyone would just automagically hate them is also ridiculous. Even serial killers have groupies. Law abiding paranormals would be rock-stars.

I am thoroughly enjoying The New Tomorrow people, it's adherence to the same unrealistic x-men principles aside.
 
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Memnoch

M
Applying realism to the paranormal...hmmm, interesting.

Human history is littered with horrors, treating people who "appear" different in in-humane and discriminating ways.

Then along come people who really are different, with seemingly miraculous powers, like mind reading, which would likely be the biggest threat to world peace and the balance of power since the invention of nuclear weapons.

Call me a pessimist if you will but I see a future of state regulation and bar-coding at birth for those poor people.
 

Frank

Frank
I don't think it's a case of pessimism, more of pragmatism. If you haven't already read it, you should read Philip K 's "The Golden Man"

http://www.philipkdickfans.com/mirror/websites/pkdweb/short_stories/The Golden Man.htm

It's not as clear-cut as the mutants are the goodies and non-powered are baddies, especially seeing as we are the non-powered. A bit from the story is

Anita:- "Maybe he's harmless. You always assume a deeve is a menace. He might even be beneficial. Somebody thought those women might work in. Maybe this thing has something that would advance the race."

Baines:- "Which race? Not the human race. It's the old 'the operation was a success but the patient died' routine. If we introduce a mutant to keep us going it'll be mutants, not us, who'll inherit the earth. It'll be mutants surviving for their own sake. Don't think for a moment we can put padlocks on them and expect them to serve us. If they're really superior to homo sapiens, they'll win out in even competition. To survive, we've got to cold-deck them right from the start."

The plot of "The Golden Man" illustrates Baines' point perfectly.

$
 
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Memnoch

M
I would agree. It's the "whack-a-mole" situation. If they would inevitably be better than homo-sapiens in many ways you would have to control them in some way before they got any traction and took over. They might not even want to take over but inevitably they would without even trying. How could you compete against someone that could out think you at every turn?

As Anita pointed out they might be beneficial, but as they pointed out in Star Trek there is always a threat of another Khan Singh rising up.
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
Better than homo sapiens is a silly phrase. They're still the same species and can interbreed. "Share the wealth" by doing what humans do best. Don't beat them, join them. ;)
 

Frank

Frank
But here's what happened at the end of the golden man...

All of Chris' brain function was taken up by the task of predicting the future. He was a living automaton whose only purpose was to pass on his genes. Looking like a God meant that it was easy for him to perform this task. Eventually Humanity would lose one of it most precious abilities. Free will.

We don't know what upsetting the apple cart with some strange mutation will do in the future. Smother them at birth is what I say.
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
Pfft! Mutations are how life evolves. If we took that approach we'd still be worms swimming around the ocean. I wonder if the invertebrate worms lay around saying things like - Those backbones will lead to the end! We should hunt down and kill those vertebrate worms before they spread their evolutionary advantage to everyone! If it weren't for one of those mutations taking hold, you wouldn't even be able to question it's value.
 

Frank

Frank
Yep! You are completely right. The Circle of Life, The Blind Watchmaker, and all that. There isn't anything special about the Human Race. We just slotted into our evolutionary niche.

But the thing is.. one of the evolutionary drives that's been built into me is one which wants to see the best outcome for my species, which does happen to be Human. If I was one of those worms in the sea I'd be out there with a club making sure those backboned monstrosities didn't stand a chance. I mean they were right. You don't see many of them pre-human sea worms any more.
 

deMangler

deMangler
I really liked the old tomorrow people. I may catch the new series but I have learned not to have high expectations when it comes to remakes - especially American ones, and especially anything S.F.
About the species thing - well what happened to the other hominid races? Those we could not breed with we killed.
I think we are now working our way through the non-hominid ones...
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
Frank said:
But the thing is.. one of the evolutionary drives that's been built into me is one which wants to see the best outcome for my species, which does happen to be Human. If I was one of those worms in the sea I'd be out there with a club making sure those backboned monstrosities didn't stand a chance. I mean they were right. You don't see many of them pre-human sea worms any more.
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They're not a separate species, just a development of the old one. There is no us vs them. The best outcome for the species is to embrace the advantages by finding a partner and breeding. Those worms are still within our DNA, you can actually trace evolution through mutation (genetic analysis has in fact re-written taxonomy). The only way you'd get a second species would be for a bunch of holdouts to ignore intermingling for so long that they become genetically incapable of doing so. Assimilate or differentiate.

deMangler said:
I really liked the old tomorrow people. I may catch the new series but I have learned not to have high expectations when it comes to remakes - especially American ones, and especially anything S.F.
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I found the new Tomorrow People to be very watchable. The actors are charismatic. The characters are engaging. The stories are interesting if not spectacular. It was also interesting to see how they updated the show and the terminology (Jaunt has a totally new definition). I like it more than Agents of SHIELD.
 

Frank

Frank
metatheurgist said:
They're not a separate species, just a development of the old one. There is no us vs them. The best outcome for the species is to embrace the advantages by finding a partner and breeding. Those worms are still within our DNA, you can actually trace evolution through mutation (genetic analysis has in fact re-written taxonomy). The only way you'd get a second species would be for a bunch of holdouts to ignore intermingling for so long that they become genetically incapable of doing so. Assimilate or differentiate.


I found the new Tomorrow People to be very watchable. The actors are charismatic. The characters are engaging. The stories are interesting if not spectacular. It was also interesting to see how they updated the show and the terminology (Jaunt has a totally new definition). I like it more than Agents of SHIELD.
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It wouldn't take long for that separation to happen. Do you think these megabeing mutants would want anything to do with us?

I'm now looking forward to this new version of the Tomorrow People. I like shows where the antagonists have a realistic agenda. You might not agree with their point of view, but they do have a point of view.
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
Frank said:
It wouldn't take long for that separation to happen. Do you think these megabeing mutants would want anything to do with us?

I'm now looking forward to this new version of the Tomorrow People. I like shows where the antagonists have a realistic agenda. You might not agree with their point of view, but they do have a point of view.
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Humans have been around for 200K years and split into several racial groups, and we can still interbreed. It's actually advantageous to mate with someone genetically diverse from you to reduce the chance of congenital conditions accumulating.

The agenda of the bad guys in the Tomorrow People is the most unrealistic part of the show (and also hypocritical as it turns out).

I could go on rant about AoS too. At least it does seem to be improving.
 
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