Tailkinker

Chosen answer: The crew were wiped out in a radiation leak, something that killed the crewmembers, but had little effect on the structure of the ship other than rendering it radioactive for the next three million years. Any minor damage was presumably fixed by the scutters in the intervening time. The leak supposedly occured after a faulty part of the drive system wasn't repaired properly, something that Rimmer blames himself for. However, as Kryten argued successfully in the episode "Justice", somebody as incompetent as Rimmer would never have been given responsibility for any task that could potentially have such devastating consequences, suggesting that the true cause of the accident may be considerably more complex than one minor drive plate fault.

Tailkinker ★

Chosen answer: Without it, the human race would effectively be locked in sensory deprivation tanks, their minds active, but with no stimuli, which would have a derogatory effect on their well-being. The Matrix is designed to keep them busy and, yes, sane, ensuring a good survival rate and decent longevity to stop the machines having to deal with a high turnover in their power plants.

Tailkinker ★

Chosen answer: Because the gathering of new information is still a key part to what they do. There has to be a write setting, even a restricted one, in order for the Terminators to assimilate new information that can assist them in their missions - possible target locations, voiceprints, even new mission parameters could not be uploaded without the ability to write to their CPU. Skynet can (and does) set restrictions on the Terminators' learning abilities, but, without those abilities, their effectiveness would be compromised.

Tailkinker ★

Chosen answer: Dooku didn't fight Anakin at his full strength in his final duel. The plan, as Dooku understood it, was to turn Anakin to the Dark Side, not to kill him. After defeating Kenobi, which he did relatively easily, he held back, prolonging the fight and taunting Anakin, trying to get him to tap into his anger and hatred. He believed that, once Anakin succumbed to temptation, that Palpatine would step in to stop the fight, reveal himself as a Sith Lord and complete Anakin's induction into the Sith. As such, he wasn't fighting to win, merely to prolong the fight as long as it needed to be to serve their purposes. Effectively, he took a fall against Anakin, believing, incorrectly, that his Master would save him. As such, you can't use Anakin and Obi-wan's fights against Dooku as a reliable indicator of their respective power levels.

Tailkinker ★

Chosen answer: The ships are in constant communication, exchanging data, power and so forth, so the virus simply filtered its way along the alien communications network. As for "a matter of minutes", (a) David is estimating and (b) define "a matter of minutes"? Two? Five? Ten? Twenty? No clear figure is given at any point, and the finale sequence of the film takes relatively little time. His statement doesn't seem unreasonable.

Tailkinker ★

Chosen answer: They intend to plunder Earth's resources. That's easier to do if they eliminate the population first.

Tailkinker ★

Chosen answer: There's never any confirmation one way or another in the film. It's established that alien craft have been in the vicinity of Earth since the late forties, presumably scout ships investigating resources, likely level of opposition and so forth, which would quite likely have included a few abductions to establish human physical capabilities. Best we can really say is that it's possible that he was.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: Yes, as aliens do exist in this scenario.

Chosen answer: It's never stated.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: He doesn't have to, but he wants to. His adventures have left considerable scars on him, both physically and mentally. He could stay in the Shire, but he'd continue to suffer for the rest of his life. By going into the West with Gandalf and the Elves, he'll be able to live out his days peacefully, free from pain.

Tailkinker ★

Chosen answer: Because he's an idiot. From the story point of view, they needed the vault to actually be physically open so that the release of the virus would be a credible threat. Unfortunately, this required that Peter conveniently forget that he could simply walk through The Wall and use his telekinesis to tear the door open instead. Peter's increasingly large arsenal of abilities, where he ended up having pretty much any ability required for any situation, led to a situation where it became necessary to either have Peter apparently forget that he had a given power, as with the vault door scene, or become naively trusting, as with his refusal to scan Adam's mind to confirm his good intent. This problem, which simply made Peter look increasingly dumb as the show progressed, may well have been a key factor in the decision to severely reduce his ability during season three.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: The original idea was that they would do a feature film which would cover subsequent events, but, despite numerous attempts, they were never able to get it off the ground. By the time Back to Earth aired, years later, it was presumably decided that enough time had passed that it was no longer necessary to address the issue and instead focus on telling an entirely new story.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: It's never stated anywhere in the films whether Leia knows that she's adopted or not. Given her apparent lack of surprise at Luke's reference to her "real mother", it seems more than likely that her adoptive parents have told her at some point.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: The Sith and Jedi have been at war for millenia. Yes, there's always been infighting among the Sith as well, but the fact remains that their primary enemy has always been the Jedi. The Sith have been forced to hide away, working in the shadows, for a thousand years, because they lacked the power to eliminate the Jedi. Now, finally, they're in a position to do so. What else would you call it but revenge?

Tailkinker ★

Answer: While this did actually happen on Apollo 13 it was completely unexpected, the "get ready for a little jolt" line was made up for the movie. There are retro rockets on the S1-C (first) stage of the Saturn V that are supposed to fire at separation to slow the S1-C and create more separation before the S-2 ignites. The retros fired one second early on this mission so it was before separation and the unexpected reverse thrust is what caused them to get thrown forward. Apparently Jim Lovell even had marks on his helmet from hitting it on the panel when this happened.

Chosen answer: After the radiation leak, Red Dwarf became an extremely dangerous place, with the majority of the ship irradiated and thus a danger to anyone who ventured near it. As such, Holly boosted the engines to maximum, sending Red Dwarf hurtling out into deep space where it couldn't pose a threat. It would seem likely that the Jupiter Mining Corporation would have been informed, either directly by Holly or by some sort of automated system, but, given the irradiated nature of the ship, they probably would have decided that any salvage mission would be pointless and would simply risk more personnel. Once the radiation finally reached a safe level for Lister to be brought out of stasis, after three million years of thrust, Red Dwarf was well and truly lost.

Tailkinker ★

Chosen answer: Palpatine's trying to turn Luke to the dark side, to make him his new apprentice in Vader's place - he wants Luke to strike the now defenceless Vader down in anger and hate and thus open himself to the Sith way. By throwing his lightsabre aside, Luke's telling the Emperor that, no matter how much the Emperor goads him, he will not raise his weapon against Vader again and that he utterly rejects the Sith way.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: He didn't. He's playing a hunch. Ego's used to high-class food, chefs plying him with their most up-to-date haute cuisine - he gets that all the time. Remy's guessing that giving him a simple traditional meal, albeit presented in a style appropriate to a high-class restaurant, will work well; something that proves to be correct.

Tailkinker ★

Chosen answer: Because he came to the conclusion that he couldn't win, so the best solution, long-term, was for him to hide away somewhere to be ready to help prepare the next generation for the fight. If he continues the fight, he risks his own death and the loss of his ability to pass his knowledge on later, which could leave the galaxy under Sith rule forever. If he runs, then the Sith will rule for a time, but there's a far greater possibility that the Jedi will eventually be able to rise again and defeat them.

Tailkinker ★

Chosen answer: She wasn't pregnant, no. Her pregnancy, while unremarked upon in this film, will presumably assume greater significance in subsequent films.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: Couple of possibilities. The older model Terminator may simply not have had the sensors necessary to determine that Wright is a machine. Or, as the unwitting Wright is actually an infiltration unit, designed to work his way into the resistance, it may well be that the Terminator does recognise him as one of them, but has been programmed to attack anyway - after all, if he's not attacked by Skynet forces, despite standing in full view, it would look extremely suspicious and compromise his mission.

Tailkinker ★