Best sci-fi TV questions of all time

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Question: Does anyone know why Gambit was featured less and less in episodes as the show went on? He was one of the most popular characters in not just X-Men, but all of Marvel Comics around the time this series first aired, so unless it had something to do with his voice actor's contract, it seems odd they wouldn't have utilized him more.

Phaneron

Answer: Chris Potter, the original Gambit voice actor, did indeed quit the role in the 4th season. His last episode was The Phalanx Covenant Part 1 so it seems reasonable that Fox would limit the use of the character even though it was recast. It doesn't appear that Potter left the role due to animosity, he stated in an interview that he wished to play Gambit in the first live action X-Men film.

BaconIsMyBFF

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Question: In "Greek Bearing Gifts" apparently the doctors sonic screwdriver is on Tosh's desk. Could someone tell me at what time you can see it please?

Answer: Several times during the episode, most notably at the beginning when the old grave is discovered, Tosh holds a devise that looks a great deal like the Sonic Screwdriver that she uses to determine the age of the skeleton. However, a search of Google images shows that it is not the same thing.

OneHappyHusky

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Thirty Days - S5-E9

Question: Was Tom successful in his mission or did the torpedo that was launched by Tuvok from Voyager stop him from succeeding?

Answer: The torpedo stopped him from succeeding.

Bowling255

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Answer: While ratings did drop, there was a lot going on to cause the rating drops and cancellation. First, "Enterprise" was on UPN, which was dissolved a year after the show was cancelled. At the time of cancellation, it was UPN's highest rated drama. Because they were on at night, they were often preempted by local UPN broadcast of baseball games. And it wasn't even aired in every market. They also lost a major corporate backer early and it was difficult for them to over come that loss. Plus, for season 4, they switched to a Friday night line up, so they were competing against Fox shows, like "The Simpsons" whereas on Wednesdays they didn't have much competition.

Bishop73

Answer: The same reason any show gets canceled, low ratings.

wizard_of_gore

Not all shows get cancelled because of low ratings. Some get cancelled because they're too expensive to make.

Don't know why it had low ratings. IMO it was close to the best of Star Trek franchise.

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Chosen answer: One of the premises of the show is that the two major Earth societies that survived, and ultimately merged, were the Chinese and Americans. As a result the common language includes much Chinese. Clothing, signage, and building designs also have a heavy Chinese influence.

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Chosen answer: I don't think it's ever said. I always assumed Pidge was a boy, and I'm not sure why. I think because it was a man who did the voice.

Kaite13

She is a girl it is made clear she is a girl in episode 5 season 1. It is also made apparent she is a girl in season 8.

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Question: In which season and episode is Gallifrey destroyed, or is it just a shocking new plot development for the new series?

Answer: It was never destroyed on-screen; it was intact at the end of the TV movie, and destroyed by the start of the 2005 series. It was destroyed in the novel "The Ancestor Cell," but in a completely different manner to what happened in the series.

DaveJB

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Answer: Eustace is a rather two-dimensional antagonist character. He is just a mean-spirited man who takes out his hostilities on a vulnerable dog and resents his wife having adopted him.

raywest

I thought the reason had to do with the attention Courage receives from Muriel.

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Question: Why is John's Farscape-1 module able to navigate wormholes where some other, more sophisticated craft, notably Peacekeeper Prowlers, cannot without liquifying passengers?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: It's never explained. John mentions a theory that his less technologically developed craft simply interferes with the wormhole less than the "superior" Vipers, but they never make a concrete determination on that point. But we also have to take into account the fact that Moya traverses wormholes with no ill effect as well.

Garlonuss

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Chosen answer: Gotta get back, back to the past...

Rlvlk

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Answer: The transformation twirling was invented for the 1970s TV series only, to explain her quick change from Diana Prince to Wonder Woman. However, it would have been nice to do a little spin homage in the movie.

Answer: She does. However, if she were to use any of her abilities as Diana Prince, everybody, including her enemies would be able to make the connection that Diana Prince and Wonder Woman are the same person which could be used to get revenge on her. By not using her abilities in her civilian disguise, nobody would suspect anything at all and she could keep herself and her friends safe.

So it was more a choice that she decided an Ice Skating move was less conspicuous than say, ducking in a phone booth like Superman? If Clark Kent enters a a phone booth, and Superman comes out, don't you think even the dull of mind would get the connection?

That's because Clark Kent has super speed so he can easily run into a phone booth quickly and leave as Superman as quickly too or whenever Clark does need to change into Superman out in the open, there's never around to see him change. It's a plot device that's really effective.

Could one man or gal. We're supposed to just believe almost everyone these two are around can't figure out of the obvious. Characters like Spider-Man and Batman can do this because of their masks, so these excuses just don't pass with me.

Rob245

Answer: As Diana Prince she didn't have the super powers that Wonder Woman has, although as an Amazon princess she does have greater strength than normal humans. Diana's mom taught her how to transform her ordinary clothes into her Wonder Woman outfit (as opposed to just doing a quick change like Clark Kent does). Her outfit, which her mother gives her when she leaves includes the "golden girdle of Gaea." The girdle provides enhanced strength and heightens her other abilities. As to why she spins, it was a stylized choice to add something extra to the show and hadn't been done in the comics. Although they did change it up a bit due to budget and time. Later, Wonder Woman comic writers would include the spin into the comics, but by then it was generally to put her into her secret identity, not to give her her powers. But as to why Diana Prince doesn't have super powers in the 70's show, as opposed to other incarnations of her; the original TV movie pilot had Diana powerless like the character was during the Bronze Age of Wonder Woman (late 60's) when Diana decided to stay on Earth and became mortal. That series was not picked up, but a 2nd attempt at it, starring Lynda Carter, was and the series loosely based Diana on the first pilot but through magic could transform into the superhero Wonder Woman.

Bishop73

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3rd Rock from the Sun picture

Dick and Taxes - S4-E12

Question: When Mary asks Dick what he expected for not paying his taxes when he learns he owes thousands to the IRS, he responds with, "I certainly didn't expect my girlfriend to wear my ass as a snowshoe!" I'm not sure I have ever understood this joke. What is the meaning behind it?

Phaneron

Answer: The writers often have Dick respond to Mary with a retort that he thinks is in the common vernacular but makes a mistake in wording that is often funny. Dick seems to be imputing a criticism from Mary and responds with a corruption of the more common "I'm going to wear your ass like a hat!" I doubt it has anything to do with owing taxes. Probably just one of the writers assuming a common regional phrase would be universally recognized.

That makes total sense. I always interpreted it as perhaps snowshoes are an expensive item, and given that he was blaming Mary for his newfound financial woes, he was equating her living off his generosity and used snowshoeing as a metaphor.

Phaneron

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Chosen answer: The Master knows that deep down, he deserves death for the crimes that he's committed throughout his life, and since he regards The Doctor as his arch-foe, he expects it to be at his hands. The fact that The Doctor is still willing to forgive him after everything the Master's put him through hurts him more deeply than death would.

Captain Defenestrator

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Answer: According to Babylon 5 lore, PSI Cop Bester was quoted, "We learned some interesting things about Ms. Winters in the course of her debriefing and dissect-that is, examination.

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Answer: While the series was undeniably successful, filming it is a long process, taking many months of often long days. Anderson, after several years of doing this, wished to spend more time with his young daughter, who he felt he was neglecting, and requested that his role in the series be scaled back. Ultimately, he decided to leave the main cast altogether and only make occasional guest appearances.

Tailkinker

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Doomworld - S2-E16

Question: When Mayor Damien Darhk puts up the mask in his collections, who do the other masks individually belong to? I recognize Flash and maybe Diggle and Green Arrow.

Bishop73

Chosen answer: Black Canary, Spartan, Wild Dog, and Ragman.

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Batch 47 - S2-E4

Question: In this episode, several teams of human "harvesters" wander through a greenhouse filled with vegetable-hybrid zombies, searching for specific seed pods that might cure the zombie virus. None of the harvesters survive very long inside the greenhouse, even though the translucent plastic/fiberglass greenhouse walls are never more than a few steps away. In fact, the prized "Batch 47" is discovered just feet away from the translucent wall. Why couldn't the harvesters escape from the zombies by simply charging straight through the flimsy greenhouse walls? Or, even better, why didn't they just tear out the flimsy walls from the outside and search for Batch 47 from around the perimeter? I mean, it's just a greenhouse, not Fort Knox.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: When the plant zombies would attack they would wrap people with the vines and hold them, so they couldn't escape.

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Question: Can't remember which episode, but when Celeste is put back into her body, she has a French accent and speaks French, but in previous episodes in the flashbacks she had a normal accent. Am I missing something?

Answer: She was in a different body.

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Chosen answer: Coulson believes he was resuscitated then sent to Tahiti to recuperate. "A magical place," he calls it. But in the "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." episode "The Magical Place", Coulson, through a mind-reading machine, learns that he was treated by S.H.I.E.L.D. and a fake memory of Tahiti was placed as a "mask" of sorts over the painful memory of the operation, which involved a drug seemingly of alien origin to repair the damage, coupled with a lot of morally dubious surgery.

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Chosen answer: Its continuity follows with the first film (K's still being in the MiB is fleetingly addressed), but because it aired before the second and third films were produced, it is stand alone in relation to them.

Phixius

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