Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

These are questions relating to specific titles. General questions for movies and TV shows are here. Members get e-mailed when any of their questions are answered.

Question: Why are obsolete programs given the choice of deletion or exile? Why aren't they just instantly deleted?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: All programs are destined for deletion, however a quick witted program would realise their time is up and try and make an escape (exile). The programs aren't given a choice, the programs make a choice.

Sanguis

Question: Was there anything illegal about Windows' relationship and attempted rendezvous with Rogue Leader? Would he have gotten into any serious trouble had her parents decided to take any legal action?

JAGwire

Chosen answer: It would depend on what they'd discussed online and his intent. If they'd planned to meet for sex, then yes, that would be illegal and charges could be pressed. Since we didn't learn the details of their conversations, we can't be certain.

Captain Defenestrator

Question: It is stated that Optimus is a descendant of the last remaining Primes which sacrificed themselves to stop The Fallen from destroying the sun. If the Primes were all dead, how could he be 'descended' from them and how can he himself be a Prime?

wizard_of_gore

Chosen answer: We don't actually know how "descended" works in Transformer terms, but presumably the original Primes created descendants in some manner before their sacrifice. The original Primes all gave their lives to stop the Fallen, but that doesn't mean that there couldn't have been descendant Primes created prior to that point.

Tailkinker

Show generally

Question: When exactly was Harold born? Throughout the whole show, both Harold and Albert give conflicting answers about Harold's age. For example, Albert states that Harold was born in 1932, yet in earlier seasons, it's said that Harold fought in World War 2. Could someone please explain?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: There is no definitive answer. In the original run of the series in the early sixties, Harold was given a birth year of 1925, matching that of Harry H Corbett, who played him, making him old enough to have fought in the war. When the show was brought back in the early seventies, his birth year was, for no immediately obvious reason, revised to 1932.

Tailkinker

Chosen answer: Their bodies have simply decayed to dust over the intervening three million years.

Tailkinker

Chosen answer: The details are never made particularly clear, except that the ship was, at some unspecified point, stolen by Kryten's rogue nanobots while the crew were away from the ship on Starbug. A short online comic produced by the BBC suggests that this happened directly after the events of the fifth series' final episode "Back To Reality", that the crew returned from their encounter with the despair squid to find Red Dwarf missing, although events in the recent revival, "Back to Earth" appear to contradict that.

Tailkinker

Chosen answer: It measures a number of involuntary physical responses, like heart-rate, breathing, eye movement and pupil dilation in response to questions designed to provoke an emotional response. By examining the intensity of these responses over a series of different questions, the subject's empathy and emotional response levels can be measured, allowing those running the test to determine the true nature of the test subject.

Tailkinker

Question: This has been confusing me for some time. Who owns Bolt legally? The network or Penny? The opening prologue shows a younger Penny selecting Bolt at a pet store when he's only a puppy. Fives years later, during the making of the TV show, the network forbids Penny from taking Bolt to her house because they want him to think he's a superdog. This raises additional questions. How long has the show been on the air? Is what the network doing to Bolt legal? Is Penny allowed to quit the show at any time if she feels like it? Do they have deal with the studio lawyers over custody of Bolt if she resigns from the show?

Answer: Okay, here we go: Since Bolt was bought by the network FOR Penny, the network technically owns the dog. IF the dog was purchased by Penny's parent(s) or legal guardian, Bolt belongs to Penny legally. This is never really explained, but one can assume the studio owns Bolt since they lay down the law to Penny about taking Bolt off the set and keeping him in his own fantasy world. The show has been on the air for at least two years given Bolt's growing from a puppy to a dog and getting properly (fooled) trained all the while. The show is a colossal hit and it would have taken a studio at least two seasons to achieve that kind of success. Studios spend that kind of advertising money on TV shows that are major hits. (Look at "Lost" and "Heroes" and their advertising budget!)Next: Yes, what the network is doing to Bolt IS legal given the parameters of the film's content. (If a screenwriter writes that it's legal; it's legal!). If this were REAL life, PETA would have shut them down immediately! Penny is an actress and CAN quit anytime she wants provided she's NOT under any contract that prohibits her walking out. Given that fact that she almost DIES at the end, she was probably given anything she wanted by the studio to keep it out of the press and avoid any major lawsuits. This would means she could leave AND take Bolt with her as per the studio lawyers!

CCARNI

Question: In the part where the Death Eaters march through the encampment after the Quidditch world cup match, does anyone know what they are chanting?

Answer: They are chanting something unintelligible. I ran it several times and it's just gibberish they're saying.

CCARNI

Question: Who made the handprints on the inside of that old house at the end?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: Presumably it was the children being held there.

JC Fernandez

Chosen answer: Q is a rather nasty entity hell-bent on proving that the human race are NOT the nice guys they make out to be. Q and Riker simply don't like each other and Q gives Riker the power of Q to prove a point...that power corrupts. And it almost does to Riker who uses his Q power to help, then to squander. Riker finally realizes that he's being corrupted by the power and gives it up, showing Q that he can't be swayed to the dark side.

CCARNI

Question: What happened to the autobot twins after their fight with the constructicons?

Answer: Most likely remained around the construction site or were on their way to main battle site (but obviously not shown).

XIII

Question: Where did Sam get his piece of the Allspark? There was only one piece left - Optimus pulled it from Megatron's chest after he died and I'm assuming that is the piece that is under heavy guard at the military base, so where did Sam get his?

Answer: It was stuck in his sweater/hooded top. He makes mention of it on the phone with Mikeila. Obviously he hadn't worn it since the events of the first film. It dropped out when he was getting ready to pack it in his bag.

XIII

Chosen answer: Because he'd driven her insane by showing her the future and humanity's fate. (There's also the possibility that she might be The Rani in human form, but that's all speculation right now.)

Captain Defenestrator

Question: How were the tripods underground for so long and no one noticed them?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: It is never explained how or why they were underground or just how long they had been thre. However, they may have been buried too deep to have been detected.

raywest

Chosen answer: Danny's middle name is Anthony and "Tony" is his imaginary friend. At first Danny fears Tony, but he later becomes Danny's source of strength.

raywest

Answer: Tony was a god-sent to change the course of history, which ultimately saved Danny and his mother in the 80s compared to the 20s when both of them were finally killed and eaten by Jack. Tony appeared in Danny's life when he started reading alphabets and his main message was 'REDRUM'. This was critical in the movie, as its mirror image 'MURDER' saved Wendy's life in the 80s.

Chosen answer: Yes, she slept with Christian (the blond guy).

raywest

Show generally

Question: Does anyone know why the BBC isn't showing these in the States at the same time they're released in the U.K.? The Christmas Special JUST aired on BBC America on the 27 June. I find it odd that they don't just release them on both stations at the same time.

padfootrocksmysocks

Chosen answer: BBC America is a separate entity. It is not a "station" of BBC. It airs shows from other UK networks (ITV etc). So, for one reason, it must arrange its schedule to show the shows it wants to show. For another reason, the shows shown on BBC in the UK are paid for by taxes on UK TV sets. It wouldn't be very fair for BBC America not to pay for the rights to show the shows after all there are a lot more of us than them. All these payments and broadcast rights must be worked out for every show. In addition, BBC can sell to other networks as well (e.g. Dr Who and Primeval on SyFy, and Dr Who on PBS are generally another year behind BBC America)

Myridon

Question: Throughout the movie it's suggested that Quaid/Hauser isn't experiencing anything at all and what he's experiencing is in fact a memory implant. My questions is, did the events actually happen or were they simply the memory implant Quaid purchased at Rekall?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: Its left deliberately ambiguous for the viewer to make up their own mind about what's real and what's fake.

GalahadFairlight

Answer: Although left deliberately ambiguous, it should be noted that the director's intention was for it to be all part of a dream / delusion. Indeed, despite the ambiguity, more evidence exists to indicate that the story was imagined as opposed to reality.

Question: If the piece of the All Spark is still locked up where Mikaela works, why don't the Decepticons go after it? It seems easier to obtain.

Answer: That's exactly what Wheelie (the small remote controlled truck) was doing. He was caught by Mikaela and didn't get word to the Decepticons that there was another shard they could use. After she captured him and threw him in the metal box he was more concerned with his own survival than letting the Decepticons know there was another shard of the All Spark.

dablues7

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.