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: Was there a particular reason why the defending champion only fought in the last fight/round? Why exactly did the rules change in this tournament?

Socks1000

Answer: It was a new rule just brought in that year. Defending champion only had to fight in the final.

Chosen answer: My guess is that they wanted to give everyone a chance to fight to the end without a bunch of people needing to fight the previous champion, and therefore be knocked out early by someone of obviously higher skill.

Johnny Lawrence was the champ the previous year. And he fought his way to the championship.

As mentioned previously, it's stated in the film that it's a new rule that the champion on fights in the last round.

Question: When the final battle scene is over, Megatron is badly injured and vulnerable. Is there a reason why Optimus Prime doesn't finish him off, other than leaving room for another sequel?

Answer: Prime's priority is the Fallen. Megatron's a lesser threat at the time; Prime's focus elsewhere gives him time to get clear of the situation once the Fallen is eliminated. Plus, as you say, it does leave things open for a sequel.

Tailkinker

Question: What became of Martin and Beth after the the gene-swapping sequence? also, were Bartoks' employees aware of Bartoks' transformation?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: Presumably they go on to live relatively normal lives. The scene at the end of Bartok is meant to show that his employees have no sympathy for any creature, including him, who is suffering. At least some of them are aware it's Bartok, yet they allow him to be imprisoned and gawked at, just as they did the dog.

Chosen answer: He left the show because Michael Shanks decided to come back to the show the next season.

Kevin Howard

Chosen answer: Warlock is his computer name just like Keanu Reeves' character in The Matrix is called Neo even though his "real" name is Thomas Anderson.

Shannon Jackson

Chosen answer: They wanted a good mix of pollutants to turn the planet into a giant cloning facility. Something humanity was well on its way to doing for them.

Captain Defenestrator

Chosen answer: Her motives are never explained. One possibility would be curiosity, a simple experiment in human infant physiology. Another, perhaps more likely one from her subsequent look of apparent distress is that it was, in an odd way, an act of mercy, giving an innocent baby a swift death, rather than leaving it to die in the nuclear fire or of radiation poisoning afterwards.

Tailkinker

Question: I have a couple of questions regarding Jean Grey: 1) What exactly caused her to turn against the X-Men and join Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants? 2) Why did she kill Scott and Professor Xavier?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: It's not exactly Jean. It is her alternate personality known as the Phoenix that has full control. The Phoenix, unlike Jean, wishes to use her powers for her own needs. She kills Scott because she cannot control her powers, and kills Xavier because he is able to lock her back in Jean's mind.

Chosen answer: An apparent long string of illnesses.

Answer: Joan Mavis Trotter (Nee Hollins) was an unseen character in Only Fools And Horses, having died in 1964, 17 years before the series began. She died of an alcohol related illness due to both her sham marriage to Reg Trotter and being hit hard by the death of her secret lover Freddie "The Frog" Robdal.

Ssiscool

Answer: Short of breath.

Chosen answer: We are never given any direct indication that they know Reese's importance. They don't appear to know that Reese is Connor's father. They are merely using him as bait for Connor. They must know that John is interested in someone named Kyle Reese and figure that news of his capture would bring them the man they really want.

Garlonuss

Show generally

Question: How does Number Six appear in Gaius Baltar's' mind? Is she a vision of some kind? Does he have a chip inside his head? Or is it something else entirely?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: Well, that's one of the big questions of the show and it's answered in the final episodes. She's, to use Baltar's term, an "angel". Beings who appear in the form of loved ones to help and guide us. Most of the time, they only appear in the head of one person, but the final season had one angel that everyone could see and interact with.

Garlonuss

Question: How could the citizens of Springfield breathe with a dome over their town?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: There were still trees in town to create oxygen, however, in all probability, the EPA meant for everyone to die off eventually.

Captain Defenestrator

Chosen answer: We're led to believe Rover is some kind of robot in the series. According to books on the show, Patrick McGoohan was looking for an unusual guardian for the Village, looked up at the sky, and saw a weather balloon, which was what Rover was.

Captain Defenestrator

Chosen answer: It's never actually mentioned on the show, though in the 'Continuum' universe, she says she's been with Ba'al for 50 years.

MoonFaery

Chosen answer: Before Q sent the Enterprise to the beta quadrant to officially contact the Borg, there were already indications that the Borg was beginning to reach Federation territory. There were remarks towards the end of the first season of the Next Generation that several of the furthest Federation outposts were being attacked by some unknown enemy. They suspected the Romulans, but when contact with the Romulans was re-established, they learned that it was not them. The Hansens had simply figured things out much earlier than anyone else in the Federation. They learned about the Borg nine years earlier, but Starfleet mainly took notice when their outposts started getting wiped out. It is logical to assume that there were indications of Borg scouting parties and research efforts well before that.

Garlonuss

Answer: Add to that the two transport ships at the start of Star Trek Generations were carrying El-Aurian refugees to Earth. It wasn't stated in the film what they were refugees of, but Guinan would state in TNG that the Borg wiped out her planet and most of people, so it's a safe bet that's what it was. And with 47 El-Aurians being rescued by the Enterprise-B, there were plenty of people to tell Starfleet about this cybernetic threat. At the time though, Starfleet did not have the ability or resources to investigate this further, and it was eventually forgotten when other things became important until the Enterprise-D encountered that cube at J-25.

Chosen answer: That's just how long it took. We are still digging up artifacts that are thousands of years old. It takes as long as it takes. Add to that the fact that, at the time the Borg came, Earth was still recovering from a massive war, and it's safe to assume that it took a while for complete exploration and research missions to get going full bore again. Also, they didn't know to look there. There would be no reason to simply head off to some random site in the Arctic and start digging.

Garlonuss

Question: After the gene-swapping sequence, why was Bartok placed in observation? Also, what was that food they gave him?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: Obviously, he was kept alive so he could be studied, which was a nasty twist on the fact that he kept the dog alive, and suffering, for so long. As far as the food, there is no way to know what it was. Probably some kind of bland mush.

wizard_of_gore

Question: You'll have to forgive my ignorance regarding a comment made by Matt Farrell. He said that it took FEMA five days to get water to the Superdome. What exactly was he talking about?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: In 2005, Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city of New Orleans, with many of the residents temporarily housed in the Superdome. FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) was highly criticized for their response (or lack of), including how long it took to supply the Superdome with adequate water and food. Matt's pointing out to John how the government isn't nearly as capable of responding to disaster as people think.

OneHappyHusky

Chosen answer: Yes.

Tailkinker

Chosen answer: 1) It's never made entirely clear, but it seems that the government, Six's employers, are involved. 2) Because they wanted to know why he resigned. 3) It's never revealed, although many fans assume that Six is really John Drake, McGoohan's character from the prior show Danger Man. McGoohan has, however, denied that this was the intent and there are some notable differences between the characters. 4) It's never revealed, although, as, in the final episode, Six and his companions are able to drive to London, it must logically be located within the British Isles. 5) No details are ever given as to who has ultimate authority over the Village.

Tailkinker

Answer: Hope I am not going on too much, but I was watching bits of "The Prisoner" on YouTube, and have some information in response to question three "What was Number Six's name?" In the opening sequence of "The Prisoner" Patrick McGoohan/The Prisoner/Number Six walks into an office and throws a resignation letter on the table. He then drives to his house and hurriedly packs a suitcase. You can see him throw a UK passport into the suitcase. Seconds later, knockout gas is pumped into his house. He falls unconscious, then revives in "The Village." If he has a UK passport this must give his name, so it can be inferred that his name might be known to, or available to, anybody who really wants to know. After all, it seems plausible that the people or organisation who ordered his removal to "The Village" would have made at least a rudimentary search of his house and found the passport. Subsequently, in "Arrival" the first episode of the series, Patrick McGoohan/The Prisoner/Number Six meets "Number Two" who shows him a series of photographs illustrating his life from his schooldays up till his resignation. I find it inconceivable that Number Two could have acquired such a comprehensive amount of information about Patrick McGoohan/The Prisoner/Number Six, and not known his name. Yet Number Two never once mentions his name. Occasionally, in later episodes, characters mention that they knew Number Six in the time before they were transported to "The Village." But, during all seventeen episodes of the series, neither Patrick McGoohan/The Prisoner/Number Six, nor anybody else, ever mentions his name. From all this, it is clear that it was deliberately intended that viewers of "The Prisoner" would never know his real name.

Rob Halliday

Answer: Patrick McGoohan was often asked these, and many other questions about The Prisoner. He always refused to answer. He said the programme contained the answers. But you might want to try reading "I Am (Not) A Number, Decoding The Prisoner" written by Alex Cox and published in the UK in 2017. I regret that I, personally, was not wholly convinced by everything in this book. However, Alex Cox makes a dedicated and conscientious effort to deal with some questions asked about this very enigmatic television series. Alex Cox argues that Patrick McGoohan intended that the 17 episodes of The Prisoner should be watched in the order in which they were filmed, as these fill in details along the way. Even so, many questions about The Prisoner may always remain unanswered. One obvious paradox is that Patrick McGoohan/The Prisoner/Number 6 always says "I am not a number", and it is quite clear that much of his life before he arrived in "The Village" is well known to everybody, but he never, not even once, ever mentions his real name.

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.