Beta III Scope (Return of the Archons)

[johnnybear]

Buscemi turned up in The Sopranos as Tony's cousin who tries to go straight but because of people's attitudes can't! Yeah I always thought he was a weird looking beggar but he was good in The Sopranos at any least!
JB

 

[plynch]

I've mentioned this in other threads, but we don't know for sure what Red Hour fully is, or its purpose. We infer. Perhaps Landru has to reset, and goes offline; as opposed to purposefully letting people go ape for a time so they may be Stepfordian most of the time (the common belief, I think).

 

[Timo]

Indeed, possibilities abound. We don't even know how often the Red Hour takes place (although "daily" and "weekly" and perhaps even "monthly" would seem ruled out by sheer logistics and the fact our heroes are accepted as Festival attendees who have come from afar on this specific date).

If Landru thinks violence is bad (he was built to prevent the excesses of old, after all), then him being offline when it happens sounds logical. But it might also be he thinks the people are at their happiest if they get a bit of anarchy every now and then, without requiring the "venting of aggressions" theory. FWIW, we don't see the society change at the juncture of the Red Hour we witness, so the "reset" might be for maintaining status quo rather than ushering in new technologies, clothing fashions or philosophies overnight. But we can't tell for sure, which is fine and well. The general idea might be that Landru is broken and this "feature" is a recent major malfunction - after all, Landru self-diagnoses himself as badly broken in the end.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[johnnybear]

I don't know about Landru's world but I for one wouldn't mind a six month posting to Omicron Ceti III!
JB

 

[Phaser Two]

I don't know about Landru's world but I for one wouldn't mind a six month posting to Omicron Ceti III!
JB

Scalos, anyone? With antidote handy of course.

 

[Herbert]

You will all be absorbed on December 25th

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I've mentioned this in other threads, but we don't know for sure what Red Hour fully is, or its purpose.

I always thought it was to give the population a way to let off steam. An emotional release, to compensate for all that time they have to keep it bottled up inside them.

 

[johnnybear]

All the frustrations and aggressions have to have release and Landru knew this! So when his computers shut down for some essential maintenance, the population can go wild and do what they like without any recriminations! Sounds like a certain film series that appeared in the last ten years to me!
JB

 

[Maurice]

But it only affects the young, and it’s implied that Kirk and co. should be participating, so that implies things. How does a passionless robotic society get jiggy and reproduce? You flip the switch from “valium” to “Id” and people go nuts. Unsavory and awful and non-consenting. It’s a very dark episode.

 

[johnnybear]

But Reger and Marplon were both immune to the red hour and Landru as well and yet Reger had a daughter?
JB

 

[Timo]

But Hacom classifies Reger "old enough to be excused". Not immunity to the Red Hour, then, but simple retirement. That Reger also says he can "escape the directives" is no proof that he avoided the Red Hours; had he done that, Hacom would probably know, and he's not able to "escape the directives" and would snitch. Probably Reger is just suggesting that the resistance movement consists of old men who thus don't get caught when the most obvious moment of obedience and Being of the Body, the Red Hour, strikes.

Possibly we are supposed to think that Tula was born out of rape by Reger? But this is projecting things onto the evidence, even if the writer wants us to do such projecting. That the young are drunk as skunks, and don't stop to talk much when engaging in their courtship, need not be defined as nonconsensual or otherwise objectionable.

If children were only conceived during Red Hours, we would probably see synchronicity of ages here. Although since we don't know the frequency of the Hours, we can't deduce much from that.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[johnnybear]

No, I don't think that children are the result of rapes on Beta III and I'm sure that each household has a loving family within it and the youngsters await that like in our society but during Red Hour they release those pent up frustrations, anger and lusts! I could never understand how the Enterprise crew identify Bilar as Tula's attacker but Reger says no, it was Landru! I know he is saying that Landru was the cause but hey, his daughter was assaulted!
JB