Melanie might not have been so laughably useless as a Tech after all.

[Guy Gardener]

1980s computer tech is a massive joke. Necessary, it had to have happened, it obviously took genius, but by today's standards a little embarrassing. Melanie with her degree in Computer science circa 1985 should have had about as much luck trying to fix an alien super computer as Jamie or Leela.

I'm listening to the new Audio with 7 and Melanie, and he's giving Mel fantastic accolades as a computer genius without equal who needs to root about and fix an alien super computer which is on the blink.

Hmmm?

The TARDIS telepathic translation circuits take alien languages and turn them into English, or more accurately probably is that everyone speaks Gallifreyan, but really every bugger thinks that everyother bugger is speaking something familiar...

Programming Code is a language.

The TARDIS is probably translating alien computer code/language into C++ or Paradox or Perl for Melanie, and then back again into Alien as she tries to express herself with C++ or Paradox or Perl.

Training wheels much?

 

[Nightowl1701]

Re: Melanie might not have been so laughably useless as a Tech after a

"Hmph, never expected all these alien computers from all these worlds to come with the same help program packaged. Hey Doctor, does the TARDIS computer also have this 'O.S.WIN?' It seems to know what I need almost before I do..."

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Re: Melanie might not have been so laughably useless as a Tech after a

As wonky as the TARDIS can be, maybe WinME?

 

[Rarewolf]

Re: Melanie might not have been so laughably useless as a Tech after a

I do find it noticeable how often Mel's computer skills are bought up on audio, often to save the day. Its like each writer thinks they are the first to mention it. Nyssa's biochemistry too. On the other hand Peri rarely uses her botanical knowledge, Tegan her customer service training (I concede not much for a air stewardess in space), and Ace hardly ever gets to blow something up.

 

[NightJim]

Re: Melanie might not have been so laughably useless as a Tech after a

I like that Big Finish do that. It makes the companions stand out more. I'd totally forgotten that Peri was a botantist, and I was watching her appearances, until it was brought up in all three of the audios I was listened to recently (...ish, Peri and Piscon Paradox and Year of the Pig). For some of the later companions, it also adds a lot more layers to why the Doctor invited them along as it didn't make too much sense with some of them. Late JNT came across as "she's a companion now" then the Doctor being impressed with them.

Now Mel's probably my most hated Companion but I will defend her a little here. Mostly because I've just started listening to The Juggernauts. Her programming is addressed pretty quickly where she says she only knew Basic, COBOL and Fortran, which matches with her 80s beginnings. She out right states that she's learnt far more than that living on this planet for a number of months. That's with no TARDIS, and to adapt to such futuristic language, and coding a robot/AI from whatever she did in the 80s is pretty impressive.

But I like your thinking that the TARDIS helps with it's translation circuits. In X-Men something similar was done with Doug Ramsey. In the 80s when he was created by Doug Ramsey, his power to understand languages. Jokingly the worst mutant power ever. When he was brought back in the early 2000s it was made pretty decent with him also able to understand body language as easily as English, and programming languages, though less was done with the latter.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Re: Melanie might not have been so laughably useless as a Tech after a

After the Asgard Wars I thought Doug was on his way to becoming a master sorcerer.

(I was hoping that no one would bring up the Juggernauts, but I'd already waffled on too long, to backstop something unlikely to have become brought up.)

I don't think Peri had graduated. Meaning that she was holidaying between semesters, not that she had dropped out, but then you don't have to have a degree in botany to call yourself a botanist. The character was much younger than the actress if you consider that Miss Brown was holidaying with her parents when she met the Doctor.

Young enough for it to almost be considered kidnapping.

 

[Chaos Descending]

Re: Melanie might not have been so laughably useless as a Tech after a

A MegaByte MODEM! :O

 

[diankra]

Re: Melanie might not have been so laughably useless as a Tech after a

I'll take the 'Mega-Byte Modem" as being Mel spotting what the device does and referring to it within her own reference frame. It's the least embarrassing explanation, and makes her seem more savvy than otherwise.
On the picking up on implied stuff about companions, I wish some of the Big Finish writers would notice how much of a ruthless priviliged brat Nyssa is in Traken and pick up on that!

 

[Guy Gardener]

Re: Melanie might not have been so laughably useless as a Tech after a

By the end she's a half naked nurse tending to lepers.

It's not she was privileged on Traken, I think it's that no one in the union was unprivileged.

That's what becomes of living somewhere where zero scarcity is a given.

 

[Nightowl1701]

Re: Melanie might not have been so laughably useless as a Tech after a

Unless they're writing Nyssa prior to Logopolis, I doubt you're going to get that. Things like your entire planet & people being erased from the universe tend to bludgeon the attitude and ego right out of you. (Unless you're Princess Leia and have to keep up the high-and-mighty demeanor for the Rebellion's sake.)

 

[diankra]

Re: Melanie might not have been so laughably useless as a Tech after a

Yeah, Nightowl, you're right. But Guy... in Traken she bribes the chief Foster to let her (or rather Adric) into the Grove, after telling him that her father and his colleagues decide what is lawful (and the fact that Tremas knows Neman is too fond of money, and that Nyssa can tell Neman to send the commoners away and think he'll obey, shows that Traken is not exactly a paradise).
An episode later, once her father's been arrested, she again tries bribery to try and get him out and when that doesn't work she stuns the guards with a weapon she's already got with her and made for herself out of her lab tools... And an episode later she tells Adric to build and use the device that will effectively end her civilisation as she knows it.
She's a serious piece of ruthless work in Traken.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Re: Melanie might not have been so laughably useless as a Tech after a

Details, details.

I think about the life I live as well below the poverty line and probably horrifying to some, but it's still better than what the King of France had to put up with in 1042.

Unless they're writing Nyssa prior to Logopolis, I doubt you're going to get that. Things like your entire planet & people being erased from the universe tend to bludgeon the attitude and ego right out of you. (Unless you're Princess Leia and have to keep up the high-and-mighty demeanor for the Rebellion's sake.)

She lost her accent.

Seriously, Leia was British right up to the point that Tarkin blew up Aalderan.

I think the character had a stroke.

Half her brain was paralysed throughout the rest of the movies which is why she sounded like she did, from that point forward.