Not In A Good Way!
Bear with me, this one takes quite a bit of recollection, since old age, gin and spiced rum have ravaged the memory somewhat.
Okay, back in 1975 the BBC showed a series called 'Survivors', which kicked off with a first episode called 'The Fourth Horseman', written by the talented Cymbrian Terry Nation, yes yes yes 'The Dalek's Dad'. For those of you not up on your apocalyptic terminology, this refers to the Fourth Horseman Of The Apocalypse: The Pale Rider, Death, who has the power to kill off one-fourth of the Earth. Lightweight. Art!
In the first episode, a mystery flu-like virus had erupted out of Asia, allegedly killing millions in China, and had been spread across the globe via air travel, meaning that no continent remained free of the pestilence. The title sequence, in a montage of clips, implied this since it was much, much cheaper than actually filming a background. Typical cheap-bottom BBC. Art!
This is the ham-fisted klutz who dooms humanity. Art!
So the hungover bafune drops a flask containing Something Extremely Bad, and presumably tries to cover this ghastly failure up until he drops dead. In the meantime the virus has been spreading amok, thanks to the Populous Dictatorship not knowing what's happened in their biological warfare lab. SORRY! 'Anti-plague research lab' is what I meant to say. Art!
Here you see a diplomat from The Populous Dictatorship, visiting their good dictatorial friends: 'CCCP' is the Cyrillic acronym for 'Soyuz Soviet Socialisticheskikh Respublika' or 'Union of Soviet Socialist Republics' and 'MOCKBA' is the Cyrillic for 'Moskva', or 'Barad-Duh' - 'Moscow' if we're being formal. The point I am labouring here is that air travel spreads the disease worldwide, as the next title montage shows passport stamps from Spain, France, South Canada and This Sceptred Isle. Art!
Yes, that's Stephen King. His own plague opus, 'The Stand', has a much, much darker take on the global pandemic, which in his instance was caused by sloppy health and safety protocols and Lucifer fiddling with lab procedure in South Canada. Once the government realises that the biblical plague is loose and cannot be stopped or even mitigated, they canvass for volunteers who are willing to be infected -
And then travel abroad to Ruffia and The Populous Dictatorship to ensure they are utterly compromised. Believe me, there's a whole television series there if Stevo ever gives permission.
ANYWAY that is why Stephen is a multi-billionaire and I am living in a shoe-box under a sewage culvert. Art!
TFH shows us British society breaking down under the impact of what is called 'The Death', where only 1 person in 5,000 proves to be naturally immune to the virus, and where there cannot be any rescue mission mounted by the outside world is it has gone to excrement, too. The series later completely destroyed this loss ratio since no more than 11,000 people across the whole of This Sceptred Isle would have survived, when one character in Series 3 claims 150,000 Scots have survived. Whisky and porridge, one presumes.
ANYWAY AGAIN here's an interesting historical footnote. Art!
That there is Brian Clemens, who was responsible for creating 'The Avengers' and 'The Professionals' and whom maintained for years that he had given Terry the idea about 'Survivors' and who wanted money and kudos as a result. Tez would not capitulate and both pursued a legal redress, which resulted in barristers getting richer whilst their clients got poorer. Mutual lack of money stiffed the case and it never got resolved; Conrad can only observe that the bleak existentialism of 'Survivors' does not reflect on Clemens' considerably less hopeless-we're-all-going-to-die-in-short-order.
ANYWAY ANYWAY Your Humble Scribe also remembers reading Terry's novelisation of 'Survivors', which referred to the first season, and which I never actually finished it for reasons unexplained but which probably have the words 'Gin' and 'Rum' in there somewhere. Art!
Here we indulge in an aside. You see, Terry rationalised that Hom. Sap. in the UK were far too reliant on the weather to be able to sustain a post-industrial society and would need to move south onto the Continent to survive. Overlooking that we did not do this at any time in our island past and that we have had refugee populations from the Continent arrive here and survive, the Cotê D'Azur is always going to trump Morecambe.
SO! Terry fell out with the BBC producer Terence Dudley, whom he felt was 'trying to get the trains running' in order to restore order. Conrad recalls one of the characters going on a looooong reconnaissance sweep and reporting back that one scattered group is in possession of a tank. Wowsers!
In the later seasons there is an attempt at hot-air balloon activity with -
Norway. Yeah, you need to access the resources of Norgeland to become a burgeoning post-apocalyptic society. Or did the Norks maintain a logistics connection with their North Sea oil rigs?
We may come back to this, it has legs.
Why Are We Here?
O I thought you'd never ask!
Because there is currently an outbreak of pneumatic plague in the far eastern regions of Ruffia.
Yes you read that correctly. Art!
Thanks to 'Anton Geranshcheno' we now know that the local television channel 'People Of Baikal' has conducted an investigation into events into the far east of Ruffia, in Irkustsk and Shelekhov. Employee Daria Shipilova, an employee at the totally-not-alarming-title 'Research Anti-Plague Institute', dropped a test-tube containing 'Anti-Plague' research cultures and was dead in a couple of days, covered it up and here we are today. As happens daily in Mordorvia.
Or not.
200 people that she came into contact with are now in isolation. Five hospitals have activated quarantines. The Kremlin is now loudly insisting that nothing has happened, that it is all happening to plan, that everyone needs to understand that nothing is happening and if it is then it is all occurring as per plan, that the orcs needed to listen to only Kremlin garbola and not 'rumours'.
Yeah right.
"I, Nicholas II, will rule Ruffia forever."
Of course - obviously! - Ruffian state media deny that anything has happened, since this might be an indirect admission that Ruffia carries out biological warfare experiments. Not very carelessly, either.
Thank You Prof
My wallet squeaks in anguish. Art!
In case you can't read the blurb, this is Professor Peter Caddick-Adams, recommending a murder-mystery, which is two things more likely to empty my wallet than anything else and I shall have to go check Abebooks after posting this blog. I understand that there was the 'Titanic', 'Olympic' and 'Britannic', and that the latter two -
It Is Reckoned
That the ancient Greeks, insular in their linguistic congruency, used to describe those who were not Greek and whom did not speak Greek, as 'barbarians' who could only speak in 'Bar-bar-bar'. Art!
Once again, here we have an item that has come from out of nowhere with no boundaries. If you have an explanation of whatever this is, please let us know in the Comments. Conrad will continue to believe that it concerns LITHIUM WAER BATTERY DESIGN!
More Of Duxford
Note I do do not automatically lead with 'RAF' or otherworldy non-terrestrial aspects since a lot of the exhibits at the IWM are not aircraft. Art!
Absolutely no idea what this is. Sorry, but there is a disconnect between the museum floor and some of the exhibits we saw. thanks to having to use two different cameras in different locations. Art!
What The Bloody Heck!
Conrad had COMPLETELY MISSED this aircraft that had been poised above the whole hangar whilst he was bimbling beneath it. Please do not belabour Your Humble Scribe, as we can excuse thanks to Gordons and Captain Morgan.
AND WITH THAT WE ARE DONE!
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