Episode 3 in orbit today and some theories.

Well folks today is the day. I haven't been able to devote as much time as I'd wished to this blog in the run up to episode 3, but I'll be watching it tonight and posting a review as soon as I can. I'd invite people to post their thoughts and so on in the comments.

I just want to get a couple of things off my chest quickly before epi 3 comes out. There are two bits in episode 2 which I think may prove to be important. One bit is where Clive says that the shuttle approaching Earth was at a different trajectory on Wednesday and must have slowed down to catch Earth. This is overlaid by Walzer's discovery of a Martian rock, and I wonder if this isn't some deliberate misdirection to give us some information but make us forget it straight away.

The second part is at the end where Walzer says something like 'the evidence fits with the boy's story, but I can't feel like there's something big that I'm missing'. Combine this with Josh Bernhard's comments about episode 4: "The next episode is called "Alone in the Night" and we'll be spending a lot of time with Yuri, our supposed Martian cosmonaut." and I think we have a twist approaching.

Let me know what you think and don't forget to donate.

Newscast Easter Eggs

Here is a list of the news items as appearing in the headlines during the press conference in episode 2. It's an election year, as mentioned McLellan.

They read:

CONTROVERSIAL INTRO 48 PASSES WITH MAJORITY VOTE IN COUNCIL

NEW GOP LEADER TO BE ANNOUNCED

TEA PARTY.....

RECENT POLLS SUGGEST THE TIDE HAS TURNED FOR THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

NORTH KOREA AND SOUTH KOREA BEGIN PEACE TALKS

I'm not aware if these are taken from a specific point in time, it sounds like headlines from the possible near future to me. You can read about Intro 48 here.

Walzer's Diagrams

In the first of a few posts I'll be doing on easter eggs, here are some screenshots of Walzer's workings as seen in episode 2. I've no idea if any of this makes sense, so if anyone can knows please post a comment.

These two are the board in the abortive seminar:

Disclaimer: I love maps! This looks like an old-ish possibly Dutch map of Mars. You can see "Assumed 16th March 1983" and "too late" written on it. It has similarities with an 1883 map you can view here: they both have the names Mädler Land and Huygens Land. If anyone can find a decent copy of this map on the net, or identify it, please post in the comments. I'm going to be doing further research on this.

This is the diagram Walzer uses in the flashback. My favourite easter egg I think in this episode is the date: six days before 9/11. If the committee were wary of funding a Mars mission before 9/11 they certainly weren't going to do it after.

Please post a comment if you have any insights or observations.