Hi,

okay - I make the first suggestion, let's everyone do a thorough analysis of this episode and post it here, and discuss our respective takes of this episode.

The analysis ought to include the behaviour of all present major characters (let's stay with those we get to see or spoken about again in the series), their possible motives, the impact this has on our PoV of these characters, what repercussions the episode has on their later "life", and of course, such small fry stuff as plot holes, aspects which are curious, etc.etc..

I know that this episode was cut/remodelled in some countries, so for convenience sake, let's stay with the British version as it was filmed and distributed (meaning including the fray between the former marital couple and including John's death).

Hi K-k,

do check your inbox, please

The only thing that made sense was Seagull X-ray was somewhere else in the world and at the time the mobile transporters were the only viable option. They were supersonic as well but not Mach 4.

Matt wrote on Sep 4^th, 2010 at 2:06pm:


I don't think they are supersonic; the engines look very much like Turbofans which are designed for efficiency at sub-sonic speeds.
A turbofan consists of a gas turbine which drives a large fan. Whilst some of the air passing through this fan passes into the turbine compressors, the bulk actually passes round the OUTSIDE of the engine, This air then joins the outside of the exhaust stream, both increasing the mass of air moved (and hence the thrust) but also acts to muffle the noise from the hot exhaust stream, thus quietening the aircraft.
The problem with designing engines to cope with supersonic flight is tha the airflow has to be slowed down to subsonic speeds otherwise it 'piles up in front of the primary engine fan, rather than passing through. To do that in the case of military aircraft and Concorde, a long inlet tunnel has to be placed in front of the fan which, with carefully-placed baffles, slows down the airflow.

Seagull X-Ray has the tunnel, the Mobile Transporters do not, therefore, although the Transporters can operate at high sub-Mach numbers, they cannot fly supersonically

I looked at the transcript of the episode as well as reviewing the DVD. This looks like a case of where the writers didn't talk to the model makers. The transport left New York sometime between 19:30 and 20:00 with a scheduled arrival time of 23:30 in London. That's three and a half to four hours. To arrive in that time frame the aircraft would have to be traveling at supersonic speeds. Somebody should have told the model makers.

Colin, that was an execellent decription of the operation of a turbofan engine! Spot on.

Can I do this episode in 5 minute chunks..
or at least not all at once?
my brain can only cope with so much 'Mary''at once!!

And it would be easier to give a detailed analysis...I'll start tomorrow.. found a laptop at work that had dvd player!!!!

I ws going ot write  a reallly  really nasty reply.. but I won't.

Actually  I don't like Qof P.   but it is easier to do a serious review in chunks, so that you can pick over the salient points more easily.
So I shall start tomorrow.. as long as I don't have any visitors at work befoire 9,30!

I'll see how far i get before there is a 'natural ' break in the story,! 

(I'll get you Matt.. just you wait!!)

You'd let Ginny break a cannon? (Insert Pirate ship weapon here)