: With the Tribune on the loose at the end of Barbarians at the Gate, and the fate of Drakul seemingly the same as the four explorers, it seems as though we might have the beginning of a couple of recurring characters that could be utilized next season. (Not every episode mind you, so if writers/producers are reading these posts, PLEASE do not go overboard. If some is good, it does not necessarily follow that a lot is better!)

I just saw barbarians, so my comments are late. I taped the program as I always do, and studied it afterward. Logic seems to dictate the following for Drakul, several of the major characters, and the balloon:
- the balloon might not have exploded, but it would have burned. No one would use it again.
- The bridge appeared to be 75 to 100 feet above a "river" only two or three feet deep. Thane and the girls would have found bodies or seriously injured comrades/ adversaries in shallow water not far from where they hit the "river" bed. The river wasn't deep or fast enough to absorb a fall from the bridge and carry someone down stream. Couldn't figure how Marguerite could even suggest it ( she did make me feel like anyone would feel that had just lost a bunch of friends though. Krux's Tears, and her expression of shock, really showed up Veronica's inability to act . There's no doubt about who is the professional here.Build a show around Veronica. Really. Veronica is a stock chevy, Marguerite is a Ferrari ).

Lizard man reminded me a bit of Jack Palance. Take off the suit and put him at the head of an expedition competing for the resources of the plateau ( at odds with Marguerite's former lover, the German mining engineer when it comes to killing her ), and we would have a real and continuous nemisis for the good guys to deal with.

I like the suggestion that Roxton might have had previous military experience in Africa. Given his background and age, it is possible that he would have seen active service. My background in history is pre-colonial and ancient. I have a fair grasp of World War 2, and fighter aircraft used by the Brits and Germans in WWI. I've only taken a course in Victorian history. My Victorian instructor is pretty sharp when it comes to the late 1800's / early 1900's. I intend to contact him for details on these periods - the research approach to fanfic and comment.He might be able to shed some light on what Roxton might have been doing during the war, and what the Germans and Brits were doing in Africa before and during World War I.

Our actors really need histories to perform well. An actor has to know who he or she is playing. Issues of the time, some of them still current, could be brought out as well. I'd like to see Marguerite divorced from any military association during the war and see her rather as a ruthless business woman who rebuilds her father's industrial and mining empire in England.

I'd like to see Veronica's parents as being something the viewer never imagined them to be. Naturalists, but scions of families that made their fortunes in the West African slave trade. She finds out when the last expedition member left behind to protect Veronica gets older, becomes a drunk ( fermenting fruit juices ), and lusts after her. One night, she must fight him off. She is only 16 when he runs onto the blade she holds out to defend herself ( the first person she ever killed, an act that horrifies her ). He falls from the treehouse, but before he does, even though mortally wounded, he blurts out the truth: Her parents owed thier education and a life of privilage before coming to the plateau to the blood and suffering of others. Challenger has known the truth all along, but says nothing. Her idealized view of her parents, a child's view, is shattered. She lives now not only to find her parents, but to confront them. She must know if the accusation is true.

Malone might have been born in a row house between English factories, a place were slops, urine, and feces are thrown into the street. He might have begun work himself, scrambling about under textile mill machines for 16 hours a day, at the age of 10. His sibblings died of tuberculous. In short, he and his family suffered because of people like the Roxtons and Kruxs. Yet, being intelligent, his inherent ability to repair machines gets him a better job in the textile factories. He acquires an interest in aircraft. His abilities are utilized by supervisors and rich owners. He must read tech manuals, so he seeks the aid of a young school teacher in order to obtain a better education. She recognizes his ability to write and encourages it. Women in the community ostracize her, after all, look at the difference in thier ages, and she spending so much time with him after hours. He loves ( idolizes )her. She is forced from her job and eventually commits suicide. He finds her slowlly turning at the end of a rope above an overturned chair. That shakes him up pretty badly and deepens his hatred of the privillaged. He becomes a journalist, a strong advocate of the assertion that the pen is stronger than the sword and that ideas will change the world and relieve its suffering masses. It is just this approach that might appeal to Veronica and yet cause her to fear Malone's response should he learn the truth about her family.

At the end of the 1800's, Darwin's theory had fallen prey to a countertheory advanced by two physicists. Still, there were scientists in both camps. Challenger and Summerlee, if they were from separate camps, would be arguing constantly. Really interesting histories could be developed for both of them. The model for Summerlee: an older Huxley, Darwin's defender in the Bishop Usher debates. For Challenger: Baron Georges Cuvier, French father of comparative anatomy and egotist extraordinaire.The former backed evolution, the latter a sequence of divine creations following catastrophic floods. In retrospect, both arguements contained elements of truth. Evolution proceeds most dramatically following an extinction event. Their respective scientific positions would have put Roxton and Summerlee at odds long before Challenger's discovery of White's journal. They might have been bashing each other in the professional lit for some time. Of course, at Oxford or Cambridge, students would have respected both men, but loved Summerlee. There would have been student marches in support of thier respective positions. The church would support Challenger. Only Summerlee's scientific reputation might preserve his career. Yet, it is thier personalities and scientific background that preserves the expedition. The nemisis, whoever that might turn out to be, might fear them most of all, particularly Summerlee as he is not easily rattled.

Just a few speculations,

Steve Faust