Ministry of Space

Landshark · May 22, 2004

Finally got the third and final part of this Warren Ellis mini series after waiting almost three years for it to be published, (also got to see part two as well as my comic shop underordered them back in 2001 and I missed getting a copy). Well the big secret of how post war Britain financed it's space program is revealed, (wonder if anyone didn't see that one coming), but it was the last panal that rather got me, apart from the feeling that it was more suited to a mid issue filler panal than the last finale one it didn't make sense in context with what's been shown in previous issues.

(You lot aren't getting one word in ten of this are you? Well go out and buy the comic then!)

Well the most obvious outcome of this will, of course, be a fresh rash of Brits in Space threads from yours truley. We'd have done it with much more panche than the Yanks, and our first man wouldn't have fluffed his lines.

Torqumada · May 24, 2004

The final panel makes perfect sense in relation to the words of Colonel Wright, who in the middle of his tirade in front of the Ministry of Space council speaks of the British Empirer's "glorious and unchanging aspect." For all its technological advnaces, the England of that 21st century still retains many of the social norms of a 19th century Empire. We are not made aware of it until the final page.

Torqumada

Landshark · May 24, 2004

No, I understand what the panel is meant to covey - that despite all the technological advances of the Empire it still carries all the old prejudices of the Empire into space. However my problem is that it doesn't jive with some of the things we've seen previously.

Lucy's father is one of the astronauts on the Moon in 1960 and by 1969 he's an officer in the (highly prestigious) Mars expedition, when Sir John Dashwood arrives at Churchill Station he's greeted by a female officer (Colonel Wright) and the MoS Council has one obviously Sikh member (who considering where he's sitting might by the number two member) and a couple who could be Indian or Pakistani. Considering that the MoS and RSF seem (to me) to have no problem with non-whites and non-males holding ranking positions then retaining segregation seems (again to me) out of character.

Slight OT but does it seem to you that there's an entire issue missing? One that should have covered the 70's and 80's? It's just that during his first meeting with Lucy's father Dashwood says that babies are beastly things that he wouldn't have in the house, yet in issue one he obviously knows Lucy and seems to act rather paternally towards her. Actually on a rereading she's the only person he treats as a person and not someone to be used to further the MoS agenda.

Torqumada · May 24, 2004

Landshark said:
No, I understand what the panel is meant to covey - that despite all the technological advances of the Empire it still carries all the old prejudices of the Empire into space. However my problem is that it doesn't jive with some of the things we've seen previously.

Lucy's father is one of the astronauts on the Moon in 1960 and by 1969 he's an officer in the (highly prestigious) Mars expedition, when Sir John Dashwood arrives at Churchill Station he's greeted by a female officer (Colonel Wright) and the MoS Council has one obviously Sikh member (who considering where he's sitting might by the number two member) and a couple who could be Indian or Pakistani. Considering that the MoS and RSF seem (to me) to have no problem with non-whites and non-males holding ranking positions then retaining segregation seems (again to me) out of character.

Slight OT but does it seem to you that there's an entire issue missing? One that should have covered the 70's and 80's? It's just that during his first meeting with Lucy's father Dashwood says that babies are beastly things that he wouldn't have in the house, yet in issue one he obviously knows Lucy and seems to act rather paternally towards her. Actually on a rereading she's the only person he treats as a person and not someone to be used to further the MoS agenda.

Prehaps there had to be some concessions to keep the British Empire together, but overall they seem to be keeping the "Seperate but Equal" doctrine going. Maybe they do a good enough job at it, with the resources that their Space Ministry provides to mae it a viable reality, unlike the US did for the lat 19th and early 20th centuries, in which the races were seperate, but not reated equally. The British Empire provides equal opportunity based on talent and education, but will not force the different ethnicities to be social together. No forced bussing, as it were. I agree, there does ssem to be an issue missing.

Torqumada

valio_98 · May 24, 2004

the first words on the Moon

Landshark said:
... and our first man wouldn't have fluffed his lines.

"Congratulations, chaps. It appears we did it."

))

("First To The Moon!", by Stephen Baxter and Simon Bradshaw)

Landshark · May 25, 2004

valio_98 said:
"Congratulations, chaps. It appears we did it." ))

("First To The Moon!", by Stephen Baxter and Simon Bradshaw)

I found this story and the similar Prospero One on the net. In the first we get the Moon but we also get Edward VIII, Halifax and the Nazis.

Well bollocks to that idea.

In the second we also suffer a disaster in space with the loss of one of the astronauts. Seems like Baxter and Bradshaw don't think Britain can cut it in space.

After a rereading I'd say the missing part of MoS occurs between the landing on Mars and Dashwood's final sequence with the MoS council. On the last two pages there's a sequence of five panels showing an MoS spaceship approaching Saturn, greenhouses and a monorail on Mars, a city covering half the Moon, another MoS spaceship entering a large airlock in an asteroid in what looks like the Asteroid Belt and three space stations in orbit around the Earth. Now I'd say the "lost issues" cover the 70's, 80's and 90's and concern the death of Langton on Mars, Dashwood breaking the news to Langton's family, the Ministry's exploration of the Belt and the moons of Jupiter, Dashwood retiring to take a position at Lowlands, Lucy meeting Dashwood at college and following in her father's footsteps and jioning the RSF.

Any bets that we'll ever see any more MoS?