[Sticks]

Notes on Episode 6

Time scale
In the original 1988 version the events of the bombing of the RGIT St Andrew Street building was fifteen years in the past. In this 1993 rewrite it was increased to twenty years in the past.

Helicopter Gun ship used
In the 1993 rewrite, I used an Apache, in 1988, I referred to a Black Wing Attack helicopter. One problem is, there was never such a helicopter in the service of US forces, or any forces. I may have been getting confused with that 1980’s show Air wolf. The nearest design to the 1988 helicopter would have been the UH 1 Iroquois modified for use as a bomber

Freedom of Information Act
A Freedom of information act is referenced, at the time of both the original and the rewrite, there was no Freedom of information act in UK law. (That came in round about 2000), the one referenced was the American Freedom of information act.

Obeying Orders
After World War II, a number of those put on trial for war crimes tried to put a defence that they were only obeying orders, a defence that was never accepted.

Pinko
The commander uses the derogative pinko, this was a term of abuse levelled at those accused of being sympathetic to the left in politics, and an inference that they were supporters of communism

Pineapple
In the 1988 version, when the Lone Stranger leaves the commander, he sees that the Lone Stranger has left a real pineapple. I had this because the traditional grenade did have that affectation of “a pineapple”

Edzell
According to Wikipedia,

Edzell is a village in Angus, Scotland. It is located 5 miles (8 km) north of Brechin, by the River North Esk. Edzell is a Georgian-era planned town, with a broad main street and a grid system of side streets. Originally called Slateford, Edzell was renamed in 1818 after an earlier hamlet, located 1.5 miles (2.5 km) to the west, which by then had been abandoned.

The Royal Air Force base, RAF Edzell was situated four miles from Edzell by road, but only one mile directly east, over the North Esk. It was active for over fifty years, first as a RAF base during World War II, and later on lease to the United States Navy. Of course back in 1988 it was still an air base, and also in 1993 and I assumed at the time it was the US Air Force that had it. There is of course a danger of setting things in the future, as it was decommissioned in 1996, and its stock of 150 houses were sold off in 1999 to become a new, independent village called Edzell Woods, so in the time it was set even in the 1988 original, Edzell would not have been there.

The film 2001 A Space Odyssey suffered from this, apart from the date, it depicted Pan Am as still being in business, when by 2001, they were history.