[Sticks]

Notes on Episode 13

Unexpected parcel
The character Philip get’s a visit from a solicitor as soon as the Lone Stranger has gone into the past. This solicitor has a parcel and a set of instructions that have been kicking around their office for 20 years with instructions to deliver them at a certain date and time. Those who know their films may recognise this idea from Back to the Future 3, which I suspect I borrowed it from. Incidentally this is another addition brought in the 1993 rewrite.

Newcastle Brown
This is a type of ale, originally brewed in Newcastle by Scottish And Newcastle breweries. Now it is brewed elsewhere and the distillery in Newcastle has been demolished.

Variation on Murphy’s Law
The Patricia character misquotes Murphy’s law in the van when she realises she can not go back, and all her friends and relations may be dead in this future she has been thrust into.

Murphy’s law is normally stated, “If it can go wrong then it will go wrong” It is said that it originated in the United States during the 1950’s research into rockets. I often misquote Murphy’s law as being “If it can go wrong it wil test it out on me first”, and so that made it into the 1993 rewrite.

Letter from the president
This was yet again added in the 1993 rewrite, it was kind of closing the book on the Jennifer Bruce story. It is worthy of note, that today there is talk of individuals being able to do criminal background checks of any potential partners, is they have children. Back in 1988 and 1993 that did not exist. There were criminal records checks, but that was only for certain institutions. When I applied to do teacher training in 1992, I most likely would have had a criminal record check.

Getting back to the story, why put it in? Well perhaps I may have felt responsibility to the character, after all she had been through. Seems daft doesn’t it, especially as she is a work of fiction.

Tactical Nukes
Reference is made to “Tactical Nukes”. In the 1980’s there was talk of small scale nuclear weapons, called tactical nuclear battlefield weapons. This was when it was believed that a small limited nuclear war could be fought. The belief by others was otherwise, in that any use of nuclear weapons would lead to MAD or Mutually Assured Destruction

Neel
In the story the group end up at Neel’s flat. Neel is based on a friend of mine I made in Aberdeen. Unfortunately he is not in best of health, and I did offer to send him the link to this story, but he declined. His sight is not that good now and he has mobility issues. He is better than I am with computers and is no fan of Microsoft. He also introduced me to good coffee, hence the comment I put in about being unable to make any.

He tells the tale one time when he was in London, of going into a delicatessen shop, asking for a pound of their finest Columbian, and seeing the shocked expression on various people’s faces. Columbia also produces good coffee as well as narcotics.

Registered as engineers
Neel and Mike refer to a time they registered as engineers. My friend on whom Neel is based tells how they one time by accident found an engineer’s password to a main computer system. This allowed them to do more interesting stuff than the system operators could. If I recall, it was because an engineer had programmed a function key to log them in.

Patricia – Woman of action
At the time I was writing this in 1988, I did ask the lass upon whom Patricia is based, if she would stay behind or try and be in on the action. She told me, she would be in the middle of it, and so she was.

Gulf War
The reference to the Gulf War, is a reference to the first Gulf War, sanctioned in 1991 when Iraq invaded Kuwait. It was a multi national effort to kick the Iraqis out, which was successful, but sowed the seeds for what was to happen on 9/11