I believe it was before Crusade even aired, that the Spoiler Junkies Page had a tidbit that Max Eilerson was a Psi Cop. Well, more likely an ex-Psi Cop, since Psi Corps had been defeated in the Telepath War, and dismantled afterward. Did anyone ever find out if this particular spoiler was true? Where did it come from? I have no idea if anyone responsible for the Spoiler Junkies Page is on here or not. Or David Allen Brooks himself, for that matter. Come out, come out, wherever you are...
Suppose it was true, just for a few paragraphs. That would mean that Max's life and career, as depicted on-screen, are lies, or at least largely lies. The whole identity as a corporate man (or is this a subtle allusion to the Corps?) at IPX, the ex-wife, even the cat, are lies, elements of an elaborate cover identity constructed to hide a probable war criminal and keep him safe from justice. In the aftermath of the Telepath War and Psi Corps' reign of terror and mass murder on Earth, any Psi Cops would presumably be highly wanted individuals. The Psi Corps trilogy includes a scene in which Kevin Vacit, Director of the Corps, discovers some wrongdoing by IPX in the mid-2100s, in which they tried to cover up the death of a telepath. He uses the incident to strong-arm IPX into a much closer cooperation with the Corps. This would include sharing exotic alien tech, obviously, but what else? Who better to help facilitate the Corps' covert activities, especially in alien territory, or in the vast no man's lands of the galaxy, than Interplanetary Expeditions? This might mean joint missions in pursuit of shared objectives, and it might involve sending powerful telepath operatives, like Psi Cops, on deep-range xeno-archeological digs, or other missions. Such an operative would learn a lot along the way, perhaps resulting in an individual like Max Eilerson, who could then pass for an IPX man. And once the Corps was toppled from power on Earth, IPX could provide an excellent conduit by which Psi Corps personnel could flee Earth's authorities. The important thing, in the words of Dr. Franklin, would be to get them away from Earth, although he meant it in a partially different way. The Telepath War turned things upside-down, after all.
It would also mean that we would have to rethink Eilerson's glib explanation for how he learned the Drakh language so quickly, "Call it a knack." Uh huh. War Zone is so silly in many ways, but there's a lot of good stuff in it, too. It's kind of half and half in terms of episode quality. What if he learned their language by working alongside the Drakh on Earth's Shadow tech project, perhaps on Z'ha'dum itself? Or the Shadows' other base world from the Technomage Trilogy, Thenoth'k, I believe it's called. What if the Drakh know him? What if they didn't attack the planet he was on in 'War Zone' by accident, but went there to kill him for past misdeeds? EAS Persephone may not have forced the Drakh warship out of hyperspace, but rather followed it to its target. The dedication of Persephone's crew aside, they were taking heavy fire, their people were being killed, and they might have misread the situation they were in, which killed them all either way.
And then we would have to re-consider why Eilerson was on that world to begin with, investigating a huge, hidden, underground alien city. Was this a standard IPX dig project, or was he looking for a new hiding place for the survivors of Psi Corps? The mission could look the same either way, even to the other IPX people like Trace, who wouldn't need to know anything about the latter mission. The telepaths can't live on ships in deep space and hyperspace forever, it's impractical, expensive, there are supply issues, and ships get old and wear out. People go crazy living in cramped quarters for too long, and I imagine it would be worse if they can telepathically scan one another. Plus, EarthForce and the Rangers are probably hunting for them. They're certainly still looking for Bester after the war, and the books describe him as the worst of the fugitive Psi Corps war criminals. An underground city on a forgotten world would be a perfect place to set down, especially if Eilerson wrote a phony report stating that it was abandoned due to contamination, and would be too difficult and expensive to clean up, case closed. Move in, fix the place up, and establish a secret new telepath colony. It would be ironic if Psi Corps got their own homeworld before Lyta's faction. The other irony being that some of her people were probably installed in the new Bureau of Telepath Integration, which seems to operate as Psi Corps-lite. At any rate, I am not convinced that the underground city is just a one-off plot device, meant to be discarded completely after 'War Zone.'
War Zone is worth another look. I miss Crusade, and want more in any form.
Raw Shark
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to consider a thought without accepting it."
- Aristotle
Suppose it was true, just for a few paragraphs. That would mean that Max's life and career, as depicted on-screen, are lies, or at least largely lies. The whole identity as a corporate man (or is this a subtle allusion to the Corps?) at IPX, the ex-wife, even the cat, are lies, elements of an elaborate cover identity constructed to hide a probable war criminal and keep him safe from justice. In the aftermath of the Telepath War and Psi Corps' reign of terror and mass murder on Earth, any Psi Cops would presumably be highly wanted individuals. The Psi Corps trilogy includes a scene in which Kevin Vacit, Director of the Corps, discovers some wrongdoing by IPX in the mid-2100s, in which they tried to cover up the death of a telepath. He uses the incident to strong-arm IPX into a much closer cooperation with the Corps. This would include sharing exotic alien tech, obviously, but what else? Who better to help facilitate the Corps' covert activities, especially in alien territory, or in the vast no man's lands of the galaxy, than Interplanetary Expeditions? This might mean joint missions in pursuit of shared objectives, and it might involve sending powerful telepath operatives, like Psi Cops, on deep-range xeno-archeological digs, or other missions. Such an operative would learn a lot along the way, perhaps resulting in an individual like Max Eilerson, who could then pass for an IPX man. And once the Corps was toppled from power on Earth, IPX could provide an excellent conduit by which Psi Corps personnel could flee Earth's authorities. The important thing, in the words of Dr. Franklin, would be to get them away from Earth, although he meant it in a partially different way. The Telepath War turned things upside-down, after all.
It would also mean that we would have to rethink Eilerson's glib explanation for how he learned the Drakh language so quickly, "Call it a knack." Uh huh. War Zone is so silly in many ways, but there's a lot of good stuff in it, too. It's kind of half and half in terms of episode quality. What if he learned their language by working alongside the Drakh on Earth's Shadow tech project, perhaps on Z'ha'dum itself? Or the Shadows' other base world from the Technomage Trilogy, Thenoth'k, I believe it's called. What if the Drakh know him? What if they didn't attack the planet he was on in 'War Zone' by accident, but went there to kill him for past misdeeds? EAS Persephone may not have forced the Drakh warship out of hyperspace, but rather followed it to its target. The dedication of Persephone's crew aside, they were taking heavy fire, their people were being killed, and they might have misread the situation they were in, which killed them all either way.
And then we would have to re-consider why Eilerson was on that world to begin with, investigating a huge, hidden, underground alien city. Was this a standard IPX dig project, or was he looking for a new hiding place for the survivors of Psi Corps? The mission could look the same either way, even to the other IPX people like Trace, who wouldn't need to know anything about the latter mission. The telepaths can't live on ships in deep space and hyperspace forever, it's impractical, expensive, there are supply issues, and ships get old and wear out. People go crazy living in cramped quarters for too long, and I imagine it would be worse if they can telepathically scan one another. Plus, EarthForce and the Rangers are probably hunting for them. They're certainly still looking for Bester after the war, and the books describe him as the worst of the fugitive Psi Corps war criminals. An underground city on a forgotten world would be a perfect place to set down, especially if Eilerson wrote a phony report stating that it was abandoned due to contamination, and would be too difficult and expensive to clean up, case closed. Move in, fix the place up, and establish a secret new telepath colony. It would be ironic if Psi Corps got their own homeworld before Lyta's faction. The other irony being that some of her people were probably installed in the new Bureau of Telepath Integration, which seems to operate as Psi Corps-lite. At any rate, I am not convinced that the underground city is just a one-off plot device, meant to be discarded completely after 'War Zone.'
War Zone is worth another look. I miss Crusade, and want more in any form.
Raw Shark
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to consider a thought without accepting it."
- Aristotle
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