Why someone had to be sacrificed: The Answer

[thekillman]

in the last week tons of people came with a solution to the shuttle door problem: stick a pencil in the kino and try pushing the button.

it does not work. when Rush closes the door as a test, he uses a small touchpad. too small and too precise for a Kino, or a kino with a pencil, too small to throw stuff at.

the touchpad appears to be divided into six keys which are pressed in rapid succession to open/close the door.

it had to be done manually.

[escyos]

yea true....still shooter mcgavin had to die

[Giantevilhead]

Last time I checked, the point of a pencil is smaller than a finger tip. The eraser on the end of the pencil is also smaller than the finger tips. Also, they don't have to get it right in one try. They had more than ten minutes to practice. It's not impossible, just look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjRCMQAcSRI

[kennythewraith]

pk how about this...the air was running low..they werent thinking clearly at this point cuz the air was about to fail and that option never came to them....and of course like one poster already said...shooter mcgavin had to die yo!

[The Prophet]

Where were the pencils?
Can the Kino be controlled with enough degree of accuracy/ dexterity?

Perhaps the buttons needed to be pressed by something alive, to prevent knocking the control pannels accidentally with anything inanimate.

Or, someone trying to, I don't know, set a shuttle off with no-one onboard, with no way of getting the shuttle back, perhaps?!

[Giantevilhead]

The door itself already had safety mechanisms that prevent it from being closed when something is in the door way. It's reasonable to assume that it also has safety mechanisms that prevent it from being opened in a dangerous situation. Unless the Ancients had a lot of kids running around, there's no reason to put in excessive amounts of safety protocols. In fact, considering how old the ship is, there should actually be fewer safety mechanisms. Just look at the weapon at Dakara, there was pretty much nothing on the controls that would prevent an accidental firing.

[The Prophet]

The door itself already had safety mechanisms that prevent it from being closed when something is in the door way. It's reasonable to assume that it also has safety mechanisms that prevent it from being opened in a dangerous situation. Unless the Ancients had a lot of kids running around, there's no reason to put in excessive amounts of safety protocols. In fact, considering how old the ship is, there should actually be fewer safety mechanisms. Just look at the weapon at Dakara, there was pretty much nothing on the controls that would prevent an accidental firing.

Apart from the sheer ammount of coding, using different levels of square tablets, to program it? That took the combined efforts of Carter, Baal & Jacob to program?

It'll be like giving an Ancient Grecian a Computer and telling him to program an html webpage. Sure, after a lot of trial and effort, he'll manage to open notepad, and work out some basic things, especially if there's a manual and Ancient Greek to Modern translation dictionary nearby, but yeah.

And I doubt the Ancients let kids run around by Dakara anyway. Not only did it seem to be in a chamber, but it was probably limited to a research station or something, away from people who might accidentally wipe out life in the Galaxy.

And even though the ship is old, doesn't mean it'll have less saftey protocols. It's still WAY more advanced than our modern stuff, and we have excessive amounts of them anyway.

[AtlantisForever]

he wasnt already dieing, if colonel young did it he would of wasted his life for nothing. im glad the sennater sacrificed him self didnt like his character.

[TwiceBorn]

We all cheered when the seneter went for it. I was hopeing they'de off him soon. The scene with Chloe crying didn't even seem sad, just funny. I wish they'd somehow done it all in a more touching way.

[Giantevilhead]

Apart from the sheer ammount of coding, using different levels of square tablets, to program it? That took the combined efforts of Carter, Baal & Jacob to program?

It'll be like giving an Ancient Grecian a Computer and telling him to program an html webpage. Sure, after a lot of trial and effort, he'll manage to open notepad, and work out some basic things, especially if there's a manual and Ancient Greek to Modern translation dictionary nearby, but yeah.

And I doubt the Ancients let kids run around by Dakara anyway. Not only did it seem to be in a chamber, but it was probably limited to a research station or something, away from people who might accidentally wipe out life in the Galaxy.

And even though the ship is old, doesn't mean it'll have less saftey protocols. It's still WAY more advanced than our modern stuff, and we have excessive amounts of them anyway.

It took effort to reprogram it. It didn't take effort to fire it. Also, the Jaffa were able to reprogram it and they have very little knowledge of Ancient technology. Heck, they barely have any scientific knowledge.

The Destiny was even less likely to kids on it. In fact, there was a good chance that no one was ever going to be on the ship.

There are plenty of Ancient technologies that don't have very good safety protocols that prevent accidental activation. There's the repository of knowledge, communication stones, personal shield, transport rings, ascendomatic, the device that allows people to see things from another dimension, and the device that creates explosive tumors, just to name a few. Half of those things were made on Atlantis, so they're much newer than the tech that's on Destiny.

[Setiform]

Hi, sliding back on topic, I'm glad the reasoning behind not using a kino with Rush's pencil duct taped to it is clear. My sister and I were practically bouncing up and down on the couch shouting at them while they were busy trying to decide who to sacrifice.

However... they should have at least tried it simply to demonstrate that the characters were trying to be creative and were trying to adapt, which is exactly what they'll need to do in order to survive.

Cheers

[MechaThor]

Hi, sliding back on topic, I'm glad the reasoning behind not using a kino with Rush's pencil duct taped to it is clear. My sister and I were practically bouncing up and down on the couch shouting at them while they were busy trying to decide who to sacrifice.

However... they should have at least tried it simply to demonstrate that the characters were trying to be creative and were trying to adapt, which is exactly what they'll need to do in order to survive.

Cheers

I was stated that they where trying different things off screen, such as wedging the closing door shut for a moment to let the button pusher roll under it.

Also they where breathing in very thin air at the time and all had headaches due to the scrubbers, meaning allot of them where most likely not thinking very clearly.

[QKRTHNU]

I think it was a great plan. It's not like Politicians are human anyway. KINO would have been a bigger loss.

[Ed]

malozi said in his blog that it isn't possible because you have to hit a sequence

[Pharaoh Atem]

senator armstrong sucked i don't miss him.

[RobertF]

So any thoughts what they'll do with the Senator's remains? Just let his body decompose in the shuttle? I suppose it's not a health hazard as long as the airlock is airtight.

[IMForeman]

Everybody keeps asking why they didn't get the Kino to close the door (like they had the time to mess around with the floaty ball), but nobody's asking where the Senator got the gun from.

[Radahldo]

I think that's worth addressing in the show.
Whether or not he resolved to get a gun or merely found one is the aspect of that question I find important. What's more the question is the circumstance that allowed him to catch Greer and Franklin as hostages.
The novelization of "Air" will probably answer both these.

[IMForeman]

I think that's worth addressing in the show.
Whether or not he resolved to get a gun or merely found one is the aspect of that question I find important.

Third possibility: he was given one, along with directions to the shuttle.

[Major Tyler]

Armstrong had severe internal bleeding, plus he takes blood thinners for a heart condition. Once he ran out of pills, he wouldn't have lasted long, even if he wasn't injured.

[UniverseSizePlotHole]

Third possibility: he was given one, along with directions to the shuttle.

Yes It wouldn't have taken much for someone like Sgt Spencer (or anyone in that future confronation with Eli) to agree to the Senator taking their gun (or procuring one) to the shuttle.

[escyos]

maybe the button had a sensor so only living people could press it.