This is a bit of a thought exercise (which I might glean for some writing of my own). I want to imagine what a poor or crime riddled cylinder station might be like. We picture these things as completely luscious and nice, and maybe many of them will be, but as we make more of them and they become labs for different types of governance and societies some of them are bound to fail or be on the verge of failure. So what would have to happen to make the Gotham City, Mos Eisley, or Omega of O'Neill Cylinders?
(Note: I say "O'Neill Cylinder" as a catch-all term. I know it has a specific size but I could easily imagine a smaller station like this from this just as much, I'm not married to a specific design.)
For instance, what happens to the picturesque garden space we envision at the center of these? Perhaps with the breakdown in proper city-planning and landscaping we'll see more long grasses and weeds than orchards and flowers. A bigger focus on cash-crops (whatever the economy determines those are) rather than responsibly having a balanced ecosystem. Or maybe a beach/pool since people will pay to visit this beach, at the sacrifice of proper crop diversity.
And I imagine depending on it's location and the astro-political landscape at the time it might even open itself up to be a low-regulations market for the less-respectable types, akin to a futuristic Tortuga or Nassau for pirates.
I also imagine it's construction might be a little more haphazard, with ancillary facilities being constructed/deconstructed/reconstructed without great planning. I wonder if it would be more likely to be embedded in an asteroid or a free-floating station?
Anyway those are just some thoughts and I'd love to hear some of yours. What conditions would create a criminal cylinder?
I remember even as a kid that the whole arc of O'Neill becoming general in season 8 was just... strange?
Not conceptually, mind you. O'Neill is a seasoned veteran, charismatic leader and has the most experience with off-world travel. But the way the show chose to depict it or rather the way Anderson played it for laughs kinda rubbed me the wrong way. Not that I didn't find it funny - the man is an ad-lib God - but it just felt like the kind of flippancy that suits a colonel at fieldwork, not his new job.
The episode Zero Hour tries to address this somewhat by having O'Neill struggle with being a base commander, and I was thinking "ok, this is where we see him adapt and mature and learn how to handle things the Daniel/Hammond way". But that never seems to happen. O'Neill just goes on being O'Neill and things work out. The show even makes a running gag out of how he never seems to do any work. He doesn't open his desk drawers, he doesn't sign any papers, he is completely dazed in any kind of diplomatic scenario, which immediately kills any suspense. He is, rather ironically, the Homer Simpson of generals.
The previous seasons used to give the impression that O'Neill could be eccentric, but could also switch on the Kurt Russell mode when it was necessary. Look at Window of Oppurtunity: it's one of the silliest episodes of the series, but it ends with O'Neill screaming about his son, and you can tell that this is the real, human side of him. He does care, and he's able to save the day by empathising with the antagonist. I wanted to see that O'Neill become general.
I've been rewatching the series, currently at the end of season 5 (... for 6 months already, can't really bring myself to watch the last few episodes for... reasons), and I noticed a trend:
When it comes to sacrificing innocent lives, Jack's moral compass changes depending on where the main conflict is. If the conflict is external - SG-1 versus authority, Jack is very much an ambassador of We Leave No One Behind. If the conflict is internal, however, usually between Daniel, posing as a conscience of the group and Jack, who then shifts more into Their Problem Is Not Our Problem and We Can't Save Everybody.
Have also anyone noticed this, or am I imagining things? And if so, do you mind?
Can’t believe EK was snubbed again from the pro bowl, why do fans decide who goes? It’s literally just a popularity contest. Kirk was also snubbed but not as surprised with that one. O’Neill is one of the best RT’s in football right now, way underrated.
Not sure if this the right sub for this, but it's a question that's been bugging me lately.
Lots of worlds have O'Neill Cylinders or similarly designed space colonies. In short, massive space stations typically depicted as orbiting the Earth, which use centrifugal gravity, sunlight reflecting mirrors, and massive pressurized volumes to recreate conditions on Earth. The best examples I can think of would be Interstellar's Cooper Station, and the colonies of Mobile Suit Gundam. Those two examples both result from a need to evacuate Earth's population (either due to environmental degradation or overpopulation). However, it seems to me that colonizing other planets and moons within the solar system is an easier task.
So the question for my fellow world builders is this; Why build such stations? The original proposal for O'Neill Cylinders suggested constructing bases on the Moon to launch the necessary raw material anyway, so at that point why not skip the massive engineering task of building the cylinders and colonize the Moon? The Gravity issue is just as easily overcome (as detailed in this video from Spacedock), as is the radiation issue (burying your colonies underground), with enough time the colonies could expand to have wide open spaces, alternate energy solutions present themselves in the form of wind, nuclear, or geothermal (depending on your colonization target) and you'd have the bonus of having a wealth of raw resources at your finger tips (rather than having to ship them from somewhere else).
So what reasons might the inhabitants of a world choose to build a massive habitat in orbit, when a similar habitat on the surface of a planet or moon carries more advantages for less effort? Looking forward to any ideas in the comments.
EDIT: Please note that I am not talking about terraforming. Terraforming takes anywhere from centuries to millennia. I am talking about colonizing, essentially building stations on planets instead of in space.
https://wakeforest.rivals.com/news/per-ncaa-record-book-nick-sciba-sets-career-fg-clip
I've always wondered this.
Yes we see occasional references to Teal'c's absorption of or experiences with Earth culture (wrestling in jello, Star Wars, V-Monologues) but what if there was a simple "day in the life" of episode?
Seeing Earth architecture. Driving for the first time. Earth cuisine. Simple pleasures like fishing. Explaining TV or movies.
A hat selection montage would be a "must include".
What would you have wanted such an episode to depict?
