Pity Bob Briggs

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Graham Kennedy
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Pity Bob Briggs

Post by Graham Kennedy »

Yes, pity him. Who is Bob Briggs, you say? He's this guy.

Pity him why?

Consider Star Trek IV from his point of view. His friend Gillian is high strung, upset at the release of the whales she loves. So Bob comes up with a daring plan - release them early, allowing the whales to avoid some stress and Gillian to make a clean break without a prolonged goodbye.

And what happens? She FREAKS OUT. She literally screams in his face, slaps his face, and storms off!

...and then she is never seen again. She just vanishes, completely. You can bet Bob filed a police report, but the police find nothing. It's as if she simply vanished into thin air.

And to cap it all, the damn whales vanished without trace the day they were released!

Bob HAS to be thinking "Christ... she killed herself. That's the only thing it can be, she killed herself and we never found the body. And it's because of me! Man, I didn't know she loved those whales THAT much!"

I think Bob probably blamed himself for that for the rest of his life. Major trauma, alcoholism, divorce, a life of failure for Bob Briggs.

Maybe he even killed himself out of remorse.

Meanwhile Gillian's living the high life in the 23rd century, flying around on science vessels and gallivanting with Kirk.

Poor Bob. :(
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Re: Pity Bob Briggs

Post by Mikey »

I believe you're overthinking this. Ol' Bob seems to me to be the thick-skinned type of guy who'd get past this better than most.
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Re: Pity Bob Briggs

Post by McAvoy »

Didn't really think this far into it.

Yeah but the disappearance of Gillian might be an issue though.
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Re: Pity Bob Briggs

Post by kostmayer »

I reckon he gave up his job at the institute, and became a door to door transparent aluminium salesman.
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Re: Pity Bob Briggs

Post by Graham Kennedy »

kostmayer wrote:I reckon he gave up his job at the institute, and became a door to door transparent aluminium salesman.
That would be a hell of a growth industry.

And what the hell was Gillian doing going on a science ship, anyway? Humpback whales are THE most important species on Earth - the very survival of the planet depends on them. And she is not only the foremost humpback whale expert in the Federation, she's the ONLY humpback whale expert in the Federation. Surely she'd be recreating the cetacean institute and training new cetacean biologists on Earth, not running off on some science ship to do remedial learning!
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Re: Pity Bob Briggs

Post by kostmayer »

And can you repopulate the whole species with just 2 Whales? What happens when the probe returns to converse with highly intelligent beings and find a race of inbred yokels?
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Re: Pity Bob Briggs

Post by Graham Kennedy »

They do DNA manipulation to fix genetic defects. Can they do enough of that to make inbreeding not a problem? Who knows.

Of course, there's no reason they couldn't go and get some more humpbacks.
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Re: Pity Bob Briggs

Post by Captain Seafort »

Graham Kennedy wrote:Of course, there's no reason they couldn't go and get some more humpbacks.
Which might lead to the amusing situation of becoming the original cause of the very problem they were trying to fix - extinction due to time-travelling whale thieves.
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Re: Pity Bob Briggs

Post by Mikey »

"I couldn't find any more, Bill."
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"I thought YOU were keeping count!"
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Re: Pity Bob Briggs

Post by Nutso »

I never stopped thinking of Bob. He wanted to spare Gillian's feelings. Maybe he even loved her. And she's gone now. So far away. Bob spent the rest of his life searching for her in aquariums around the world. Everyone gave up the search for Gillian but, not Bob. Poor ol' Bob. Died alone and unloved. All he had left was a picture a Gillian, and a cassette of whale song recordings. Whale songs reminded him of Gillian.
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Re: Pity Bob Briggs

Post by Graham Kennedy »

Nutso wrote:I never stopped thinking of Bob. He wanted to spare Gillian's feelings. Maybe he even loved her. And she's gone now. So far away. Bob spent the rest of his life searching for her in aquariums around the world. Everyone gave up the search for Gillian but, not Bob. Poor ol' Bob. Died alone and unloved. All he had left was a picture a Gillian, and a cassette of whale song recordings. Whale songs reminded him of Gillian.
:cry:
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Re: Pity Bob Briggs

Post by RK_Striker_JK_5 »

Captain Seafort wrote:
Graham Kennedy wrote:Of course, there's no reason they couldn't go and get some more humpbacks.
Which might lead to the amusing situation of becoming the original cause of the very problem they were trying to fix - extinction due to time-travelling whale thieves.
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Re: Pity Bob Briggs

Post by Varthikes »

And, at the same time, there's an international incident being raised between the US and Soviet Union over a sabotage attempt of the USS Enterprise--the saboteur going missing around the same time. Those police officers at the hospital had a good look at Gillian, helping the Russian saboteur escape. Now, it's reported that Gillian has defected to the Soviet Union.

In The Eugenics Wars by Greg Cox, there's a chapter referring these events. The technology that Chekov leaves behind is shipped to Area 51, to be examined by Dr. Carlson (from DS9's "Little Green Men") and Shannon O'Donnell (Janeway's ancestress from "11:59"). They come up with the idea that Chekov might have been working for the Ferengi, and they abducted Gillian.
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Re: Pity Bob Briggs

Post by Graham Kennedy »

That actually makes a weird kind of sense.
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