[TooTall]

I thought I had read a thread on this TV show but I guess old age is creeping up on me since I can't find it. I watched my first episode last night and while I find the premise interesting I am undecided about the show since as you might imagine there are a lot of gaps to be filled in since I entered in the middle. I have one question in particular and even checking the show's site I haven't found the answer so maybe one of our readers can enlighten me. It appears to me that an event such as an EMP has wiped out the use of electricity (according to the website 15 years previously) in the world. Is there a reason that the survivors can't rewind some motors and generators to at least start back on the road to recovery or is this a recurring phenomenon?

 

[Snake45]

No electricity of any kind works, not even common dry-cell batteries.

No, we don't know why this is.

 

[TommyGunn]

I only saw the pilot episode. It was a little unclear what happened. On a highway at night we saw car headlights blink off like a row of dominos going down. An EMP would TKO them all simultaneously. A plane flat-spinned into the earth....running lights still on. And the flatspin was a very unlikely if not impossible result.
A computer was shown to still work when a small pocketable device was attached, at the end. How does THAT work if the ICs in the computer were fried?
I don't know what the mechanism was that took down electricity. I don't think the TV writers either know or care what EMP is or does....or they have something else up their sleeve as the cause. Whether it's a real phenomenon or something out of an old Irwin Allen TV series ..... who knows.

 

[Snake45]

A computer was shown to still work when a small pocketable device was attached, at the end. How does THAT work if the ICs in the computer were fried?

The sporadic appearance of electricity is one of the show's "big mysteries" so far.

 

[Diamondback]

A friend of mine is writing a fantasy-alternate-history steampunk novel for Baen Publishing (along with another of their big-name authors) where everything has to be steam-powered because some kinda critters from another dimension invaded and feed on electricity... I hope they're not going to steal his premise.

 

[Snake45]

A friend of mine is writing a fantasy-alternate-history steampunk novel for Baen Publishing (along with another of their big-name authors) where everything has to be steam-powered because some kinda critters from another dimension invaded and feed on electricity... I hope they're not going to steal his premise.

From the previews of next week, it looks like someone got a steam locomotive of some sort running. (Maybe they picked it up at the Hell on Wheels Going Out of Bidness sale.)

 

[TooTall]

Thanks to all for the answers. I may have to watch some more just to find out what the event actually was.

 

[TooTall]

No electricity of any kind works, not even common dry-cell batteries.

Not even batteries? The end of life as we know it. I've been told that one of my Grandfathers collected D cell batteries since he believed that they would be the new currency after the Apocalypse. I'm afraid that I have inherited his tendencies except that I don't limit my hoarding to D cells. :dunno:

 

[Diamondback]

From the previews of next week, it looks like someone got a steam locomotive of some sort running. (Maybe they picked it up at the Hell on Wheels Going Out of Bidness sale.)

Well, there's the Union Pacific Steam Program with 844 and 3985 active, SP 4449, RDG 2101, with a lot of work N&W 611 and NYC 3001 (less so on 611, it has been steamed within the past 20 years) could be brought back online, NKP 765 is kept in better shape both cosmetically and mechanically now than it ever was in regular service (I know, I've been inside that locomotive while it was disassembled in the shop at Ft. Wayne for maintenance) and a few other Nickel Platers are still kicking... and I'll bet in a pinch with proper motivation a lot of "stuffed and mounted" display steamers aren't lost causes mechanically either.

 

[Solomon Kane]

I've watched this show from the beginning, and I'm close to giving up on it. For example, I like shows with strong, intelligent female characters, and I keep hoping that Revolution gets one.

Also, I have no experience with reloading ammo, knowing my patience and attention span aren't suited to attempting it, but I find myself thinking their explanation for a scarcity of modern ammunition to be lacking. Shouldn't any chemist be able to make smokeless powder? Wouldn't the Monroe Militia be able to co-opt anyone of a several thousand people who know how to craft their own rounds? It just seems that going back to muskets doesn't make sense.

One thing I like is that almost every episode seems to be an affirmation on why the 2nd amendment exists.

 

[Snake45]

As regards the lack of ammunition, apparently everyone--including the government--shot it all up in the aftermath of The Bad Thing.

The problem with making new ammunition is not the brass (it can be recycled), or the bullets (can be cast by low-tech means), or even the powder (black powder is pretty low-tech), it's the primers. Thus the selection of flintlocks makes a certain amount of sense. Though one wonders where the mis-named "militia" managed to round up so many flintlocks, unless they raided a Hollywood arms-supply rental house, or some such. :dunno:

 

[phantom4570]

The same chemistry used in batteries also powers our nervous system. If something suppressed electric charge in the scope required of this premise, chemistry as we know it would stop working.

 

[Kevin Gibson]

As regards the lack of ammunition, apparently everyone--including the government--shot it all up in the aftermath of The Bad Thing.

The problem with making new ammunition is not the brass (it can be recycled), or the bullets (can be cast by low-tech means), or even the powder (black powder is pretty low-tech), it's the primers. Thus the selection of flintlocks makes a certain amount of sense. Though one wonders where the mis-named "militia" managed to round up so many flintlocks, unless they raided a Hollywood arms-supply rental house, or some such. :dunno:

Not sure where they'd round up large numbers, but any blacksmith could produce locks. Barrels can be salvaged from other firearms, or one could make an old barrel boring fixture and do it like they did 200 years ago.

 

[TommyGunn]

The same chemistry used in batteries also powers our nervous system. If something suppressed electric charge in the scope required of this premise, chemistry as we know it would stop working.

Would an EMP be fatal to humans?
I know that an EMP is not a logical answer to the problem that afflicted the country in this TV show, but if a human could survive an EMP who's to say whatever did TKO the power wasn't equally powerful -- and survivable?

I recall reading an article by someone who proposed that if George Reeve's Superman character really could fly he'd leave an enormous crater in the ground each time he took off. Really? Who knew HOW Superman actually flew? Borounelli had nothing to do with it. And despite the actor's running onto a springboard and launching himself I doubt the producer's intended it was solely inertia from that launch that enabled Superman to maneuver like that, as well as travel internationally (to say the least).

Superman's flying ability remains a mystery. But I guess it is reasonable to believe that since he didn't leave any craters....it wasn't simply the inertia from the take-off leap.

Where's Mr. Spock when you need him? :cryinlaugh::help::bolt:

 

[phantom4570]

Would an EMP be fatal to humans?

If you're close enough to the source of an EMP to scramble your central nervous system there will be other things like infrared and ionizing radiation that will kill you first. An EMP isn't going to affect chemical storage of electrical power so the premise that an EMP knocked out electronics and batteries fails the sniff test. An EMP powerful enough to affect the entire planet would kill the population on the side facing the source of the effect due to the aforementioned radiation.

I suspect the effect of an EMP is overstated. Sure, an EMP will degrade radio communication and can knock out electronics near the source. Such an effect has to follow an inverse square law. As you move away from the source the intensity decreases by the square of the distance.

Keep in mind. The sun spews forth coronal mass ejections containing megatons of particles traveling at a significant fraction of the speed of light. These fill the polar sky with auroras, disrupt satellites and have been known to cause blackouts (Montreal in 1989) but the effect is transient. The satellites returned to service and power was restored in Montreal.

I recall reading an article by someone who proposed that if George Reeve's Superman character really could fly he'd leave an enormous crater in the ground each time he took off.

Superman should not suspend the laws of physics. For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. They got that right in Hancock, except where they didn't.

 

[TommyGunn]

To be sure Superman was a comic. In comics there are no laws of physics.
People exposed to nuclear explosions don't turn into The Incredible Hulk.
The Superman allusion was me "waxing silly" ~ the idea being we don't know how Superman flew since he defied the laws of physics, so how could we conclude, under those premises, he ought to have left craters? Likewise we don't know what TKO'd electricity in Revolution, so we have no reason to assume it was/was not fatal .... except it doesn't seem to have been since it didn't kill anyone -- not directly, atleast.
Logic doesn't apply.

But... *!SIGH!* ... I guess that's normal for TV ..... these days .....

 

[Snake45]

A few answers. For one thing, we learn that the show has been picked up for a full season, at least:

'Revolution' showrunner Eric Kripke has answers about the blackout | Inside TV | EW.com

 

[Snake45]

Well the show's been stumbling along, recycling bits and pieces of dozens of other movies and TV shows but last night Rachel surprised me by breaking bad and totally Jesse Pinkman-ing that other scientist at the end! mg:

 

[TooTall]

Well the show's been stumbling along, recycling bits and pieces of dozens of other movies and TV shows but last night Rachel surprised me by breaking bad and totally Jesse Pinkman-ing that other scientist at the end! mg:

I continue watching this though it never quite seems to achieve the potential that it promised. I'm watching more from hope that it gets better rather than really enjoying it. :dunno:

 

[DavidE]

Spoilers below, highlight it for the read I'm actually getting on this show.

I have come to the conclusion that the "good guys" basically helped cause the blackout and want it to continue. Never have they mentioned the idea of using their amulet things to actually wipe out the bad guys. Then you have the other group of folks with electric power available to them who are apparently monitoring the whole thing but not really doing anything, again leaving millions to suffer in a world without modern technology. Of course, one thing the show gets right is modern technology is not really needed to murder or conquer, those are human tendencies that come out in all technological levels, sadly. As a result I don't really sympathise with anyone at this point.