Intelligence: Home Base + Primer

[skieswideopen]

This is the homebase post for discussions of Intelligence! (The 2014 US version; not the older Canadian show by the same name.)

Discussion Threads

1.01 Pilot
1.02 Red X
1.03 Mei Chen Returns
1.04 Secrets of the Secret Service
1.05 The Rescue
1.06 Patient Zero
1.07 Size Matters
1.08 Delta Force
1.09 Athens
1.10 Cain and Gabriel
1.11 The Grey Hat
1.12 The Event Horizon
1.13 Being Human

If anyone's looking for caps for icon purposes, you can find some here.


Also, a primer for anyone who missed the show when it aired.

Introduction to Intelligence

What happens when you take a man and stuff a computer chip in his head? Besides a lot of cool special effects?

The Premise

Intelligence is about Gabriel Vaughn (Josh Holloway), a former Delta Force operator with a particular genetic quirk that allows scientists to implant a computer chip in his head that gives him mental access to the information grid. They then assign Secret Service agent Riley Neal (Meghan Ory) to protect him and keep him in line. The former she's happy to do; the latter...not so much.

The Characters

Gabriel Vaughn. Highly-decorated soldier turned human computer. Courageous. Skilled. Occasionally reckless. And desperately searching for his CIA agent wife, who vanished seven years earlier while undercover in Mumbai.



Riley Neal. Secret Service agent. The youngest women ever assigned to Presidential detail, and the only one who made it through the vetting process to be considered as Gabriel's protector.



Lillian Strand (Marg Helgenberger). The director of US Cyber Command, with deep roots in the intelligence community.



Dr. Shenendoah Cassidy (John Billingsley), the neuroscientist who created the chip, and his son, Nelson Cassidy (P.J. Byrne), who also works as a scientist on the project.



Amos Pembroke (Eldon Henson). Yet another technician working on Clockwork.



Chris Jameson (Michael Rady). Cyber Command all-purpose extra body, good with a gun or a computer.

Comments

Re: 1.06 Patient Zero

[lostdragonfound]

I'm not really saying that they would have been more likely to figure the mutation before implanting than after, rather that to say after only a few test subjects and one success that the specific gene theory would be a hypothesis and not in any way a sure thing. It seems like bad science to say after only one success that since he had the genetic mutation that must be what makes it work in him and not the others.

Again, I'm not in any way a science person but I have a recessive hereditary disorder caused by a defect in the B1 subunit gene ATP6V1B1 (yes i just clipped that from the internet)…probably. I was part of a study years and years ago when they took my blood and a bunch of my family members blood to to add to the study.

They didn't actually tell me about it after or anything and what I've read about it is confusing and seems to change every few years. And sometimes people that have the defect don't always have the same symptoms as others with it and sometimes those with a different defect have those symptoms. Eh… and there could be other mutations in other genes not yet identified involved etc. whatever.

Anyways I think what I'm trying to say is genetics and mutations etc. are way more complicated than x mutation = this success or defect or whatever.

I'm just saying that it's not good science to say that just because Gabriel has a specific genetic mutation, that's the reason the chip works in him in not the others. They may say it's the reason but it would only be a working hypothesis and a relatively week one at that because they don't have enough data unless they've experimented on more people than they've claimed. Though now with an another success they come closer to being able to say it's the mutation.

I have no idea why they would have been looking for people with the mutation to use the chip on though, unless is was part of another study or something.

But the science doesn't really matter in this. It's about the characters and the story and I've really been enjoying that :)

Re: 1.06 Patient Zero

[skieswideopen]

Yeah, the show's not super-realistic about science. And science has definitely had very uneven results in predicting what specific genes do. I guess I just don't see--in the context of the show--why it would be more likely that they formulated the hypothesis about the effects of that particular gene before they gave Gabriel the chip rather than after. But maybe I misunderstood what you were saying.

Re: 1.06 Patient Zero

[lostdragonfound]

Yeah, I don't really think they had the gene theory before, I just kind of hoped I guess. I don't think it was more likely but I hoped they had more data to back the whole thing up.

Because going around saying it's the gene that makes it work with out any other data seems clumsy, also the whole human subject (even voluntary) thing is a little iffy ethically.

Of course maybe the reason they haven't voluntarily put the chip in anyone else is that they know that the gene may not be the only connection and that even with he gene there are no guarantees.

Usually I don't actually think that much about the science in TV shows, I rarely care. At this point I'm just over thinking it.

And why don't I have more than one Intelligence icon uploaded? I know I made more than one ;)

Re: 1.06 Patient Zero

[skieswideopen]

I have two Intelligence icons and I really need to make more. Which I intend to do! As soon as I finish my capshare posts.