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20 minutes into the future, we open on a wasteland with a huge industrial building in the background, and the usual down-and-outers - fringers? - buying and selling things and warming themselves over burn barrels. Past the usual heaps of junked but babbling TVs is the Big Time TV bus.
to:
20 minutes into the future, we open on a wasteland with a huge industrial building in the background, and the usual down-and-outers - fringers? - buying and selling things and warming themselves over burn barrels. Past the usual heaps of junked but babbling TVs [=TVs=] is the Big Time TV bus.
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Changed line(s) 74 (click to see context) from:
* WeWinBecauseYouDidnt: Bryce doesn't get his former schoolmates arrested but he stops Reg from being punished--which is more than enough.
to:
* WeWinBecauseYouDidnt: MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Bryce doesn't get begins to experience this as he becomes aware how much trouble he's gotten Reg into, much to his former schoolmates arrested but he stops Reg from being punished--which is more than enough.confusion, since he's not used to acting so emotionally.
Changed line(s) 76 (click to see context) from:
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* ReversePsychology: How Bryce eventually manages to free Reg from the gameshow: he tricks Nicholas into zipping Network 23 while Reg is on it by insisting Nicholas was taking Reg's credit.
* WeWinBecauseYouDidnt: Bryce doesn't get his former schoolmates arrested but he stops Reg from being punished--which is more than enough.
* WhatTheHellHero: Max calls Bryce out on his attitude that framing Reg was the right thing to do.
--> '''Max:''' I could use a pair of legs, and you could use a conscience!
* WeWinBecauseYouDidnt: Bryce doesn't get his former schoolmates arrested but he stops Reg from being punished--which is more than enough.
* WhatTheHellHero: Max calls Bryce out on his attitude that framing Reg was the right thing to do.
--> '''Max:''' I could use a pair of legs, and you could use a conscience!
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Changed line(s) 69 (click to see context) from:
* AbsurdlyHighStakes: The trial for Reg is a literal gameshow, which is satirizing the then-new ''People's Court.''
to:
* AbsurdlyHighStakes: AbsurdlyHighStakesGame: The trial for Reg is a literal gameshow, which is satirizing the then-new ''People's Court.''
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* IWinBecauseYouLose: Bryce doesn't get his former schoolmates arrested but he stops Reg from being punished--which is more than enough.
to:
* IWinBecauseYouLose: WeWinBecauseYouDidnt: Bryce doesn't get his former schoolmates arrested but he stops Reg from being punished--which is more than enough.
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----
* AbsurdlyHighStakes: The trial for Reg is a literal gameshow, which is satirizing the then-new ''People's Court.''
* BlackAndWhiteInsanity: What they teach at the Academy, except it's more like, LawfulNeutral Insanity.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Interrupting television broadcasts is punishable by death for adults.
* FramingTheGuiltyParty: Bryce does this with Reg to a lesser extent. Reg, after all, was involved in a similar plot against the networks in ''Blanks.''
* {{Hypocrite}}: Reg is very adamant about his innocence but he's actually committed quite a few crimes.
* IWinBecauseYouLose: Bryce doesn't get his former schoolmates arrested but he stops Reg from being punished--which is more than enough.
* NotMeThisTime: A rare good guy example as zipping seems like something Reg might be involved in but it's both a capital crime (which he'd avoid) and pointless.
* AbsurdlyHighStakes: The trial for Reg is a literal gameshow, which is satirizing the then-new ''People's Court.''
* BlackAndWhiteInsanity: What they teach at the Academy, except it's more like, LawfulNeutral Insanity.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Interrupting television broadcasts is punishable by death for adults.
* FramingTheGuiltyParty: Bryce does this with Reg to a lesser extent. Reg, after all, was involved in a similar plot against the networks in ''Blanks.''
* {{Hypocrite}}: Reg is very adamant about his innocence but he's actually committed quite a few crimes.
* IWinBecauseYouLose: Bryce doesn't get his former schoolmates arrested but he stops Reg from being punished--which is more than enough.
* NotMeThisTime: A rare good guy example as zipping seems like something Reg might be involved in but it's both a capital crime (which he'd avoid) and pointless.
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Added DiffLines:
20 minutes into the future, we open on a wasteland with a huge industrial building in the background, and the usual down-and-outers - fringers? - buying and selling things and warming themselves over burn barrels. Past the usual heaps of junked but babbling TVs is the Big Time TV bus.
Inside, Blank Reg is rocking out to the program, an 80s-era hard-rock video of "Summertime Blues." Blank Dom objects to the volume, because it's interfering with her attention to the current offer on "Shop & Spree," a smarmy shopping program on Network 23. She gleefully accepts the offer by poking her credit tube into the terminal and tapping in a PIN. Max, of course, pops in to comment. Dom screams at him to quit interfering, but then it gets worse: her program is broken into by nonsense noise and images. It's another attack by "zippers."
The Network 23 board is also watching in the boardroom as the zippers' content flashes on the screen. When Lauren asks how they could be doing this, Ashwell pops in with a boring technical answer... only to have Cheviot cut him off and point out that Lauren meant the more important issue of how could they have gotten through broadcast security. Edwards points out that every time zippers take control, their ratings plummet. Lauren and Ashwell point out the dangers of such sophisticated hacking to personal information, but it takes Edwards to point out the real danger: to their ratings.
Cheviot has already put Bryce Lynch on it, and they conference him in for a status report. After his usual boasting about being the smartest hacker around, he lets them watch as he tracks the break-in signal... to a location that disturbs him. He says it's "a little error" and works frantically. The signal shifts a bit, and he declares the zipper pinpointed. Cheviot calls security to close in.
A Metrocop van pulls up next to Big Time TV's bus and armored Metrocops pour out. As Edison Carter saunters back into Network 23 control, Theora hails him - Blank Dom is on the link. Reg has been arrested for signal zipping. Edison scoffs - "that's way out of his league!" - but is immediately off to MetroJail 42 to help.
The jail is a grim stone building, and we watch a figure get bundled into it, cuffed and covered with a thigh-length body sack. Inside, an elegantly dressed woman and her son use a credit tube to open a video link to her inmate husband. In the next stall, Reg's lawyer is talking to Reg on a link about his "prime offense." Reg denies even being able to zip a network satellite, and claims he's being framed... and when he catches who's doing it, he's going to "unilaterally murder the swine"... which sets off monitoring alarms on the channel.
Carter walks up to the pair just as they are interrupted by a gong and an announcement to "stand for the most highly-rated judge." In a parody of courtroom etiquette, a television is wheeled in, and Reg's lawyer and a prosecutor "approach the bench" and insert their case floppy discs. The judge asks the lawyers for their summaries... and when the prosecutor declares Reg to be a Blank, the judge says the case is beyond his jurisprudence... and with a bang of the gavel, the charges stand and the case is sent to Video Court.
Reg's lawyer begins the Video Court process begins by choosing a court date via a spin of the pointer on a day-of-the-week wheel. It lands on Wednesday... and it's Tuesday, leaving one day to prepare a defense. "I play Grateful Dead on Wednesdays," Reg says mournfully. Carter expresses his complete faith in Reg's innocence and wonders who could have actually done the deed. No one has a clue, but Carter is out to find them. In time.
Back at Network 23 Control, Theora is on the case and has discovered, by burrowing into the temporary files in the "Purge Directory" - the electronic trash bin for the whole network - that Bryce switched the signal tracking. She begins to piece together the scraps of Bryce's work. Meanwhile, Max is concerned that Bryce seems upset about something, and finally asks if it's about switching the coordinates... which he of course observed. Bryce asks if he'll tell... and Max makes a pffft sound. It's all TV to him, and Bryce is a friend.
Theora reconstructs Bryce's work and catches the target switch - to Big Time TV, from... ACS, the Academy of Computer Sciences. Murray, overhearing, declares "That is a story." As he takes a call, Theora and Carter remember that ACS is Bryce's alma mater... and then Murray returns to say he's asked Bryce to go with them, to help ferret out the hackers.
Bryce discusses the horns of his dilemma with Max and asks him to go along (in his travel box), as he's going to need some help. He then sends a text message alerting the "ACS Student Guard": "The spore is in the wind."
They arrive at ACS, which is populated entirely by students about 10 years old, working on extremely esoteric classroom problems. We zoom in on one young student, Nicholas, who confers with classmate Miss Partridge about keeping watch. As Carter and Bryce look at a wall of class photos, Bryce remembers his first day at ACS. It was his tenth birthday.
Theora is following them from her console by tapping into ACS's securicam network - which she can do because she's either "older" or "wiser" than the kids. Carter knocks on the door of Sidney Harding, HeadSysop of ACS. ("Head Sysop. Does it teach, or devour maidens?" he muses - the first of three dragon references.) Edison confronts Harding with the possibility that one of his students is responsible for the zipping. Harding says respects Bryce's ability to track the signal there and remembers him as "an odd boy... who never made contact with his parents after coming there. They were, um... "middle management," he intones meaningfully.
Carter follows Harding to his class and watches as he gives the day's assignment and then introduces Edison Carter - who Miss Partridge notices resembles Max Headroom. Harding tells the class Carter is there to investigate highly illegal signals coming from the school, and admonishes the responsible parties to come to his office - as minors they will not be prosecuted, and as for punishment, "we have our methods" here. Carter wonders if the guilty parties will show up, and Harding assures him that they instill the strongest sense of "morality as a binary absolute" there... but insists on "responsible" party rather than "guilty," as guilt is gray area of no use to genius computer programmers.
Max and Bryce are discussing different viewpoints of college - Bryce's sober and juvenile view vs. Max's memories of Carter's wild years - when Nicholas, Miss Partridge and a third girl student walk in - the "responsible" parties, as Bryce knows. The boys exchange a finger-greeting in binary code, then Nicholas dismisses Max as a primitive attempt. "See-see... seems like a nice boy..." Max comments sourly.
In the Head's office, Harding assumes Bryce was wrong since no one has come forward. Their emphasis on "perfect information" and no "gray areas" means none of their student could be at fault. Carter suggests he may have a dragon in his garden of Eden, and asks to look around... and Harding assents with a chuckle. "Beware the dragon, Mr. Carter..."
Blank Dom visits Reg via jail link again, and Reg is concerned only about his dog Fang, who's off his food. More so than that Big Time TV could go out of business with him gone.
Theora converses with Carter using the securicams as he walks through ACS, and she shows Murray the many cams that the kids have control of, showing the Head sleeping in his office, a gaggle of students smoking in the bathroom... and Bryce talking into a wired (statuary) head to his companions. He gloats that they got away with it, and dismisses Reg's problems as minor discomfort until the justice system (eventually) figures out he couldn't have done it. "You little beast," Theora hisses, and makes a crack about little boys and their games as Bryce slips through a secret door. "What kind of games did you play, Theora?" Carter asks. "Growing up games," she replies. She directs Carter to the secret door. Inside, Bryce and Partridge are concentrating on a console and startled by Carter's sudden appearance. Carter bundles Bryce off to talk.
At the jail, Reg's lawyer is furious that he kept a lengthy criminal record from her, which Reg protests isn't his. Although as a Blank, Reg hasn't been in the system for years, a statistical match has been made with someone's record and the probability match means the network computer is likely to consider it his... meaning he will be convicted by probability in lieu of evidence. His lawyer tells Reg that the penalty for network program zipping... is "terminal."
Theora and Carter confront Bryce over his alteration of the tracking image and try to enlist his help in getting Reg off the hook. He brushes aside the "gray notions" of right and wrong; his defense is that he needed to make a quick decision and protect ACS... even at Reg's expense. He believes Reg will get off the hook once it's demonstrated that he doesn't have the ability to do such a deed. He's willing to help "rearrange the information" for the network court as long as ACS's role remains secret. Theora and Carter are hamstrung, unable to help Reg without being able to use the illegal data of Bryce's tracking switch, and as Network 23 employees, are ineligible to testify in network video court. Carter goes to see Cheviot to see if he can override the court, while Theora fumes that he is ignoring Reg's innocence.
(There seems to be an editing change at this point. Carter's visit to Cheviot should follow this scene, but is not shown until much later, after a number of other events..)
Max does his best to talk Bryce into having a conscience and helping the man he's put in serious harm's way. That he's just t-talking seems to get through better than if he, too, were lecturing Bryce.
At the jail, Theora, Carter and Dom are trying to figure out how Reg can have a criminal profile of convictions he doesn't know about. Reg says it's something called the "Career Capability Malfeasance Program" (which Theora acknowledges as the "CPMP," and it is referred to by that erroneous acronym thereafter) - a program that matches the personality template of a Blank with the crime template of unassigned criminal profiles. If the profile fits, it's assumed to belong to the Blank in question. That there are more criminal profiles than Blanks doesn't seem to bother anyone. It does bother Carter, and he tells Reg that "the last resort of the innocent is always... publicity."
Bryce confronts Nicholas and tells him to flatline the zipping program and tell the HeadSysop. He has as much trouble getting Nicholas to understand as Max did with him, so he leaves with a vow to fix it himself. He now sees how empty and amoral the ACS codes make the students... and made him.
Reg's lawyer has not arrived, and again he loses his temper, threatening to kill her if she's late for his trial... and again the monitoring system sounds an alarm. Reg has had enough; he tears the monitor off the wall.
Theora calls Bryce on a wall-mounted ViewPhone, only to find out the ACS students are refusing to help. Then it gets worse: Reg has drawn the celebrity prosecutor Paul Wade and the highly-rated show "You The Jury," where the audience decides the accused's fate. As Reg puts it, "It's a game show... for my life!"
As Blank Dom and Fang watch from the audience, Network 23's award-winning game show begins: the "TV pirate" defendant, his accusers and his lawyer are introduced, followed by "the guest prosecutor, Channel of Fortune's leading quizmaster, Paul Wade"... and then there's a pause for a commercial for Zik-Zak Soy Muffin Mix... tasteless, colorless and odorless!
(This scene is the one that seems out of place.) Theora, Carter and Murray are pleading with Cheviot on a video link to postpone the court session to allow Carter time to find exonerating evidence, but Cheviot, although furious that an employee is responsible for activities that have lost them hundreds of thousands in ratings, and could lose them the whole Zik-Zak account, refuses to step in and "subvert the network judicial process." Even knowing his own head of R&D is involved only makes him more resolute to protect the network. He's sorry about Blank Reg... but he has to think of the greatest good for the greatest number (the network, that is). Reg will have to depend on his innocence. "Better find Bryce," Carter says. "It's time for kill or cure."
The show returns with the judge taking his place to music and applause. Reg's lawyer fumbles her declaration of Reg's plea, to audience laughs. The prosecutor makes his stirring opening argument, defending the rights of television viewers and shoppers everywhere... defending consumerism itself! We see Edwards and the Network 23 board reacting sympathetically to the argument.
Carter visits Bryce in his lab, and after he is reluctant to speak for the bugs, Bryce cuts off the securicams so they can talk. Bryce is confused and frustrated by his failure to convince Nicholas... he is a "poorly designed system." Carter has to counsel Bryce that life is more than systems analysis. Bryce argues but Carter maintains life is more than logic... it's feelings, too. You can switch your feelings off when they're inconvenient... but every time, it makes you a byte less human. It's all about conscience... and Bryce will need to work that one out. Carter leaves to watch Reg get punished for something he didn't do... and Max pops up to prod Bryce to make a decision, which he does, "I think I need to rewrite my own program."
Back on the show, the audience is turning against Reg, voting so far by a margin of nine to one to "reduce him to component molecules." The prosecutor offers a "life and a day" sentence in return for a guilty plea... but Reg rejects it... he'd make a "very bad prisoner."
Bryce confronts Nicholas and Miss Partridge and makes one final attempt to sway them by logic and reason. It doesn't work... so Bryce tries out this "feeling" thing, and pokes Nicholas' pride instead. He assures them that Reg is guilty and performed the zipping himself... which outrages Nicholas, who knows only someone of his brilliance could have done it. He proves the point to Bryce... by zipping Network 23 again, right in the middle of Reg's show trial, handing the lawyer grounds for dismissal... which the judge grants. Reg is free... and gets an unexpected hug from Dom. ACS has been protected. And Bryce has learned a valuable life lesson.
The party is on at Big Time TV, and everyone is chowing down and drinking in celebration of Reg's release. Max, of course, has the last word about Bryce... the experience will make him no easier to work with.
----
Inside, Blank Reg is rocking out to the program, an 80s-era hard-rock video of "Summertime Blues." Blank Dom objects to the volume, because it's interfering with her attention to the current offer on "Shop & Spree," a smarmy shopping program on Network 23. She gleefully accepts the offer by poking her credit tube into the terminal and tapping in a PIN. Max, of course, pops in to comment. Dom screams at him to quit interfering, but then it gets worse: her program is broken into by nonsense noise and images. It's another attack by "zippers."
The Network 23 board is also watching in the boardroom as the zippers' content flashes on the screen. When Lauren asks how they could be doing this, Ashwell pops in with a boring technical answer... only to have Cheviot cut him off and point out that Lauren meant the more important issue of how could they have gotten through broadcast security. Edwards points out that every time zippers take control, their ratings plummet. Lauren and Ashwell point out the dangers of such sophisticated hacking to personal information, but it takes Edwards to point out the real danger: to their ratings.
Cheviot has already put Bryce Lynch on it, and they conference him in for a status report. After his usual boasting about being the smartest hacker around, he lets them watch as he tracks the break-in signal... to a location that disturbs him. He says it's "a little error" and works frantically. The signal shifts a bit, and he declares the zipper pinpointed. Cheviot calls security to close in.
A Metrocop van pulls up next to Big Time TV's bus and armored Metrocops pour out. As Edison Carter saunters back into Network 23 control, Theora hails him - Blank Dom is on the link. Reg has been arrested for signal zipping. Edison scoffs - "that's way out of his league!" - but is immediately off to MetroJail 42 to help.
The jail is a grim stone building, and we watch a figure get bundled into it, cuffed and covered with a thigh-length body sack. Inside, an elegantly dressed woman and her son use a credit tube to open a video link to her inmate husband. In the next stall, Reg's lawyer is talking to Reg on a link about his "prime offense." Reg denies even being able to zip a network satellite, and claims he's being framed... and when he catches who's doing it, he's going to "unilaterally murder the swine"... which sets off monitoring alarms on the channel.
Carter walks up to the pair just as they are interrupted by a gong and an announcement to "stand for the most highly-rated judge." In a parody of courtroom etiquette, a television is wheeled in, and Reg's lawyer and a prosecutor "approach the bench" and insert their case floppy discs. The judge asks the lawyers for their summaries... and when the prosecutor declares Reg to be a Blank, the judge says the case is beyond his jurisprudence... and with a bang of the gavel, the charges stand and the case is sent to Video Court.
Reg's lawyer begins the Video Court process begins by choosing a court date via a spin of the pointer on a day-of-the-week wheel. It lands on Wednesday... and it's Tuesday, leaving one day to prepare a defense. "I play Grateful Dead on Wednesdays," Reg says mournfully. Carter expresses his complete faith in Reg's innocence and wonders who could have actually done the deed. No one has a clue, but Carter is out to find them. In time.
Back at Network 23 Control, Theora is on the case and has discovered, by burrowing into the temporary files in the "Purge Directory" - the electronic trash bin for the whole network - that Bryce switched the signal tracking. She begins to piece together the scraps of Bryce's work. Meanwhile, Max is concerned that Bryce seems upset about something, and finally asks if it's about switching the coordinates... which he of course observed. Bryce asks if he'll tell... and Max makes a pffft sound. It's all TV to him, and Bryce is a friend.
Theora reconstructs Bryce's work and catches the target switch - to Big Time TV, from... ACS, the Academy of Computer Sciences. Murray, overhearing, declares "That is a story." As he takes a call, Theora and Carter remember that ACS is Bryce's alma mater... and then Murray returns to say he's asked Bryce to go with them, to help ferret out the hackers.
Bryce discusses the horns of his dilemma with Max and asks him to go along (in his travel box), as he's going to need some help. He then sends a text message alerting the "ACS Student Guard": "The spore is in the wind."
They arrive at ACS, which is populated entirely by students about 10 years old, working on extremely esoteric classroom problems. We zoom in on one young student, Nicholas, who confers with classmate Miss Partridge about keeping watch. As Carter and Bryce look at a wall of class photos, Bryce remembers his first day at ACS. It was his tenth birthday.
Theora is following them from her console by tapping into ACS's securicam network - which she can do because she's either "older" or "wiser" than the kids. Carter knocks on the door of Sidney Harding, HeadSysop of ACS. ("Head Sysop. Does it teach, or devour maidens?" he muses - the first of three dragon references.) Edison confronts Harding with the possibility that one of his students is responsible for the zipping. Harding says respects Bryce's ability to track the signal there and remembers him as "an odd boy... who never made contact with his parents after coming there. They were, um... "middle management," he intones meaningfully.
Carter follows Harding to his class and watches as he gives the day's assignment and then introduces Edison Carter - who Miss Partridge notices resembles Max Headroom. Harding tells the class Carter is there to investigate highly illegal signals coming from the school, and admonishes the responsible parties to come to his office - as minors they will not be prosecuted, and as for punishment, "we have our methods" here. Carter wonders if the guilty parties will show up, and Harding assures him that they instill the strongest sense of "morality as a binary absolute" there... but insists on "responsible" party rather than "guilty," as guilt is gray area of no use to genius computer programmers.
Max and Bryce are discussing different viewpoints of college - Bryce's sober and juvenile view vs. Max's memories of Carter's wild years - when Nicholas, Miss Partridge and a third girl student walk in - the "responsible" parties, as Bryce knows. The boys exchange a finger-greeting in binary code, then Nicholas dismisses Max as a primitive attempt. "See-see... seems like a nice boy..." Max comments sourly.
In the Head's office, Harding assumes Bryce was wrong since no one has come forward. Their emphasis on "perfect information" and no "gray areas" means none of their student could be at fault. Carter suggests he may have a dragon in his garden of Eden, and asks to look around... and Harding assents with a chuckle. "Beware the dragon, Mr. Carter..."
Blank Dom visits Reg via jail link again, and Reg is concerned only about his dog Fang, who's off his food. More so than that Big Time TV could go out of business with him gone.
Theora converses with Carter using the securicams as he walks through ACS, and she shows Murray the many cams that the kids have control of, showing the Head sleeping in his office, a gaggle of students smoking in the bathroom... and Bryce talking into a wired (statuary) head to his companions. He gloats that they got away with it, and dismisses Reg's problems as minor discomfort until the justice system (eventually) figures out he couldn't have done it. "You little beast," Theora hisses, and makes a crack about little boys and their games as Bryce slips through a secret door. "What kind of games did you play, Theora?" Carter asks. "Growing up games," she replies. She directs Carter to the secret door. Inside, Bryce and Partridge are concentrating on a console and startled by Carter's sudden appearance. Carter bundles Bryce off to talk.
At the jail, Reg's lawyer is furious that he kept a lengthy criminal record from her, which Reg protests isn't his. Although as a Blank, Reg hasn't been in the system for years, a statistical match has been made with someone's record and the probability match means the network computer is likely to consider it his... meaning he will be convicted by probability in lieu of evidence. His lawyer tells Reg that the penalty for network program zipping... is "terminal."
Theora and Carter confront Bryce over his alteration of the tracking image and try to enlist his help in getting Reg off the hook. He brushes aside the "gray notions" of right and wrong; his defense is that he needed to make a quick decision and protect ACS... even at Reg's expense. He believes Reg will get off the hook once it's demonstrated that he doesn't have the ability to do such a deed. He's willing to help "rearrange the information" for the network court as long as ACS's role remains secret. Theora and Carter are hamstrung, unable to help Reg without being able to use the illegal data of Bryce's tracking switch, and as Network 23 employees, are ineligible to testify in network video court. Carter goes to see Cheviot to see if he can override the court, while Theora fumes that he is ignoring Reg's innocence.
(There seems to be an editing change at this point. Carter's visit to Cheviot should follow this scene, but is not shown until much later, after a number of other events..)
Max does his best to talk Bryce into having a conscience and helping the man he's put in serious harm's way. That he's just t-talking seems to get through better than if he, too, were lecturing Bryce.
At the jail, Theora, Carter and Dom are trying to figure out how Reg can have a criminal profile of convictions he doesn't know about. Reg says it's something called the "Career Capability Malfeasance Program" (which Theora acknowledges as the "CPMP," and it is referred to by that erroneous acronym thereafter) - a program that matches the personality template of a Blank with the crime template of unassigned criminal profiles. If the profile fits, it's assumed to belong to the Blank in question. That there are more criminal profiles than Blanks doesn't seem to bother anyone. It does bother Carter, and he tells Reg that "the last resort of the innocent is always... publicity."
Bryce confronts Nicholas and tells him to flatline the zipping program and tell the HeadSysop. He has as much trouble getting Nicholas to understand as Max did with him, so he leaves with a vow to fix it himself. He now sees how empty and amoral the ACS codes make the students... and made him.
Reg's lawyer has not arrived, and again he loses his temper, threatening to kill her if she's late for his trial... and again the monitoring system sounds an alarm. Reg has had enough; he tears the monitor off the wall.
Theora calls Bryce on a wall-mounted ViewPhone, only to find out the ACS students are refusing to help. Then it gets worse: Reg has drawn the celebrity prosecutor Paul Wade and the highly-rated show "You The Jury," where the audience decides the accused's fate. As Reg puts it, "It's a game show... for my life!"
As Blank Dom and Fang watch from the audience, Network 23's award-winning game show begins: the "TV pirate" defendant, his accusers and his lawyer are introduced, followed by "the guest prosecutor, Channel of Fortune's leading quizmaster, Paul Wade"... and then there's a pause for a commercial for Zik-Zak Soy Muffin Mix... tasteless, colorless and odorless!
(This scene is the one that seems out of place.) Theora, Carter and Murray are pleading with Cheviot on a video link to postpone the court session to allow Carter time to find exonerating evidence, but Cheviot, although furious that an employee is responsible for activities that have lost them hundreds of thousands in ratings, and could lose them the whole Zik-Zak account, refuses to step in and "subvert the network judicial process." Even knowing his own head of R&D is involved only makes him more resolute to protect the network. He's sorry about Blank Reg... but he has to think of the greatest good for the greatest number (the network, that is). Reg will have to depend on his innocence. "Better find Bryce," Carter says. "It's time for kill or cure."
The show returns with the judge taking his place to music and applause. Reg's lawyer fumbles her declaration of Reg's plea, to audience laughs. The prosecutor makes his stirring opening argument, defending the rights of television viewers and shoppers everywhere... defending consumerism itself! We see Edwards and the Network 23 board reacting sympathetically to the argument.
Carter visits Bryce in his lab, and after he is reluctant to speak for the bugs, Bryce cuts off the securicams so they can talk. Bryce is confused and frustrated by his failure to convince Nicholas... he is a "poorly designed system." Carter has to counsel Bryce that life is more than systems analysis. Bryce argues but Carter maintains life is more than logic... it's feelings, too. You can switch your feelings off when they're inconvenient... but every time, it makes you a byte less human. It's all about conscience... and Bryce will need to work that one out. Carter leaves to watch Reg get punished for something he didn't do... and Max pops up to prod Bryce to make a decision, which he does, "I think I need to rewrite my own program."
Back on the show, the audience is turning against Reg, voting so far by a margin of nine to one to "reduce him to component molecules." The prosecutor offers a "life and a day" sentence in return for a guilty plea... but Reg rejects it... he'd make a "very bad prisoner."
Bryce confronts Nicholas and Miss Partridge and makes one final attempt to sway them by logic and reason. It doesn't work... so Bryce tries out this "feeling" thing, and pokes Nicholas' pride instead. He assures them that Reg is guilty and performed the zipping himself... which outrages Nicholas, who knows only someone of his brilliance could have done it. He proves the point to Bryce... by zipping Network 23 again, right in the middle of Reg's show trial, handing the lawyer grounds for dismissal... which the judge grants. Reg is free... and gets an unexpected hug from Dom. ACS has been protected. And Bryce has learned a valuable life lesson.
The party is on at Big Time TV, and everyone is chowing down and drinking in celebration of Reg's release. Max, of course, has the last word about Bryce... the experience will make him no easier to work with.
----
