Thorough investigation of the mysterious eg…uh, meteorite continues, and valuable new information is gleaned: The meteorite does not pay enough attention to traffic.

Not very surprising, as Biff correctly observes, but that just how science works: you should not just assume even the very likely, if you can test for it and make sure. After all, had the meteorite displayed any sort of capability to avoid the on-rushing car, that would have opened the door to a quite fundamental reassessment – so the team would have been very remiss in not conducting this test. Plus, crash tests are always fun, producing loud sounds and massive damage – and those are key factors in nurturing scientific curiosity in general, aren’t they?

Mopey, in the meantime, directs our attention to the oft-overlooked problem of insurance rates. Not only B-movies, but movies in general, have a general tendency to gloss over this important factor. After all, it’s one thing to figure out a way to save the world, and that’s the aspect that movies tend to concentrate on…but a separate, and just as important question, is whether you can actually afford to do it. In reality, that tends to be the bigger problem, and insurance companies play a big part here.

I can’t tell you, of course, why that aspect is stressed here in this script – but perhaps the scriptwriter just had had trouble with his car insurance, or Nolan was miffed because the production insurance company had somehow found about Lee Douglas, and what and how much he had been made to do in the course of producing these movies. That alone would be enough to double or triple the premiums on the production insurance – the sheer amount of stuff that Lee is doing puts the lie to Nolan’s assurances that he’s “essentially worthless” and could be easily replaced. Not even a written affidavit to the very same effect, signed by Lee himself, could convince them – since the insurance company had understood, by that time, that Lee was willing to do just about anything, anyway…

More on Thursday.