Clearly Not Enough Numbers In That Phone – Chapter 8, Act 2, Strip 80

Well, you can’t deny that that guy has experience, and that’s really all that Latho has claimed for him.

Latho didn’t say it’d call anyone competent…or popular…or someone who isn’t a mere afterthought retroactively squeezed into already extant footage to waste time and provide (largely unnecessary) exposition. Latho only said ‘experienced’. >_>

The robotic guy in question answers to the intriguing name of 8-Dork-8 in this plot, and is an obvious homage…of sorts…to 7-Zark-7, the robotic character from Battle of the Planets. Because…well, we’ve got a homage to Tetsujin, right? And I have this highly conflicted relationship to nostalgia in principle…so to counter Tetsujin’s presence, I felt I needed to include something to make the point that the good old times weren’t actually all that good at times. >_> And 7-Zark-7 seemed perfect to make that point – I mean, how do you manage to create a robotic character which is unpopular with children in 1978, just one year after the release of Star Wars? That takes either a small bit of “I am evil”, a moderate amount of “I don’t know what I’m doing” or a mid-sized mountain of “I just don’t care enough”. I suspect the latter, but come to your own conclusions.

Anyway, so here’s 8-Dork-8…let’s wait and see what he’ll be able to do for Latho. If I was in Latho’s place, I wouldn’t expect too much…>_>

More on Thursday.

2 Replies to “Clearly Not Enough Numbers In That Phone – Chapter 8, Act 2, Strip 80”

  1. If the “B” in “B-Movie” stood for anything, it’d be, “Beggars can’t be choosers.” You don’t write the plot with something in mind, you use what you’ve got and write the plot around that. Someone left a prop in the studio you’re renting? You’ve got your movie’s McGuffin! Found an abandoned car that won’t run? Add a few touchups and you’ve got the protagonist’s vehicle! Discarded cups on the lawn of a keg party? Scenery additions or prop enhancements (with a little tape of course)!

    So when you’re in Latho’s (admittedly missing) shoes, you take what you can get and you just make something up to justify its plot relevance. That’s the real magic of the B-movie: Seeing just how far you can stretch the audience’s willing suspension of disbelief before hitting the breaking point.

    1. Yeah, that’s true – the recycling of props is a hallowed tradition of B-movies, just like the recycling of plots, characters, sets, dialogue and just about anything else you can think of. But still, there are different levels…just taking the old 7-Zark-7 prop and re-using it like that is kinda cheap, even by B-movie standards. The least effort they could have expended would have been a new, different paintjob…or a pair of Groucho glasses, or something similar. Just to give some plausible deniability to it being the very same thing. XD
      (Fun fact: When I created the 3D-Model of 8-Dork-8, I tried to remain true to the small (and sometimes contradictory) amount of references I could find for 7-Zark-7…only to realize later that it would actually have been better to do a repaint or other superficial change, in view of the above-mentioned B-movie standard. XD)

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