While the TP themes in "Quality" go back through the history of SF,
including the Demolished Man, among others, the basic storyline (re:
Talia) came out of the pilot. At the time, I was asked -- frequently --
"Why didn't Lyta scan Sinclair to determine if he had tried to kill
Kosh?" My answer then -- which is in some of the archives -- was that
it would violate the right to due process, that a defendant cannot be
scanned to determine guilt or innocence (in fact, I recall a rather
heated debate about that here a while back). I promised that this would
be elaborated upon down the road, and mentally logged in to do a show
with that premise...and I'd already decided about the death penalty, and
the use of telepaths in it. So "Quality" came out of that, long before
"Mephisto" was even written. At one point, knowing that there were some
common story areas, I called Harlan to tell him the "Quality" story, so
that if there were any problems, I could revise it, but he said he saw
no problem.
jms |
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