Quote:


Buahahahahahahahahahaha!


Thanks, I needed that.


 

It's an old Irish saying. 

Back to the topic at hand (sort of):

In going over the various rules and regulations and such (and uncovering booboos from long ago) it occurred to me that the medal array and uniform in Identified may not have been as wrong as many of us have assumed for so long.

Identified was the pilot and Anderson and the crew would have taken great pains to get things looking right. The original concept of Straker (according to various sources, notably interviews with Bishop) was a desk-jockey – the irritable guy giving orders from his underground office. It was only after Bishop had been in the role for a bit, and there were some cast and character changes, that Straker was expanded into a major character. So the character as originally conceived may well have been meant to be an older man.

It's not like Bishop couldn't have handled it. And Straker's blondness would certainly hide any white coming in.

And according to some sources, Jackson's birth year was the same as Vladek Sheybal's - they simply grayed his hair a bit to make him look older.

Now the ribbon array on Straker’s uniform in Identified is pretty close to correct for an acting officer of 40 or so. The few placement issues on the ribbons can easily be explained by the costume department getting their info from a source that wasn’t as accurate as it could have been - or even just being in a hurry.

But one key that the array may not have been a complete mistake is that the Master Pilot’s Wings badge goes perfectly with the rest of that array. That particular pilot's badge requires 15 years as a rated US military pilot. (I doubt being a private pilot in high school would have counted for much except to smooth the way into pilot's school. But I could be wrong.) So that means at least 16 years as a commissioned officer with 15 of that as an officer with flying duties.

Now, the Man Who Came Back was written and filmed much later - in the second set of filming. By this time Straker had definitely gone from desk-jockey to 'action hero'.  And this is the first time we hear that Straker was actually an astronaut rather than an intelligence officer with a flight rating and two years at MIT. (And the stint at MIT may well have been a feasibility study for building Moonbases for all we really know.)

So putting Straker as an astronaut after 1970 makes everything fit.

Of course the array in Confetti Check is a complete fubar, but considering how hard it was to even get a frame cap, I seriously doubt it even crossed their minds that somebody might compare it to the one in Identified.

Thoughts  :

I'm tending toward viewing the whole astronaut thing as a late addon since he wasn't wearing the astronaut's wings in the pilot - unless you assume the Missileman badge was meant to represent an astronaut corps badge. The astronaut badge might have been new enough that Anderson's people couldn't get one, or didn't think it mattered.

Just put up the new revised older history for Straker at http://www.shadolibrary.org/ops/straker/indexc.shtml

Like you, my stories will still use the younger version, but the older version is closer to what we can identify on screen. (No matter what other people say.) 

UFO had the same issue on its first runs in the US - we didn't hear Bishop's voice in its 'normal' tones until it was released on LaserDisc.

The US militaries really stiffened up the promotion rules after WWII. Time in Grade and required schooling became VERY strict. Plus, promotions after O5 are highly political - those are pretty rarified positions. I don't see Straker as being willing or able to play the political games needed for that level.

Medical specialists are a highly educated and highly valuable group. Having them come at a rank appropriate to their age and years of education makes sense.