S07.E05: Singapore

[Athena]

Quote

At Ticonderoga, Jamie and Claire prepare for an imminent British assault. Roger compiles information about time travel while Brianna earns the respect of her coworkers.

Reminder: This is the No Book Talk topic. No discussion of the books is allowed including saying "in the books..." Posts may be removed without warning.

[Hanahope]

So Ian's Mohawk wife got pregnant while with both men and with pressure from her mother, determined it had to be the other man who impregnated her and not Ian.  must have been quite a shock when her son was born. 

Ah yes, Claire fighting again against male chauvinism/sexism in medicine.  fortunately she has a better educated ally now in the medical tent.  And Bree confronts it in the 1980s engineering.  

i was sure Bree was walking through some other time travel portal in the tunnel.  or maybe she was, but since she didn't have a gem on her, she didn't teleport.  i mean, what else could that have been?

Yup, of course Jamie foresaw how the British would attack.  too bad they didn't listen to him.  i thought we'd have more than one episode at the fort, but that year went by quick.  I guess Jamie and Claire are writing these letters and taking them with them when they move on.  

 

 

[Lola82]

I know I should post something insightful about the episode but all I could think was “No underwear in corduroy pants? Eek!”

[iMonrey]

There were no scenes of Roger compiling info about time travel so I don't know why that's in the episode description. He did that last week.

How realistic is it that Ian is walking around Fort Ticonderoga in full Mohawk hair and costume? Nobody seems to bat an eye.

Didn't Ian leave the Mohawks because his wife got with another man since their kid died? Now he knows she actually had his kid. Doesn't he want to go back to them? Why was he forced out in the first place if he was able to father children with his wife?

Edited July 14, 2023 by iMonrey

[mythoughtis]

Ian was always able to father children.  Their daughter died after birth or was stillborn, or miscarried.  He was obviously able to get his wife pregnant a second time since the son looks just like him.  The son appears healthy.   The mom just said the death was due to Ian.  She obviously knows better now. 

It’s been several years now since Bree and Roger  received the trunk full of letters.  They haven’t gotten past 1777. Which is one of the earlier letters.  What are they waiting for -their own old age? 

Roger is going to take a look outside in the dark to spot an intruder.  He leaves the front door wide open.  Stands around for 30 seconds, doesn’t even look on the sides of the house  and goes inside.   Yeah that accomplished a lot.  
 

 

 

 

[BitterApple]

I'm curious to see who's been hanging around Lallybroch. As mentioned above, I also thought that weird mirage in the tunnel was some sort of portal. It reminded me of the one in Jamaica. 

I know there's been mixed feelings on the Quaker duo, but I like them. It's nice to see some pleasant characters after the Christies were such a miserable lot. Also nice to see Claire finally working with an 18th century physician who isn't a total ass. I did feel bad for the amputee. Things were finally looking up for the poor guy, and then he gets abandoned. 

It seems like they're moving through the war pretty swiftly but not showing a lot of action. Maybe that'll come in later episodes or maybe they just didn't have the budget for large battle scenes. 

 

[Athena]

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

How realistic is it that Ian is walking around Fort Ticonderoga in full Mohawk hair and costume? Nobody seems to bat an eye.

Mohawks and a few Iroquois tribes were aligned with the British during the Revolutionary War.  The Mohawks had a long established relationship with the British in North America so and they were frequent visitors in towns and forts. Ian being a Mohawk and European by birth is less common, but Mohawks had an adoption culture. The Métis indigenous people are descended from mixed Europeans and Indigenous people and they were becoming more a known group in the era of the show. It wouldn't be unusual to see mixed indigenous folk in BNA.

[ch1]

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Didn't Ian leave the Mohawks because his wife got with another man since their kid died? Now he knows she actually had his kid. Doesn't he want to go back to them? Why was he forced out in the first place if he was able to father children with his wife?

I’m confused too.  

So what is Roger’s deal?  He has zero desire to get a job? How are they living in a freaking castle with just Bree working?  I get they had savings but that seems to be a bottomless pit of money.

Random observation - the actor playing the general is beyond terrible. 

[DoctorAtomic]

11 hours ago, Hanahope said:

i was sure Bree was walking through some other time travel portal in the tunnel.  or maybe she was, but since she didn't have a gem on her, she didn't teleport.  i mean, what else could that have been?

I didn't quite get what was going on there, but her 'hearing' something was a tip off. I don't know what else it could have been either.

11 hours ago, Hanahope said:

Yup, of course Jamie foresaw how the British would attack.

Any idiot could see how they could attack. It was the arrogance of the French guy to dismiss that they would be able to drag ordinance up there, and when Jamie threw it in his face, he just doubled down. He knew Jamie was right. 

My post got eaten, but I was commenting on how Jamie being only a colonel was largely plot because he could have easily convinced the general about the tactical advantage of the hill. One would think having a Scot on the rebel side, you'd want to take advantage of that intelligence. However, the show has been consistent that you can't change anything, so ok. 

I was appalled Young Ian didn't think he was good enough or something was wrong with him. I thought they had a daughter stillborn, no? So Young Ian still got busy, and then was drummed out? 

3 hours ago, BitterApple said:

I know there's been mixed feelings on the Quaker duo, but I like them. It's nice to see some pleasant characters after the Christies were such a miserable lot.

It's a weird brother/sister vibe, but they certainly aren't the Christies. The brother seems to be a legitimately trained doctor. I didn't think the officer actually was since he overlooked the artery problem. 

 

[HerkyJerky]

I’m not gonna be able to get to sleep tonight, because I’ll be having nightmares after seeing that rat stew!

[Glade]

The opening/ending scenes at the Lallybroch cemetery were so powerful. They have no way of knowing, outside of finding some further historical record, what the ultimate fates of Jaimie and Claire may be, but there are other ghosts there, Bri met old Ian for instance... It was interesting that Bri discovered a cave portal like the one Geillis tried to use to travel in order to kill her...but we already know Geillis didn't even think it was possible to go back until she saw Claire return, so a younger Geillis can't be the knucklevalee, and eating potato chips in the woods isn't St. Germain's style either.   I hope Jemmy gets pulled out of that horrible school...Roger has the qualifications to tutor him at home.

I saw that trap coming a mile away, and William is much, much less savvy than he thinks for not spotting it.  I can imagine what the stew smelled like...and they had a cabinet full of stolen jewels but stayed there boiling rats? Ugh.  But I loved seeing Ian happy, his son survived and I feel more certain that he and Rachel will be together, not Rachel and William.  

Claire saying goodbye to her amputee patient gave me a flashback to Charity Hospital...that stupid general should be the one paying the price for his own arrogance. 

[Quickbeam]

I’m no Sophie fan but she was fine in this episode. Enjoyed Claire with her patient. My people were early Quakers in the US and the portrayal is quite accurate. So thank you Gabaldon. 

[nara]

Good for Brianna for besting those jerks of colleagues and putting them in the Eid place. That one guy who wouldn’t drink with her will be a problem.

Rachel is a bit of a flirt— Ian and William!

Brianna and Roger are idiots for not immediately reading all the letters.

That creepy tunnel is clearly how the guy hanging around Lallybroch came through time. No idea who it could be, though.
 

little Ian James is a cutie! We now have a target for Bug.

[Lola82]

It’s driving me crazy that they haven’t read all the letters. And now Bree encountered some kind of portal but doesn’t even mention it to Roger? Their lack of inquisitiveness is astounding. 
 

[DoctorAtomic]

9 hours ago, Glade said:

stupid general should be the one paying the price for his own arrogance. 

It wasn't the general. It was his XO. The general should have been informed about the risk, but Jamie said he didn't want to go over the XO's head. The general is administering the fort; he would be delegating to others for different teams like defense, etc. 

 

2 hours ago, Lola82 said:

It’s driving me crazy that they haven’t read all the letters. And now Bree encountered some kind of portal but doesn’t even mention it to Roger? Their lack of inquisitiveness is astounding. I get she was pissed off, but maybe later she'd be, "Oh, Roger, get what else happened in the tunnel." 

 

As much as I like the show, this drives me up the wall. These are all supposedly smart people. 

Also, they found the death certificate, which prompted them to go back, you'd think they would do some more digging to find more information. Roger has time to go to the library. 

[Lola82]

1 hour ago, DoctorAtomic said:

 

Also, they found the death certificate, which prompted them to go back, you'd think they would do some more digging to find more information. Roger has time to go to the library. 

Roger wanted to start looking through his books and Bree stopped him saying she doesn’t want to know. She’s the worst.

[GHScorpiosRule]

The way Bree and Roger have been behaving, you’d think they had never gone time traveling or even believed in the concept! 

Bree continues to be the worst, indeed. In both time periods.

[andidante]

11 hours ago, Glade said:

Claire saying goodbye to her amputee patient gave me a flashback to Charity Hospital...that stupid general should be the one paying the price for his own arrogance. 

All I kept thinking as she left him was: he is going to drink that whole bottle of medicine and end it all! Just the way he was looking at it.

[DoctorAtomic]

1 hour ago, Lola82 said:

Roger wanted to start looking through his books and Bree stopped him saying she doesn’t want to know. She’s the worst.

Right. I was speaking to the larger context that they're just not having these conversations. On the same vein, I'd probably be hunting around a lot more if someone was squatting on my property and littering. 

I mean, sure, we don't want to just see them all sitting around and talking, but you'd think it would come up more. 

Bree is also at work all day. Roger could pop off to the library for a few hours. 

I like the idea of Roger homeschooling the kids, but I also was thinking they wanted the boy to make friends after being in the past. 

[Hanahope]

Could someone recap what Jem was telling Roger about what happened at school?  I lost it in the accents.  All i got was Jem was punished because he spoke Gaellic and was a papist.  

 

[DoctorAtomic]

I think he was being hazed because he's essentially from 1775. 

[Noneofyourbusiness]

Given that Ian said his being informed he had to leave the Mohawk happened very suddenly one day, and that Emily's grandmother told him he needed to return to his people for his spirit to be whole, I'd venture he was told to leave because Emily was pregnant with his child and they hoped returning to his people would strengthen his spirit so that the child would be born healthy. (Incidentally, Swiftest of Lizards was their third pregnancy, not their second)

22 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

It's a weird brother/sister vibe, but they certainly aren't the Christies. The brother seems to be a legitimately trained doctor. I didn't think the officer actually was since he overlooked the artery problem.

Yes, Claire mentioned in the beginning of her letter that the lieutenant was not a qualified doctor, and Denzel later said he (Denzel) was the one there who had a degree in a medicine. So he was just an officer with pretensions of surgeonhood.

7 hours ago, Lola82 said:

Roger wanted to start looking through his books and Bree stopped him saying she doesn’t want to know. She’s the worst.

And it didn't much sense in this case. She said maybe they didn't want to know how Fort Ticonderoga turned out, but obviously the Frasers survived in order to get to Scotland and leave the box with the bank.

4 hours ago, Hanahope said:

Could someone recap what Jem was telling Roger about what happened at school?  I lost it in the accents.  All i got was Jem was punished because he spoke Gaellic and was a papist. 

Another boy said that Jemmy, Mandy and Bree were going to burn in Hell for being Catholics, and Jemmy said, "See you there" like Roger had taught him. He said it in Gaelic, so his teacher said, "We speak English in this classroom" and shook him and called the headmaster, who gave him the belt on the hand three times. Apparently, the stigma from when the English made Gaelic illegal remains.

My Dad got the belt on two occasions as a Scottish schoolboy, but not for speaking Gaelic, and it was the 1940s.

Edited July 16, 2023 by Noneofyourbusiness

[Noneofyourbusiness]

On 7/14/2023 at 7:12 PM, mythoughtis said:

Roger is going to take a look outside in the dark to spot an intruder.  He leaves the front door wide open.  Stands around for 30 seconds, doesn’t even look on the sides of the house  and goes inside.   Yeah that accomplished a lot. 

I would've checked the bushes. I went much farther the two times I searched for our cat when we couldn't find her inside the house (but she was somewhere in the house, hiding).

Edited July 16, 2023 by Noneofyourbusiness

[iMonrey]

14 hours ago, Noneofyourbusiness said:

Given that Ian said his being informed he had to leave the Mohawk happened very suddenly one day, and that Emily's grandmother told him he needed to return to his people for his spirit to be whole, I'd venture he was told to leave because Emily was pregnant with his child and they hoped returning to his people would strengthen his spirit so that the child would be born healthy.

I still don't understand why Ian isn't seriously pissed off finding out he had a son he didn't know about and being fooled into thinking he had to leave his wife so she could find happiness and have a child with another man. At this point I don't see what prevents him from going back to her, aside from her being married (?) to another man. Which is another reason he should be seriously pissed off.

[Cosmocrush]

7 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I still don't understand why Ian isn't seriously pissed off finding out he had a son he didn't know about and being fooled into thinking he had to leave his wife so she could find happiness and have a child with another man. At this point I don't see what prevents him from going back to her, aside from her being married (?) to another man. Which is another reason he should be seriously pissed off.

It’s been 5-6+ years judging by the age of the boy.  She’s made a family with her now husband who must know his son’s biology isn’t his. 

Much like Jamie, he is leaving it as is for the sake of his son.  I liked that all seemed happy to keep the status quo.  Even if Ian isn’t exactly happy, he is relieved to find out he can reproduce which to his mind means he can let himself love another woman.

 

[ch1]

23 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I still don't understand why Ian isn't seriously pissed off finding out he had a son he didn't know about and being fooled into thinking he had to leave his wife so she could find happiness and have a child with another man. At this point I don't see what prevents him from going back to her, aside from her being married (?) to another man. Which is another reason he should be seriously pissed off.

I agree with this.  I can see eventually accepting it but the guy is allowed to be angry for a couple of minutes.   

[Noneofyourbusiness]

1 hour ago, Cosmocrush said:

It’s been 5-6+ years judging by the age of the boy.  She’s made a family with her now husband who must know his son’s biology isn’t his.

And they have a baby daughter, now.

1 hour ago, ch1 said:

I agree with this.  I can see eventually accepting it but the guy is allowed to be angry for a couple of minutes.   

He already was angry last season in "The Hour of the Wolf" for most of the episode and resolved it with Kaheroton. He's over it by now. At least the anger stage. Not the sadness stage, as Emily noted. At least until he saw Swiftest of Lizards. Just knowing the child exists is a silver lining for Ian. He seems to have had catharsis and now be more ready to begin the next chapter of his life, ex. with Rachel.

Edited July 16, 2023 by Noneofyourbusiness

[sas616]

51 minutes ago, Noneofyourbusiness said:

And they have a baby daughter, now.

He already was angry last season in "The Hour of the Wolf" for most of the episode and resolved it with Kaheroton. He's over it by now. At least the anger stage. Not the sadness stage, as Emily noted. At least until he saw Swiftest of Lizards. Just knowing the child exists is a silver lining for Ian. He seems to have had catharsis and now be more ready to begin the next chapter of his life, ex. with Rachel.

And now Kaheroton asking Ian to take care of Emily and "his son" if he died in the duel makes sense.  He had to know Swiftest of Lizards wasn't his child.

[zoey1996]

On 7/14/2023 at 6:12 PM, mythoughtis said:

Roger is going to take a look outside in the dark to spot an intruder.  He leaves the front door wide open.  Stands around for 30 seconds, doesn’t even look on the sides of the house  and goes inside.   Yeah that accomplished a lot.  
 

 

16 hours ago, Noneofyourbusiness said:

I would've checked the bushes. I went much farther the two times I searched for our cat when we couldn't find her inside the house (but she was somewhere in the house, hiding).

I was expecting to see a shadow against the curtains in the brightly lit caravan that they lived in while starting the castle repairs. So if they are no longer living there, why was it brightly lit? And why didn't Roger check inside to see if anything was there? That made no sense.

Pretty sure there's a portal at the dam due to the sounds Bree heard. Will that be a development later?

That attack at the shack made me think of the Kansas "Bloody Benders" murders. The rodent stew was sickening!

Auntie Claire was so kind with Young Ian.

[Cosmocrush]

7 minutes ago, zoey1996 said:

I was expecting to see a shadow against the curtains in the brightly lit caravan that they lived in while starting the castle repairs. So if they are no longer living there, why was it brightly lit? And why didn't Roger check inside to see if anything was there? That made no sense.

I was thinking they were still sleeping in the trailer since the bedrooms weren’t finished but after reading here I guess they are not.

I thought when Roger told Bree the kids were watching the Telly a they “had 15 minutes” to fool around  they were in the caravan.  

Either way, I agree he didn’t do a very good search.

[Hanahope]

Was there another timetraveler from the 1700s we know about that was still alive who could be the knucklevee?  We know Wendigo died.  maybe there was another native american who had timetravelled back and recognizes Roger from when he was with the Mohawk for a time?  buy how would that person know to go to Scotland?  i don't think either Roger or Bree were in 1700s Scotland all that long that someone who time travelled there would recognize them.  

Roger knew Gaellic before he went back to the 1700s, right?  how did he learn?  if he knew not to speak Gaellic in school, wouldn't he have told that to Jem?

 

[DoctorAtomic]

Is Wendigo the traveler who asked Claire who Ringo Starr was? I think he's the latest one that we've met, and he's not in Scotland. 

 

[Cosmocrush]

17 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

Is Wendigo the traveler who asked Claire who Ringo Starr was? I think he's the latest one that we've met, and he's not in Scotland. 

 

Plus, I thought he died. ???

[DoctorAtomic]

Did they show him actually die? You know how tv is. 

[greekmom]

I had issues with this episode.

Did they still used corporal punishment in school in the early 80s? Because I went to school during that time (Canadian here) and there is no freaking way a teacher would have given me the ruler or pulled my ear.

I am surprised Bree didn't think she would meet some resistance in her choice of work. I would imagine there were not many women in the engineering program at the university despite it being in the States. It was still the 70s when Bree went. Even RBG had issues during the same time period and she was in law not engineering.

If Wahionhaweh's husband wants to lie to himself about Swiftest Lizard being his, then he is truly lying to himself.  I found the whole thing with Ian going back heartbreaking because to me (a casual viewer who skipped a few seasons) it seems that Wahionhaweh just wanted to be married to a Mohawk man to make her life easier(especially after losing the baby) even though Ian had been adopted by them.  

Overall, the past scenes were  a bit boring.  I don't buy that Bree and Roger have not sat down and read the letters and done some research in the history books or even looked up to see if they can find out what happened to Claire, Jamie and company. 

[DoctorAtomic]

1 hour ago, greekmom said:

Did they still used corporal punishment in school in the early 80s? Because I went to school during that time (Canadian here) and there is no freaking way a teacher would have given me the ruler or pulled my ear.

In the US, I remember a teacher full on slap a kid in class who was having a meltdown around that time. We don't know if Jem is at a private school either. 

 

 

[NJRadioGuy]

8 hours ago, greekmom said:

Did they still used corporal punishment in school in the early 80s? Because I went to school during that time (Canadian here) and there is no freaking way a teacher would have given me the ruler or pulled my ear.

Also Canadian here, and I got the strap on three separate occasions in Montreal during the late 60s / early 70s, and it wasn't outlawed until the 90s, IIRC. They still used at in my high school in 1977. The Lochgelly Tawse (or just The Belt, as they called it) in Scotland, was a far more severe instrument, and three of those on each hand and he'd not be able to use his hands for the rest of the day and probably the next. Not sure when it was outlawed in the U.K., however. I think I read it was in the early-to-mid 80s.

 

7 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

We don't know if Jem is at a private school either. 

They're called public schools in the U.K., ironically. Regular schools are "state schools," and public schools are the prestigious (and expensive) high-end schools. There are Private schools on top of that, but I'm not sure what those are.

[DoctorAtomic]

I meant a school that would be called a 'private school' in the US; i.e., they make their own rules and still might hit the kids. 

 

[TV Anonymous]

I keep on wondering how Roger and Brianna was able to afford that massive manor of Lallybroch. The energy bill alone must have been astronomical. And if they made the mansion energy efficient during the renovation, the upgrading costs must have been even worse than astronomical. Roger was a history professor in Oxford prior the his crossing, but where could he get good job with that credential in rural Scotland? And prior to this, they were family on single income.

Come to think of that, how were they able to afford the purchasing cost of the manor at all? Yes, they still had money from before, but even before crossing they did not seem to be that rich. The reason that British aristocrats abandoned their country estates after WWII was that the taxation reforms made it very hard, except for the richest of aristocrats, to maintain them. 

As for Brianna, what credentials did she have to be a Plant Inspector in a hydro power generating station? Taking classes engineering classes plus apprenticeship would certainly not be enough, even it was at MIT. What kind of  experience did she have? Did she even have her bachelor degree at all?

[Noneofyourbusiness]

20 hours ago, greekmom said:

Did they still used corporal punishment in school in the early 80s? Because I went to school during that time (Canadian here) and there is no freaking way a teacher would have given me the ruler or pulled my ear.

The year is 1980. Corporal punishment was banned in the UK in 1982.

21 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

Did they show him actually die? You know how tv is. 

He lost consciousness due to ether and fell to the floor in a house that then immediately exploded into flames. Unless they pull a stunt, that's unsurvivable. The smoke, the heat, the flames, and he wasn't even awake to save himself.

20 hours ago, greekmom said:

I am surprised Bree didn't think she would meet some resistance in her choice of work.

She clearly did expect resistance. Just not being locked in a tunnel. That's extra.

Edited July 18, 2023 by Noneofyourbusiness

[GHScorpiosRule]

1 hour ago, TV Anonymous said:

Come to think of that, how were they able to afford the purchasing cost of the manor at all? Yes, they still had money from before, but even before crossing they did not seem to be that rich. The reason that British aristocrats abandoned their country estates after WWII was that the taxation reforms made it very hard, except for the richest of aristocrats, to maintain them

Ye really need to throw logic out the window when watching a show like this. Just as I have to hand wave and have that suspension of disbelief when watching soaps. And other shows. Ye’ll drive yerself crazy otherwise.

[Hanahope]

I think Claire and Frank were pretty rich.  They flew cross-country to Disneyland every year during Bree's childhood.  Claire told Bree she put the bank accounts (plural) in her name.  I expect Bree sold the Boston house when they decided to reside in Scotland.  

Yes, renovations were costly, but they could afford some of them,  and then Bree said they couldn't afford the rest, which is why Roger is doing some work himself.

I expect eventually they will go for the gold. 

[DoctorAtomic]

Claire could have also put a chunk of money into savings bonds or CDs, if they had them; high interest savings accounts. There were also still stocks back then too. DuPont, Coca-Cola, Boeing; they're all going to make you money. 

I'm not too worried either because we know they're going for the gold. 

[Noneofyourbusiness]

On a shallow note, Roger is looking much more attractive, which begs the question of why they had him in those unattractive looks.

[Cosmocrush]

6 hours ago, TV Anonymous said:

Did she even have her bachelor degree at all?

No she did not.  She told the interviewer  she was studying for degree before she had to leave school for family reasons.  

I know more than a few people who started working straight from high school or  community college around that time and ended up with pretty good careers on work experience alone.  Maybe she convinced the plant manager she knew her stuff?

[Ziggy]

4 hours ago, Cosmocrush said:

No she did not.  She told the interviewer  she was studying for degree before she had to leave school for family reasons.  

I know more than a few people who started working straight from high school or  community college around that time and ended up with pretty good careers on work experience alone.  Maybe she convinced the plant manager she knew her stuff?

She also mentioned that she had "earned the relevant city and guilds qualifications."

I work in education, and it's been years since I was applying for jobs.  But when I was fresh out of college, I seem to remember that schools wanted to know you had the degree first.  If you had the degree, then they would make sure you had the relevant classes and certificates.  I don't know if that was as strict in 1980.  Then again, Bree wasn't applying to be a teacher, so it could be a completely different situation, not to mention a different country (since I'm from the US).

[DoctorAtomic]

12 hours ago, Ziggy said:

"relevant city and guilds qualifications."

That sounds local to their area, versus a general certification. Or maybe passing the first part of the PE. Typically, you take that exam in senior year because you have all the core classes completed, but that's not a requirement. The exam itself is reflective of an engineering undergraduate curriculum. 

It might have counted for something. We also know she was legitimately at MIT; they could call to verify. Transcripts can be requested. We know she's not an idiot for the most part; I'd assume her GPA was solid. 

It doesn't sound like the job requires a PhD, and not many do even now. The actual BS may not have been a requirement anyway. There weren't a ton in 1980 that were. She was a senior at MIT, she had to leave, and then took the initiative to get the extra guild/PE training. I can live with it. 

Let's face it; I like the show, but we all know the Frasers are sooper special. And the plot needed her to get the job to get into the tunnel to find the portal. It's not that much of a stretch for me on this show. 

 

[Ziggy]

1 hour ago, DoctorAtomic said:

That sounds local to their area, versus a general certification. Or maybe passing the first part of the PE. Typically, you take that exam in senior year because you have all the core classes completed, but that's not a requirement. The exam itself is reflective of an engineering undergraduate curriculum. 

It might have counted for something. We also know she was legitimately at MIT; they could call to verify. Transcripts can be requested. We know she's not an idiot for the most part; I'd assume her GPA was solid. 

It doesn't sound like the job requires a PhD, and not many do even now. The actual BS may not have been a requirement anyway. There weren't a ton in 1980 that were. She was a senior at MIT, she had to leave, and then took the initiative to get the extra guild/PE training. I can live with it. 

Let's face it; I like the show, but we all know the Frasers are sooper special. And the plot needed her to get the job to get into the tunnel to find the portal. It's not that much of a stretch for me on this show. 

 

I honestly have no idea what the requirements for Plant Inspector would be, just that Bree mentioned those in particular.

I thought Bree did a really nice job of stating her qualifications and demonstrating her competence.  I was honestly quite surprised by the number of people questioning it, but, hey, we all notice different details.

Again, I don't know anything about what qualifies someone as an engineer, but I did watch The Big Bang Theory.  They often mention that Howard (the Engineer) is the only one without a PhD.  Howard maintains that few Engineers have a PhD, and that it isn't necessary in most cases.

[ch1]

1 hour ago, DoctorAtomic said:

Let's face it; I like the show, but we all know the Frasers are sooper special. 

I kind of hate watch this show and this really hit the nail on the head why it’s like that for me.

[DoctorAtomic]

Unless you're in academia or industry research (say, designing the EV batteries), then you really don't need a PhD. Really, we're looking through the lens of 2023, where literally all salaried jobs require a BS in something. My neighbor manages 75 convenience stores across the state. I'm sure she has a degree, but I'm doubtful it's providing necessary skills. Managing inventory, expenses; people, hiring. That takes attention to detail and not being an idiot. 

1980 was *43* years ago. Just a quick search, the NYT said in 1970 that 80% of jobs over the next ten years won't require a BS. 

Bree wouldn't be expected to design the turbines, but she should know how they work. You'd get that in undergrad, and in a PE exam. Now, whether a 30-ish young woman would be able to walk in there and get the job versus a man; that's just tv. 

1 minute ago, ch1 said:

I kind of hate watch this show and this really hit the nail on the head why it’s like that for me.

At this point though, you kind of have to accept the reality of the show. I don't hate watch it, but it was really hard to watch season 5 late, when all the discussion here had passed. 

Young Ian though. You can't hate watch on Young Ian.