The Military Space Shuttle

[Zola]

CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM SEASONS 6 & 7

 

 

The revelation of a military Space Shuttle could have made for an extremely good storyline had it been handled the right way. As it was the writers really dropped the ball when they decided to point the finger at Toby as the person who leaked to the media.

There was universal criticism with this decision; even Richard "Toby" Schiff, admitted complete bewilderment/disappointment that Toby would do such a thing! But being the professional actor he went along with it and played the role exceptionally well, all things considered.

There has been a lot of doubt if Toby was the actual leaker - that perhaps someone else had leaked but somehow was able to point the finger at him. Some have suggested it was CJ that leaked; a few have dared suggest the president himself!

Very few people at the White House had sufficient clearance to know about the Shuttle - Kate, the president and Leo certainly knew about it. But CJ didn't (at least not initially). And Toby may have known about it unofficially via his brother.

So if you can remove your scepticism for one moment, who do you think was the leaker? 

Edited April 30, 2017 by Only Zola
removed spoiler tags - not needed

[oceanblue]

i think it would be out of character for any of these characters would do it

[AriAu]

Spoiler

Toby

Was such a principled person, politics and personal gain be damned, if

Spoiler

Toby

believed that there was a greater good served by disclosing, then he would not hesitate to disclose. YMMV, and clearly does for many, including the actor who played him, since the debate continues, even tho the writers will tell you there is no debate-they wrote it with the simple premise that

Spoiler

Toby

did it.

I have read that people think it might have been

Spoiler

POTUS

but his anger at

Spoiler

Toby

was too real to be an act.

Spoiler

Leo

wonderful as he was, was too much of a political animal to ever do something like that. I do like the theory that

Spoiler

CJ

could have done it do to her relationship with

Spoiler

Greg Brock

and her righteous indignation over other things, but again, none of the rest of what played out points to her, especially not her later anger.  I would not have put it past

Spoiler

Kate (aka She Bangs from TWOP days),

but as an old time spook, I don't see her disclosing any secrets.

This whole spoiler tag thing is kinda silly for a show that has been off the air for almost 11 years, but sure, I'll play along!

[Bastet]

21 minutes ago, AriAu said:

This whole spoiler tag thing is kinda silly for a show that has been off the air for almost 11 years, but sure, I'll play along!

Yeah, the spoiler tags make this thread annoying to read.  I understand that the season-specific threads shouldn't spoil anything that happens in subsequent seasons, but in other threads it makes more sense to acknowledge this is a show that's been off the air a long time.

[Zola]

Guys- I have removed the spoiler tags from my initial post, but kept a warning up.

I did think long and hard about whether to include tags or not when making this post, despite the show being off air for over 10 years. I recall posting on another TV site not so long ago, and despite giving a "There are spoilers below" message upfront, I still got hammered by the mods who said I should have also included spoiler tags, despite the warning! 

Moreover, just because a show has been off-air shouldn't mean that there should be an open-door policy when it comes to spoilers. For example "The Sopranos" That great show aired between 1999-2007. I was far too young to be allowed to watch that at the time, but while at university a few friends mentioned it and pointed me to an online forum. Despite the show being off-air for 4 years (in 2011) posters never gave spoiler warnings, which kinda killed my anticipation/enjoyment for watching the show for the first time shortly after.

But you're right - this particular thread is not season-specific; it's just a bit of a grey area for me as to what should and should not be revealed.

[BW Manilowe]

15 hours ago, Only Zola said:

Guys- I have removed the spoiler tags from my initial post, but kept a warning up.

I did think long and hard about whether to include tags or not when making this post, despite the show being off air for over 10 years. I recall posting on another TV site not so long ago, and despite giving a "There are spoilers below" message upfront, I still got hammered by the mods who said I should have also included spoiler tags, despite the warning! 

Moreover, just because a show has been off-air shouldn't mean that there should be an open-door policy when it comes to spoilers. For example "The Sopranos" That great show aired between 1999-2007. I was far too young to be allowed to watch that at the time, but while at university a few friends mentioned it and pointed me to an online forum. Despite the show being off-air for 4 years (in 2011) posters never gave spoiler warnings, which kinda killed my anticipation/enjoyment for watching the show for the first time shortly after.

But you're right - this particular thread is not season-specific; it's just a bit of a grey area for me as to what should and should not be revealed.

Well, I unfortunately can't remember what this site's policy is on use of spoiler tags when discussing a show that's been off the air especially as long as TWW has been. But on the site a number of us came from, to here, when it was shut down by the corporate owners a few years ago, they said it didn't matter how long a show had been off the air at that point; spoiler tags were NOT allowed in current discussions of a show (posters doing so could get a warning, for not following site rules, from the Mods) & posters who were just discovering a show no longer airing new episodes were just going to have to deal with being spoiled if they read discussions that were about stuff that happened beyond where they were in the show. Though we didn't/couldn't use spoiler tags, many of us did try to remember to say if a reader hadn't seen the show being discussed beyond a certain point, they should probably stop reading the post involved. That usually worked & I don't remember a lot of posters being "hammered" for not using spoiler tags in cancelled show threads.

It might've been better if you'd confined the military shuttle discussion to the appropriate season/series thread instead of starting a separate thread about it. Just my thoughts on the matter.

[Guest]

Spoiler tags should only be used in season specific threads. It's only so if someone is knew to the show, they can read threads for the specific season without being spoiled.  Every other thread is "enter at your own risk" to people who are new to the show. 

As always, feel free to message me or @BizBuzz with any questions.

[AriAu]

I tried to remove the spoiler tags, but frankly, I don't know how. If somehow can give me directions, I will do it....especially since I felt kinda silly doing it to begin with!

[Guest]

I tried editing your post, @AriAu to remove them, and I couldn't. So I'm no help. :)

To the question, I think it was Toby. I think it was a terrible plotline, but I really don't see how it could have been someone else. Toby MAY have taken the fall for CJ or Bartlett, but then their anger at him would have been inexplicable.   Especially Bartlett - he wouldn't have wrestled as he did with the idea of a pardon if he knew Toby wasn't guilty.  

Again, having only seen it once, I didn't see any reason to doubt what we were told/shown on the screen.

[Zola]

2 hours ago, deaja said:

Spoiler tags should only be used in season specific threads. It's only so if someone is knew to the show, they can read threads for the specific season without being spoiled.  Every other thread is "enter at your own risk" to people who are new to the show. 

As always, feel free to message me or @BizBuzz with any questions.

Thanks for the clarification. In hindsight I should have raised the question prior to posting. 

[Guest]

It's not a problem at all, @Only Zola.  The lines get blurred on old shows, so we just try to keep it as clear/consistent as we can. :)

[Zola]

Quick update - seems there's a consensus for Toby being the leaker (8 votes currently); and yet 4 people voted for "Someone Else" - would be great to know who those "someone elses" are?