Episode 97 - Out of the Aeons

[Lambda]

But, in the end, it doesn't matter if the Goo goes rampaging or the Elder Ones trash the hotel room, because those reams of natural gas are just gonna explode someday anyway.

Natural? Please, don't be silly. Those are the awful stenches of daemoniac bowels, the abhorred and unholy flatulences of Ghathanothoa.

[Bob Lovecraft]

Those are the awful stenches of daemoniac bowels, the abhorred and unholy flatulences of Ghathanothoa.

And THAT is why we can't have nice things...

Bob

[Eric Lofgren]

The idea that the eye holds in it the last image it sees before you die is an old myth. Lovecraft also plays on something similar in The Unnameable, but with a window. It's creepy, but so totally not true, which is too bad. Because I think that would be awesome  

[Bob Lovecraft]

There is an epsiode of Babylon 5 where this is brought up as actual science. The idea being that at the moment of death, the cells covering the retina retain the signature of the last bits of light thy were exposed to. As a result, these cells can be analyzed to determine a rough estimation of what they were exposed to. They were able to prove that the eyeball in question had been exposed to a particular type of visible spectrum consistent with a Centari energy weapon, thus proving some point or other about who killed him.

Personally, I thought it was a real damn stretch.

Bob

[Lambda]

There is an epsiode of Babylon 5 where this is brought up as actual science. The idea being that at the moment of death, the cells covering the retina retain the signature of the last bits of light thy were exposed to. As a result, these cells can be analyzed to determine a rough estimation of what they were exposed to. They were able to prove that the eyeball in question had been exposed to a particular type of visible spectrum consistent with a Centari energy weapon, thus proving some point or other about who killed him.

Personally, I thought it was a real damn stretch.

Bob

It's not a secret that JMS is a devoted Lovecraftian. I mean, there's so much HPL in Babylon 5, some of it obvious (Charles Dexter, lol), some not (the whole plot of the 4th season is very much Derleth, while War Without End is heavily influenced by Shadow out of Time). Watching the whole thing with the Lovecraft and Tolkien references in your brain is huge fun! 

[fishy]

There is an epsiode of Babylon 5 where this is brought up as actual science. The idea being that at the moment of death, the cells covering the retina retain the signature of the last bits of light thy were exposed to. As a result, these cells can be analyzed to determine a rough estimation of what they were exposed to. They were able to prove that the eyeball in question had been exposed to a particular type of visible spectrum consistent with a Centari energy weapon, thus proving some point or other about who killed him.

Personally, I thought it was a real damn stretch.

Bob

It's not a secret that JMS is a devoted Lovecraftian. I mean, there's so much HPL in Babylon 5, some of it obvious (Charles Dexter, lol), some not (the whole plot of the 4th season is very much Derleth, while War Without End is heavily influenced by Shadow out of Time). Watching the whole thing with the Lovecraft and Tolkien references in your brain is huge fun! 

*cough* Not to mention "Thirdspace" *cough*

[Bob Lovecraft]

Well, now I really do have to dust of the boxed sets and re-watch then all from the get-go. The only reference I ever really spotted before I got into Lovecraft were the Paq-marah carrion eaters. But then, tentacle-faced aliens are nothing new to sci-fi in general.

Bob

[Robert R.]

It's probably worth mentioning that "maintaining the last image on the retina" idea is used in the '70s movie HORROR EXPRESS which is vaguely Lovecraftian in some respects. Or, at least, heavily influenced by THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD.