Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Dr. Bernadette Case

0 (0%)

Practicing medicine is fun and all

0 (0%)

Compared to LASERS? No Contest.

1 (2.3%)

This is my room!

0 (0%)

It's really, uh, minimal.

0 (0%)

Spend days adjusting bedsheets, curtains...

0 (0%)

And those were my FUNCTIONAL days.

0 (0%)

Wanna see pictures? I have a photo album!

1 (2.3%)

Dad? Dad? Hellooooo!

1 (2.3%)

Doctor John Ellicott-Chatham

7 (15.9%)

Not sure since the divorce.

1 (2.3%)

Can't rely on the AI for everything

1 (2.3%)

Lt. Potter's room

1 (2.3%)

"Friggin' A-hole AI..."

1 (2.3%)

AIM HIGH or ELSE

1 (2.3%)

I wanted to apologize...

0 (0%)

The doc's kid put you up to this.

0 (0%)

Some apology. Why don't you go fu-

0 (0%)

.76% of Ellicott-Chatham Technologies.

1 (2.3%)

Holdings worth US$4.6 million.

6 (13.6%)

Blink once/blink twice...

13 (29.5%)

Read it in an Alastair Reynolds novel.

0 (0%)

Ms. Farmer? Our head of security would like to have a word with you.

4 (9.1%)

Just come along quietly, Ms. Farmer.

3 (6.8%)

Wait, where'd Marigold go?

0 (0%)

Looking for the ladies' room.

2 (4.5%)

Total Members Voted: 41

[Carl-E]

All we know about Hannelore coming planetside.

Nothing against the current art, but I really liked the look of the comic back then.  I think it was a time of leaps and bounds in Jeph's improvement, rather than the incrementalism we all live with now. 

Not that incremental improvements are bad, mind you - but when there would be a suden, noticable improvement, it was really cool! 

And Method, really?  Do you know anyone who can resist clicking a spoiler tag? 

[Welu]

I really liked that art style too. I love Jeph's art now but I think around 1300 - 1600 was my favourite though, partially due to Dora's hair and I think it was around then I first discovered QC. A Hanners strip to keep it relevant-ish.

[jwhouk]

That was about the time I discovered QC too - the whole "first appearance of Cosette" arc.

[Carl-E]

This was my first comic.  Well, not really, I'd stopped by a few times over a period of over a year (linked from xkcd) and just couldn't get into it, because I kept on trying to start at the beginning.  But this was the one that hooked me.  I actually started reading the archives backwards from there...

[Kugai]

DS9 was a weaker version of Babylon 5. Better sets and effects, but much weaker storyline.

"Babylon 5's a big pile of shit."

Not really

Who are you?

What do you want?



Can't actually remember what my first Comic was.  I think I was actually following the Comic for about a year before I joined up in the Forum though if memory serves.

[Madmartigan]

I started with Ctrl.Alt.Del.

Then I moved on to this one.  Can't say where.  First strip may have been the first art change.

Then, in January, I started at the beginning and blitzed thru all 2000+ strips in a week.

[celticgeek]

This was my first comic:  Library Job,  I linked to it from the Unshelved comic.

I read Unshelved since my wife and my daughter are both librarians.

[Omega Entity]

Oh. We have comic.

[SomeCanadianWeirdo]

You can tell Hannerdad is a mad scientist.  He has a bow tie.

[WAYF]

Checklist:

1) Not a hologram.

2) Old but energetic-looking.

3) We're allowed to call him John Ellicott (which to me sounds much better than John Ellicott-Chatham for some reason)

4) Technology jokes.

5) Doesn't seem to be that distanced (at least emotionally) from his daughter.


I think Jeph just created the perfect Hannerdad.


Ok, now that that's done, deeper analysis time.

Marigold only appears in one panel of today's comic, and even then, only to show that she is there. This indicates that her sense of shyness in the presence of famous people hasn't got that much better since her nosebleed at the comics convention. Marten, for example, is right next to Hannelore the whole time, and takes the time to wave and ask questions, whereas Marigold just stands there with her hands at her sides. I'm not even sure where she's supposed to be relative to the others in the last panel.

As for John Ellicott (and I will never get tired of calling him that), he seemed quite initially distracted and surprised to see Hannelore. I'm not quite sure what this means; he could just have been really distracted by rummaging to find his mp3 player, or it could mean Hannelore had a fairly wide window of opportunity to get to the space station (i.e they weren't expecting her at any particular time). Or perhaps he could have slightly forgotten that she was coming, since he was so wrapped up in his work. But probably not. He does seem quite close to Hannelore on first impressions; it's not like he was saying "Just a minute, I have to find my vitally important mp3 player before I can attend to my daughter".

[Method of Madness]

And Method, really?  Do you know anyone who can resist clicking a spoiler tag?

Oh, hell no, but if they do that, then at least it's their choice, and those with insane amounts of restraint (NB: not me) will be spared.  That being said, it's more of a courtesy than anything.

[iduguphergrave]

For some reason I had a feeling he'd be little   

Also are his eyes green? I can't quite tell.

[celticgeek]

Why not FLAC, indeed.  I rip everything to FLAC, and everything I buy from Bandcamp, I download in FLAC. 

That said, "Yay, Hannerdad!".

[Omega Entity]

Also are his eyes green? I can't quite tell.

They are indeed.

[jwhouk]

Hannerdad looks strangely like someone else in the strip.

If only that other person couldn't grow a bear or mustache to save his life...

[A. Smith]

Is it just me, or does he talk a lot like Mordin Solus?

Just realized I've been reading his lines with mordin's voice

[TheCollector]

I love it in comics, tv and whatever else when there's a character you don't see for so long yet hear about them at times, and what you're led to believe they're like is one thing but then when they finally appear all preconceptions are shattered and the characters completely different from what you thought they would be like.

That happened here.

[Diin]

If only that other person couldn't grow a bear or mustache to save his life...

Bears are difficult to grow!

Also I was a bit confused by Hannerdad since he didn't seem all too distant; in http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1904 (And the strip after that), they didn't seem all that close.

[Is it cold in here?]

So why didn't he meet her at the docking hub?

[Method of Madness]

Hell, he even seemed a bit reluctant to abandon his MP3 player search.  Though I'm sure he is happy to see Hanners.

[Torlek]

So why didn't he meet her at the docking hub?

Because there's work to be done! Also, that mp3 player's not going to find itself. From his appearance Hannerdad is appropriately spaced out, probably even a little ADHD. I imagine he's got a million little projects going on at once and may well have meant to go to the docking hub but got distracted by something.

And since we're remembering our first comics, I came in on 1369 from, I think, Dr. McNinja. About two weeks later I decided I liked the story and binged on the archive in about four days.

[cesariojpn]

I had something thought out, but now I forgot.

[WAYF]

So why didn't he meet her at the docking hub?

Because Jeph is a master of Delayed Gratification.

[DSL]

'Cuz he was focused on finding his MP3 player.

Up to now, we've relied on Hannelore's description of her dad, which now seems to be imperfectly recalled or at least presented. That, amplified by hearing only one side of the conversation the two times she's talked to him on-panel, we can either have Distant Impersonal Dad or Affably Clueless (except for whatever he's focused on at the moment) Dad. I think it's safe to say we all assumed one and (seemingly, so far) got the other.

Not that it would make any difference to a child needing nurturing and having to fall back on 127 other busy people and whichever sentient KillSat was on orbit nearby and had time to talk.

Or, you know, Hannelore has more of Mom in her than she's willing to admit and we've all been suckers.

Now I imagine Jeph laughing evilly.

RED TEXT Dang you guys type fast. Anyway, I think I stumbled into QC a couple strips after Raven got hired at CoD, though it didn't catch on with me right away. I think I came back in during Faye's post-Angus panic attack (likely following a link from GWS) and didn't even realize it was the same strip.

[St.Clair]

So, everyone else is hearing Professor Farnsworth, right?

(If not, you will in a moment...)
"Good NEWS, everyone!"

[iduguphergrave]

I actually imagined him with a rather high voice, like Hanners.

[Delator]

Hanners got her hair color from her mom...but the style was clearly handed down by dear old dad. 

[Soulsynger]

Ah... the classical Einstein-ian absentminded genius archetype. Was NOT expecting that. How retro.  

I am actually hearing a very normal, collected voice in contrast to his absentmindedness. For a Farnsworth-ian voice he's not old or confused enough.

edit:
Ooooooh... Marten won't get along with Hannerdad so well... Hannerdad's a tea drinker. (teacup in panel 4) °O

Also I wonder what kind of junk that might be. Can there even be such a thing as "junk" on a space station?

edit2:
Is that a Kolto-Tank behind Hannerdad?

[pwhodges]

Why not FLAC, indeed.

I found myself thinking, after watching the end of the Ustream in which I made out the term "mp3 player", that I find it hard to know what to call my device, which is full of ogg/vorbis files.  Then this morning I saw the title of the strip, and smiled.

[CompSarge]

Hannerdad- "The AI already runs station orbital trajectory, atmosphere, power, maintenance, comms, sensors, and data processing. Can't rely on it for EVERYTHING."
Seems to me like you already do. 

My first strip was this one. Hard to believe it's been almost 3 years since this comic became a staple of my daily routine.

[Kugai]

Ahh,  Science and MP3 players wait for no man - or woman.    


Hmmmm, seems your typical absent minded professor type.


Chris Lloyd in a calmer version of Doc Browns voice?

[Jimor]

We should all know the dangers involved in relying on your AI for music selection.

[Akima]

And either Beatrice dyed and botox'd like crazy, or there's a huge age gap there

I imagine her as the Elizabeth Bathory of the 21st century, except she bathes in cloned-bone-marrow synthetic virgin's blood. She calls it... "decaf".

I found myself thinking, after watching the end of the Ustream in which I made out the term "mp3 player", that I find it hard to know what to call my device, which is full of ogg/vorbis files.

I call mine an iPod.

As for JE-C or JE (doesn't the matrilineal surname normally come first in double-barrelled married names? But that would have made his initials JC, which would be awkward), I confess I'm a little disappointed. I suppose there is nothing wrong with the classic tousled-white-hair-and-lab-coat scientist style, but it's not very creative.

[pwhodges]

I call mine an iPod.

Mine's actually an iriver H340, originally 40GB, whose original firmware was unusual in that it supported ogg/vorbis.  It now has a 240GB disk and Rockbox firmware (the original firmware can't handle the disk size at all, and I had to do a custom compile for Rockbox to handle it).  Mainly I just call it "my player".

doesn't the matrilineal surname normally come first in double-barrelled married names?

It's extraordinarily unusual in most Western societies that a man would have taken his wife's name at all!

[Akima]

Mine's actually an iriver H340, originally 40GB, whose original firmware was unusual in that it supported ogg/vorbis.  It now has a 240GB disk and Rockbox firmware (the original firmware can't handle the disk size at all, and I had to do a custom compile for Rockbox to handle it).  Mainly I just call it "my player".

Zow! I think I'd call it Awesome!

[Mr. Doctor]

Hmmmmmmyeagh we are totally not going to see Hanner's dad this week either 

I have no problems in eating my own worlds because they taste delicious.

[Welu]

Loving Hannerdad's hair.

Hanner's commented on the ship being lonely but I don't think she's ever really resented her dad for being so into his work. I got the impression he does care about her a lot, since he took and wanted custody of her, but gets sucked into work and has the resources that she didn't get left unsupervised when she was younger. Plus this strip seems absent-minded at first but you can say, "At least he asked."

Can't say a lot about a character from one appearance, especially when we've heard so many other things, but I got the impression that he's genuinely happy to see her, but was surprised in the moment since he was focused on something else. He probably gives that same focus to a lot of things and if was something more important/intensive than a search for an MP3 player (Mine's a Zen by the way but I just call it an MP3player) he might have said hello but not felt he had time to do more than that.

[Border Reiver]

And either Beatrice dyed and botox'd like crazy, or there's a huge age gap there

I imagine her as the Elizabeth Bathory of the 21st century, except she bathes in cloned-bone-marrow synthetic virgin's blood. She calls it... "decaf".

I found myself thinking, after watching the end of the Ustream in which I made out the term "mp3 player", that I find it hard to know what to call my device, which is full of ogg/vorbis files.

I call mine an iPod.

As for JE-C or JE (doesn't the matrilineal surname normally come first in double-barrelled married names? But that would have made his initials JC, which would be awkward), I confess I'm a little disappointed. I suppose there is nothing wrong with the classic tousled-white-hair-and-lab-coat scientist style, but it's not very creative.

Thanks for the flashback to "Countess Dracula" Akima - mmmm, Ingrid Pitt....

Sorry, this was about the comic right?

Why would you wear a tie in space? 

[TinPenguin]

Why would you wear a tie in space? 

Being a mad scientist means you get to be your own boss, but there is still a strict dress code.

[Rimwolf]

Hannerdad looks strangely like someone else in the strip.

If only that other person couldn't grow a bear[d] or mustache to save his life...

I noticed the resemblance right away. That might have something to do with Hannelore's attraction to Marten.

[jwhouk]

I suspect it was purely accidental.

So let me get this straight - Mom's surname is Chatham, Dad's is Ellicott. That means Ellicott-Chatham Industries is technically owned by both of them?

[lepetitfromage]

Hmm...well, he is wearing a plaid shirt. They even have a similar style of dressing

[/silly speculation]


I like HannerDad, he's cute! And it cracks me up that he has a soul patch 

I had a feeling that we were going to meet him on Friday and I'm glad I was proven wrong.

[Black Sword]

So on the topic of MP3 players, what modern player would a scientist like John Ellicott use? An iriver H340 customized with 240 giga and Rockbox firmware like hodges? Or something completely different?

What would be on his MP3 player beyond Also Sprach Zarathustra?

[Mr_Rose]

I suspect it was purely accidental.

So let me get this straight - Mom's surname is Chatham, Dad's is Ellicott. That means Ellicott-Chatham Industries is technically owned by both of them?

Getting hints of MOM Corp. from Futurama…maybe they created it together and hannermom bought out all or most of hannerdad's stock at some point?
Heck, the guy might be absent-minded or inattentive enough to have outstanding stock options that hannermom would really prefer he remained ignorant of.

[DSL]

Hannerdad looks strangely like someone else in the strip.

If only that other person couldn't grow a bear[d] or mustache to save his life...

I noticed the resemblance right away. That might have something to do with Hannelore's attraction to Marten.

HENRY: "Veronica, you got some 'splainin' to do ... or would have, if I hadn't met Maurice."

[Mad Cat]

Pshtah! Yeah, Marten. Have a little PERSPECTIVE, will ya?

[Method of Madness]

call mine an iPod.

I call mine an iPod when I'm using it to listen to music, and an iPhone when I'm using it for phone or internet.  It's always an iPhone, technically, but I guess what I'm using it for at the moment changes that.  Also, I can't shake the feeling that saying "I'm listening to music on my iPhone" sounds douchey for some reason.

And iPod is basically the adhesive strip or facial tissue of digital music players.

[sitnspin]

I have never once used "iPod" to refer to any music player that wasn't actually an iPod. Then again, I don't really use any other brand names as synonyms for generic products. I am starting think I am weird for that.

[Is it cold in here?]

I'm thinking of the Doctor Who episode where someone displays a jukebox and says it was known as an "iPod".

[DSL]

That's better than the couple episodes of the Glen Larson version of "Buck Rogers" in which Buck or Wilma visited the "Archives." The Jerry can on the side of the stagecoach, the hair dryer that was called an "early hand laser" ...