Howling:Utopia question

In the episode Utopia, a big deal was made about how the rocket at Silo 16 was the only thing that could get the human refugees off the planet and on their way to Utopia. But in order to land on the planet in the first place, they must have had some form of interplanetary transport; why couldn't they just use that to reach Utopia? 82.2.136.93talk to me 22:31, February 16, 2012 (UTC)


 * They never said when the humans got to Malcassairo; it could have been hundreds or thousands of years ago. Any spaceship that brought them there could have broken down ages ago. -<Azes13 talk to me 22:49, February 16, 2012 (UTC)

It could also be something along the lines of they didn't have enough conventional fuel to power their other interstellar ships for a journey long enough to get to Utopia, which is why Yana had to design a new type of engine. We don't know how far away Utopia supposedly was, but seeing as Earth had gone through dozens of great and bountiful empires and galactic federations and whatever else over billions and billions of years and never found it before, it is likely that Utopia was supposedly very far away.Icecreamdif talk to me 05:33, February 17, 2012 (UTC)

The man whom the Doctor, Martha and Jack meet in the wilderness being chased by the Futurekind seems to have only just arrived on the planet, as he says something about having followed his family there. 194.168.208.42talk to me 10:44, February 17, 2012 (UTC)

It's possible that he was on another part of the planet, but I also always assumed that he'd only just arrived on the planet.Icecreamdif talk to me 16:09, February 17, 2012 (UTC)

Exactly. And therein lies the problem. 82.2.136.93talk to me 20:26, February 17, 2012 (UTC)

It could be that only Yana's footprint drive would be capable of traversing the distance to Utopia, or they didn't have enough working ships to carry all the people on the planet, due to ships breaking down, and people being born on Malcaisarro. We neve really got too many details about Utopia, since the story focus shifted to Yana being the Master and explaining Jack's immortality pretty early on.Icecreamdif talk to me 20:44, February 17, 2012 (UTC)

Incidentally, the man hunted by the Futurekind near the beginning identifies himself as being from something called Red Force Five. Apart from the name, nothing else is revealed about where he comes from. 82.2.136.93talk to me 21:07, February 17, 2012 (UTC)

Could something in the vicinity of Malcassairo have caused any spacecraft approaching it to break down and crash, leaving any survivors trapped on the surface? 82.2.136.93talk to me 21:48, February 17, 2012 (UTC)

Teleport station, vague coordinate thus detection device requirement, ship's speed vs resource limit, etc...the possibilities are endless...there's really not much to discuss about this topic. --222.166.181.123talk to me 00:24, February 18, 2012 (UTC)

Professor Yana says that he spent most of his life moving from one refugee ship to another, so there must have been means of transport to and from Malcassairo not all that long ago. 82.2.136.93talk to me 10:33, February 18, 2012 (UTC)

Although no details were given in the episode, it was made clear that the refugees were stuck there, unless they could get the rocket working. That information was all the story really needed, so it's not surprising the reasons weren't explored in depth. The problem for this discussion is that, because nothing much was said, we don't have any solid basis for speculation. We can suggest a variety of possible reasons but we can't really say that one fits the evidence better than another. --89.242.69.25talk to me 20:01, February 18, 2012 (UTC)