Howling:UK had no spaceships in 29th century?

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Much of the plotline of "The Beast Below" revolves around the notion that by the 29th century AD, when Earth is under threat from solar flares, the United Kingdom has no access to space vehicles with which to escape the planet, which is why they enslave the Star Whale. Why would this be, it doesn't make much sense. The Earth Empire was still in force then, and would last until near the end of the 30th century. The stories "The Mutants" and "Terror of the Vervoids" are both set in the 2900s, and both portray space travel as being in abundance. 82.2.136.93 14:36, August 18, 2011 (UTC)

Well, it's one thing to move a few hundred people. It's quite another to move the entire population. The episode would also seem to imply that England is significantly poorer and less important, so presumably the rest of the Earth Empire and the richer inhabitants just abandoned them. -<Azes13 17:41, August 18, 2011 (UTC)

I suppose Solar Flares mean the beginning of the End Times. I imagine resources would have run out by that time...probably.

Gallifrey102 22:39, August 18, 2011 (UTC)

I think they had engines but they lost them so thats why they got the space whale Cory Jaynes 00:38, August 19, 2011 (UTC)

One possible theory is that the UK was a sort of preserve for "traditionalists" who wanted to stay biologically unmodified, practice traditional welfare capitalism, go to Church a few times in their life, etc. When it was time to temporarily flee the planet, the Divine Empress's computer called up the Queen and said, "OK, we're ready to zap all your people off-planet," but she defered to Parliament, who voted to do things their own way, so the rest of the planet left them behind. (A few of those details, like the Divine Empress and her computer, come from the NAs, but the basic idea works without anything from the novels.)

Or maybe the people in the overcities, including the whole world government, just took off and left the ground people to fend for themselves, so they quickly organized themselves around their old national governments and created crash-course space programs.

Or maybe history has changed so much since The Mutants and The Sensorites (maybe even since the later NA novels), that the question isn't even relevant.

We don't actually know why there was a UK, much less why they had to build their own starship or why they couldn't create one properly, so any answer is going to be pure speculation, but there are lots of possibilities. --173.228.85.35 03:39, August 19, 2011 (UTC)