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201 lines
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[1][ISMAP]-[2][Home]
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### GUIDE ### [3][Background] [4][Synopsis] [5][Credits] [6][Episode
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List] [7][Previous] [8][Next]
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_Contents:_ [9]Overview - [10]Backplot - [11]Questions - [12]Analysis
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- [13]Notes - [14]JMS
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_________________________________________________________________
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Overview
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Sheridan and Ivanova try to deal with an association of cargo
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pilots. An alien probe makes first contact with the station.
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G'Kar's position among the Narn is threatened by the arrival of a
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Centauri-appointed liaison. [15]Stephen Macht as Na'Far.
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[16]Marshall Teague as Ta'Lon. [17]Anne Betancourt as Dr. Gonzalez.
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[18]P5 Rating: [19]7.85
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Production number: 303
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Original air week: November 20, 1995
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Written by J. Michael Straczynski
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Directed by David Eagle
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_________________________________________________________________
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Backplot
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* The Centauri diplomatic mission on Minbar has been closed for
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several years.
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Unanswered Questions
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* Who sent the probe?
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* Will Franklin's continuing use of stims have greater
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repercussions, especially now that he's willing to lie about it?
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* What will become of Na'Far? And of Ta'Lon, for that matter -- will
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he remain on the station, and will he look after Sheridan?
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Analysis
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* Vir is leaving Londo just when Londo seems to need him most; Londo
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is becoming darker and darker, as his conversation with Na'Far
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demonstrates. Now he'll have nobody to slow his descent (though
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it's not clear how much he listened to Vir in the first place.)
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* The favor Delenn owed Londo was most likely the one he earned by
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transporting her and Draal to Epsilon 3 in [20]"A Voice in the
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Wilderness, part 2."
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* Franklin's stim use is nothing new; it was touched on as recently
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as [21]"Confessions and Lamentations." He may feel he has no
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choice and no problem, but he seems to be ignoring the example of
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Dr. Rosen in [22]"The Quality of Mercy," who lost her medical
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license over her stim use.
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Notes
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* A [23]picture of the probe is available.
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* Vir's departure has, in part, a real-world cause: actor Stephen
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Furst is starring in a sitcom on the Fox network. He will still
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appear on Babylon 5 from time to time.
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* Sheridan's reference to the probe as a "berserker" is probably a
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nod to Fred Saberhagen's "Berserker" novels, which feature huge
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automated war machines that seek out and destroy sentients.
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* A small gaffe: At the end of the episode, when the probe is headed
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away from the station, Sheridan asks the tech if there are any
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security bots in the area. The tech replies that there is just
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one, at 5000km. The next shot is of the bot in question, except
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that there are clearly 2 bots in the shot, and they look
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identical.
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* A related goof: Sheridan orders a securebot sent to look at the
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probe, but the display on the screen reads "Maintbot 12."
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jms speaks
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* "A Day in the Strife," a fair number of threads, a day in the life
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episode with everything that can go wrong going wrong, some
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elements of humor but mainly a straight-ahead kind of episode...
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* _Is Marshall Teague playing the same character he did in [24]"All
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Alone in the Night?"_
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Yes, it's the same character, and his name is Ta'Lon.
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* "A narn resistance is going to be pretty hard to organize."
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*Exactly* the issue we'll explore in "A Day in the Strife." (Well,
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one of many issues.)
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* _How many Narn dead are there?_
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Actually, yes, there are millions of dead; I think that either Vir
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or Na'Far gets it right in "Strife," and the other misstates the
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figure in the same episode.
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* Just went back and checked the script; Ta'Lon refers to millions
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in his meeting with Sheridan. (Knew I wasn't nuts....)
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* _Londo's comment, "It's nothing personal, Vir," was the same one
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the bomber echoed in "Convictions."_
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Yeah, "it's nothing personal" does echo the other theme; those who
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inflict great harm tend to shrug it off that way.
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* You will see Vir many times again in the course of the third
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season.
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* _Why didn't they ask Delenn or Kosh for help with the questions?_
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Because Delenn doesn't know that information offhand, any more
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than you or I would have casual access to detailed scientific
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information from our own world just off the top of our heads;
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she'd still have to go to her own homeworld for the info, as our
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characters did. And it's not that we didn't have it, it was just
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collating it all. And given how Kosh answers questions, would you
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really want to use his responses in this thing?
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* My sense is that Delenn is not a godlike font of information; I
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don't think anyone, alien or human, at the station would just
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happen to know all the information required. How much would Delenn
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know about molecular biology, for instance? (And if you asked Kosh
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a question about the subject, he'd probably come back with "The
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heart does not sing with its parts." Not exactly useful.)
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Anyone there would have to go back to their own world for experts
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in the various fields...so you're back where you started. Earth
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*has* the info, it's just getting it, and getting it fast. If you
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add the overlay of going through another government, you're going
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to run out of time that much faster.
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Logically, a probe like this would be sent off looking for
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information on the very cusp of technology that could pose a
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threat. That's why it *didn't* go off when the probe presumed them
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to be a less developed civilization; it was looking for
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civilizations that *are* sufficiently advanced to pose a possible
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threat; Sheridan says exactly that as he walks across C&C.
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Interesting aside on this, btw, in the "where do you get your
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ideas?" department. The US House Science Sub-Committee held a
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series of hearings into the question of extraterrestrial contact
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during the 1970s, to determine what we should do in the event of
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contact. The most likely scenario, the scientists agreed, was a
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probe coming into our solar system. So what do we do in response
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to a message asking if anybody's home?
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Believe it or not, it was the consensus of the Subcommittee that
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we should not respond...in case it was a berserker, just as shown
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in the episode. That is our government's official policy on the
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subject.
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* I just went through my stuff trying to find it...there was a
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formal report published by the Government Printing Agency in
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around 1978 or so. I think it was entitled something like
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"Prospects for Contact by Extra- Terrestrial Intelligence," and
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went into the whole CETI issue at great length. (Back then, it was
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CETI, for Contact With Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, changed
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shortly after the House hearing on the subject to SETI, Search For
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Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.) Any GPA office should have the
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report on file.
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* _Would the explosion have taken out a planet?_
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No, it probably couldn't take out a planet, though it'd sure
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disrupt all communications in and out for a long time, maybe throw
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up a dust curtain to bring down the temperature quite a bit.
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Certainly it'd debilitate the planet long enough for additional
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probes to be sent in. If one can do the job, one does the job; if
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more are required, more are sent.
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* _What kind of alien was sick in medlab?_
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I'll have to go back and check, but from memory I'm pretty sure
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he's a Llort.
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* _What happened to Na'Fon?_
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When he failed to convince the other Narns to accept him as their
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new leader -- which was the whole point to his being sent to B5 in
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the first place -- he had no choice but to go home.
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* _Why don't we ever see worker-caste Minbari?_
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Worker caste tend to fade into the background; we've seen them
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here and there; pilots and traders (visible in "Strife") are
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worker caste, and others. They don't have as much a stylized
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manner of bone-carving as the other castes.
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[30][Next]
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[31]Last update: January 12, 1998
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References
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1. file://localhost/cgi-bin/imagemap/titlebar
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2. LYNXIMGMAP:file://localhost/lurk/maps/maps.html#titlebar
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3. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/background/047.shtml
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4. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/synops/047.html
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5. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/credits/047.html
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6. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/episodes.php
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7. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/046.html
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8. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/048.html
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9. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/047.html#OV
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10. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/047.html#BP
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11. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/047.html#UQ
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12. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/047.html#AN
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13. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/047.html#NO
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14. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/047.html#JS
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15. http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Macht,+Stephen
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16. http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Teague,+Marshall
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17. http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Betancourt,+Anne
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18. file://localhost/lurk/p5/intro.html
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19. file://localhost/lurk/p5/047
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20. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/019.html
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21. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/040.html
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22. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/021.html
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23. file://localhost/b5/Pictures/Effects/ship1.gif
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24. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/033.html
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25. file://localhost/lurk/lurker.html
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26. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/047.html#TOP
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27. file://localhost/cgi-bin/uncgi/lgmail
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28. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/episodes.php
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29. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/046.html
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30. file://localhost/home/woodstock/hyperion/docs/lurk/guide/048.html
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31. file://localhost/lurk/lastmod.html
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