From: "Ernest Lilley" <elilley at mindspring.com>
To: "'WSFA members'" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Time Traveling Docs - any short stories come to  mind?
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 07:58:49 -0400
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

I sort of sad about hearing the John Brunner thing. Never having read it, it
still takes some of the air out of my season closer concept:

There's much to be said for ignorance. Fortunately, it's something I have in
abundance.

Ern

Episode 13 (season close) The Docs travel back in time to start the Bubonic
Plague. If they don't, the plague will re-emerge in the future and wipe out
the entire race, owing to our wussy future immune systems. Maybe they just
have to kill off an isolated village.

Doc Bob: That's insane.
Doc Dave: Nope. It's the lesser of two evils. Sure we're killing innocents,
but we'll cure the timeline. Besides, they were going to die anyway.
Doc Bob: Yeah, but they're not dead yet.

Note: This episode is a cliffhanger. It ends in the receiving bay of Chronos
General where the ship is quarantined for having live plague bacillus in the
ship. We've got a stowaway, probably one who will scrub up nicely in the
next episode, hold a grudge against the organization for wiping out her
family, and make the plucky third (curvaceous) member of the crew while
adding interesting historical perspectives. Of course, we could kill off
either of the Docs at this point if their ratings weren't high enough.

Ernest Lilley

Home/Office: 703 371 0226
EJ: 757 581 4146
email: elilley at mindspring.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Madeleine Yeh [mailto:myeh at wap.org]
Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2005 2:03 PM
To: WSFA members
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Time Traveling Docs - any short stories come to mind?

  I think John Brunner had a book where time travelers
came to our time from the future and deliberately spread a
plague that had affected 1/3 of the population with 10
percent mortality.  In their time nearly everyone was
vulnerable and the mortality rate was 90 percent.
   They were hoping to breed some immunity into the human
race and make sure medicine remained an active science.

   There is a belief that the survivors of the Black
Plague had some genetic resistence which now gives their
descendents a little immunity to HIV/AIDS

  Madeleine