Post by Catsmate on Nov 20, 2015 14:42:48 GMT
HIV and AIDS have appeared on occasion in Doctor Who, generally as passing references (e.g. David Daniels), background detail or one of a number of diseases that some development/alien technology will cure. I was intrigued by this article, based on research completed last year, that tracked the origin of the virus to the Belgian Congo in the 1920s, especially given there's still a missing aspect of the research, the jump from simian to human. What caused a generally non-pathogenic virus (SIV) to mutate and infect humans?
In the Whoniverse the mundane explanation for species-crossing, random mutation and chance exposure, could be replaced by deliberate or accidental tampering with biology. Was someone, human or alien, carrying out biological research in the Congo? Perhaps it was a plan to use the virus as a weapon against the African population? Given some of the atrocities carried out in that region, someone plotting genocide would fit right in...
Or was the virus an accident, a by-product of some attempt to cure disease, or 'improve' humanity? Something that went wrong, in a manner that'd only be really noticed sixty years later? Did the PCs frustrate a plot in the Pulp era, only to learn decades later that they are responsible for an epidemic?
In fact the who Congo region scream out to have a scenario dropped in; the brutalities of Leopold's private fiefdom; the natural nuclear reactors of nearby Oklo; the deaths of Patrice Lumumba and Dag Hammarskjöld (suited to a UNIT investigation perhaps?); stories of cryptids (especially flying lizards, is there a Silurian hibenation chamber in the jungle?); the oldest river in the world, right back to Rodinia (and what were Stanley and Livingstone really looking for?); the odd culture of the sapeurs; the strange, and now mostly empty, town of Gbadolite (once home to the one of the largest nuclear survival bunkers in the world; did Mobutu know something?); the importance of the region to Allied victory in the Second World War (rubber as well as uranium); the immense natural resources that cause so much trouble.
Sprinkle in stories of humanzees and cannibalism, sorcery and erotic tattooing, strange diseases and drug-rich plants.
. For sapeurs, it's mandatory to wear the best European-cut suits, matching Italian leather shoes and sunglasses, even at night.
In the Whoniverse the mundane explanation for species-crossing, random mutation and chance exposure, could be replaced by deliberate or accidental tampering with biology. Was someone, human or alien, carrying out biological research in the Congo? Perhaps it was a plan to use the virus as a weapon against the African population? Given some of the atrocities carried out in that region, someone plotting genocide would fit right in...
Listen to the yell of Leopold's ghost,
Burning in Hell for his hand-maimed host.
Hear how the demons chuckle and yell,
Cutting his hands off, down in Hell.
Burning in Hell for his hand-maimed host.
Hear how the demons chuckle and yell,
Cutting his hands off, down in Hell.
In fact the who Congo region scream out to have a scenario dropped in; the brutalities of Leopold's private fiefdom; the natural nuclear reactors of nearby Oklo; the deaths of Patrice Lumumba and Dag Hammarskjöld (suited to a UNIT investigation perhaps?); stories of cryptids (especially flying lizards, is there a Silurian hibenation chamber in the jungle?); the oldest river in the world, right back to Rodinia (and what were Stanley and Livingstone really looking for?); the odd culture of the sapeurs; the strange, and now mostly empty, town of Gbadolite (once home to the one of the largest nuclear survival bunkers in the world; did Mobutu know something?); the importance of the region to Allied victory in the Second World War (rubber as well as uranium); the immense natural resources that cause so much trouble.
Sprinkle in stories of humanzees and cannibalism, sorcery and erotic tattooing, strange diseases and drug-rich plants.
. For sapeurs, it's mandatory to wear the best European-cut suits, matching Italian leather shoes and sunglasses, even at night.