MovieChat Forums > Eureka (2006) Discussion > One particular thing bugged me

One particular thing bugged me

posted 11 years ago by rdfarnham
3 replies | jump to latest

After the episode in 1947 the characters kept referring to vacuum tubes as "transistors". These people were scientists and would know that there is one heck of a difference between them. Vacuum tubes are glass, fairly large and are immune to EMPs. Transistors are small, solid state and vulnerable to EMPs. I don't know if they did it so that the audience could relate, it the writers didn't know the difference or if they just figured nobody would notice it. I spent my early life as a radio/TV repairman replacing vacuum tubes and I know what they look like.

[–] deejer 11 years ago

I am going to go with option 2) the writers did not know. It would also imply the people hired to add the scientific "jibber-jabber" did not know either.

I always felt the writers understood how scientist and engineers think more in the earlier seasons (primarily Season 1) than in the later seasons. That could have been an example of that change.

[–] joescuriosityshoppe 10 years ago

I felt the same way about the episode about the volcano. In the show, they said that they founded the town in Southern Oregon because it was so geographically stable because there were no faults. Although Oregon gets fairly few earthquakes, there is a large fault just off the coast called the Cascadia subduction zone. It doesn't cause an earthquake very often but, when it does, it's a big one.

[–] lesterofsmeg 8 years ago

Early Transistors did looked like vacuum tubes
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Philco_Surface_Barrier_transistor%3D1953.jpg