Ron Livingston is from Cedar Rapids

You know what is sad? I woke up at 3AM, realizing that I'd misspelled Ron's name. I was asleep and then I wasn't. Over a single letter. Sigh. Geekism gone bad.

Kinda like Defying Gravity, although definitely must not watch it tired or buzzed, because the time shifts make it hard to track which is present, what is past, and what's a dream. And some of the dialogue keeps me on my toes (Still haven't figured out "'You don't screw astronauts', I finally get it! Yay!!!")

I like how they make references or inside jokes to things we haven't experienced yet.

Finished this week's Defying Gravity - I like the characters and I'm interested in this Beta whatsit, but I find myself having to stomp on my disbelief quite a bit.

Also finally watched Virtuality which I liked rather a lot. Is there any hope that more will get made?

Oh, and I'm sad that Ajay isn't allowed on the floor. I like him and I don't really understand why he's being railroaded unless it is on Beta's directive.

Quite frankly, if I were in charge I wouldn't want someone who just tried to kill himself in mission control where he'd be surrounded by extremely vital professionals and valuable computers/equipment that the astronauts' lives might depend upon at some point. I might find him a place in the PR department as a nod to his prior work.

I'm not convinced that Beta had anything to do with his breakdown, apart from causing the physical condition that led to him being replaced. If it had enough influence over people's minds to cause that drastic a change in behavior, why bother causing medical conditions at all? Surely making someone think "Screw it, I'd rather step down than be trapped with these idiots for six years!" would be easier than overcoming the self-preservation instinct of a person who wasn't suicidal?

I didn't think he tried to kill himself. And I thought his psych eval supported that.

I don't know what you'd call an impromptu space walk with no return trip planned if not a suicide attempt.

Matt,

I see where you are coming from, but I think he just lost his shit for a bit there. I did not think he really wanted to die, but he lost his life's purpose and didn't know how to deal with that productively. He had a freak out. In space.

This does not contradict your point that he likely shouldn't be around mission control though. I thought it was very serious that someone else had to get him and he didn't really seem to acknowledge how scared everyone was for him, etc.

It wasn't obvious to me that that was a one way walk. He was still on the Antares, I don't see why he couldn't have made his way back to an airlock.

Though I'm being influenced in that by the scene with someone saying he cleared psych and Eve saying it doesn't matter. Though now I am thinking I may be muddling up some of the cloak-and-daggery bits as I cannot clearly picture that scene at this point.

In any case - like the character, will be sad if he is gone for good.

I don't think he passed psych. I thought it was asked if he'd be let back on the floor if he did, and she said he wouldn't--she could have been predicting the future, or rigging the results.

I don't think he intended to come back. Ron Livingston's character had to talk him back into something.