Talk:Damocles Event/@comment-36180144-20190819223209

DAE "completely uninhabitable forever" is a bit of overkill? Almost nothing in SciFi is actually forever, even if a character (usually hyperbolically) remarks that it is. In which case quotation marks are appropriate, though that wasn't stated here by anyone who knew. Just that it wasn't in the present tense showing signs of coming back. Which makes it indefinitely or for the foreseeable future, which of course is why Monty sends them to Alpha: it hadn't improved in 28+ years. This doesn't mean it *can't* though, since that's a very short time geologically. Also, not to go full Jeff Goldblum, but life has been found in extreme/toxic environments including arsenic lakes IRL. Nightblood serum has made normally-deadly radiation survivable in this universe. "Forever" seems more fantasy than SciFi, and if nobody objects I'll change it to something more neutral (supported by what we know).

Also, McCreary's stated, "If I can't have it, then no one can!" isn't an example of scorched-earth; one is a military strategy meant to ensure eventual victory even in the face of a retreat, while the other is more nihilist, extreme sour grapes, or (as Diyoza notes) "insane." Not strategic. Even if there were an element of long-game scorched earth here, his full motivation is speculative.

I'm 100% down with discussing either of these; but if there are no conflicting opinions in 24 hours, I'm going to edit those points to more accurately reflect what we know from the episode/transcript.