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#1: What happened to Professor Richardson? Author: Joyce, Location: Hong Kong

Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 9:01 am
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I was wondering while rereading Ruey the other day whether her father ever makes it back from space.

I vaguely remember later on the series Mary-Lou shows up at Joey's with news to say Prof. Richardson had taken off again and Joey comments that he and his colleagues nearly died the first time. So presumably he went, came back safely and has now decided to take off again. Does he make it back the second time?

Do we ever have a scene where the three Richardson's are reunited with their father after his first trip? And if not, is there a drabble on it?

Cheers,
Joyce

#2: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 9:10 am
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He is assumed to have vanished into thin air (quite literally!) - he goes missing presumed dead in Ruey and is never heard of again.

So potentially he could have ended up on Mars ... or maybe he landed somewhere and adopted a new identity. I don't think there's ever been a drabble about it, but there's certainly plenty of scope for one! I don't think there's one about them all meeting up after his first trip either, but would love to read one!

#3: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 11:58 am
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I just assumed he died in space somewhere.

#4: Author: Sugar, Location: second star to the right!

Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 2:45 pm
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Ditto. His ideas were ahead of his time in some respects... when was the first into space and return in one piece exploration? Late 50's? I sppose it shows EBD was current in some respects but seems a bit of a drastic way to get rid of a parent so Jo can adopt yet more kids!

#5: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 7:01 pm
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Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space - 12th April 1961 - so EBD was ahead of her time - though not as far as either Jack or Joey said - they felt it would be 20 years before it happened. (At least I think that's what was said!) The book Ruey Richardson Chaletian was published in 1960 so EBD wasn't far out.

#6: Author: Sugar, Location: second star to the right!

Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 8:19 pm
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Lesley wrote:

Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space - 12th April 1961 -

I knew that!!! I know I did - I know I was thinking spoon bending man in my head and I knew THAT was wrong!!!!! Embarassed

#7: Author: Pat, Location: Doncaster

Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 8:30 pm
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That was Yuri Geller Sugar!!!!! rofl

#8: Author: Sarah_K, Location: St Albans

Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 9:53 pm
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I can't imagine Professor Richardson came to a very good end I'm afraid, if he had surely they'd have heard from him again!

Then again I did write a Torchwood/Chlaet School crossover once that at least gave the Professor the possibility of a happy ending.

#9: Author: Pat, Location: Doncaster

Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 9:58 pm
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And I had him rescued by a dragonrider & taken to Pern!

#10: Author: Tan, Location: London via Newcastle Australia

Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 7:11 am
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Which time period in Pern? I can just imagine him with Ted Tubberman!

#11: Author: Pat, Location: Doncaster

Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 8:16 pm
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It's in my current(ish!) drabble. End of the first long interval.

#12: Author: Alex, Location: Cambs, UK

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 11:45 am
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I have wondered for a while if it was all a set up and he went behind the Iron Curtain. If he thought he could get taken seriously as a scientist/lots of funding there he probably would. Drabble suggestion anyone...

#13: Author: Katherine, Location: London, UK

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 11:48 am
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And he met up with Ted Humphries . . .

#14: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 11:52 am
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Alex wrote:

I have wondered for a while if it was all a set up and he went behind the Iron Curtain. If he thought he could get taken seriously as a scientist/lots of funding there he probably would. Drabble suggestion anyone...

I'd never thought of that, but in the days of the "space race" it would certainly have been a possibility ... *shoos bunnies away*.

#15: Author: LizzieC, Location: Canterbury, UK

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 12:17 pm
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Alison H wrote:

Alex wrote:

I'd never thought of that, but in the days of the "space race" it would certainly have been a possibility ... *shoos bunnies away*.

*sprinkles bunny food in a circle around Alison*

#16: Author: JustJen, Location: waiting for spring training

Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 2:30 pm
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Defect to the Iron Curtian? Oh that sound like a lovely plot bunny!
Offers bunnies bribes and shoos them towards Alex and Alison.

#17: Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 10:00 pm
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Katherine wrote:

And he met up with Ted Humphries . . .

Erm, who has been fairly definitely dead for almost twenty years by this point... Confused

#18: Author: Sugar, Location: second star to the right!

Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 10:23 pm
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maybe he ended up behind the iron curtain too!!!

#19: Author: Katherine, Location: London, UK

Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 1:44 pm
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KB wrote:

Katherine wrote:

And he met up with Ted Humphries . . .

Erm, who has been fairly definitely dead for almost twenty years by this point...t Confused

Ahhh, That's what they want us to think . . .

#20: Author: Alex, Location: Cambs, UK

Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 1:59 pm
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KB wrote:

Katherine wrote:

And he met up with Ted Humphries . . .

Erm, who has been fairly definitely dead for almost twenty years by this point... Confused

Fairly definitely eh? Sounds like there's room for error there. There's no mention of a funeral, is there? These climbing accidents, so convenient.

I'm not writing any drabbles until I firmly bury the last one (which gets updated about once a year). Alison'll have to do it.

#21: Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 8:12 pm
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Alex wrote:

KB wrote:

Katherine wrote:

And he met up with Ted Humphries . . .

Erm, who has been fairly definitely dead for almost twenty years by this point... Confused

Fairly definitely eh? Sounds like there's room for error there. There's no mention of a funeral, is there? These climbing accidents, so convenient.

No, but he did die in front of witnesses, so we'd have to believe that Madge and Jem were in some way complicit in the whole thing - or else that they didn't realise he'd faked his death, which would be quite an achievement for an eminent surgeon and a woman who had been around death on a fairly frequent basis for a few years. Still, I'm sure there would be a way around it if one really looked...

#22: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 11:49 pm
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Maybe Madge and Jem were just trying to spare Robin's feelings and thought it'd be better for her to think that he'd died than that he'd abandoned her Wink

#23: Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 12:15 am
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Which just leaves Dr di Bersetti to get out of the picture...

#24: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 5:20 am
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Not really - he was probably recruited by Ted Humphries - all this story about Bette going off to Canada as someone's housekeeper was just a cover story - she joined her husband in Moscow. Wink

#25: Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 6:10 am
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Hmm, well, as far as we know she never replied to Jo's invitation to her house party in Reunion...

#26: Author: Rosie, Location: Land of Three-Quarters Sky

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 10:38 am
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There we are then, proof!

Ish. Wink

#27: Author: Katherine, Location: London, UK

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 1:47 pm
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KB wrote:

What exeactly are we told? Did he die up on the mountain, was the body brought back etc.?

#28: Author: Tan, Location: London via Newcastle Australia

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 2:51 pm
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From memory, we are told that he died in a climbing accident with Dr Bersetti. This is a few months after the actual event and I don't think we are told anything else. I could be wrong ...

#29: Author: Katherine, Location: London, UK

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 3:02 pm
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That’s all I remember too, Tan and I looked it up recently for my Gather drabble. So, unless there’s more detail I’ve missed, that leaves a fair amount of scope for conspiracy theories.

#30: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 3:27 pm
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IIRC he was rushed to hospital and Madge and Jem went to see him, at which point he appointed them Robin's legal guardians. But they could have been in on it, as already said Laughing

#31: Author: Katherine, Location: London, UK

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 3:51 pm
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I have no memory of that. Was it cut from the PB by any chance?

#32: Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 9:51 pm
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Quite possibly. This is the quote from New:

Quote:

They were all anxious to keep the Robin's mind filled with pleasant thoughts. Motherless since she was six, she had lost her father, Captain Humphries, the secretary to the Sonnalpe, early that January. He had taken a mountaineering holiday, in company with Dr di Bersetti, one of the Sonnalpe doctors, and the pair had had an accident, with a rope breaking, and precipitating both down the rock face of the mountain they were climbing. The young doctor had been killed immediately, and Captain Humphries so gravely injured that it was plain he could not live.

Dr and Mrs Russell had flown to him from Innsbruck, and had been in time to hear his last wishes. He had forbidden them to bring the Robin, saying that he wanted her to remember him as she had known him in life. He left her to the Russells, knowing well that they would guard her as well as he could have done. The few possessions he had were in the doctor's care, and he would be her guardian till she was twenty-five.

With tears in her eyes, Madge Russell had promised him to give his little daughter all the loving mothering she gave to her own small pair and her brother's children, also left in her charge, since Dick Bettany was in the Forestry in India, and the climate was not suitable for white children. He gave her hand a quick clasp, as he was then beyond speaking, and turning a little, slipped away to the country where the wife he had adored was waiting for him.

#33: Author: Sugar, Location: second star to the right!

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 10:00 pm
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It is in the pb Katherine

#34: Author: Joyce, Location: Hong Kong

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 6:17 am
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That's actually a really good idea to send Professor Richardson behind the iron curtain. I never really thought about that as a possibility. Maybe that's why the Richardson kids were so cagey about what happened to their father.

Can you imagine if his complete ditziness gets on the Russian's nerves so much that they decide to dump him back in the UK?

One day Joey gets a mysterious phone call from a man with a strong Russian accent ...

Cheers,
Joyce

#35: Author: Katherine, Location: London, UK

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 9:24 am
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Sugar wrote:

It is in the pb Katherine

Sure I don't remember that! Clearly don't take enough in. Smile

On the subject of forcing a Humphries/Richardson pairing. Ted Humphries was well enough to live until Madge and Jem got there and to speak to them. So perhaps he could recover. After all he left the Robin to Madge an went off to Russia before. Why not do it again? And if he was 'dead' then there would be no danger Jem would offer him a job at the Sonnalpe which would get in the way.

#36: Author: Lottie, Location: Humphrey's Corner

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 9:37 am
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Quote:

slipped away to the country where the wife he had adored was waiting for him

So does that mean that Polish Marya has been in Russia for some years at that point?

#37: Author: LizzieC, Location: Canterbury, UK

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 10:50 am
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Lottie wrote:

Quote:

slipped away to the country where the wife he had adored was waiting for him

So does that mean that Polish Marya has been in Russia for some years at that point?

This thread has had me in stitches! *sprinkles around bunny food so we can see a drabble on the subject* Very Happy

#38: Author: Katherine, Location: London, UK

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 12:15 pm
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Quote:

slipped away to the country where the wife he had adored was waiting for him

But of course! How did we not see it?

#39: Author: Alex, Location: Cambs, UK

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 12:38 pm
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I've gone the other way. Ted Humphries definitely fell off a cliff and died. But maybe it wasn't an accident.

#40: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 12:55 pm
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Well, it would have been during the Stalin era, and who knows what the Soviet secret police had found out about Ted's time in Leningrad (or Petrograd as EBD calls it several years after the name had been changed Confused

)?! After all, if he felt unable to take Robin there with him he was obviously up to something dangerous!

#41: Author: Lisa, Location: South Coast of England

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 5:34 pm
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LizzieC wrote:

*sprinkles around bunny food so we can see a drabble on the subject* Very Happy

My bunnies are nibbling at the food - do any other bunnies object ...? Wink

#42: Author: Lottie, Location: Humphrey's Corner

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 5:54 pm
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Lisa wrote:

LizzieC wrote:

*sprinkles around bunny food so we can see a drabble on the subject* Very Happy

My bunnies are nibbling at the food - do any other bunnies object ...? Wink

Go for it, Lisa! I seem to have some nibbling bunnies, too, but there's no reason why we shouldn't both do something (and mine might not make it to the light of day, anyway!).

#43: Author: Katherine, Location: London, UK

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 5:57 pm
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Lisa wrote:

My bunnies are nibbling at the food - do any other bunnies object ...? Wink

Not mine. I think they might be dead I've not heard from them for so long.

#44: Author: Mrs Redboots, Location: London, UK

Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 6:46 pm
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Adds to the piles of bunny food....

#45: Author: Caroline, Location: Manchester

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 8:30 am
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Joyce wrote:

That's actually a really good idea to send Professor Richardson behind the iron curtain. I never really thought about that as a possibility. Maybe that's why the Richardson kids were so cagey about what happened to their father.

And it explains that notebook that no-one could read - it wasn't that the Prof had bad handwriting, it was that the notebook was written in top secret code ... or in Russian, though I think they might have spotted the Cyrillic alphabet...

I love this thread - hope the various sets of bunnies are still biting...
Very Happy

#46: Author: Lottie, Location: Humphrey's Corner

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 10:10 am
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Joey should have been able to read the Russian, but maybe his handwriting was very bad and she didn't recognise it!

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