Updated 21/05/04

Dear Johnny Fanboy,

While watching the recent DVD release of the first season of Roswell (or Roswell High as we Brits know it) I noticed a possible nit-pick.

In the episode 285 South, when the alien kids (along with Liz and Maria) finally track down the dome from Michael's vision, why is the secret entrance protected by a key? Yes, it makes sense to protect the secret area from prying eyes, but when the five kids need to escape in a hurry in the following episode, River Dog, they do so by leaving via a tunnel which opens out into a very visible hatch just metres away from the dome.

Wouldn't it have made sense to hide the escape route a little better? Surely someone would get inquisitive and try to open the hatch...

Yours,

Hailey Ennenvader

Johnny Fanboy replies:

Let's assume that the hatch can only be opened from the inside. That way, curious passers-by would still not be able to enter the dome without the proper key.

It's true that, if a potential intruder were really determined, he or she could break into the hatch using a blowtorch, cutting tools or dynamite. However, the dome (which, with its white paint job, is a much more prominent target) appears to be equally vulnerable to such methods of incursion.

Hailey Ennenvader retaliates:

Perhaps I didn't make my original question detailed enough. I was actually talking about the security of the hidden room underneath the dome.

The dome is there, fair enough. Anyone passing by might pop in, wander around and then bugger off, since the secret room is well hidden. They would not even suspect that there was a hidden room. However, stick a great big exit hatch in the ground metres away and surely someone is going to ask, "What's that for?"

So the question I should really have asked is: why make it obvious there is a secret room under the dome by putting a large exit hatch in the ground? They might as well have had a neon sign saying: "Don't look here! This is not a secret escape hatch!"

Johnny Fanboy replies:

Personally, I don't think it looks like an escape hatch unless you already know that it is one. Rather, I think it resembles an ordinary entry/exit point to a perfectly normal pipeline - you know, of the type from which Sean Connery escaped in Diamonds Are Forever.

Therefore, that exit would be unlikely to attract anyone's attention, unless that person was already on the lookout for a secret room or its escape hatch.

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