Matt writes...

Hi Greg,
In “Targets” the peace conferences or negotiations between North and South Rhelasia were being held in Taipei. However, few countries â€"and no countries in Asia- have diplomatic relations with Taiwan (the Republic of China) due to pressure from mainland China (the People’s Republic of China). And since I’m pretty sure the Rhelasias would have to have diplomatic relations with the ROC in order to hold the talks there, I was wondering if this was accounted for while writing the episode. Were these politics considered?

Of course, this isn’t really important to the episode and you can always just say that on Earth 16 the ROC has wide diplomatic recognition.

I also noticed that Taipei has been used for several scenes since "Targets," most recently in "Misplaced" when the team is broadcasting a message to the children of the world. Was Taipei used again to create a sense of resonance between episodes? Was it so you could reuse some material -such as a background- to keep the budget down? Or for a different reason entirely?

Thanks