THE SENTINEL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS


These questions and answers are a compilation of discussions and questions asked on the mailing lists attached to the archive. The questions and responses come from any number of list sibs. I truly hope this page comes in handy for someone.


Q. Were Blair & Jim's birthdays ever established on the show? I mean do we have their birthdates or at least the month?
A. Blair was born in 1969 (just like Garett himself) . You might want to go with the actor's birthday, May 24th, 1969.
A. There is a web site that has a copy of Jim's police ID from the Sentinel's prop dept. which gives his b-day as Feb. 23, 1962


Q. In canon, how does Jim take his coffee?
A. Coffee....In the episodes I've paid attention Simon's offering coffee, no sugar, no cream in evidence. makes me suspect he's a take it straight kind of guy.


Q. Other than sports, was there ever any mention of television shows that Jim watched?
A. The Program Bonanza...yea, he was into the fifth episode, if I'm not mistaken...But he was watching to learn a Texas accent. Although he either had to go out and rent the tapes, I supect, or have them hidden somewhere in the loft, cuz I sure don't think they would have had a "oh, look how lucky I am..a Bonanza marathon just when I need it" type thing going on


Q. Is Blair a Vegetarian?
A1. Blair is not a vegetarian, just likes to eat healthy. I'm pretty sure Naomi is a vegetarian tho.
A2. Blair struck me as the type to eat the kinds of meat with little fat and hight nutrition value. Like the ostrich Chili he made.
A3. It is cannon. He eats hot-dogs, Mr. T hot-dogs, At Jag games in the park, points lasers at them, but he WILL NOT eat them with fermented cabbage. . . That is gross. Blair eats almost anything else. I have at least 5 places that I can point out that he will eat hot dogs, 3 that he will eat pizza, (the golden esp.) In the episode that He has dinner with Jim and Cassie wells, He talks about ordering lobster and letting her pay for it. At another place He orders stake rare.
His bitching at Jim about his diet is mostly that Jim eats junk food. A look at his desk when Maya helps organize his office showed that he had a lot of junk food warpers there also. It is in my option a control thing. Jim bitches about the algae shakes, and Blair about his diet.
A4. NAOMI said on the show that she was a vegetarian but Blair "loves it so much" (boiled tongue)....
A5. In Spare Parts, she indicated that she was vegetiarian, but that Blair loved tongue, so she was cooking one for him...and, at the end, Jim was eating and enjoying it...


Q. What Does Jim's Chopec name, E"nquiri" mean?
A. This question was forwarded to a Starman fan and student of Quecha, as well as a student of the language used in Alien Nation.....She has helpped this list sib understand various aspects of language...Here is her reply:
Well, I assume that this word is pronounced as in Spanish, and in commonly used Quechua orthographies it is more likely to spelled "Enkiri." And in Quechua, the "e" and "i" vowels are the same phoneme, basically interchangeable, and in most dialects of Quechua the word would be "Inkiri."
I don't know any Quechua word that matches this word "inkiri" exactly, but I will ask on the Quechua list, because there are people there who know a lot more Quechua than I do. However, I know some similar words. "Kiri" means "wound," and if the "en" were a Spanish prefix (hybrid Spanish-Quechua words are not unheard of) that means the same as "in" in English -- thus as a hybrid Spanish-Quechua word it could mean "in-wound."
There is also the word "erqe" or "irki" which means "child." (In Ecuadorean Quichua the -ri suffix is reflexive, so conceivably "irkirik" could mean "one who turns himself into a child.") "Inkiri" also suggests the word "Inca" (Inka) which in Quechua means a member of the nobility, but the "a" ending would not be changed to add another suffix. The verb "itiri" (or "itiriy") means to remove oneself, go apart from other people, and "itiriq" (or "itirik") would mean one who removes himself from other people.
I suspect -- does this fit the chronology of the show? -- that this word and the word "Chopec" were created =before= the producers got the idea of using the Quechua language in the show. The word "Chopec" itself would seem in Quechua to be "Chupayuq" or "Chupiyuq" -- the first means "possessor of a tail," and the second means "possessor of potato soup."
HOWEVER -- whoa, this is interesting. The word for "watcher," "spy," or "SENTINEL" in Ecuadorean Quichua is "Chapak"! Very similar to "Chopec," even though "a" and "o" are =not= interchangeable in Quechua.
Anyway, as I was saying, I have a feeling that when the producers created these words they were not thinking about Quechua, so you have to retrofit the words, and you can use the Chopecs' local accent as an excuse for the deviation from "standard" Quechua. (Quechua used to be used as a lingua franca in the western Amazon -- though nowadays Spanish is more likely to be used -- and there are a lot of local variations based on the people's local pronunciations and grammar.)
I think that the most likely words you could use to retrofit "Enkiri" into Quechua would either be "erqe / irki" (child) or "kiri" (wound) or "itiriq" (one who removes himself from others) and then blame the extra or missing sounds on the Chopecs' own original language or on Spanish.
addendum---The lady that posted this almost always watches Sentinel with the CLOSED CAPTIONING on....That is the source for knowing that Jim Ellison and ....his Chopec guide are talking in QUECHA.


Q. Do we know anything about Blair's non-anthro studies in collage?
A. Both Blair and Cassie have had college classes in interior design and have lots of skills that could be used in that field It is Cannon. Jim even said that they should go into a working partnership together, and have the loft that was just shot up be the first job.)


Q. Does anyone know if Jim practices any martial arts? And has anyone thought of including Jim doing an exercise routine that includes martial arts?
A1. I would assume Jim was instructed in some form of martial arts in special ops. However, the way he fought in the series didn't remind me of any particular form of karate or ju jitsu or what have you?
A2. No idea if he practices martial arts but I've been thinking about writting a story where he does Capoeira. Its a martial art that incoporates dance... originates from the slave days and it's great to watch.
A3. They never actually metioned Jim practicing any martial arts on the show. Being a Ranger he is taught hand to hand combat but it's not really a martial art. It's more of a dirivitive.
A4. I think martial arts and think, Jackie Chan and people like that. LOL Jim never would have cut it. He's not into Martial arts. He's more into staring someone down and scaring them with his gun. :)
A5. Yes, Jim got his but kicked a lot. Blair at some point (Hope that I am not miss remembering fan fiction from the show) was doing a tie Chi movement. He might have taught Jim something like that as a form of meditation. Jim as far as I know never talked about any marshal arts, but had special forces training that is a mix of all things.
A6. Yeah, but Jim can't hang onto his gun!!! LOL So I guess he's down to the intimidation factor with his stares and his body language
A7. When he does mix it up physically he seems to depend more on sheer strength than on solid technique. Of course, there's a lot of strength there.

Q. I have been wondering since I saw S2pt1, why is it that when Alex Barnes comes into Blair's office, she pulls a gun on him, but then he ends up face down in the fountain?
A1. It's one of the mysteries of the ages
A2. I'm thinking she used the gun to subdue him. Maybe hit him in the back of the head at the fountain. There was no mention of a head injury, but I know I'm not going to put my face down in water and breath while I can still fight. Don't see Blair doing it either.


Q. Made me wonder, how do you pronounce "Maggart"? Does it rhyme with Taggart or MacArt?
A1. MAG - art (like the beginning of Magnet) (like Art class) {emphasis on the first syllable}
R1. Okay, so it's GARett MAGgart. Thank You!


Q. Blair has a relative living in Cascade. An uncle I think, but correct me if I'm wrong on the relationship, who is a book-maker. Can anyone help with the relationship and name.
A1. The relative in question is a cousin, I am not sure to what degree; I don't recall his name, however. His last name *is* Sandburg, I'm fairly sure.
R1. Well, I assume it's a relative of Naomi's... being as he doesn't know who is father is. But I don't know for sure that the last name was Sandburg
A2. The relative's name is Robert, and he's a cousin.


Q. Were any other relatives mentioned?
A. Well in 'Spare Parts' he tells Jim he spent a Summer driving across country in his uncle's rig and he did half the driving. He never names the uncle though.
R. Did he mention if he was working out of Cascade or some other city while he did the driving stint?
A. All he says is that he drove across country. he never says if it was out of cascade.


Q. Blair has quite a history for being in Cascade...growing up..(can't remember the ep...second question, although Blair is world traveled...oh boy is he...how long has he lived in Cascade.
A1. he's been at Rainier since he was 16. I'm not sure if he lived in Cascade before that or not. I get the feeling that Cascade was a place they often returned to... sort of an odd sort of home base... but that could just be my perception
A2. Yeah, that's cannon. In 'Smart Alec' his advisor talks about how Blair has been at Rainier since he was Sixteen
A3. Blair did his undergraduate at Rainier; I don't know if he also did his master's there (I vaguely remember some references to doing his master's in Chicago, although a] I'm not sure if it is canon or fanfic and b] I'm not sure if it was the University of Chicago or one of the other fine schools in that area {e.g. Loyola, Northwestern, University of Illinois at Chicago, etc.})


Q. I'm having a slight disagreement with someone over the identity of the dog in "Blind Man's Bluff" Another person swears it is Lola, but I keep saying that it looks NOTHING like a catahoula, it looks like a golden retriever to me.
A1. The dog in "Blind Man's Bluff" is a Golden Retreiver and is actually Richard Burgi's dog, Gus =)



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