But we have no proof that the NHS gave George Odi, in fact from what we've seen so far it seems fairly likely that they did not.

I don't dispute that it makes sense for the NHS to keep tabs on a synth that is taking care of somebody vulnerable. What I am saying is that at the point when the synth is judged to be too faulty to safely and adequately provide that care then, given the situation where the synth belongs to the person (wasn't provided by the NHS in the first place), the response should surely be something along the lines of 'your current synth is not up to our required standards and so we will give you a new synth to provide you with the care you need' and not 'we will now take your synth away and replace it with this new one'.

To use your respirator example it's like you buying your own respirator and then a couple of years later the NHS checks it and finds it to be faulty. Surely you would expect them simply to issue a new one for you to use, you would not expect them to say you could have the new one only if you gave them your old one to be recycled.

If you mean recording broadcasts as a PVR I can thoroughly recommend EyeTV, from Elgato. I got it for our G5 iMac about nine years ago and am still using it on the iMac we got two years ago. It just deals with basic Freeview SD recordings, one channel at a time but Elgato now have versions for satellite and multi-channel recordings.

Simple to connect - aerial lead goes into device, USB lead connects to the Mac. You need a decent-size hard-drive if you intend to keep recordings - a 60min BBC Four show can take up to 2.3 GB.

As with any PVR, you need a good connection to a rooftop aerial - don't rely on the supplied stick antenna unless you live right under the transmitter

Options allow for export to iTunes for AppleTV, or to iPod.

Check the Elgato website, EyeTV section.

Disclaimer: My only connection with Elgato is as a satisfied customer.

Sorry to bring this up again (no pun intended) but I have just recovered from a 36-hour bout of food poisoning and have only just caught up with this fascinating thread.

Regarding the debate about whether Laura called Anita Mia during the kitchen conversation about music. I know L_Silverwolf and several others have satisfied themselves that Laura didn't in fact say Mia. but there was some debate as to whether the wording had been changed between the original C4 programme and the 4od version.

However, It was Laura interjecting when Anita said: “I compare the pitch, tonality and rhythm of the performance to the sheet music that I access via…”

Laura interjects with: “No, do you think anything of it?"

Laura actually says the word "No" just before Anita says the word "via" which could have been mistaken for Laura saying "No, Mia"

This is from my PVR's original recording of the June 14 first episode and is backed up by the episode's subtitles. So, I'm not an expert but I would say nothing has been changed since the original broadcast on C4.

This is just what they want you to say! Clearly a victim of post-hypnotic suggestive subliminal brainwashing digital skullduggery just like the rest of us

Oh stop bloody moaning about how others view a programme and use technology.
I like posting in real time, you get a good spontaneous convo.
I don't miss the story either. It's called multitasking.

I've played it back and Ellen Thomas explains it by saying the law requires her to give the companion the once over and if the D series fails the check George gets one of the new ones whether he likes it or not. So we just have to accept that in the world they have created that is the law.

It makes sense to me because a faulty synth is potentially dangerous and I would imagine they can also recycle bits of what are very expensive machines.

The thing that confuses me is that Odi is only 6 years old (ie George has had him for 6 years) and yet I got the impression that George was invovled in the synth design and Odi was part of that.

Anita can certainly deceive. For example, what she said caused Laura to think it was Sophie who wanted her to read, when it was actually Anita's. I think she did this by omission ("Sophie changed her mind [because I persuaded her to]"), but that's surely beyond what a normal synch could do. She also let Laura get hurt during cooking in the first episode, which a normal synth would have prevented.


Niska has been raped several times a day for the last several weeks. Her only friends let it happen to her, and wouldn't let her leave that place. She has quite a jaded view of humanity, and possible PTSD as well.


To me it seems more like giving someone a sample of my DNA, or a scan of my brain. It may (largely) be what makes me, me, but it's not at a level that other people normally access. If I ran on code, I'd want to keep that code secret. You could surely find out all kinds of private things about me from it. So I doubt it's part of the normal "sharing" that synths do; and even if it is, the special synths don't do it. It could probably be explained, but it seemed a bit odd to me without an explanation.

Did the dad of the house have sex with Anita. Did i miss it

^^ Nope. She got scraped in the crash, and she said he had to examine all her skin to look for damage. All that that happened is he stared at her naked for a bit. He was embarrassed and awkward about it, rather than lecherous.

(I say "she said", because I couldn't help wonder whether it was really necessary, or whether it was a move towards seducing him. Much of what she does seems ambivalently self-serving.)

He was crouching down in front of her embarrasedly repeating to himself 'It's not real, It's not real' - so I'm thinking Anita must look pretty realisticaly like a human female antaomically.....
A Synth built for just housework, wouldn't need such detail, would it? So maybe that's another way to tell that Anita is not just a standard production model....

Of course if they had taken an Au Pair as their model for a housework drone, then perhaps full sexual shenaningans capability was thought to be needed.

Erm... "The deluxe is the one with the real hair"... (worth a STFW)


Ooh, take your mind out of those filthy readers' letters!

When he bought her he was given the 18+ upgrade option so I suppose she'd need to be pretty realistic for any man to want to download that software!

The advanced synths are like a family unit. They may not share with others but I don't see any reason why they wouldn't be intimately familiar with each others' base code. They would have been living with their creator who would have been working on the code all the time.

Even if they didn't know every line of it I expect that it is radically different to a normal synth so just a glimpse of the structure would have told them that the code was from one of them.

I hadn't realised it was an upgrade. I thought it was just documentation of how to access the feature!

I assume it's an upgrade. They wouldn't want it to be a feature already installed in case a teenager hacked into it and activated it! Either way they'd need the body to be realistic looking.

In that instance she was reacting to protect the daughter so it was accidental or a case of priority.


I don't think there has been any indication of different types of Synths? I think they are all built to a standard specification.

The home helper for the aged one looked especially suited to her job to me. Stronger, older, physically less attractive, but quite imposing and not someone you'd want to mess with. Maybe she's less detailed anatomically. Or maybe they are all designed broadly the same, but come out with random variations, and then they look at them and decide what kinds of role they'd be suited for.

My thoughts exactly, the older two are both dark, only the little girl has some ginger traces. Also can I ask do any of the synths ever change there clothes? Anita has been wearing that same outfit since the first episode.

That doesn't necessarily follow. I know one couple who have blonde hair. One child is blonde, one dark brunette and the other very ginger.

I'm quite surprised a synth as advanced as Anita can' t detect damage to her own 'bodywork'.

I agree, it's not difficult. Teenagers seemingly do not spend any time watching TV without their phone or laptop open. As a slightly older than teenage person, I am like this, but not to the same degree.

There is even some telly I wouldn't dream of watching without my phone or lappy open, to natter along with strangers. *shrug*

I thought that too. Somehow, I don't think George will be accessing the 18+ feature on his new synth.

She can - she said it was an insurance requirement to have someone confirm her own diagnostic though.

I don't think it would have an 18+ feature on it

Anyone else on here live?