eerieindiana | Thoughts on the Origin of Dash

The big mystery of Eerie is, of course Dash-X. While the show never did get around to providing answers, a few things can be deducted.

That he's an alien is fairly obvious; while his exact relation to Ned is unknown, it can at least be assumed that they're of the same species.

The symbols on their hands are interesting; something that occurred to me when watching the Hole in the Head gang, when Dash held down the contacts on the battery -- they're not just a dash and an ex; they're not just plus and minus signs; they're positive and negative symbols, like you'll see on each end of a battery. Quite possibly, the species has figured out a way to tap thier body's own energy, like a battery.

In The Loyal Order of Corn, we see what could be examples of this technology -- the doors and cabinet that can only be opened by someone with the marks on their hands could essentially be their planet's version of an automatic door.

As for Ned . . . Ned doesn't strike me as that nice a guy. He asks Marshall to come with him to explore the galaxy, and I felt a sinister undertone. Think about it: He's only met Marshall a few hours previously, and Marshall has presented himself as a nosy kid who asks inconvenient questions. One who, Ned might see, could cause trouble for his replacement if left on Earth. So he tries to take him away (but only willingly, with both his parents there to witness, so as to avoid other inconveniences for his replacement). Marshall's lucky he said no -- I doubt he'd have liked what he'd find on the other side of the portal. Ned would see Simon as less of a concern -- with all due respect to Simon, it would be fair for Ned to view him as a foolish child who was stupid enough to get stuck on Pluto.

Perhaps Dash's habit of looking out for himself, regardless of the harm that might come to others as a result, is a trait of his species. It would likely be different around his own kind, but see Ned -- even the Order, the people closest to him, he treats as slaves in mind-control hats. Marshall's influence on Dash is stronger than we've realized, if it needs to overcome a biological trait. It's an interesting example of Nature vs. Nurture, and I wish the series had lasted long enough to explore it.

Then again, this might be a case where we've put more thought into it than the show's writers did, having years to consider it when they'd only have a few weeks to write up a script.

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I don't think Ned seemed that terrible exactly, will have to re-watch mind you, but I thought he wanted Marshall along because Marshall had the spirit of exploration and adventure.

Hmmm...might add more to this later, a bit busy now but I do adore Dash's character and feel sorry for him. I think both he and Simon have some very tragic moments that are kind of brushed over. I mean Simon's parents are just awful and Dash has been dropped into some place with no memory of who he is and a strong will to survive at any cost.

Not terrible so much as asocial -- he doesn't interact with the Order members, and comments a bit too casually about how things were easier after he invented the mind-control hats. And again, he'd barely met Marshall and didn't really try to get to know him before giving the invite. Possibly he didn't intend to kill Marshall, but take him back as a live specimen of an Earth creature, perhaps . . .

Yep. Rewatching as an adult, it's shocking how much they got away with on the show. Simon's parents . . . *shudder*

God, do you remember that bit in, I think it's ATM With A Heart Of Gold, when simon and Mars are in Simon's room and there's the sound of a man and a woman laughing in the next room, and Mars is like, "Looks like your mum and dad made up," and Simon just says really flatly, "That's not my mum." I was like, oh my GOD! You can't say that on a kids' TV show! And then I laughed.

I think it was "My mom's out of town."

Poor Simon. I think the only reason they got away with it because most kids wouldn't know what adultery was, and might just think his dad was having a party when she wasn't home, like their older siblings do when their parents are away . . .

Oh, how I have a mouthful to say on this subject.

I think we get a few clues from Ned as to how he and Dash are related, namely when Dash asks him if he is his father: "If only it were as simple as that." This led me to believe that he was either 1) a clone or 2) somehow created from Ned's DNA. I noticed the battery thing, too, and I like your theory about their alien race having learned to channel energy.

My cousin and I, for our ginormous fanfiction/comic "The Eerie Project", go into an entire section about Dash's origins. Basically, he was created by scientists on Ned's world using Ned's DNA and DNA from a woman they snatched from Eerie (by pure coincidence). When his abilities (similar to your theory about channeling energy- in our case, he can manipulate metal and electricity) failed to manifest on their world, the scientists erased his memories and sent him through another portal- which happened to end up in Eerie. So there's my two cents on the issue.

On a related note, I love your icon. <3

Hmm . . . but consider that Ned had been stuck on Earth since 1908, and had to build the entire setup from scratch; no rescue party was sent out, and he likely had little to no contact with his homeworld. Thus, snatching a woman from Eerie (coincidence isn't needed; Eerie can be considered a magnet of weirdness for the planet, and thus it would only be inevitable that aliens would be drawn there) would either be impossible, or they'd been able to travel back and forth from Eerie and Ned will be incredibly annoyed when he finds out that they were in the area and didn't pick him up. Born from similar gene strands? Quite possible.

Since Dash's memories start from only three months prior to his initial appearance on the show, but he speaks perfect English and has made several comments indicating a solid grasp of history, literature, survival skills, and weapons use, I'd say that wherever he started from, they uploaded a thorough Earth database into his brain before he escaped/was dropped off.

Thanks for the input- we're still ironing out specific details, so anything to fix the loopholes helps. :)

As for Ned, it's possible that his DNA had been stored beforehand, in the event that something did happen (for what purpose? who knows?) and the scientists decided to use it because, after so long, they didn't believe he was coming back and thus would never find out about their using it. That, or they gave up on him altogether, which would explain them neglecting to take him when they took the woman from Eerie. A lot could've changed on that world in 90 or so years. It could also be possible that they didn't realize he was there- as Ned said, he landed in Siberia first.

And yeah, Dash knowing all that about history? Maybe he's a computer! No, kidding, but uploading info into his brain is a likely theory.

Yeah, it's good to have someone to bounce ideas off of. *grin*

As I said, common genetic strand is plausable enough. In any case, he'd be annoyed at them when he got back with knowledge they'd been there and didn't bother checking for him.

But then, Ned seemed to have been aware of Dash being in Eerie already -- putting out the sign, apparently in an effort to directly seek another of his kind, and he was aware that Dash had no knowledge of thier race. Perhaps an experiment on Ned's part, a cloned replacement he grew on his own -- perhaps with a few bugs ironed out, so Dash would become ageless at an earlier point and not be stuck as an old guy for a century. There was some glitch in the clone tank, and Dash got released early. On his own, in Eerie, with no actual memories and no means to support himself, he did what he could and became the Dash we meet in Hole in the Head Gang. Ned noticed him in town and put up the notice in hopes of drawing him in, to take up the role that Ned had intended for him.

Well, I've seen it in other storylines involving clones -- to speed up the rate at which they can develop, language files and so forth are loaded directly into their brains so they don't have to spend an extra decade in Clone School.

maybe dash is ned.
that was my original thoughts on this.

it may be that i had just watched the missing hour episode directly before seeing that one for the first time. but the thing that strikes me about it is where Marshall meets himself.
i think that this gives precedent for time travel in the eerie universe.

But that wasn't time travel, as such; that was Marshall meeting an older version of himself in a place that was, effectively, outside of time. It's not the same as two of him showing up in main-continuity Eerie.

exactly, in theory you could go through it, and exit at the point where a younger version of yourself came through (thinking in the practical applications of it) maybe there is other ways too.

. . . no, not really. It only allowed you to exit at the year appropriate to your age (as we see with Janet); beyond resetting your watch and going to the specific location, there was no way of 'tuning in' to a specific year. If it were otherwise, Marshall would have had to instruct himself to do something specific in order to avoid exiting at the wrong year.

i'll have to sit down and re watch it.

Thoughts on the Origin of Dash

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