A couple of Uni friends were up this weekend, and were curious to see what all this Star Fleet malarkey was about. Interestingly, both had vague memories of aspects of the show but weren't sure whether it was from comics or actually having watched it.

Anyway, it came to me in explaining a few things to them (we watched The Thalian Space Wars - which was funny, because I had to explain that Lamia wasn't pissed off at Shiro in the final few minutes because the Mon Mon episode hadn't happened yet!) that Shiro doesn't know Lamia.

I thought "Hang on. Professor Hagen is Shiro's Dad - how did Shiro not notice him raising Lamia?! Kirara's not exactly inconspicuous!" The only even vaguely plausible explanation I can come up with is that Shiro was attending the academy on Earth at the time when Prof Hagen found Lamia. There is mention in an early episode that Shiro hasn't seen his Dad for some time - obviously partly due to him being lost in space!

The other possibility, I think, is that in the original Japanese version of the story Shiro and Lamia were actually, effectively, brother and sister - this would explain the intimacy between the two and Shiro's willingness to trust her before the other two. It would also allow Barry to be in love with her and Shiro to be jealous of Halley - but in a protective way, rather than a jealous way.

Can anyone suggest any other reasons for why Shiro (apparently) hadn't met Lamia before?

Cheers
Andy

Must admit Andy i had thought the same thing when i watched the series.As you have mentioned,Shiro did mention he hadn't seen his dad for a long time.Now with him and Lamia being a similar age he must not have seen his dad since he was a baby!Shiro is 18 in the series yes?He would have noticed Lamia surely if he had still been around his dad when he found the capsule on Mars.So i think working it out that he had not seen his dad since birth WOW what a lousy dad Mr Hagen was then don't you think!Does this make sense?

Yes, that would be my take on it Gareth... I'm not sure about Shiro's age, though - if you were to look at how long it would take to become a fully trained pilot in conventional terms, you'd probably be early 20s? If I were to really stretch things, I could believe that Lamia grew up faster because she didn't come from Earth - although I think that would have been a dead giveaway for her and others that she wasn't human.

I'd have to watch the episode again, but how much does Dr Benn tell her about her origins? How was Kirara's presence explained to her? Not your average nanny after all! I suppose it's possible that Prof Hagen raised her in relative secrecy on Mars, and wasn't actually there with her that much, while Shiro was brought up elsewhere. He then went off to the academy and Lamia went to Moon Base, perhaps when Dr Benn became her guardian.

You can see why I was thinking about writing a backstory if only in a timeline sort of way - there's a lot that isn't clear about the years before the events portrayed in the series. It would be interesting to get an actual translation of the original Japanese storyline - although I think the Manga Max article would probably have noted any major differences. If, for example, Professor Hagen wasn't actually Shiro's Dad but a relative - that might work.

Cheers
Andy

It's a real mystery: The hagen Family.
I once even thought that Shiro might have been a genetic experiment, as Prof Hagen was always designing things like super robots, prototype vessels, giant laser cannons, maybe he built shiro as an experiment and loved him like a son anyway. Ok this is just an imaginative theory, and I'm not sure I believe it myself but it's the sort of thing you could dream up to make any new stories more interesting. There was never any mention of Shiro's mother though was there? I guess he could have raised Lamia in secret, but that would have meant him not seeing his son since he was 2, thats one hell of a price to pay for keeping the identity of the F01 secret.

Aah that would explain why Shiro was dire when it came to geting it on with the women.No Mother around!Poor Shiro had no chance with Lamia,bless him!A dad that was never around,no mention of his mum and the one woman he fancied turned out to be an alien and his step sister!Life's a bummer when your a Star Fleet space cadet