Location

Australia

Australia unfolds as a vast, sun‑burned sweep of coastline and interior that sits beneath the shuttle's orbital track — a remote cartographic anchor more than a lived set piece. In Toby's office at night Bartlet cites 'over Australia' as a longitudinal marker that removes the craft from immediate sight, turning distance into anxiety. The region reads as expansive, out-of-reach, and functionally defined by radio coordinates and ground‑track telemetry rather than by street‑level detail.

2 events

2 rich involvements

Detailed Involvements

Events with rich location context

S1E22 · What Kind Of Day Has It Been

Reality Check: Redundancy, Wrench, and Responsibility

Australia is evoked as the shuttle's current orbital position, a geographic marker that compresses distance into anxiety — it tells Toby the craft is out of immediate sight but still trackable, informing timing and available options.

Atmosphere

Distant and abstract — a map coordinate that increases emotional distance while clarifying orbital geometry.

Functional Role

Temporal/geographical reference that situates Columbia's orbit and informs mission timing.

Symbolic Significance

Represents the remote, uncontrollable scale of space contrasted with human attempts at intervention.

Named in dialogue as 'over Australia now' to indicate orbital position Functions as an out‑of‑reach spatial datum rather than a lived place in the scene

S1E22 · What Kind Of Day Has It Been

Doubt and Duty: Toby's Reluctant Walk to the Plane

Australia is invoked as the shuttle's current ground-track location: a distant, out-of-reach point that heightens the sense of separation between those on Earth and the crew in orbit.

Atmosphere

Geographic distance contributes to helplessness and anxiety — an expansive, remote presence in the technical briefing.

Functional Role

Temporal and spatial anchor for orbital geometry and contingency planning.

Symbolic Significance

Represents emotional and operational distance, increasing the stakes of any delay or malfunction.

vast, sunburned sweep beneath the orbital track (conceptual) radio coordinates and telemetry references tying it to mission timing

Events at This Location

Everything that happens here

S1E22 · What Kind Of Day Has It Been

Reality Check: Redundancy, Wrench, and Responsibility

In Toby's office at night, President Bartlet cuts through technical jargon and Toby's private terror with a concise, humanizing briefing: redundancy in the shuttle's RCS, Atlantis on the pad, and …

S1E22 · What Kind Of Day Has It Been

Doubt and Duty: Toby's Reluctant Walk to the Plane

In a quiet, tense moment in Toby's office President Bartlet confronts Toby's private panic. Bartlet translates technical contingencies into blunt reassurance — RCS redundancy, Atlantis on the pad, 'a five‑dollar …