In the ■■■■■■■ match that occurs between Dr. Venkman and Peck, I’ve wondered since childhood if the disaster with the Grid could have been averted?
Obviously the shouting match that happened in Venkman’s office was the result of the two abrasive personalities clashing. But let’s say for instance, Stanz had the office upstairs and handled more of the business-end of the Ghostbusters. Or, Venkman had been more convienial, and had humored Peck and actually showed him the Grid.
Let’s examine first, Peck’s interest in the Ghostbusters. “Frankly, there’s been a lot of wild stories in the media and we want to assess, any possible, environmental impact from your operation.” - Says it in a nutshell. His perserverance on this ideal is an obvious foolhardy attempt to climb the ladder at the EPA, rather than an environmentally conscious, and ethically obligated investigation into the Ghostbusters.
But I think that Venkman might have shown him the grid if Peck hadn’t been such a jerk…OR he wouldn’t have shown him at all, to protect the tech that makes Ghostbusting possible. But part of me thinks, once Peck got down there into the basement, he would immediately might’ve spotted something wrong - anything nuclear or laser operated would’ve been a red flag - and thus subject to more scrutiny, which might have produced the same results - a shutting down of the constainment system ultimately.
We all know of course, that the Ecto-Containment system isn’t nuclear - but rather, it utilizes an electrically powered laser orientated mode of storage via an algorithim on the atomic level, devised by Dr. Stanz and Dr. Spengler. But perhaps the use of lasers in this way, (by Cold War-era early 1980’s EPA standards) an egregious no-no.
But this points to the overall unmentioned secrecy surrounding the Ghostbusters technology. I’m sure they never applied for patents, as the Ghostbusters proton packs are basically unlicensed nuclear accelerators. So in this regard, I think they are operating outside the law. After the defeat of Gozer, the 5 year long fall-out thereafter, court proceedings, and the subsequent lifting of the judicial restrainment order, Ghostbusting’s science demonstrated itself as a useful defensive technology that was allowed certain concessions, later operating within the bureaucratic and generally ignored regulatory policies of PCOC.
But in 1984, I’m sure Stanz, Venkman, and Spengler were leery of Governmental regulatory oversights, as Ghostbusting at this point, was just an advanced form of pest-control. So in general, I think that if the heated argument between Peck and Venkman had not taken place, the EPA would have assuredly found something wrong, and shut them down, OR another government agency would’ve swooped in and done something similar. Ghostbusting, as a business, with the technology required of it, couldn’t have survived for long in the 1980’s without some sort of government intervention.
