Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 192

Shout-Out to Jack Dann and Joseph F. Patrouch

This came up at Monday's conference on Touching the Face of the Cosmos: On the Intersection of Space Travel and Religion, which I organized at Fordham University.  It arose in my answer to a question I posed to the panel on "Science Fiction Looks at Space Travel and Religion" about what was each panelist's most memorable, profound, or otherwise significant example of a science fiction story, book, movie, or TV series they read or saw, in which the subject was space travel and religion.  On the panel with me were David Walton, Alex Shvartzman, and Lance Strate.  Among others in the audience were conference participants Guy Consolmagno, Molly Vozick-Levinson, Brittany Miller, Michael Waltemathe, James Heiser, Mark Shelhamer, and Tom Klinkowstein.

It was a tough question to answer - there are so many good candidate stories on page and screen - but I figured I owed my panelists and the audience my own answer.  That was actually easy for me - it was Jack Dann's Wandering Stars: An Anthology of Jewish Fantasy and Science Fiction, which is just what it sounds like.  I found it in the Science Fiction Shop - a bookstore I discovered on Hudson Street in Greenwich Village one afternoon in 1974.   I had grown up on science fiction in the 1950s and early 1960s.  (I have many times told the story of how I was banned from my Junior High School Library in 1958 by Mrs. Dayson, the librarian, because I refused to read anything other than science fiction.)  But by the early 1970s, I was more into music and protesting against the Vietnam War than I was into science fiction.  Jack Dann's anthology changed all that forever - rekindled a passion for science fiction (soon as a writer as well as reader) that would never leave me.  And it also deepened my interest in Judaism - my religion - at least a little.

Isaac Asimov wrote the Introduction to Wandering Stars - come to think of it, that's likely what gave me the idea to get Asimov to write the Preface to my own anthology, not science fiction, In Pursuit of Truth: On the Philosophy of Karl Popper, nearly ten years later.  The other book that I bought in the Science Fiction Shop that day was Joseph F. Patrouch's The Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov.  It was the first lengthy assessment of Asimov's work I'd ever read. I devoured it.  I still think it's the best.

Jack Dann and I have become friends (and he has a wonderful novella in the first Touching the Face of the Cosmos volume).  I exchanged paper mail with Joseph Patrouch some decades ago.   The Science Fiction Shop has long since closed.  But those books by Dann and Patrouch will live forever.






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The Americans 6.3: Stan and Oleg / Elizabeth's Fate

For some reason, the scene that most is still playing in my head in The Americans 6.3 - a moody episode, which little action until the end - is the one with Stan and Oleg.

Stan repeatedly pleads to Oleg that Stan did his very best to protect Oleg, especially when he got back in The USSR.  Oleg doesn't believe him.  We know that Stan is telling the truth - for the most part - and this makes Stan's last words to Oleg all the more touching.  You don't have diplomatic immunity, Stan reminds him, which means you can be arrested and thrown in jail and worse if you engage in any espionage here.  Stan knows that Oleg isn't telling the truth when he says he's just here for the college course.  Stan therefore knows that Oleg is vulnerable, and Stan really doesn't want to see Oleg arrested and worse.  Yet, we and Stan both know, when Stan asks Oleg what he's doing here, and Oleg lies in his answer and Stan knows he's lying, that Oleg is going to end up not very well in this final season.

Which brings us to that ending.  This is now the third week in a row in as many episodes this season that Elizabeth has killed an American, and I think that's telling us something.  She's a killer.  And what this usually means in a television series is that her own death is justified.

I actually hope I'm wrong about Elizabeth's fate.  She cold and in some strong sense deserves to die.  But I'd rather not see that happen - and I'd rather not see that happen to Philip and Paige.  Yet, of course, the first episode has already set in motion the possibility not just of Elizabeth not surviving, but Philip being the reason, having had to kill her to stop her.

I still think that's not likely.  But barring some sudden change, Elizabeth is sealing her fate with every episode.

See also The Americans 6.1: Elizabeth vs. Philip ... The Americans 6.2: Brutal
And see also The Americans 5.1: The Theft ... The Americans 5.2: Oleg and Stan ... The Americans 5.3: Cowboys and Bugs ... The Americans 5.4: Dating, Soviet-Spy Style ... The Americans 5.5: Wrong about the Bugs ... The Americans 5.7: Gabriel ... The Americans 5.9: Gabriel and Martha ... The Americans 5.10: That Pastor, Again ... The Americans 5.11: Execution in Newton ... The Americans 5.12: Back in the U.S.S.R. ... The Americans Season 5 Finale: The Little Things
And see also The Americans 4.4: Life and Death ... The Americans 4.6: Martha, Martha, Martha ... The Americans 4.8: Whither Martha? ... The Day After The Americans 4.9 ... The Americans 4.10: Outstanding! ... The Americans 4.11: Close Call ... The Americans 4.12: Detente and Secret History
And see also The Americans 3.1: Caring for People We Shouldn't ... The Americans 3.3: End Justified the Means ...  The Americans 3.4: Baptism vs. Communism ... The Americans 3.6: "Jesus Came Through for Me Tonight" ...The Americans 3.7: Martha. My Dear ... The Americans 3.8: Martha, Part 2 ... The Americans 3.10: The Truth ... The Americans 3.12: The Unwigging ... The Americans Season 3 Finale: Turning a Paige
And see also The Americans 2.1-2: The Paradox of the Spy's Children ... The Americans 2.3: Family vs. Mission ... The Americans 2.7: Embryonic Internet and Lie Detection ... The Americans 2.9: Gimme that Old Time Religion ...The American 2.12: Espionage in Motion ... The Americans Season 2 Finale: Second Generation

And see also The Americans: True and Deep ... The Americans 1.4: Preventing World War III ... The Americans 1.11:  Elizabeth's Evolution ... The Americans Season 1 Finale: Excellent with One Exception

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The Crossing 1.2: Calling for More Time Travel

The Crossing moved into its regular season last night - or maybe it did a week ago, when its first episode was rebroadcast on ABC, having first played earlier on Hulu - but the series is anything but regular, and I mean that in pretty much a good way.

It's part time travel, part super-humans ala (I guess) Fringe, and part fast-driving FBI and local law enforcement caught up in a conspiracy and a plague from the future and all kinds of things.  Readers of Infinite Regress won't be surprised to find that the part I find most interesting is the time travel, but that part's been the least developed so far.  It's only the second episode, and there's still time to roll this out, but so far we have no idea how the time travel was created or stumbled upon, only that hundreds of "commons" came here from the future, that some number have been here for a long time already, and that at least one super-human or Apex came along for the ride, too.

Instead of the time travel, we've seen a lot of scenes with the Apex - a mother who loves her common (adopted) girl - finding the girl as a little baby in the future, and frantically looking for her in our present where (when) they both traveled.  She has a tempestuous (so far, only professional) relationship with the local sheriff, and manages to survive massive hit squads, though not unscathed.

Another Strike Force show we don't need - though the first rendition of that series was excellent, and I'm starting to watch the second.  Instead, we - meaning, I - could use a well-done time travel narrative.  (I can always use one of those.) But for this to happen, we need to see more time travel in The Crossing, and learn more - much more - about it.

In terms of other similar series, Lost was hit and miss (but mostly hit), the same for Fringe, but The Event (whose producers Jay Beattie and Dan Dworkin also are creators of The Crossing) and Alcatraz never really got off the ground or hit their stride because they lacked a clear allegiance to the time-travel genre or in fact any genre.  Will be fun to see if The Crossing is more like Lost or Alcatraz.

See also The Crossing: Lost Again, But OK

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Timeless 2.4: Striving to Avoid the 'I Made It Happen' Loop in Time Travel

A very thoughtful, altogether excellent episode 2.4 of Timeless tonight, in which -

Rufus tells Jiya not to tell him her visions of the future because his knowledge of them, and the impossibility of his then not acting upon them, causes them to come true - even though they're bad, and he's doing everything he can in the past to make sure they don't come true.  This provides a nice set piece of a time-travel classic gambit: someone goes back in the past to prevent some tragedy from happening and that very trip to the past is the thing that causes that tragedy.  It's a "can't escape fate" kind of time loop, and it's ironic and irresistible and (yeah) I've used it myself in some of my time-travel stories.  It's therefore fun to see Rufus try to opt out of it.  Just as it will be fun to see, sooner or later, that such opting out or avoidance of the paradox will be impossible, too.We learn that Rittenhouse saved Jennifer, presumably to emotionally disable Wyatt so he can't be an effective time-travel warrior.  (I guess I should add "presumably" to Rittenhouse saved Jennifer, because I'm not sure if we got 100% confirmation of that - we didn't see it with our own eyes, we only heard it from Denise, and I guess that's 99% not 100% confirmation.)  But Jennifer's reappearance does change lots of things - splitting Wyatt and Lucy, and giving Flynn a chance to be a hero and maybe even at some point something more than a team-mate to Lucy.  Should be interesting. I liked the Salem story too, tonight, and the saving of Ben Franklyn's young mother.  Timeless has been choosing some unusual historical gambits this season - ones you don't usually see in time-travel stories - and that makes the show more appealing.Next week, though, young JFK will be in the story.   He of course figured in the Stephen King novel, in my Loose Ends Saga, too, and who knows who many other time travel stories.  I'm looking forward to seeing what Timeless does with this.

See also Timeless 2.1: "Mein Kampf, by Philip K. Dick" ... Timeless 2.2: The Nod ... Timeless 2.3: Orson, Hedy, and Lucy

And see also Timeless 1.1: Threading the Needle ... Timeless 1.2: Small Change, Big Payoffs ... Timeless 1.3: Judith Campbell ... Timeless 1.4: Skyfall and Weapon of Choice ... Timeless 1.5: and Quantum Leap ... Timeless 1.6: Watergate and Rittenhouse ... Timeless 1.7: Stranded! ... Timeless 1.8: Time and Space ... Timeless 1.9: The Kiss and The Key ... Timeless 1.10: The End in the Middle ... Timeless 1.11: Edison, Ford, Morgan, Houdini, and Holmes (No, Not Sherlock)! ... Timeless 1.12: Incandescent West ... Timeless 1.13: Meeting, Mating, and Predictability ... Timeless 1.14: Paris in the 20s ... Timeless 1.15: Touched! .... Timeless 1.16: A Real Grandfather Paradox Story

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Homeland 7.9: Franny vs. the Job or the U. S. Hacks Twitter

Whew, another outstanding, heart-pounding episode of Homeland just on tonight - 7.9 - about as good as it gets on Homeland (which is, remarkable indeed), and, in this case, about the best on the series so far in one of the underlying foundations of the series:  Franny vs. the job.

That dilemma of which is more important to Carrie, which should she give her best attention to, underlies just about everything in these stories since Franny was born.  But tonight the tug on Carrie's very soul was never more acute.  She leaves Dante in the hospital, under incredibly tight security, to reclaim Franny - which, Carrie soon discovers, means literally reclaiming her daughter from her (Carrie's) sister.

But the security at the hospital, though bristling and apparently air-tight, is still no match for the resourceful Yevgeny.   And, in a series of life-and-death moves with all kinds of possible outcomes, Yevgeny apparently kills Dante.  (Yeah, there are spoilers in this review.)  (And I say "apparently" because I'm not completely sure we saw Dante dead.)

And Carrie, about to leave the school with her daughter, has to rush back to the hospital.  Carrie almost hits Franny as she's quickly backing up in her car, and ... Carrie's shattered.  Worse, I would say, than once again.

And that's not the only almost one-of-a-kind development in tonight's hour.  The other is the U. S. government hacking Twitter to turn a Russian code back on the Russians to destroy their network.  I wonder how Twitter feels about that?

All I know is that this hour was one high of an adrenalin ride, and another first-rate spy story, and I'll see you back here next week.

See also Homeland 7.1: The Worse Threat ... Homeland 7.2: Carrie vs. 4chan ... Homeland 7.3: Separating Truth from Hyperthinking ... Homeland 7.4: Fake News! ... Homeland 7.5: "The Russian Angle" ... Homeland 7.6: Meets The Americans, Literally ... Homeland 7.7: Meets The Americans ... Homeland 7.8: Evenly Matched
And see also Homeland 6.1: Madam President-Elect ... Homeland 6.2: Parallel Program ... Homeland 6.3: Potentials ... Homeland 6.4: "A Man with Painted Hair" ... Homeland 6.5: The Attack on Carrie's Brownstone ... Homeland 6.7: The Arch Villain ... Homeland 6.8: Peter's Problem ... Homeland 6.9: The Tide Begins to Turn ... Homeland 6.10: Fake News! ... Homeland 6.11: Quinn and Dar ... Homeland Season 6 Finale: Chilling - and True to Life
And see also Homeland 5.1: Moving into the Age of Snowden ... Homeland 5.2: Who Wants to Kill Carrie ... Homeland 5.3: Carrie and Kerry ... Homeland 5.5: All Quinn ... Homeland 5.6: Saul Wises Up ... Homeland 5.7: Tough to Watch ... Homeland 5.9: Finally! ... Homeland 5.10: Homeland and Homeland ... Homeland 5.11: Allison as Primo Villain ... Homeland Season 5 Finale: RIPs
And see also Homeland 4.1-2: Carrie's State of Mind ... Homeland 4.3: Quinn and Carrie ... Homeland 4.4: Carrie's Counterpart ... Homeland 4.5: Righteous Seduction ... Homeland 4.6: The Biggest Reveal ... Homeland 4.7: The Manifestation ... Homeland 4.8: Saving Someone's Life ... Homeland 4.9: Hitchcock Would've Loved It ... Homeland 4.10: The List ... Homeland 4.12: Out of this Together
And see also Homeland 3.1: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.3: Two Prisons ... Homeland 3.4: Twist! ...Homeland 3.6: Further Down the Rabbit Hole ... Homeland 3.7: Revealing What We Already Knew ... Homeland 3.8: Signs of Life ...Homeland 3.9: Perfect Timing ... Homeland 3.10: Someone Has to Die ... Homeland 3.11: The Loyalist ... Homeland Season 3 Finale: Redemption and Betrayal
And see Homeland 2.1-2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.3-5: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.6: What Brody Knows ... Homeland 2.7: Love Me Tinder ... Homeland 2.8: The Personal and the Professional ...Homeland Season 2 Finale: The Shocker and the Reality
And see also  Homeland on Showtime ... Homeland 1.8: Surprises ... Homeland Concludes First Season: Exceptional


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The Americans 6.2: Brutal

I thought The Americans 6.2 was rather pro forma, even lackluster, until the very end, which was ... brutal.

That's the latest chapter in the eduction of Paige.  The brains of an American general all over her mother's face.  And Paige doesn't know the worst of it.  The coming attractions confirm that the general didn't take his own life.  Elizabeth pulled the trigger.

Otherwise, what this episode had going for it was a disquisition on art.  It comes in two forms. Tchaikovsky (the title of this episode), beloved by Claudia, plays in her office.  And the dying artist gets Elizabeth, against her inclinations, to do a little sketching herself - just of the dark part.

The Americans has reached the stage where metaphor and reality are increasingly the same.  Elizabeth doesn't need to be instructed to look at the dark part in her life.  That's increasingly all she sees, what she does and what she is.  Tchaikovsky is moving, but he's not a Soviet composer.  He's a product of an earlier culture that was more free.  Claudia's love of his music reflects her yearning for an earlier time, that was less complicated.

But this earlier time for Claudia was not really Tchaikovsky's, but the time of the Soviet Union at its height.  And as we look back on the Reagan era from our vantage point in 2018, the era in which The Americans are playing out, we know that this time is rapidly dwindling.

And that leads to the most brutal truth of all: what Elizabeth is doing, all her machinations and assassinations, will lead to naught.  They're futile.  But they're still one wallop of a powerful story.  And I'll be back with views on the next installment next week.

See also The Americans 6.1: Elizabeth vs. Philip
And see also The Americans 5.1: The Theft ... The Americans 5.2: Oleg and Stan ... The Americans 5.3: Cowboys and Bugs ... The Americans 5.4: Dating, Soviet-Spy Style ... The Americans 5.5: Wrong about the Bugs ... The Americans 5.7: Gabriel ... The Americans 5.9: Gabriel and Martha ... The Americans 5.10: That Pastor, Again ... The Americans 5.11: Execution in Newton ... The Americans 5.12: Back in the U.S.S.R. ... The Americans Season 5 Finale: The Little Things
And see also The Americans 4.4: Life and Death ... The Americans 4.6: Martha, Martha, Martha ... The Americans 4.8: Whither Martha? ... The Day After The Americans 4.9 ... The Americans 4.10: Outstanding! ... The Americans 4.11: Close Call ... The Americans 4.12: Detente and Secret History
And see also The Americans 3.1: Caring for People We Shouldn't ... The Americans 3.3: End Justified the Means ...  The Americans 3.4: Baptism vs. Communism ... The Americans 3.6: "Jesus Came Through for Me Tonight" ...The Americans 3.7: Martha. My Dear ... The Americans 3.8: Martha, Part 2 ... The Americans 3.10: The Truth ... The Americans 3.12: The Unwigging ... The Americans Season 3 Finale: Turning a Paige
And see also The Americans 2.1-2: The Paradox of the Spy's Children ... The Americans 2.3: Family vs. Mission ... The Americans 2.7: Embryonic Internet and Lie Detection ... The Americans 2.9: Gimme that Old Time Religion ...The American 2.12: Espionage in Motion ... The Americans Season 2 Finale: Second Generation

And see also The Americans: True and Deep ... The Americans 1.4: Preventing World War III ... The Americans 1.11:  Elizabeth's Evolution ... The Americans Season 1 Finale: Excellent with One Exception

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The Titan: Turning the Tables on Humans in the Cosmos

A common scenario in both science fiction and projections of what future science will do to help humans move out into the cosmos is terraforming: we use our technology to make an alien world more habitable, more comfortable, to humankind.  This could include the moderating the temperature, increasing the oxygen, adjusting the gravity, that sort of thing.

Much less frequent is modifying the human being to make us more comfortable on an alien world.  "The Enchanted Village" by A. E. Von Vogt from the early 1950s, which I read as a kid, is a great example, and has always stayed with me. An astronaut lands and come close to dying on Mars.  The environment just doesn't work for him.  As he reaches the end of his rope, he suddenly feels better.  Mars has somehow changed him into an intelligent organism that can flourish on its surface.

The Titan, which just started streaming on Netflix at the end of March, is a similar kind of a story, with the big difference that humans here on Earth are deliberately trying to genetically modify a select group so that they can live in the icy confines of Titan - Saturn's largest room - in comfort.  The result is a strong narrative, incorporating elements of horror as well as military science fiction.

One weakness is a change of character in Prof. Collingwood - well played by Tom Wilkinson, who plays everything well - which doesn't seem completely motivated. (This is a part of larger problem in movie-making, in which professors are often poorly conceived.)  The science is also a little fuzzy - or, at least, specifically what is being done to Lt. Rick Janssen (played by Sam Worthington, last seen by me in Manhunt: Unabomber, where he also did a good job), and how it all fits or doesn't fit together to make Titan habitable for him.

But the story (by Arash Amel, screenplay by Max Hurwitz, directed by Lennart Ruff) still works, and Taylor Schilling does a fine job as a doctor who is also Rick's wife.  So, all in all, I'd recommend this.  At its best, the movie explores the question of how much of our humanity we're literally willing to sacrifice to go out and live in the stars.  And the timing is great, since this Monday I'll be convening a one-day conference (free admission) at Fordham University on the intersection of space travel and religion, Touching the Face of the Cosmos, with a Keynote by Brother Guy Consolmagno, Director of the Vatican Observatory.  We'll no doubt be exploring some similar issues.


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Homeland 7.8: Evenly Matched

Another top-notch hour of spy-craft in Homeland 7.8 tonight, as both sides make crucial moves that leave the board unchanged as far as advantages.

Carrie manages to crack Dante - by administering a drug which Dante thinks the Russians administered - but the drug works too well, and Dante's in the hospital with a heart that stopped.  This wouldn't have been so important, except--

Dante reveals that he was working with Simone to set the President up - good, in fact, excellent - and all Saul has to do is arrest her.  But before he can do that, Yevgeny kidnaps her from custody (it looked like he was going to just kill her, but apparently they've been lovers, and Yevgeny apparently has his personal standards).  But how does Yevgeny know where the Americans are keeping her?  Wellington's telling the Russians that she better not testify to bring the President down has backfired - the Russians would now rather not risk her testifying, and are content to rest on enough damage to President Keane already done.

That's what I mean by outstanding spy-craft.  Each side playing close to the top of their game, being hindered from complete victory by, to some extent, people on their own side making the wrong move.  Maybe Carrie should have administered a drug that didn't risk killing Dante - now he's all the good-guys have left to testify about the Russian plot.  And definitely Wellington should not have threatened the Russian ambassador.

I'm really enjoying the season of Homeland, as I've mentioned before.  It's a different kind of narrative now, with the classic spy-vs-spy motif raised to a whole new level, and fake news as the backdrop.

See also Homeland 7.1: The Worse Threat ... Homeland 7.2: Carrie vs. 4chan ... Homeland 7.3: Separating Truth from Hyperthinking ... Homeland 7.4: Fake News! ... Homeland 7.5: "The Russian Angle" ... Homeland 7.6: Meets The Americans, Literally ... Homeland 7.7: Meets The Americans
And see also Homeland 6.1: Madam President-Elect ... Homeland 6.2: Parallel Program ... Homeland 6.3: Potentials ... Homeland 6.4: "A Man with Painted Hair" ... Homeland 6.5: The Attack on Carrie's Brownstone ... Homeland 6.7: The Arch Villain ... Homeland 6.8: Peter's Problem ... Homeland 6.9: The Tide Begins to Turn ... Homeland 6.10: Fake News! ... Homeland 6.11: Quinn and Dar ... Homeland Season 6 Finale: Chilling - and True to Life
And see also Homeland 5.1: Moving into the Age of Snowden ... Homeland 5.2: Who Wants to Kill Carrie ... Homeland 5.3: Carrie and Kerry ... Homeland 5.5: All Quinn ... Homeland 5.6: Saul Wises Up ... Homeland 5.7: Tough to Watch ... Homeland 5.9: Finally! ... Homeland 5.10: Homeland and Homeland ... Homeland 5.11: Allison as Primo Villain ... Homeland Season 5 Finale: RIPs
And see also Homeland 4.1-2: Carrie's State of Mind ... Homeland 4.3: Quinn and Carrie ... Homeland 4.4: Carrie's Counterpart ... Homeland 4.5: Righteous Seduction ... Homeland 4.6: The Biggest Reveal ... Homeland 4.7: The Manifestation ... Homeland 4.8: Saving Someone's Life ... Homeland 4.9: Hitchcock Would've Loved It ... Homeland 4.10: The List ... Homeland 4.12: Out of this Together
And see also Homeland 3.1: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 3.3: Two Prisons ... Homeland 3.4: Twist! ...Homeland 3.6: Further Down the Rabbit Hole ... Homeland 3.7: Revealing What We Already Knew ... Homeland 3.8: Signs of Life ...Homeland 3.9: Perfect Timing ... Homeland 3.10: Someone Has to Die ... Homeland 3.11: The Loyalist ... Homeland Season 3 Finale: Redemption and Betrayal
And see Homeland 2.1-2: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.3-5: Sneak Preview Review ... Homeland 2.6: What Brody Knows ... Homeland 2.7: Love Me Tinder ... Homeland 2.8: The Personal and the Professional ...Homeland Season 2 Finale: The Shocker and the Reality
And see also  Homeland on Showtime ... Homeland 1.8: Surprises ... Homeland Concludes First Season: Exceptional




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Counterpart Season One Finale: Stuck in the Middle

There may be another season one finale to Counterpart in an alternate reality that was better than what was on in our reality tonight on Starz, but it's one that I can't imagine.

In the one I saw, I first meant the stuck in the middle to refer to an assassin from the other side who is attempting escape after the massacre.  He's badly wounded.  He makes it to neutral territory - in the middle - and can go no further.  Neither side can go there to help or capture him without an order from the highest level.

But the real man stuck in the middle is of course Howard.  And tonight they're as evenly matched as possible, with a resolution that neither wants: stuck on the wrong side, i.e., not their side, of the divide.  But as we've seen as this season progresses, each Howard has more going on in, more deep connection to, the side that is not theirs, than we (the viewers) were at first to suppose.

The ending is clockwork perfect.  Good Howard kills bad Pope (to defend himself, but even so).  Bad Howard doesn't kill Aldrich, but Nadia does - not so much to defend Howard Prime, as to settle her own score.  But the effect is the same: both Howards have killed, or have seen killed in their presence, a superior who was lethally dangerous.

But even that's not the best part of this season finale.  That comes in two parts.  First, good Howard is shown correspondence by Pope that good Emily - not so good, but good Howard's Emily - was actually writing to and in close touch with bad Howard aka Howard Prime.   That's indeed why he came over here in the first place.

And in a haunting last scene, Prime reads to good Howard's Emily, and she squeezes his hand, and she smiles.  She's coming back.  Is she smiling because she senses on some just-conscious level that the voice she's hearing is not her husband's but Howard Prime's, come at last to her aid?

We'll find out in Season Two, due back on next year.  And also what happens to good Howard, who has killed a man in a combination of anger and self-protection, and is now locked away somewhere in a cell ... on the wrong side.  Or ... is it truly wrong?  Is either side truly wrong for anyone from the other side in this series which has remade the telling of alternate reality stories before our very eyes?


See also  Counterpart 1.1: Fringe on Espionage ... Counterpart 1.2: Two Different Worlds ... Counterpart 1.3: Identification and Pandemic ... Counterpart 1.4: The Switch ... Counterpart 1.5: Ménage à Alternates ... Counterpart 1.6: Alternate Prince, Funeral, and Clear Clare ... Counterpart 1.7: Spying Across Dimensions ... Counterpart 1.8: Conversations ... Counterpart 2.9: The Spy Who Came Into the Fold




more alternate reality - "flat-out fantastic" - Scifi and Scary



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Time Travelers: Old Friends

Just caught this 30-minute short on Amazon Prime, listed as from 2012 on IMDB and 2017 on Amazon Prime.  Well, it is about time travel.

Speaking of which - this has to be about the worst title for a time travel movie - short or long - I've ever come across.  What happened, the producers got tired?

But otherwise, it's pretty good.  The scenario of two old friends in a conversation - not old chronologically but rather old in length of friendship - is a natural for time travel.  In fact, although there's a bit of action in this story, the flavor of Time Travelers is a lot like Primer, a now classic time-travel movie in which talk was the main medium (other than the time travel itself).

And the story has some good meta elements, with mentions of not only of time travel but H. G Wells and other writers of the human condition who didn't deal with time travel per se.  That's because (at least) one of the two friends is a writer, a science fiction writer, in fact, and the two discuss the thorny issue of plagiarism - thorny, that is, in its largest philosophical context, which is whether anything is really ever truly original.

Names of known and lesser-known works of science fiction are thrown into the conversion.  I was happy to hear "Loose Ends" at least half a dozen times - ok, it was just "loose ends," without the caps - since "Loose Ends" was a triple-nominated 1997 novella of mine (for Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon Awards), later expanded into a four-part novel.

And there's jealousy not only of writing but love, with one of the two sleeping with the other's wife, which provides a handy motive for murder.  But, ok, I've said enough.  See the short, try to forget about the title, and enjoy.  There's good acting, by the way, by Elliot V. Kotek and Gabe Bettio.



Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music