Foundation 2.8: Major Revelations!

Well, finally an episode of Foundation -- 2.8 -- that's really firing on all cylinders.  By which I mean, the Trantor parts and the other parts were nearly equal in power, and that power was impressive, answered all kinds of questions, and stood on the verge of answering more.  So, good thing that two more episodes await us this season.

Here are some of the major revelations, as I see them:

[Spoilers of course are ahead ... ]

1. The opening conversation between Dusk and Rue gives us some essential info about Demerzel and her origin, but not yet the complete story.  By the end of the episode, Dusk tells Rue that Empire is doing Demerzel's bidding rather than vice versa.  Yes indeed.

2. Hober's attack on Trantor, and his rescue of Constant, was literally a much welcome merger of the Foundation and Empire stories -- and indeed, we heard that phrase later in the episode -- and it was good to see Hober and Constant carnally together after they were off the planet.  Lots of good sex in general in this episode, including Dawn and Sareth.  Will be interesting to see the impact of the child they engendered.

3.  We learned more about the Second Foundation, most importantly from the conversation between Salvor and one of the digital Haris.  And the most important takeaway from that conversation is that Hari's idea is that both Foundations were intended to be mutually ignorant of each other.  This is a divergence from Asimov's trilogy, in which the First Foundation was ignorant of the Second, but the Second knew just about everything about the First.  Which is ok by me, at this point,

4. I remain in strong dislike of Tellem, which of course we're supposed to be.  She seems on the verge of inhabiting Gaal, which is repulsive.  And apparently she did kill the corporeal Hari -- though if new flesh-and-blood Haris can be created, that may not matter.

So, good job, and I'm looking forward even more than usual to the resumption of this riveting story next week.

See also Foundation 2.1: Once Again, A Tale of Two Stories ... 2.2: Major Players ... 2.3: Bel Riose and Hari ... 2.5: The Original Cleon and the Robot ... 2.6: Hari and Evita ... 2.7: Is Demerzel Telling the Truth?

And see also Foundation 1.1-2: Mathematician, Man of the People, and Cleon's Clones ... Foundation 1.3: Clonal Science Fiction, Hari Seldon as V. I. Lenin ... Foundation 1.4: Slow Hand, Long Half-Life, Flipped Coin ... Foundation 1.5: What We Learned in that Final Scene ... Foundation 1.6: Folded Variations ... Foundation 1.7: Alternate History/Future ... Foundation 1.8: Divergences and Convergences ... Foundation 1.9: Vindication and Questions ... Foundation Season 1 Finale: Right Up There

 

Invasion 2.2: Jamila and Trevante

Episode 2.2 of Invasion had two good, non-intersecting stories about Jamila in the UK and Trevante in the USA.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

I thought Jamila's story was tighter at this point than Trevante's.  She's determined to find Casper. She knows he has some sort of mental connection and control over the invaders.  She feels she's been in some sort of touch with him.  She joins up with the two of the young gents from last season, picks up another other guy and his young sister, and they're off to Paris, where she has reason to believe Casper may be, and the newbies say their parents have a flat.  The makings of a good story.

Trevante's starts off a little lamely.  He saves his young nephew, who jumps into the deep end of a pool, and screams at him after he's out of the water and awake.  Trevante's sister is so furious at him for screaming at the kid that she throws Trevante out of the house.  Does that make sense?  She wouldn't be happy about Trevante screaming at her son, true, but where's her gratitude for Trevante saving the boy's life?

Fortunately, Trevante finds a better reason to leave Florida -- he finds there's some kind of invader activity in Oklahoma.  At this point, his story gets back on track, as he maneuvers his way to getting where he wants to go, and gets put behind bars for his effort.

In both cases -- Jamila's and Trevante's -- the authorities and their military and police are worse than useless. getting in the way of our heroes, obstructing their worthy actions, at every turn.  This is an old story in science fiction, but one which alas seems ever reasonable.   See what I said about governments and invaders from space on Ancient Alien (at 1 min 23 seconds in the video) 13 years ago:

And I'll be back here next week with something to say about the next episode of Invasion.

See also Invasion 2.1: Tenuous Meeting of the Minds

And see also Invasion 1.1-3: Compelling Contender ... Invasion 1.4: Three Out of Four ... Invasion 1.5: The Little Creepy Crawly Thing ... Invasion 1.6: Close Up! ... Invasion 1.7: Two Boys and their Connection to the Invaders ... Invasion 1.8: Contact! ... Invasion 1.9: Tables Turning ... Invasion 1.10: Peering Through the Opaque

first starship to Alpha Centauri, with just enough fuel to get there

"It's Real Life" Nominated for Sidewise Award

 

Some really good news came in this morning: "It's Real Life" (my alternate history story about The Beatles) has been nominated for the prestigious Sidewise Award (short form) for Alternate History. The winners (short form and long form) will be announced at the World Fantasy Convention in Kansas City at the end of October. Congratulations to the other nominees -- deeply honored to be among you. (Details in the attached press release.)

"t's Real Life" -- read the short story for FREE, buy it for Kindle or on paper, listen to the radio play for FREE, or buy the  audiobook 

Winner of The Mary Shelley Award 2023

See also the article by Larry Yudelson in The Jewish Standard

Foundation 2.7: Is Demerzel Telling the Truth?

Another excellent episode of Foundation -- 2.7 -- which may be the best episode so far this second season, which means maybe the best episode so far in the series.

I'll address three issues here:

[Spoilers follow ... ]

1. Demerzel tells Sareth she's the last surviving robot, that once upon a time robots were bound to follow three laws which makes them bound to prevent any harm from befalling a human, by action or inaction (actually, just the first law of Asimov's Three Laws) but that changed and now she's bound by only one law, to "serve Empire".

Ok, but is Demerzel telling Sareth the truth?  Is she bound by any robotic law to never lie to any human?  Or never lie to Day's betrothed?  Not likely.  And why did she mention the three laws to Sareth, and then only recite to her the first law?  Was that just inexact writing, or is there some meaning in that omission?  And is Demerzel telling the truth about being the last surviving humanoid robot, aka android? How exactly could she know such a thing across the vast expanses of the galaxy? Are robots in some sort of telepathic touch across the galaxy? (And, while we're at it, what happened to Asimov's Zeroth Law, which says that more important than never letting any harm to befall a human, a robot should give priority to humanity as a whole? A nice enactment of the utilitarian principle of the greatest good for greatest number.)

2.  The Cleons had quite a night.  Day had Demerzel kill Sareth's family. (a stark example of the overthrow of Asimov's first law). She understandably hates him.  Day and Demerzel know this, so why are they going ahead with the marriage?  And Sareth beginning to seduce Dawn is a risky and exciting venture indeed.  I don't see how they'll be able to hide that from Demerzel.  Also notable is Brother Constant conveying the holographic Hari in the meeting with the Cleonic clones and Demerzel in a very strong scene -- actually, any scene with the Cleonic clonic triumvirate and Demerzel is good to see, let alone one with any version of Hari.

3. But speaking of Hari -- it looks like he's also alive in the flesh, with his head above water, just as I said I thought was likely the case last week.  And now Salvor has joined him?  Well, not exactly, her face is down in the water, but if Hari survived why can't she?   On the other hand, this episode is entitled "A Necessary Death," and whose death is that?  Sareth's family? Not likely, especially since that happened off-camera. 

Tellem Bond does say something about a "little death" being necessary, so what does she mean by that? Optimist that I am, I'd say that that could mean that maybe Salvor and Hari are in some sort of coma, deep-sleep state -- which would be in accord with Hari's head above water -- and Tellem might be thinking and plotting it might be a good or necessary idea to revive them someday.

Lots of information and lots of questions, which is why I much enjoyed this episode.

See also Foundation 2.1: Once Again, A Tale of Two Stories ... 2.2: Major Players ... 2.3: Bel Riose and Hari ... 2.5: The Original Cleon and the Robot ... 2.6: Hari and Evita

And see also Foundation 1.1-2: Mathematician, Man of the People, and Cleon's Clones ... Foundation 1.3: Clonal Science Fiction, Hari Seldon as V. I. Lenin ... Foundation 1.4: Slow Hand, Long Half-Life, Flipped Coin ... Foundation 1.5: What We Learned in that Final Scene ... Foundation 1.6: Folded Variations ... Foundation 1.7: Alternate History/Future ... Foundation 1.8: Divergences and Convergences ... Foundation 1.9: Vindication and Questions ... Foundation Season 1 Finale: Right Up There

 

Two-Hour, In-Depth Interview about My Music

 

a nearly two-hour interview by Greg Shanks about my music, with details 

I haven't written or talked about before

Invasion 2.1: Tenuous Meeting of the Minds

Invasion -- the latest narrative that explores an H. G. Well's War of the Worlds scenario -- is back on Apple TV+ with the first episode of its second season.  It's entitled "Something's Changed," but I don't think all that much has changed, unless change is defined as zooming into elements that were already there in the first season, which is fine with me.

Episode 2.1 is indeed less crowded with simultaneous stories of the interstellar invasion that were happening all over the world, and I found myself missing that frenetic, often inchoate pace.  On the other hand, at least one of the remaining segments has some promise, and the other one coming into focus looks like a pretty good if less original story, too.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

The mind-bending story, maybe literally, is Mitsuki's, who opts to go face-to-face, or mind-to-mind, with the interstellar intelligence mounting the invasion, although I guess we don't know that this billowy entity mounted the invasion for sure.  Significantly, Mitsuki is not so much brave as certain that she'll survive this encounter, because she already feels some undefined connection to the invaders.

How's that?  We'll no doubt find out.  But I'll hazard a guess and say that's because these destructive visitors have been here before.  In the one scene in which she and the extra-terrestrial have close to a physical but apparently not yet a figurative meeting of the minds, the two seem to know each other.  At very least, the star-traveler doesn't kill Mitsuki or destroy her mind, at least, not yet.

The other main story in this episode is Aneesha and her children, who come under the protection of the "Movement," a human para-military operation who are trying to help.  As I said, this is a far more conventional science fiction story, found not only in invaders from space narratives, but threats to the human species that come from Earthly pathogens.  But Aneesha and her kids are so appealing that I really don't mind seeing this kind of invasion story again.  

So, I'll be here watching and reviewing the second season of Invasion, and letting you know how I think it turns out.

See also Invasion 1.1-3: Compelling Contender ... Invasion 1.4: Three Out of Four ... Invasion 1.5: The Little Creepy Crawly Thing ... Invasion 1.6: Close Up! ... Invasion 1.7: Two Boys and their Connection to the Invaders ... Invasion 1.8: Contact! ... Invasion 1.9: Tables Turning ... Invasion 1.10: Peering Through the Opaque

Foundation 2.6: Hari and Evita

Well, I thought Foundation 2.6 was one of the best episodes so far.  Here's why:

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

1. Young Hari -- both as a boy and a young man -- was pure gold.  It was a neat, powerful story all on its own.  Hari and Yanna were a great, pivotal couple.  And the way he killed Yanna's killer Tadj was perfect -- standing in just the right place in the middle of a stampede, so he was safe (just as he had taught himself how to do as a boy) and she was trampled was an epitome of what he is trying to do as the older Hari we have come to know deals with the stampede of ongoing and upcoming events, and the current renditions of Empire.

2. Speaking of which, I enjoyed Sareth sounding like Evita as she stood next to Empire who had just proclaimed her to be his and the populace's Queen. Indeed, her proclaiming to the people that she was them, and they were standing up there via her at the center of the universe, could have been taken right out of that Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical.  The only difference was that Juan Perón really valued Evita beside him, unlike Day who didn't seem too thrilled with what Sareth was saying.

So those were two outstanding segments and themselves worth the price of admission.  The rest, I didn't like quite as much.

3. As I always say about what I see on any fictional television screen, if you don't see a character's head blown off or to smithereens, there's a fair chance the character might live.  Further, in science fiction, there are all kinds of ways a seemingly killed character can survive.  In the case of Hari, there is already a digital Hari who would survive the flesh-and-blood Hari's death.  And, yeah, I see the poetry in his dying, just as he's thinking about and we're learning about what  happened to Yanna.  But I didn't like seeing him drown, anyway, and I hope we see him in the flesh again.  I've gotten to like Hari alive, even though he's not flesh and blood in the original Asimov stories at this point, and even though his digital self would be a passable approximation of the recurring Seldon hologram in the novels.

4. I also don't especially like Tellem, even though she does have a great name that makes me think of that Exciters song every time I hear it.  And I suppose the Second Foundation she may actually be beginning to think she could help create could be a believable victor, eventually, over The Mule.  

But, well, we'll have to wait and see.  I'll add here that there was a character in a fedora hat in 2.6 who showed up twice without saying a word -- a sure sign that this character is someone important.  Just four more episodes to go this season.

Note added: Joel mentions the Spacers scene in his comment.  I wanted to add here that, although the Spacers come from Asimov's novels that take place in a time well before the Foundation stories -- they were the first humans to colonize worlds in other solar systems -- the idea of Spacers who have unique abilities to power spaceships comes from Dune. At least, that's the first place I encountered such human-derived beings who could "fold" space.

See also Foundation 2.1: Once Again, A Tale of Two Stories ... 2.2: Major Players ... 2.3: Bel Riose and Hari ... 2.5: The Original Cleon and the Robot

And see also Foundation 1.1-2: Mathematician, Man of the People, and Cleon's Clones ... Foundation 1.3: Clonal Science Fiction, Hari Seldon as V. I. Lenin ... Foundation 1.4: Slow Hand, Long Half-Life, Flipped Coin ... Foundation 1.5: What We Learned in that Final Scene ... Foundation 1.6: Folded Variations ... Foundation 1.7: Alternate History/Future ... Foundation 1.8: Divergences and Convergences ... Foundation 1.9: Vindication and Questions ... Foundation Season 1 Finale: Right Up There

 

The Chronology Protection Case Trailer

Jay Kensinger's trailer for The Chronology Protection Case, adapted from 

my novelette, on Amazon Prime Video

• watch the movie
• read the story

Talking about Foundation 2.5 on the Stars End Podcast

 
I was a guest this past Saturday on the Stars End Podcast talking about the Foundation series on Apple TV+, episode 2.5

Outlander 7.8: Benedict Arnold and Time Travel

Outlander 7.8, the midseason finale, was superb on many levels.  And it amply continued what I said about 7.7: it provided a vivid example of the insanity of war.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

As a time-travel devotee, I especially liked two interactions that Claire and Jamie had with Benedict Arnold:

1. Jamie quotes Browning's "A man's reach must exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for," and Claire slightly winces.  That's because Browning doesn't publish this in a poem until 1855, and Jamie is about to fight the Second Battle of Saratoga in 1777.  I love "mistakes" like this in time travel.  Did Arnold at some point in the future tell someone that line -- he said he found it very impressive -- and it percolated forward in history to Browning?  If so, that's an example of the "where did it come from" paradox in time travel.  When a phrase from the future is set loose in the past, it's impossible to figure out where it originated, the future or the past?  It bounces back and forth from the future to the past then back to the future in a never-ending circle.   (I'll also note that I like what Marshall McLuhan made of this line, changing it to "A man's reach must exceed his grasp, or what's a metaphor?" That's a pretty good definition of metaphor, as well as being a pun.)

2. Later, Claire tells a wounded Benedict Arnold that he's justified in feeling his accomplishments in the American army have not been recognized.  Arnold has been wounded psychologically as well as physically, and Claire's supporting his grievances may have been just the last straw that got him to leave the Americans and join the British, and therein have his name in future history become synonymous with "traitor".   Another mind-bending example of where did it come from.  Had Claire from the future not supported Arnold's anger, he might not have joined the British. (You can see by the expression on her face that she realizes a second too late that her answer might have stoaked Arnold's switching sides -- though, perhaps she did that deliberately, to avoid the risk of changing the history she knew.)

Other than time travelers in America during the Revolutionary War, there were lots of other excellent touches in this episode.  Jamie accidentally shooting the hat off William's head and his later giving his son a hat was a beautiful, powerful little piece of storytelling.  I also liked Ian and Rachel almost getting together, even if it ended with Ian on the boat to Scotland and Rachel accosted by that psycho creep, the well-named Arch Bug.

And back to time travel, as became clear at the end of episode 7.7, Roger going back in time through the Stones in Scotland promises to bring us all kinds of exciting encounters and likely more paradoxes in the second half of this excellent season next year.  And I'll be back here with more reviews.

See also Outlander 7.1-2: The Return of the Split ... Outlander 7.3: Time Travel, The Old-Fashioned Way ... Outlander 7.7: A Good Argument for the Insanity of War

And see also Outlander 6.1: Ether That Won't Put You to Sleep

And see also Outlander 5.1: Father of the Bride ... Outlander 5.2: Antibiotics and Time Travel ... Outlander 5.3: Misery ... Outlander 5.4: Accidental Information and the Future ... Outlander 5.5: Lessons in Penicillin and Locusts ... Outlander 5.6: Locusts, Jocasta, and Bonnet ... Outlander 5.7: The Paradoxical Spark ... Outlander 5.8: Breaking Out of the Silence ... Outlander 5.9: Buffalo, Snake, Tooth ... Outlander 5.10: Finally! ... Outlander 5.11: The Ballpoint Pen ... Outlander Season 5 Finale: The Cost of Stolen Time

And see also Outlander 4.1: The American Dream ... Outlander 4.2: Slavery ...Outlander 4.3: The Silver Filling ... Outlander 4.4: Bears and Worse and the Remedy ... Outlander 4.5: Chickens Coming Home to Roost ... Outlander 4.6: Jamie's Son ... Outlander 4.7: Brianna's Journey and Daddy ... Outlander 4.8: Ecstasy and Agony ... Outlander 4.9: Reunions ... Outlander 4.10: American Stone ... Outlander 4.11: Meets Pride and Prejudice ... Outlander 4.12: "Through Time and Space" ... Outlander Season 4 Finale:  Fair Trade

And see also Outlander Season 3 Debut: A Tale of Two Times and Places ...Outlander 3.2: Whole Lot of Loving, But ... Outlander 3.3: Free and Sad ... Outlander 3.4: Love Me Tender and Dylan ... Outlander 3.5: The 1960s and the Past ... Outlander 3.6: Reunion ... Outlander 3.7: The Other Wife ... Outlander 3.8: Pirates! ... Outlander 3.9: The Seas ...Outlander 3.10: Typhoid Story ... Outlander 3.11: Claire Crusoe ...Outlander 3.12: Geillis and Benjamin Button ... Outlander 3.13: Triple Ending

And see also Outlander 2.1: Split Hour ... Outlander 2.2: The King and the Forest ... Outlander 2.3: Mother and Dr. Dog ... Outlander 2.5: The Unappreciated Paradox ... Outlander 2.6: The Duel and the Offspring ...Outlander 2.7: Further into the Future ... Outlander 2.8: The Conversation ... Outlander 2.9: Flashbacks of the Future ... Outlander 2.10: One True Prediction and Counting ... Outlander 2.11: London Not Falling ... Outlander 2.12: Stubborn Fate and Scotland On and Off Screen ... Outlander Season 2 Finale: Decades

And see also Outlander 1.1-3: The Hope of Time Travel ... Outlander 1.6:  Outstanding ... Outlander 1.7: Tender Intertemporal Polygamy ...Outlander 1.8: The Other Side ... Outlander 1.9: Spanking Good ... Outlander 1.10: A Glimmer of Paradox ... Outlander 1.11: Vaccination and Time Travel ... Outlander 1.12: Black Jack's Progeny ...Outlander 1.13: Mother's Day ... Outlander 1.14: All That Jazz ... Outlander Season 1 Finale: Let's Change History

 

Foundation 2.5: The Original Cleon and the Robot

I'm not going to review every episode of the second season of Foundation, unless it strikes me as adding something really important to the story.  So, I didn't review last week's Foundation 2.4.  But tonight's 2.5 is at least doubly important, so here's my review:

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

First, we get to the meet the original Cleon.  Dawn and Dusk call him forth in their (mainy Dusk's) need to find out if Day has edited Dawn and Dusk's memories.  Dusk provides a good succinct explication of their dilemma: if their memories were really altered, how would they would they know that?

The original Cleon is of course played by Terrence Mann, who plays Dusk, and he does a good job of it.  The original Cleon has a vibrance, a presence, a wisdom, that Dusk doesn't have.  Other than that, the original offers no surprises, urging Dawn and Dusk not to rock the boat.  But now that we the audience know that the original Cleon can be summoned, that adds a powerful resource for the Cleonic triad.

The other great discovery is made by Sareth's family:  Demerzel is a robot!  We of course already knew that (from earlier episodes in the TV series, and of course from Asimov's novels). And the Cleon clones know Demerzel is a robot, with warm, organic flesh -- indeed, in tonight's episode, Demerzel reassures Dusk that she would have memories of everything, even if Day somehow edited some out of Dusk and Dawn's minds.  

But speaking of Asimov's novels in a review of this episode of the TV series, it needs to be mentioned again that Demerzel was a male robot in the novels, who basically gets Hari Seldon started on psychohistory, and gets Dors (a female robot) married to Hari, where she continues as his protector.  If this sounds more intriguing a story than what we've seen of Hari so far on the screen, I'd say that's because it is.  At this point, the Seldon story still hasn't come close to what's happening on Trantor, but I continue to watch in hope.

See also Foundation 2.1: Once Again, A Tale of Two Stories ... 2.2: Major Players ... 2.3: Bel Riose and Hari

And see also Foundation 1.1-2: Mathematician, Man of the People, and Cleon's Clones ... Foundation 1.3: Clonal Science Fiction, Hari Seldon as V. I. Lenin ... Foundation 1.4: Slow Hand, Long Half-Life, Flipped Coin ... Foundation 1.5: What We Learned in that Final Scene ... Foundation 1.6: Folded Variations ... Foundation 1.7: Alternate History/Future ... Foundation 1.8: Divergences and Convergences ... Foundation 1.9: Vindication and Questions ... Foundation Season 1 Finale: Right Up There

 

 

new anthology, with my novelette "Robinson Calculator"

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 2.10: Young Scotty and Five Other Great Things about This Season 2 Finale

A superb season 2 finale to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, concluding a superb season, putting Strange New Worlds securely up there with the best Star Treks ever, i.e, TOS and TNG.

Here are some of my favorite parts of this season 2 conclusion, in order of their appearance:

[Spoilers ahead ...]

1. Good for Chapel praising the virtues of inoculations, a lesson a lot of people on Earth right now would be well advised to understand.

2. Erica had her best show, piloting the shuttle so well and dramatically that she took Pike and La'an's breath away.

3. Wonderful to see a young Montgomery Scott in delightful and effective action.  Like Pike, Spock, Chapel, Uhura, James T. Kirk, and all the characters we've come to know and love from TOS, it was great to meet young Scott.  And a nice touch that Pelia was his professor.

4. Spock and Chapel holding hands in their space suits, after Spock saved Chapel, and Chapel saved Spock, was perfect.

5. Pike and Batel were excellent, too.  Which brings us to the cliffhanger ending.

6.  Of course Pike is going to ignore Star Fleet's command to disengage.  I expect/hope that Chapel will figure out how to get those Gorn eggs out of Batel's arm.

My only regret -- I can't see the first episode of the third season right now.

See also Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 2.1: Nurse Chapel ... 2.2: Racism and Sexism in the Courtroom ... 2.3: Time Travel and Alternate Universes ... 2.5: Chapel and Spock ... 2.6: Jimmy Kirk ... 2.7: Pike, Spock, and Boimler ... 2.8: Ethically Wrenching ... 2.9: The Operetta 

And see also Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1.1-1.2: Great Characters, Actors, Stories ... 1.3: "Instead of terraforming planets, we modify ourselves ..." ... 1.4: The Gorn and the Wub ... 1.5 Going to the Chapel ... 1.6: Two Stories ... 1.7: The Kiss ... 1.8: Ends of the Continuum ... 1.9: Momentous! ... 1.10: Everything!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 2.9: The Operetta

Here's my one-line, non-spoiler review of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 2.9, which was, literally, an operetta:  I liked a lot of it.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

Here's more:

I thought the story was excellent, ingenious, and original: the Enterprise encounters some kind of force-field that has the effect of making the crew put into song their most personal thoughts.  The addition of the Klingons added more tension to the story, and their actual singing number was pretty good.

I'll get to the singing of our crew in a moment.  But sticking with the story, the resolution, of sorts, of the romantic attractions/relationships of La'an/James T. Kirk, and Chapel/Spock was powerful narrative, and fine writing and acting, but I would have rathered see both relationships go in a better direction.  In particular, James T. Kick didn't have to be already involved in a relationship with Carol, who is pregnant, and Chapel need not have seen her upcoming time away from the Enterprise as ending her relationship with Spock (though, I suppose, maybe it's possible that she doesn't).  As I've said before, I'm a hopeless romantic. And it seems that Strange New Worlds, encumbered by what we know of the future of these characters from the original Star Trek -- no relationship between Spock and Chapel, and James T. Kirk not being attached to Carol, La'an, or anyone -- had no choice but to put the brakes on these budding relationships on the Enterprise under Pike. Speaking of which, it was good to see his relationship still on track with Captain Marie Batel (Pike's future in the original series certainly doesn't preclude that at this point in his life). And it was great as always to see James T. Kirk on the Enterprise, in any case.

Now as to the songs.  I thought the singing and songs of Una, La'an, Spock, Chapel, and Uhura were top-notch -- not only in and of themselves, but working well in the story.  The rest were ok, but at least to my ears sounded at times like a parody of an operetta, whatever exactly that means.

I'm not the biggest fan of Gilbert & Sullivan, anyway, though I think The Who's Tommy is great, and I always regretted Paul McCartney saying no to the story he had asked Isaac Asimov to write for a musical McCartney had in mind. In Strange New Worlds 2.9, the brief Klingon performance had the best beat, and the songs of the Enterprise crew would have gone down better, in my never humble opinion, had they more in common with rock 'n' roll, rock, hip-hop, and rap, than well, Cole Porter, even though I think he was one of the best lyricists of all-time.

Speaking of Cole Porter, my friend Ken Hudson brought this to my attention: Uhura in the original Star Trek singing (privately to herself) a few lines from Porter's "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love" to, of all people, Spock, in an outtake from the "Who Mourns for Adonis" episode! We did see, in episode 2.9 of Strange New Worlds, Uhura looking romantically at Spock (he's seems totally unaware), and we've seen glimpses of this in earlier Strange New Worlds episodes. The outtake clip from the original series tells us that the makers of episode 2.9 of Strange New Worlds were likely inspired by this scene from the original series, and gives a nice unexpected meaning to the inclusion of Gene Roddenberry in the writing credits (though if Nichelle Nichols came up with this on her own, then she deserves a little of the writing credit for the Strange New Worlds operetta as well).

Anyway, on balance, I'm very glad I saw this episode of Strange New Worlds, and I'm looking forward to the season 2 final next week.  And hats off to all of the singing crew, who actually sang, and had fine voices!

more on the McCartney-Asimov musical that was never written, at

the end of this story .... "It's Real Life" ... an alternate history of

The Beatles ... read the story FREE here ... get the Kindle or paperback 

here... listen to the radio play FREE here ... winner of The Mary Shelley Award

for Outstanding Fictional Work (story and radio play) ... and a recent review

See also Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 2.1: Nurse Chapel ... 2.2: Racism and Sexism in the Courtroom ... 2.3: Time Travel and Alternate Universes ... 2.5: Chapel and Spock ... 2.6: Jimmy Kirk ... 2.7: Pike, Spock, and Boimler ... 2.8: Ethically Wrenching

And see also Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1.1-1.2: Great Characters, Actors, Stories ... 1.3: "Instead of terraforming planets, we modify ourselves ..." ... 1.4: The Gorn and the Wub ... 1.5 Going to the Chapel ... 1.6: Two Stories ... 1.7: The Kiss ... 1.8: Ends of the Continuum ... 1.9: Momentous! ... 1.10: Everything!

Hijack: Don't Miss It!

Hey, if you're a fan of Idris Elba, check out Hijack, a seven-episode mini-series just concluded on Apple TV+.   Even if you're not a fan, if you have a pulse and an intellect, you're bound to like it.

I've been a big fan since Elba played Stringer Bell on The Wire on HBO -- I mean, second in command of a drug cartel in Baltimore, who went to night school and read the original Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations?  You can beat that.  There've been lots of shows about drug cartels, but none even remotely like that.

Hijack is about a hijacked plane. Right.  They've been lots of shows about hijacked planes, but nothing quite like Hijack.   Elba plays Sam Nelson.  He's on the hijacked plane.  Good thing for the plane and the passengers.  He's not a marshall.  He's some kind of corporate deal maker.  I'm still not clear what that is.  But the up side of that is that it makes just what Sam will do almost always unpredictable.  He's a good guy for sure, but with an inscrutable agenda, other than saving the plane.

Neil Maskell plays Stuart Atterton, clearly a bad guy, but also with an inscrutable agenda.  The inscrutability of these major characters comes in and out focus, and keeps the viewers almost as much on the edge of their seats as the passengers on the plane.  Ok, the two sides of the screen -- viewers at home and passengers on the plane -- are two different universes, but you get what I mean.  Maskell, by the way, played another inscrutable, charismatic villain -- Arby in Utopia.  

And while we're on the subject acting talent in this mini-series, we get Eve Miles (Keeping Faith) and Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife) as minor but memorable characters in the London central control room.  Hey, I've told you nearly nothing about the plot, hence no spoiler warning.  But I will say there are big surprises in every episode, right up until to the very end.

And Hijack gives us one of Elba's very best performances, right up there with The Wire and Luther.  

Kudos to series creators George Kay and Jim Field Smith.