My Story "Aaron Judge on the Cape" in 100th Anniversary Issue of Amazing Stories

 

My brand new time-travel story, "Aaron Judge on the Cape", in the just-published 100th Anniversary issue of Amazing Stories.   Get the magazine here.

See Ian's Ions and Eons for three previous stories featuring this time-travel agency in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.

Dark Matter 2.8: Amanda's Smile and Laurel's Singularness

I loved Dark Matter 2.8, because of its tenderness, because we get more of Laurel's story, and because of Jason and Amanda.

I said in a review of an earlier episode this season that I like Amanda (Alice Braga) much more than Daniela.  I felt that way in Season 1, and even more so in Season 2.   She's a better match for Jason than is Daniela.  Jason and Daniela rarely if ever seem as happy as Jason and Amanda.  And as I also said earlier, Amanda's smile radiates a feeling that no other character on Dark Matter has.

But let me also say here that I'm not sure which version of Jason we see in episode 2.8.  We know that Jason 1 has a tattoo, which we didn't see in this episode.  I know it takes place near the beginning of this season -- I think it was in the second episode -- when Jason 1 gets the tattoo, which means not seeing the tattoo on Jason in 2.8 does not absolutely disprove that's he's Jason 1.  But if he is Jason 1, that means, what?  After what we see in this episode, he goes back to Daniela?  And this Charlie in this second season is which version of Charlie?

I think maybe the only character with just one version (so far) is Laurel (Margo Martindale).  It was great to see her again, and learn about her past and her world, and since she's not going through a box (as yet, as far as we know), we can reliably believe we're seeing the exact same person, not a different version of her.

In a meta-universe in which there are alternate universes bumping into one another with the drop of a hat/ampule, this reliability becomes a rare and beautiful thing.  You could well say that about this whole season, which is why I'm always looking forward to another episode.

See also See also Dark Matter 2.1: Who's Who in the Infinite Bucket ... 2.2: Sam Spade Back in Action ... 2.3: Can Two Couples Be in Two Different Places at the Same Time? ... 2.4: "There's No Entrance to the Diner" ... 2.5: Canterbury Realities and Proust ... 2.6: The Harptones in the Multiverse ... 2.7: "Through this door ..."

And see also Dark Matter 1.1-1.2: Break-Neck Action and Philosophic Contemplation ... 1.3 Missing Fingers ... 1.4 The Multiverse Unveiled ... 1.5: The Lesson ... 1.6 "A Bunch of Chicagos" ... 1.7: Obama Tower ... 1.8: A Bevy Of Jasons ... 1.9: Science Fiction and Horror

The Diplomat Season 4: How to Deal with Trump

How to continue a streaming Netflix series like The Diplomat in its 4th season of edge-of-your-seat American, British, and therefore world political intrigue and turmoil when the real world we see on our news screens is beset by an American President, Donald Trump, who creates crises home and abroad, with our allies and friends and enemies almost every time he opens his mouth?

You tell a story of an American President who embarks on a course of action even more dangerous than Trump's.

[And there will be some spoilers ahead ...]

Grace Penn (Allison Janney) became US President when the elected President died in office, and Penn as per our Constitution assumed the office.  At the end of season 3, she appointed Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell) Vice President, and his wife Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) continued as our ambassador to the United Kingdom.   This season, President Penn is shot during a visit to London.  It turns out out that she wasn't very badly wounded -- physically -- and is back up and working as President in lightning-fast time.

Not badly wounded physically.  But we soon learn that her close brush with death did something to her mind, soul, brain, or whatever you want to call it.  And she makes a series of decisions that amazingly pit the United States not only against Russia, but the UK, NATO, and some crucial members of her cabinet.

Kate and Hal and a variety of people -- including Grace's husband Todd (Bradley Whitford, who plays a welcome larger role this season) -- increasingly try, in their disparate ways, to bring the President to her senses.  I won't spoil this season any further by telling you how that worked out, but I will say that wouldn't it be wonderful if people in the current Trump administration tried to do some of that with Trump and his policies of getting us into economic conflicts with our friends in Canada, setting ICE on murderous rampages in the US, starting an ill-conceived war with Iran, and the rest of his depredations.

I guess that's the difference between riveting fiction like The Diplomat and the harrowing reality of Trump.   But, optimist that I am, who knows, maybe watching this season of The Diplomat on Netflix will give some people in his administration a little more courage.

See also The Diplomat 1: West Wing Meets Bond ... The Diplomat 2: West Wing Meets Bond Part 2 ... The Diplomat 3: Thriller in More Ways Than One

My 2021 in-depth interview with Rufus Sewell about The Man in the High Castle

Dark Matter 2.7: "Through this door ..."

The excellent episode 2.7 of  Dark Matter is entitled "The Pyramid," a good title, but I think "Through this door," which Leighton says repeatedly in his rousing speech in support of what the plethora of alternate worlds with wonderful things that Velocity's use of Jason's invention is opening up, is even better.  And I say this even though we see plenty of horrors through this or that door in this episode, and Leighton is looking at this through rose-colored glasses.

There were lots of important and intriguing stories in this episode.  Here are some of my favorites (and they'll be some spoilers ahead):

• Mitchel MacNamara (played by Chris Diamantopoulos), the Humphrey Bogart / Sam Spade-ish character I said I was happy to see in my review of episode 2.2, gets his just deserts.  I hope he'll survive, though.  I still like his character.
• Margot Martindale's new character Laurel is also a pleasure to encounter.  She has a sign in her home that welcomes inter-reality visitors, in this case, Charlie.  Speaking of which, I assume it's Max he sees at the end, but with a show like Dark Matter and its unexpected turns, I certainly wouldn't bet on it.
• I'm as tired of stories about plagues as I assume you are, but I thought the Black Iris Plague was a logically very possible development to explore in a series about a myriad of alternate realities, and I thought it was handled very well.
• Daniela and her alternate-reality father were beautifully rendered, and their story made a crucially important point in this narrative:  although the fire in MacNamara's scene, the plague I just mentioned above, etc., are necessary to portray in this anti-fairytale of a series, there are nonetheless some fairytale-like wonderful elements to it too, and they're heartening to see.
• Finally, the appearance of Jason 2 at Jason 1's home at the end was a perfect teaser for next week's episode.

Now, in my past three reviews, I focused a lot on the cultural trimmings in this season of Dark Matter.  I did see something I thought I liked in 2.7, but I can't say more about it, because all I got was a brief blurry glimpse of it -- the LP cover in Jason's home.  It was reminiscent of Meet the Beatles, but the unclear letters didn't look like those words.  Anyone know what they are?

See also Dark Matter 2.1: Who's Who in the Infinite Bucket ... 2.2: Sam Spade Back in Action ... 2.3: Can Two Couples Be in Two Different Places at the Same Time? ... 2.4: "There's No Entrance to the Diner" ... 2.5: Canterbury Realities and Proust ... 2.6: The Harptones in the Multiverse

And see also Dark Matter 1.1-1.2: Break-Neck Action and Philosophic Contemplation ... 1.3 Missing Fingers ... 1.4 The Multiverse Unveiled ... 1.5: The Lesson ... 1.6 "A Bunch of Chicagos" ... 1.7: Obama Tower ... 1.8: A Bevy Of Jasons ... 1.9: Science Fiction and Horror

Dark Matter 2.6: The Harptones in the Multiverse

The Harptones, 1956

It was so good to hear The Harptones' "My Memories of You" in Dark Matter 2.6.  I love doo-wop.  I sang it with my group The Transits (I'm doing first tenure falsetto in this rough demo we did of The Passions' "I Only Want You").  I've written science fiction stories about doo-wop (check out "The Harmony" in my anthology Peter Brown Called). I even got my family to do a little of the Five Satins' "In the Still of the Night" in the early Covid days.

Now the Harptones song The Transits always sang was "Sunday Kind of Love" -- to this day, one of my favorite songs -- but "My Memories of You" certainly fits better in this episode of Dark Matter, and in Dark Matter overall.

Every time Jason-1 in his travels in interreality runs into someone that he knew in his original world (I suppose our world, yours and mine, too), he wonders if that person knows him, and if so, how much and what that person knows of him.  Jason wants to know the nature of their memories of him, or, from their perspective looking at Jason, my memories of you.

It's comforting to think that the same music exists, at least to some extent, across multiple realities.  But now that I'm thinking about it, where does that music really exist?  If we hear it on a jukebox in a bar in an alternate reality, it exists in that reality.  But lots of the music, including "My Memories of You", are part of the background soundtrack.  When the Harptones play in the background of a scene with Daniela, with her father, and then thinking of her father, are we to assume that she's hearing that song in her head?Maybe ... but unless it's playing in the car she's driving, or she tells someone she loves that song, we can't be sure.  Maybe that song is just something Blake Crouch or Jen Malone (music supervisor) or one of the other people in the 15-person music department put into those scenes to sharpen and enhance our understanding of what's going on.

Whoever chose it -- it was a great choice.  The other thing I especially liked in this episode is this alternate version of Amanda (Alice Braga) and her incandescent smile.  (I don't recall her ever smiling so vividly in the earlier realities she was in.)  And the hooded person who turned out to be Charlie taking a turn towards another reality, after Jason tells him that his lost twin Max is alive in one of them somewhere, promises a new story of some kind for him and us straight ahead.

See also Dark Matter 2.1: Who's Who in the Infinite Bucket ... 2.2: Sam Spade Back in Action ... 2.3: Can Two Couples Be in Two Different Places at the Same Time? ... 2.4: "There's No Entrance to the Diner" ... 2.5: Canterbury Realities and Proust

And see also Dark Matter 1.1-1.2: Break-Neck Action and Philosophic Contemplation ... 1.3 Missing Fingers ... 1.4 The Multiverse Unveiled ... 1.5: The Lesson ... 1.6 "A Bunch of Chicagos" ... 1.7: Obama Tower ... 1.8: A Bevy Of Jasons ... 1.9: Science Fiction and Horror