Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress

reviewing Black Doves; Dark Matter; Dept. Q; Detective Hole; Dexter: Resurrection; Fauda; For All Mankind; Foundation; Hijack; Memory of a Killer; MobLand; Outlander; Paradise; Presumed Innocent; Reacher; Severance; Silo; Slow Horses; Smoke; Star City; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Tehran;The: Day of the Jackal, Diplomat, Night Agent; Your Friends & Neighbors +books, films, music, podcasts, politics

George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.

Sunday, July 24, 2022

Podcast Review of The Orville 3.7 - 3.8

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 333, in which I review episodes 3.7 and 3.8 of The Orville on Hulu

Blog post written reviews of these episodes: 3.7 and 3.8

Podcast reviews of The Orville third season: 3.1... 3.2 ... 3.3... 3.4... 3.5... 3.6

Joel McKinnon interviews Paul Levinson about Star Trek and The Orville on McKinnon's Seldon Crisis podcast.

First chapter of my just finished novel -- mentioned in the podcast -- alternate history about The Beatles: It's Real Life

Check out this episode!

Saturday, July 23, 2022

The Orville 3.8: Dolly Parton and Topa

The Orville checked in yesterday with another superb episode -- 3.8 -- a ninety-minute bases loaded home run that continued the story of Topa, and, believe it or not, had the real Dolly Parton in the holographic flesh singing and playing a significant role. You may be getting tired of hearing me say the episode of The Orville I'm reviewing is the best so far in the series, and/or the episode clearly puts The Orville in the best of any Star Trek territory, but both are true once again about this episode.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

First about Dolly: Heveena's haven of Moclan women, striving to increase their number, and free themselves of the Moclan male insanity of wanting them to have no existence at all, venerate our very own Dolly Parton. We first hear about this, then get a tantalizing playing in the background of "Jolene" (good choice -- my favorite Dolly song), and then Dolly herself on The Orville's whatever its called holodeck, summoned by Captain Mercer to talk sense to Heveena. Dolly succeeds, at least in part because she sings "Try" (another great and very appropriate Dolly song, about the stars). Dolly (de-aged) looked and sounded great. She would have looked and sounded great without the de-aging.

Meanwhile, we get a powerhouse story of Topa, with all the trimmings. Back on Earth, we're treated to a meeting of all the Union delegates, including the humorous slime (the voice of which was played by the late Norm MacDonald), who, unfortunately don't speak. I was hoping we'd at least see them raise their amoebic extended hands, like we did for Yaphet in a recent episode, helping Isaac and some tech creature frantically working to fix something.

Grayson and Bortus put in some good hand-to-hand combat with the Moclan who are keeping Topa hostage in a black ops enclave, and Bortus gives the Moclan who was torturing Topa just what he deserves. I was sorry to see Grayson order Bortus to stand down.

Before the episode is over, Klyden is back in the fold, he invites Grayson to the family dinner table, and Bortus and Klyden have renounced their Moclan citizenship. Their home is now The Orville. The Moclans leaving the Union may not be good for the fight against the Kaylon, but it made for one really satisfying ending in this outstanding episode.

Joel McKinnon and I discuss Star Trek, The Orville and much more

watch The Chronology Protection Case FREE on Amazon Prime

Monday, July 18, 2022

The Orville 3.7: Seconding that Emotion

Well, we saw Isaac in simulated flesh in episode 3.6 of The Orville last week, and in this past Friday's episode 3.7 we get to see him love Claire.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

Love and sex (and death, too) were actually everywhere in this episode. Claire and Isaac kiss. Lt. Commanders Lee and Keyali are in bed together several times, and the literally broken bones that Lee keeps getting from Keyali's passion make for one of the humorous interludes. Freud with his focus on libido and thanatos would have been happy to see all of it. I know I was.

We also get an important backstory about what led to the Kaylon attack on the Union. It was no fun being a robot slave to a sadistic species. Unfortunately, the Kaylon generalization that all biologicals were the same as the ones who tormented them was not entirely warranted.

Back to Isaac and Claire, I once again would have liked to have seen a different ending. Though letting Isaac keep his emotions and Claire so fulfilled in her love for him would have changed the dynamics on The Orville for sure, I think it would have been fun to see at least a few more episodes of that. Television series always seem to have a tendency to revert to their "bibles" -- the specs on the characters that writers need to abide by -- but sometimes it's better to tear out those pages and toss them in the metaphorical trash bin.

At least we get to see Charly finally come to terms with her understable fury with Isaac, which of course was bound to happen, but it will be good to see them working together in the future.

Joel McKinnon and I discuss Star Trek, The Orville and much more

watch The Chronology Protection Case FREE on Amazon Prime

Wednesday, July 13, 2022

Podcast Review of The Orville 3.6

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 332, in which I review episode 3.6 of The Orville on Hulu

Blog post written review of this episode

Podcast reviews of The Orville third season: 3.1... 3.2 ... 3.3... 3.4... 3.5

Joel McKinnon interviews Paul Levinson about Star Trek and The Orville on McKinnon's Seldon Crisis podcast.

First chapter of my novel in progress, alternate history about The Beatles: It's Real Life

Check out this episode!

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

The Orville 3.6: Masterpiece of Time Travel with a Missed Opportunity

Another superb, powerful, intellectually complex and morally challenging episode -- 3.6 -- of The Orville, and it's about time travel. This episode was so good, I think it will take its place along with "City on the Edge of Forever" and "The Inner Light" as an all-time great Star Trek (in The Orville's case, Star Trekian) time-travel episode. But I'll be honest with you. I didn't like the ending.

[Spoilers follow ... ]

I would have had Mercer et al take Malloy and his family back to the future, as Malloy suggested. It would have avoided all the potential damage to the future -- no Union, etc -- that Grayson astutely outlined. Although Mercer and Grayson were technically right that Malloy should have held on and not mixed with our 21st century populace -- let alone have a wife and two children -- come on, have a heart. Malloy's new family, and what he learned in his 10 years in our time on Earth, would have made for even more intriguing characters aboard The Orville.

I will say that in taking the route it did, this fine episode of The Orville followed in the time travel tradition of the original Star Trek. Kirk loses his 20th love in "City on the Edge of Forever," for the same reasons as Malloy does in The Orville. And, even worse, Kirk initially has a memory of that love. In The Orville, it is Mercer, Grayson, and the rest who must carry the burden of that memory with them. They inform Malloy about what happened, but that's not the same as having a real memory from your life.

I think rather than upholding "The City on the Edge of Forever" tradition, The Orville had a chance to do something new. But, hey, I'm just a viewer not a writer for this series, and 3.6 was nonetheless a kind of masterpiece, with the bonus of seeing Isaac in the "flesh".

Joel McKinnon and I discuss Star Trek, The Orville and much more

watch The Chronology Protection Case FREE on Amazon Prime

Friday, July 8, 2022

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1.10: Everything!

Well, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, already off to a generally superb start, posted its far and away best episode so far, 1.10, the season finale, which in one fell swoop contributed mightily to the corpus.

[Some spoilers ahead ...]

This episode had everything -- at least, everything of what I most like and consider most important in the Star Trek universe: time travel, Pike learning the hazards of trying to avoid his fate, Pike and Spock drawing closer, the Romulans, and ... Captain James T. Kirk!

The set-up: Captain Pike gets a visit from his older self, determined to get the current Pike not to do something now that will profoundly alter the future. Current Pike touches a Klingon time-travel green crystal which instantly lands him on the future Enterprise.

The story moves quickly. Pike and the Enterprise soon find themselves in a standoff with the bellicose Romulans. Fortunately, the Enterprise gets a visit from none other than James T. Kirk. We've already met Sam, James T's brother. This James T. Kirk (very well portrayed by Paul Wesley) is a little younger Shatner's Kirk, and we get the pleasure of seeing him and Spock meet for the first time. We also get to see James T. flex the smarts and ingenuity of this Star Trek foundational kingpin. (And, as a special treat, we hear the voice of a Scot in engineering -- hello Scotty!)

Before the episode is over, we see some great strategic jockeying between the Federation and the Romulans. But, predictably for this stage in human-Romulan interstellar relations, life-and-death battles in space result nonetheless. And ... Spock is a casualty. He survives. But his body is badly damaged, and a crestfallen Nurse Chapel tells our time-traveling Pike that Spock will never be the same.

Our Pike realizes that his current actions will set in motion a series of events in which Spock not Pike will be the one who is mutilated, who suffered the fate of Pike as shown in "The Menagerie". In a sage, satisfying, emotionally rewarding ending, Pike not only discovers that he can't let this happen to Spock, but he and Spock mean a lot to one another. And this sets up nicely the mutiny that Spock will commit in "The Menagerie" to get his former Captain to a planet where he can live out his life in some happiness.

As I've been saying in these reviews -- and in interviews as well, such as the one I did a few weeks ago on Joel McKinnon's Seldon Crisis podcast (see below) -- I think Strange New Worlds is up there with TOS and TNG. This season finale brings that point home with light speed.

Joel McKinnon and I discuss Star Trek: SNW and much more

Stranger Things 4: A Big Step Forward

As I've indicated in these reviews over the years, horror isn't my favorite form of fiction and science fiction. But Stranger Things on Netflix had something special from the beginning, and it's gotten better each season. In fact, I thought season 4 was by far the best, and was in many ways outstanding.

Except the beginning, which was slow moving and even ponderous in parts. But as the season picked up momentum, we got at least three parallel but ultimately intersecting, converging stories, and they were a sight and a story to see.

[Definitely spoilers ahead ... ]

The Soviet story, for example, was somehow exciting, very moving. and even funny at times, all propelled by Hopper surviving what happened to him at the of the third season, and Joyce going to Russia to find and ultimately rescue him. The Duffer Brothers, who made this series, know not when we to do away with an unlikely charismatic character.

The El story was also powerful, to say the least, and its connection to the arch-evil Vecna/Henry who at this point is behind all the terrible things that have befallen the good and not so good people of Hawkins was well conceived and developed. Brenner aka Poppa and Dr. Owens were also well positioned and played, and it was good for a variety of reasons to see Brenner die a noble death.

Speaking of noble deaths, though, the first place for that goes to hard-metal Eddie, a complex new character whom I would liked to see in another season. And the best almost death was Max's, who probably had her best season so far.

I guess what I liked least were the dumb, violent, high-school jocks -- we've that so many times before -- and what I would have to have seen were Steve and Nancy get together. But, hey, that's what next seasons are for, and I'm looking forward to binging the final season of Stranger Things (there maybe a spin-off series, though) which I hope takes less than three years to get back on the screen.

more parallel worlds ... "flat-out fantastic" - says Scifi and Scary

Social Media and Mass Murder

Important conversation between Bob Mann and me on his Bob Mann Hot Media podcast about the role of social media in the mass murders that continue to erupt in the US.

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Podcast Review of The Orville 3.5

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 331, in which I review episode 3.5 of The Orville on Hulu

Blog post written review of this episode

Podcast reviews of The Orville third season: 3.1... 3.2 ... 3.3... 3.4

Joel McKinnon interviews Paul Levinson about Star Trek and The Orville on McKinnon's Seldon Crisis podcast.

Check out this episode!

The Orville 3.5: Topa

Well, The Orville episode 3.5 moved into Emmy-worthy territory, with an episode on a sensitive, important issue, presented in a plot with letter-perfect detail and twists.

You may recall that in a prior season, Topa, Moclan child of Bortus and his husband, was obliged to undergo "corrective" surgery that changed Topa biologically from female to male, because females were not allowed in Moclan culture. Now, in the present, a young teenaged Topa is feeling confused and unhappy. Commander Grayson figures out why. The solution is an easy surgery which would restore Topa to womanhood.

Except, Bortus's husband goes ballistic at the prospect, and the Union doesn't want to antagonize Moclus given the Kaylon threat and the need to have Moclus as an ally. The Orville leadership applies all of its wisdom and energy towards finding a way to do the surgery, and --

Well, I won't tell you anymore, because if you've read this far and haven't seen this episode, you need to see it.

[Well, ok, here's a general spoiler.]

I will tell you the solution is brilliantly logical, and serves all kinds of purposes. Plus, it will tug on your heart strings and get you to see The Orville in a new light. It has always been far more than mere satire of Star Trek. But now it can justifiably claim the status of being right up there among the best episodes in any Star Trek series.

Joel McKinnon and I discuss Star Trek, The Orville and much more

watch The Chronology Protection Case FREE on Amazon Prime

Monday, July 4, 2022

Review of Westworld 4.2

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 330, in which I review episode 4.2 of Westworld on HBO.

Blogpost written review of this episode

Podcast reviews of this season: 4.1 ...

They're coming out into the open, for the first time in...

Check out this episode!

Podcast Review of The Man Who Fell to Earth season 1 finale

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 329, in which I review the season 1 finale of The Man Who Fell to Earth on Showtime.

Written blog post review of this episode of The Man Who Fell to Earth

podcast reviews of The Man Who Fell to Earth 1.1 ... 1.2... 1.3... 1.5-1.6... 1.7... 1.8... 1.9

Check out this episode!

The Man Who Fell to Earth: Season 1 Finale: Unique and Tender

I just want to begin by saying The Man Who Fell to Earth 2022 TV series was one of the most beautiful, unusual, almost tender pieces of science fiction that has ever come to the screen. And the season finale on Showtime last night excelled in all those virtues.

[Spoilers ahead ...]

Newton finally became almost a mentch, admitting he had love for Faraday. And although Newton keeps saying they're won't be any room on the ship from Anthea to Earth for any drones, Faraday is going to make sure he gets his family on board, anyway.

But speaking of family, I very much liked the way Faraday and Justin parted. The two clearly love each other, too. The big story may be the tale of two different worlds, one on the verge of death, the other not that from it. But the people we've met, and see in action especially in this finale, are very much alive and have lots of life ahead.

Back to Newton. First, what an acting job by Bill Nighy! And what delightful details. One of my favorite lines in the overall series is Newton saying maybe it's time to kick the habit of smoking. As I said, he's becoming a mentch.

And rather than commenting on the rest of the finale, let me instead say how much more there is to this story. Faraday blasted off. Wouldn't it be great to see what happens when he gets back to Anthea? Wouldn't it be satisfying and fun to see what happens when he gets back to Earth?

The answer of course is yes. So bring on another season. And in the meantime, kudos to everyone who helped make this first season so good. In addition to Nighy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Clarke Peters, and Naomie Harris were great in their roles. Tell us more!

Westworld 4.2: The Meta-Story

Westworld 4.2 continued the leaner, meaner narrative that apparently will typify this season, and I'm glad of it.

Among the most salient developments:

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

1. The Man in Black aka William is in top murderous form. He's the main source of evil. His better-looking self is an AI host, with his human originator back in some pathetic Matrix-like stasis. He (William host) seems close to taking over the US government itself, having already taken care of the Vice President. I said last week that I thought William throwing his mob-like self around like this was a little trite. But it's now so audacious, I'm beginning to enjoy it.

2. Maeve and Caleb continue as the best/only good guys in the fray. It's (of course) no easy battle. The host makers have improved the models, to the point where they're not quite amenable to Maeve's control. But the two make a good team, and animate every scene they're in.

3. Christina once Delores continues to have the most interesting intellectual story, at least in my book: what she writes seems to become reality, or at least insofar as one character. This kind of meta storytelling, in which characters literally jump off the page or screen, is always fun to see.

Still missing in action in Bernard, who must have an important role this season. And Teddy, after making that dramatic entry at the end of 4.1, wasn't on hand at all in 4.2, but I'm sure we'll see him again soon.

And I'll see you back here next week with my review of the next episode.

See also: Westworld 4.1: Lean Mix

They're coming out into the open, for the first time in centuries ....

Friday, July 1, 2022

Podcast Review of For All Mankind 3.3-3.4

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 328, in which I review For All Mankind 3.3-3.4 on Apple TV+.

Blog post review of these episodes: 3.3 - 3.4

Podcast reviews of prior episodes and seasons: 3.1 3.2 ... Season 2 ... Season 1

Joel McKinnon interviews Paul Levinson about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, The Orville, Isaac Asimov, much more on his Seldon Crisis podcast

Check out this episode!

For All Mankind 3.3-3.4: The Race

Catching up with a double review of For All Mankind on Apple TV+ -- episodes 3.3 and 3.4 -- which started as a pretty good espionage story in and of itself, and catapulted into one of the most exciting out in space episodes of the series. Before I warn you about spoilers, I've gotta say that the verisimilitude of this series -- fancy word for realism -- makes you, or at least me, feel like I'm really out there way off this planet.

[Ok, here's the Spoilers advisory.]

Episode 3.3, as I said, is an excellent spy drama, in which Margot gets sucked into being blackmailed by the Soviets to give them all kinds of essential information about our NASA space program. We see her in a deepening, almost romantic relationship with her Soviet counterpart -- whom she's been giving some information to, for the benefit of all mankind -- but right before the two can consummate their romance, she's greeted by Soviet KGB tough guys, who say they'll kill her almost lover, unless she plays ball, i.e., gives them much more info, especially about our Mars mission.

The result sets up episode 3.4 quite effectively: a three-way race to Mars, with Helios, NASA, and the Soviets all launching missions to Mars at the same time, The race is on.

The missions are dangerous, because, of course, they're all being done for the first time, And as we've seen before with For All Mankind, this superb alternate history series isn't afraid to show that major lives can be lost in our pursuit of ever wider vistas off Earth,

I'm enjoying this third season immensely, and I'll see you back here next week with my review of the next episode.

get the paperback or Kindle of this alternate history here

or read the story FREE here

*** Note added 27 October 2023: Check out my review of Jack Dann's new book, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

"challenging fun"
- Entertainment Weekly

e-mail received from a reader:
Dear Paul, I just dreamed of airships flying between raindrops. I just returned from 2042 CE, where I sold my hardcover copy of The Plot to Save Socrates for seventy million Neo-Euros, because it had your response to this e-mail from way back in 2007 scotch-taped onto the inside of the cover. A Paul Levinson collector paid top Neo-Euro, because of the authentic archaic e-mail printout from you. It turns out that not many of your e-mails from before your tenure as CEO of HBO/Cinemax and terms as United Nations Secretary General will survive that far into the future. So, please respond to this e-mail, to help found my great-grandchildren's fortune. My Will will stipulate that they must share with your great grandchildren. Thanks! Tom

I of course happily replied...

42 reviews of The Plot to Save Socrates!