Author Topic: EP163: Revolution Time  (Read 44904 times)

Animite

  • Extern
  • *
  • Posts: 10
Reply #100 on: July 03, 2008, 07:18:21 PM
To me, this episode was a story comprised of ideals with little or no ideology to support it.

A story about politics of any kind needs a kind of political ideology, either imagined or unimagined, to support it. Since the premise of the story involved snatching Karl Marx back from the 19th century, I was half expecting there to be some kind of speech or dialog between characters that would shed some light on why this revolution was occurring. Instead of a philosophical banner to rally under, we get an almost dues ex machina flow of events which rushes from one location to another with no reason other than the "revolution" whose motives end up being more mysterious than their all knowing leader.

This is what makes the story a mesh of ideals. The characters, themes, and even the pacing of the story are forced and a little too removed from the real world. It would be amusing if the author intentionally meant this story to unfold like the propaganda techniques used in the heyday of socialism with all of the characters looming large behind undefinable brown and red block backdrops looking with unflinching courage into the ether of tomorrow. 

Although the theme of revolution is timeless, giving it a socialist twist has been done and failed too many times in the real world to give it credibility in a fictionalized setting.

"I write when I'm inspired, and I see to it that I'm inspired at nine o' clock every morning."

-Peter De Vries


wakela

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 779
    • Mr. Wake
Reply #101 on: July 11, 2008, 01:15:22 AM

I don't know why it took me this long to come up with it, but why would a government with a time machine need to make any military response to an attempted revolution at all?  You ID one or more leaders, send agents back in time, join their cells, and disrupt their plans as soon as they amount to anything. 

Actually, that seems to be one of the few plot issues that is sort of semi-addressed; the time machine doesn't seem capable of sending people to the past, only extracting them.

That said, a slight change to the plan makes all the difference - ID one of the leaders, say Morgan, and extract her as a child. Re-indoctrinate her so that she's a double-agent, wait for her to boomerang back to the past, and then have her betray her cell at the right moment. If it doesn't work, just repeat with a different cell member.
Since everything they were doing was just too easy, that's exactly what I thought had happened.  One of their buddies just happened on a secret corridor that leads to the most secure facility in the United States?  And then they get in and out without any resistance?



Planish

  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 772
  • Fun will now commence.
    • northernelectric.ca
Reply #102 on: July 12, 2008, 04:32:48 AM
Where's my pitchfork and/or torch? I'm siding with the mob on this one. Not the worst, but it did not engage me at all.

I don't mind leftist time-travelling stories, per se, but I do dislike non-Daikaiju music at the end, no matter how relevant it may be to the story. That was slt in the wound.

Personally, I love time travel stories.  I love "The Time Machine," Connie Willis' "Doomsday Book" and "To Say Nothing of the Dog" and that Ray Bradbury story where the tourist go back to prehistoric times to hunt dinosaurs but one kills something that wasn't supposed to die and when they get back, all the signs are misspelled.  My favorite Star Trek episodes are the time travel ones.  I love Dr. Who.  And, one of my favorite shows when I was a kid was "The Time Tunnel."   I'm a time travel geek.
I like time travel stories too, but they're very rarely done "right". I keep reading them the way Charlie Brown keeps trying to kick the football that Lucy whips away at the last minute. I keep hoping "maybe this time...".
It does work sometimes (see Robert L Forward's Timemaster), but it's pretty rare.

I think one of the biggest reasons that ST: Enterprise lost its audience was because of the time travel business. A pity, because I liked the crew (except for Archer). ST:Voyager had some time travel episodes too, but at least they didn't spin them out into multi-season story arcs.

I enjoyed that Bradbury dinosaur hunter story you referred to, but only because it was the first time I had ever read anything like it. I was very young at the time.

If the time travel is incidental and counter-balanced by much humour or adventure (eg. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Back to the Future) then all is forgiven. See "Lampshade Hanging".

I'm worried I'm going to lose all my credibility for saying this, but...

I REALLY LIKED THIS ONE!!!!

Sorry, I had to say it. In fact, it's one of my favourite EPs yet. Up there with Friction.
Bartender ... give me whatever he's having.
(sorry)
But seriously, *applause* for being willing to express a contrary opinion.

in case people haven't seen it yet, why not Hitler?
It is to laugh.

I feed The Pod.
("planish" rhymes with "vanish")


CammoBlammo

  • Matross
  • ****
  • Posts: 199
Reply #103 on: July 12, 2008, 11:23:58 AM
I'm worried I'm going to lose all my credibility for saying this, but...

I REALLY LIKED THIS ONE!!!!

Sorry, I had to say it. In fact, it's one of my favourite EPs yet. Up there with Friction.
Bartender ... give me whatever he's having.
(sorry)
But seriously, *applause* for being willing to express a contrary opinion.


You know, I haven't drunk alcohol for going on twenty years now. Maybe I need to start...



Schreiber

  • Peltast
  • ***
  • Posts: 129
Reply #104 on: July 18, 2008, 09:21:04 PM
You know, I've got an idea for a story.  How about freedom fighters from the same universe retrieve Cory Doctorow to lead the charge against oppressive copyright laws?  He'll be a little baffled by the red capes and hot air balloons his apostles all seem to be wearing, but once he gets back to his own time he'll end up confiding in a young Randall Munroe.  Á la Captain Picard, Mark Twain, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.



Unblinking

  • Sir Postsalot
  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 8729
    • Diabolical Plots
Reply #105 on: August 19, 2010, 05:56:51 PM
I'm with most that I didn't like this one.  I did love the Ragtime post explaining the meeting with his future self.  :)

The main reasons I didn't like it:
1.  Despite being supposedly politically motivated, we never really get a feel for why they are rebelling, what Marx actually adds to their equation or anything.  For a politically based story it had almost no substantial political content.
2.  No one I cared about in the slightest.
3.  The story begins with some schmucks accidentally finding an unguarded not-particularly-secret entrance in the government controlled facility housing the most powerful invention of all time.  Why weren't there alarms?  Why didn't they build their facility more securely?  Where are the armed guards?  If they were going to leave the machine in an unguarded warehouse couldn't they at least remove some vital component?  (such as removing sparkplugs from a car, or the flux capacitor from the Delorean).