Okay, Time for the big review....
First, a big pile of kudos to mr. Eley for saving the day with the fact that a time warp and paradox had caused the unseemly delay of episode #200. I was getting depressed waiting for it and thought it would never come out. Then I heard the intro explaining it. All Is Forgiven, Steve!!
I read this story when I was about 15, and it kept catching me off guard. The hermaphrodite with the sorry childhood story was quite enough to hook me, but it kept hitting me with more. Admittedly, I saw it coming that he was the father, but then it blindsided me with him being the kid, too. I was still reeling when the old agent looks at his old cesarean scars.
Call me a fool, but I was 15. Give me a break. It was one of those stories that haunts you for years after you forgot the title, or occasionally, the author. Kind of like "The Last Question" by Isaac Asimov.
I was hoping for a Heinlein for #200, but I wasn't sure what would do it. I thought maybe "Life Line", or "Let There Be Light", or even "and He Built a Crooked House", but none of those seemed quite right. As soon as I saw the title when it time-warped onto the site, it all came rushing back, and I knew it was a good call.
After all this time, even with knowing what was happening, it was still a great read. I still got chills when he said we all went away when he took headache powder. I was again struck, like I was long ago, by the image of a single person all alone in the night, with no idea what causes all the rest of us.
and so on to my hope for a Clarke story for episode #300, which will be in what? September 2011? I don't know which one will be good. the Nine Billion Names of God is just too short (maybe a flash piece), and while The Sentinel seems obvious, something doesn't seem right.
One thing for sure - No Bradbury. I have never read anything of his that doesn't tie up a good story idea in lousy prose. Fahrenheit 451 wasn't just painful to listen to, it was painful to read.