Tag Archives: time travel

“The Joker and the Thief ” to be published in “Ruth’s and Ann’s Guide to Time Travel, Vol 2”

guide

Cover art or “Ruth’s and Ann’s Guide to Time Travel”

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My science fiction short story “The Joker and the Thief” was just accepted for publication into the anthology “Ruth’s and Ann’s Guide to Time Travel, Volume 2.” As I understand it Gemini Wordsmiths is the parent company for Celestial Echo Press.

I’ve worked with Ann and Ruth before and am gratified that they like my small time travel tale. They received so many quality stories that they had to create a second volume to contain them all.

I’ve wanted to have some version of my story published for a while now. Here’s a small sample:

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Book Review of “Timeline” (1999)

timeline

© James Pyles

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Last night I finished reading Michael Crichton’s 1999 novel Timeline. I’ve always been a sucker for a time travel story, and this one is more unusual than most.

First, Crichton, who passed away in 2008, was not only an excellent writer, but well-versed in science, medicine, and history. His character descriptions are particularly good, and he always managed to pack plenty of action in his books as well as accurate (historical in this case) details.

My one complaint was his explanation of time travel. Crichton didn’t so much describe traveling back in time as jumping from one quantum reality to another. But the explanation presupposed that the reality being jumped into runs parallel to our own (since, as the novel states, time travel is impossible). Yet a person trapped in the 14th century manages to write a note among scholarly papers in a French abbey that is found by his coworkers in 1999.

I skipped over that part and just pretended it worked.

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A Brief Errand in Time

cotton

PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

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Miles Jackson strolled past the bistro to The Cotton Exchange. His contact said he had to depart from someplace that existed both now and at the target date. He wouldn’t have much time once he arrived, which was ironic. But in 2024, he couldn’t walk down the streets of Wilmington dressed like a Civil War era slave.

The vaccine was secure in his pocket. Miles knew that ten-year-old Caleb would be in a house just two doors down on the morning of August 16, 1862. He had to inoculate him for the Yellow Fever so his ancestor would grow up.

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“Quantum Leap” Not Renewed For Season 3

last goodbye

The cast of television’s “Quantum Leap,” (L to R) Mason Alexander Park, Ernie Hudson, Nanrisa Lee, and Caitlin Bassett.

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After watching all of season one and several episodes of season two, last November I parted ways with the modern “continuation” of Quantum Leap. It wasn’t a bad show. In fact, some of the episodes were rather compelling and they had interesting guest stars.

But in the end, like so much of entertainment “updated for modern audiences,” good writing and appealing to a wider audience took a backseat to representation, diversity, equity, inclusion, and so on.

Look, like I’ve said before, it’s not that science fiction can’t have a message. Very often it does. However, when the message and the demographics of the characters, actors, and writers are more important than the actual story, the television show, movie, novel, or whatever, becomes lost.

When I “hung up the phone” on “Quantum Leap” last Fall, I had no idea if it would be renewed for a third season. I was sort of afraid it would. That would mean everything that is wrong with shows emphasizing DEI over substance and depth was winning and the days of really great television were gone forever.

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Time Travel Stories Are Just Wish Fulfillment

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“I told you it wouldn’t work. Now will you leave me alone? I’m trying to get something written.” Ken Carson sat staring at a blank Word page on the computer screen without an idea of what to type.

“We just need to refine the process.”

When the Time Traveler first appeared in Ken’s home office, he said, “Just call me Ray.” Ray was a head shorter than Ken, slender and with a face that could have have been a mix of a lot of backgrounds.

“Refine, my ass. Every time I go back, I screw things up. Sure, the first date with Barbara goes fine, the first few years of our marriage, but then I fuck it up.”

“You needed to stop drinking. That might have helped.”

“I knew that wouldn’t work when you sent me back the last time, so I broke up with her.”

“Then had a pity party, hooked up with that woman at a bar…”

She was actually a friend, which made it worse.”

“…she became pregnant, decided not to have an abortion…” Ray continued.

“I know. I was there. That’s my point. I can’t fix my past so I’m stuck in my present. No matter what I do, I make life worse.”

“Worse than it is now?”

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The Times They Are A-Changin’

the ball

PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

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Trevor shivered in the cold wind as he made his way up W 45th street toward Times Square.

It had worked. Bobby Kennedy had originally supported his brother’s plan to bomb the Cuban missile sites. Fortunately, Trevor Ross was a historian and a time traveler. He blackmailed Bobby the same way Hoover had. Then something went wrong.

Yes, Kennedy had his secret meetings with the Soviet ambassador. However, what happened between them not only averted 1962’s Cuban missile crisis, but had changed everything when Trevor returned to 1980. How had New York City become the capitol of a Communist America?

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One Last Look

old city

PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

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Mo lagged behind the tour group being escorted into Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter. He’d been here hundreds of times over the past ten years but decided he needed to take one last look.

Decades of Islamic terrorism had escalated into war. Netanyahu finally ordered the IDF to excise Hamas from Gaza. It wouldn’t be enough. Soon even the Americans would turn against them.

He would travel back in time as Moshe ben Isaiah, the only name Shaul would understand. Moses had to save the life of the Apostle to the goyim and stop twenty centuries of Anti-Semitic hate before it began.

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Review of Original Quantum Leap S5E5 “Killin’ Time”

killin 1

Scene from the original Quantum Leap episode “Killin’ Time” featuring Scott Bakula as Sam Beckett.

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Based on what I said in my review of the original Quantum Leap show Blind Faith, I decided to continue to sample other episodes.

I just finished watching S5E5 Killin’ Time. The title is appropriate because Sam (Scott Bakula) leaps into an escaped murderer named Leon Stiles (Cameron Dye) in 1958 Oklahoma. Stiles has taken Carol Pruitt (Connie Ray) and her young daughter Becky (Beverley Mitchell) hostage in their home. The house is surrounded by law enforcement officers.

They are led by Sheriff John Hoyt (Jim Haynie) who is determined to kill Stiles in revenge for Stiles murdering the Sheriff’s daughter.

This is far from a “normal” leap.

In the project’s waiting room Stiles has leapt into, he has attacked a Marine guard, knocked him unconscious and taken his sidearm (this was in a deleted scene which originally made the audience wonder where the gun came from). He threatens to kill Al (Dean Stockwell) unless Al lets him out. Besides letting an armed killer from forty years in the past out of a confined area, the other problem is if Stiles leaves the waiting room, Sam can’t leap.

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Review of Original Quantum Leap S2E5: “Blind Faith”

blind1

Scene from original Quantum Leap episode “Blind Faith” featuring Scott Bakula as Sam Beckett.

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I was inspired by part one of this Youtube review of original Quantum Leap’s pilot Genesis hosted by Price of Reason  to revisit the show.

As some of you know, I have been working my way through the “update” or “remake” or “continuation” or whatever you want to call it of Quantum Leap starring Raymond Lee, Caitlin Bassett, and Ernie (Ghostbusters) Hudson. However, I have only rarely reviewed anything from the Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell original from the 1990s.

I’m here to change that.

For your consideration, my review of the original QL S2E5 episode Blind Faith.

Sam Beckett (Bakula) leaps into a blind concert pianist Andrew Ross. It’s February 6, 1964 and Ross has just finished a performance at Carnegie Hall. His “unpaid assistant” and love interest Michelle Stevens (Cynthia Bain) is just off stage watching him with adoration.

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Review of Quantum Leap S2E4 “The Lonely Hearts Club”

lonely

Raymond Lee (L) and Tim Matheson (R) in the Quantum Leap episode “The Lonely Hearts Club”

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Every day when you wake up, there is an adventure to be had. Some are fun, some are scary, some are flat-out stupid. No matter how you slice it, life is meant to be lived. -Neal Russell (Tim Matheson)

That was one of the better things that came out of Quantum Leap Season 2, episode 4 The Lonely Hearts Club.

Yes, it’s as schmaltzy as it sounds and I almost didn’t watch it. In fact, I really had a tough time working up the motivation to watch the episode. What finally pulled me though was the main guest star being Tim Matheson.

I was ten years old during the original run of Jonny Quest. Tim voiced the title character (I own the series on DVD). Also, who isn’t thrilled watching the 1978 film National Lampoon’s Animal House, in which Tim plays “Otter?”

So yes, just to see Tim, I watched it.

Usually, I go into way too much detail so I’ll try to curb that.

Oh, in case you haven’t watched it yet…spoilers.

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