Stranger Times

Not The Television Programme -
- at least, not entirely.  What's that?  You are not aware of "Stranger Times"?  Then the exit door is - actually, no, wait a minute, I'll grant you a bit of slack.  Conrad liketh this programme because it does not involve any Digital Devil-Box Technology, since it would have lasted 14 minutes total otherwise.  That's what comes of being set in 1983.  They do have excellent taste in music (said the resident of Britain, a.k.a. the Pond of Eden) which is mostly British - The Clash, David Bowie, The Smiths - and the only South Canadian band mentioned are Television, which might be a meta-pun, or just a fondness for Tom Verlaine.

 - expressing Artistic Pain

     Anyway, what your humble scribe would really like to concentrate on is - Coincidence.
     I have, of late, been working on the background to a series of short stories that deal with the mysterious arrival on Planet Earth of - er - superpowers.  This is the result of an alternative reality we shall call "Elysium" or "Number 57", who have been fiddling about with the borders between realities, and using our alternative as a metaphorical stalking horse. 
     The chap behind all this is Hugh Everett, father of Mark Everett, who is himself the driving force behind the band Eels.  Hugh came up with the "Many Worlds" concept of quantum physics, that postulates an infinite number of alternative realities lying alongside our own, none of which are accessible to each other.  Conrad was shaken out of his usual Sunday afternoon binge-watching stupor when this cropped up on Stranger Times.
     "None of which are accessible to each other".
     Except what if - you could cross the reality-barrier?

Okay, bordering on creepy

     This is one of the concepts underpinning Stranger Times.  You create a gate in the space-time continuum, and that allows transit back and forth between the two differing realities.  Not predictably, and with a monster thrown in for good effect.
     Plus, it has a really cool soundtrack.

Does It Come With An Explanation?
Conrad notes with a little trepidation that a live action version of "Ghost In The Shell" is due to be released shortly, featuring the not-at-all-hard-on-the-eyes Scarlet Johansen as The Major.

     "Great!" chorused a million fans of anime.
     "Oh," replied your humble scribe.  Having watched the original anime at least half a dozen times, I am still only vaguely aware of what the plot resolution is.  There are cyborgs, and artificial intelligence, and spies, and thermoptic camouflage and - were there some doves in there somewhere*?

Coincidence, You Lambastar -
 - er yes well, let's not go there.  SFW and all that.
     Take a good look at the picture above.  Of course what jumps out at you is the slightly distorted picture of Scarlet, as we who are her friends can call her.  Please note the sidebar and "Babylon 5", which is where we are going from hereon.
     Babylon 5:  It will probably come as no surprise to know that Conrad loves B5.  What's not to like?  A far future that still has poverty, unemployment, racism, war, politics, drugs, greed and all the other things that define humanity.  When the first episode was shown at the Bradford Sci-Fi Convention <coughcough> years ago, it was standing room only because people were so interested.

CO Sinclair, front and centre

     Okay, you may or may not know, because today's generation have the memories of elderly goldfish off their meds, but the Commanding Officer of Babylon 5, Commander Sinclair, left after the first season.
     Conrad only found out the reason why yesterday, after following one of those dreadful clickbait articles that promise the world and deliver Pyongyang.
     It transpires that Robert** Michael O'Hare, the actor portraying Sinclair, was in the middle of a full mental breakdown during the filming of Season One.  Rather than jeopardise the series, he left instead of having filming cease whilst he sought treatment.

Props to the guy

     He held J. M. Straczynski to a promise that he'd tell nobody about the real reason for leaving until after O'Hare's death, which only happened 4 years ago.
     So, there you go.  I've got me a glass of the Old Golden Hen beside me, which I will be lifting in memory of Mr. O'Hare.  Fair travels, mate.

Finally -
(WARNING:  Blog criteria suspended!!!) 
We are not often serious here, but today, as Remembrance Sunday, is one of those times.  Conrad, whose abiding interest is military history, especially military history of the Great War, and the British Army in the Great War, and the British Army on the Western Front in the Great War from 1916 onward, would be a hypocrite of the worst order were he not to acknowledge the Remembrance poppy.

  "They shall not grow old,as we that are left grow old.

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning

We shall remember them."

     Any politicians who consider warfare as a first resort ought to have this stanza tattooed onto their inner eyelids.
Back to being our normal horrid and sarcastic self!!!

     I apologise if this causes seizures or an early onset of pregnancy, but it really does encapsulate a return to our blog's Terms and Conditions.  Hopefully Conrad's pustule-loaded nose will not feature on the default Facebook picture.

*  No, Conrad.  You're thinking of a John Woo film.
** What a splendid first name!