Timeless Season 1 Discussion

Well, I’ve been struggling with finding a book to read, and that’s ok. I have tried many different books but am not finding one that I really enjoy or care to stick within hopes it gets better. I currently have three books sitting waiting to be read, hoping for me to pick them up. However, in this funk, I came across a Tweet from  Smithsonian Magazine talking about a TV show I had never heard of. I decided to see if I could find it and was able to find the first season available to watch on Hulu. Well needless to say I binged the entire first season of NBC’s Timeless. If you like history, time travel, and action, or simply wondered what if an event happened differently this show is for you.

The Show

Timeless is an action-packed historians dream (or nightmare). I found the story exciting and fun with a twist of the historical. The main plot follows three travelers, a historian, scientist, and soldier, on an adventure to save history as they know it. This story raises the question of what is fate and should we change the past if we had a time machine. Each episode sees the crew following after Flynn, the presumed antagonist, as he tries to take down the “evils” of Rittenhouse. The entire season sees the team grow together and face many moral dilemmas as they come to terms with what is truly happening.

The Team

The Historian: Lucy Preston

Lucy knows what she wants, or at least she feels that she does. In the first episode, viewers are introduced to her as a professor that is following in her ailing mother’s footsteps, but her life is suddenly turned upside down when she is requested for a top secret mission. Nothing in her life makes sense anymore after one trip in an impossible time machine. While she starts out as scared, perhaps timid, by the season finale she knows what she must do. Lucy reminds me that when you know what you want to follow your passions.

The Scientist: Rufus Carlin

The only pilot left for the time machine, Rufus, becomes an unwilling accomplice on the team’s travels through time. He often sees the worst part of it, after all, he is an African American man often thrust into situations where he was seen as lesser. Finding ways to fit into the missions takes him some time, he doesn’t want to hurt anyone and hates when asked to do so. He, however, is able to save the others from many scrapes and pilots the time machine even when it almost costs him his life.

The Soldier: Wyatt Logan

The only one on the team who doesn’t ask questions when given orders Wyatt has a simple mission, take out Flynn and will do all that is necessary to accomplish his mission. At least that is his plan until Lucy or Rufus inevitably step in and question everything he was told. He sees the world in stark black and white, in the beginning, only understanding what must be done caring little for who or what gets hurt in the process. Wyatt learns that not all orders are worth following, which can hurt on the battlefield but in their work, might just save them.

Learning to work as a team is all that will save them, and possibly history, from whoever or whatever is after them. I thoroughly enjoyed the team dynamic which developed over the season and can’t wait to watch more excitement from them.

My Thoughts

This is a series and I have no way of reviewing the whole thing here but will offer my ideas. I relate the Lucy as someone who loves history and would do anything to protect it, yet understand how changing the bad might appeal. The story is written in such a way that you learn to love the characters and become attached. The dilemmas they face with traveling back in time often revolve around knowing what must happen, and often being stuck with the consequences of change or leaving it (i.e. Lincoln’s assassination or the Alamo). How their decisions play out are especially noted in the first few episodes as they continue they are less scared of how they change history and more worried if they accomplish their goal.

This show makes history fun, I especially enjoy the series because I love history. What historian or history buff hasn’t dreamed of having a time machine to travel back and see their favorite moment unfold. This show using action as a means allows fans and critics alike to in a small way fulfill this fantasy through Lucy, Rufus, and Wyatt.

Reference

Hulu.com. (2018). Timeless. Retrieved from https://www.hulu.com/timeless

IMDB. (2018). Timeless. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5511582/

NBC.com. (2018). Timeless. Retrieved from https://www.nbc.com/timeless?nbc=1

Timeless Wiki. (n.d.a). Lucy Preston [Image]. Retrieved from http://timeless.wikia.com/wiki/Lucy_Preston

Timeless Wiki. (n.d. b). Rufus Carlin [Image]. Retrieved from http://timeless.wikia.com/wiki/Rufus_Carlin

Timeless Wiki. (n.d. c). Wyatt Logan [Image]. Retrieved from http://timeless.wikia.com/wiki/Wyatt_Logan

TV Promos [Username]. Timeless (NBC) trailer hd [YouTube Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSYZJGAGvww

Seventh Decimate Review

“The Magisters…do not rule the world you know. Their influence is great…. The Magisters of the Last Repository worship knowledge. The library is their temple” (261). These words revealed by Amandis, an assassin, end the quest and begin the downfall of the Prince, eventually leading him to an impossible choice. His understanding of the world around him will never be the same.

Donaldson’s Seventh Decimate is the first book in his new series, The Great God’s War. This book is packed with adventure, at least for the first three parts, with the fourth and fifth falling flat with little taking place except for annoyances and (spoiler alert) the breaking of the main character. This book is well written and exciting until the Prince and his remaining companion are in the library.

The Backstory

Bellenger and Amaika are at war and have been as long as either nation can remember so long in fact that the true reason for the war is lost. The Prince and his companions have all been through Hell, battle, at least once and understand the dire situation their home is in without magic. They are a close group who would do anything to protect each other and their nation, even die to keep their one advantage, rifles, safe. The war is beginning to wear on all concerned and they can’t make more rifles because they have lost theurgy and would be quickly destroyed by their enemies. Therefore, a quest for a way to restore their power is taken by the Prince Bifalt.

The Quest

Prince Bifalt’s quest to find the Seventh Decimate, a book of great magical power, to restore sorcery, which he despises to his homeland is one of urgency. The Prince’s determination drives him on a quest into the unknown. Donaldson creates a tale of expectation and excitement, littered with loss and regret. The company sets out with little fanfare trying not to raise hopes, each a battle-hardened soldier with experience in difficult battles. They claim to have been through Hell, most more than once. While the journey begins well, things begin to go wrong when they near the border of Amaika where seemingly at every turn the Prince and his companions seem to be thwarted, until only three remain and have crossed a desert where they are rescued by a caravan.  This rescue leads the Prince to the place he seeks, The Last Repository, but his troubles are only beginning. While there he meets the Magisters, who have called him in the hope he will agree to their terms.

Review

While I did enjoy the book I hated the ending, yes going in I knew that it was a part one but the destruction of Prince Bifalt’s spirit was just terrible. The magisters were pushy and in control of everything, the story is controlled by them in many ways. Donaldson has in effect created a group who, as the Prince explains, only care for themselves. I found the Magisters to be annoying and overly full of themselves, making the last two parts of the book terrible, but this did make me favor Bifalt, which is possibly the author’s design. The Magisters and all who are in the library keep secrets which cause more strife and difficulty for the Prince leaving him eventually stuck with an impossible choice where all outcomes cost him too much.

References

Goodreads. (2018). Seventh Decimate (The Great God's War #1) [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33865836-seventh-decimate?ac=1&from_search=true 

Donaldson, S. R. (2017). Seventh decimate: The great god’s war. New York: Berkley.