Discuss - Ep #0840

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I wonder if that PBS special is still around or online?

It's definitely still available. In fact, I enjoy the show so much that talking about again got me interested in watching it again - and I'm doing that very thing now. Well, not at this second because I'm obviously typing this.    But that's only because I'm taking a break. The show is three hours long - but each hour is broken up into 8 chapters for easy viewing if one doesn't want to sit though all three hours or even just one hour in the same sitting. Anyone interested can check out The Elegant Universe. However, the subject of parallel universes, though touched upon in the first hour, doesn't really begin in earnest until later on. So if that's all your interested in, have patience. It really does pay to watch the whole show in order to understand everything. In fact, the program is really quite fascinating - even on one's 3rd, 4th or even 20th viewing...

[Roland]

Nowing next to nothing about women's garments in the present, let alone the past,  I was still surprised to hear Petofi mention Julia's shockingly short skirt.  I was under the impression that women of that time only wore dresses.  Would the bottom half still have been called a skirt?

[Roland]

And apparently "nowing" next to nothing about spelling.  For some reason, when I type on this site, easily half the letters don't show up and I have to constantly hit "backspace" in the course of my writing.  Does anyone else have this problem on here?   

I'm going to have to start cutting-and-pasting off Word.

[Midnite]

I was under the impression that women of that time only wore dresses.  Would the bottom half still have been called a skirt?

Google: Victorian skirts.   

[EmeraldRose]

Major Milestones:
1. Was this the first time a woman with short hair wore a long dress in the past on DS? If so, then that's a milestone.
2. Tate told Amanda that he believed she was created when he first painted her portrait - on March 11, 1895.
3. Count Petofi kept Julia prisoner and made her tell him about the I-Ching wands.
4. Count Petofi made Quentin tell him where the I-Ching wands were. CP also threatened Q, who didn't want to help CP anymore, that he could cause Q to have a "relapse" at any time, so CP was Q's master, and Q was forced to continue to "obey" him.
5. Count Petofi used the I-Ching wands for the first time and found a threateningly scary Golden Scimitar on the other side of the door.

Julia looked pretty with her purple dress and short red hair.

I think it's terrible that Beth was dropped by Quentin. Now Q is enamored with Amanda. Yuck! I feel sorry for Beth.

Count Petofi was really anxious to get to the future to escape from the gypsies. But wouldn't his body stay in 1897 like Barnabas's body did in the beginning? The gypsies could still find him and take his hand again as he sat there in his trance.

I find all this time travel stuff fascinating. The Quantum Physics of it all is "way over my head", though.    I also enjoyed Frank's presentation when I saw it last year. It was great because he spoke in "layman's terms" to make it easier to understand.

----- Sally -----

[fanforever]

Count Petofi was really anxious to get to the future to escape from the gypsies. But wouldn't his body stay in 1897 like Barnabas's body did in the beginning? The gypsies could still find him and take his hand again as he sat there in his trance.

Yes, that is correct, but
[spoiler]since Petofi will eventually take over Quentin's body, no one will be the wiser if Quentin is in a trance. The gypsies would never think to cut off his hand.[/spoiler]

[MagnusTrask]

I still think I Ching is only viable for visits, not permanent moves.   

[spoiler]Would Q's body (and portrait) stay there alive, healthy and unmolested for all of time while Petofi lives for centuries in the future?   

The only way Q-tofi's body gets to 1969 is if it lives its way through all those years.   So the body in the trance has to stay in that room till Petofi's consciousness leapfrogs time to 1969 and re-animates the body in that same room.   There's something else wrong with all this I can't remember right now too. [/spoiler]

[fanforever]

But if your theory is correct, then
[spoiler]why did Q-tofi, when he got past the time barrier, awaken in the foyer of Collinwood, instead of the West Wing?[/spoiler]
Remember, DS is supposed to be fantasy, and some occurences cannot be pinned down with cold, hard facts.

[MagnusTrask]

But if your theory is correct, then
[spoiler]why did Q-tofi, when he got past the time barrier, awaken in the foyer of Collinwood, instead of the West Wing?[/spoiler]

No good reason, that's for sure.   But I'm fully aware that DS is about magic, and I switch my science-fiction brain off when watching.  However, even fantasies, good competent ones, need some consistent sense.  You can't have, say, characters suddenly change names or personalities, or suddenly make a werewolf a zombie instead for no explained reason and act as if it was always that way....  Fantasy still has to make internal sense.   If Petofi wears an eye patch and tutu, then when the camera's back on him he's in the bathtub, then next shot he's on the roof, all in the same scene, then fantasy or no fantasy, that's wrong.  Not that I wouldn't want to see it....

[Lydia]

I wonder why Tate's sketch did NOT come into being this time. Usually whatever he draws come to life the moment he's finished but not this time.

Amanda didn't appear right in front of Tate when he first drew her; she came to life on the streets of New York, which must have startled anybody who was nearby.  When Tate drew that glass, then somewhere - deep in the Amazon rain forest, perhaps - a glass appeared.  By the way, he certainly has a taste for the over-ornate, doesn't he?

Petofi made it clear today he didn't know that along with artistic talent he gave Tate the ability to create things out of nothing.  What else does Petofi do that he doesn't know about?

So...Quentin was killed by his wife and came back to life, he killed her and ended up with a werewolf curse, and then he just barely escaped being killed by his girlfriend when she found out he was marrying somebody else...and now he's dillydallying with yet another woman when he knows that his current fiancée is a witch with a jealous streak.  Oh, well, I guess the pressure of recent events has driven him around the bend.

I thought Julia was quite unnecessarily helpful with Petofi when he was trying out the I Ching.

[Midnite]

They will form one of 64 hexagrams, she says.  Which is this one? he asks.  She checks the book--the third, the kune (?) hexagram.

It's the Chun Hexagram.

Quentin to Amanda:  "I'm not going to hide the fact that we're together."
Idiot.

The final scene, with Petofi in the I-Ching trance, was very well done, which is fortunate since it will be reused to open the next ep.

Jim Hale, who had a small role during 1795, provided the scimitar action.