theschnauzers

I am under the impression that the author abandoned all connections to GA a decade or more ago, and left his stories under the control of GA.

When I originally read this series, I though it had the makings of something that was worthy of being produced. But at the time, options for production were more limited, basically just pay cable would have been able to try given the gay content. But the entertainment environment has changed. With the right creator and studio, and the multiplicity of streaming production options, I could see this as a multiple season limited series, one season per timeline, and 10 episodes per season. Casting would be simplified when the same characters appearing in multiple or all seasons and mostly in the same locations. But casting would have to be pitch perfect, at the level of Outlander, or The Expanse, or For All Mankind, (among others) for it to work right. But is it doable? I now think it is.

IIRC, didn’t Maslyukov have KGB connections which were involved to get Davey and Brian involved with Verikov to begin with? Something to consider with the rest of the Gang being in Moscow.

The story had been posted elsewhere before that as I seem to recall a Yahoo Group that had the stories in a pdf format. The group disappeared long before Yahoo Groups did. I may have those in a kindle format on some usb sticks but until I replace two notebooks that have either bad motherboards or power couples and can reinstall the backed files on another notebook, I won’t be able to check.

As mentioned in the last chapter, Verakov has access to data about economic and consumer production. It had nothing to do with military or security issues. Is it just me, or was a bid chunk of this chapter a second copy and paste of the same text? Did we miss out on something? Enquiring minds want to know?

In at least one of the earlier timelines, the scientist had died at Livermore, so I would take Mr. Rush’s confirmation to Davey and Brian in this chapter at face value. This mission is certainly a twist without parallel in earlier timelines. Given this is being set up at Thanksgiving and doesn’t start until summer, the other four might end up being involved in someway. Not clear how much they’re actually being paid for this, given that’s its open ended. But Brian and Davey are too smart not to have Mr. Rush buy stock in their parents’ company.

I believe Trevor volunteered to go with Sean on that mission to deal with the mad scientist, but the others will be nearby at whatever camping ground they find. Most likely hiccup is that somehow the mad scientist isn’t home that night. College. Not sure that any of them will take four full years to graduate college. Which would, at latest, bring them to the spring of 1988. I still don’t see how Trevor would be able to get in the NFL two years earlier, in that period. With six chapters left I’d say there will be two showdowns left, the mad scientist and Alexi Shevernadi, who arrives in 1988.

Welll, I think I was the first to suggest this outcome. The signs were there in the last few chapters. Since no one else knew how to build a time travel machine, and with military spending, the government types wouldn’t have known about a fail safe to vent gas, and the Gang of Six could design the machine so that the time bubble didn’t include anyone other then the Gang of Six. You can be sure Sean didn’t leave any extra notes behind. And could automate the blocking signal to completely shut out the frequencies after the six left. And we’re definitely going to avoid a lot of past unnecessary drama.

What also changes is that the blocking put in place at the last DoOver could also mean that Davey and Sean aren’t limited as to when they can go to, since supposedly those other times no longer count. Brian simply has to go back to before his last DoOver, assuming that limiting factor is even still in place.

I get the feeling they’re all headed back this time, and to the same time period. They have enough power, and Sean has gone back at least once with an auto setting and the drugs.

I’m not going to double quote things from this chapter as I fully understand those. But to be clear, there’s a bit of a paradox about the notes Sean had made in this timeline while he monitored the crazy scientist, as he didn’t have direct memories of the last timeline. He hadn’t traveled back from the previous timeline with Brian. Perhaps the scientist did something different that also contributed to the initial failure in this timeline, and this Sean was trying to figure out what might be needed to update the carrier signal the blocked the initial experiment this time. It isn’t clear. But it was a mistake for Sean to have left thos notes so they could be found. As to the Secret Service, even in the last timeline, the Secret Service protection was extended because of the death threats and Davey’s and Brian’s relationship with the Reagans. That hadn’t happened in this timeline, both of those elements weren’t yet present. The only way Mr. Rush’s contacts could have summoned the Secret Service is that by pre-arrangement, Mr. Rush had been given the information by Brian about Davey’s and Brian’s relationship with the Reagans in the previous timeline, and that he used it to get the White House and Secret Service’s attention in this timeline as well as any information the just arrived Sean could add to that. Otherwise, there’s a disconnect that doesn’t make much sense.

I had to stop and think this through a bit more carefully. Brian, in this timeline was the one who came back from 2050, or thereabouts, in which Brandon and Sean had developed the jamming signal. So how did Sean, who didn’t go back with Brian at that time, end up writing something about jamming the signal in this timeline when no working machine existed and this Sean hadn’t yet received the overwrite of future Sean in this timeline in 2006? Just typing that out gave me a headache. We get a better explanation as to how this timeline’s Sean knew what to do, and that the rest of the gang of six even were. The partial temporary overwrite made sense because the supply of whatever drug was insufficient to make the overwrite permanent. Sean ends the chapter in a coma, but pst experiences by Davey and Sean shows the coma is temporary not permanent. But we have the circumstance in this timeline that both the US and the Soviets have two travelers each. But just how does the Secret Service get involved, when no one has a relationship with Reagan, unless Sean said something (or Mr. Rush, who knows about what Brian did remember) and that included the past timeline relationship between Davey, Brian and the Reagan’s? So it’s not hard to see why the question was asked as to which timeline Sean had come back from.

It’s an important note that in this DoOver, we learned that the now Gang of six all know the whole story and are in Brian’s plan that he adapted from the prior timelines Davey and all are at the same university learning what they need this time around. It does feel like something Brian would have thought of more easily than Davey would have, although the Daveyof the earlier timelines had attended ASU had studied Russian from that same professor. Something tells me that Professor knew more about this than he let on because how often do two freshmen come in with a plausible thesis as reasons for taking highly specialized courses. It just doesn’t happen very often.

Don’t forget Sean and the Rules’ family history with Child Services is already known to the Gang of Five in this timeline so that ultimately can backfire on Mr.Rule. As to Davey, he’s learning a hard lesson about lying to use other people, or if you prefer, telling the truth and not using people. Oh, it’s getting close to Christmas in this timeline. So we’ll get one more appearance from Marcie, don’t we?