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?

I went back and reread the first five chapters of DoOver to see if Julie had been mentioned in that original timeline and Davey’s do over of it and it wasn’t mentioned. What’s interesting is how the obverse of similar events kept appearing in Brian’s do over now versus the original. I suspect Davey will come to his senses on his own, once he stops and really thinks through things, which he hadn’t yet as of the end of this chapter. And it’s getting close to football and the school year. Does Davey really want to give up the gains he’s personally made because of this Brian?

I don’t think Sandy has ever been told that the San Francisco apartment the Jones family used while Sandy had her surgeries had been Brian’s gay Uncle Rich’s before he passed. She needs to also realize Davey and Brian are within six months of turning 18 as well, and Davey could easily win emancipation as an adult before then if pushed to it. And now we’ll see how much David Sr. has grown where his son is concerned.

Davey had been the only one in Sandy’s household who had tried to maintain any connection to David Senior in this timeline, and with Davey’s taking Brian’s advice about how the ealier Davey had quickly thought things through first, and some well-timed disclosures to the Senior about how Davey had sacrificed to pay for Jenny and Sandy, it forced Senior to recognize Davey was essentially already an adult. And Davey threw in a compromise— that he’d get Sandy to help her mother-in-law with some of the expenses, but not half the winnings that the lawsuit demanded. As for Brian and Davey, I think their discussions, especially Brian telling this Davey how the other Davey had addressed issues, and getting him to do that before talking to David Senior really cemented their own bond in a serious way. It’s fun watching this obverse of the earlier Davey dealing with the earlier Brians on this same point.

Well Davey did that with winning money in the last timeline. Sandy’s going to need a spendthrift trust, if others aren’t careful in this timeline.

The bit with the lottery ticket was the obverse of what 12 year old Davey had done with Pete in the prior timeline and Brian clearly remembered that as well as the time their mothers had played the Lotto. So this Davey will be surprised that his earlier self had done the same thing. I think the bigger thing will be with Todd, Sean, Trevor and Brandon. And we have no idea if the last timeline’s Sean somehow came back as he’s done twice before. I suspect now the issue will become getting Davey where he can be able to get to go with college with Brian, and Jenny’s going to be a problem. Her behavior in this chapter is manipulative and self centered, but Davey needs to stand up for himself about staying at Downey, and this is where Pete will be able to lend a hand now that things are different in the Jones family.

DNA testing wasn’t yet available, but blood typing for a number of factors was available, but that had to wait until a baby was born. Let’s just say Marcie is being vindictive and vengeful as she’s lost all her friends and somehow she thinks this will get her what she wants. Problem is she really can’t be sure that some of the other boys she “dated” isn’t the real father. It’s been a few months and she didn’t notice she’d missed her period before this? Her ploy is so obvious, it’s ridiculous!

Marcie is a real piece of work and like the original timeline, she’s likely to try more vengeance before it’s over with. Even though the issue isn’t further dealt with by the end of the chapter, I’ll venture the Breckenridges did mention the address issue so Pete was aware of it. Whether the vandalism of Davey’s tires or the keying of Brian’s car are or aren’t criminal misdemeanors really isn’t the point in a sense. states vary on the jurisdictional amounts and when those might have changed, so let’s just go with the flow, but the lawsuit against Marcie, Mark Spencer and their parents will leave a marker if they try anything else. And even though it is hearsay about Mark being the one flashing the tires and Marcie wanting it done, Mark’s admission to the coaches is more than hearsay. You can also see Brian and Trevor already angling to get Davey onto the football season for his senior year.

It was clear from the birthday discussion that Brian’s parents were already getting the picture about Davey’s home life and his need to be constantly working to help his family, even at the expense of his education. And to be sure, the Breckenridges are going to find ways so Davey doesn’t drop out or get expelled. (And honesty, my mom, as a high school teacher, did the same sort of thing, so I can relate to that.) Letting Davey’s family use Brian’s apartment in San Francisco was only the first step. I think they recognized enough through Brian’s direct efforts with Davey that there was a set of needs and they would have to figure out how to help a family that wanted to keep their self respect, and not just Davey. It’s not surprising that Brian is having to improvise in his dealings with Davey in this original timeline. Davey never really told much about it in Brian’s earlier timelines,

In the early Do Overs the narrative was that they could only go about 20 years and within the travelers’ lifetime. Until Davey’s last DoOver, when the “trip” went to 1976, all the previous ones had been in 1981, just a few months earlier each time. Brian’s DoOver was far further back than the 20 to 25 years, but I assume, only, that’s related to improving the technology in successive timelines.

One thing no one has seemed to notice — the time period that the machine can reach back to increased with this Do Over. It’s now 65 or 70 years, not 20 or 25.