El Minesterio del Tiempo and the Frankenstein Chronicles -- treats for history fans

Recently I have run across on Netflix two series which I found particularly satisfying because they were clearly created by people who like history as much as I do, and who have taken care to do it right.

One of them is the Frankenstein Chronicles, which might qualify as a good historical movie simply because it stars Sean Bean, but which has so much more.  The story depicts what might have happened in intellectual circles in London after the publication of the novel Frankenstein.  The movie shows as talented scientists being inspired by the book to attempt not just to understand the nature of life and death, but to find the the secret of immortality.

Of course, this doesn't work out very well for them.

What I liked best about the Frankenstein Chronicles was the convincing and detailed depiction of this pre-Victorian era.  Lots of real people show up to add depth to the story:  Mary Shelley, Sir Robert Peel (creating the "bobbies," the London police force), King William IV, William Blake (on his death bed) and several more.  I can't swear to the absolute accuracy of any of these individual portraits, but the nuanced portrayal of the environment as a whole is very pleasing to this retired history professor.  It reminds me of the care put into those prize historical movies of the early 70s, the Three Musketeers and the Four Musketeers.

Also on Facebook is a Spanish series, El Minesterio del Tiempo. The Ministry of Time is a branch of the Spanish government devoted to preventing unauthorized time travelers from changing essential elelments of the past -- specifically the Spanish past.  I have screened only about a quarter of the series, but most of it so far shows the ministry agents most concerned that famous artists and writers are able to produce the works that they contributed to Spanish culture.

There are other entertaining features of the story.  You probably wouldn't think of Spain as the most likely country to have a monopoly on time travel technology.   If so, know that the characters agree with you!  Anyway, the Spanish time travel technique is not obviously technology.  It was invented by a 15th century rabbi, and ever since his time, the Ministry has been secretly using doors that go from one time and place to another.  If there is an explanation for this. or for the creation of the Ministry itself, it is not clear to me.

But perhaps the best part of the series is the way the characters deal with a power that potentially makes them omnipotent.  All the agents have been plucked out of the normal time stream, sometimes after some family tragedy.  The agents can go back to their original environment any time they want, but they risk damaging their (our) timeline and their own mental health if thety do so.

El Ministerio del Tiempo is getting better as it goes along.  The actors are great.  Are they top-ranked stars in Spain?

Later:  The portrayal of Goya discussing his theory of art is stunning.

Life in the incomprehensible future -- a classic scenario

It is a scene in many a time-travel novel.  Boy genius, who works in his secret lab, creates a device that will take him to the future (he's not interested in Julius Caesar or even Cleopatra).

So he goes to the near future and finds that it's pretty much what you'd expect, with a few inventions more or less.

Except...

There is one cultural or religious or social innovation that absolutely shocks the boy genius and his friends.  How  can people who are otherwise so much like them think/believe/do that? B.g. flees to the farther future where a certain normality has been restored.

It occurred to me a little while ago that we have -- many of us -- crossed over such a line, and would deeply  shock time travelers from the near past.

Why so?  Same-sex marriage.  We are the weird ones, no matter who we are married to and the b.g. can't get over us.                                                                                      

Time and a word

And the word is "Yes."

I've talked about the divine nature of music here. How about evidence of time travel?

In 1971 the British band Yes put out "The Yes Album" one of the best they ever did (and they've got more than a double handful of truly excellent albums). In the song Yours is No Disgrace was the mysterious phrase "Send an instant comment to me..." What they meant by it, I don't know, but just by living a half-century, more or less, the phrase has become not at all remarkable.

One of my favorite late-Yes songs (1997) is "Open Your Eyes," which has the all-too-relevant lines:

We cast the world, we set the stage

For what could be the darkest age

By itself, evidence of nothing. But it does go one to describe:

Short exchanges

From perfect strangers

We'll never know

Evidence of nothing except maybe an uncanny resonance in the imaginations of the band members.