Manhattan 1.04
In which something I hoped for last week happens promptly.
I was wondering whether Nils Bohr would show up, and presto, this week we got him. I'm now convinced that the scriptwriters are familiar with Michael Frayn's play Copenhagen, because of all the "Bohr is God" jokes running through the episode. (Though in Copenhagen, Einstein was God; Bohr was the Pope.) Mind you, the Bohr scenes weren't without clichés - of course Bohr would rather be with Frank's plucky group of misfits and Frank than with slick corporate Ackley and Oppenheimer - , but they were still great and worth it for two in particular; Bohr's conversation with Lisa Winters which convinces her to go back to being a scientist, and his last conversation with Charlie. More about the later in a minute, as it connected to an overall theme in the episode and another subplot.
Early on, I was a bit weary of yet more "Frank is stubborn, has issues, alienates people" scenes and wondered whether giving him a WWI backstory contributed anything, but then I saw what the episode was getting at with this, and it wasn't the explanation for Frank's hearing problems. The penny dropped with his nightmare about gas welling up on the modern day corridors. Later, it was made even more explicit, with the cross cutting between young Frank finding soldiers killed by nerve gas and the last Bohr and Charlie scene, in which Bohr brings up Fritz Haber, inventor of artificial fertilizers and nerve gas both (and thus the embodiment of the ambiguity of 20th century science, inventing something which contributed to feeding the world in a massive way and one of the most devastating weapons). Bohr parallels Haber with the scientists in Los Alamos, which is something I haven't seen done before and which strikes me as brilliant.
(Haber's career as a fictionalized tv character includes being in Einstein and Eddington, where he's used as a contrast to Albert Einstein - Haber's the military patriot to Einstein's pacifist - though they actually had important things in common, to wit: marrying a brilliant female scientist when they were young, with the marriage then going sour and ending catastrophically largely due to the men. There was a German tv movie about Haber's wife, Clara Immerwahr, recently which brought it to mind again.)
The overall questions the show asks about the responsibility of scientists and science connects all the phlot threads. Frank, Paul and their soldier on their way home argue about scientists and the military, with Frank's "scientists ARE soldiers" as the final declaration, but on the other hand you have Bohr and Charlie and Bohr saying that Haber's example proves that even if you come up with a weapon so dreadful that you'd think it ends wars altogether, it only inspires the creation of even worse weapons. Nobody yet has suggested the choice NOT to create as an option, though Bohr comes close.
(Sidenote: Frank keeping the weapon because that will give the soldier an excuse to his superiors instead of a punishment is one of those moments where he shows care for another human being that's not abstract. Which is necessary, since the show wants us to believe a lot of people care about Frank, and were he an unrelenting egotist, this would be hard.)
Another point where two plots connect: the Navajos. They're mostly silent presences in the show so far. In the scene with Abby and the other wives, we see the other women (though not Abby) use them as servants and getting manicured and beautified by them while ridiculing them for not speaking English. ("How long are they in this country" - obvious irony is obvious.) Meanwhile, Bohr is the one who is silent and listens in his very last scene, observing them as they play and sing. There are points made here about racism, but I hope that sooner or later, we'll get a Navajo (female or male) who is an actual character and not just someone used to point out the flaws or virtues of a white character.
Lastly: last week's soldier seems to stay an important character, and one who'll start a relationship with Frank's and Lisa's daughter.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1007557.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
I was wondering whether Nils Bohr would show up, and presto, this week we got him. I'm now convinced that the scriptwriters are familiar with Michael Frayn's play Copenhagen, because of all the "Bohr is God" jokes running through the episode. (Though in Copenhagen, Einstein was God; Bohr was the Pope.) Mind you, the Bohr scenes weren't without clichés - of course Bohr would rather be with Frank's plucky group of misfits and Frank than with slick corporate Ackley and Oppenheimer - , but they were still great and worth it for two in particular; Bohr's conversation with Lisa Winters which convinces her to go back to being a scientist, and his last conversation with Charlie. More about the later in a minute, as it connected to an overall theme in the episode and another subplot.
Early on, I was a bit weary of yet more "Frank is stubborn, has issues, alienates people" scenes and wondered whether giving him a WWI backstory contributed anything, but then I saw what the episode was getting at with this, and it wasn't the explanation for Frank's hearing problems. The penny dropped with his nightmare about gas welling up on the modern day corridors. Later, it was made even more explicit, with the cross cutting between young Frank finding soldiers killed by nerve gas and the last Bohr and Charlie scene, in which Bohr brings up Fritz Haber, inventor of artificial fertilizers and nerve gas both (and thus the embodiment of the ambiguity of 20th century science, inventing something which contributed to feeding the world in a massive way and one of the most devastating weapons). Bohr parallels Haber with the scientists in Los Alamos, which is something I haven't seen done before and which strikes me as brilliant.
(Haber's career as a fictionalized tv character includes being in Einstein and Eddington, where he's used as a contrast to Albert Einstein - Haber's the military patriot to Einstein's pacifist - though they actually had important things in common, to wit: marrying a brilliant female scientist when they were young, with the marriage then going sour and ending catastrophically largely due to the men. There was a German tv movie about Haber's wife, Clara Immerwahr, recently which brought it to mind again.)
The overall questions the show asks about the responsibility of scientists and science connects all the phlot threads. Frank, Paul and their soldier on their way home argue about scientists and the military, with Frank's "scientists ARE soldiers" as the final declaration, but on the other hand you have Bohr and Charlie and Bohr saying that Haber's example proves that even if you come up with a weapon so dreadful that you'd think it ends wars altogether, it only inspires the creation of even worse weapons. Nobody yet has suggested the choice NOT to create as an option, though Bohr comes close.
(Sidenote: Frank keeping the weapon because that will give the soldier an excuse to his superiors instead of a punishment is one of those moments where he shows care for another human being that's not abstract. Which is necessary, since the show wants us to believe a lot of people care about Frank, and were he an unrelenting egotist, this would be hard.)
Another point where two plots connect: the Navajos. They're mostly silent presences in the show so far. In the scene with Abby and the other wives, we see the other women (though not Abby) use them as servants and getting manicured and beautified by them while ridiculing them for not speaking English. ("How long are they in this country" - obvious irony is obvious.) Meanwhile, Bohr is the one who is silent and listens in his very last scene, observing them as they play and sing. There are points made here about racism, but I hope that sooner or later, we'll get a Navajo (female or male) who is an actual character and not just someone used to point out the flaws or virtues of a white character.
Lastly: last week's soldier seems to stay an important character, and one who'll start a relationship with Frank's and Lisa's daughter.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1007557.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.