As you know, I’m an author. I published some thrillers
and science fiction novels, plus a non-fiction book. But being an author isn’t
the only way I’m a writer. I do like writing articles and newsletters, but I
especially like translating.
Actually, I’m a freelance translator for almost 20
years now, and lately I decided to dedicate a few articles to this job of mine.
They are featured in a Medium publication called Babel, which you can find
at this link: https://medium.com/babel
Three articles are available so far. 1) “Why I am a translator” is
about my journey to become a translator, starting from my first encounter with
a foreign language when I was five, continuing with my experience studying
English, French, and German, while becoming a biologist and a university
researcher, and my decision to use my language skills in a profitable way. 2) “What is translation?” explains
the translation process in the mind of a translator and how being able to speak
two or more languages isn’t enough to make you a translator. 3) “Use of translation software”
is about the tools a professional translator uses to deliver the best possible
version of a text in another language (usually their native one).
This Sky Original series includes three seasons aired between 2021 and 2023 (until early 2024) and available on demand on Sky.
The story is set in a contemporary context. In the first season, due to a large coronal mass ejection, a solar storm hits Europe, bringing air transport and energy distribution to their knees. The British Prime Minister must deal with the consequences of this event through an anti-crisis unit called COBRA.
The series doesn’t talk about the catastrophic aspect of the story (and that’s the best thing!), but focuses on the way in which politics (above all), the press and public opinion deal with the crisis. It talks about difficult decisions, about characters who try to take advantage of the situation for their own benefit, and about others who risk their lives to complete their work.
Central to the plot are the characters of the (conservative) prime minister, played by a Robert Carlyle in great shape, his chief of staff, played by the excellent Victoria Hamilton, and the head of the secretariat for civil emergencies, played by phenomenal Richard Dormer (whom I had already appreciated a lot in “Fortitude”, where he was the police chief).
While the prolonged blackout brings a whole series of problems and protests to one of the regions of the United Kingdom (the one that the Prime Minister had to sacrifice, despite his intentions, since there was a lack of spare parts to restart all the power plants, and therefore he had to make a choice), the protagonists find themselves facing serious personal and family vicissitudes.
The tension rises, episode after episode, until it reaches its climax in the last one (there are six in total), in which the story is resolved with some appreciable dramatic twists.
I admit that at some points I literally cheered.
I watched the series in the original language, and this allowed me to appreciate several nuances, such as the social differences and territorial origins of the various characters.
In general, I think the story is very well written, also and above all in terms of dialogue.
This first season could almost be defined as a self-contained miniseries, given that it only includes six episodes and the story ends in some way. However, two more seasons were subsequently produced: “Cobra — Cyberwar” and “Cobra — Rebellion”.
In the second season, as you can guess from the title, the crisis affecting the United Kingdom is due to an attack on the British computer system. In the third, instead, the crisis is linked to an environmental disaster.
I liked the first season so much, I wanted more. At the same time, I feared that the choice to extend the story into a second and then even a third season would have caused an inevitable fall into repetitiveness and useless lengthening. Also because it meant that there would be at least one more big crisis, which honestly seemed a bit excessive to me in the same narrative universe and with the same characters.
Indeed, this risk has not been entirely avoided, and we need to make a little effort to accept that all happens to poor Prime Minister Sutherland! But, once this problem is put aside, I have to say that the second and third seasons are also very enjoyable, and I find myself more or less confirming the opinion I expressed for the first.
I won’t say anything else to avoid unnecessary spoilers.
Maybe, if you want to watch this series, you can take advantage of the fact that all three seasons are available so you can watch it all from start to finish. This way you will not lose the connections between the seasons or forget them.
In short, you won’t risk doing as I did. Since I wasn’t sure I had seen the second season, I watched it all again because I couldn’t remember almost anything anyway!
Let me
start by saying that I’m not interested in video games. The last time I played
them was on a Windows 95 PC in 1998. So I don’t know what this series is based
on. I’m talking about it as a TV-watcher
who loves science fiction.
It is a military science fiction/space opera
series, set in a distant future, full of beautiful spaceships, planets with the
most disparate characteristics and an enemy alien species with which humanity
is at war. And one of the most powerful tools of war humans have at their
disposal is the Spartans, enhanced and emotionless human warriors.
Among these is the protagonist, John-117, known by the nom de guerre Master Chief.
I won’t
tell you anything else about the plot because I think it’s better to discover
it step by step over the course of the nine
episodes of the series. Rather, I’ll just clarify that I’m only referring
to the first season. In fact, upon seeing it, you immediately realise that all
the narrative threads do not have enough space to be concluded. It almost seems like a great introduction
to the rest of the seasons. In any case, there are some aspects that are
clarified. Furthermore, I found the twist ending (almost a cliffhanger) very satisfying. With such a complex narrative
structure, there was the risk that certain threads would be closed too hastily,
but, all things considered, this was not the case.
The plot
contains a whole series of elements that are particularly congenial to me.
One of
these is undoubtedly the fact of having a
protagonist who does not know his own identity at all, and the revelation
of the latter is central to the series.
Another
interesting element is the use of
artificial intelligence (Cortana), which was conceived as a tool for
control, but which at a certain point asks itself questions about whether it is
right to follow the orders. Here, the AI, which at the beginning has a
disturbing and apparently negative connotation, then turns out to be a positive character.
Then there
is the presence of a deeply ambiguous
character (even more than the AI) in
the hands of the supervillains (the aliens), who has a particular
evolution. It’s a shame that this character has to fall victim to the usual
ruthless karma of American productions, in which repentance is never enough to
redeem oneself.
But aliens
aren’t the only bad guys. They are in fact only the supervillains, that is,
those who are just bad, without any apparent reason. Even among humans are some decidedly negative characters, such as Dr.
Halsey, who is head of the Spartan program. However, in her case,
motivations are brought to light which, however excessive, have an intrinsic
logic that provides the character with a certain depth.
Finally,
the special effects are for the most
part truly remarkable. The aliens reminded me of several creatures seen in the
Star Wars saga. Perhaps only the setting of the battle in the last episode is a
little poor.
The only
thing that puzzled me was the location of the device that suppresses the
Spartans’ emotions: in the lower back. Meh!
Overall, I
enjoyed watching this series. The story
is intriguing and well-developed. And at the end of the viewing, the
curiosity remains, and you are looking forward to diving into the second season as soon as possible.
A great adaptation of the novel by Herbert George Wells
The image above is property of BBC.
This BBC miniseries from 2019 (directed
by Craig Viveiros and produced by Mammoth Screen), set in the Edwardian period,
is yet another adaptation of the novel by Herbert George Wells (published
in 1898) and consists from three episodes of about an hour.
It is considered one of the most faithful transpositions of the book both
because of the historical setting (despite being set a few years later, in
1905), which further highlights humanity’s impotence in the face of an alien
invasion, and for the narration of events itself.
What is added to the original plot is the personal
story of the two protagonists, Amy and George, who live
together despite the fact that they are not married and that he is unable to
obtain a divorce from his wife. These two only partially replace the narrator
of the book and his wife, however, shifting the attention to the female
character, who was completely marginal in the original text. They are played by Eleanor Tomlinson (already
seen in Poldark in
the role of Demelza and in The Pemberley Mysteries) and Rafe Spall (son
of Timothy Spall; seen in Prometheus, Jurassic World — Fallen Kingdom, and Men in Black
International).
Furthermore, the main narrative is intertwined with
the one in the future, in which we see Amy and her son wandering in the devastated world
after the “failed” invasion of the tripods.
Even though I had not read the book, I immediately
perceived the Wellsian imprint in the story, starting with the
character of Ogilvy, the scientist also present in the novel and
here played by the great Robert Carlyle, and continuing with
the attempt
to a scientific approach, although limited by the knowledge of
the time, towards the consequences of the invasion, although this last
post-apocalyptic part from the point of view of the female protagonist was
added to the original story.
While reading various reviews, I noticed that the main criticisms concern
a certain depressing effect of the story, its slowness in some parts, the lack
of characterisation due to the limited time of the narrative (which perhaps,
therefore, is not so slow) and even the acting skills of the main actors. Someone
said it was a missed opportunity.
Well, I don’t agree at all. Personally, I
greatly appreciated this miniseries, both from a visual point of view and from
that of the actors’ performance and the pace of the narrative.
I watched this series in the original language, and as
always in these circumstances, this led me to focus completely on the story
without the slightest distraction. Furthermore, while watching it, I already knew
that the ending would be sad. Some of it was immediately
obvious due to the flash-forwards of the protagonist with her son in that
hellish setting, and some of it was told to me precisely in these terms.
Faced with all this, however, I just had fun.
I like Tomlinson a lot (I’m a Poldark fan) and I
appreciated her performance. And I also liked the way she interacted with Spall
and also with the character of Ogilvy and Frederick (Rupert Graves), the
co-protagonist’s brother.
The story between the two protagonists, who challenge
the conventions of the time, goes perfectly alongside the political
problems, which are shown to us at the beginning of the
miniseries (with the frictions between the British Empire and Russia), in
highlighting how many aspects considered important not
only fade into the background, but are completely swept away by the encounter and
clash with a species from Mars that intends to eliminate
our civilisation and take possession of our planet.
Obviously, the story of the two protagonists offers a
further element of conflict that is appreciable by the contemporary public and
increases their involvement.
As for the rest, I found both the
historical reconstruction and the special effects very
effective. Watching the immense tripods move through London at the beginning of
the twentieth century is fantastic, precisely because it is completely unusual
and yet extremely realistic, and underlines even more the sense of human
fragility towards an adversary that is too bigger and technologically advanced to
be even just faced. In some ways it mocks the expansionist aims of the British
Empire, which feels invincible in the face of any enemy and is instead forced
to come to terms with the hard reality.
I particularly liked the part in which Ogilvy,
together with the protagonists, begins to study what he believes to be a meteorite and
then what happens when the latter wakes up, the shell opens, and we see a
sphere inside capable of impressing a reflected image on itself. Not to mention
what happens next.
The sense of helplessness of the characters is
effectively conveyed to the viewer, as is the fear of the terrifying aliens,
particularly in the last episode, when they find themselves hunted by the
latter (whose appearance we finally see), and the story takes on horror nuances.
Here the dramatic element reaches its peak, and the inevitable sacrifice has a
very strong effect due to the involvement it creates in the spectator.
The part set in the post-apocalyptic future,
with which the series ends, actually has something depressing about it. I, in
particular, don’t like post-apocalyptic stories for this reason. Even from a
visual point of view, it seems it wants to oppress. But everything is saved by
the bittersweet
ending, which gives rise to hope in the protagonist, and in the
spectator.
I
close with a quirk.
Although this version is faithful to the novel in many parts, there is another
version in the form of a film which seems to be completely faithful. It was
produced in 2005 in the wake of the concurrent release of Spielberg’s film
starring Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning. This is “The War of the
Worlds” by Timothy Hines.
There have been numerous other adaptations of this
work, ranging from the first very famous radio show by Orson Welles (1938),
through musicals and video games, up to comics (including Mickey Mouse in
Italy), as well as obviously films and TV series. An almost complete list is available in an
article dedicated to it on Wikipedia.
Here is the original trailer for the series.
This
article is taken from a phantom episode of FantascientifiCast(Italian podcast about science fiction), recorded in 2020 but
never released.
In the past, I happened to talk about the TV series “Westworld”
on FantascientifiCast (the link will take you to
an English translation on my blog). However, the podcast episode and article
only focused on the first season, as it was the only
one that had been produced to that point.
It was followed by three more seasons.
If you have not seen the second and third seasons,
stop reading, as you may find some spoilers. On the fourth, however, I limit
myself to making some considerations, but which only really make sense to those
who know what I’m talking about. In short, this article is mainly aimed at those who
have seen the entire series.
The second season represented a
true continuation of the first, since the story still took place within the
park. At the time, I found its ending exciting, because it would
have satisfied me even if they hadn’t renewed the series for more seasons. What
I wanted was for the story to continue outside the park, in the real world of
the future. An open ending like this, with the escape of Dolores (or rather her
artificial intelligence), was at least a promise of this continuation.
One
of the reasons I love open endings in stories where there’s a lot that is left
unresolved is that I can always imagine for myself what happens next.
But then the third season actually arrived,
and it was even better than expected.
What I appreciated is precisely the way in which it represents an
extreme take on our reality, in which everything we do could be
influenced by the data (information, advertising, etc.) that is shown to us
based on our browsing habits and on what we interact with when we are online. If
whatever manages what we are continuously exposed to was not an algorithm whose
final aim is only to induce us to buy products, but an artificial
super-intelligence, its ability to condition our vision of reality to
push us to become what it wants (or what someone else has
decided) does not seem like something impossible at all.
I must admit that while watching the third season, I
looked several times with suspicion at the cookie banner that appears every
time I visit a site for the first time!
For my personal taste, up to that point my
appreciation of Westworld had been growing, so
I was afraid of what I would find in the fourth season. After I finished
watching it, however, my first comment was: wow!
I have to say that I enjoyed every minute of all the
episodes and I can confirm that it is my favourite science fiction series afterBattlestar
Galactica.
It is practically impossible to go into detail without
spoiling, so I will limit myself to a few scattered considerations.
After the finale of season three, which partly seemed
to take inspiration from the basic idea of the film “Futureworld” (the sequel to the
original film “Westworld” by Crichton), I didn’t know what to expect
from this fourth. I certainly didn’t expect to find myself faced with a real role reversal
between humans and androids. In reality, the theme of conditioning of
freewill by an artificial intelligence (metaphor of the
current algorithms that already influence our lives), which is dear to me (and
which you can find in some of my books), should have warned me. The evolution
that takes place in the fourth season, after all, seems like an almost natural
consequence, in terms of the logic of developing a story. Except that it is
taken so far beyond the initial premises that it leaves the viewer speechless.
Added to all this, there are the numerous elements
inserted into the plot that brought to mind similar elements I used in my books (I
can’t tell you what it is, because it would be a huge spoiler!), albeit in a
completely different context. Seeing my fantasies shown in a similar way by a science fiction
series of this level was truly exciting. It’s a sort of
creative convergence that made me feel in perfect harmony with this work of
fiction. At moments, it was as if the TV was reading my mind and showing me the
story I wanted to see. Crazy.
All this exaltation, however, did not prevent me from
pointing out some critical aspects.
First, I asked myself some questions that were not
answered.
Is
there only one city left in the world? Or are there others too, and are they all made
the same way? From what we see in the series, the first option seems to be the
correct one, but nothing is explained, which is undoubtedly a shortcoming.
If this is the situation, it seems a bit excessive to
me, even if 23 years have passed.
And, speaking of excesses, the events in the
last episode seemed a little rushed to me.
Honestly, I don’t like apocalyptic contexts,
because that’s what it’s all about, and in particular it bothered me that in a
certain sense the story, which, once out of the park, had opened up to a
thousand possibilities, is now tremendously closed in on itself.
These aspects, however, do not undermine the good
quality of the rest of the series, which deals with very current themes literally
surrounding us, and does so by reinventing them in a dystopian future through a very
complicated plot (another aspect that is particularly
congenial to me). In short, it forces us to think on multiple levels,
both to find our current reality in it and to put together the myriad of pieces
that are shown to us in non-chronological order, in order
to be able to get to the bottom of it. Its vision is a real challenge.
Furthermore, it must be considered that this story is not
over.
The
finale of the season, in reality, is not an ending. The authors deliberately
left it open in the hope of a renewal for a final season. Unfortunately,
however, a few months later, the confirmation arrived that the series had
been cancelled.
It’s really a shame, because I was really curious to
see what they would have come up with, since really, after the tragic events of
the last episode, they had got themselves into quite a mess. Of course, they
had the possibility of taking the story where they wanted, given that they had
practically made a clean sweep of everything else, but the risk of
coming out with an inadequate epilogue was very high.
In all honesty, if they had renewed it, I would never
have wanted to find myself in the shoes of the creators and screenwriters.
Who knows, maybe one day some production company will
acquire the rights to complete the story. Or I would like them to publish the
ending as a novel, so I could imagine it in my head with greater freedom, and
if I didn’t like it, pretend it never existed.
Or maybe it’s better to leave it like that, like
something that could have been perfect. Thanks to the absence
of a real ending, nothing will be able to deny this impression.
There is certainly one thing I hope for most of all,
that is, that they never make a reboot of it!
Sardegna Open 2023, Cagliari (Italy), picture by ®Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli
No, wait, this doesn’t mean I play tennis. I have
never played tennis. My father tried to teach me something when I was a little
girl, but then, due to lack of time, I didn’t continue.
No,
I don’t play tennis. I like watching others do it, especially good ones.
I
discovered this passion of mine only a few years ago. In the past I watched
this sport with curiosity, but only every now and then I had the opportunity to
watch a match, also because it was objectively more difficult to catch one on
free-to-air TV in Italy before the arrival of SuperTennis (the FITP -
Italian tennis federation - channel). But every time, I was hypnotised by that
ball that went back and forth on the court and by the prowess of those guys and
gals who hit it.
This
probably comes from the fact that my father played when he was young and there
was a court right in our apartment block, so it wasn’t uncommon to find some
used tennis balls among my toys.
But
then I concentrated on football, on supporting Cagliari (the team from my
city), which I still do.
Then
came the pandemic, and tennis, being a non-contact sport, was one of the first
to resume. So I started following it more consistently, and in a short time I
was hooked.
There are many things I like
about tennis.
First
of all, the fact that it’s physics in action: that ball goes
there because it was hit a certain way.
Secondly,
it is an extremely psychological sport. There are shots, talent,
fitness, tactics, but what can make the difference is how the player feels in
that moment. It takes very little, almost nothing, to change the inertia of a
match just because the player feels confident in his abilities or loses this
confidence. Mental strength, which allows you to forget your own mistake or an
opponent’s feat and start playing as if nothing had happened, can prevail over
the rest.
Also, tennis matches
are like thrillers. Sometimes all it takes is an episode,
perhaps a lucky one, a twist, which can decide the fate of a game and create
the conditions to overturn the result. It’s never over until it’s over. A
player can be on the brink of the abyss, three match points down (even more, if
it’s a tie-break), and cancel them, then win the set and ultimately win the
match. Anything could happen.
And
then there is everything that happens off court: the preparation,
the planning of the season, the commitment of the players, the ambition, the
ability to improve oneself to become stronger in all
aspects.
The
best thing is to see players who, from the beginning of their career, achieve
their first successes, accumulate points, and slowly rise in the ranking,
measure themselves against the great and then perhaps become like
or better than them.
In all this I find inspiration.
Finally,
tennis has the peculiarity of being practised all year round.
With the exception of December, every week there is at least one tennis
tournament from the major circuits (ATP and WTA) and, with all the Italians,
both men and women, achieving excellent results in this sport, this means that
there is always a match worth watching. I often have breakfast in front of a
match on TV, perhaps after getting up early so as not to miss it, given that
the tours touch all continents. In a way, it’s comforting to know that I can watch
something I like even every day if I want.
Initially
I did it every now and then, but then I started to get to know the players
better, their stories, and become passionate about their game. Now I find
myself organising
my life, both daily and concerning my scheduled commitments, including
any holidays, in such a way as not to miss the tournaments that interest me.
And, sometimes, one of
my holidays is nothing more than a trip to go and see a tournament,
and then while I’m there, I also act as a tourist.
I
admit that being self-employed makes things a lot easier for me!
If I had fixed work hours, it would be a big problem to see a match in the
morning and afternoon or, even worse, during the night.
It might seem that tennis takes
up time, a lot of time. On
the one hand, it is true since sometimes, at the beginning of a big tournament
like a Slam, it happens that there are even four or five matches of Italian
tennis players in one day, some of which do not overlap and therefore which I
can watch. On the other hand, however, having this type of commitment leads me to make
better use of my time.
Having
a limited number of hours available to work on something, rather than generally
the whole day, pushes me to be more disciplined because I
will be able to get my reward afterwards. For example, now that I’m writing
this article I’m waiting for a TV match to start and this pushes me to write
quickly, instead of sitting there thinking about it a lot or, worse, messing
around on some social network!
But
it also helped me review my priorities. I realised
that I often dealt with unnecessary things more out of habit than out of real
interest (now lost). Indeed, in the end they made me feel unnecessarily
dissatisfied, since it no longer gave me pleasure to do them and at the same
time they did not lead to the desired results. Much better to leave them aside
and watch a bit of tennis, to find the good mood (especially in case of
victory!) necessary to face my duties and new stimulating challenges.
But
I have to admit: tennis is addictive. I notice it when
I don’t have any matches to watch for a couple of days. Not to mention in
December! But in that case at least, I console myself with figure skating on
ice.
Anyway,
it is a
nice addiction, one of those without side effects. Okay,
now I really have to go: not only has the match started, but I wrote the last
sentences during a changeover!
I opened
this series of articles with the old
New Scotland Yard, which from 1967 until October 2016 was in a
building at 10 Broadway, and it seems right to close it with the headquarters
of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, which has occupied a building on
Victoria Embankment since November 2016: the Curtis Green Building.
Located
along the Thames, more or less opposite the London
Eye, the Curtis Green Building owes its name to the architect who designed
it in the 1930s: William Curtis Green. It is a white building in
neoclassical style built between 1935 and 1940 and which has always
belonged to the London Metropolitan Police. It was initially used as an
extension of the police headquarters, housing the forensic science and
technology departments. Later, when the headquarters was moved to Broadway, it
became the Whitewall Police Station until 2010.
The
renovation of the building which took place between 2015 and 2016 was designed
by Arup (the same company that created the London Eye and the new roof
of the departures concourse of King’s
Cross Station) and gave it a touch of modernity while maintaining the
original structure. On the roof of the new entrance delimited by a glass
wall, a sign bearing the words “New Scotland Yard” was positioned, while
on its right side the famous rotating sign was installed, taken from the
old location. At the other end of the entrance is the Eternal Flame, a
flame always lit in commemoration of the fallen officers.
Leaving the
Curtis Green Building and crossing the road, you find yourself on the
Victoria Embankment riverfront, from which you can admire the buildings on
the opposite bank. If, however, you walk in the opposite direction to the flow
of the waters of the Thames, you will soon arrive near Big Ben and Palace
of Westminster (house of the British Parliament).
While
moving to the Curtis Green Building, the Metropolitan Police, as well as taking
the rotating sign with them, also moved the Black Museum, which
unfortunately continues to not be open to the public.
Obviously,
unless you get arrested, it isn’t possible to see the inside of this building,
but I think that, given the optimal position, it’s still worth it to admire it
from the outside and take some photos (the images in this article are by David HoltCC 2.0).
Having
become New Scotland Yard, the Curtis Green Building appears in the last book
of the Detective Eric Shaw Trilogy,
“Beyond the Limit”,
precisely in this capacity and above all as the headquarters of one of the
teams (Eric’s) from Forensic Services of the Metropolitan Police.
Several
scenes of the novel are set inside it, which obviously I have never seen and to
describe which I relied on my imagination, shaping it to my liking based on the
needs of the story (in reality it is substantially different). In the latter we mainly see Eric
in his new office, the IT laboratory, the meeting room, and also Jane’s
office. To be honest, I don’t even know if there is any section of Forensic
Services in the Curtis Green Building (whose main laboratory in London is
located in Lambeth Road), in any case I decided to have the characters move
within its walls because of its geographical position (in front of the
London Eye) and above all because, being a renovated building, it represents
the ideal place for a new beginning in Eric’s life.
But to understand
what I’m talking about, I’m afraid you’ll have to read the book.
