November 15, 2007

A rare sort of writer's day today, I neither wrote nor read -- by choice. Instead, I relaxed, did some Christmas shopping and turned my mind (mostly) off.

I did, however, watch one notable TV program recorded a few days back by TiVo: the opening episode of Masters of Science Fiction. The series has some powerhouse names attached to it, not the least of which is Prof. Stephen Hawking as a Rod Serling-like narrator. Names, however, mean little if the product fails to deliver. The opening episode delivered. Clean Escape, from a short story by Nebula Award winner John Kessel, stars Sam Waterston as a man struggling to remember the last 24 years of his life, and Judy Davis in a remarkable performance as Waterston's psychiatrist, who needs him to remember for reasons of her own. The battle of minds and the unfolding revelations are stunning. I'll be back!