This week we start an experiment with a new format, The Mysterious Old Radio Double-Header! For a Double-Header, we present two episodes— one the first week and the second during the following week— that are connected in some way. In this case, Joshua and Tim have each chosen a story from Dark Fantasy to break the show’s trend of frustrating us with its bizarre installments. This first half of the Double-Header is “The Letter from Yesterday,” chosen by Tim. The story features the spark of romance between an ambitious inventor and a small-town librarian. But their love seems to be caught up in the strange currents and eddies of time. In what strange web of history are the young lovers caught? Can Scott Bishop write a script that stays on task? Will someone explain how to get a library card in a small town? Listen for yourself and find out! Then vote and let us know what you think!
I agree with Eric about the scene where the inventor is alone in the library. The fact that he has just been chastised for talking too loudly – and for not being able to stop himself from talking – makes it easy to infer that he is just continuing to talk, out loud to himself.
I agree, also it is a more entertaining interpretation.
A future Double-Header suggestion: DIMENSION X’s “The Lost Race” and CALTEX THEATER’s “Forbidden Planet.”
[…] to the second half of our Mysterious Old Radio Double-Header! If you missed last week’s episode, you may want to check it out first. For this Double-Header, Joshua and Tim each chose a story from […]
Ugh, I HATED this episode so much. Dude lost me when he was talking in the library, then jokey apologized to the room, and then UGH, it all just went downhill from there. Terrible. Truly, truly terrible.
And not to nitpick but I find it hard to believe that the hydrodynamics genius librarian would find the library loud-talker charming. (Yes, that is my complaint, and also, I hate how people are loud in libraries now, and also-also, all the teenagers should get off my lawn)
I couldn’t disagree more with Joshua, Eric, and Tim (or JET for future). Normally I think they are spot on, but I think they are not appreciating the story for what it is. Everything they suggested to ‘fix’ the episode would have made it worse in my opinion. The characters are a little rom-com-y, but the development is interesting. There is definitely supernatural elements in this story. The coincidences are so huge, that they become the domain of fate or kismet, which for me is a supernatural force. I would say that Bishop strips away everything that can be explained… Read more »
I have to say, I did like this episode, but like one of the hosts said, there were a couple of loose ends that were left dangling for no real reason, it seemed. For instance, how come it’s never explained exactly why neither the inventor nor the librarian could get in touch with each other for three months? How come the inventor couldn’t explain what happened to him? And why was there no explanation for why the same thing that happened to the librarian’s father also happened to the inventor—his invention suddenly being patented by someone else? It would have… Read more »
I quite like this episode. Outside the norm for the podcast but a nice dry/bland little love story that ends with an odd twist. I find it charming in an odd off center way.