October 2017

Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) and Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) in Lethe (Image courtesy CBS / Netflix)

“Lethe” is the 6th episode of the TV show “Star Trek: Discovery” and follows “Choose Your Pain”.

Note. This article contains several spoilers about “Lethe”.

Sarek (James Frain) is traveling on a spacecraft that is supposed to bring him to a meeting with a Klingon delegation but a Vulcan extremist sabotage it. Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) perceives that Sarek is injured and Captain Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs) decides to try to save him.

News came that writer Julian May died on October 17, 2017. The cause of her death wasn’t disclosed.

In the late 1970s Julian May starting thinking about the ideas that eventually produced the works for which she’s best known, the Saga of Pliocene Exile and the Galactic Milieu Series. In fact, they’re two parts of the same series: the first one is set in the past and is told with tones typical of the fantasy genre, the second one is set after World War II in a story-arc that embraces a few centuries and is told with tones much more typical of science fiction.

Fossil bird from the Messel Pit. Markings show the uropygial gland (Photo courtesy Sven Traenkner/ Senckenberg)

An article published in the journal “Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences” describes the discovery of a fossil bird from 48 million years ago in which the uropygial gland was preserved, a gland that secretes an oil birds use to preen their plumage. The examination showed that it still contained lipids, the oldest ever found in the remains of a vertebrate.

The Mind Parasites by Colin Wilson (Italian edition)

The novel “The Mind Parasites” by Colin Wilson was published for the first time in 1967.

When Dr. Gilbert Austin discovers that his friend Karel Weissman has committed suicide, he remains shocked. He can’t believe that a man he knew well could do such a thing but the issue becomes even more shocking when Austin starts reading the papers Weissman left him and discovers that his friend was convinced that humanity is under the attack of a kind of mental cancer.

Those events have a profound effect on Gilbert Austin’s archaeological research as well when he discovers the existence of the remains of a civilization so ancient that it’s buried at a depth never seen. Along with other colleagues, Austin tries to study those ancient ruins but with surprise when he tries to find traces of some memories of their builders he discovers them in the writings of writer H.P. Lovecraft.

Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz) and Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) in Choose Your Pain (Image courtesy CBS / Netflix)

“Choose Your Pain” is the 5th episode of the TV show “Star Trek: Discovery” and follows “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry”.

Note. This article contains several spoilers about “Choose Your Pain”.

Captain Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs) is demanded to make progress with the spore propulsion but the tardigrad used as a pilot appears to be in pain after the last jump. As he returns to Discovery, Lorca is kidnapped by Klingons who want to find out how he can appear on the battlefield so suddenly.