Feb 15 2009
Official ABC video podcast — time travel, physics, and God
This podcast focuses on Jeremy Davies and his character Daniel Faraday, with a few additional comments from Jorge Garcia (Hurley) and Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet). They all talk about time travel, and the podcast also shows short clips from earlier in this season, and from last season’s The Constant, that give a quick review of what’s been said in the show about time travel so far.
These official podcasts are essentially promos for the upcoming episodes, so “316,” the next episode, will almost certainly be about time travel. Maybe the episode will even give us some hints as to how time travel works. They can’t tell us everything though. It’s too early for that — there’s still more than a season and a half left to go, and I’m sure they want to keep us mystified for as long as possible.
On the podcast, Davies talks about “rogue physicists” who go beyond Newtonian physics. He says,
You get into areas that demand a language that is closer to the territories of emotion and spirituality and God.
Clear as mud?
As fuzzy as that statement may be, I still have a feeling that it’s pointing to something that is central to what the show is about. After all, one of the show’s major themes is the conflict between faith and science (usually personified by Locke and Jack, respectively). Will the show’s overall resolution hinge on resolving that conflict by bringing faith and science together?
If you want to see any of the previous podcasts, go to the archive on ABC.com, which has video podcasts (and also audio podcasts, which have different material) going back to February 2008.
Screenshot, from the podcast, of Faraday in the past with long hair (but still wearing a tie!), is from The Constant, Episode 4×05 (c) ABC
Very interesting video. Especially the part where Jeremy Davies talks about what the mystery might all boil down to - a mixture of God, emotion and spirituality. Some might argue that those three are already intertwined.
What I found most interesting about that part was the way he was tying God/emotion/spirituality to physics.
Actually, my first thought was “uh oh,” because it reminded me of things like The Tao of Physics (a book that was very popular in the 1970s, but that scientists thought was ridiculous) or people like Deepak Chopra who babble about quantum this and quantum that.
So my first thought was that I hoped that’s not where the show was going — but my second thought was that even if it was, it would be ok, because the show is explicitly a fantasy. (Unlike Chopra, etc., who appear to take themselves very seriously.) Actually, a fantasy show might be the ideal place to explore these ideas.
Oh okay, never heard of The Tao of Physics. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see where it goes.
You have to be pretty old to remember The Tao of Physics.
Actually, I never read it, but I do remember people talking about it a lot at the time. Scientists and science students, especially, were really annoyed with the book because they thought it was spreading misleading ideas.
But for a fantasy show — it could be interesting. And since they probably are going to try to come up with a “logical” explanation of the time travel in the show, by necessity they are going to have to go beyond what is actually known.
Also, in terms of the themes, I think it would be great if they brought together the two clashing strands — the “faith” of Locke and the “science” of Jack — by the end.
I remember reading somewhere that Carlton/Cruse said that all the mysteries on Lost *could* be explained in a realistic way. So . . . maybe you are on to something.
It will be very interesting to see what comes out of the devious minds of Carlton and Cuse!
Editing to add — oops, Carlton *is* Cuse! Ha!
On top of that, I always get them mixed up. For some reason, Damon looks like a “Carlton” to me, and Carlton looks like a “Damon.” It doesn’t help that whenever they are out and about (and they seem to be *everywhere*), they are always joined at the hip.