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Some information about this episode

I was so happy that they featured Katherine Johnson this week, and also happy in general that they’ve been picking out obscure figures in history – good ~or~ bad – and bringing them to our attention. Here’s a list from what I can remember:

• Kate Drummond (could be loosely based on Lady Grace Hay Drummond-Hay)
• Robert Todd Lincoln, who was known, but not as well known as his father
• Judith Campell, a rumored JFK Mistress
• John William Smith and  William B. Travis – two people instrumental in the Battle of the Alamo
• Mark Felt aka “Deep Throat“
• Nonhelema and her brother Cornstalk, Shawnee warriors and leaders in the 1700s
• Louis Coulon de Villiers, a French Canadian military officer during the Seven Years’ War
• Katherine Johnson, NASA physicist, space scientist, and mathematician

Katherine Johnson in 1966

Now that we’re up to date, let’s talk a little about Katherine. She was recruited by NASA in 1953 (They were still called the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) back then), and worked with other women in a kind of “math pool.”

She was self-assured, and made sure to let her superiors know how much she knew about her job, so she was assigned to tasks outside the pool until she just stopped working there entirely. She was still segregated however, and continued to be until 1958.

That’s when she became an Aerospace Technologist, and moved up quickly – thanks mostly to the Astronauts themselves – who preferred to work with Katherine as her work was exemplary. John Glenn flat-out refused to go on his groundbreaking Mercury orbit mission until he got the calculations from Katherine herself.

Katherine Johnson in 2016

Just like “Space Race,” Katherine did calculate the trajectory for Apollo 11 and was an integral part of the first moon landing – although not like we see on Timeless of course. However, she did help Apollo 13 get back to Earth when they had to abort due to a craft malfunction, not so off-the-mark on that historical fact. She continued to work for NASA straight through the Space Shuttle program, the Earth Resources Satellite, and the Mission to Mars program. She retired in 1986.

I urge you to visit her Wikipedia page (link in the bulleted list above) to see her awards and achievements. She is a remarkable woman.

Here’s the link to a Variety Magazine article about the movie “Hidden Figures,” a biopic about Katherine – starring Taraji P. Henson: link here

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In a Space Jam

Even though we still don’t know Flynn’s ultimate goal, we found out in this episode that sabotaging Apollo 11 would play a part in bringing his plan to fruition. He was taken aback when Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus appeared – questioning how they’d returned from 1754, but regardless – he almost succeeded in undermining the first Moon Landing anyway.

Good Rufus Hunting

Luckily, Rufus remembered that there was a huge asset they could use to their advantage just waiting in the basement. Katherine Johnson. In a very “Good Will Hunting” moment, he proves he’s not just a lowly janitor in order to get her help, and they manage to wipe the NASA servers of the first computer virus – thus making sure Neil Armstrong planted his feet on the surface on the moon as planned.

There were some tense exchanges between Rufus and Anthony as well, with Anthony sending him some vibes that he’s being coerced into working with Flynn, but does it really seem that way? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. I’m confused about it, so I’m betting Rufus is as well.

Flynn’s henchman kills a NASA employee and a plumber without hesitation, and later in the episode, Rufus kills that henchmen in self-defense. Flynn, Anthony, and Rufus have different shades of regret linked to the deaths they’re responsible for, but Rufus seems to be the most bothered by his transgressions. This will most likely be a huge part of the storyline moving forward.

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She’s no Artemis, but She Sure Knows Apollo

Artemis was Apollo’s twin – but I just use that as a weirdo storyline title to talk about Katherine Johnson. I’m not sure I’ve talked about her enough yet… wait, I so have. I’ll just leave this section with a short paragraph saying Katherine Johnson still rocks – and I’ll remind you to look her up. (That’s a different link btw)—

My Girl (Isn’t Just a Movie)

Coincidentally, on the very same day as the Apollo 11 landing, Flynn’s half-brother gets stung by a bee and dies. His secondary goal during this trip is to meet his mother in the past, get to know her younger self, and save his brother with an epi-pen injection. 

Doug and I have an interesting debate about this topic (at least I think it’s interesting, you be the judge), and it’s a reckless side-journey at best. We’d love to know how you feel about Flynn being so lackadaisical about changing events in his own timeline, and how that will affect the morale of our heroes, especially Wyatt and Lucy.

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On July 20

July 20th is International Chess Day.
1848 – The first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, a two-day event, concludes.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Peachtree Creek: Near Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate forces led by General John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attack Union troops under General William T. Sherman.
1903 – The Ford Motor Company ships its first car.
1940 – California opens its first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway.
1960 – Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) elects Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime Minister, the world’s first elected female head of government.
1968 – The first International Special Olympics Summer Games are held at Soldier Field in Chicago, with about 1,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities.
1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 11‘s crew successfully makes the first manned landing on the Moon in the Sea of Tranquility. Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon.
1976 – The American Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars.
1977 – The Central Intelligence Agency releases documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind-control experiments (MK-Ultra).
1997 – The fully restored USS Constitution (a.k.a. Old Ironsides) celebrates its 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years.
2005 – Canada legalized same-sex marriage, being the fourth country in the world to do so.
2015 – The United States and Cuba resume full diplomatic relations after five decades.
Notable Births:
356 BC – Alexander the Great, Macedonian king
1822 – Gregor Mendel, Czech geneticist and botanist (He really dug peas)
1893 – George Llewelyn Davies, English soldier & Inspiration for Peter Pan
1930 – Chuck Daly, American basketball player and coach
1932 – Dick Giordano, American illustrator/Creator (Charlton Comics/DC/Marvel)
1936 – Barbara Mikulski, American social worker and politician
1938 – Diana Rigg, English actress (The Avengers (1961))
1938 – Natalie Wood, American actress (West Side Story)
1943 – Wendy Richard, English actress (Are You Being Served?)
1945 – Kim Carnes, American singer-songwriter
1947 – Carlos Santana, Mexican-American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1963 – Frank Whaley, American actor (Pulp Fiction)
1964 – Chris Cornell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1969 – Josh Holloway, American actor (Lost)
1971 – Sandra Oh, Canadian actress (Grey’s Anatomy)
1973 – Omar Epps, American actor (House M.D.)
1975 – Judy Greer, American actress and producer (Archer)
1988 – Julianne Hough, American singer-songwriter, actress, and dancer (DWTS)
Notable Deaths:
1923 – Pancho Villa, Mexican general and politician, Governor of Chihuahua
1937 – Guglielmo Marconi, Italian physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate
1973 – Bruce Lee, American actor and martial artist (Enter the Dragon)
1993 – Vince Foster, American lawyer, Deputy White House Counsel
1999 – Sandra Gould, American actress (Gladys Kravitz on the sitcom Bewitched)
2005 – James Doohan, Canadian-American actor (Star Trek)
2007 – Tammy Faye Messner (formerly Bakker), American Christian evangelist and talk show host
2013 – Helen Thomas, American journalist and author, White House Correspondent
2015 – Theodore Bikel, Austrian-American actor and musician (Fiddler on the Roof)

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