The Department of Time: Cómo se reescribe el tiempo (How time is rewritten) First Watch
May 3, 2018 12:01 PM - Season 1, Episode 3 - Subscribe
The Ministry sends agents to 1940 after a man being chased by Nazis promises to show Heinrich Himmler how to travel in time if he'll spare his life. Amelia, Julián and Alonso travel to Montserrat. Ernesto and Irene go to Hendaye, where Hitler and Franco negotiate Spain's participation in WWII.
Trivia
* While filming this episode, actors Pep Miràs (Franco) and Miko Jarry (Hitler) had lunch at a restaurant during a shooting break in full costume as their characters, to the puzzlement of waiters and other patrons.
Quote
Hitler: "I'd rather cut off my penis than see this guy again."
And Starring
In this episode, General Ambrogio Spinola is played by Ramón Langa, who is Bruce Willis' Spanish voice actor.
Trivia
* While filming this episode, actors Pep Miràs (Franco) and Miko Jarry (Hitler) had lunch at a restaurant during a shooting break in full costume as their characters, to the puzzlement of waiters and other patrons.
Quote
Hitler: "I'd rather cut off my penis than see this guy again."
And Starring
In this episode, General Ambrogio Spinola is played by Ramón Langa, who is Bruce Willis' Spanish voice actor.
As a Spaniard, this episode kind of infuriated me. Killing Hitler? How about killing Franco?
I know the remit of the Ministerio del Tiempo is to make sure Spanish history stays stable, but couldn't one of the subplots have been about how much better off Spain would have been without a theocratic dictatorship for a great chunk of the 20th Century, and an agent's doubt between the mission and what's right?
posted by kandinski at 8:15 PM on May 3, 2018 [4 favorites]
I know the remit of the Ministerio del Tiempo is to make sure Spanish history stays stable, but couldn't one of the subplots have been about how much better off Spain would have been without a theocratic dictatorship for a great chunk of the 20th Century, and an agent's doubt between the mission and what's right?
posted by kandinski at 8:15 PM on May 3, 2018 [4 favorites]
How about killing Franco?
I feel like the show's treatment of Franco ties in with the 'Spanish hell' joke in some way. Like, in this episode we get the 1940s Ministry agents in the Maquis and in the Spanish military playing 'prank the new agents' at each other, like the war is just some joke, or their day job. Or some fatalism of 'sure, Franco's a shitty dictator but, Spain is Spain, he's our shitty dictator'? It seemed to me that the show treated the Spanish military characters as more buffoonish/comedic in comparison to the Nazi characters.
(I should admit that my knowledge of Spanish history is minuscule. I thought 'Maquis' was a Bajoran/made-up word from Star Trek DS9, never realized it was a historical reference.)
posted by oh yeah! at 3:52 AM on May 4, 2018 [2 favorites]
I feel like the show's treatment of Franco ties in with the 'Spanish hell' joke in some way. Like, in this episode we get the 1940s Ministry agents in the Maquis and in the Spanish military playing 'prank the new agents' at each other, like the war is just some joke, or their day job. Or some fatalism of 'sure, Franco's a shitty dictator but, Spain is Spain, he's our shitty dictator'? It seemed to me that the show treated the Spanish military characters as more buffoonish/comedic in comparison to the Nazi characters.
(I should admit that my knowledge of Spanish history is minuscule. I thought 'Maquis' was a Bajoran/made-up word from Star Trek DS9, never realized it was a historical reference.)
posted by oh yeah! at 3:52 AM on May 4, 2018 [2 favorites]
How about killing Franco?
I think from what we've seen of Lola that's the kind of thing she might yet get into
posted by glasseyes at 4:21 PM on May 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
I think from what we've seen of Lola that's the kind of thing she might yet get into
posted by glasseyes at 4:21 PM on May 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
I loved Alonso checking his pager in the Ministry cafeteria. Although, when are we going to see the killing machine we've been promosied? So far, he's shown that he's very good at blending in, especially with other soldiers, but I was expecting him to at least give the Maquis a lecture about how that prank nearly got some of them killed.
posted by Mogur at 12:54 PM on August 6, 2018
posted by Mogur at 12:54 PM on August 6, 2018
Fear not, Mogur, you will get some ‘Alonso being a badass’ fight scenes at some point.
posted by oh yeah! at 1:10 PM on August 6, 2018
posted by oh yeah! at 1:10 PM on August 6, 2018
I spoke too soon! Later in the same episode, he takes out two guards by himself. :) I'll be more patient.
posted by Mogur at 2:34 PM on August 6, 2018
posted by Mogur at 2:34 PM on August 6, 2018
Also, am very pleased they tried to kill Hitler so early in the show's run. As I have mentioned before, every time machine must be used to kill Hitler. It's one of the laws of time travel.
posted by Mogur at 2:49 PM on August 6, 2018
posted by Mogur at 2:49 PM on August 6, 2018
Oh crap, I just realized that they weren't going to kill Hitler because of the Holocaust, they were going to kill him to preserve Spanish history. Consistent with their stated purpose, yes, but still horrific.
posted by Mogur at 5:33 AM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Mogur at 5:33 AM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]
That being said, I'm getting interested in Ernesto and Irene. Irene and Ernesto seem to only get sent on the "dirtier" missions, to the point where it's a big deal that they got sent to the Armada just to help out.
So: we have
1) sleeper agents in place behind every door, just keeping an eye on things
2) sleeper teams in some doors, like the faux-Maquis
3) roving teams like our heroes, who get sent on timeline repair missions
4) specialists like Ernesto, Irene and Spinola, who get sent on very particular missions, which all seem to involve extreme violence and/or dirty tricks.
5) single-purpose support teams who can get called in (ie the medical team we saw in the Guerrilla episode) from the Ministry
6) admin, back at home.
This is turning into the setting book for a roleplaying game. Hmmm... :)
posted by Mogur at 5:41 AM on August 7, 2018 [2 favorites]
So: we have
1) sleeper agents in place behind every door, just keeping an eye on things
2) sleeper teams in some doors, like the faux-Maquis
3) roving teams like our heroes, who get sent on timeline repair missions
4) specialists like Ernesto, Irene and Spinola, who get sent on very particular missions, which all seem to involve extreme violence and/or dirty tricks.
5) single-purpose support teams who can get called in (ie the medical team we saw in the Guerrilla episode) from the Ministry
6) admin, back at home.
This is turning into the setting book for a roleplaying game. Hmmm... :)
posted by Mogur at 5:41 AM on August 7, 2018 [2 favorites]
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The casting for the Generalissimo seemed pretty spot on physically. I'm curious about if that's what he sounded like as well (though not curious enough to risk contaminating my YouTube search/activity history by looking, in case it opens me up to a flood of Nazi-fied content)
posted by oh yeah! at 6:43 PM on May 3, 2018 [2 favorites]