The appealing newcomer Mallori Johnson stars as Dana James, a 26-year-old Black writer who's just moved to 2016 LA in hopes of writing for TV. The book has now been turned into an ambitious new FX series by another MacArthur fellow, playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, who gives Butler's tale a twirl of his own. In her most popular novel, the 1979 'Kindred,' she put a searing spin on the time travel story, shuttling her heroine back and forth between 1970s la and a pre-Civil War plantation. One person who had the talent was the late Octavia Butler, the Black speculative fiction writer who, although she received a MacArthur Genius grant in 1995, has only recently begun to be fully appreciated as the visionary she was. Time loops have been used in so many stories that you need real talent to make them original. Kirk gets shunted into the past and can't resist trying to change history.

Dick to those episodes of 'Star Trek,' in which the vainglorious captain James T. JOHN POWERS, BYLINE: One of the most familiar scenarios in science fiction is the time travel plot, from H.G. But first, we have a review of the new series, which our critic-at-large, John Powers, says nicely captures Butler's knack for juggling painful realities and hope. We'll hear an interview with her from our archive. The series, which is now on Hulu, is based on the novel by the acclaimed late science fiction writer Octavia Butler. In the new TV series 'Kindred,' a young Black woman gets transported back in time from the present day to the era of slavery.

Kindred series octavia butler