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This is one of my favorite divergences, though I tend to think the miscarriage had more than a little to do with the fact that Yoko Ono was using heroin at the time. But I'm not a medical professional. These are just preliminary thoughts, because a divergence this big could have...

I think the best way to look at what a surviving Beatles might have sounded like is to extrapolate from what they sounded like as solo artists. You'd see a fair amount of piano and slide guitar from John Lennon and George Harrison respectively for example. Given McCartney's status within the...

I'm struck by how after Help the proposed Beatles films tended to be either weird high concept stuff, or adaptation. The Beatles considered adapting three different preexisting properties. Clearly they no longer wanted to play caricatures of themselves. What does this mean? Well it suggests two...

It's questionable how transparent it would be. Epstein would insist that anything too controversial be edited out, especially after the Maureen Cleave interview controversy. There were rumors of a split between the end of the tour and Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever as it was George...

Alternatively a concert film could be compiled from multiple performances with the Beatles having a different 30 minute set each night. Though then the question would be how long rehearsal would take The issue with a film about the 1966 tour is how intrusive it would be and what the impact of...

The Three Musketeers idea was probably too close to the kind of project the Beatles were trying to move away from by 1966. Aside from the problems associated with actually making the film the project was proposed precisely when the Beatles were falling apart. The Beatles' concerts were...

Well, the real divergence doesn't have to be Brian Epstein living-so long as there's an acceptable script by August 27th 1967. The Beatles and their periphery were talking about the third film for awhile before Epstein died. In 1966 they were still receiving Help like scripts that they never...

The problem that by 1966 the Beatles had lost interest in doing another Lester comedy. They were not pleased with Help. The third film would not have been the same as the first two. By 1967 they were looking at the high concept idea that became "Up Against It" which they subsequently rejected...

I just wanted to clarify that when I said that McCartney dying in 1973 would come at a time of personal upheaval I was talking about the tragedy's impact on John Lennon. I thought I had written a whole paragraph about that but then I saw that it wasn't there-making the identity of who was going...

Paul McCartney was the victim of a robbery in Lagos in 1973. According to Man on the Run-McCartney in the 1970's Lagos was going through a crime wave, and robbers were known for killing their victims to avoid the possibility that they would be identified later by them in a criminal proceeding...

If the Beatles had somehow stayed together, there would have been less successful periods-they would have more critics. Critics were already beginning to turn on them in 1969-arguably as early as 1968. While they were successful with the public both Abbey Road and the White Album received mixed...

I know this isn't the Cold War anymore-but wouldn't a war between Russia and the United States be a world-ending nuclear conflict right out the gate? In which case, would the two navies really have much of a chance to engage each other?

I don't think the studios were going to be in full reboot mode unless the actors walk with Raimi. Presuming no cast walk outs I think any Spider-Man III will at least contain some kind of confrontation between Peter and Harry the previous two films had foreshadowed something happening between...

I'm sure you meant to write down Life After Death as opposed to Ready to Die here.

If I remember correctly, Keanu Reeves accepted a pay cut so that the studio could afford Pacino, if Norton is cast instead Pacino may not be available for the role. If given the choice between Norton in the Reeves role with someone filling in for Pacino or the Devil's advocate that was made I'd...

Everything I've read suggests that Johnson wanted to be President from the beginning of his career to Kennedy's death. I don't know where the claim that he wasn't really interested is coming from. He also hated losing, and that's the dynamic that drove his actions in 1960 and would be in place...

You could make the case that a surviving Lincoln would be marginally worse for the freedmen than Johnson was-if only because Johnson's conflict with Congress radicalized and unified the Congressional Republican response. I'd be concerned that with Lincoln in the White House you wouldn't see the...

Stoning implies a Jesus of Nazareth who is executed for a different crime. One which the earliest surviving accounts don't seem to suggest he was remotely guilty of in the context of the time. Jesus' execution on the cross, and the account that he was charged with claiming that he was "The King...

I think there's a case to be made that some kind of Iraq war might occur under President John E. Bush, but I would think it would have more to do with what kind of foreign policy team he has around him, and what his own instincts are in that arena in general terms, than the family history. The...