Category Archives: star trek

sci-fi movies, science fiction, star trek

The Once and Future Universe

1 Comment

Fans of the Cosmos

I just spent the weekend at a fan-based “con” called StarFest, held near Denver, Colorado. I go back each year to give science talks, which also allows me to indulge my inner fangeek for the various bits and piece of the science fiction/sci-fi universes that I follow. I know a lot of people scoff at these cons because all they see (or think they see) are people dressing up as storm troopers or Federation officers and so on.

That’s certainly one aspect, which is an enjoyable one because people are SO darned inventive with their costumes. And, in reality, they aren’t different from devotees of wargaming, Civil War re-enacting, SCA activities and Renaissance Festival activities. I heard from friends of mine a while back that there is a lot of interest in Germany, for example, in stories of the American Old West, with people dressing up as characters, etc.

Anyway, back to StarFest.  I gave two talks, one about the Sun and solar activity, and the other one about the search for exoplanets and extraterrestrial life. Had a great time doing them and people asked a LOT of really good questions!

Those questions are why I love to talk at Cons.  It seems like there is a higher number of people really motivated to love astronomy and space science who attend these events. It was evident from my conversations in the hallways, at the art show, in the coffee shop, etc. that they READ more about it. And, they want to know more. This Con had some well-known actors attending to talk about their roles in various shows. I happened to be taking a break in the con’s guest relaxation area and got to talking with one of the actors who turned out to have a HUGE interest in astronomy, to the point where he said that he reads whatever he can get his hands on about the subject. We had a pretty entertaining conversation until it was time for him to go do another appearance. He asked for my card so he could write with more questions.

A group of attendees joined me for coffee in the hotel Starbucks and they were peppering me with questions about Miguel Alcubierre’s research into warp drive. They’d read everything they could find (more than I had, I must admit), and were just so excited about the idea that warp drive isn’t so farfetched after all. It spurred me to read more about the work being done to achieve such a thing.

I came away from the con (as I do each year) impressed with the enthusiastic reception of science — astronomy, space science, planetary science, etc. — by many of the con attendees. It didn’t seem to matter if they were steampunk fans or science fiction readers or Star Wars devotees or Firefly fanatics or followers of Battle Star Galactic or any of the other media creations out there. Many attendees had a basic interest in new things happening in science. And, they bring their  kids, who are REALLY the wave of the future.  I talked to a few young’uns who didn’t have any idea who Shatner’s Captain Kirk was, but they were interested in finding out more about him and the Trekiverse because of what Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk did.  One little guy wearing a Superman cape told me with great confidence that he’d be one of the first engineers to live full time on the Moon. His mom (a real-life engineer) just beamed.

I’m a life-long science fiction reader and Trekkie. While the early NASA missions were what spurred my interest in the stars after my dad showed me the night time sky, I can honestly say that SF and Star Trek played a huge role, too. And, that’s a great thing. The both present stories about people (albeit in the future), living their lives with technologies that seem farfetched to us today, but are utterly normal to THEM. Perhaps that’s why I like the genres so much. They give us a glimpse of our future in the stars. It’s up to us to make wise decisions about what that future is going to look like!

 

 

 

star trek

To Boldly Go

4 Comments
United Federation of Planets (Courtesy Wikipedia and Sallico)

It was tough to tear myself away from watching the amazing spacewalks yesterday to go see the new Star Trek movie yesterday at the IMAX theater, but I’m glad I did. To say it was a good movie experience is an understatement!  The movie is “wow!” on several levels: dramatically, special-effects, and acting.

Now, I wasn’t sure what to expect, so went with pretty much an open mind, especially after reading conflicting viewpoints on the Trek boards and discussion groups I sometimes frequent.  Of course, there are always Trekkies who will not like anything that isn’t just like the series they most like — whether it’s the Original Series (TOS), The Next Generation (TNG), Deep Space 9 (DS9), Voyager (VOY), or Enterprise (ENT).  Or the movie series.  Or the cartoons. Or the books.  But,  many more are ready for more of the trekiverse… and this one delivers more.

I have pretty much watched them all, read many of the books, and haven’t really paid attention to the comics or animations, yet. But, I have to say that I am thoughtfully happy and surprised that the “franchise” continues so well.  There’s something about the Star Trek story that continues to touch people many decades after the first series premiered. It certainly does touch me and I’ve been watching since I was a teenage girl wondering if I could have a career in space somehow.

It’s not just the action sequences on the bridge and in space that are well done (although I still would prefer to see less punch-em-up in the shows — that we still have a bunch of guys baring their fists in space for lengthy periods of the movie tells me that producers still think that we are all 15-year-old boys who think with our fists).  The visuals are beautiful, the story is reasonably well plotted and it’s told well. The actors pretty much nail their characters — a tough thing to live up to for any actor. In particular, Zachary Quinto absolutely rocks as Spock.  So does Leonard Nimoy.

I had a few issues and questions with some of the plot — but I’m still thinking about those and may need to go see it again to resolve those before I talk about them. Besides, it never hurts to see a good movie twice.

Of course as a science geek, I constantly have to close my eyes to the many violations of science precepts that take place in these kinds of movies. There are a few in Star Trek, but remarkably few beyond the usual “flying through the black hole and surviving” and “traveling at warp speed” that we’ve all come to accept as staples of the genre.

But, as this is drama, and I know how difficult it is to do some of these scenes (we create our own animations for astronomy at Loch Ness Productions, so I’m aware some of the technical and dramatic issues involved), so I do let some things slide.  I won’t go into the science issues here — rather, I’ll point you to Phil Plait’s excellent discussion over at Bad Astronomy (warning: there are a few spoilers there). He pretty much covers the same bases I would.  But, the science issues are not movie-killers and as long as you go knowing you’re not there to learn science, but see the Trek universe, it’s a great movie!  Boldly go and see it!