May 132022
 

About two years ago I posted about some very deep structures in the Earth near the core; a few years before that, I posted about an “Atlas of the Underworld” showing a bunch of subducted former continents. There is a new theory about those deeper structures: they are remnants of Theia, the Mars-sized planet that plowed into Earth  billions of years ago and shot out the rubble that became the Moon.

Why are there continent-sized ‘blobs’ in the deep Earth?

I suggested the faint possibility that hundreds of millions of years ago some Terrestrial species evolved to intelligence, built themselves a civilization and then got wiped out, their continent then being subducted. A hundred kilometers down there may be the superheated remnants of some ancient civilization. We will almost certainly never be able to go there to pick through the molten or semi-molten rubble… but if they built big enough, and out of the right materials (say, they made *vast* stone pyramids in regular grid patterns) it might just barely be possible that someday advanced tomography of the interior of the planet may detect signs of that civilization. An alien civilization mere kilometers away… and more difficult to get to than the forest world circling Alpha Centauri.

Well… who knows how far things got on Theia before it smacked into Earth. It might have been the seat of a galactic empire. The whole surface of the planet might have been covered with a ten-mile-thick solid city structure and equipped with several levels of orbital rings. And then it hit Earth. A thousand kilometers down, laughably far away, may still reside some of the tougher megastructures built out of heat resistant alloys that mankind hasn’t even come to dream of yet.

Likely? No. Possible? Maybe. An intriguing enough idea that paramount should promptly stop funding STD and STP to instead start work on a series about this ancient civilization? Yes.

 Posted by at 12:08 am
May 112022
 

Before Star Trek, I was a fan of the 1950’s run of “Tom Swift jr.” books back when I was in grade school. Those were some of the first books I read, kicking off a love of science fiction literature that has lasted for more than forty -five years. The whole idea of A Kid Like Me being a scientific/engineering genius appealed, and undoubtedly played some role in my becoming an aerospace engineer. So just imagine how thrilled I was when I saw this trailer for an Extra Special version of Tom Swift soon to premier as a series on the CW:

I *defy* anyone who read the 1950’s run of Tom Swift to suggest with a straight face that this has any resemblance beyond the name and the concept of “genius inventor.”

Is there any intellectual property that modern Hollywood *can’t* or *won’t* turn into crap? The existence of this series does not negate the original books, of course… but the existence of *this* series negates the possibility of the good series that *could* have been made.

 Posted by at 11:21 am
May 102022
 

It is possible that some writer on “Strange New Worlds” might have slipped in  some non-leftist messaging. Personally I believe that the more likely explanation is that this was meant to smear the right, but due to the current-day Star Trek writers being lazy and none too bright, they screwed it up.

In short: in the premier episode of SNW, Captain Pike uses some January 6 footage to show how Earth walked into World War III, with the protests leading to the Eugenics Wars, and then to WWIII. Buuuuuuuut… Pike referred to the Jan 6 footage as a “fight for freedom.”

Hmmm. Pike’s not wrong there.

Another good point: “That’s why I watch a show set in the future, to watch video from last year.”

 Posted by at 6:54 pm
May 082022
 

Well, huh. When I think of “profoundly British television,” one of the first things to come to my mind is “Dr. Who.” Well, I guess the BBC has decided to end that nonsense… they’ve selected the next actor to play Dr. Who. He’s Rwandan. How long before Dr. Who is filmed in Mandarin? Why does the BBC persist in English-language supremacy?

 

 Posted by at 12:23 pm
May 052022
 

The headline should come as no surprise, since it follows the events of Star Trek Discovery. However, there was always the possibility that the producers would make some effort to rectify the many, many mistakes and oversights of STD, but… nope. While it is too early to judge whether or not the show is any good, given the people behind it are largely those responsible for STD and STP, skepticism about it emerging as anything but lamentable trash is warranted. That said, several details about the show make it perfectly clear that it is not set in the same continuity as “Star Trek:”

1: The Gorn are discussed. Given that this show is set more than a decade before TOS, and the Gorn weren’t known to the Federation until Kirk & Co. ran into them…

2: Some history of Earth was dropped: the January 6 2021 Capitol hijinks are shown, and described as a prelude to “the second Civil War,” which led to the Eugenics Wars, which led to World War III. Since the Eugenics wars occurred in the 1990s, it would be tricky for events from 2021 to cause them.

3: A star chart lists the planet “Sarpeidon,” a world that won’t be encountered until Kirk & Co. get there more than a decade later. Given that the planet has a fully functional time machine program that winds up sending the *entire* planetary population elsewhen, the existence of Sarpeidon would have been either one of the biggest military centers of the Federation, or one of the biggest secrets; all the time travel monekymotions of STD Season 2 could have been dispensed with.

On more subjective fronts, none of the characters that carry through from TOS seem to be at all the same characters, just people with the same names. Nurse Chapel, in particular, seems a completely different person. Spock and T’Pring are shown together… and T’Pring proposing marriage to Spock is shown, an odd thing given that theirs was a marriage arranged by their families when they were children, and then they didn’t really have much to do with each other. T’Pring seems quite un-Vulcan as well. The Enterprise itself  is an entirely different ship, far more generic sci-fi-flashy and far less character-filled than the classic. The bridge is unrecognizable… much bigger, with a *huge* window up front rather than the somewhat dinky viewscreen from the original.

All in all… unsurprising.

 Posted by at 10:08 pm
May 052022
 

The Roddenberry Archive recreates Star Trek’s 1964 Pilot episode as a life-size holodeck simulation

A project is underway to digitally recreate the *entire* USS Enterprise, inside and out. What’s more, it’s not one static version, but shows how the sets evolved from the first pilot through the series, and includes the “refit” version from the Motion Picture and seemingly on up to Undiscovered Country (as well as the other Enterprises from NX-01 up to the J-model, the Shuttle, the aircraft carrier, the “ringship,” the Robert McCall version designed for the unmade “Planet of the titans” TV movie, the Phase II design… but *not* shown is the mutant horrible version from Woketrek, or the JJPrise). The results look pretty fricken’ awesome. Shows what can be accomplished if you actually care about the source materials (take note, hacks behind STD and STP).

How exactly regular schmoes like us will make use of the final products is not explained very well. It nevertheless looks damn impressive.I doubt that the computer models will be made accessible to the public, but if they were… you’d be able to 3D print every single version of the Enterprise bridge in whatever scale you like. You’d be able to print off each and every prop.

The actress they scanned to recreate Yeoman Colt from “The Cage” is not an exact duplicate, but she’s impressively close and immediately recognizable. Contrast with what Star Trek Discovery did to poor Colt:

Remember, the Talosians brought Colt to Pike and suggested that he mate with her because, in short, she was young and attractive. Ummmmm… Maybe that spike-faced Jem Hadar-lookin’ dame is a hottie among her kind, but that is *not* a face to attract a human male.

Sadly, actress Laurel Goodwin, who portrayed yeoman colt, died just a few months ago.

 Posted by at 12:01 am