Is Science Fiction ready for Virtual Reality?

A week or so ago,  Facebook acquired Oculus  and potentially changed the direction of personal entertainment. Oculus, in case you didn’t know, is a small virtual reality company in California that has created an affordable  headset (rift) that actually works.  With Facebook’s billions backing them now, developers should take notice and begin banging out code for this new device. My hope is that gamers won’t be the only target. Surely, movie makers will see the potential.  Perhaps some sort of hybrid experience that incorporates elements of both will evolve; a primitive holodeck that allows the users to immerse themselves in the action. Think about what a rush that would be.

It has taken a long time for the technology to catch up with the concept of VR. Back in the mid-nineties I bought a VR headset from a now defunct computer chain. It was big and heavy; looked like Darth Vader’s helmet. I brought it home and took two days to set it up. The CPU in my computer was top of the line at the time. However, it was so under powered that the latency caused me to experience motion sickness after about five minutes of use, and the resolution was terrible. From everything I have read the people at Oculus have over come these obstacles.

Science fiction fans would gladly pay to become a part of the action. I know I would. Think about sitting on the deck of the Enterprise laying in coordinates to Altair five. Hell, it gives me goose bumps.

OH YEAH!

Put two or more hard core Trekkers in a room and what do you get? Well, within five minutes there is a debate over the best episode from the first season of the original Star Trek. In ten minutes it has degenerated into an argument. In fifteen minutes there will be a physical altercation if someone doesn’t intervene. That is just the natural progression. Trekkers are adamant when it comes to the best episodes, particularly the first season. The topic is as sacred as Spock’s ears.

I use to be like that. That is, until I went through the twelve step program. You know, apologizing to those I offended in the past. Calling my sponsor when I feel like punching someone that says J.J. Abrams makes good Star Trek movies. So forth, and so on. However, recently I fell off the wagon, so to speak. So, I will say with absolute certainty that Balance of Terror is without  doubt the best episode, not only of the first season, of all incarnations of Star Trek. There I said it.

If you’re not a Trekker I’m pretty sure you’re saying to yourself, “WTF is this idiot talking about?” Well, this idiot is talking about the holy grail of modern science fiction, the first season. it was the best written, best produced, and best all around science fiction television that ever existed. Just ask any Trekker, if you’re unfortunate enough to know one.

The first season was like falling in love the first time. The second season was like breaking up with your first love, and the third season was like a really bad divorce. There were a lot of reasons for this. Mainly, it was the networks jerking Roddenberry around so much he totally lost interest in the project and left it to others that just didn’t have the passion necessary to create a quality show. So, you get episodes like Spock’s Brain.  Truly, I shutter to think about some of the garbage that was put out on the air waves in the third season. If only the suits at NBC had the foresight to see the real economic potential of Star Trek maybe the series could have lasted at least five years. Oh well, I guess we’ll never know.

Spielberg as Star Trek Director

Now that J.J.Abrams has committed to Star Wars over at Disney, it seems Paramount is left swinging in the wind with Star Trek. The suits at Paramount know that Abrams can’t put the effort into the project that is necessary to please fans of the first two movies, and assigning the task to underlings isn’t the same as doing it yourself. The solution: Reboot again. This time find someone with a passion for science fiction.

Abrams is perfect for the Star Wars directors chair. His style is more suited to the epic myth story than Scifi. Although Star Wars is considered science fiction by most, the reality is that Lucas intended it to be more like the Gilgamesh or King Arthur tales. He was greatly influence by Joseph Campbell and states that Star Wars was to be a “blend of mythology and technology” from the beginning. I think J.J.Abrams will make the best Star Wars ever.

Now for Star Trek. Think about it a few moments. Who is the best Scifi director of all time?  Who has the real passion and understands science fiction better than anyone else? Name   three of your favorite Scifi films, and I bet at least one was directed by Steven Spielberg. I know he has tons of money and many irons in the fire. However, Spielberg chooses his projects based on emotion. What could be more emotional than having the greatest Scifi director work on the greatest Scifi story. Sounds like a match made in heaven to me.

J.J.Abrams or Trekkers: Who Owns the Star Trek Franchise?

J.J.Abrams is a great Director, Producer, Screenwriter……..yada, yada, yada. OK, enough with the wikibullshit. He did a good job with his first Trek movie, not great, good. Lost was a great TV show in the beginning that lost (pun intended) its appeal as the years went by, culminating in a big disappointing finale. I felt like kicking in the screen when it turned out they were dead all along. What crap!………. OK, I’ve calmed down now.

I understand that Mr. Abrams wants to put his own brand on the Trek franchise. This is understandable; he is an artist, and that’s what they do. However, I think he is veering too far from the original Roddenberry concept.

For example, the Kirk character, in the first movie, is portrayed as  more of a reckless, seat of the pants, lucky idiot than the original thoughtful tactician like in Balance of Terror. Of course, the opening scene with Juvenal delinquent Kirk running from the law in his step fathers five hundred year old corvette, while listening to an equally old version of the Beastie Boys Sabotage is very (sarcasm) Trek worthy. Maybe you should have titled the movie Star Trek: Rebel without an Enterprise; your Jim Kirk is more like Jim Stark. By the way,  I like the Beasties, its just they have their place in my iPod, not in my Trek movie. Come on, I know you have to appeal to the 13-18 year old crowd. But, at the dignity of an institution that belongs to the fans.This brings me to the point of my rant.

Does Star Trek belong to people that put up big bucks and butcher a great piece of science fiction history or does Star Trek belong to the people that signed petitions, and fought to keep it on the air when network suits wanted to cancel it because it was too intellectual?  Their reasoning: viewers are too stupid to follow a story line more complicated than Lost in Space.  When Gene Roddenberry died it seems the Star Trek philosophy died with him. The Next Generation followed his vision because he was alive during most of production. Now you want to ignore the whole TNG timeline. Talk about arrogant!

Mr. Abrams, I know you will never see this. However, I am putting this in cyberspace hoping there are some people left that feel what you have done to a science fiction icon borders on criminal.

LeVar Burton Calls BS on J.J. Abrams ‘Star Trek’ Comments

LeVar Burton Calls BS on J.J. Abrams ‘Star Trek’ Comments.

I have to agree with LeVar on this one. TNG was probably the best in the series of Star Trek incarnations.

Women in the World of Science Fiction

I was recently going through some of my old SciFi mags and came across Evelyn E. Smith’s name. It got me thinking; which is something I should do more often. Anyway, I realized women don’t get the respect they should in this genre. OK, big duh, I just never thought about it. I guess it’s the inherent man-pig in all of us men. The point is, I’m here to repent and make amends like any reformed male-chauvinist should.

Back to Evelyn E. Smith and her writing. She started her career in the 50’s when female science fiction writers usually worked under a male pseudonym. Ms. Smith took the bold move, at the time, of using her real name. She wrote four science fiction novels. Her first, The Perfect Planet, was about a world where looks are everything. Kind of sounds like the world we live in. Her short stories numbered in the dozens, which include, The last of the Spode and The Martian and The Magician.

Ms. Smith was a prolific writer, and in later life penned The Miss Melville Mystery series of novels. Not surprisingly, the protagonist is a strong willed, intelligent woman that just happens to be an assassin.

Evelyn Smith is just one of many women that have made significant contributions to SciFi.

Dorothy Fontana is another fantastic writer I have previously overlooked. She did a great job on the original Star Trek TV series.

I will update my pages to include these women, and the many other women in the world of science fiction.

Dude!, Where’s my Warp Drive?

We all know what Einstein said about FTL travel. It’s impossible. However, just google faster than light speed and you get loads of posts claiming NASA is working on a “warp drive”. Every wonk on the net has some angle on this. However with the government cutting NASA’s R&D budget by 3.23 billion dollars NASA Budget. I find it hard to believe much is getting done; maybe a lot of talk, but no progress.

Physicist Phillip Gibbs created a webpage back in 1997 that explains the science behind the possibility of FLT travel and communication that is well worth the read Phil Gibbs Paper. It gets a little technical in spots; he is a physicist. However, take the time to look it over and you’ll see all the hype is just …… well, bullshit.

Why do Adults read Science Fiction?

Most people think of anyone over fifteen that reads scifi as being some anti-social freak that spends his days dressed like Darth Vader, playing video games in his parents basement, and masturbating to internet porn in his spare time. Well…..that is true in some cases. However, most adults that read science fiction do so for the same reasons they read Thoreau, Hemingway, and Mark Twain. Because it allows you to go places, and do things that would otherwise be impossible.

The first time I read Walden it was like I was strolling along the shore having a conversation with my buddy Henry. In For Whom the Bell Tolls, I was fighting for a cause I believed in. When Captain Bixby shouted orders to the crew in Life on the Mississippi, I heard the men’s shoes hammer on the deck as they hurried to their stations. It’s the same thing with science fiction. A good writer can use his imagination to carry you to unexplored worlds. He can make you hear and feel the vibration of warp engines or sense the excitement of first contact.

Science fiction is just like any other genre, there is good and there is bad. Good scifi lets you use your imagination the same as good fiction of any sort. So, the next time someone gives you that “funny” look when you mention your latest read, just know they are probably an illiterate poser.

You’ll have to excuse me now. I need to have my Star Trek uniform dry cleaned and my Spock ears sharpened. Live long and …..whatever.