star trek
Star Trek is a science fiction television series documenting the adventures of the Starship Enterprise.
Sci-Fi's Obsession with Ancient Greece and Rome
Sometimes science fiction returns to the past for places, people, and themes to enrich its mind-journeys into the future. Such is the case with these sci-fi movies, TV episodes, and works of fiction, each one drawing from the ancient worlds of Greece or Rome to dress its story. Brit Marling, a screenplay co-writer of Another Earth, says that this isn’t really surprising. “We’re retelling the same dramas from Ancient Greece,” Marling said. “These stories are so fundamentally old, the mythology that they come from, the hero’s journey — the way a narrative works. Science allows you to take the same story and see it from a new perspective because the science is always new and fresh.” Science fiction’s interest in the ancient world goes beyond mere allusion, as in the middle name of Captain James Tiberius Kirk (Tiberius, in case you’re wondering, was a somber, reclusive Roman ruler who nevertheless left the empire in a better state than he found it). If you’re deeply interested in how the speculative worlds of the future and the worlds of ancient Rome and Greece intersect, you may be interested in a serious paper by academic Tony Keen, “The 'T' stands for Tiberius: models and methodologies of classical reception in science fiction.” If that sounds a little heavy, enjoy the following summary of a few times when togas, laurel wreaths, aliens, and spaceships partied it up in one crazy combination.
By Sarah Quinn9 years ago in Futurism
Sci-Fi Casting That Almost Happened - 'Star Trek' Edition
Our favorite TV shows and movies and the iconic characters who populate them effectively carry us away on captivating adventures. We connect to them as an audience on many emotional levels. Often, they’re more than mere entertainment or a simple distraction. We grow up watching them as wide eyed kids, discover them in high school or maybe while living off at college. Show casts can feel as if they’re part of our own family. Soon we find that those casts of actors and actresses become a part of our collective pop culture experience, one we share with family and friends. With a TV show and movie franchise as established and beloved as StarTrek, the casting becomes all the more essential and memorable.
By Will Stape9 years ago in Futurism
The Sci-Fi Museum Lover's Bucket List
If you’re a true fan of science fiction, whether campy or classic, space opera or speculative fiction, Star Trek or Jules Verne, you probably can’t get enough of the worlds your favorite characters inhabit, the clothes they wear, and the technology they wield. Lucky you, because some of the most exciting artifacts and memorabilia are exhibited in carefully curated museums around the world, and the momentum is building for even more. Check out this bucket list of already-existing sci-fi museums and exhibits, then get ready for two world-class museums coming to Hollywood, California and Washington D.C. in the years to come.
By Sarah Quinn9 years ago in Futurism
Greatest Artificial Intelligence Characters
The Sci-Fi and Pop Culture genres are often found on vastly different paths with many light years of distance between them, but once in a while they collide. When they intertwine, we usually end up with some of the greatest Artificial Intelligence characters in history has seen. Sometimes these characters are symbolized through a grim and pessimistic future, where machines are capable of feeling a wide range of emotions. They also have a survival instinct that leads them to try and take over the world. In other instances, they are lovable and friendly and able to connect with humans. Even though they are programmed not to feel any kind of emotions, most times we feel some sort of connection to them. Whatever the case might be, these great artificial intelligence characters were designed and programed to make you remember them.
By George Gott9 years ago in Futurism
'Star Trek' Booze: 50 Years Of Drinking With The Starship Enterprise
For the proud accomplishment of lasting half a century, a 50th anniversary is golden. It deserves a celebratory toast for any species in any part of the galaxy, and in the latest Trek film, fans get a fun tip of the glass after a fashion. Early on in Star Trek: Beyond, director Justin Lin’s action packed entry in Paramount Pictures feature film franchise, Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and Bones (Karl Urban) share a rare quiet moment by drinking together in Enterprise’s officer’s lounge. The two friends and Starfleet officers take the time to down a little Saurian Brandy—an alien drink all too familiar to fans from way back in the day of the start of the original series.
By Will Stape9 years ago in Futurism
'Star Trek' and 'Star Wars' Time Travel
Is sci-fi about going forward boldly into the future or reminiscing and reliving the past? Certainly, with time travel preoccupying science fiction as both an awesome gadget, concept, and plot device, the beauty is you can do both timelines at the touch of a blinking button or the roar of warp drive. However, as a purely solid and compelling narrative—is it better to keep reaching for the mysterious future or revisiting the well trod past?
By Will Stape9 years ago in Futurism
Balancing Fears of Artificial Intelligence with Sci-Fi
“Let me put it this way, Mr. Amor. The 9000 series is the most reliable computer ever made. No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error." - HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey
By Will Stape9 years ago in Futurism
Confessions of a 'Star Trek' Writer
In 1996, director Jonathan Frakes (Cmdr. William Riker) helmed the movie celebrating Star Trek's 30th anniversary. Co-starring Alice Krige as the seductive Borg Queen and Alfre Woodard as the resourceful Lilly, First Contact was a big box office hit and a favorite with both audiences and critics. Although that particular film Starship Enterprise was commanded by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and had Data, an android science officer, instead of a Vulcan, the spirit of Star Trek was alive and well. Now, fans celebrate of 50 years of content that has not lost its relevance or, thanks to a new generation of Star Trek writers and creators, its style.
By Will Stape9 years ago in Futurism
Costuming 'Star Trek The Motion Picture'
Bob Fletcher created more than 700 costumes for the Star Trek movie in less than 10 months, directing in excess of 200 drapers, cutters, tailors, operators, finishers, plastic workers, molders, shoemakers and assistants who had been hired to make his design concepts a reality. Star Trek—The Motion Picture was the first of the Star Trek films and debuted in 1979. William Shatner, Leonard Nemoy and George Takei made up some of the cast for the feature film, following their roles on the television series that aired from 1966 to 1969.
By Futurism Staff9 years ago in Futurism
Star Trek Voyager's Sarah Silverman
Sarah Silverman maintains a reputation as one of our hottest and no holds barred comedians. She’s the gal with the chuckles, plus a definite point of view. With an attitude and an act ranging from no limits brashness to speculating on the very origins of the human race, Silverman’s comedy holds something outrageous or just plain out there for everyone. She’s now firmly ranked in the same rarified female, funny air as Kathy Griffin, Wanda Sykes, Margaret Cho, Ellen DeGeneres, and Roseanne Barr. Silverman is well known as a funny lady now, but back in the 90s, she was a serious scientist! Though only guest starring in a two part episode, she became an active part of UPN’s Star Trek: Voyager’s crew, as she fought the evil Ed Begley Jr!
By Will Stape9 years ago in Futurism
America’s Election 2016—the Presidential Candidates & the Starship Captains
Politics… The Fantastical Frontier… These Are The Voyages Of Election 2016. Its Seemingly Never Ending Mission… To Explore Strange New Candidates… To Seek Out New Gaffes And New Attack Ads… To Boldly Go Where Nobody Politically Viable Nominee Has Gone Before…
By Will Stape9 years ago in Futurism
How Star Trek’s Most Sexually Charged Movie Scene Was Nearly Lost
Star Trek III: The Search For Spock continued the original feature film’s loose trilogy started by Nicholas Meyer with Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan (1982), and while it’s not as critically praised, it’s a landmark in Trek canon for several compelling reasons. Much is made over Spock’s ‘resurrection’ - after Leonard Nimoy was lured back to Trek’s fold with directing his first major motion picture –– but there’s an underlying texture of sexuality which nearly overshadows Spock returning to life. Indeed, the racy moment was initially deemed so risqué or plain silly, that Paramount Pictures executives nearly kept the sexually charged scene on the cutting room floor.
By Will Stape10 years ago in Futurism
