Star Trek meets Mythbusters

Great, two of my favourite geek things in the world, Star Trek and Mythbusters, are coming together - the Mythbusters team are going to test out a classic scene from the original 60s Star Trek, where Captain Kirk is kidnapped and placed on a desert planet to battle the captain of the Gorn ship and told there are materials scattered around that can be fashioned into weapons. Finding some sulphur and other material he takes a large bamboo like hollow cane and imrpovises a primitive cannon, with some diamonds shoved in the barrel as ammunition. Its a now classic Trek scene (with the rocky desert setting now a cliche for the show, endlessly lampooned). But if you improvised such a device in real life would it work or just blow up in your face? That's what the Mythbusters are going to test - sounds like a Trek themed follow up of sorts to the medieval wood cannon they did a couple of years back.

Captain Picard on the Mile

Walking down the Royal Mile one bright morning to work, passing the City Chambers I saw the distinctive visage of Patrick Stewart's Captain Jean-Luc Picard looking out onto the ancient thoroughfare; not what you expect in the heart of a historic world heritage site. No idea why there was a lifesize standee of Picard gazing out of the City Chambers, perhaps it was the office of a fan, perhaps it was because Patrick Stewart was coming to town with Ian McKellen to perform waiting for Godot (I'd love to have gone to it but the tickets are just too damned pricey, sadly, a common problem with a lot of theatre these days, I hardly go any more). Whatever the reason seeing it on a crisp, spring morning on the Royal Mile made me smile and the juxtaposition of the captain of the Starship Enterprise, a historic street and a streetsweeper's wheely bin amused me and I had to pause and take a pic.

"Space, the final frontier... These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise; her five-year mission to seek out new life and new civilisations. To boldly go where no man has gone before..."

I've been cynical and wary about JJ Abrams' new Star Trek movie - if you haven't been following developments the Alias, MI-3 and Cloverfield creator is taking the series back to before the beginning, with the early days of the classic 60s Trek characters (Zachary Quinto - Sylar in the brilliant Heroes series - plays a young Spock). I have no problems with Abrams' storytelling abilities but I am wondering if I can possibly accept other actors in these roles, even essaying younger versions than we saw. After all I grew up on the original Trek - repeats of that and Pertwee then Baker era Doctor Who were my 1970s televisual SF fixes in those old, three-channel days - and I'm not sure I can take anyone else in those roles. Nonetheless this glimpse of the original, classic 60s style Enterprise under construction is pretty exciting to a geek like me; I especially like the way in the bigger version you can see inside the ship where the hull plates haven't been fixed yet; this looks like the original ship being 'born' and there's something romantic about the big ships, fictional or otherwise.



Trekmovie also had a link to this low quality YouTube someone uploaded of the teaser trailer being shown with the opening of Cloverfield in the US. Little to see except flares of light from welding torches as the camera pulls back to reveal the Starship Enterprise in drydock, being completed for her five year mission. The soundtrack is a mixture of speechs from the glory days of the Space Race, which again appeals strongly to my geek heart (I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up; I still do), from Kennedy's inspirational speech to Armstrong's "one small step", culminating in Leonard Nimoy (who returns to play the older Spock) uttering those immortal words, "space, the final frontier..." Despite my wariness the geek hairs on my neck stood up...

"of my friend I can only say this... of all the souls I have encountered on my travels, his was the most... human..."

Star Trek fans will recognise the above line delivered in a moment of Serious and Emotional Acting by that great thespian of our age, William Shatner, at Spock's funeral service at the end of Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan. Well, guess what? Now you too can enjoy eternal rest in a coffin - oh, I do beg the pardon of funerary folks, I meant casket - designed after Spock's burial tube (formerly a photon torpedo casing). Eternal Image - 'brand name funerary products that celebrate the passions of life' offer this or if you are a Trek fan who plans to be cremated rather than interred when you go beyond the Final Frontier you can have an urn shaped after the design on the flag of the United Federation of Planets. I wonder if you can have a tombstone shape like a Starfleet emblem to go with it?



I don't know whether to laugh or shake my head in disbelief... What next? A theme park for the deceased where your dearly departed are sealed into their caskets or urns then placed onto a variety of their favourite rides for all eternity? And if some rich loony does decide to do that I want royalties on it! (link via Boing Boing)