With the impending arrival of “Star Wars: Episode Seven”, there’s all kinds of stuff being posted on YouTube. My husband sent me one link today and after viewing it, I drooled. If you hadn’t seen this one already, go ahead, take a glimpse:
Note the exquisite detail. Whoever did this is a dedicated geek worthy of award status.
Of course, if you have that, you’re also going to have to look at the leaked TMZ photos of Episode 7, too. Since these have been out for a while and no doubt everyone’s had a look already, I’m including these as a matter of convenience. You know, so you can geek out all in one space.
There’s a brisk business in the sci-fi fiction world wherein writers devise plots regarding worlds thousands of millions of light years yonder, only reachable by wormholes or imagination. At the same time, astronomers here on earth keep their eyes stuck to their favorite observing instrument of choice seeking out new planets, and, because there appears to be an obvious lack of wormholes (or so I believe; I could be wrong), they use their imaginations to conceive images of what these new worlds would look like.
On Independence Day, I sat on the porch of my parents’ house (so hard still to visit and not see my mother there) and flipped through the offerings on Endgadget. A posted article entitled, “The first potentially habitable alien planets we ever found – might not actually exist,” written by Richard Lawler caught my attention. In it, he writes about Gliese 581g, a planet orbiting Gliese 581, a star located in the constellation Libra. What made Gliese 581g so intriguing is its location in the “Goldilocks zone,” so called because it’s the correct distance from its sun to possess a moderate temperature for liquid water – not too hot or cold. It had also been determined that the planet didn’t spin on its axis and one side was perpetually in the dark. Artists created imaginative drawings, dreaming up visions of what this planet could look like.
Alas, it appears to have been all for naught. Spectrographic readings taken from Gliese 581 now indicate that 581g might actually not exist. How is that possible? The short answer is that the very signals that determined a planet might be located in a particular place also can be attributed to another source, say, “space stuff.” What would have produced a signal for the spectrometer to read no longer exists. It faded. Disappeared. Or, alternatively, may have been misread.
What a delicious idea for a plot.
Take it from the 581g’s point of view. Of course, that wouldn’t be the name of the planet. In my head, it’d be more like Ulele or Onodon – a whispery moniker reminiscent of mystery and exotica. For millennia the habitants, fiercely protective of their unique home, shrouded their visibility because of a unique feature Ulele/Onodon hosts. A signal accidentally launched by a careless Uleleian/Onodonite as it lit its cigarette on a rations replenish break, triggers a spectrograph that sits in the Earth lab of Dr. Jill Jackson, a red-headed ball of fire pouncing on a grand opportunity to stake her position as the sharpest astrophysicist in the universe. Having maxed out her credit cards and on the brink of credit collapse, she aims for the Nobel Prize and its generous financial reward and reveals her discovery to fellow scientists. Unbeknownst to her, the Ulele/Onodons are hot on her trail, thanks to sensitive instruments tuned to the merest hint of detective devices such as the one Dr. Jackson uses, and seek revenge…but not before re-cloaking their planet. Vowing to hunt her down like an unwanted cockroach in a Harlem apartment, Ulele/Onodon Fowler Falx is hot on her trail, and won’t stop until she’s obliterated and vanishes from view…just like 581g.
See, that explanation is much more entertaining than, “We thought we saw something…honest!…but it just…disappeared. Or, a similar incident as detailed above really happened and no one will admit it, because as any watcher of any sci-fi series involving space generally hide evidence regarding alien encounters. Since the jury is out on aliens’ actual existence, I’d like to seize this celestial development and give it a life, thicken its plot and give it hope for the future.
Keep your eyes to the skies, folks. The universe is filled with enigmas.
Hooray for America! Tomorrow is Independence Day, otherwise known as The Fourth of July. It’s a big deal in this part of the world, mainly because we get the day off, drink beer, eat BBQ and shoot off fireworks in the hope that the cops won’t show up and have you arrested for setting fire to the neighbor’s roof.
July 4th has always been about fireworks of a sort, especially when the aliens come and visit. You never know what they have up their sleeve, those sneaky gits. Take, for example, the well-regarded film, “Independence Day.” As pictured above, the aliens had plans about freeing Americans from the slinky tethers of the White House, because they knew to arrive there and blow it up. Out of all the grand buildings dotted across the USA, the aliens carefully researched the most appealing targets and thoughtfully removed them from the map. Intentionally, aliens freed ordinary Americans from the drudgery of law, order and the relative stability of a democratically-elected government…or made a statement about the Tea Party and the Koch brothers.
“Independence Day” Alien
Aliens, on occasion, are sticky. I could name a whole bunch of films that depict our off-world colleagues as drippy, goo-piles that slurp and ooze. It’s never explained why, but I’m certain if a human should, on the brink of death at the alien’s hand, mentioned that their acceptability rate would skyrocket if they only dried off a bit, then the inevitable all-Earth obliteration would be so much more palatable. So here’s our friend that I’ll name Indy, dripping. It could be that the crack in his skull is releasing vital body fluids, or it secretes when harmed/threatened. Either way, it’s gross. Stop it, already, before your cred plummets even further!
Bill Pullman as President Thomas J. Whitmore, in “Independence Day”
Often, American presidents are played by grey-haired but dignified old(er) men. Who wasn’t impressed with prime-of-his-life, hunky Bill Pullman as the ex-Air Force pilot tackling those nasty aliens? Instead of sitting on his buttocks complaining about the state of things, he went out and did the job himself, just like Obama does when he gets sick of all that congressional shilly-shallying. And yes, he didn’t quite get rid of the problem (that was left to Randy Quaid, possessor of a problematic off-camera life), but gee, doesn’t he look hot just for trying?
Brent Spiner as Dr. Brackish Okun in “Independence Day”
What sci-fi film would be complete without data…or Data? Playing against type, Brent moved away from his android role in ST: TNG to this guy. Here’s something a few of you might not have known: around the same time (or at least the same decade), he appeared on Broadway in the play, “1776,” which is also about American independence. I went. Even took my parents. And damn, he was good. The man can sing!
Swaggering heroes Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum
Because this is an American film using an American holiday as its title, America is entitled, so to speak, to claim the victory. While three-quarters of the planet’s wiped out, Americans came in and saved the day! Woo hoo!
So what are you going to do tomorrow? My suggestion: watch completely predictable, over-the-top, stereotyped-rife Independence Day. What better way to celebrate?
And you don’t even need to be an American to do so.
Credit: Andrew Chattaway – Moon over Devil’s Tower
With kids and cute aliens helping out each other again this summer, I’d thought I’d focus on a few past endeavors by Hollywood that exploits children for the greater good of the alien’s quest to rule the planet, or at least have some practical use for it. Generally, all the aliens wind up doing is using the kids (or their friends/family) to stick it to the man, break laws, wreak havoc and make a positive, heartwarming impression on the kid(s) that will guide them through the rest of their lives.
Quick! Name five films wherein aliens and kids meet up, bond and learn important life lessons that will guide them through their formative year and beyond. Name two wherein Devil’s Tower figures prominently.
Drawing a blank? Here’s mine:
1) E.T. – An obvious choice, eh? Such a story: a lonely kid from a broken marriage meets up with an ugly-but-cute alien who is also a fugitive from those nasty government people. After a few tentative missteps, alien and kid learn a few things off of each other and discover that being different has its assets. Older brother totally embraces the outlaw aspect of harboring said fugitive, gets friends on board to skirt the law after a scary brush with it, then everyone goes on a quasi-high speed dodge-’em bike chase to lose the cops and send E.T. back to the planets. It’s a heartwarming tale meant to leave the viewer with a warm, glowing feeling…just like the pulsating chest of E.T. Kids also learn the value of sticking it to The Man by learning that all government officials are evil, hostile sorts who have absolutely no business wondering just exactly what kind of being from another planet goes after young innocents and teaches them how to get away with breaking nation security protocols.
2) Close Encounters of the Third Kind – Kid actually gets abducted by stereotypical, pale verdigris aliens and winds up in a ginormous ship from which mobs of abductees are eventually unloaded back to the planet where they were first plucked. It’s assumed they’ve been probed, charted, analyzed and documented for future use. Cherub child, abducted in early scenes of film, runs towards Mommy (who’s been skirting the law herself trying to get the kid back) once he’s set free. In the film, it’s mentioned that some have an unusual force beckoning them towards the expected alien landing site. Apparently, they were invited to attend, and the calling card is an unshakable mental image of a strange-shaped mountain located somewhere in the American West. Well, the kid was dragged through a doggie door. I get the distinct impression it wasn’t his idea to come to the party or he even had the faintest idea of what Devil’s Tower even was, where it stood or why he, of all kids, was selected for this particular space venture. Apart from being scarred for life with post-traumatic stress disorder from his abduction, we know that child is going to be just…fine…
3) The Day the Earth Stood Still – Little Bobby Benson’s Dad died in World War II, and Klaatu/Mr. Carpenter’s just the guy who’ll show him not only how to improve his math skills, but nuclear bombs are a bad idea because if anyone on Earth’s ever going to use them, Klaatu’s going to teach all those naughty, nasty Earthlings a big lesson they’ll never forget. The government’s going after Klaatu, so he uses Bobby’s mom Helen as his ticket to freedom and get back to Gort and that big ship sitting on the President’s Park ellipse. Kids learn that while they might be able to skirt the law together with their new-found alien friend, their parents might.
4) Mars Attacks! – Now, these are teenagers that wind up being victorious in the end. What’s cool about this one is Natalie Portman, as the president’s daughter Taffy Dale, winds up giving Lukas Haas, another teenager, the Medal of Honor, all because Slim Whitman yodeling makes the Martians heads explode. There really is no law to skirt here, but if nothing else, the cheese factor’s on overload, with Tom Jones providing plenty of it for the film. Natalie Portman would go on to play Padmé Amidala in the “first three episodes” of Star Wars films.
5) Paul – This one’s a bit of a stretch, but Paul landed on Tara Walton’s dog, who was stigmatized her entire life and called a freak because she met a real alien and no one believed her. A child at the time, she suffered insults from other kids thinking she was a reclusive nut case, which she did become. In the end, we find out that she isn’t really skirting the law, only trying to have a wonderful adventure to make up for the rotten hand that Paul dealt her by helping him escape the G-men out to nab Paul for the Big Guy. One can only imagine the misadventures that lie ahead for both she and her old friend, Paul. And yes, they go to Devil’s tower, where everyone know aliens go for a good time.
Ever lay on your back on a summer night, looking up at the sky and think to yourself, “Where does it all end?”
Or begin.
Or go.
Or…
Ask a person to explain the universe is and guaranteed you’ll receive an answer just as expansive. Frustrating to conceive of an area that defies convention. For that’s what it is: an enigma.
Sure, scientists the world over have struggled to define just exactly what it is that the Earth inhabits and how it came about to be. Mathematical calculations summarize what is perceived to be forces governing its structure, but as soon as one explanation arises, another takes its place.
Take, for instance, the recent talk about finding traces of waves of the original big bang isn’t all it seemed to be. Could be interstellar dust, although optimism remains that perhaps evidence of the Big Bang is still present in the astronomer’s findings. And not to discount their discovery, because if they truly do find remnants of all that is, ever was and will be, my God, that’s like touching the face of eternity.
Though I’m not a scientist, I do wonder how an event so enormous, so unfathomable to most mortals, could have left a trail of crumbs in its wake. It has been determined that the universe began 13.798 ± 0.037 billion years ago, more or less. That’s all calculation, the only tool available to determine its age. It’s also calculated that the observable universe is 48 billion light years in size. Nothing to sneeze at, of course. These numbers are only the result of of the logic of numbers and not the result of a person who stood at the rim and said, “Well, then, here we are…at the end.” Unless, of course, you’re a person named Doug who’s actually hitchhiked your way from one end to the other. In my opinion, he’s in a place to know at present, but he’s not giving up his secrets anytime soon.
My mind shuts down when I contemplate the enormity of all there is. It gets worse when I attempt to ponder what caused its creation. That Big Bang came out of…what? What was before it? Could it be that there was a universe that lived, breathed and died before it? Or perhaps time bent backwards and regenerated its youth to live in another incarnation?
Will we ever know the answer?
Only the eternal reaches of the universe and time can tell.
For the heck of it, I took a random episode of Space: 1999 and watched it again; I’ve included the link above. That’s what I love about YouTube; it’s such a marvelous way to visit the past’s recollections about the future. All sorts of great offerings are posted there and I’ve spent many an hour lingering over its pages.
As it turns out, the Dorcons are digging around in Maya’s brain. She has what they don’t. Or, rather, she has the last of what those pesky Dorcons need. See? Here we are with the brain again. As I had mentioned in a previous post, those mind matters sure come up often, because people desperately need to control what they can’t have. I’m figuring they couldn’t come up with their own supply of artificial intelligence, provided from their own biological source that they grew in some distant lab, harvesting other’s brains to reconstruct and contort for their own wicked purposes. If a society has to rely on one person to keep them ticking, when that person dies (which was inevitable), what next?
So here I sit, in 2014, looking back at the future in 1999. Odd. I find myself wondering if this is what I have to look forward to? I ask that question every time I check out the future. Not mine, of course, that’s kind of nebulous at the moment (whose isn’t?). There’s just so many options.
Take, for instance, a simple object like computers. I love the computer in Cloud Atlas. How about District 9? Even Iron Man. Notice how fluid and oddly shaped the displays are, how one can pluck from the air directives and commands, or plain information?
I’m kind of a fan of the computer in Max Headroom (the TV show) when floppy disks were those 3.25″ and that was considered the cat’s pajamas. Well, that was kind of a deconstructionist future, so I think it’s kind of valid today as back in the 1980s when it first broadcast. Brilliant show.
If you happen to watch the above episode of Space: 1999, you’ll see a more practical, button-pushing kind of keyboard/monitor setup. Similar TV shows also relied on the same technology, and if you dare to watch early episodes of Star Trek, you’ll see the most crude of crude. Still, those systems got them where they wanted to go, so they couldn’t have been all that bad.
Once in a while, there is some crossover. If one compares the hand mechanics to operate the computer/typing in Michael Palin’s office from the Terry Gilliam masterpiece Brazil to the hand mechanics in the scene in Children of Men where Clive Owen sees his nephew play a computer came as he asks his brother for a favor, they’re pretty similar.
Anyway, it’s fun to see what’s going on out there in the future. Gives us something all to remember.
Are you like Ted Forth, who daily registers his disappointment because he’s unable to commute by jetpack? Or that our world will be inhabited by aliens? That our society will take a sinister turn, only to be run by androids, or a version of them, such as in “The Matrix?” Or the world will be hot, starving and few of us will lead lives of our own choosing, such as in “Logan’s Run” or “Soylent Green?”
My take on the the future’s pretty simple: it’ll be pretty much the way it is now, only different.
We’re still going to get up in the morning, complain about the way things are and discuss the weather. Some will fall in love, choose to share lives together, bear or adopt children or not. Life will be fair, or a disaster. None of that will ever change.
What will change is the method by which we live our lives. Do we integrate technology to such a degree that we can’t separate ourselves from the stack of electronics we’ve accumulated? Or do we segregate ourselves from the gizmos that govern our being?
Who governs our future? Do we sit idly by, grousing over government and those we elected, or do citizens take personal responsibility over the choices they make each time they visit the voting booth? Or do we choose to ignore our citizen’s obligation to vote and bury our heads in the sand whenever election time comes around?
Believe it or not, the shape of our future lies in all of our hands. The future is not defined by what’s going to happen to you.Your choices govern how the future will be.
Enough soapboxing.
I’d like to devote this blog to all aspects of The Future, as interpreted by Science Fiction, political developments, earth changes, society at large and whatever else comes across my mind. Some of it will be how the future looked in the past, and how our past has shaped the future. I promise it won’t be preachy or agenda furthering, just an exploration of what lies out there – including the moon and stars, and beyond.
Moon, Stars and Beyond 