In-Depth Discussion of Golden Age Science Fiction

 

If classic science fiction is your cuppa tea, you might enjoy this in-depth interview about  A. E. Van Vogt, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, capped off with a reading of my alternate history story about John Lennon, "It's Real Life", which can read in its entirety, for FREE, right here.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1.3: "Instead of terraforming planets, we modify ourselves"

There was a science fiction story I read a long long time ago -- back in the late 1950s, I think, when as a kid I first began devouring science fiction  -- "Enchanted Village" (1950) I think, by A. E. Van Vogt   But I remember the story as as clear as day.  An astronaut is stranded on a planet with a barely hospitable environment, and struggles to survive.  He comes up with all sorts of strategies and fixes.  [Spoiler follows for this story.] In the end, he's feeling great.  But not because he's come up with ways to make the environment more comfortable for human life.  He's in great shape because the environment has changed him into an alien life form happy as a clam in the hostile environment.

Strange New Worlds 1.3 does a fine job of recalling the essence of this story through the person of First Officer Chin-Riley, aka Number One.

[Spoilers follow...]

The Enterprise beams down a team to Illyria, a planet of humanoids who were outcasts in the Federation because they practiced genetic engineering.   Before the episode is over, we learn that Number One is an Illyrian, and the centerpiece of their lives and explorations was to transform themselves not the planets they encountered.  If you think about it, that's a pretty enlightened approach, certainly by our current environmental standards.

That story, in itself, would have been well worth watching.  But we get more:  we learn, at last, the backstory of Pike's Number One, as it was told to us in "The Cage" become "The Menagerie".  And, while we're at it, we also learn that Security Chief La'an Noonien-Singh is a descendant of Khan Noonien-Singh!  He was also a champion of genetic engineering -- which he unfortunately used for evil purposes -- which in turn is why the Federation took such a dim view of DNA re-arranging (in a nice historical tie-in to the Illyrian story).

Quite a story there, right?  And just to round out a really stellar episode, we learn that Dr. M'Benga is keeping his critically ill daughter alive in transporter limbo.  She's relatively fine, now, and he beams her into flesh and blood existence to visit with her, until he can somehow find a cure for her illness, maybe on some planet out there somewhere.

That's a great story, right there, in itself.   This new series is just bursting with creativity about important issues, with sentient beings of all kinds striving for better lives.  As I said last week, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has the makings of a Star Trek series in league with TOS and TNG.  After this third episode, I'm sure of it.

See you back here with my review of the next episode next week.

See also Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1.1-1.2: Great Characters, Actors, Stories

The Titan: Turning the Tables on Humans in the Cosmos

A common scenario in both science fiction and projections of what future science will do to help humans move out into the cosmos is terraforming: we use our technology to make an alien world more habitable, more comfortable, to humankind.  This could include the moderating the temperature, increasing the oxygen, adjusting the gravity, that sort of thing.

Much less frequent is modifying the human being to make us more comfortable on an alien world.  "The Enchanted Village" by A. E. Von Vogt from the early 1950s, which I read as a kid, is a great example, and has always stayed with me. An astronaut lands and come close to dying on Mars.  The environment just doesn't work for him.  As he reaches the end of his rope, he suddenly feels better.  Mars has somehow changed him into an intelligent organism that can flourish on its surface.

The Titan, which just started streaming on Netflix at the end of March, is a similar kind of a story, with the big difference that humans here on Earth are deliberately trying to genetically modify a select group so that they can live in the icy confines of Titan - Saturn's largest room - in comfort.  The result is a strong narrative, incorporating elements of horror as well as military science fiction.

One weakness is a change of character in Prof. Collingwood - well played by Tom Wilkinson, who plays everything well - which doesn't seem completely motivated. (This is a part of larger problem in movie-making, in which professors are often poorly conceived.)  The science is also a little fuzzy - or, at least, specifically what is being done to Lt. Rick Janssen (played by Sam Worthington, last seen by me in Manhunt: Unabomber, where he also did a good job), and how it all fits or doesn't fit together to make Titan habitable for him.

But the story (by Arash Amel, screenplay by Max Hurwitz - writer for Unabomber and Hell on Wheels - and directed by Lennart Ruff) still works, and Taylor Schilling does a fine job as a doctor who is also Rick's wife.  So, all in all, I'd recommend this.  At its best, the movie explores the question of how much of our humanity we're literally willing to sacrifice to go out and live in the stars.  And the timing is great, since this Monday I'll be convening a one-day conference (free admission) at Fordham University on the intersection of space travel and religion, Touching the Face of the Cosmos, with a Keynote by Brother Guy Consolmagno, Director of the Vatican Observatory.  We'll no doubt be exploring some similar issues.