A graphic that reads: “In the first episode of Star Trek Deep Space Nine, we saw a black man gain a powerful command position, respect the hell out of a religion he didn’t understand, respect three different races he didn’t understand, accept his friend’s gender change, and tell his son he loves him.”
Star Trek; it be like that. #LLAP
There is a major exhibition ‘The Story of Us: Independent Ireland and the 1926 Census’ and I’m delighted that we are hosting this in London at @britishacademy.bsky.social from 24 April - 15 May. Free entry and no booking required. Pop in if you are around!
nationalarchives.ie/engage-and-l...
Two hooded figures with lamps approach a moonlit, isolated cottage. A woman answers the door. We have come for the child, says the hooded figure So soon? she asks It is time, says the hooded figure. The woman is distraught. We should never have got him a library card! What is done cannot be undone, says the hooded figure We couldn’t see the harm! We just wanted him to enjoy reading! For most, it ends there, says the hooded figure, turning away and walking into the wilderness Oh lord, What have I done! says the woman, the child walks past her and out into the darkness with them. Do not cry mother. I am a writer now.
my latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com
That was a lot of fun, sorry I had to run and couldn't stay for drinks 😞
Looking up in the atrium of the Institute of Physics
I'm at the Institute of Physics @iop.org for a screening of Interstellar, taking part in a panel discussion afterwards. It's maybe my fourth time watching a screening of the film, the first one where I realised Timothée Chalamet is young Tom!
🔮 Science, fiction, and the future 🔓️
In our latest issue of the BJHS, John Lidwell-Durnin examines how Jane Webb Loudon used fiction and popular science to imagine futures shaped by revived past knowledge—showing how speculation helped define science’s cultural meaning in the nineteenth century.
Also, I love that Kirk memorised a little line of poetry to impress his new crush and it gets him absolutely no where. Shatner's look of disbelief when she breezily heads off to study science instead of being with him is gold.
"They say the sea is cold, but the sea contains
the hottest blood of all, and the wildest, the most urgent." - Whales Weep Not! by D H Lawrence.
poets.org/poem/whales-...
Star Trek IV prop, the photon detector propp alongside a spore cannister from Star Trek Discovery
Btw! You can see the photon collector which Chekov and Uhura use in the nuclear wessel USS Enterprise as part of the object trail at the @sciencemuseum.org #StarTrek60 until September. 🖖 #LLAP
I have always liked this film but honestly seeing it like this tonight shot it even higher in my affections. 🐋
"Save the Whales to Save the World" is of course a great message but it is amazing how it works without being completely cheesy or pious, compare to Superman IV's anti-nuclear message for example. Part of that is the production values which are great despite the occasional puppet or matte painting
All the best Star Trek is literary
In the film, there's so much silliness and various bits which don't make sense if you think about them too long. But the positive energy and goodwill the ensemble have accrued carry it through in triumph. I love every performance, every "colourful idiom", every Shakespeare and DH Lawrence quote...
I had forgotten that the film was dedicated to the Challenger Disaster crew, a poignant start. The 7 astronauts died when the shuttle broke apart 73 seconds into flight in a televised trauma which scarred a generation.
Such a fun film! A brilliant way to see it with a full house of fans laughing and grinning along at the camaraderie. Pure fun. 🖖
This is screening 4 out of 4 so far, but sadly my last for a little while as I've got some travel coming up. Gutted to be missing VI in particular.
Settling in for the @sciencemuseum.org #StarTrek60 screening of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home tonight on our IMAX screen. It's almost full. Great to see plenty of uniforms especially blue shirts, no one has arrived dressed as a humpback though as far as I can tell.
A display of a small cyclindeicsl robotic rover mounted on a thin stand. There’s a information board at its base showing the photograph the rover took of the SLIM spacecraft when it landed.
The asteroid Ryugu grain isn’t the only space artifact from Japan on display at the UK Science Museum. This is a prototype of the SORA-Q lunar rover that was developed by JAXA in collaboration with the transformer toy company, Takura Tomy! I have a toy one in my office but it’s just so damn cute 😍
The display stand at the London Science Museum. Two information boards describe the importance of asteroid samples and highlight the work of Professor Sara Russell, who is a British researcher studying the Ryugu samples.
A close up of the display. The asteroid grain is sealed in a resin disc and a sliding magnifying glass can be used to take a closer look.
The same scene but with the magnfiying glass slid up over the resin disc containing the grain.
The new display of a grain from asteroid Ryugu, returned by the JAXA Hayabusa2 mission 🛰️, has opened at the London Science Museum! 🧪 The display has a sliding magnifying glass to easily zoom up on the grain 🔭. I felt it works better than with the grain permenantly under a magnifying camera or lens.
True cross NFT
Genuinely one of the coolest things I've ever seen a cultural venue post
A screenshot of the opening slide for Prof. Caroline Edwards' inaugural lecture featuring a black and white image of Bowerman's Nose, Dartmoor and the text "where is hope taking us? the utopian art of desecration amidst capitalist ruins."
I've been writing my inaugural lecture this week - lots of weirdness about woods, rocks, mycelium, intimate cross-species relations & some quite personal bits about my childhood. Goodness! Still time to grab a ticket for Tues 14 April (in-person or live-streaming): www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...
I normally describe Publishing to outsiders as a bunch of augurs and astrologers wandering around telling each other what good scientists they are. On a good day, we discover we disemboweled the correct chicken 2 years previously.
There's a lot of humour in it too though, the cast really lighten up compared to the previous two outings. The fact it pretty successfully balances those two tones is actually impressive.
For sure, Spock being an ass is part of his arc to reconciling his humanity.
I realised that in deleting for character count I dropped the bit of my post that makes clear I think exactly this. I actually love Lloyd in this.
Chekov in a strange outfit with wide white stuff down turned collar
Although Chekov's weird little elf boy outfit is also pretty bad, so much so that he somehow changes out of it midway through the film
Shatner as Kirk in a weird polyester tracksuit of blue green and white, made all the worse for the excellent outfits worn by Sulu and Uhura
(the offending tracksuit)
I most recently saw it two weeks ago and the only moment of hers that sticks in my memory is when everyone is greeting Spock and she says "it's how we all feel Mr Spock" and he totally blanks her and continues addressing Kirk.
George Takai as sulu in a fantastic sleeveless leather cape
The starship Excelsior (NX 2000) leaving Spacedock One (and not getting much further)
It manages the tonal shift from Wrath of Khan to Voyage Home surprisingly well. The civilian costumes are great (except Kirk's party track suit) especially Sulu's cape, and despite being left behind Uhura actually has some stuff to do unlike TMP and WoK. Oh and first look at Excelsior of course!
