This has been a big week for Star Trek with news on the sequel to Star Trek Beyond and the Quentin Tarantino movie and the first look at season two of Star Trek: Discovery. There are still a few other bits of Star Trek in the zeitgeist to cover for our weekly Great Links roundup, starting with a very special dentist’s office.
The show InnerSpace on Canada’s Space channel had a segment where they visited Aurora Borealis Orthodontics in Aurora, Ontario, where Dr. David Hirsch has turned his dental practice into a Star Trek experience, complete with an impressive collection of screen-used props, costumes and set pieces. Hirsch says combining his passion for collecting Star Trek memorabilia with his practice is not only fun but helps put the patients feel more comfortable for what is often an uncomfortable experience.
J.J. Forgets Stan’s Trek Audition, Beverly Crusher Proved Right, and more Great Links
Awkward moment of the week: Sebastian Stan reminds J.J. Abrams he auditioned for ‘Star Trek’
In a new interview with GQ, Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes AKA “The Winter Soldier” in the MCU) recalled an awkward encounter involving the Oscars, producer J.J. Abrams and Star Trek:
“It’s funny, I saw J. J. Abrams at an Oscar party on Sunday night. And he goes, ‘Hey, nice to meet you.’” Only problem was, this wasn’t the first time the two men had been introduced. “I was like: ‘Actually, I’ve met you before. I screen-tested for Star Trek. But that’s okay. I wouldn’t expect you to remember that.’”
Is Sebastian Stan really so forgettable?
Science meets Star Trek
The Conversation: Sorry Mr Spock: science and emotion are not only compatible, they’re inseparable
Lists of the week
Cracked: Why Time In The Star Trek Universe Makes No Freaking Sense
Nerdist: The 25 Best Space Capes In Film And TV History
Famous Trekkie of the week: Ellen Stofan, head of National Air and Space Museum
CNet: New Smithsonian space leader talks NASA, alien life, Star Trek
Video of the week: Captain Gumball
This week’s episode of the Cartoon Network show The Amazing World of Gumball (“The Stink”) features a little Star Trek homage when Gumball Watterson escapes into a fantasy in the final frontier.
That’s it for this week’s update. Keep up with all the fun Star Trek from around the web in our Great Links category.
I wonder if there’s something he can do to ease the uncomfortable experience of watching Star Trek: Discovery. Nitrous oxide, perhaps?
Final warning for trolling
I see a Spock and Stan joke coming.
I wonder what role he was auditioning for? Kirk?
Yeah, past interviews make it sound like he was auditioning for the role of Kirk
https://www.metro.us/entertainment/sebastian-stan-on-the-martian-and-the-star-trek-role-he-didn-t-get/zsJoje—l0oEC2qvxxHd2
Thanks for the link. Yes, going by that it was definitely Kirk.
Pretty strong feeling it was Kirk. I’d love to see Stan in a Trek movie. Outside of the Marvel stuff, he’s a good actor.
It’s noteworthy that even a dubious episode of Star Trek features a legitimate treatment of a scientific concept. Grasping Star Trek’s scientific bent is a litmus test for understanding the franchise. JJ Abrams and Alex Kurtzman don’t see any difference, really, between fantasy and science fiction, between Star Wars and Star Trek (note how they incorporate The Force of Destiny into Star Trek, which also helps paper over lazy writing). Now, some will pooh-pooh any distinction between the two, pointing to all manner of flimflam and horsefeathers found in Trek adventures.
But here’s the thing, when it was so inclined, Trek could treat scientific concepts, and the scientific method, intelligently. Our friends at Discovery don’t seem to grasp this. Andre Bormanis, science consultant for Next Generation, now works for The Orville. I just checked the IMDb page for Discovery, and they have no science consultant listed. Discovery also has a showrunner who recently talked about the upcoming season exploring “serendipity versus science” and “leaps of faith” and “patterns in our lives” and “connections you can’t explain.” Why not just throw in The One Who Will Bring Balance to the Force, while you’re at it?
Because that would be stupid–and those other things, if handled properly (a big if, I grant, given the missteps of DSC’s first season) wouldn’t be?
I’m about as hardcore a rationalist as you’re likely to meet, and even I don’t think science can ever necessarily account for the mystery of our mere existence, let alone provide meaning to it without a larger context. But if you wish (wrongly, in my view) to maintain that Trek has never addressed the subject of science vs. religious faith before, or insist on using a dumbed-down strawman of your own creation as a cudgel to bash a TV show you don’t like, by all means, have at it.