OT: Sci-fi (was RE: Ultra-portable terminals)

[Kenneth Brody]

Quoting Fairlight (Thu, 27 Jul 2006 20:50:13 -0400):

> On Thu, Jul 27, 2006 at 07:32:22PM -0400, Kenneth Brody, the prominent
> pundit, witicized:
> >
> > There was a show on the Discovery Channel a few months ago called
> > "How William Shatner changed the world", and was basically how
> > things from Star Trek ended up inspiring some of the people who
> > are responsible for much of today's technology.  (Like the guy
> > who is credited with inventing the cell phone, who got the idea
> > from the Star Trek communicators.)
>
> Obviously titled by someone that didn't give thought to the fact that
> Roddenberry was actually the man with the ideas, Shatner was just the
> actor that brought one role to life.

Actually, the whole William Shatner angle was done tongue-in-cheek.
As I recall, they did create Roddenberry as the "visionary" behind
the whole series.

And then there were parts that were created simply because it was
cheaper to do so.  They didn't have the budget for sets and scenes
with shuttlecraft, so the transporter was "invented" so that the
crew could simply "appear" on the planet.

> I'm not a huge Roddenberry loyalist like some.  Actually, I'm surprised
> he was never maliciously accused of being a Communist, given his views
> on some things.

It's bad enough to have a woman (and a black woman at that) as a
bridge officer, but did they have to have that Russian guy, too?

Just in case:  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)

[...]

On a totally separate OT thread, I'm sure you know that Roddenberry's
ashes were launched into space on a shuttle mission.  Are you also
aware that the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, the one who discovered Pluto,
are onboard the New Horizons spacecraft on it's Pluto flyby mission?

--
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