- The Problem With Red Dwarf’s Central Concept
This episode of Does it Fly? is presented by ScreenUK. ScreenUK is a free discovery platform celebrating the very best of UK-produced film, television, animation and gaming and sharing it with audiences around the world. ScreenUK is the go-to place to discover your next favorite movie, show, or game and features tons of exclusive behind-the-scenes interviews and all the info you need to find out how and where to watch or play your newest obsessions, wherever you are in the world. Make ScreenUK.org your next stop.
The very crux of beloved sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf comes from how Dave Lister was kept in time stasis for three million years (yes, you read that right) emerging only after a radiation leak killed the rest of the crew.Thus, the series follows Lister—the last living human—as well as a hologram of his old coworker (Rimmer), a humanoid creature who evolved from the offspring of Lister's smuggled pet cat (Cat), the sanitation android (Kryten), and the ship’s computer (Holly).
At its most functional, the Stasis Booth from Red Dwarf and related technology is meant to keep people from dying of old age during long interstellar voyages. We look at the scientific feasibility of placing living beings in states of suspended animation for long periods of time to slow down or prevent aging, a concept that you probably already know well from when it has appeared elsewhere in popular culture, including 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, and Futurama. What parallels are there to hibernation as we know it in nature? How does Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity factor into this? And what unique combination of sci-fi high concept and cult appeal has made Red Dwarf such an enduring success? Oh yeah, and we might as well discuss what a “red dwarf” actually signifies, too, while we’re at it!
All these questions and more will be answered (or at least discussed) in the latest episode! Remember that you can join in on the conversation in the comments on our YouTube page, so be sure to like, subscribe, and come back for more!
FURTHER READING
Do you want to delve a little deeper into the facts, concepts, and stories Hakeem and Tamara referenced in today’s episode? Here are a few recommendations!
“Well, that’s the show, but the red dwarf itself is the smallest type of star, and the most common type of star in our galaxy. There are tens of billions of them.”
See also: The Transit Method.
“When Albert Einstein figured out E=MC2, he said there isn’t really this thing called mass, there’s just all energy. So the existence of mass means the existence of energy. But here’s where I’m going to go out on a limb…to me, saying energy exists is the same as saying time exists.”
Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
“Right now, you and I are at rest relative to each other. We’re both sitting here on our computers. Which means that together, we’re moving through space at zero, and we’re moving through time at the speed of light. But if you were to take off in the Red Dwarf going 90% of the speed of light relative to me, everything on board is still in the same time zone as you are. But now you’ve put so much motion through space that your motion through time, relative to me, has been reduced, but not to the things traveling with you in the spaceship.”
“According to genetic evolution studies, the ancestor of all mammals hibernated and there is a hibernation gene in all mammals. Humans, apparently, 400,000 years ago appear to have had the ability to hibernate.”
“These nematodes [are multicellular organisms that were recovered from permafrost] and they’re tens of thousands of years old.”
The source of the famed “hell is other people” which Tamara references in discussion about the themes of Red Dwarf.
SUGGESTED VIEWING
Virtually everything discussed in this episode can be gleaned from watching the first episode of the series, 1988’s ironically titled “The End.” That being said, these are short episodes and short seasons of TV, so you may as well watch the entire first season (or “series” as they’re called in the UK) to get a better sense of the overall flavor of the show. The entire series is currently streaming for free on Tubi, so you may as well go press play on “The End” right now.
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S1E7 - 46m - May 17, 2024 - The Scariest Thing About the Alien Franchise
This episode of Does it Fly? is presented by ScreenUK. ScreenUK is a free discovery platform celebrating the very best of UK-produced film, television, animation and gaming and sharing it with audiences around the world. ScreenUK is the go-to place to discover your next favorite movie, show, or game and features tons of exclusive behind-the-scenes interviews and all the info you need to find out how and where to watch or play your newest obsessions, wherever you are in the world. Make ScreenUK.org your next stop.
In space, no one can hear you…put hideous alien monsters up for this kind of scrutiny! Perhaps the most iconic extraterrestrial terror in cinematic history, the titular aliens of Ridley Scott’s masterful Alien and its subsequent franchise are recognizable not only by their distinct look, but their uniquely terrifying properties.
We’re asking all the big questions in this episode. Just how worried should we be about the kinds of parasites that can do, well, what these aliens so famously do? Is that gestation period something seen elsewhere in (terrestrial) nature? And what the hell is up with their acid blood, anyway? And while these are very specific fictional bio-horror creatures with roots in nature, what was their inspiration and how were they designed for the screen? Like the film, this episode of Does it Fly? is not for the faint of heart.
And that’s only the beginning of the fun in our latest episode! Remember that you can join in on the conversation in the comments on our YouTube page, so be sure to like, subscribe, and come back for more!
[EPISODE VIDEO PLAYER EMBED]
FURTHER READING
Do you want to delve a little deeper into the facts, concepts, and stories Hakeem and Tamara referenced in today’s episode? Here are a few recommendations!
“The alien life cycle [as depicted in the movies] in part mimics parasitic or parasitoid animals here on Earth like parasitoid wasps who lay their eggs in caterpillars. But it’s different!” See also: Insect Life Cycles and Horizontal Gene Transfer
“You know what this reminds me of? It’s so gross. Are you familiar with these arthropods that eat a fish’s tongue, replaces it, and then lives there as its tongue? They attach themselves to the base of the tongue they just ate and live life and eat with the fish. So the fish catches the food [but these creatures get the benefit].”
“For those of you who may not be familiar, H.R. Giger is an artist and his work is biomechanical. It combines mechanical forms with humanoid forms and it’s really creepy. It’s dark and it usually has sexual overtones. It’s reptilian, it’s insectoid, it’s really scary. And the actual design from the fully-grown Xenomorph is pulled directly from his work Necronom IV.”
“Speaking of the aliens’ acid blood…you can’t tell hydrofluoric acid apart from water. You could pour it on your hand and you wouldn’t feel a thing. It consumes calcium. When you go into training they show you all of these horrible training movies about what happens when you don’t do the proper care. What you’re supposed to do is wash it with water for a long time, and then there’s a cream that contains calcium that you put on it, because [the acid] migrates to where the calcium is. If you don’t do that and you go home that night, you’ll wake up with mangled limbs because the hydrofluoric acid consumes the calcium in your bones.”
SUGGESTED VIEWING
While the Alien franchise is as vast and ever-expanding as the cosmos itself, we only focused on the first three films in the franchise to get into the (gross) specifics necessary about alien incubation for this episode.
Not only one of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time, but one of the greatest horror movies of all time! The word “masterpiece” is thrown around a little too freely these days, but in the case of Ridley Scott’s first sci-fi film it might not be high enough praise.
James Cameron picked up the ball from Ridley Scott, kept almost everything that made the original so great, and added a hefty dose of blockbuster action. Who says sequels can’t rival the original? It’s just a matter of whether you want a little more action with your gooey alien horror or more suspense that determines which of these films you prefer.
Not as bad as you’ve heard and probably a lot better than you remember it! Not to mention it’s an early feature film directorial effort by a fella named David Fincher. Ever heard of him?
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S1E6 - 46m - May 10, 2024 - Attack the Block: The Question of Alien Pheromones
This episode of Does it Fly? is presented by ScreenUK. ScreenUK is a free discovery platform celebrating the very best of UK-produced film, television, animation and gaming and sharing it with audiences around the world. ScreenUK is the go-to place to discover your next favorite movie, show, or game and features tons of exclusive behind-the-scenes interviews and all the info you need to find out how and where to watch or play your newest obsessions, wherever you are in the world. Make ScreenUK.org your next stop.
The film that launched the careers of a Star Wars star, a Doctor, and even a DC superhero (albeit a deep cut)! Yes, that’s right, we’re talking about cult classic, Attack the Block, this week. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure yet (and seriously, this movie is a blast, so if you haven’t seen it, go check it out right now!), Attack the Block is a 2011 science fiction/horror film written and directed by Joe Cornish and starring future Star Wars franchise hero John Boyega and historic Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker. The film follows a group of teenagers living in a South London housing estate who defend their neighborhood from an alien invasion.
So what flies and what doesn’t? Well, these aliens have come from the outer reaches of space and crash-landed on Earth, with the females spreading their pheromones and attracting a horde of ferocious males from across the solar system to Earth, so Hakeem takes a look at everything from the basic concept of pheromones to how the sun’s magnetic field allows for things like “solar sailing” to take place. Tamara unpacks not only the aliens themselves, but also gives everyone some background info on how the unique look of these terrifying creatures was realized onscreen.
And that’s only the beginning of the fun in our latest episode! Remember that you can join in on the conversation in the comments on our YouTube page, so be sure to like, subscribe, and come back for more!
FURTHER READING
Do you want to delve a little deeper into the facts, concepts, and stories Hakeem and Tamara referenced in today’s episode? Here are a few recommendations!
“Pheromones are chemistry and biology. Chemistry and biology have something in them that physics doesn’t have. Do you know what that is? Nasty! Bodily fluids and things like that.”
“We know it came from outside of our solar system, for one reason only: the speed at which it was moving.”
“There is allegedly a spherical distribution of comets called the Oort cloud that surrounds the solar system, so sometimes comets do come in from over the poles of the sun or something like that, so it’s not in the plane of the orbit.”
“As far as traveling through space on solar rays, that is something that can actually be done. There’s different forms of propulsion. There’s electric sail propulsion. You can have a physical sail. You can have an electric sail, where you create an electric field, and because the particles streaming away from the sun and other stars are electrically charged you can get a thrust out of that. Or you can have a magnetic sail [which] is pretty clever.”
Attack the Block’s Aliens Were Just as Terrifying Behind the Scenes
Tamara gives everyone some info on alien performer Terry Notary but there’s all kinds of additional fun info here for you to help fill in the blanks on just what made these creatures so convincingly scary.
SUGGESTED VIEWING
Attack the Block is so much fun very much because of the unique sensibility of writer/director Joe Cornish. And first of all, we must once again ask, if you haven’t seen Attack the Block yet, what are you waiting for? This movie is a treasure! Go watch!
Cornish wrote (along with Edgar Wright and Stephen Moffat) 2011’s criminally-underrated The Adventures of TinTin film (where’s the trilogy we were promised?!?) But you can also see his influence in Marvel Studios’ first Ant-Man movie (which he helped write) and Netflix’s sadly gone-after-one-season Lockwood & Co.
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S1E5 - 45m - May 3, 2024 - Are We Headed Toward the Dystopian Future of Children of Men?
This episode of Does it Fly? is presented by ScreenUK. ScreenUK is a free discovery platform celebrating the very best of UK-produced film, television, animation and gaming and sharing it with audiences around the world. ScreenUK is the go-to place to discover your next favorite movie, show, or game and features tons of exclusive behind-the-scenes interviews and all the info you need to find out how and where to watch or play your newest obsessions, wherever you are in the world. Make ScreenUK.org your next stop.
Follow us as we take it back to 2006 with the Academy Award-nominated Children of Men! Adapted from the 1992 P.D. James novel of the same name, the film, directed and co-written by Alfonso Cuarón, is set in a gritty, dystopian 2027, where humanity faces imminent extinction after years of global infertility. Amidst this chaos, former activist Theo (Clive Owen) is reluctantly drawn into a mission to escort a miraculously pregnant woman, Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey), to the safety of a scientific organization dedicated to finding a way for people to once again have children. When the world is reduced to a single lifetime, how do we as a species overcome no guarantee of an assumed future? In this episode, Hakeem and Tamara nail down the realism behind Children of Men’s hopeless society and get down to business discussing whether or not ALL of humanity could suddenly become infertile.
From a narrative perspective, Tamara investigates the world of Cuarón’s mid-apocalyptic dystopia. Does the film’s lack of explanation of where infertility came from impact the world-building? When humanity no longer has hope, how would we behave and react? Would we replace children with something else? And most importantly, what does the title “Children of Men” even mean?
On the scientific front, Hakeem investigates the feasibility of a species-wide infertility epidemic. Could such a disease only affect humans and not other species? How can the same disease get inside all of us? What would it take for such a disease to spread planet-wide? Looking towards the future, would it be possible for babies to be born without ever being in a mother's womb?
Our latest episode includes all this and more! Remember that you can join in on the conversation in the comments on our YouTube page, so be sure to like, subscribe, and come back for more!
FURTHER READING
Do you want to delve a little deeper into the facts, concepts, and stories Hakeem and Tamara referenced in today’s episode? Here are a few recommendations!
The Children of Men by P.D. James
The modern science fiction classic that inspired the film!
Growing A Baby Lamb in an Artificial Womb
“There was some small animal, a lamb or a goat, that was actually bred in a plastic bag; it had its own umbilical cord… You probably don’t need a womb anymore.”
Making Synthetic Human Embryos
“How do we create new human embryos and bring them to complete their gestation cycle artificially?”
“We see in our own time now millennials who are like ‘I’m putting off having kids’ and lather their animals with love, affection, and goodies.”
Hauntologyーmourning a future that we were promised.
“We always assume that tomorrow is going to come. We talk about leaving a better world for our children, but this is a world where tomorrow is not going to come.”
Could an Airborne Disease Spread Globally?
“Suppose a government is doing space research, and they’re putting some aerosols in the upper atmosphere, and it's some chemical. Because of the winds of the earth, it could spread around the world.”
Brain Droppings by George Carlin
Hakeem’s reading recommendation is filled with thoughts, musings, questions, lists, beliefs, and curiosities from his “all-time favorite word nerd,” George Carlin.
The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
Mentioned by Tamara, another modern sci-fi classic that follows a civilization ravaged by a fungus-based infection. “If there is a fungus because they spread via spores, fungi spores could get in humans around the world before we knew it.”
And speaking of fungus and spores…
SUGGESTED VIEWING
If you’re in the mood for more dystopian sci-fi thrillers like Children of Men, here are some recommendations for other movies and shows with catastrophes, apocalypses, and everything in between!
Based on the critically acclaimed video game franchise, the Emmy award-winning series is set twenty years into a pandemic caused by a mass fungal infection. Follow Joel and Ellie as they navigate the post-apocalyptic United States in hopes of finding a cure.
This acclaimed HBO series is set three years after a global event called the "Sudden Departure," the inexplicable, simultaneous disappearance of 140 million people, 2% of the world's population. How does society recover from such an undefined tragedy?
A film set in the near future, where overpopulation has resulted in a strict one-child policy enforced by the Child Allocation Bureau. Any illegal children uncovered by the C.A.B. are taken and put into cryosleep indefinitely.
When a planet is on a course for a collision with Earth, two sisters navigate the inevitability of their destiny in very different ways.
A time-travel twist on the apocalypse, the film follows a man from a future devastated by disease tasked with going back in time to gather information on a developing plague that exterminated most of the world’s population.
Director Danny Boyle and modern sci-fi maestro Alex Garland deliver a zombie movie with a pandemic-flavored twist.
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S1E4 - 47m - Apr 26, 2024 - Could Doctor Who’s TARDIS Actually Work?
This episode of Does it Fly is presented by ScreenUK. ScreenUK is a free discovery platform celebrating the very best of UK-produced film, television, animation and gaming and sharing it with audiences around the world. ScreenUK is the go-to place to discover your next favorite movie, show, or game and features tons of exclusive behind-the-scenes interviews and all the info you need to find out how and where to watch or play your newest obsessions, wherever you are in the world. Make ScreenUK.org your next stop.
It’s “time” (sorry) for a unique piece of sci-fi technology from the legendary Doctor Who! TARDIS stands for “Time and Relative Dimension in Space.” The Doctor is a Time Lord, from the planet Gallifrey, and a TARDIS is a technology that allows Time Lords to travel through space and time while having all manner of timey-wimey adventures. And yet, despite the name of our show, TARDISes do very little actual flying. They are designed to dematerialize and re-materialize in the desired place in space and time. Though there are episodes where audiences see the TARDIS doing what is more akin to traditional flying, doing that too often can damage them.
TARDISES have a Chameleon Circuit that allows them to blend into their surroundings. The Doctor’s TARDIS has a rather unique shape as an old police phone box, but that’s not their standard form. Instead, the Doctor’s famous TARDIS got stuck this way while disguising itself as something commonplace using that Chameleon Circuit. They are also, perhaps most famously, bigger on the inside than they are on the outside (if this concept gives you a headache, don’t worry).
In this episode, Hakeem and Tamara examine just how feasible it is for the TARDIS to traverse both time and space in such a unique fashion as well as a number of its other unique features. In the process, they discuss some key episodes in Doctor Who history, as well as the scientific concepts that do (or don’t) power the TARDIS.
Hakeem and Tamara explored a number of concepts to try and figure out what makes the TARDIS tick in this episode.
FURTHER READING
“There's a lot of brilliant physicists who have been studying this for a very long time. When you study black holes, basically you're studying the geometry of space-time. Black holes, not only are they bigger on the inside than the outside, but they grow continuously with time on the inside. So even if they shrink down and evaporate on the outside, the inside volume doesn't change.”
“Armies have tried to get inside the TARDIS and they can’t, because it’s impenetrable. A white hole is a time-reversed black hole…Physicists…came up with this idea of a white hole…because they wanted to look at wormholes. How do you do interdimensional travel? They realized that if you have a time-reversed black hole, you form this thing called a white hole. So just like nothing can come out of a black hole, nothing can go into a white hole.
“Any physical process that's not strictly forbidden from occurring by the laws of physics must occur. Unless the laws of physics say it can't happen, it must happen.”
SUGGESTED VIEWING
Since the show has been around for 60 years, we get that jumping into Doctor Who can feel a little intimidating. And when you factor in the fact that the TARDIS has been there from the beginning and appears in pretty much every single episode, it can be downright overwhelming. So if you’re someone who’s always been curious about Doctor Who and just wondering where to start or a fan who wants to revisit the basics as well as some of the episodes we watched to get ready for this week’s discussion, allow us to point you at a few of our favorites.
For simplicity’s sake, we’re keeping our recommendations to the newer series that began in 2005, but if you’re ready to dive deeper, you can’t go wrong with Tom Baker’s long-running (and perhaps most iconic in the show’s history) run as the Doctor in the 1970s. But all series/season codes below begin with the 2005 version of the show and continue right up until the present day!
S1E1 “Rose”
The show that brought Doctor Who back to the airwaves is a perfect introduction to every important concept in the show’s lore!
S1E13 “The Parting of Ways”
S2E0 “The Christmas Invasion”
S2E1 “New Earth”
Want to get used to the concept of “regeneration” and why new actors who look drastically different always get to play essentially the same character? These three episodes will tell you what you need to know! And once you’ve gotten a better sense of Doctor Who lore, check out the 50th Anniversary Special, “The Day of the Doctor” to really have your mind blown!
S5E1 “The Eleventh Hour”
S6E4 “The Doctors Wife”
S7E11 “Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS”
Bring on the TARDIS! Each of these episodes will give you a better idea of what the TARDIS is capable of, its origins, and much more.
S3E10 “Blink”
Not only one of the best episodes in the show’s history, but one of the best hours of sci-fi television you may ever see (and one we discuss quite a bit here)! It also gave us this wonderful clip of the Doctor explaining how time works…in his own unique way. And on that note…
S2E12 “Army of Ghosts”
S2E13 “Doomsday”
S6E1 “The Impossible Astronaut”
S7E5 “The Angels Take Manhattan”
Each of these episodes deal with the rules of time travel within the Doctor Who universe, and specifically how paradoxes are created and why they should be avoided.
2023 Christmas Special “The Church on Ruby Road”
Let’s bring it full circle, shall we? Just as it was with “Rose” in 2005, Ncuti Gatwa’s first full adventure as the Doctor will tell you everything you need to know about the character if you want to get in on the ground floor!
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S1E3 - 46m - Apr 19, 2024 - Can We Create Black Mirror’s San Junipero in Real Life?
SPOILER ALERT: This episode of Does it Fly? and the show notes that follow contains spoilers for Black Mirror, “San Junipero.” If you haven’t watched the episode yet, go check it out on Netflix and then come back and join us!
One of Black Mirror’s most critically acclaimed episodes! Apparently set in a seaside town in the 1980s, “San Junipero” follows the story of two women, Yorkie and Kelly, who meet and develop a relationship. But in fact, the San Junipero locale is a simulated reality where the elderly and dying can live out their remaining days in a youthful, idealized version of their choosing before deciding whether to pass on to death or remain in the simulation forever. San Junipero has cemented itself as one of the most “happy” episodes of Black Mirror, showing there’s at least a little room for positivity and hope in the future. Hakeem and Tamara are back again, looking through the mirror at our reality to see what it would take to upload one’s consciousness (and soul?) permanently.
From a scientific perspective, Hakeem investigates the technological feasibility of uploading and suspending human consciousness in virtual reality. How are our memories created, and would it be possible to upload entire neural networks? What would the ethical considerations be for having an afterlife of this nature? How would it affect our understanding of life, death, and immortality? And how much of yourself and your memories will be uploaded? Perhaps most importantly, would this version of you be a copy, an imitation, or your whole self?
Meanwhile, Tamara jacks in to tackle “San Junipero” from a story perspective. Does the episode's lack of technological explanation for its virtual reality enhance or diminish the authenticity of Yorkie and Kelly’s relationship? What’s the user interface like, and what’s San Junipero's population breakdown? Would you trust your consciousness in the hands of a corporation for eternity? And how does this episode’s positive ending reflect and challenge Black Mirror’s usual pessimism about the future and technology?
All this and more in our latest episode! Remember that you can join in on the conversation in the comments on our YouTube page, so be sure to like, subscribe, and come back for more!
FURTHER READING
Want to dive a little deeper into the scientific concepts Hakeem touched on in today’s episode?
“Memories are fragments; some parts are in the pre-frontal cortex, some parts are in the hippocampus; it all has to do with the connection between neurons. Neurons that fire together wire together.”
Memory Retrieval and the Passage of Time
“Every time you access a memory, there’s a possibility for modification.”
“If you’re Albert Einstein, you have a lot of writing; you have a lot of speech; I can put that in an AI learning algorithm so that it can learn to predict the next word just like ChatGPT does.”
“We each have three selves: our private self, our public self, and our secret self.”
Want some sci-fi & the afterlife or anthologies? Here are some suggested readings on stories and concepts similar to “San Junipero”!
Permutation City by Greg Eagan
“A life in Permutation City is unlike any life to which you’re accustomed. You have Eternal Life, the power to live forever. Immortality is real, just not what you’d expect.”
Axiomatic by Greg Eagan
“Drawing on nine years of research, Axiomatic explores the ways we understand the traumas we inherit and the systems that sustain them.”
The Wilds by Julia Elliott
“At a deluxe medical spa on a nameless Caribbean island, a middle-aged woman hopes to revitalize her fading youth with grotesque rejuvenating therapies that combine cutting-edge medical technologies with holistic approaches.”
Replay by Ken Grimwood
“43-year-old man who dies and wakes up back in 1963 in his 18-year-old body. He relives his life with all his memories of the previous 25 years intact. This happens repeatedly, with the man playing out his life differently in each cycle.”
Alice Isn’t Dead by Joseph Fink
“Keisha Taylor lived a quiet life with her wife, Alice, until the day that Alice disappeared.” Combines science fiction, romance, and horror, all with a beautiful story and character development
SUGGESTED VIEWING
Of course, watching “San Junipero” is the best way to inform the discussion of today’s episode, but here are a few other Black Mirror episodes that tackle death and technology in a not-so-far future.
Black Mirror S3E4 “San Junipero”
Our topic of discussion!
Black Mirror S2E1 “Be Right Back”
After Martha’s boyfriend is killed, she turns to a service that creates an AI replica of him, bringing him back from the dead, or at least an imitation of him.
Black Mirror S4E6 “Black Museum”
A museum of medical marvels (or failures) from the hologram of a convicted killer’s mind to a stuffed monkey with the consciousness of a dying mother, what miracles (or horrors) await in the Black Museum?
Here are some movies and TV shows mentioned in this week’s podcast or some honorable mentions!
Another look into the reality of virtual reality in a not-so-far-off future. When a computer programmer gets into a deadly car accident, his consciousness gets uploaded into a virtual afterlife of his choosing, but not everything is as it seems.
Mentioned by Hakeen and Tamara. A sci-fi drama/thriller that explores the myth of the Guf, the well of souls that’s a place that you existed in before you were born.
You can’t talk about virtual realities without talking about The Matrix. Set in a dystopian future in which humanity is unknowingly trapped inside the Matrix, a simulated reality that intelligent machines have created.
An honorable mention that explores the concept of digital afterlife. Starring Tom Cruise, it’s a sci-fi thriller following a magazine publisher who begins questioning reality after being disfigured in a car crash.
Another honorable mention. In this electronic music video, Anvil is a social network that allows you to destroy your body to fight against overpopulation, but your conscience won't be destroyed; it will join the social network Anvil.
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S1E2 - 48m - Apr 12, 2024 - Is Star Trek’s Transporter Really Possible?!?
We explore the rules of one of the greatest innovations in sci-fi history, Star Trek’s transporter! We also ask the big question: could this iconic science fiction technology become a science reality in our lifetimes?
EPISODE SUMMARY
One of the most iconic pieces of Star Trek technology! By converting matter into energy, objects and living beings can be “beamed” across great distances, where they are then re-converted back into physical matter. Not just a clever way to not require Starfleet away teams to have to jump in an expensive shuttlecraft every time they need to get back and forth from a starship, but a concept instantly recognizable as uniquely Star Trek, one which has the power to make or break a mission and that has been the focus of multiple stories in the franchise’s history. Noted astrophysicist Hakeem Oluseyi and pop culture expert Tamara Krinsky break it all down to see what it takes to, well, break down a living person and reassemble them at another location.
From a science perspective, Hakeem tackles both the scientific feasibility of converting matter into energy and (perhaps infinitely trickier) then converting the energy back into solid matter. Is there any existing technology analogous to this? Is it possible to even consider that this could be done to a living being without killing them? What about real world parallels with concepts such as quantum teleportation? And just how much data storage do you need in order to make this happen?
Meanwhile, Tamara looks at this incredibly reliable piece of fictional Star Trek technology from a story standpoint. What happens to someone’s soul (or, at least their consciousness) when their atoms are disassembled and reassembled elsewhere? What about Dr. McCoy’s well noted objections every time he steps on a transporter pad? Are McCoy’s fears as commonplace to a 23rd century citizen as a fear of flying is for people of today?
All this and more in our first episode! Don’t forget you can also join the conversation in the comments on our YouTube page, so be sure to like and subscribe!
FURTHER READING
Want to dive a little deeper into the scientific concepts Hakeem touched on in today’s episode?
“There is something that works in the real universe, and it’s called quantum teleportation, but it’s not [the transporter].”
“If you want to take a guess at how many atoms are in this cup or in this microphone, you start with Avogadro’s number.”
“Here on Earth, we have this thing called Moore’s Law, and that has to do with the growth of processor speed, but I think there might be something similar for the growth of data storage.”
“That’s the big one for me. How do you handle memory? Because as the saying goes, ‘neurons that fire together, wire together.’”
Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle
“There’s this thing called Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, so [with the transporter] you can’t get both their motion and their location to arbitrary-precision…”
And for those of you who want to learn more about the early days of Star Trek and the behind-the-scenes stories surrounding the creation of the transporter…
The Making of Star Trek by Stephen E. Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry
One of the foundational Star Trek texts, and one that Tamara referred to when researching today’s episode.
“Movie and TV-making technology at that time, making models and miniatures was pretty much how that was accomplished on screen, and it was really expensive. So if you were going to have a show every week where you had to bring a crew down in a shuttle or some kind of spaceship, that was going to be really expensive for the budget of the show. But it's a basic premise, so you're gonna have to figure out how to do it every week…you've only got a certain amount of time to tell your story and you want to use those most efficiently and most powerfully.”
These Are The Voyages, TOS Season One by Marc Cushman and Susan Osborne
The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek - The First 25 Years by Ed Gross and Mark A. Altman
SUGGESTED VIEWING
As the transporter factors into virtually every single episode of Star Trek, it’s tough to narrow it down, but here’s a selection of episodes that helped inform the discussion of today’s episode.
Star Trek: The Original Series S1E5 “The Enemy Within”
The original “uh-oh, the transporter is being weird” episode, as Captain Kirk finds himself split into two selves after a transporter malfunction.
Star Trek: The Original Series S2E4 “Mirror, Mirror”
A transporter malfunction causes Spock to grow a goatee! Well, really, it swaps the Enterprise crew with their malevolent doppelgangers from the soon-to-be-infamous Mirror Universe.
Star Trek: The Next Generation S2E7 “Unnatural Selection”
Ever wonder if the transporter could be used as a medical tool? This is the episode for you!
Star Trek: The Next Generation S5E15 “Power Play”
Ever wonder if the transporter could be used as a way to hold non-corporeal beings captive? Of course you have! Who hasn’t?
Star Trek: The Next Generation S6E2 “Realm of Fear”
A fine example of the basis for transporter-phobia, and perhaps the only depiction of the process of transporting through the eyes of the person being transported.
Star Trek: The Next Generation S6E4 “Relics”
The transporter is used to hold a familiar character from Trek history in stasis for many years.
Star Trek: The Next Generation S6E24 “Second Chances”
As shown in our episode, a transporter accident creates a clone of William Riker. Awkwardness ensues!
Star Trek: Enterprise S2E10 “Vanishing Point”
A crewmember thinks she is starting to dematerialize after going through the transporter for the first time. Maybe Dr. McCoy heard about this one…
Star Trek: Enterprise S4E10 “Daedalus”
Want more detail on how the transporter was invented in the Star Trek universe? Check this episode out!
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S1E1 - 46m - Apr 5, 2024 - Does It Fly: The Teaser
Our first full episode is coming your way on April 5th, but we thought we'd give you a little taste while you wait!
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