Star Trek

NASA space program history book – “Come Fly With Us” (University of Nebraska Press, 2019) – Mel Croft and John Youskauskas interview

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Mel Croft and John Youskauskas are both space program enthusiasts who have previously written a book on the NASA space program. They recetly wrote another book on space shuttle payload specialists and we discussed this new book.

0:49 – They talk about how they got into writing on this subject.

2:02 – They talk about how they organized the book.

2:52 – They explain what the pauload specialist program is.

6:26 – They discuss some of the interesting aspects of the program.

9:33 – They talk about writing on STS-51L.

12:01 – They talk about the reactions people had to being chose as payload specialists.

29:22 – They talk about what they might do with all the information they obtained that didn’t end up in the book.

35:19 – They talk about what the specialists thought when they saw they Earth from orbit.

45:03 – They talk about how the DoD affected the shuttle design and missions.

48:13 -They talk about how payload specialists handle being called astronauts.

53:41 – They talk about the X-37B.

57:08 – They’re both on collectspace.com. They’re also on cmflywithusbook.com.

 

Links of interest

https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/university-of-nebraska-press/9780803278929/

For more of “Science Fiction and the Fantastic Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

 

Guests: Mel Croft and John Youskauskas

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: NASA, space program, shuttle, STS, challenger, accident, payload specialist, hunstville, space center, astronaut, X-37B

 

Sci-fi tv show book – “The World of the Orville” (Titan Books, 2018) – Jeff Bond interview

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Jeff Bond has written multiple books on science fiction shows and movies. He was executive editor of Geek magazine, Senior Editor at CFQ, and he writes about film music for the Hollywood Reporter. We talked about his recent book on the show The Orville.

0:52 – Jeff talks about how he got into writing a book on The Orville. He’s been a sci-fi fan since he was a kid.

4:01 – Jeff talks about how Star Trek has become it’s own genre.

5:47 – Jeff talks about how the producers of The Orville were not trying to make a

Galaxy Quest kind of show.

10:03 – Jeff talks about the tone and goals of the show. The producers drew from Star Trek TOS and the Twilight Zone.

13:08 – Jeff talks about the actors and acting in the show.

16:29 – Jeff talks about how good Adrianne Palicki is in the show.

21:00 – Jeff talks about Seth as the captain of the ship and the set of The Orville.

23:59 – Jeff talks about how they did the casting and how they’ve brought in a lot of people who have worked on various Star Trek projects.

27:19 – Jeff talks about how he organized the book and his interviews with the production people on the show. The book is sort of a “making of” and also a bit of a technical manual for the show. Jeff talks about how the ship was designed.

33:13 – Jeff compares the show to Star Trek TNG.

35:45 – Jeff talks about the show’s budget and also the design of the set, lighting, costumes, and make-up.

42:06 – Jeff talks about technical differences the show has from other tv shows.

44:43- Jeff talks about the writing process for the show.

57:05 – Jeff talks about the design and music of the credit sequence.

58:39 – Jeff talks about the music on the show.

 

Links of interest

https://titanbooks.com/9462-the-world-of-the-orville/

https://twitter.com/lazymodeler?lang=en

 

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

 

Guests: Jeff Bond

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, sci-fi, Star Trek, Twilight Zone, television, The Orville, Seth MacFarlane, spaceships

Star Trek history – “Star Trek: A Cultural History” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018) – M. Keith Booker interview

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M. Keith Booker studies and teaches culture and literature. He worked as an engineer for many years before turning to the literary arts. He also has a passion for Star Trek and “nerd” stuff and we spoke about his latest book on Star Trek.

0:43 – Keith talks about how he got into writing on Star Trek. He’s been a fan for decades and has also studied cultural history for many years. He started as an engineer.

3:43 – Keith has written on high brow literature but also on comic books, film and tv.

4:47 – Keith talks about the book and says that it focuses on the Original Series. But he also touches on the other Star Trek series’ and how the Original Series influenced them.

6:23 – Keith talks about Irwin Allen.

6:53 – Keith talks about NBC’s plans for Star Trek.

10:00 – Keith talks about the Prime Directive in the show.

13:07 – Keith talks about the writing in the Original Series and how Roddenberry reached out to sci-fi writers.

17:38 – We talk about Spock and his parents.

19:45 – We talk about the fan mail the series got.

21:08 – Keith talks about why the third season had problems.

23:40 – Keith talks about the research he did for the book.

27:40 – Keith talks about the X-files where they had stand alone episodes but also a running plot line.

31:39 – We talk about Star Trek conventions and how they came about.

34:45 – Start Trek was made for adults rather than preious sci-fi which was made for kids.

36:30 – Science fiction in general was becoming more adult in this period.

55:50 – We talk about the Coen brothers.

 

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

 

Guests: Keith Booker

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, star trek, the original series, x-files, irwin allen, gene roddenberry, spock, discovery, CBS, NBC, lost in space