Yeah, there were two huge revelations literally on the last page of the book that made it go from “good” to “awesome” for me. One was Ellie’s discovery that God had placed his “signature” in pi. The other [spoilers, of course] was her learning that the man she thought was her father was not actually her biological…

Seconded. I’ve had the privilege of seeing both Endeavour and Discovery in person, and it’s an impressive experience. After seeing the much smaller Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo capsules they have on display, it’s hard not to stand in the presence of these huge space planes and think, “Yes, we actually did it—we built a…

That was exactly the theme/moral of John Scalzi’s great book “Redshirts” from a few years back.

Yeah, Clarke openly acknowledged that there were massive continuity disconnects in the “2001" series of books. In the novel version of “2001" they went to Saturn; in later books it was retconned to Jupiter to match the movies. In “3001" Poole’s birth year is explicitly stated as 1997, even though that makes no sense…

And astrophysicist/performance artist Fiorella Terenzi did something very similar in the 90's, transforming radio telescope data into avant-garde music.

There are other cars with rear license plates, though Fillmore is the only one with a plate in the front. But you’re right that it raises questions; do they have to pay to renew their own tabs every year?

Yeah, apparently he was messing around with a prop gun on the set of another show and it went off and killed him. Very tragic.

I have the series on DVD and it holds up remarkably well—in part, I think, because they never went to the future (not counting that one clip show), and the time machine was disguised as an antique pocket watch instead of something that looked “futuristic.” A remake/sequel could even be a hit, with all the current…

The current kids’ show “Miles from Tomorrowland” (which I watch with my daughter) sometimes reminds me a little of Star Trek TAS. But an animated Star Trek set in the post-DS9/VOY timeline could be interesting.

I figure it’s a little like hearing a pop song played by kazoos or handbells or accordions or something: it’s for the novelty value. If it’s done well, it can be kind of fun; if it’s done badly, it’s painful.

Here’s the one that made them famous:

Eh, that was OK. But this one is better:

Regarding the time travel question: this is one where I think that fun old ‘80's time travel show “Voyagers!” got it right.

Well put and I completely agree. In my experience that’s the best approach for almost any franchise.

Roger Moore is my favorite Bond—sure, his movies were a bit goofy at times, but Moore always seemed to be having such a blast playing the role, which made his films the most fun to watch. RIP.

I recall a Voyager episode where they commented on this. The ship is at red alert, which means the lighting automatically dims for some bizarre reason. The Kazon board the ship and come to the bridge, and their leader immediately says, “Why are all the lights off? Turn on the lights!”

I think there could have been a pretty easy explanation for that, if they’d chosen to go that direction. People forget that Star Trek is actually a “post-apocalyptic” society. In Star Trek lore, Earth went through some version of World War 3 sometime in the 21st century (the exact details vary from episode to…

Was actually just thinking the same thing about the “Orville” uniforms (I’m ashamed to admit). And I also agree about not really wanting another prequel. Still, I’ll give it a chance.

I’m not so sure she’s Vulcan (although I admit she does kind of look that way in a couple of the shots). She certainly doesn’t act Vulcan.

Exactly. Before they started doing prequels, you could explain the “outdated” future tech of TOS by saying that World War 3 destroyed our technological infrastructure and as things were re-invented, the look and feel went in a different direction.