It may say “Star Trek Beyond” in the title, but we go waaaaay beyond in this one with our guest Mark E. Deardorff of www.ScienceViaMarkets.com. In fact, for nearly 2 hours we talk about science-fiction in general, authors, warp-theory, energy mass, holodecks, replicators, Einstein, and more.
We get side-tracked quite a bit on this one and don’t give as much of a movie synopsis/analysis like our normal fare – so for those interested in that, here is the marketing slick for the movie and the trailer:
A surprise attack in outer space forces the Enterprise to crash-land on a mysterious world. The assault came from Krall (Idris Elba), a lizard-like dictator who derives his energy by sucking the life out of his victims. Krall needs an ancient and valuable artifact that’s aboard the badly damaged starship. Left stranded in a rugged wilderness, Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto) and the rest of the crew must now battle a deadly alien race while trying to find a way off their hostile planet.
Here are some Star Trek-specific articles by our guest:
Star Trek’s Holodeck: What happens in Star Trek (in this case) stays in Star Trek!
For more of our guest’s work, look for him on this site, or visit his site:
Here is Love, Life and Anarchy discussing the “Philosophy of Star Trek”:
Here is the clip of the German Parliament member listing the 60 genders:
We hope you enjoyed the discussion, and we may have a surprise bonus for Patreon supporters as a result.
As always, like, comment, subscribe (on YouTube!), share, et al.
I think it would be better to focus on the story rather than the “science” of the movie. A separate podcast on that topic would be interesting by itself. But, it is a story. A fantasy story. I am willing to do a lot to engage (pardon the pun) my suspension of disbelief. Forget about the holodecks and transporters and warp drive for now and think about the bigger picture of the story. I think you also have to allow for the profit motive here – nobody will watch a movie that is wholly scientifically accurate and contains just dull observations on life. For my taste, there is too much action in many current movies and not enough character development, but if they sell tickets, it is the market at work. [I also don’t like that they destroy the ship in every movie!!] I think it would be better to look for the nuggets that are here that may stick with the casual viewer over time. Like the Federation as authoritarian; the ability (or not) of individuals to express themselves; the nature of the war-like nature of most of what they do; the willingness of them to stop searching for the missing ship; the descent into barbarism of the survivors; et al. There is much to like here.