Still Trekking After Fifty Years

Thursday, September 8, 2016, was the anniversary of the day the first episode of Star Trek aired. I watched that episode ("The Man Trap") with my father, who was the other science fiction fan in my family. I was 12 years old, and my dad was the reason I got into science fiction. I had already been reading his collection of science fiction and fantasy books that I found on the bookshelves in our basement.

Dad had brought home our first color television set just the week before. I don't know if the two events are related (as a twelve-year-old I didn't pay attention to commercials until after Star Trek started), but I did save the TV Guide pages. When I look at those and at the promo commercials for Star Trek in general on Youtube now and see "In Color" as a main mention, I strongly suspect that those might have influenced my dad's buying decision.

Star Trek made a huge impression on me. The multicultural bridge crew, the fact that both men and women were part of the crew, and the overall positive view of the future spoke to me. Imagining ourselves as part of the Star Trek universe joined the spy stories and Western stories my friends and I made up and played in our backyards. One of the early science fiction stories I wrote as a teen has a definite Star Trek influence, as I had abandoned the idea of chemical rockets for engines similar to those in that universe.

I've been a fan of Star Trek for years, loving the books, the animated series (43rd anniversary of that series), the films and the various spin-offs as they came along. Though I did lose interest partway through Star Trek: Enterprise and I decided after the 2009 film that I didn't need to follow that alternate universe.

With that background in mind, I'm excited to announce that I'm part of this collection of new essays about Star Trek. My essay is about first season episode "The Devil In The Dark", which has my favorite alien in the entire series. Outside In Boldly Goes will be 352 pages, paperback, $19.95, available in late October 2016.

Outside In Boldly Goes can be pre-ordered at ATB Publishing and the link can be found on this page with the table of contents.

Magic Ponies

When I was young, I went through the phase of reading horse stories and watching horse movies. Black Beauty, The Black Stallion, Misty, Thunderhead, Son of Flicka, Appaloosa... That was why I have the Fleogende, the talking horses in my fantasy series (The Crystal Throne, Talking to Trees, and several short stories in Agents & Adepts).

But perhaps I'm not "through" the phase as much as I had thought, as I have now discovered the overwhelming addictiveness of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. The show is currently being shown on the Hub cable channel, although many of the episodes are also available on YouTube. (Hint to Hub, please release DVDs of the season so I can addict more friends).

Lauren Faust, the creator of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, also worked on The Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends. Friendship Is Magic follows the adventures of Twilight Sparkle, a scholarly magic-using unicorn. Assigned by her mentor, Princess Celestia, to Ponyville, Twilight meets a variety of fillies: Applejack, an apple farmer pony; Rarity, a clothing designer unicorn; Fluttershy, a very shy pegasus who talks to animals; Rainbow Dash, a racing pegasus (who not only has a rainbow colored mane and tail but leaves a trail of rainbows behind her when she flies fast); and Pinky Pie, a baker's apprentice pony who loves to throw parties. Twilight also has an assistant, Spike, a baby dragon who is able to send Twilight's reports to Celestia via his flame breath. As the season goes on, we also meet the little sisters of some of the ponies (who are even cuter than their big sisters, if that is even possible).

It's a fascinating world where not only the buildings and furniture are constructed for pony use but also the language: "everypony" rather than "everyone" and "Fillies and gentlecolts". Attention is even paid to the sound effects, such as Fluttershy's nervous squeaks or the hoof clomping when the ponies stamp to show approval. The writing is clever and fun for both kids and adults and the artwork is amazing. Those ponies are cute. The storylines are about friendship, but there are also ones about workaholics, jealousy and learning to trust.

There's another review of the series at A.V. Club. There is already a growing fandom of this show, with fan videos and fan fiction.

And fans are analyzing the physics of the show, something I'm used to for Star Trek or Doctor Who fans, but not those of a cartoon show.

So if you like horses, or unicorns (with or without glitter) or just good cartoons, you might want to check out My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. But beware - this show is very addictive.