The Secret of the Ninth Planet.

To the rocket scientist, you are a problem. You are the most irritating piece of machinery he or she will ever have to deal with. You and your fluctuating metabolism, your puny memory, your frame that comes in a million different configurations. You are unpredictable. You're inconstant. You take weeks to fix. The engineer must worry about the water and oxygen and food you'll need in space, about how much extra fuel it will take to launch your shrimp cocktail and irradiated beef tacos. A solar cell or a thruster nozzle is stable and undemanding. It does not excrete or panic or fall in love with the mission commander. It has no ego. Its structural elements don't start to break down without gravity, and it works just fine without sleep.

Mary Roach, Packing for Mars

On July 14th, NASA's New Horizons probe did a flyby of Pluto, which resulted in a treasure trove of information about the erstwhile ninth planet and its five moons, and is considered to have been a resounding success in adding to our limited catalogue of data for the outer reaches of the solar system.  But, you know what my first thought was when I heard about the flyby?

I wish we were doing this with people.

Yes, people are not the ideal tool for space exploration.  As per the opening quote form Packing for Mars, people are a problem when it comes to life in space, and I can't deny that NASA is doing a brilliant job of expanding our scientific knowledge of the solar system with automated probes and robotic rovers that are indifferent to the difficulties involved.  But ultimately, space exploration has to include the goal of having human beings travel to the same destinations – otherwise, we’re just watching it on TV.

- Sid

P.S. The title of this posting is an homage to a 1959 young adult novel by Donald A. Wollheim which was part of the science fiction selection at my grade school library. I don't normally provide the sources for the blog titles (and most of them do reference other genre material) but Wollheim's novel has a bit of a special place in my heart, and I felt that it deserved a bit of recognition.

Shouldn't Star Wars have been an option?

 "I don't need a doctor, damn it, I am a doctor!"

Leonard McCoy, Star Trek

The head of my company's skateboarding department* asked me a question this morning about a meeting on Friday, and I explained that I hadn't been in attendance, I'd been moving furniture.

"Oh, did you move?"

"No, my girlfriend moved in with me."

"That's great!  Which one is she, Star Trek or Doctor Who?"

I laughed and said neither, but it's an interesting question when you consider the two options.  My girlfriend Karli is fully aware of my interest in Doctor Who, and I've suggested that we watch a couple of episodes** at some point so that she can get an idea of how the show works.  (In return, I've kept track of what's been going on in The Bachelorette, it's important to share things in a relationship.)

It would never occur to me to make a similar suggestion about Star Trek. Whether or not someone has watched any episodes from the original series or seen either of the reboot films, the characters and concepts are inextricably embedded in the pop culture matrix - why would it be necessary to introduce anyone to Kirk and the Enterprise at this point in time?

Doctor Who, on the other hand, may be one of the last remaining bastions of pure geekdom.  It's very much a revered institution in the United Kingdom, but outside of the broadcast zone of the BBC, it's still a niche show, one that would never be shown during prime time on CBS, for example.  Similarly, I've revealed a couple of pivotal plot spoilers from Doctor Who to Karli without even thinking about it, because I don't really expect that she'll decide to catch up on the last nine seasons of the Doctor's exploits, let alone sit down with 50 years of the show.

But who knows, perhaps I'm doing both Karli and the Doctor an injustice.  For all I know, she'll be intrigued enough by a sample of the adventures of the last Time Lord to watch some more episodes.  But she certainly doesn't have to - I think she'd agree with me that emotional compatibility is far more important to our relationship than whether or not she knows why the damn thing looks like a police box.

- Sid

*  Yes, my company has a skateboarding department, which occupies a pivotal role in our marketing and community relations strategy.  It also has a small skate park in the lower parking area at our head office if you're looking for a spot out of the rain to do some lip tricks or grinds.

**  I'm thinking Blink and The Doctor's Wife, if you're curious.  Blink because it's such a good episode, in spite of the fact that the Doctor doesn't play a huge part in the plot, and The Doctor's Wife because Neil Gaiman's treatment of the relationship between the Doctor and his TARDIS is so well written and acted.  However, I'm open to other suggestions.

I thought that the Dark Side had cookies, not cupcakes...

It's touching to find out that your co-workers will always take your interests into account when randomly picking up cupcakes.  Thanks to Christi and Wendy!!

- Sid