BBC Focus - 03.2020

STARTREK’SNEWESTSCIENCE

CONSULTANT,DRERINMACDONALD,

REVEALSHERFAVOURITETECHFROM

THESHOWANDEXPLAINSEXACTLY

HOWFASTERTHANLIGHTTRAVEL

COULD THEORETICALLY WORK

MAKING

IT SO

Profile

ASSCIENCECONSULTANTFORTHESTARTRE K

FRANCHISE,WHATDOESYOURJOBINVOLVE?

Scienceisa bigpartofSta rTr ek, andmy

jobinvolvesreadingscripts,talkingto

writers,talkingtoshowrunners,discussing

thestoryarcanddiscussingepisodeto

episodewhattypeoftechnologytheywant

touse,orwhatscienceisdrivingthestory

points.ButI alsocontinuetoprovidefan

content.I havea videoonStarTrek.com

whereI explainhowwarpdriveworks,and

I’mduetobea guestontheStarTrek:The

Cruise, whereI’llcontinueusingSta rTr ek

to teach science – the fans really enjoy that!

STARTREKINGENERALSEEMSTOBEGETTING

DARKER,DOYOUTHINKTHISISA RESULTOF OUR

CHANGINGPERCEPTIONOFTHEFUTURE?

Youknow,it’sinteresting.I thinka lotof

peopleseeSta rTr ekasthisbright,shiny

thing.If yougobacktotheoriginal,there

aresomedarkepisodes,butit stillhasa

veryflashy,sci-fifeeltoit.DeepSpaceNine

too,hasstoryarcsthatspanseasonswith

verydarkthemes.So,I don’tthinkthatthe

newepisodesarenecessarilydarker,butI

think the stylistic approach to the visuals

makesit feela littledarker.Aswell,we’ve

gonefrombeingepisodicstorytellingtobeing

serialised,whereyou’retellingonestoryover

thecourseof13-16episodes.TaketheXindi

War,ortheDominionWarforexample.If

youtookoutallthestandaloneepisodes,and

turnedit intooneshorterseason,it would

feelverydark.Weusedtohavea lotoffiller

episodes,andI lovefillerepisodes!Butthat’s

justnothowwetellstoriesthesedaysin

general.HereinAmerica,we’vebeendoing

24-episodeseasonsfordecades.Now,we’re

startingtotakeoutthosefillersandtellone

storyovera shortertime.Sta rTr ekhasbeen

reflecting the darker parts of society for a

“Nothing with a mass onthe

surface of spacetime can go

faster than the speed of light,

but there’s nothing that says

spacetime itself can’t go faster”

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