Boldly Going

TREK TO THE PARK: Sunday evening we make our annual trek to Blanche Lavizzo Park in Seattle's Central district. There, there's an amphitheater, and for a few weekends each summer, it's the site of an amazing Outdoor Trek production. 

We love it for so many reasons, one being the diversity of the cast. Though they stick faithfully to the original script from the original Star Trek episode that they're performing, the actors are very diverse. In this version, Spock and Kirk are both played by women, as was the powerful Khan. It might sound weird, but it totally works!

 I'll let CJ tell you a bit more about it. 

For over 5 years by this point, Hello Earth Productions has been performing versions of various episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series. The episodes they have performed include "Devil in the Dark", "Amok Time", and, most recently, "Space Seed".

For most of Hello Earth's performances, known as "Outdoor Trek", they have used the same crew of actors that they started out with, though not always playing the same role. For this year, Hello Earth did Space Seed, which is one of the most iconic episodes of the original series.

The event was held and Blanche Lavizzo park, an outdoor amphitheater with several seats (and a small stage). Before the performance, there was a speech by James E. Brooks, a writer who worked on some episodes of The Next Generation, a sequel series to The Original Series. Unfortunately, I couldn't understand most of what he was saying, so I can't really write about him here.

At the beginning of the performance, the crew of the Starship Enterprise discovers a floating, seemingly abandoned ship is space. Upon closer inspection, the crew discovers the ship to be the S.S. Botany Bay, which was launched roughly 200 years before the start of the Enterprise's mission. As it turns out, there are 84 cryogenically frozen humans, all having been frozen in the 1990s (and donning common clothing from that era, such as Nirvana or Almost Live T-shirts.)

The crew of the Enterprise discovers that the 72 people (12 of them died during the re-awakening process) aboard the ship are all genetically engineered, to the point where they are nearly superhuman, and likely fought in Earth's Eugenics Wars during the 1990s. The crew identifies the leader of the Botany Bay, "Khan Noonien Singh", who, upon being awakened, asks "How long?" The crew of the Enterprise tells Khan that he has been asleep for about 200 years, but he quickly fell unconscious. The crew brings the bodies of the Botany Bay crew aboard the Enterprise, to revive and research them, but they discover the less-than-savory goals of the Botany Bay crew.

If they have enough funds to do another performance, I look forward to seeing Outdoor Trek again.

Above, Khan awakens. Below, the enterprise's history officer Lt. Marla McGivers contemplates powerful warriors from centuries past.

 Khan started causing trouble shortly after arriving in sick bay.

 Fortunately, Khan decided not to kill McCoy.

 Below, Lt. Sulu navigates the Enterprise from what looks like an Office Depot Chair. :)

 At one point, Lt. McGivers broke out into song. Specifically, R.E.M.'s losing my religion. 

It might sound absurd, but it totally worked with the script.

Toward the end of the episode, Kirk had to bust out of a decompression chamber. 

 Then he and Khan battled, hand to hand. You know who won. 

Before the program, writer James E. Brooks told the crowd about his experiences writing for "Star Trek, The Next Generation." His other writing credits include an X-Files magazine.

Annabelle, with two sci-fi books to her name already, went down to get his autograph. He was pretty flattered. :)

If there's a Star Trek anything, you *know* there are going to be Klingons. Yesterday was no exception.

COOL GIRLS: This morning was the first of four days of a neat-o camp Annabelle is attending this week. Called "Cool Girls in Aerospace," it's an amazing opportunity for 10 local girls to learn about education and career tracks in the aerospace industry. The greater Seattle area is a hub for such opportunities, and over the next four days they'll be learning more about possible pathways to the future.

Here's a short video about the program. 


And here's what Annabelle has to say about her first day.

Today, my first day of Cool Girls in Aerospace was an interesting experience. It was held in Mukilteo City Hall. We started by introducing ourselves and what we wanted to learn about. Then we were talked to by a couple of experts in engineering fields, such as Shannon Deacon, who worked 12 years at Boeing; Lurelee Lorenzen, who joined Boeing via an apprenticeship program, which allows a person to try multiple jobs at Boeing before deciding on one, and it doesn’t even require a college degree!  We also heard from Chris Phillips, who was a Navy pilot. He told us mostly about himself. It was very interesting to listen to the speakers today, and I look forward to the rest of the Cool Girls in Aerospace camp!