Hi #Treksters
In honour of the 30th Anniversary of
Back To The Future this year, and because we also had the celebrations surrounding the 50th Anniversary of
Doctor Who two years ago with
The Day of The Doctor.
I thought it was about time for me to release a new blog post for you to read through. Which (as you can tell from the title) is quite fitting!
So flicking through my list of ideas, I've decided to revisit one of my favourite interests history and time travel!!!
As (in this blog post) I will be talking you through all the times and places I would really love to visit if I had access to a time machine like The Doctor's
Tardis (Doctor Who) or Doc Brown's
Time Travelling DeLorean (Back To The Future trilogy).
Obviously because I'm dealing with Time Travel, I will be following some 'Time Traveller's Guidelines" (
similar to these).
So that I can witness events without irritably changing the timeline.
Because I don't particularly want to get visited by Mulder & Scully's descendants from the Starfleet
Department of Temporal Investigations, after my travels!
This is because I don't want to accidently cause a '
Butterfly effect' scenario or a '
Grandfather paradox'.
So as a precautionary measure, I'm going to exclude any historical event concerning my home county of
Essex in this blog post.
On top of that I'm also going to say that in each situation I'm going to have access to period specific costumes, and access to the correct currency.
As that way my contamination of the timeline will be minimal...and I can still enjoy myself while I'm there!!!
Now that I've got all out of the way, I think it's about time I input my first temporal coordinates...
The White Star Dock (Berth 44), Southampton United Kingdom 11:45am 10th April 1912
The first place I would like to visit will seem very familiar to all of you avid #Trekster readers out there....as I'd want to see the
RMS Titanic!
Unusually for me, I've actually come up with a couple of suggestions on how I'd do it. But as you'll see the first one is quite a safe option...whereas the second way definitely wouldn't be.
Anyone who reads my blog posts on a regular basis, will notice straight away that I don't usually writing down an unsafe idea.
As it's not very me...but I think that Jamie 'influenced' me when I was talking to Jamie on the phone about it. Because he thought it was a good idea! #JamieBadInfluence
Idea one
The first (safe) idea is that I would Ideally like to 'blend' into the dockside crowd (with the help of a period costume) watching the (RMS) Titanic steaming away, as it leaves Southampton on it's maiden voyage.
I think this is a moment I'd love to witness, seeing the 'hustle and bustle' of the people going about their way racing to get on-board.
With all that going on it would make it a very celebratory environment to be apart of!
Idea two
The second (risky) idea is that I would board the ship at Southampton (on the 10th April 1912), most likely as a 1st Class passenger. Before disembarking at Cobh (Queenstown), which was Titanic's final destination before New York on the morning of the 11th April 1912.
That way I could then enjoy staying on-board the ship, whilst generally experiencing the ambiance of life on-board ship.
Obviously this would be amazing....but the chances of changing history (and contaminating the timeline) would be huge.
Although I would enjoy the excitement of witnessing the event (either way) I would also be filled with mixed emotions...know the ships ultimate fate.
Making it feel deeply sobering for me, whilst simultaneously also making me feel 'good' knowing that huge advances in marine safety that would come out of the disaster.
It would also make me think that we take modern day marine safety for granted these days!
I input my second temporal coordinates...
Moving forward 54 years to
The Sheraton-Cleveland Hotel, Cleveland United States of America 1st-5th September 1966
The second place I would like to visit is somewhere else, which will be no great surprise to any of you...as I've chosen a Star Trek convention!
Again this is somewhere else I could 'blend' into the crowd seamlessly (and easily due to my extensive Star Trek wardrobe).
This is something I would love to attend, knowing the significance (and history) Star Trek would go on to have in the decades to follow...and the impact it will have on so many peoples lives (including myself)!
It would also be amazing meeting
'The Great Bird of the Galaxy' Gene Roddenberry, as that is something I would have loved to have done.
To make the convention even better he promoted the first two pilots of Star Trek: The Original Series(uncut version of
"The Cage" and
"Where No Man has Gone Before") before they aired!
Can you imagine that?!
Being one of a few hundred people watching Star Trek for the first time...and afterwards getting to hear Gene Roddenberry's thoughts and feelings on the pilots.
Making it an amazing few days in the history of the franchise we all love, which is something I would like to be apart of!
With that in mind I don't think there's nothing else I can really say apart from...there is no better way to live and breathe Star Trek for 120 hours straight!!!
I input my third (and final) temporal coordinates...
Moving forward another 3 years to
Kennedy Space Centre, Florida United States of America 19th-22nd July 1969
The third place I would like to visit is one of (if not) the greatest human achievement ever. So much so that I've already spoken about it in a previous blog post.
Obviously I'm talking about witnessing the Apollo 11 Moon landing!
This is something I would love to witness from start (launch) to finish (splashdown). As it would be amazing being able to watch the three astronauts (
Neil Armstrong,
Buzz Aldrin &
Michael Collins)
historic progress to the Moon, and their journey safely back to Earth...live (as much as you could back in 1969).
And then being able to keep up with the latest television updates on their slow progress, joining in as the world held it's collective breathe!
This would then be instantly changed by a feeling of global excitement. Which would slowly grow, as the days slowly tumbled by.
Until Sunday 20th July (Day 4), when the
Lunar Module ("Eagle") landed on the Moon at 20:18:04pm UTC
.
However, it wasn't until 02:56:15am UTC on Day 5 (Monday 21st July) that man actually walked on the moon for first time...and those immortal words were uttered by Neil Armstrong to the estimated 600 million people watching worldwide:
"That's one small step for a man, a giant leap for mankind"
After spending 21 hours, 36 minutes on the moon's surface Armstrong's & Aldrin's work was done. So understandably after a busy day's work, they then slept for a well earned seven hours in the Lunar Module.
They then returned to Lunar orbit after jettisoning the Lunar Module's ("Eagle")
ascent stage at 23:41pm UTC.
This was then followed by a reunion (via docking) with their colleague Michael Collins (piloting the "Columbia"
Command Module).
With all the astronauts back together (and the samples safely on-board), they could now think about completing their mission...and begin their journey back home.
After another three days of travelling (Day 8), the "Columbia" Command Module finally splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 16:50:35pm
(1969-07-24UTC16:50:36Z) UTC
on July 24th 1969. To the relief of millions around the world.
Making
U.S. President John F. Kennedy's 'dream' "of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" a reality!
Whilst making the three astronauts who went on this momentous journey heroes across the world!!!
I would really enjoy watching one of the most pivotal (and defining) moments of the 20th Century unfold before my own eyes. As I've always had to settle with hearing about on history programmes (and history books) 'out of context', which really isn't the same.
There's just no real way (or words for that matter)that I can describe to you how much I'd love to see these events happen in real-time!
I hope you've enjoyed reading my blog post, and have got you starting to think about all the historical events you'd like to go back and witness....as trust me, you'll have
plenty of choice!
Which I found out the hard way researching for this blog post!!! #OverwhelmedTrekkie
This is Simon from The Engage Podcast signing out!
