Simon: My science fiction background!



Hi guys
In the hopes of giving you a better understanding of who you're listening to, I thought I would help giving you an idea where my love for science fiction grew from!
It means that I will have to travel back in time, which has the risk of crossing into my own timeline (let's just hope I don't contaminate it!).
I know I've already used this trick before in the Convention Guide Post...but I thought it works quite well last time!

As you can imagine, I'm going to make a few changes to the formula...so instead of traveling in the Tardis (sorry Doctor Who fans) I'm going to be using the Enterprise-E (my favourite star ship) traversing through time via the Slingshot effect!!!



As some of you may be aware I had a quite turbulent childhood. Because during that period in my life I was being bullied at Primary school and my parents were getting divorced.

Which drew me towards science fiction and the positive morals, messages and meanings (thank you Mission Log Podcast) it has!

I think the first place I would take the ship back to is around 1993-1995 where...

my first encounter with science fiction starts! Although it's with a set shows originally produced in the 1960's...I am of course talking about Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Stingray!



These three shows were repeated in the early nineties paving the way for my love of the genre!

Trivia: My favourite Thunderbirds craft is Thunderbird 2!

With they're bright colours and they're wonderfully simple filming techniques interested me straight away! I think the fantastic craft they use (in particular Thunderbird 2) formed the foundation for my love of starships and their design!

Moving forward a few years to 1997, where I got to see...Star Wars! As in his ultimate wisdom (which is debatable!) George Lucas decided to remaster and re-release Episodes IV through VI in a Special Edition box set (which we owned). My love for starships and their design grew once again...when my Mum bought me multiple Galoob Action Fleet starships, which I imagined 'flying' them home in my hand! Along with those I also managed to get The Death Star Playset. To my knowledge they are all still in our loft!!!

 Trivia: My favourite Star Wars character is R2-D2!

Moving towards the noughties to around 1998. This is when the science fiction genre started to make an impact on an young impressionable Simon Cordell, as this is when I saw my first Star Trek: The Next Generation. I watched it every Wednesday night on BBC2 at 6pm, this lead me to buying Star Trek video's (which are still in our loft).
Around this time I also caught glimpses of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on Thursday nights and Voyager on the Sunday nights.

Three years go by and we are introduced to  a new form of Star Trek, in the form of Enterprise! Not on the friendly Aunty Beeb (BBC) this time...but to Channel 4 where it ran modestly until the season four finale in 2006.

Trivia: Don't bring up "These are the voyages..." with Jamie, as it doesn't exist to him!

Trivia: Phil's favourite character is Marvin the robot!

Then another few years pass...until 2005 when The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was released in the cinema's. To me and Phil, this was something we had to see!
As both of our Dad's had heard the radio plays when they were younger, and encouraged us to see it. So I think we went and saw it in the cinema  (I can't remember...Phil?) and loved it!

We loved it so much, that we bought The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Trilogy of Four: A Trilogy in Four Parts, and then travelled up to London in order to visit the Science Museum's exhibition on the film.

2005 was also the year that  I was formally introduced to another British science fiction classic Doctor Who.


Trivia: The Tenth Doctor is my favourite!

It's not until 2006 when my love for Star Trek is rekindled, after painstakingly introducing Jamie to the Star Trek franchise! This took quite a while as Jamie had his own preconceptions about science fiction. Once that happened Though his subsequent discovery and enjoyment of the series meant that I could relive the thrill of exploring the franchise for the first time!
As I was initiating a new Trekkie I thought it was about time I reviewed some of my old preconceptions about Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Voyager. So we (me and Mum) started to buy the DVD box set's to both, which I watched from start to finish. This is where my 1998 conceptions evaporated.

Three years later (2009) a new form of Star Trek is revealed with Star Trek '09 (or if you prefer Star Trek XI). The first of the Abramsverse films, when I saw the film (3 times in total) I was always struck by the drastic changes made in the film. To point that I was just speechless, due to all the thoughts running around my head surrounding all the implications from the film!

The other amazing thing to come from this film is the fact that I managed to finally introduce Phil to the Star Trek franchise through by this film and playing Star Trek Online! Once again I felt the thrill of discovery coming from Phil!

A year (2010) goes by and another science fiction series arrives, this time it's the remake of V! A very overlooked series, which is well worth a watch...although I have got to admit that I've only seen the first season. Apart from that, I'm really glad I can add another 'string to my science fiction bow'!

2011 is when I finally got to see a series I was longing to get many hands on...I am of course talking about the remake of Battlestar Galactica.
Which (unlike the V remake) is a series that is not overlooked. if you haven't seen this series then definitely check it out, as you won't regret it at all!!!

Another twelve month's passes by, landing us in 2012. This the year that I finally saw the Remastered Star Trek: The Original Series Season three and Star Trek: The Animated Series.
Just like everyone else I assumed that season three was a lost cause...but watching it, and then hearing what morals, messages and meanings John Champion and Ken Ray got out of them. I don't think it deserves the reputation it has been given over the years!
The same is said about The Animated Series, as everyone think's it isn't part of cannon...but why not? It's got as much right to be a part of cannon as any other show! Well worth a watch, even if you only see it once!
This was also the year that the three of us attended Destination Star Trek London, which was absolutely amazing! It is hopes that at some point in time you'll be able to hear our 'practise' episode covering the event!!!

Going back to last year (2013) the big event that occurred in the Abramsverse was Star Trek Into Darkness, which...again I saw 3 times in total! This was the first Star Trek film I'd seen in the cinema with Phil and Jamie making it quite a big event for us. We were able to see it the second day of release, making us very excitable!
Just like Destination Star Trek London 2012, we recorded an episode giving our thoughts on the film. Which we hope you'll be able to hear sometime in the near future!

What can I say about 2014...well it's been quite a year!
In February I went alone to Destination Star Trek Germany in Frankfurt, which was absolutely awesome and amazing! If you were unfortunate not to go, then you missed out big time!!!

Met up with the lovely Trekkie Girls (hi girls!) while I was there, and ended up 'briefly' on stage at the Trek Radio's Transmitting Trek: Taking Entertainment to the Final Frontier talk on the Sunday. Once I got home we recorded an episode giving my opinions on the convention. Which we hope you'll be able sometime soon!

Last month we also attended Destination Star Trek 3, where we hosted our Borg Fan Panel (see The Engage Podcast at DST3 part 1) with the aid of our first 'Honouree' member of the podcast Neil Green (hi Neil!).

On the same day we also launched podcast, by covering all three days of the event...again will an episode giving our thoughts and feelings on the convention (see The Engage Podcast at DST3 part 2).

I hope you found this blog post interesting!
This is Simon from The Engage Podcast signing out!