DarenDoc’s Slightly Nifty Musings Inc.

The man who inspired me to follow my dreams and work hard and be kind and laugh and be creative and try my best and clean up my room turns 79 today.

Happy Birthday, Daddy.

Yup.

Click for full embiggened-ness.

For some reason, (I’m not sure why…)  I wasn’t asked to contribute to the next Ships of the Line Calendar this time…  even though I’ve done all but the first 2 of them… so, I guess that’s how it goes.  Here’s what I would have done… boring yes… but god, I love it.

Steven Henricksen, a long time friend of mine from back in Jr. High School, sent me this nifty tribute to the team that brought Apollo 13 back home safely, on this, the anniversary of what could have been NASA’s Darkest Day, but turned into their finest hour.  Steve and I met in 1981 in 8th grade, played in band, and shared a love of Star Trek.  We worked for the community Municipal Band and were part of the stage crew who recorded the concerts and set up the stage… we would trade quips and quotes of Captain Kirk and the crew while we worked in the summer sun.  Some fun memories with him, and I’m pleased to post his piece:

I began a career in Information Technology and as time went on I became interested in project management techniques, reading biography’s of great leaders. I had always been interested in NASA; I remember watching Apollo 17, Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz, and the early Shuttle missions with great interest. Around the turn of the century there was an explosion of NASA biographies. I came across Gene Kranz’s book, “Failure is not an Option”, his ability to plan for every contingency and his “Tough and Competent” speech after the Apollo 1 fire made him the ultimate project manager in my eyes. What Dr Gilruth, Chris Kraft, Gene Kranz among the countless others within NASA were able to do to meet Kennedy’s challenge is truly one of the greatest human achievements, sending men where no man had gone before.

Steven Henricksen, April 2010

A tale of two commanders.

Early in Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan, Kirk states “A no win situation is a possibility every commander must face”. On April 13th, 1970, Gene Kranz and his “White Team” would face NASA’s penultimate Kobayashi Maru with the lives of the crew of Apollo 13 on the line 200,000 miles from Earth. The outcome of Apollo 1 was the outcome of most no-win scenarios. There were no options, the crew had about 14 seconds before the smoke in the Command Module overcame them. Apollo 13 would be different, they had options and they had teams on the ground that would find them and execute them.

Kirk’s first tangle with Khan and the Reliant was self inflicted, had he followed a simple Star Fleet general order we would have not had one of the best Star Trek movies ever made. No one would know for a couple months that a frayed wire in one of the three oxygen tanks on board the Apollo 13 Service Module (SM) was the cause of the explosion that crippled the SM.

In both cases the commanders, Admiral Kirk on the Enterprise and Gene Kranz at the NASA MOCR, would stall for time searching for a root cause and a way out of a self inflicted mess. Both men would keep their crews alive because of their extensive knowledge of their ships. Kranz’s team would buy time using the Landing Module (LM) Aquarius as a life boat, Kirk would buy time with the Reliant’s prefix code taking out Reliant’s Warp drive and leveling the playing field.

Eighteen minutes into the O2 explosion Kranz would ask his EECOMM Sy Leibergot “What do you think we got in the spacecraft that’s good?” After returning from Regula 1 Kirk would ask Spock the same thing. Both commanders commanded over crippled ships. NASA Flight directors Gene Kranz, Chris Kraft, and Glynn Lunney decided the best chance for survival would be to slingshot the Apollo 13 LM/CSM stack around the moon using the LM’s engine twice to speed the journey and correct the reentry angle. Kirk would limp into a nebula to “even the odds”, or “sauce for the goose” as Spock would say.

During the next four days Kranz’s White team would “work the problem” as each arose. Fitting a square CO2 scrubber into a round hole with duct tape and a sock among other onboard items, power up procedures for the Command Module (CM), finding a way to charge the CM’s batteries from the LM using what could be considered a design flaw. Apollo 13 had its share of luck to bring the crew home alive. Had they fired the damaged Service Module’s (SM) engine or if the heat shield had been cracked in the explosion their Kobayashi Maru would have ended in failure.

After entering the nebula and disabling the Reliant Kirk ran out of options. Kahn engages the Genesis device willing to destroy himself and his “Pequod” to bring down his nemesis white whale quoting Melville as he watches the Enterprise limp away on partial main power. With the Enterprise’s mains off line there was no warp power and no hope for escape. The only option was for one man to sacrifice his life “for the good of the many” by entering the warp chamber and clearing the mains. Spock enters the chamber, clears the mains and the Enterprise warps clear of the blast.

Luckily for NASA no one had to pay the ultimate sacrifice, despite three men sharing an LM designed for two for two days longer than it was intended to be used. In both cases it was the human factor that carried the day. A Vulcan in a moment of supreme logic giving his life for that of his crew, or thecountless men and women at NASA, the contractors, the crew, and the controllers who gave their all to bring home the Odyssey.

I’m happy to report that over the weekend, our Wondercon Galaxy Quest Retrospective of 30 years of the original series was a resounding success.  Our medium sized room at the panel was insignificant next to the power of the crowd… and was filled to its capacity. A crowd lined up a half an hour beforehand and was running down the hall, around the corner, and around the corner again.  We were even hassled trying to get into our own panel, until we said that WE were the ones doing it.  It was a great time, and my co-panelists Steven Melching, Robert Meyer Burnett, and newly announced “Galaxy Quest: The Next Generation” exec producer Ashley Miller were on hand showing their Questarian credentials.  (We neglected to announce that GQ-TNG had a website, www.galaxyquesttng.com, but mentioned it at our Starship Smackdown panel the next day.  It looks like a placeholder page at the moment, but you can email them and join a list, I guess to be alerted when it goes live.

An adventurous audience member videotaped the proceedings, and I’m so pleased they put up segments from it on youtube… here they are.

I’ll be at Wondercon the first weekend of April doing some fun panels… here is a preview:

FRIDAY

2:30-3:30 Geek Café: State of the Genre Report— Join our panel of experts as they examine the state of science fiction, fantasy and horror in film and TV from the living ever longer and prospering Star Trek franchise to Star Wars to what the success of Avatar means for the future of movies. Join Robert Meyer Burnett (Free Enterprise, The Hills Run Red), Daren Dochterman (conceptual illustrator, Iron Man 2, Master & Commander), Steve Kriozere(Dead & Deader, NCIS), and Steve Melching (The Clone Wars, The Batman) for this freewheeling conversation about the state of sci-fi movies and TV today. Room 220

SATURDAY

3:00-4:00 Galaxy Quest: A 23rd “Anniversary” Galactic Celebration: Never Give Up, Never Surrender!— It’s been 23 years since the best sci-fi TV series of the 80s, Galaxy Quest,first debuted on television, and now our panel of Questsperts discuss their favorite episodes, whatever happened to the cast, and the future for the franchise. Although the series has been dormant for two decades (despite some bad JN/AD slash fiction and old VHS and laserdiscs), there’s always hope for the future. Never give up, never surrender! Featuring Robert Meyer Burnett (Free Enterprise), Daren Dochterman (VFX, ST: TMP Director’s Cut), and Steve Melching (The Clone Wars, Big Guy & Rusty the Boy Robot). Room 220

SUNDAY

3:30-5:00 Starship Smackdown XIV: Captains’ Courageous Edition— The must-see panel of WonderCon and Comic-Con International returns for another action-packed year as the greatest spaceships in the history of the universe and this or any other dimension compete for the highly-coveted Smackdown title. Will the Enterprise once again defeat an Imperial Star Destroyer? Can the Serenity make mincemeat out of the Battlestar Galactica? And what exactly is the Captain’s Courageous lightning round anyway? Our panel of expert spaceshipologists vying to outwit, outplay, and outphaser includes Robert Meyer Burnett (Free Enterprise, Hills Run Red), Daren Dochterman (conceptual artist, X2, Iron Man 2), Steve Melching (The Clone Wars, Transformers), and special surprise guests. End your weekend the San Diego way with a REAL San Francisco treat! Room 103

Yeah, I’m looking forward to this… should be a lot of fun.  I’m especially excited to be able to do the Galaxy Quest panel, since the powers that be won’t allow any “unauthorized” Star Trek panels, our “Is Star Trek Dead” fan favorite panel is no more…

So now we can concentrate on our OTHER favorite genre show…

Hope to see you there.