Star Trek

Rest In Peace Mr. Leonard Nimoy

Peter Germany Insperation, Movies ,

I can’t remember ever watching the original Star Trek series, but I remember watching the movies when I was younger and I always enjoyed them and as I think back to those movies many of the scenes that have stuck in my memory were of Spock. The straight way that Leonard Nimoy played this character made it memorable and iconic and to me Leonard Nimoy became iconic as well. He seemed to have a good sense of humour about himself and from what I’ve seen and heard people say of him he seems to have been a good human being.

Rest In Peace Mr. Nimoy.

Reading What We’re Writing

Peter Germany Insperation, Sci-Fi, Writing , , , , , , ,

When I wrote a quick post about mine and Owen’s brainstorming session on Monday I forgot to mention that the cheeky sod gave me homework, homework!!!! He is very keen on one part of our Project Apollo universe having a strong tribal element so he’s given me a David Attenborough series about tribes. I am quite looking forward to watching it if I’m honest.

After Owen gave me this bit of homework I asked him what he thought of Battlestar Galactica, he gave me a guilty, sheepish smile, so no. I felt it would be helpful to him but he said he did not want to be influenced by other work that is similar. I can see what he means by that and I have heard other writers say the same, but I’ve also heard writers say that we need to read in our genre so we can see what other people are doing which will can inspire our own work. Ill admit I’m a big Galactica fan and seeing how the Galactica moves and how the Vipers and Raptors move has convinced me that’s the way to go with the space craft movement in this huge universe that Project Apollo and Project Delphi are set in. I think Battlestar Galactica did a lot of things right which has given me a lot to think about with some of the more background details.

I can see Owen’s point of view though. I’m dire it can be viewed as thieving ideas from others work but to me it is not. I think it’s a great way to thrash an idea out, and lets face it there is always something in one of our favourite books, TV shows, films etc. that we would change.

We are inspired and influenced by what fiction we’ve consumed. Owen is very highly influenced by The Lord Of The Rings, which is evident in what he writes. I think I’m influenced by Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, Star Trek (mostly the later shows). These and other books, movies and shows do affect how I write. When I was watching Spartacus I found I was writing, dialogue in particular like how it is written in that show. The programme itself also gave me a very good idea for something of my own.

So I think we need to be exploring the genres we are working in, but caution is needed as none of us want to unintentionally steel from other writers (I know there is a specific word for that but of rather life of me I can’t remember what it is)

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Another Look At World Building

Peter Germany Books, Sci-Fi, Writing , , , , , , , , , ,

I was chatting with a friend, Stephen, on Facebook yesterday about Star Trek and Star Wars and Batttlestar Galactica and Babylon 5 and Firefly and Stargate, well you get the picture.  And what I learnt about it was not only does he have a bloody good knowledge of the Star Trek universe but also a few little tips about research.  One of the projects that I, with Owen, am working on is set in a universe where mankind has ventured out into space and met a multitude of alien species and we have starships of various shapes and sizes as well as space stations, and as a writer of similar intergalactic escapades he shared a few little tips about how he does he’s research, and a lot of it is spent watching these shows and looking at how the technology works and the everyday difficulties of surviving in space (when I’ve tried this before I’ve got into the film/TV show and forgotten that I’m supposed to be making notes) To me these are the things that give a universe depth.   In Nathan Lowell’s series about the life of an orphan who joins kind of space age freight hauliers and there are a lot of little bits on how the ships are maintained.  These stories are really, really cool, so please check out the link >>>>>>  http://solarclipper.com/about/

It was a good conversation that we had which gave me plenty to think about and really created some good little ideas.  As I’ve mentioned before I think depth is a massive component of a universe that a story is set in.  It’s all good and well having a strong plot and/or characters but if the world around them is weak then the reader may feel like they are loosing out.  This is one thing I find with Scott Sigler’s Galactic Football League series.  With each book we learn more and more about the wider universe and that depth is something that me and Owen need to weave into our stories.