Some years ago I had to undergo surgery. It wasn’t super serious but it was serious enough that, legally, the medical staff needed to remind me that they were going to make me unconscious and stick foreign objects where they don’t normally go, dangerously close to vital organs. Despite muttering “outpatient, outpatient,” once you are in the gown with your butt sticking out and walking down a corridor with your glasses left in a locker, it’s only natural to be a little nervous.

The anesthesiologist could tell this was my first rodeo, so she did all the right things. She told me to close my eyes and think of a relaxing place. “Picture a beach,” she said, “or a forest by a lake.” These were fine examples, but that wasn’t what I picked. Maybe this is embarrassing to admit, but if a STARLOG newsletter isn’t a safe space then nothing is. I envisioned the bridge of the USS Enterprise.

As consciousness drained away, I saw and heard the blinking warm lights and the familiar whirrs and chirps of the most famous spaceship in fiction. (And, yes, to clarify, and to quote Mr. Scott, “no bloody A, B, C, or D.”) If there was any place I wanted to be if something bad were to happen, that was it.

In a few days Star Trek celebrates its 60th anniversary, and other than the people in my life, it is clearly among the most important things in my life. It certainly is to my career — here I am talking to you about it — but also in my day to day.

To some it may seem, at first, a little sad, or at least narrow, to hold a television show in such high regard. But I don’t see it that way. Star Trek is a portal to so many other things — it is a concept, a philosophy, an intellectual exercise, and even a framework for spirituality. When faced with problems, there’s a good chance Picard or Janeway or even Rom faced something similar, and I know what to do. Just follow the warp corridors.

Moreover, Star Trek is the greatest comedy of all time. Spock? Worf? Are you kidding me? Hilarious! Especially when they aren’t trying to be funny.

On The STARLOG Podcast we are discussing the current season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Sometimes the show is great. Sometimes it’s horrible. (The latest one was a disaster, I’m sorry to say; but the episode that “friend of the pod” Axelle Carolyn directed ruled.) While I don’t wish for misfires, I understand them and accept them. Loving something, or someone, means acceptance. “I’m not mad, I’m disappointed,” your mother may have said when you disobeyed her and ended up breaking something. Well, that’s a fair way of putting it when the ship doesn’t steer right.

Star Trek as we know it is (quite probably) winding down soon to enter a chrysalis and return in a familiar-but-different form. Change is necessary and good and even if it weren’t, well, it’s still part of life so you better accept it. Sixty years is an incredible run, and there’s still so much more to the final frontier.

Jordan Hoffman, Communications Officer

Balaban (a character actor you definitely know by face if not by name) talks about shooting in “zero gravity” and meeting Arthur C. Clarke, as well as playing a character that was Indian in the book, but altered for the Hollywood film. Most importantly, he mentions a short film he directed based on his CE3K experiences that a) starred Richard Dreyfuss, Mandy Patinkin, and Wallace Shawn and b) was apparently good enough that it impressed George A. Romero, who hired him to direct the pilot for Tales from the Darkside.

And yet, that short is nowhere to be found on the World Wide Web! At least until you, the reader/listener help out. (I’m serious, hit reply if you know anything.)

Click the “Listen” button below to hear more about this mystery, and subscribe to The STARLOG Podcast on any podcasting platform.

This week’s guest on The STARLOG Podcast is writer, producer, director, actor, and now streaming app maestro Dean Devlin.

Longtime readers of STARLOG are surely familiar with his work. His sci-fi films lean to the “popcorn” side of things, with hits like Independence Day, Godzilla, and the Librarians franchise. But how he became such a success in Hollywood is a fascinating story, which he’s more than eager to share with us.

SF is his birthright. Did you know his mother was an actress? And she was killed by Scotty in the Star Trek episode “Wolf in the Fold”? Also, did you know that he, as a young actor, was one of the computer dorks who hung out with Val Kilmer in Real Genius?

Devlin’s current work includes several television series, like The Ark, currently in its third season. As I confess to him on the show, I’ve only just started watching it, but I really have enjoyed what I’ve seen so far. (Listen as I explain back to him why it is good.)

Also, on the topic of honesty, we talk a little bit about the Independence Day sequel. Trust me, he knows, he knows.

Dean Devlin has been a mover and shaker in the biz for decades and you can see why. A podcast chat is the closest I’ll ever come to having lunch with him, but when you listen you’ll quickly hear just how affable and charming he is. If I were in charge of the studio I’d give him the green light before dessert.

The new episode of The STARLOG Podcast, like the ones before it, is on whatever podcasting platform you prefer. Or you can just click the little “listen” button below.

SCI-FI

Hal Jordan’s password, “Mogo Doesn’t Socialize,” was a little gift to fans in Lanterns. You don’t need to know the reference, but if you do, it’s fun. What’s also fun (and, I will admit, totally new to me) was learning what may have influenced Alan Moore to create the planet-sized creature to begin with. This 14-year-old blog post from J. L. Bell explains.

SCIENCE

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has successfully launched and is now out there looking into our past. You may be wondering: in what ways is it different from the James Webb Space telescope? Luckily, our friends at NASA have all the answers here.

CULTURE

It’s been close to one year since Australia issued strict guardrails around social media for minors. And now they’ve got some data to analyze. Knowable Magazine offers a deep dive on this cultural experiment.

ETHICS

Fake songwriters are using AI to create soundalikes to mid-tier dead jazz artists, uploading these tracks to their artist pages, and cashing in on algorithmically-programmed streams. This is only going to get worse. Futurism has the details.