This wouldn’t be funny if it weren’t true.

Last week’s Lodestar newsletter touched on Star Trek’s then-imminent 60th anniversary. Like many, I celebrated by taking advantage of the theatrical re-releases of the first four Trek movies, programmed with correlating episodes of The Original Series. I could only make two of the four, thanks to a busy schedule — time is a luxury I don’t always have, if I may paraphrase Khan — but I was able to see, yet again, what is surely the best of ‘em all, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which played after “Space Seed.”

I need not sell you on this movie. It has it all, including one moment that has forever burrowed into my brain — the traumatizing introduction of the Ceti Eel into Commander Chekov and Captain Terrell’s ears.

Once through the auditory canal, this gross li’l beastie wraps itself around the cerebral cortex, leaving the victim susceptible to mind control. (It is never explained how the occupants of the Botany Bay discovered this, but it’s not important.) This scene freaked me out as a kid and it freaks me out to this day.

After leaving the cineplex (and soliloquizing at length to my poor wife about why TWOK is the greatest), I went to bed that night once more dreaming of the adventure-filled escapades of my Starfleet pals, wishing my life could be more like theirs.

The next day I was in my yard and, realizing it was kinda sunny, put on a baseball cap that was left on an outdoor table. Soon thereafter I felt something moving around. I took off my hat and saw a crawling bugger with a tiny pincer. It may have actually been an earwig, but I can’t confirm.

After yelping, I shooed the thing away and went on with my life. Not long after, I felt my ear get hot. Looking in the mirror I saw that one ear was normal, but the other was bright red and ballooning in size.

“This is Khan’s fault!” I bellowed, admitting that there was a great deal of irony in my current conundrum. Did my love of Star Trek II somehow manifest the chomping critter who laid in wait in my hat, the closest thing in my life to Chekov’s helmet? Would the throbbing pain I now felt turn me off one of my favorite movies, considering that its most horrifying moment was happening in real life? (Luckily I did not see Star Trek III, so I would not have to experience rapid-onset pon farr.)

Rarely has life imitated art for me in such a tactile, immediate, and unpleasant way. An annoying trip to urgent care, where a clinician explained there are few worse places to get stung than the top of the earlobe, led to some antibiotics plus a regimen of diphenhydramine and ibuprofen, plus a whole mess of kvetching. It’s getting better, but slowly.

Mr. Chekov, I feel your pain.

Jordan Hoffman, Communications Officer

And it turned out… that wasn’t really the case. You’ll hear Dave and me toss back ideas on why we think that may be so, but more importantly I did dig up some of the drive-by comments that were made about the show.

One in particular is a terrific example of what was still considered exotic and “far out” back in 1981.

Click the “Listen” button below to hear more about our In Search Of… search, and subscribe to The STARLOG Podcast on any podcasting platform.

This week The STARLOG Podcast goes underground and exposes the mystery of the “Chronovisor.”

Those who really know the world of “high strangeness” are already familiar with this piece of mid-century technology that may or may not exist, but has been (actually) kept under wraps by the Vatican. What is it? It’s a device that can project images from the past, and the person who claimed its veracity was a highly respected Italian monk and musicologist.

This is the subject of the new and extremely independent film Chronovisor, a movie unlike any I’ve ever seen before. As you’ll hear in our conversation, a solid 60% of this 16mm multilingual film is devoted to reading texts on screen. What’s more, everything you read is real, and has never been revealed to English-speakers before. The story of how it all came together is quite bonkers, which is part of why I’m so enamored of the movie and its creators.

Jack Auen and Kevin Walker are both young chaps with what I hope is a long career of hard-to-define work ahead of them. Chronovisor is their first feature, and it’s actually playing in more theaters than you might think. (Check here for details — readers in Saskatoon included!)

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

A new teaser trailer for Godzilla Minus Zero emerged from the sea this week, and it offers a glimpse of something special. The sequel to the critically acclaimed Godzilla Minus One from 2023 was shot for IMAX (marking a first for a Japanese production centered on our kaiju friends) and also includes a (likely) appearance by King Ghidorah. See for yourself.

SCIENCE

Archaeologists in Australia have discovered what may be the largest rock paintings of an indigenous ancestral being. These paintings, which date back to the 19th century, were made as a way to mark territory in the face of expanding colonialism. Learn more about what they represent and how they were discovered at Phys.org.

CULTURE

If you sing the above phrase to the tune of the Doctor Who theme it is the first step into a wider world. For some reason (because it rhymes?) there are many videos of people playing the Doctor Who theme on kazoo. This one is my favorite.

ETHICS

New technologies to monitor and aid restful sleep seem at first to be not only harmless but helpful. Naturally, there are darker elements to everything, as this article published in Nature explores.