To Boldy Go……

First off, let me confess to anyone who does not already know that I am an out and out Trekkie.  I am a die-hard Voyager fan in particular, but will watch pretty much anything to do with Star Trek.  (I realise writing this that I completely forgot to mention this in my responses to Ute’s questions recently, but there you go…!)

Anyway, there are only two Trek-related things which are pretty much unforgivable in my book:

• that the Voyager run was ended so abruptly and well before its time;
• and that the famous trekkie mantra breaches the grammatical convention of not splitting an infinitive.  Yes, ok, I realise that things like this don’t seem to be taken as seriously as they used to be.  But somehow, avoiding a split infinitive is one writing style I find it hard to drop.  I know that Hub is with me on this one.

Having got that off my chest, it is also fair to say that I generally love a good space drama.  I am not going to get into the merits or otherwise of Star Wars here.  That will need it’s very own post some time.

Instead, I’d like to highlight a couple of the other great space films that capture one’s imagination.

When I wrote about the death of Alan Rickman recently, a blogging friend responded by highlighting one of his films, Galaxy Quest.  I immediately realised that my life would not be complete without watching it as soon as possible.

I was not disappointed.  It is a wonderful spoof on programmes like Star Trek and I enjoyed every second of it.  The funny thing is that, no matter how badly this type of film portrays space exploration, it is still easy to go along with the story.

I also recently watched The Martian.

Again, a brilliant film, based on the book of the same title by Andy Weir.  Ridley Scott directs a totally believable and suspense-filled epic, which had me on the edge of my seat right until the last moment.  This was all the more remarkable because I had previously read the book and knew the story!!

I think there is something about space-based films in particular which, if done well, inspire this type of white-knuckle ride, even when one knows how things are likely to end, or definitely will end.  Gravity is one such film, which totally deserved all the awards it won in 2014.  This was utterly compelling the whole way through.

And perhaps one of the best examples of all, if not the best,  is the magnificent Apollo 13.

Director Ron Howard took our breath away, making us wonder whether the astronauts would survive their return to earth, in the telling of a story based on fact.  Now that’s film-making at its pinnacle.  I will never forget watching this film in the cinema with Hub and my sister – we sat through the credits at the end unable to move, so stunned were we with what we had witnessed.  Amazing.

Do you like space films?  Any that you would recommend?  Or avoid?