There are couple science fiction tropes with which I have a bit of an ongoing interest. I keep an eye on these things and will immediately decry inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and inherent dangers to anyone who will listen (usually my unwilling and tired friends after they get some drink in me). One such is teleportation. This one is especially frustrating to me because people just don't get it, and it seems very simple. I won't go into all that now, but important sources I cite to prove my point are The Fly and The Prestige. The other is time travel. Back to the Future and Terminator are huge offenders. It's called the Grandfather Paradox – you can't “change the future” by changing the past. Everything that's happened has happened and everything that will happen will happen. If you change the past so the present is different, then the present situation will be such that you don't need to go back in time to change the past, thus you won't, thus the change wouldn't be made. There is a loophole if we factor in the multiverse theory, but most don't. Especially frustrating is the film Looper, which solves the paradox but then totally ignores that it did so.
So: let's talk about Star Trek, specifically the 1996 film First Contact. In this exciting adventure, the Borg are up to their usual wily ways, this time planning on going back in time to the 21st century to prevent humanity's first contact (see what they did there?) with alien life, thus totally changing the fate of the world. It is up to the crew of the Enterprise to stop the Borg and save the universe.
Tomorrow, Saturday, Baxter Avenue Theater presents a midnight screening of Star Trek: First Contact. Baxter Avenue Theater is located at 1250 Bardstown Road. Further theater information and advance ticket sales can be found at the theater's website.
(A side note: I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but check out the movie Primer, which is probably the best time travel film created. The director is a mathematician, so the film deals very scientifically with the subject. It's a thinking person's sci-fi film.)
Image: Internet Movie Database
