The March 2014 issue of Odyssey magazine features an article I wrote about Star Trek. Actually, I wrote the article back in 2009 — early on in my science writing career, soon after the 2009 Star Trek movie came out. When I found out Odyssey would be exploring the theme “movie magic,” and the timing coincided with the 2013 release of Star Trek: Into Darkness, I thought, hmmm… maybe that old article deserves new life!
I contacted the editor and suggested republishing my original piece, but with a few changes to make it fit the new movie. She thought it was a great idea.
My first assignment? Actually watch the movie… it had been out for a few months, but I’m not a big movie-goer, so I hadn’t seen it. I rented in on Netflix one Saturday, and jotted down notes and quotes throughout the whole thing — especially noting when science and technology came into play (warp drive, transporters, and photon torpedoes!) I sometimes find research to be a bit of a slog, but in this case it was definitely more fun than usual.
In the end, I wound up adding a new section to the article on the science of transporters, which I didn’t have space for in the first article. And I also got to improve on my earlier writing. It was nice to see how I’d grown as a writer and self-editor since the first time around — some of my sentences were too long and complex, or unnecessary. Also, we added a contest for kids to film their own Star Trek movie scene. I can’t wait to see the winning entries!