Monday 12 October 2015

Simon's Time Travel adventures (featuring the Tardis and DeLorean)

Hi #Treksters
In honour of the 30th Anniversary of Back To The Future this year, and because we also had the celebrations surrounding the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who two years ago with The Day of The Doctor.


I thought it was about time for me to release a new blog post for you to read through. Which (as you can tell from the title) is quite fitting!
So flicking through my list of ideas, I've decided to revisit one of my favourite interests history and time travel!!!


As (in this blog post) I will be talking you through all the times and places I would really love to visit if I had access to a time machine like The Doctor's Tardis (Doctor Who) or Doc Brown's Time Travelling DeLorean (Back To The Future trilogy).


Obviously because I'm dealing with Time Travel, I will be following some 'Time Traveller's Guidelines" (similar to these).
So that I can witness events without irritably changing the timeline.


Because I don't particularly want to get visited by Mulder & Scully's descendants from the Starfleet Department of Temporal Investigations, after my travels!
This is because I don't want to accidently cause a 'Butterfly effect' scenario or a 'Grandfather paradox'.
So as a precautionary measure, I'm going to exclude any historical event concerning my home county of Essex in this blog post.

 
On top of that I'm also going to say that in each situation I'm going to have access to period specific costumes, and access to the correct currency.
As that way my contamination of the timeline will be minimal...and I can still enjoy myself while I'm there!!!

Now that I've got all out of the way, I think it's about time I input my first temporal coordinates...

The White Star Dock (Berth 44), Southampton United Kingdom 11:45am 10th April 1912
  
 
The first place I would like to visit will seem very familiar to all of you avid #Trekster readers out there....as I'd want to see the RMS Titanic!
Unusually for me, I've actually come up with a couple of suggestions on how I'd do it. But as you'll see the first one is quite a safe option...whereas the second way definitely wouldn't be.


Anyone who reads my blog posts on a regular basis, will notice straight away that I don't usually writing down an unsafe idea.
As it's not very me...but I think that Jamie 'influenced' me when I was talking to Jamie on the phone about it. Because he thought it was a good idea! #JamieBadInfluence
 
Idea one
 

The first (safe) idea is that I would Ideally like to 'blend' into the dockside crowd (with the help of a period costume) watching the (RMS) Titanic steaming away, as it leaves Southampton on it's maiden voyage.
I think this is a moment I'd love to witness, seeing the 'hustle and bustle' of the people going about their way racing to get on-board.
With all that going on it would make it a very celebratory environment to be apart of!

Idea two


The second (risky) idea is that I would board the ship at Southampton (on the 10th April 1912), most likely as a 1st Class passenger. Before disembarking at Cobh (Queenstown), which was Titanic's final destination before New York on the morning of the 11th April 1912.
That way I could then enjoy staying on-board the ship, whilst generally experiencing the ambiance of life on-board ship.
Obviously this would be amazing....but the chances of changing history (and contaminating the timeline) would be huge.

Although I would enjoy the excitement of witnessing the event (either way) I would also be filled with mixed emotions...know the ships ultimate fate.
Making it feel deeply sobering for me, whilst simultaneously also making me feel 'good' knowing that huge advances in marine safety that would come out of the disaster.
It would also make me think that we take modern day marine safety for granted these days!

I input my second temporal coordinates...

Moving forward 54 years to
 
The Sheraton-Cleveland Hotel, Cleveland United States of America 1st-5th September 1966

 
The second place I would like to visit is somewhere else, which will be no great surprise to any of you...as I've chosen a Star Trek convention!
But this is no ordinary Star Trek convention, as the 24th Tricon World Science Fiction Convention was the first official convention for the franchise.
Again this is somewhere else I could 'blend' into the crowd seamlessly (and easily due to my extensive Star Trek wardrobe).
This is something I would love to attend, knowing the significance (and history) Star Trek would go on to have in the decades to follow...and the impact it will have on so many peoples lives (including myself)!
It would also be amazing meeting 'The Great Bird of the Galaxy' Gene Roddenberry, as that is something I would have loved to have done.
To make the convention even better he promoted the first two pilots of Star Trek: The Original Series(uncut version of "The Cage" and "Where No Man has Gone Before") before they aired!
Can you imagine that?!

Being one of a few hundred people watching Star Trek for the first time...and afterwards getting to hear Gene Roddenberry's thoughts and feelings on the pilots.
Making it an amazing few days in the history of the franchise we all love, which is something I would like to be apart of!

With that in mind I don't think there's nothing else I can really say apart from...there is no better way to live and breathe Star Trek for 120 hours straight!!!
 
 
I input my third (and final) temporal coordinates...
 
Moving forward another 3 years to
 
Kennedy Space Centre, Florida United States of America 19th-22nd July 1969
 
  
The third place I would like to visit is one of (if not) the greatest human achievement ever. So much so that I've already spoken about it in a previous blog post.
Obviously I'm talking about witnessing the Apollo 11 Moon landing!
 
 
This is something I would love to witness from start (launch) to finish (splashdown). As it would be amazing being able to watch the three astronauts (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin & Michael Collins) historic progress to the Moon, and their journey safely back to Earth...live (as much as you could back in 1969).
I would so enjoy seeing the massive Saturn V rocket lift off from the Kennedy Space Centre on Wednesday (16th July) at 13:32:00pm (1969-07-16UTC13:32Z) UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).
Shaking the ground below it, and starting off the staggering 953,054 miles (1,533,791.737km) roundtrip to the Moon!
 
And then being able to keep up with the latest television updates on their slow progress, joining in as the world held it's collective breathe!  
This would then be instantly changed by a feeling of global excitement. Which would slowly grow, as the days slowly tumbled by.
Until Sunday 20th July (Day 4), when the Lunar Module ("Eagle") landed on the Moon at 20:18:04pm UTC.
 
However, it wasn't until 02:56:15am UTC on Day 5 (Monday 21st July) that man actually walked on the moon for first time...and those immortal words were uttered by Neil Armstrong to the estimated 600 million people watching worldwide:
"That's one small step for a man, a giant leap for mankind"
After spending 21 hours, 36 minutes on the moon's surface Armstrong's & Aldrin's work was done. So understandably after a busy day's work, they then slept for a well earned seven hours in the Lunar Module.

They then returned to Lunar orbit after jettisoning the Lunar Module's ("Eagle‍") ascent stage at 23:41pm UTC.
This was then followed by a reunion (via docking) with their colleague Michael Collins (piloting the "Columbia" Command Module).
With all the astronauts back together (and the samples safely on-board), they could now think about completing their mission...and begin their journey back home.

 
After another three days of travelling (Day 8), the "Columbia" Command Module finally splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 16:50:35pm (1969-07-24UTC16:50:36Z) UTC on July 24th 1969. To the relief of millions around the world.

Making U.S. President John F. Kennedy's 'dream' "of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" a reality!


Whilst making the three astronauts who went on this momentous journey heroes across the world!!!



I would really enjoy watching one of the most pivotal (and defining) moments of the 20th Century unfold before my own eyes. As I've always had to settle with hearing about on history programmes (and history books) 'out of context', which really isn't the same.
There's just no real way (or words for that matter)that I can describe to you how much I'd love to see these events happen in real-time!
 
 
I hope you've enjoyed reading my blog post, and have got you starting to think about all the historical events you'd like to go back and witness....as trust me, you'll have plenty of choice!
Which I found out the hard way researching for this blog post!!! #OverwhelmedTrekkie
 
This is Simon from The Engage Podcast signing out! 
 

Saturday 3 October 2015

The Engage Podcast Launch Anniversary - One year on.

Phil, Jamie and Simon at DST3 2014

Hi #Treksters welcome to the one year anniversary of The Engage Podcast launch! Where precisely on Friday 3rd of October 2014 at Destination Star Trek 3 me, Simon and Phil broadcast our podcast to you all!    


Since our launch we have researched, recorded and released a colossal 22 episodes for topics of discussion from the hypothetical like our episode Who would you go on Shore Leave with? to the more in depth such as Star Trek Role models and our guest interviews with various other Trek podcasters and bloggers alike!

We just wanted to take a moment and thank everyone who has helped us since our launch in October from all our fellow Treksters who have followed and supported us on Facebook and Twitter, reading our blogs and downloading/playing the episodes we upload on Podomatic. We hope you have enjoyed and will continue to listening to our episodes and that have entertained you and been educational in whatever form.

Secondly to our fellow podcasters and bloggers who are too numerous to mention who have welcomed us into the Trek podcast/general community at large we thank you including those have been guests on our Podcast and vice versa. We couldn't have done any of this without you!



Initially borne out of an idea by me of listening to another Trek Podcast, Make it So. I turn to Simon one day and say "hey, why don't we do something like this, it sounds like fun!"

Simon agreed and has since with assistance from me and Phil built up the podcast to how we wanted to go by the time we launched last year. Credit to Simon for suggesting we go live at DST3. It has been an amazing journey with these guys and our fellow Treksters and podcasters alike!

Like with the one year anniversary blog post Simon wrote, it is only fitting to hear from him and Phil as they also orchestrated the success of us going live about how they feel how far we've come since we launched a year ago today, so it's over to you guys!            

Simon

I can’t believe it’s already been 365 days since we launched the podcast at Destination Star Trek 3. Where we started our adventure with a bang…doing our ‘Fan Panel’ on the Borg! (Thank you to Neil Green, Sam from the Trekkie Girls, and Media 10 for making it possible).

Since then we’ve done more topics (and interviews) than I can remember, making me think that it’s been “one hell of a year”.
As some of you know, it has taken us a long time in development just to launch the podcast...so to make it to our one year anniversary is quite humbling.
After all the trials and tribulations we’ve had since our quite modest beginnings with Jamie asking me “Si, do you want to start a podcast?” all those years ago!

So I’m going to mirror what I said in the Blog’s one year anniversary post, by saying that without you listening to the podcast on a regular basis, we wouldn't have a need to record ever more exciting and intriguing episodes!!!

Thank you all for your continued support!
You have no idea how much we really appreciate it!!!

Simon
Executive Producer (and host)
The Engage Podcast

Now over to Phil (or Jamie) depending on how Jamie’s organised this blog post!!! #FunnyTrekkie #lol

Phil
Happy Birthday podcast!!!
I can’t believe it’s been a year since we got this baby off the ground, and what a year it’s been!!!
As at the heart of it it’s been bloody good fun, and for that I want to thank Simon & Jamie. Because if it wasn't for them it would just be me talking about how bad Operation Annihilate[!] was...hehe!

We have been pleased (and amazed) with the amount of help we’ve received from so many other podcasters and associated people alike.
I would also like to just take a moment to personally thank Neil Green and the gorgeous ladies from the Trek Girls (including The Original TiT)!
e.g. the #NaughtyTiT (see Twitter it will make sense)

But the group of people I want to thank more than anyone else, is you! Yes…you our loyal Treksters!
I hope you’ve liked our first year just as much as we’ve enjoyed making the podcast, and I’m sure you’ll love what we have in store for you in the future!

Beam me up, Phil out!

Thanks guys! So that ends another blog! And our official first year on the podcast, so it's onwards from here! Thanks again for all your support everyone! And we hope you have enjoyed reading!

As usual I'll be back with another blog soon. So until then this is Jamie from the Engage Podcast warping off into the unknown! Punch it!