Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 576
Science Fiction
Hello Everyone
ln the autumn of 2021, the people who worked at the Pentagon (the United States headquarters for their government department responsible for the defence of the country) announced that they were launching a task force to study reports of UFO sightings in restricted airspace. That means things flying about in places where they shouldn’t be.
Lots of people had been seeing strange lights and even oddly shaped objects in the sky in different places which could not be identified as aircraft we knew about. And the US government told the public it was about time they took action to see whether this activity was real and any threat to people.
The task force would be lead by top military and intelligence (like spies) people.
The government was publically admitting that they thought that there may well be alien space ships watching us and they needed to investigate.
Of course many people have thought for a long time that our planet has been being watched and visited by aliens (beings originating from other planets). Some people even claim to have seen large space ships above their heads and have even had encounters with the aliens who were travelling in them.
Maybe, some of these people have been telling the truth; maybe some had wild imaginations.
Many talk about time they can’t account for – in other words they were watching a UFO and then couldn’t remember what happened next. They found themselves in a different place, and didn’t know how they got there, but lots of time had passed.
Some of these people have suffered otherwise unexplained radiation burns, and some have later had strange fragments of unusual material surgically removed from their bodies by doctors. These tiny chips of material seem to be emitting a signal like a tracking device would – until they were removed.
These things are hard to fake!
Some people believe that governments have known more about aliens than they are letting on. lf this is true, it may be because they don’t want people to be scared; or they may want to ensure that we all keep our own national identities so that they can keep political control over their people – rather than us all seeing ourselves as earthlings in a wider context (l mean in the whole universe).
Of course, the idea that aliens exist is not new. Stories about space travel, robots that look like humans called androids (humanoid robots) and many other fantastical scientific developments have been written about for a long time.
Some of the imaginings of science fiction writers would, in time, come true.
Science fiction television programmes of the 1950s and 1960s had computers and robots that talk to humans. They now exist in reality.
Gerry Anderson’s characters from Thunderbirds made in the 1960s talked on telephones that had screens so that you could see who you were talking to. These exist now too. You might have one yourself.
(Mind you, the evil villain always used to block his face from view!)
The movies made about alien invasion in the 1950s were mostly very scary and played into people’s fear of the unknown. But in the decades that followed films and television programmes about extraterrestrial (not from Planet Earth) life portrayed them as more benign and friendly and willing to work with us rather than wanting to destroy us.
One of the most famous (and successful) movies about aliens visiting Earth was called Close Encounters of the Third Kind written and directed by Steven Spielberg. lt was released in 1977. Apparently he got the idea from an incident he remembered as a child; watching a meteor shower with his dad.
The most famous and successful film series with a travelling in space theme must be Star Wars created by George Lucas launched in 1977. The first film became so successful that many movies were made after that and had lots of fans all over the world. Toys, exhibitions and conventions (meetings for fans) followed.
Stories about creatures that are not human go back to ancient mythologies from many hundreds of years ago. Fantastical stories were written in the 1600s and the 1700s too. You would have heard of Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathon Swift and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
Very famous science fiction (sometimes shortened to sci-fi) writers of more modern times; they started writing many stories in the late 1800s, were Jules Verne (a French author who wrote Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Around the World in Eighty Days) and H. G. Wells (and English author who wrote War of the Worlds).
They wrote about many futuristic ideas from their imaginations that have since come true.
Things like modern methods of travel, communication and weapons.
Lots of science fiction films show society going wrong or even the end of the world. This kind of story doesn’t cheer you up much – but might be helpful as a warning of what can happen if you are not careful!
They certainly create a sense of wonder.
And science fiction is the basis for many modern computer games.
Probably the best loved television series about space travel is Star Trek.
lt was first made in the mid 1960s. lt was gloriously colourful in a time when more and more people were getting colour televisions. Black and white televisions were widespread before this decade.
The stories were set far in the future. They were full of peril and the crew of the Starship USS Enterprise’s lives were often in danger. The creators of the series said that they got the idea for it from many texts including Gulliver’s Travels.
The space travellers could encounter other life in space as they travelled or visit a planet’s surface. They had shuttle craft to use and they were parked inside the starship but it was faster to dematerialize and rematerialize in another place.
They called this beaming.
They could beam down from the spaceship to the surface of a planet or into another spaceship.
You will notice that any actor not seen before, that beamed down to a planet surface wearing a red T-shirt, would probably not last very long. Those red T-shirts were often the kiss of death!
But after often nearly meeting their end, the main characters always lived to see another day – well episode anyway.
A crew of about 400 military personnel travelled in the Enterprise. The Enterprise was just one starship in a fleet operating for a federation (The United Federation of Planets) that charged them with the task of seeking out new planets and civilizations.
The crew’s mission came above their own lives if necessary – the galaxy was full of danger. The Klingons were often causing trouble. They were not in the Federation!
The crew was lead by Captain James T. Kirk. His second in command was his Second Officer and also Science Officer the brainy Mr Spock.
Mr Spock’s mother was a human and his father was a Vulcan. He had pointed ears and a pale face because his blood was green. The blood was green because it was full of copper not iron like human blood.
Dr McCoy was often needed to tend injuries and illness with his nurse Christine helping.
You will notice these main characters were very slender. This was because the programme was made before the habitual use of fast food, convenience foods and processed foods.
You will also notice that most of the humanoid aliens the crew encountered whilst travelling through the galaxy happened to speak English – which was obviously very handy!
Anyway back to the crew on the Enterprise…
The very beautiful and glamorous Lieutenant Uhura was in charge of communications and Helmsmen Sulu and Chekov steered the ship. Uhura is Swahili for ‘freedom’.
There were huge opportunities for anyone with a vivid imagination to write scripts and design creatures, sets and costumes for the episodes.
The series became so popular that it had a cult following of fans who called themselves Trekkies and met in conventions all over the world.
ln the early 1980s, the idea was revived and series were made for decades after that. The starship was a different shape. lt was darker and less colourful inside and in some episodes that followed the captain was a woman.
The followers of this version were caller Trekkers.
Films, video games, animations, books, comics and toys were made with characters from the series. Museum exhibits travel the world and there is a themed exhibit in Las Vegas.
But that is not the end of the story.
When James Doohan who played Scotty the chief engineer who kept the ship going through all sorts of deep space problems and alien attack died, his ashes were taken into space for a while before being buried by his family.
And William Shatner who played Captain James T.Kirk at the age of 90 really did go into space when he was a guest on a space rocket sent up by Jeff Bezos in the autumn of 2021. He said that the experience was so wonderful that he never wanted to get over it.
What science fiction of today do you think will become science fact of the future?
Bye bye everyone – don’t forget to subscribe to my blog!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bill: Do you happen to know what weapons were used in the Cold War?
Bob: Yes l do actually. The Russians were using Lemsip and the Americans were using Night Nurse!
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.
Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com
Picture Gallery
The Pentagon
Thunderbirds could travel very fast
A large spaceship
R2d2 and C3po from Star Wars
Movies have been made of Jules Verne stories
and his books have been translated into many languages
G. Wells’ famous story
Gulliver’s Travels
Star Trek
The Original Series
The USS Enterprise in the original series
Captain Kirk with phaser gun
Mr Spock with his Vulcan greeting
The mission continued
with other ships and other captains
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
How do you like to spend your winter evenings?
Well, I mean after you have finished your homework?
Do you like to snuggle up under a blanket and watch lots of television?
Do you like to play board games with your friends?
Or maybe you like to write in your journal or listen to music?
Maybe you like doing handicrafts or drawing in a sketch pad?
Or maybe you like reading lots of books curled up in front of a hearth place in a darkened room?
My Auntie Alice reads so many books that she borrows them from the library so she doesn’t have to buy a new book every time she wants to read one.
(Although there are book shops that have very reasonably priced books in sales sometimes, or even charity shops that sell books at a good price to for people to find too.)
My Auntie Alice likes reading novels – that of course means a big book full of one long story.
Sometimes, you just don’t want to do any more learning, you just want to relax and drift off into another world
So anyway, last week she went to the library to see what interesting books she could find.
There was a pile of books labelled ‘Newly Arrived!’
“That looks exciting!” she thought and went to have a rummage to see what took her fancy.
Which book would you have chosen?
Dodging Bullets by Vera Way
Making Progress by Sally Forth
Revelations by Penny Drops
Getting Better by I. M. O’Kay
Being Sure by Val Adate
My Country by Olivia Nowe
Deciduous Trees by Leaf Russells
Revealing the Truth by B. Frank
Great Victories and Close Shaves by Justin Thyme
Conquering Mountains by Hugh Gwone
Making Decisions by Willy O. R. Knott
Finding Happiness by Joy A. Bounds
Anyway, then she went home through the miserable February weather along the muddy lanes with an armful of books, and then settled down in the cosy living room of her cottage to get started on reading them.
She still had some chocolates left from the box that Captain Jack had given her on St Valentine’s Day.
So she made herself a cup of hot coffee, started tucking into the last of the chocolates and fell into a world of imagination.
Can you work out what she discovered in the centres of her chocolates?
P _ a _ i _ e
O _ a _ g _
C _ f _ e _
B _ a _ i _ n _ t
M _ r _ i _ a _
T _ r _ i _ h d _ l _ g _ t
C _ c _ n _ t
*********************
*********************
Quick Quiz
What do these units of measurement measure?
- centigrade
- therm
- kilo
- fluid ounce
- mark
- metre
- mile
- mph
- Beaufort scale
- bushel
- peck
- humidity
- volt
- milligauss
- lumen
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE EARWlG TRAPS
If you are having trouble in your garden with pesky earwigs, here is a plan to trap them.
Get some yoghurt pots and curls strips of corrugated cardboard up inside them.
Put each pot upside-down on top of a garden cane.
Each morning, you should be able to tip the earwigs out into a bucket.
Putting these pots on top of staking canes is a clever idea because if you lean over and don’t see the top pokey part of a cane you could have an accident!
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
Answers to the News Desk Quiz
Praline
Orange
Coffee
Brazil nut
Marzipan
Turkish delight
Coconut
Quick Quiz Answers
- centigrade – temperature
- therm – heat energy
- kilo – weight
- fluid ounce – amount of liquid
- mark – performance
- metre – length
- mile – distance
- mph – speed in miles per hour
- Beaufort scale – wind speed
- bushel – capacity or bulk of liquid or dry goods
- peck – capacity or bulk of dry goods
- humidity – moisture/water vapour in the atmosphere
- volt – electricity
- milligauss – electromagnetic fields in the atmosphere
- lumen – quantity of visible light – (look at the side of a light bulb box to see how bright a bulb will be)
