1984: Space

1984 ... it seemed a year when anything and everything was possible. Computers had arrived and were appearing everywhere. And the year seemed to contain one after another Space Shuttle missions. Technology, it seemed, was hitting it's stride ...

In all there were almost half a dozen flights this year in the Discovery and Challenger shuttles. Not bad for a launch vehicle which had it’s maiden voyage just a few years previously. NASA firsts included the first use of a jetpack for a space launch, first repair of a satellite in-space, and first retrieval of a satellite which was brought back to Earth. Oh yes, and growing crystals in zero-gravity – send a man into space and just try to stop them from growing crystals in zero-g (or more accurately microgravity) …

On the more sinister side of things, one shuttle was “shot” by a laser used from the Russian base Sary Shagan to track it – the crew reported discomfort, and a complaint lodged by NASA. And almost unnoticed, NASA contractors begin to suspect there was a problem with the solid rocket boosters – a problem which in 1986 would cause the loss of the crew in Challenger disaster.

But in the present of 1984, it was an optimistic age – well as optimistic as a society under threat of nuclear war could be. Technology was mankind’s friend, and nothing could go wrong. Computers seemed infallible. And nowhere did this trust in technology as a saviour seem more apparent than in President Reagan’s Strategic Defence Initiative or “Star Wars” program which aimed to have a chain of satellites armed with lasers as a defensive umbrella for America against nuclear missiles.

About this time I caught the bug trying to become a science fiction writer, inspired in equal measures by Star Trek, Arthur C. Clarke and a general love of technology. The exercise books I filled and still have give an insight into the mind of a teen geek from the era ...

• the Zeko (because to be sci-fi, names have to begin with a “Z”) is the main ship of Earth’s defence fleet, powered as it is by safe, clean nuclear energy (erm … okay)
• the enemy of Earth was a group called the Zurg (again with the “Z”) who were a group of robots (nothing like the Cylons of course) and robots have nothing better to do with their existence except destroy all humans
• the ship has a powerful supercomputer descended from the ZX Spectrum (no – I’m not making this up)
• the ship is the size of a small moon (but it’s a battlestation!)
• the ship contains a small army of maintenance robots, also built by the Sinclair corporation (I know I should update it to Amstrad these days)
• the ship contained an array of Kate Platts clones (she was the Abbot Beyne pin up girl – the school’s super-athletic Wonder Woman) ... before you ask, if I had pictures of her I'd be posting them!

It should be said though that this final idea seems an early precursor to something used regarding in the new Battlestar Galactica’s Boomer who is played by Grace Park (who bears more than a passing resemblance to Kate Platts). It was revealed at the end of season one that Cylon motherships carry a large number of naked Boomer clones. WHY? Maybe those Cylons just cannot get enough of those Asian babes? I should be angry they stole my idea, but I myself am just pleased to see an adolescent fantasy brought to life in some way …

My current writing project is about an orphaned boy who finds out he is really a wizard … nevermind I’ll go back to the drawing board …


All material copyrighted as bullsh*t ...