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7 February 2011
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Star Trek | Interviews
Andre Bormanis


Picture Andre Bormanis
Andre is the show's science advisor. He is responsible for making sure that nothing about the show is too... illogical. He's the one who fills in all of those bits about graviton pulses and tricorders.

What Do You Do, Then?
  The role of the science advisor on the show.

Physics, Astrophysics, Computing
  What background gives you the knowledge to do all that?

Scientific Input
  In the original series the input of real scientists was quite ad hoc. By Next Generation it became a permanent role.

Big Science
  Is that unusual that you would have that level of science input to a sci-fi show?

Filling Space
  Where do you get the ideas from?

Stretching the Imagination
  Tell me how the script arrives with you with holes in it.

Random Coincidence
  Do you find they push you to make connections and make solutions?

Thinking the Future
  What happened when Star Trek was accused of inside knowledge?

The Two Cultures
  So Star Trek became quite an accurate science think tank?

The March of Progress
  You don't usually have scientists with a drama and creative writing background - the two don�t normally meet, do they?

She Cannae Take It!
  In 80 years, what changed between the original series and TNG?

Re-engineering
  The orignal Warp speed only went to 7 or 8.

Core Breach!
  The ship changed quite a lot as well.

Moving a Long Way On
  The new ships can dump their core, can�t they?

Calculator or Mother-in Law?
  Did Voyager have any technical advances?

Android a Go-Go
  The ships computer - it�s polite, respectful and quite restrained, really.

Being Human
  Data was a technical advance to Next Generation, wasn�t he?

Pesky Neutrinos
  Data tries to create a child and fails.

Upgrades
  Didn�t you evolve a way of checking whether something had a cloaking device?

16k of Memory?
  Weapons, phasers, torpedoes, that kind of thing. How much better were they by Next Generation?

Please State the Nature of the Medical Emergency
  You invented something called a kiloquad?

Micro Machines
  Another progression by the time we got to Voyager was the emergency holographic medical program.

De-Assimilation
  Nanotechnology arrived with the Borg.

Black and White and Retro
  There�s hope because you can be turned back into a human.

I, Robot
  The Borg just look good.

Mappa Mundi, Mappa Galactica
  Did you mention that some scientists have experimented with an actual implant?

Credible Co-Ordinates
  The quadrants - is there a kind of Star Trek map?

One's Black, One's in your Lawn
  So any astronomer would find all that technically quite accurate?

Interesting Misfire
  We had black holes in the original series, but by Next Generation we�d got a wormhole. How are they different?

Aluminium Perchlorate
  When did wormholes first appear in the scripts?

Foley Fun
  Can you just talk about the original transporter effects?

More Tech?
  What do about the sound effects? Did you ever do any research into those and how did they develop?

Technobabble
  Did science have a high profile from Next Generation onwards? Michael Piller called it Piller filler. Were you writing more tech stuff in there?

Who's Best?
  We�ve talked to quite a few actors and they all hate the technical lines. Do you ever come across the actors and they give you some feedback on the stuff you make them learn?

Better, Faster, More
  So who are the best babblers? LeVar Burton and Brent Spiner seem to quite like it.

Duonetic Fields
  Could you have more elaborate ideas from Next Generation onwards because of advanced techniques in CGI and VisFX?

To Beam or Not To Beam
  Can you think about some of the lines you�re most proud of, technically?

Combat Forces
  Talk about the things you created which make it work.

Inertial Dampeners Offline?
  The Inertial Dampening Mechanism.

No Seat Belts!
  When the ship�s hit by phasers from another ship, it shakes a lot. So that�s not the same principle�

Timid New World
  Patrick Stewart talked about doing bits of ship shake.

A Fascinating Universe
  Is Star Trek science so appealing to everybody because people are disillusioned with the slow pace of the space programme in real life?

The Televisual Landscape
  Buzz Aldrin said that space travel is fantastically slow -it takes 40 years to get to Alpha Centauri and we know there�s not that much there. It�s not as exciting as science fiction.

Art Deco Retro Futurism
  Science fiction on television before Star Trek. What was around in the �60s?

Never Beam Down
  You�re setting something 100 years from now and 100 years before the Enterprise. The original series now looks dated, but you�ve got to go before that, but in the future. Quite a tough job.

Enterprise
  Can you tell me about the role of the transporter in this? Apparently it�s only used for cargo because it�s a dodgy thing to travel in?

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