From: ckeroack@hamp.hampshire.edu
Subject: Review w/Spoilers: Boston Museum of Science Exhibit
Organization: Hampshire College
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 14:52:26 GMT

		I just went to the Boston Museum of Science's "Star Trek:
Federation Science" exhibit this past weekend, and thought I'd share some
impressions. If you really want to be thoroughly surprised, skip to the next
post. If not, then take a gander ahead and sample my first-ever shot at
reviewing...































		There were 2 main sections to the exhibit: a walk-through,
hands-on portion with displays and consoles and all sorts o neat things, and
then a show at the planetarium. So I'll review 'em separately. Keep in mind
that I've never been to a con in my life, so I'm basing any materials to be
found or set-up at face value and according to friends of mine who've been to
cons before.

Da Floor Show: 

	Production: 10.  Wow. Very, very well-presented, for such a relatively
small exhibit; it only took up one 100' square area, but was laid out well. The
graphics for the hands-on computer simulations (over half of which were
touch-screens) were all done on a Mac, all taken from official designs and
fonts and such for TNG, with laserdisc technology all over the place, from the
large-screen setup to smaller instructiuonal videos (subtitled for the deaf,
which I thought was a nice touch). The main attractions were the "transporter"
VR stations (2 of them), a 4-station faux-bridge with computer games which let
you practice applied science, a somewhat lesser Trek-style setup scattered 
through the exhibit which displayed some science fact, original costumes from
the series and a 15-minute talk on some of the limits of Trek "science".

	Transporter Simulation: 6. People stood in front of a blue screen and
watched themselves be "beamed out" from a transporter pad sown to some select
sight, using stills from TNG ("Encounter at Farpoint", mostly) as backdrops.
This was the reason I didn't give it much higher than a 6 was that I was
expecting a "trek" style beam-out and back and got a TV-static-"snow" sort of
deal instead. Plus, due to the technique used (which I can't remember the name
of right now), since I was decked out mostly in black I appeared on the screen
as a disembodied head and a pair of hands, mostly. =) Oh well.
				    The virtual reality portion was actually
fairly well done, though; there were about 3 or four different scenarios that
were rotated through in which you could affect the action on the screen. The
most common theme was deflecting balls or rocks around, and it worked fairly
accurately, though it was hard to try to "reverse" my motion in my head so that
me moving to the left affected that little red ball dropping down on the right
and so on. Plus, since my girlfriend and a friend of mine were with me, we soon
found balls bouncing off of each other's heads, shoulders, knees.... naturally,
the VR setup wasn't too discriminating. But it was still rather impressive.
	
	Main Viewer: 9. They had a very nice large-screen monitor with a
starfield going, and "attached" to this were 4 TNG-style stations. At these
stations, you could learn about such things as orbits, vectors, and so on, with
Data, Riker, Worf or Geordi leading you through. If you were doing badly, a
still shot of them (Data's and Worf's in particular were very nicely done;
Riker's pose looked goofy, though =) ) would appear, along with text and their
voice saying something to the effect of "perhaps you should ask the computer
about...". The touch screens were fairly responsive, and the computer (complete
with Majel's voice) was well laid out so that you actually had to ask questions
and use it to its full advantage to "win" the scenario. I don't remember what
the other scenarios were, but the ones I did were: Trying to get into
synchronous orbit with a station (Riker); trying to use a tractor beam to
divert an asteroid from colliding with a planet (Worf). Data's was something
akin to matching a frequency with some distant probe, and I don't remember what
Geordi's was. Worf's was the most amusing, with stern commentary from him
putting some pressure on me ("that is *not* helping to alter the trajectory";
"you failed to divert the asteroid. it hit the planet's surface leaving a 
crater a kilometer in diameter and 300 meters deep. you are relieved of
duty."). If a person successfully made it through the scenario, they got to
choose 2 images from a menu of possible images to be played on the main viewer,
including warping, asteroid collisions, exploding stars, and part of the battle
from "Yesterday's Enterprise". Even though one of the stations hiccupped at one
point and wasn't back on for about 5 minutes, generally it ran smoothly and was
really nicely done.
	
	Other stations and Random Trek Memorabilia: 6. Standard stuff, it
seemed. A lot of the other demonstrations on gravity and propulsion and such
were setup in typical Boston Museum of Science fashion, with a little Trek
added to it. Nothing spectacular. The voice recognition computer was, as
always, a disappointment; unless one invests an obscene amount in it, it's not
that good. 
							There was a couple of
booths where using mirrors and such you could "merge" your face with a Klingon
or a Ferengi head mask. I look pretty good as a Klingon, BTW. =)
							The rest of the exhibit
was peppered with full-size booths which had sample costumes in them, including
Picard's uniform, Guinan's outift with the tear-drop-shaped hat, a Klingon
ceremonial outfit from one of the movies, a Federation dress uniform from
either ST3 or 4, Kirk's desert outfit from ST5 and various other minor roles'
costumes. 

	Trek Science Fact / Fiction demo: 6. A multimedia thang, with a BMoS
worker explaining such things as orbital decay , why space battles should
actually be silent (leading into a fairly substantial, albeit brief, jab at
those who insist on "realism" and "accuracy" in Trek.. =) =) =) =) =) =) ...
roughly translating to "it wouldn't be as much fun like this", he said, showing
the battle from Yesterday's Enterprise first as we saw it and then silently),
etc. The speech was well-coordinated with the televised bits, putting in clips
from both Treks that were actually cleverly chosen. 

	Trek Shop: 4. Ehh. A lot of the stuff you could get at any con a lot
cheaper, I'm sure. And a lot more readily; the place wasn't all that well
stocked. And the items that you could only get there, really, since they were
specific to the exhibit at the BMoS, were *very* overpriced ($100 for a jacket,
$70 - $80 for a sweatshirt, etc.). Don't go here to buy anything Trek. Well,
maybe a pin. But all the other stuff you could find elsewhere: mugs, books,
figurines, posters (including a clever one entitled "All I Ever Needed to Know
I Learned From Star Trek"), costumes (not very high-quality ones; I could
assemble a better one by going to sci-fi shops in town and picking up
communicators and pips and such separately...

	Planetarium Show: 10!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Wow. It was a *very* nice blend of
science fact and fiction. Ever so slightly didatic, but hey, you can't talk
about science in a generic Trek setting without doing so. 
		          There were lots of nice "little" touches, like the
attendant's Lt. Commander Engineering uniform, the Fed logo on the front of his
planetarium control panel, the "Trekking up" of his control panel with
Okuda/Sternbach-style panels, the "observation shields" that were projected on
the screen, the logos on the doors. 
			  The basic premise was that we were all cadets on a
training mission from a Neptune outpost on the Federation Starship Antares.
There was a stable series of wormholes, dubbed "the rabbithole" for its
jumping-around and its Alice-In-Wonderland feeling, starting from Neptune and
jumping to various points and phenomena in and around Orion's Belt. Geordi and
the ship's Captain, whose name escapes me, talk us through the various sites,
mixing 20th century science, 20th century theory/24th century fact and a bit of
Trek pseudohistory to make a very enjoyable show (with a surprise visit at the
end from a certain person aboard a certain vessel rendezvousing with the
Antares at the end). The warp effects, wormholes and all the presentation of
science fact and fiction made me gasp and bounce about like a little kid. I was
thoroughly impressed.


		So I guess that's about that. With an average overall of 7.3,
methinks this was a very good exhibit. The planetarium show alone made it all
worthwhile, and they do allow you to take pictures inside the exhibit, so
there's an opportunity to get some neat shots of uniforms and costumes and
mockups and such (including a very nice setup of 6x5 foot pictures of Captains
and Number Ones past and present), though obviously you can't do such in the
planetarium. To avoid the crowds, get your tix in advance and show up spot on
9:00, because by the time we had gotten our tix and wandered a bit before
entering, the early-morning crowd was just barely comfortable and when we were
done walking through about 2 1/2 hours later the lines for tickets were
absolutely obscene (as in all the way around the 5 or 6 loops in front of the
booth and then backed up most of the way down the very very looong corridor.
All in all a very nice day. (And if you're thinking of showing up in uniform
wyou'll be rather out of place. The whole time we were there we only saw one
person in uniform, a commander's one that was 2 sizes too large for the poor
costumed 9-year-old within. =)

		Ciao. Oh, don't send to me asking for directions or phone
numbers; I am in no way affiliated with the Boston Museum of Science or its
associates, and I have a very poor sense of direction. =)
 

-------------------------------Chris Keroack------------------------------------
       Layout Coordinator for UpComing, The Magazine of Speculative Fiction
     Inquiries to jlmiller@hamp.hampshire.edu or ckeroack@hamp.hampshire.edu
  Submissions (w/SASE) to UpComing,Box 566,Hampshire College,Amherst,MA.,01002.
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