Our original crew of the Starship Enterprise, with creator Gene Rodenberry, in front of the Shuttle Enterprise. Bright sunny day, smiles from our Star Trek actors, the dream seemed so assured and confident, science fiction would slowly become science fact as we pushed forward, ever forward. Maybe one day these ‘spaceplanes’ would lead to passenger versions we all could ride into the Final Frontier. The shuttle’s history may be over today, but the dream, that remains… Perhaps one day the Shuttle too will have its own Next Generation.

(a page from Darryl’s Moon Hoax comic dealing with the Mythbuster’s own effective conspiracy busting, art by Darryl, Mythbusters (c) Discovery Channel)

I’m rather pleased Darryl chose this for his next comics project, not just because it means a new Darryl strip but because like many a comics and SF fan I’m also a space geek. The Apollo missions have to stand as one of the most incredible undertakings in all of human history – I mean think about it, only seven decades after the Wright Brothers made a first flight of a few seconds we had human beings travelling to the Moon and walking on that surface, which had been an enigma to human beings since they first stood upright on the African plains and looked up into the sky and wondered. It’s an amazing combination of science, engineering and courage that for one brief, magical moment united the entire species, and it makes me very angry when idiots try to pretend it was all fake. It’s like claiming aliens built the pyramids – as the great Gene Rodenberry once said, no, people did that because they are inventive and clever and resourceful. It’s insulting and given the overwhelming evidence, it’s plain stupid. Not that you can tell a conspiracy nut that, they will just assume you and the people doing the explaining are in on the Big Secret (paranoia, there you go, a link to Darryl’s Psychiatric Tales!). So I take no small amount of satisfaction in seeing Darryl mount up his high horse, grab his lance and thrust it into the balloon of stupidity.

I know a lot of my fellow science ficiton geeks are as fascinated by real life space exploration as we are by the fictional; the BBC site has a wonderful five minute slideshow of some of the finest deep space images produced over the last twenty years by the Hubble Space Telescope (is it really twenty years already?). Even if you aren’t especially interested in astronomy and space exploration it’s well worth five minutes of your time as some of the images are remarkable. All the more so when you consider we’re not just being shown sights from across incredibly vast distances but also looking back into time itself -- sometimes very deep time, closer to the actual origin of the universe itself -- while the Hubble orbits our own tiny patch of creation. Planet Earth may be only a miniscule part of the cosmos, but our home comes with some astonishing views. It’s a small glimpse into the real final frontier, the realms where the fictional starships of our imagination like the Enterprise have explored, but so far we’ve only seen from afar, an endless sea of stars waiting to be explored for real (one day, one day…). As the late and much missed Carl Sagan once put it “the surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. Recently we’ve waded a little way out and the water seems inviting…”

Which reminds me of a video I’d been meaning to share featuring the late Carl Sagan (a real champion not only of scientific research but of the importance of making everyone aware of that knowledge, not only for it’s practical applications to human learning but for the sheer joy in exploring the marvels of the universe; if you’re lucky that’s a quality of wonder you’ll keep inside you for life). Melodysheep -- aka John Boswell -- put together a lovely musical tribute, reworking images and speech from Sagan’s groundbreaking television series Cosmos (a series I marvelled at as a boy, Carl was always good not only at explaining science but at imparting that sheer sense of wonder), with a cameo from Stephen Hawking and footage from Cosmos, where Sagan travelled space in a ship powered not by rockets, ion drive or even fictional warp drive but by something far more powerful, that endless power source, the imagination… Boswell has a web site, Colourpulse, with more of his electronic music, including the Sagan ‘Glorious Dawn’ soundtrack, which you can download.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc

(the emblem for Apollo 11, (c) NASA; among the many programmes the BBC has mounted for the 40th anniversary you can hear Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin himself recalling those days here)

Strip!: There’s no time like the present, tonight at 5pm on Resonance FM, podcast after transmission on Panel Borders

Starting Sci-Fi comics month on the show, Alex Fitch talks to small press creator Paul Rainey about his serialised graphic novel There’s no time like the present which he has been self publishing as individual comic books over the past five years. TNTLTP tells the story of a group of friends from Milton Keynes who suffer from the usual concerns of our generation – niche interests, unfulfilling jobs, difficulties with dating etc. – but in a world where time travel exists and the UK in the present day is a holiday vacation for patronising visitors from the future. Alex and Paul talk about the latter’s influences from Alan Bleasdale to Doctor Who, Kurt Vonnegut to Coronation Street, how the opening of a new memorial in Milton Keynes is best attended by a Dalek and the process of telling a long form narrative with an unusual structure.

(frames from early There’s No Time Like the Present by and (c) Paul B Rainey)

I’m ready for my close-up: Kenneth Anger, Friday 3rd July at 5pm on Resonance FM

Virginie Sélavy talks to infamous experimental film maker Kenneth Anger about his career, from ground breaking shorts such as his Magick Lantern Cycle and Scorpio Rising in the 1960s, to his recent return to the medium after a twenty year break.

Reality Check: Female action heroes, online at SciFi London on July 3rd

To coincide with the release of updates of the Terminator franchise and Blood: The last Vampire, Alex Fitch talks to actress Linda Hamilton about her career, working with Arnold Schwarzenegger and becoming a feminist icon. Alex also talks to anime expert Helen McCarthy about the various incarnations of Blood: The Last Vampire, the Japanese version of Buffy which has moved from TV animation to manga, video games and now live action cinema.

Previous podcasts:

Panel Borders: The art of Rutu Modan, part one, part two

Concluding cross cultural comics month on the show: In an interview conducted live at the Jewish Community Centre in North London, Roehampton University Illustration lecturer Ariel Kahn interviews award-winning graphic novelist Rutu Modan about her work from the acclaimed Exit Wounds to her new collection Jamilti and Other Stories. Rutu and Ariel talk about her influences, the difficulties in depicting a city as rich and diverse as Tel Aviv in print and adjusting to life in England.

Reality Check: For all Mankind, online at SciFi London now

To coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Moon landing, we’re looking at space exploration in fact and fiction. Alex Fitch talks to Sir Patrick Moore about the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969, which saw man first take a small step onto another world, and about entering his sixth decade as presenter of The Sky at Night. Also, Chris Patmore talks to NASA advisor Dr. Kevin Fong about current research into keeping men and women alive on future space missions and how this is reflected in the depiction of such science in Battlestar Galactica.