“I just love scanning for life forms.”
-
Data
(Brent Spiner) in Star Trek: Generations (1994)
-
It would be difficult to scan for
life forms, indeed, without some nice hand-held technology to help out in the
cause.
And cult television has given audiences
some great developments on this front.
If you grew up in the late 1960s and early 1970s, you no doubt recall with fondness Star Trek’s (1966 – 1969) tricorder, and early cell-phone-like
device, the communicator. If you were
into pretend play as a kid, you absolutely
needed these devices if you hoped to form an adequate landing party. You needed to be able to contact your fellow
officers, and determine what kind of menace was present on the planet surface…
In later generations, both the
tricorder and communicator received face-lifts to keep up with the times (and
the revolution in miniaturization), and Star Trek: The Next Generation gave
us the PADD, a revolutionary device which looks and functions a lot like today’s ultra-popular
tablets. Basically, the PADD is a
portable computer, able to call up data instantly, and the acronym stands for
Personal Access Display Device. Spelled
out, that description very much resembles the function of today’s iPad or
Android.
A few years after the original Star
Trek, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s Space: 1999 (1975-1977) introduced viewers
to the ultra-cool commlock, a device that could interface with Moonbase Alpha’s main computer, lock and unlock doors, tell time, and also function as a communicator with a
small, built-in video screen.
I’ve always preferred the
commlock to the Star Trek communicator, but I can’t argue that our technology
has gone the way of the communicator instead.
We don’t vid-phone each other all the time, and last time, I checked,
our phones don’t (yet…) open and close our doors. But in forty-eight episodes, Space:
1999 also showcased a number of very cool-looking hand-held devices,
from radiation detectors, to life-form scanners, to specimen analyzers. Unfortunately, many of these devices tended
not to show-up on a regular basis, and if they did re-appear, they often served
different functions.
Doctor Who’s all-purpose sonic screwdriver is
another well-known example of cult-tv, hand-held technology at its finest, a
device that can perform literally any function its owner can devise. The sonic
screwdriver first appeared “officially” on the BBC series in 1968, during the
Patrick Troughton era and over the decades the Time Lord tech has detonated mines, unlocked
doors, operated as a “lance” to cut locks, shone ultraviolet light, amplified
sound, repaired electrical wires, disabled alien weaponry, and even healed injured
people. On one occasion, the sonic
screwdriver took on the capacities of a remote control.
In 1977, The Fantastic Journey
came up with an interesting variation on the sonic screwdriver, a sonic
energizer, which resembled a high-tech tuning-fork. It was both a medical healing device and a
weapon when wielded by its owner, Varian (Jared Martin), a medical man from a peaceful
future society.
Sometimes in cult-tv history,
hand-held technology has been important to the very premise of a program. In Voyagers! (1982), Phineas Bogg
(John-Erik Hexum) and Jeffrey Jones (Meeno Peluce) were tasked with preserving
and restoring the correct flow of time.
To help them, they had one tool: the Omni. It was a portable device -- like a stopwatch
-- that featured a globe of Earth, and two indicators, one red --- showing trouble -- and one green, showing
everything a-ok. Thus the time travelers
could periodically check on their progress and determine if their work was
done.
Similarly, the Sterlings of Otherworld
(1985) carried one significant piece of hand-held tech: Nuveen Kroll’s access
key, a cylindrical device which permitted them to access the various technology
(maps, computer systems, hover cars…) of the distinctive provinces they
encountered in the course of their adventures.
In the wide scope of cult television series we've seen hand-held tech as translators (such as Battlestar Galactcia's "languatron"), as life form scanners for police (Logan's Run [1977]) and more.
Recent programs, such as Primeval
(2006 - ) have also showcased portable tech too, namely in the form of the Anomaly
Detection Device built by Connor. A
prototype of the ADD appeared in one second season episode, before a more
advanced design was introduced later.
This device can lead the ARC team to any temporal incursion, which is
helpful considering the prehistoric and futuristic creatures which tend to pour
out of the anomalies on a regular basis.
Hand-held tech is one element, I
would argue, that cult-tv programs have largly gotten right. As we become increasingly technologically advanced,
it seems like we desire to take our tools and toys with us wherever we go. We want the comfort and luxury of access to information...in the palm of our hands. This is a notion that Star Trek, and Star
Trek: The Next Generation have absolutely understood, first in terms of
cell phones, and later in terms of tablets.
But I’m still holding out for a
commlock…
Sincerely John, re: your discussion of the Commlock John, I think it's actually beginning to establish itself today.
ReplyDeleteStaring with vid phone. My kids have the ipod touch and they literally walk around the house talking with their friends using video called facetime. You'll see soon enough.
Best,
sff