By Armando
Roddenberry Entertainment, the iconic company behind the Star Trek universe, has announced its partnership with Den of Geek on Does It Fly, an original video podcast that puts science fiction to the test to prove whether or not movie magic could possibly function in the real world. The announcement follows last week’s panel at San Diego Comic Con, during which audience members were treated to a live sampling ahead of the podcast’s official debut this Fall.
Hosted by scientist Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi and pop-culture aficionado Tamara Krinsky, each week’s episode will dissect a favorite entertainment conceit, examining it from all angles to see what makes it tick: whether it’s socially valuable, how it’s scientifically intriguing, if it’s even possible, and whether it’s just plain cool. By the end of the episode, science and fiction will have collided in the service of a single question, “Does it fly?”
In the beginning stages of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry approached a production designer by the name of Matt Jefferies and tasked him with a job of creating a starship for his crew. There was one big stipulation however: it couldn’t just look like a spaceship, it had to follow “aircraft logic.” The Starship Enterprise couldn’t simply be cool Sci-Fi, it had to be a true SCIENCE fiction vehicle, designed with an eye towards physics, engineering and believability. Above all, Roddenberry told Matt Jefferies, “I want it to fly.”
Roddenberry Entertainment still uses that mindset and criteria to guide their approach to entertainment today.
“No matter the story, our goal is to develop and produce ‘real’ science fiction. Does It Fly? is designed to tackle the question of truth within our favorite entertainment universes, whether that truth come from the laws of our universe or one that’s been created by our imaginations” said Rod Roddenberry, CEO of Roddenberry Entertainment. “This project comes from a place of pure joy and love for the genre category as well as properties that make it up. We want to capture the enthusiasm that makes science fiction fans around the world debate the plausibility of Back to the Future’s DeLorean or Men In Black’s neuralyzer. As a leading authority on all things pop culture, Den of Geek shares our deep love and respect for fan communities, which makes them a perfect partner for this new exploration into the zeitgeist.”
“Whether we buy something or not, and why we should or shouldn’t, are some of the most fundamental questions asked by content makers, audiences and reporters alike when dealing with a fictional universe,” said Chris Longo, Den of Geek’s Director of Editorial and Partnerships. “They are at the heart of our excitement for Does It Fly? and our collaboration with Roddenberry Entertainment. As a media source dedicated to our own tagline, ‘By experts. For fans,’ this podcast is exactly the kind of content we’re known for. Our readers/viewers crave this kind of thing. I can’t wait to deliver it to them.”
Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist, inventor, educator, science communicator, author, actor, veteran, and humanitarian. Oluseyi helped design and launch the Multi-Spectral Solar Telescope Array, has worked on semiconductor research at Applied Materials and was a research fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He has been a faculty member of various universities, achieving the rank of distinguished research professor. He has also published the autobiography A Quantum Life: My Unlikely Journey from the Street to the Stars and appeared as a commentator/judge on shows like How the Universe Works, Curiosity, NASA’s Unexplained Files and Netflix’s Baking Impossible.
Tamara Krinsky is an actress, writer, on-air correspondent and interactive media producer. As Marvel’s red carpet host, she’s anchored the livestream broadcasts for some of the biggest movies in the world like Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame and Black Panther. She cohosts Tomorrow’s World Today on Discovery/Science Channel, where she travels around the country profiling the latest, greatest technology, science and sustainability efforts. Other hosting adventures have included the Oscars & the Emmys for The Red Carpet Report; writing/hosting Girls Gone Geek, a panel show about geek culture from a female perspective; hosting red carpet coverage for the Producers Guild Awards; and correspondent work for PBS’s Wired Science. Tamara is proud to have earned her SAG card on Star Trek: First Contact.
The first episode of Does It Fly? drops this Fall, with episodes posting weekly. Does It Fly? will be distributed through Den of Geek (denofgeek.com) as well as Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
