Porco 'Planetary Police Woman' For 'Star Trek XI'

Now that filming has wrapped on Star Trek XI and post-production has begun, Dr. Carolyn Porco is ready to advise J.J. Abrams and help to keep Star Trek XI as accurate as possible.

As reported by Cinemaspy.ca, Porco, a consultant on planetary science and imagery for Star Trek XI will be doing the bulk of her work now that the movie has moved to post-production. "They just wrapped up filming and now they're just getting into post-production and they're not ready for me yet, they say," said Porco. "We haven't sat down and figured out exactly what it is that I’m going to do."

Porco expects her work to include plenty of discussion with Abrams. "I'm imagining a lot of fun brainstorming sessions with J.J Abrams and Roger Guyett, who's the head of visual effects for this movie, to discuss what we are going to do, how things are going to look, and so on," she said. "I'm imagining that I'm going to serve the role eventually as 'planetary police woman', where I ensure that whatever is depicted as far as astronomical imagery, and planetary scenes, look as realistic as possible."

Her advice has also been sought on scenes that don't involve planetary questions. "I've also been contacted by other producers on the film, responsible for other scenes, non-planetary scenes, asking me questions. So I may be an advisor on things that are non-planetary in nature. I don't know if that’s going to continue."

Although a fan of Star Trek, Porco's interest in science predates the show. "Well I can't say that it had any bearing on my choice of science as a career," she explained, when asked if her career was due to the show, "because I was always interested in science as far as I can remember, even before Star Trek came along. But it, very possibly, had a bearing on my turning to space exploration. Because after all we're talking about the 1960’s, right, and that decade was 'spacey' in more ways than one."

"So between 'Star Trek' starting in 1966 and '2001' coming out in 1968, which still in my mind is certainly the best science fiction movie ever made, and possibly the best movie ever made, then humans landing on the moon in 1969, I mean it was just a fascinating decade to be young and alive. So I think all of that played a strong role in me turning to space exploration as a career."

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