Andre Bormanis Q&A Part II

The official site has posted the second half of their Q&A session with Trek science consultant, Andre Bormanis. This time around, Bormanis fields questions on more Trek tech and science fiction in the 24th century, in addition to some questions about how he got started out in the business.

Traci C.: Which Star Trek technology would you most want to see become reality? Also, which existing scientific achievement foreshadowed by Star Trek do you think is the most important?

AB: My first choice would be warp drive. I would love to be able to travel the galaxy, visit other star systems, explore other planets. I think the most important devices that exist today that were foreshadowed by the original Star Trek series are the medical scanners — CAT and PET scanners — that give doctors the ability to more readily see what's going on inside the human body.

HEG: From a science point of view, what is your favorite Star Trek story?

AB: Probably "Tuvix," which featured the aforementioned symbiogenesis theory. I thought it was a model science fiction story: a compelling idea from present day science taken to a new level and leading to a terrible moral dilemma, i.e. what if symbiogenesis operated not just on cells, but on entire organisms? And what if that process merged two of our crewmen into a single, new entity, and we can't immediately reverse the process? This led to the dilemma of the Captain having to choose to sacrifice a new life form to recover her lost crewman, leading to a very chilling climax...

Josh: I was wondering how you got the job as Science Consultant?

AB: I majored in physics in college, did graduate work in astrophysics, then got into teaching and technical writing. I then took some screenwriting classes, my teacher liked my work and encouraged me, and eventually I found an agent here in Hollywood who was interested in representing me. She was trying to set up a meeting for me to pitch story ideas to Star Trek: The Next Generation when she found out they needed a new science consultant. They wanted someone with a background in science and creative writing, and someone who knew Star Trek well. To make a long story short, they interviewed me, liked me, and hired me, starting with the last season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I eventually started selling stories to Voyager and I've written several scripts for Voyager as well, all of which has been great fun.

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