Only Actors That Have Been To Space Should Play Astronaut TV Characters Otherwise its Vocational Appropriation Claims Former Astronaut Gordon Soltana Who's Hoping To Make Social Changes
Former Astronaut Gordon Soltana, now a retired resident in Walsham Shrikeshire, has a curious point of view that he believes should be taken into serious consideration. It is his opinion that if you haven’t ever left the planet, you should not be on television or film portraying someone that has or does. He firmly believes that pretending to be someone qualified in the field he spent forty plus years of his life, is not only an insult to him and all that do his work, but it’s direct Vocational Appropriation.
When asked what was meant by this term, retired astronaut Gordon Soltana responded “It’s someone who steals someone else’s job playing make-believe.” Is that really stealing though, we put to him, since it wasn’t taking anyone out of any particular real job and science fiction has been known to inspire careers in the field. “It’s stealing belief from people that those are real space faring people with experience under their belt. It’s nothing but let’s pretend with funny spandex and coloured pajamas.”
To add balance on this article we got in touch with local Shrikeshire TV critic Viviene Bloom, “I mean all respect to the man and all he’s accomplished, but he’s talking out of his spacesuits colostomy bag here.”
Come on Viviene tell us what you really think, “To say an entire ensemble of television space heroes has to have gone into space to give a convincing performance is one for the books of really sloppy social commentary. The human condition can be portrayed by anyone human, and at the core of most clever science fiction is the questions of what makes us human, and the challenges we face together as a human race to retain those qualities. It’s acting for goodness sake. An actor is supposed to be someone they are not, and the best convince us they really are that person.”
Soltana of course came back with “Why should actors be household names for being space heroes, when nobody in the world but my colleagues knows my name? Do you know how many disasters I’ve helped avert, or lives I’ve saved up in the vacuum of space and the sacrifices I’ve made?”
For now he’s avoided direct references to any particular show or movie, but Soltana quickly lurched into another nit-pick “Don’t get me started on Star Trek and Captain Kirk and Luke Skywalker. These are actors that don’t have a space hour under their belt. It’s insulting that we are not seeing real space heroes up on those big screens, showing the awe and wonder in their performance that we felt up there and beyond.”
As a strong Star Trek fan Franny Piddleton on behalf of the Shrikeshire Times interjected. “I must point out that William Shatner played Captain Kirk and he has been up into space, on one of Jeff Bezos shuttles.”
Taken back by this startling revelation, Soltana responded “If that is the case, and I do apologise for my ignorance on the matter, then William Shatner is the only exception on the planet, and I will happily watch support and embrace any future Star Trek as long as it was starring Shatner.”
Strangely, Soltana started pitching some science fiction story ideas he had, and seems very keen on Shatner being the star in some of them. He wanted us to print a few of his ideas, in return for swaying his interview fee. We agreed to one idea, so here is an abbreviated version of one of the fourteen he emailed:
“Imagine a world destroyed by intelligent alien life forms. Imagine the only survivors were on a space station at the time. Imagine that one of them witnessed the horror in his space suit. Enter astronaut and temporal physicist Morgan Crunch (Shatner). Crunch must assemble his team on the station, and figure out a way to use all his knowledge to create a wormhole to go back and fix things. As he races against time to create this technology, and figure out the who and the why, the space station is boarded by an alien landing party who wish to stop them at all costs.”
Although his email asked what we thought of the idea, The Shrikeshire Times can not and will not commit to reviews of any kind when it comes to unsolicited science fiction story pitches. But we did send it to TV critic Viviene Bloom who said “If Shatner’s starring then I’m in. But what about the other characters and actors? Would any TV studio or Producer send them up into space as part of the audition process?”
We are having too much of a good day to contact Soltana for his reply. What do you think? Is playing a space hero Vocational Appropriation?
