Boldly Going.....................

I was never what you might call a ‘Trekkie’; I just enjoyed watching Star Trek, the TV series, then the Next Generation et al.

I knew someone who was a Trekkie, they used to go to conventions in the UK, dress the part, learn Klingon etcetera. From them I learned what a ‘blooper’ was, which episodes had never been shown on British TV and countless other really quite pointless facts. But that’s in the past.

Taking a leaf out of the new film – Star Trek, I’m going to pretend, just for a moment, that 3 decades have not gone by, and that I am in my late twenties – for it is quite unseemly for a man at my time of life to have such enthusiasm over a popularist film, much less over one which, once again, drags that old 1960s media franchise cliché, Star Trek, out of its now dog-eared and be-cobwebbed box, dusts it off and re-presents it as new.

Watching J.J.Abrams latest Star Trek film I found myself buffeted by emotions, no doubt intended by the film makers, and on a roller coaster of nostalgia and blissful wilful suspension of disbelief. For this film not only welcomes new viewers with the brave new, young, cast, but has so many points of contact for Star Trek nostalgia buffs too.

We had Star Trek, the original NBC series, from 1966 to 1969 and a host of others since, including an animated series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise. Now Star Trek goes, not back to the future, but forward to the past.
The new film gives an account of how the original crew – James T Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quito), Dr ‘Bones’ Mc Coy (Karl Urban), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Sulu (John Cho) and Chekov (Anton Yelchin) all met and served upon USS (Star Ship) Enterprise.

Relationships are explored, especially that between Kirk and Spock, briefly, and the characters are put through a protracted team building exercise called - save earth, which happily they do. It’s the usual sub-genre SCI FI/Western plot, goodies, baddies – this time the Romulans, goodies beat baddies and a suitable crescendo ensues leaving us wanting more.

And I for one did want more. The two hours something just seemed to wiz by on warp speed, leaving me a little reluctant to leave the cinema, just in case it was an interval and not the end of the film.

The film is extraordinarily well done. Gone are the shaky sets, over acting, lurid colours and clichéd monsters, admittedly the film does rely heavily on CGI and computer wizardry but what self respecting modern SCI FI film doesn’t. It all seems to blend very well together to assist the aforementioned willing suspension of disbelief.

Finally someone decided to make a real Star Trek film. Maybe it had to wait until the deaths of both Gene Roddenberry (1991) (Star Trek creator) and his wife Majel B Roddenberry (2008), (Nurse Chapel in the original TV series) and some of the original cast before the franchise could move in a different direction.

A make-over was certainly on the cards for this very popular series of films. In the same vein a TV make-over had worked for Dr Who, and in films - Star Wars, Batman, and Spiderman, it almost worked for The Hulk too.

It is with excitement and a little disappointment that I await the next Star Trek film - excitement to see how the next film is handled by the film makers, and disappointment at having to wait for, at the very least, one more year before that happens.

Expat Magazine May 2009

Languorous Papan

The languorous morning was bright and clear. A constant sun warmed through an idyllic blue sky as I journeyed towards Lumut, in Perak; detouring through Pusing to the patently somnolent town of Papan.

I had been invited to view the display honouring Papan’s most famous daughter Sybil Kathigasu, nurse and resistance warrior against the Second World War Japanese invasion. Its founder, Law Siak Hong, has created a space within Sybil’s old surgery for historical narratives to grow, and memories to linger.

Arriving early, I took a slow drive through the town to witness, for myself, its balmy, soothing atmosphere.

Papan, once a home for Mandailing peoples, was named for the river (Sungei Papan) and from the area’s lumber produce. Gradually it grew into existence during the early 1800s, but was ravaged by fire a century later. Papan, one of the many Kinta Valley tin mining towns, began a slow decline from that fire and a decrease in tin production until today, where it exists as a shell of its former self.

Today the town of Papan lies dormant, awaiting that spark which will cause it to erupt and return to its former splendour. Yet in its dormancy Papan exudes peace, serenity, calm and is, in a way, stately too. The town’s obvious serenity and calmness is reflected throughout Hong’s spatial creation to honour Sybil.

Within the calming blue-washed walls, Hong’s collection is not just a by-product of nostalgic romance but a full-on love affair with artistic spatial creation and its nuances, creating a lulling tranquillity out of an organic collection.

Inside the presenting display room, curiously blue/green metal electric fans nestle with cabinets containing sparkling glassware. Japanese Malayan currency is firmly held by an Art Deco ink stand abutting an enamelled bowl.

Towards the rear of the display, just before the visitor is enticed into the lush garden, an ancient bicycle rests on its stand, awaiting the rider who is, momentarily, indisposed.

Hong’s poignant creation of display space concurrences and alliances refutes traditional pigeon –holed museology, where items are catalogued until their demise, then tagged and bagged and buried.

Instead, Hong’s correlation of objects better resembles contemporary art installations, where visitors are subsumed into the experience - as much part of the overall work, as are the items themselves.

For this innovative collection draws upon a spontaneous creation of narratives, and storied sub-texts, facilitated through visitor interaction using individual perspectives and inspiring object juxtaposition.

Being neither a re-creation of the war-time clinic, nor a static museum of staid objects Hong, instead, has created an organic approach to his display, presenting none of the usual gallery clues as to nomenclature or single dominant, imposing, narrative. Within the space’s ambience, it is for the visitor to interact with the items and together create narratives.

Eventually, Hong’s antique cornucopia spills over into a sublimely tranquil oasis of green whose siren call could be mistaken for that of visiting birds. Where the internal display remains ultimately bounded by the form of the structural walls, outside there are no such boundaries and the visitor’s glance is able to trace the line of objects, through foliage and away to gaze at beckoning hills.

It was with more than a little sadness, that I had to eventually draw myself away from the garden, the building and the town.

With very little encouragement I could have lain behind one of the outside bedroom walls, peering though aged wooden shutters at one of the most restful places I have visited – a dreaming lotus eater.

Sybil Kathigasu’s Clinic, the memorial display, gardens and restfulness maybe accessed through Law Siak Hong, at siakhongstudio@yahoo.com.