Archive of Our Own ^beta

Notes:

What to say about this video? I feel like it changes every time I try to talk about it. (To anyone who I've rambled to about it all before, I'm sorry if it seems like the story changes with each telling. Details get overlooked or overplayed, human memory, etc.)

It started with Christmas night when I started thinking about the Voyager Golden Record and started listening to it. Hearing the whale songs made me wonder if Leonard Nimoy was influenced by it for The Voyage Home (and there are ties to it what with how he worked with 3 members from the SETI Institute in developing TVH, his work with Roger Payne who recorded whales for both the VGR and TVH, etc.).

It finally hit me that the biggest connection was right there with The Motion Picture (as fans have long ago seen and discussed), so I wanted to slow down the scene of his meld with V'Ger and identify what he saw. From that, the desire to use recordings from the VGR and to discuss the NASA missions hit. And bringing K/S and Forster into it was a natural extension for me when discussing V'Ger. "Only connect!" is the theme and message, ultimately. And, with everything Carl Sagan did with the VGR, of course I had to end with him. I really should've discussed his contributions in the video itself, and it is a poor oversight on my part that I didn't (he suggested and helped organize the record and he helped in the work of selecting the record's data, he pushed for the Pale Blue Dot photo to be taken; the Pioneer Plaque was the suggestion of Eric Burgess that Sagan helped with), but hopefully my video works in paying homage to the spirit of his own work.

And, while I did think about waiting to upload this later, New Year's Day feels perfect for it (It's also E.M. Forster's birthday!). Let's go forward in hope! To a happier year!