Newsletter – April 11, 2025
PHOTO CREDIT: paramountplus.com
I was working the early morning shift at a coffeehouse in Los Angeles called The Blue Parrot (named after the bar in Casablanca). It was sort of a tropical-themed Starbuck’s where I learned how to froth milk—whole and skim—make croissant sandwiches, and wipe down each and every table on the patio with steaming soapy water before we opened at seven.
A morning regular who struck up daily conversations with me when I brought him his latte and English Muffin told me he was a science consultant for “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” I enjoyed asking him questions about the series and he indulged me because I was a bit of a fan as well as an aspiring actor.
When “Star Trek III” came out I told him I had seen it and really enjoyed the story about the “Search for Spock.” He eyed me for a few seconds and asked me if I noticed anything else about the movie.
I knew he wasn’t consulting for any of the movies so he wouldn’t be offended if I pointed out a discrepancy.
“Well, there was one thing…” I said.
“Yes?” he leaned into the question, obviously keen to hear my answer.
“When the Klingons used the cloaking device, the Enterprise couldn’t fire on them because they couldn’t tell where they were. But then Sulu came up with a solution to launch a photon torpedo that followed the ion trail of the Klingon ship.”
“And the problem with that…?”
“Well, the cloaking device was introduced back in the original series. If a photon torpedo could track an ion trail they would have done that a long time ago.”
“Thank You!” he said, practically leaping out of his chair in righteous victory. “If YOU could see that, why didn’t any of the science types see that?”
He wasn’t insulting my intelligence but he did seem to have a bone to pick with the folk making the movies.
“Do you think they didn’t catch it?” I asked.
“No,” he said firmly, “I think the producers wanted an easy solution and told the consultants to ignore the problem because no one would notice.”
I learned something that day about storytelling: integrity. I’m not talking about moral principles, I’m talking about the integrity of a dam that successfully holds back the floodwaters. Whether it’s a science fiction story, a whodunnit, or a romance, there is an internal logic that has to be followed, the integrity of the story. Otherwise you lose the audience and they won’t trust you the next time.
By the way, my wife and I figured out that she had been coming to The Blue Parrot for months before we met but she always arrived after my morning shift. I picture a romantic comedy in which the couple keep missing each other until the inevitable meet-cute.
Live Long and Prosper
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My middle grade novel, The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles, is available through The BookBaby Bookshop at https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-most-amazing-museum-of-los-angeles
Eric Margerum 