text:
Earth: Final Conflict

Earth: Final Conflict is a science fiction television series based on ideas developed by Gene Roddenberry. The series was produced under the guidance of his widow, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, who possessed notes kept by Roddenberry that would provide the conceptual basis for the series. It ran for five seasons between October 6, 1997, and May 20, 2002.

Setting
Early in the 21st century, a race of aliens, the Taelons (often referred to as "the Companions"), travel to Earth and take up residence in limited numbers. The Taelons possess highly advanced technologies, many of which they share with humanity, seemingly out of generosity and good will. As a result of these advances, disease, war and pollution are nearly eliminated within three years of their arrival. Despite this, some question whether the Taelons' motives are as benevolent as they appear, and a resistance movement forms to halt the Taelons' ever-growing influence on humanity.

Development
After the cancellation of Star Trek in 1969, its creator Gene Roddenberry began working on other projects, producing scripts and pilot episodes that were shown to various networks, including Genesis II and The Questor Tapes. He began early planning for a project called Battleground: Earth, a science fiction series set in the near future when a group of aliens land on Earth under a banner of peace.

20th Century Fox Television expressed interest in producing a pilot episode for the series, but Roddenberry's busy schedule prevented it. When the order for the pilot came in, he was in England filming a TV movie, which was followed by work on the Star Trek films and later the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation. When he died in 1991, Battleground: Earth had yet to be produced.

In the mid-1990s, Roddenberry's widow, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, began to develop the project. It went into production with Tribune Entertainment. It was renamed Earth: Final Conflict to avoid confusion with the film Battlefield Earth, which was released around the same time. The success of the show led to the development of one other posthumous Roddenberry project, Andromeda.

Series
The show premiered on October 6, 1997, and ran for five seasons. The finale was broadcast on May 20, 2002.

The show had an unusually high turnover rate among the regular cast, partially due to contractual disagreements between the cast and the producers. Almost all of the show's major characters were killed or otherwise removed within a season or two of being introduced. In fact, the only character to appear as a regular during all five seasons was FBI Agent Ronald Sandoval (Von Flores), one of the show's antagonists.

The fifth season of the show was a radical departure from the storyline of the previous seasons, with the Taelons being replaced by a new and more openly hostile alien race, a group of energy vampires called the Atavus.

Cast

 * Kevin Kilner as William Boone, Companion Protector/Resistance agent (season 1; recurring season 5)
 * Lisa Howard as Lili Marquette, interdimensional shuttle pilot/Resistance agent (seasons 1–2; recurring seasons 3–4)
 * Von Flores as Ronald Sandoval, Companion Protector (seasons 1–5)
 * Richard Chevolleau as Marcus "Augur" Deveraux, Resistance hacker (seasons 1–3, recurring season 4)
 * Leni Parker as Da’an, the North American Companion (seasons 1–4)
 * David Hemblen as Jonathan Doors, Resistance leader (seasons 1–3; recurring season 4)
 * Robert Leeshock as Liam Kincaid, Companion Protector/Resistance agent (seasons 2–4; recurring season 5)
 * Anita La Selva as Zo’or, United Nations Companion, later Leader of the Taelon Synod (seasons 2–4; recurring seasons 1 and 5)
 * Jayne Heitmeyer as Renee Palmer, Companion business liaison/Resistance agent (seasons 3–5)
 * Melinda Deines as Juliet Street, Resistance hacker (seasons 4–5)
 * Guylaine St-Onge as Juda, Atavus warrior (season 5)
 * Alan van Sprang as Howlyn, Atavus leader (season 5)
 * Helen Taylor as Ra’jel, Sire of the Synod (season 5)
 * Majel Barrett-Roddenberry as Julianne Belman, Doctor and CVI expert/Resistance agent (season 1; recurring season 2 and 3)

Season 1
The story begins three years after the Taelons arrived on Earth. The Taelons have used their advanced technology to help humanity achieve a better quality of life. Nonetheless, the North American Taelon Companion, Da'an, is targeted by an assassin while making a speech. Jonathan Doors, a businessman with close ties to the Taelons, is killed while Da'an is unharmed. Da'an is impressed by Police Commander Boone's work in protecting him from the assassination attempt and offers him a spot as a Taelon Protector, a personal bodyguard and envoy for a particular Taelon.

Boone politely refuses because he wants to start a family with his wife. Deep down, he doesn't trust the Taelons fully. Subsequently, Boone's wife is killed in a mysterious automobile accident and Boone finds out that Jonathan Doors faked his own death so that he could focus on an underground resistance movement that he founded in secret. Boone believes the Taelons have sinister intentions, and wants to find out their true motives. He also believes that the Taelons had something to do with the death of his wife. Because of this, Boone agrees to work as a double agent for the resistance in order to find answers. He accepts Da'an's offer to become a Protector, and receives a Cyber-Viral Implant (CVI) that gives him enhanced mental abilities – including perfect recall. While most CVIs alter the minds of their hosts so they become singularly loyal to the Taelons above all others, including friends, family, and the human race as a whole, the Resistance sees to it that Boone receives a modified CVI that leaves his loyalties the way they were. Agent Boone receives a bioengineered weapon, called a Skrill, that attaches to his arm. Boone is joined by fellow double agent and former Marine Lili Marquette. She is an accomplished pilot of the Taelon shuttlecraft (that can travel in interdimensional space). On the Taelon side, Boone works with another protector, Agent Ronald Sandoval. Sandoval is apparently fully loyal to the Taelons, thanks to his CVI.

Boone soon finds out that Sandoval had Boone's wife killed so that he would join the Taelons. Sandoval explains that his own wife held him back and that he was forced to put her in a mental institution to get her out of the way. He did not want Boone to have the same problem, so he had his wife killed. Boone (who would have been forced to agree if his CVI had not been modified) pretends to understand and continues his duties for the Resistance.

A strange satellite is found in an Amish community. Lili and Boone investigate. In later episodes, the satellite ends up in the Resistance base. It has the ability to make replicants and later kills a Resistance scientist. The probe later winds up in the hands of the Taelons.

Boone introduces Lili to Marcus Deveraux, a technical genius and computer hacker better known by the nickname "Augur," whom Boone often hires when he needs technical skills. Later Lili and Boone become acquainted with Jonathan Doors's state-of-the-art base for the Resistance. They learn that Augur was actually a member of the Resistance all along.

Boone continues to search for the true motives of the Taelons and actually becomes good friends with Da'an, a spiritual and very charismatic being who seems to personally hold humans in high regard. A less sympathetic Taelon named Zo'or is introduced. Boone finds out that a Taelon named Ma'el visited Earth centuries ago and predicted that humanity would one day be equal to the Taelons. Sandoval meets an Irish Protector, Siobhan Beckett, who seems to fancy him.

Sandoval's CVI malfunctions and frees him of Taelon control. He saves his wife from the mental institution but comes close to death. The Resistance captures the couple, and Boone convinces Doors to return Sandoval to the Taelons. Sandoval's wife is given safe passage, while Sandoval receives a new CVI and is made to believe that Boone killed his wife.

The Taelons order an investigation into a psychic invasion of their commonality, leading Boone and the resistance to learn that Ma'el gave humans psychic abilities so they would have a chance to be seen as equals when Taelons and humans met again.

The resistance successfully infects the Taelon headquarters in Washington with a computer virus, which unexpectedly spreads through Taelon technology world-wide, leading to a threat to human technology that is connected to Taelon technology. Boone and Sandoval work to destroy the virus. An enormous mothership appears in the skies, before disappearing in inter-dimensional space.

Boone discovers more Taelon experiments performed on humans while they are traveling through a new, world-wide, inter-dimensional travel system. Some humans are given an implant similar to a CVI, while others, including his sister, are used for some unknown breeding experiment. The continued use and function of this travel system appears to be another point of contention between Da’an and Zo’or.

A virus is extracted from the strange probe for testing. It is highly contagious and communicable between Taelons and humans. White supremacists steal a sample of the virus and unleash it in a housing center, affecting the entire surrounding area. A cure is discovered, but not before hundreds are killed.

The fiancé of the resistance scientist killed by the previously mentioned probe becomes determined to find a way to get his love back. The Resistance breaks into a Taelon installation in which the probe is located. The scientist gets his fiancée back at the cost of his own life. The probe is supposedly destroyed.

An ancient Taelon pod is discovered to have landed in Earth's past, and inside is an enemy of the Taelons named Ha'gel. Ha'gel is of the Kimera species which the Taelons had apparently wronged millennia ago. Ha'gel has the power to temporarily assume other forms, leaving his victims temporarily incapacitated. Ha'gel steals Sandoval's form and impregnates Siobhan Beckett. Boone tries to confront the alien but Ha'gel is frightened. Boone is badly wounded and Ha'gel is killed. Boone is in critical condition, as Beckett goes into labor while in the custody of the Resistance. Zo'or seemingly vaporizes Boone's body.

Season 2
Beckett gives birth as the Resistance is saddened by the news that Boone has died. The protector's baby is a Kimeran/human hybrid and grows at a rapid rate. He takes the name "Liam Kincaid" and immediately takes action as an adult. Beckett's memory is wiped and she is sent back to the Taelons. The recovered fiancée is really a replicant of the mysterious probe, which is from another alien race known as the Jaridians. The probe replicant kills the leader of the Taelon Synod. Liam saves Da'an and is recruited to become his new protector. Liam joins the Resistance but doesn't get along with Doors. Lili is forced to work under Sandoval but continues her double agent duties. Zo'or becomes the new Taelon leader, with Sandoval becoming his personal protector.

Da'an realizes who and what Liam is but keeps his secret, and the two become good friends. Da'an and Zo'or battle over each other's ideologies. Zo'or believes humans should serve the Taelons, while Da'an thinks humanity is worthy of being their equals. The Taelons prepare Earth for war with the Jaridians, who believe humans have sided with the Taelons.

Augur's experiments accidentally sever Da’an's connection to the Commonality, causing him to revert to a primitive state the Taelons call an Atavus. Zo’or orders Da’an's death, claiming he is a threat to the Synod and that Da’an will never be able to rejoin the Commonality. Liam is able to reconnect Da’an to the Commonality, restoring his physical form.

Zo’or tries to destroy the Liberation by manipulating human brain waves, but a lucky trip through a time-portal gives Liam the hints he needs to prevent it.

An attempt by Doors to have Liam killed results in Liam and Augur being cast into a parallel dimension, where they see humanity without the influence of Ma’al. They return with Maya, who was Kayla's (Lili's) sister and Jason's (Sandoval's) wife in her dimension.

Augur is arrested in Russia and sentenced to death. A Taelon representative, Lazarus, recruits him for an experimental procedure to create super-soldiers. Lazarus regains his memories, restores Augur's memories then attempts a coup on the Taelon mothership.

The Resistance finds out that the CVI's motivational imperative wears off after a time, leaving the protectors restored to their own wills. Liam senses that the CVI of his mother, long-serving Protector Siobhan Beckett, has malfunctioned and attempts to locate her. Beckett has to deal internally with all the wrongs she has committed while in an altered mental state. Also concerned, Zo'or sends Sandoval to locate Beckett, but Liam locates her first. He joins his dying mother and shares with her energetically/telepathically revealing his true origin. She realizes who he is as she passes away.

Doors decides to take the Resistance above ground and runs for president. The Resistance members are pardoned in a deal Doors is able to make.

Sandoval becomes intrigued by Maya, and begins a search for her. She begins to suffer from being in the wrong dimension. Her counterpart in this dimension, Isabel, is tracked down. Lili discovers Isabel is her half-sister from her father's secret life. Maya and Isabel are united so the two can merge and both survive in one body. The dead body is left for Sandoval to find, to discourage him from pursuing Maya/Isabel any more.

A Jaridian soldier escapes from the Taelon mothership, taking Lili hostage. Liam pursues them through inter-dimensional space, and the three are stranded on a Kimera station. After navigating their way to the heart of the station, Liam lets the Jaridian go and reports his demise on the station to Sandoval and Zo'or.

Chandler and his stolen shuttle reappear to attempt an attack on a Taelon embassy.

Teens are being recruited to become front line soldiers in the Taelon war. Da’an recalls the soldiers after threatening to betray Zo’or's plans to the humans.

Former Resistance members come to Lili and Augur concerned over humanity's protection. The Resistance is reformed under Liam's leadership. Da'an warns Liam that reforming the Resistance is a bad idea, but decides not to betray them to the Synod.

A Taelon crashes on Earth, claiming to be sympathetic to the humans. He claims the entire plan the Taelons have for humanity was conceived by Da’an.

Augur is hired to help complete a weapon called the Forge to use against the Jaridians. Liam and Da’an disagree about the weapon.

A Jaridian probe crashes on Earth after taking a partial hit from the Taelons. The resistance finds it, but are captured before they begin to examine it. After finding a black ops group that is also preparing to survive whatever the Taelons may bring, they cooperate to examine the probe, and discover it is a message probe with plans for an advanced communications device, with an offer from the Jaridians to cooperate to defeat the Taelons.

Zo'or sets the Resistance and Doors up when he has an assassination attempt made on President Thompson. Thompson survives and declares martial law. The Resistance members are targeted and many are brought to the Taelon Mothership. Liam and Augur try to rescue Doors but are pinned down. Lili tries to destroy the mothership in a last-ditch effort to save Earth.

Season 3
Lili's plan backfires and she is believed dead, and exposed as a traitor to the Taelons. Liam and Augur are rescued by a Volunteer (a human foot soldier who has been augmented to a lesser degree than a Protector). Doors, on the other hand, is captured. Doors is able to cut a deal with Zo'or to give himself freedom while ensuring that his company can secretly resist the Taelons. The Volunteer is really one of his people, Renee Palmer, the new CEO of Doors International. Martial law is repealed and many of the Resistance members are returned. Lili is revealed to be alive, but in secret captivity, under Sandoval's control. He alters her DNA and sends her off into deep space. Liam and Augur continue to lead the resistance.

Though Doors proceeds to do work separately from the Resistance, Renee and Liam find their interests frequently overlapping, and occasionally assist each other. Their relationship gradually develops into a close partnership. At the same time, Da'an and Liam's relationship becomes strained, as Zo'or continues his ambitious plans from his position of leadership. Meanwhile, Sandoval seems to be working towards a clandestine agenda of his own, as he begins concealing information from the Taelons. Unbeknownst to anyone else, Lili arrives at the alien planet Sandoval sent her to, but because her perception is being altered, she does not realize this. The alien planet turns out to be the homeworld of the Jaridians, and Lili is tricked into delivering Taelon Inter-Dimensional (ID) travel technology to their leaders.

After the illusion ends, she realizes that she is in fact, on Jaridia, and is horrified once she figures out that the ID drives she unwittingly gave her new captors, are exactly what they needed to invade Earth. Time passes back on Earth, during which it is revealed that Zo'or is Da'an's child, Jonathan Doors dies saving his son, and Renee continues to work with Liam. Lili eventually leaves Jaridia, bound for Earth, with a Jaridian named Vorjack, whose half-human, half-Jaridian child she is carrying. Their arrival complicates the plans of both the Taelons and the Resistance, particularly as Vorjack struggles with the atmospheric conditions on Earth. As the new hybrid baby is about to be born, Liam and Renee help Lili through a difficult delivery.

Season 4
Da'an helps to make sure that the Human/Jaridian hybrid lives. The Jaridians are dying, and Vorjack had hoped that the child would hold the key to their salvation, but this does not happen as expected. Before Vorjack dies from being on Earth for too long for his body to handle, Liam thinks quickly and saves his life. Lili, the Jaridian, and their hybrid child, manage to escape as Liam wishes them well.

Augur runs into trouble with the law and is forced into hiding. He offers his friend Juliet Street, a.k.a. J.Street, the opportunity to take over his role in the Resistance, and she accepts. She proves savvy and intelligent, eventually revealing that she has the rare ability to think and calculate in multiple dimensions, which makes her a target for the increasingly desperate Taelons.

The Resistance goes above ground once again when Renee and Liam team up with an international group, the Atlantic National Alliance, dedicated to defending human interests against the Taelons.

Toward the end of the season, it is discovered that the Taelons are a dying race as well; their core energy is almost spent. More and more Taelons are entering stasis, and Zo'or becomes increasingly desperate to save his species.

Liam and Renee discover a regeneration chamber hidden deep in a volcano, set in place long ago by Ma'el. Liam realizes that all species are interconnected and he must play a role in saving the Taelons, despite all the trouble they have caused. He brings them out of stasis. To conserve energy, they combine their essence into just six Taelons who go down to the regeneration chamber. At the same time, the remainder of Vorjack's Jaridian fleet arrives on the scene. Zo'or, greedy to ensure his own survival, touches an energy pool in the chamber and is absorbed into it. Liam convinces the Jaridians to attempt a "joining" with the Taelons, which, it is believed, will return them to an earlier evolutionary form that is better suited to survival. As the volcano erupts, the joining procedure begins with Liam's help, but it is unclear who or what will survive.

Season 5
Liam, the Taelons, and the Jaridians have disappeared but their efforts, far from saving everyone, have doomed the galaxy: they have awakened a version of the Atavus protospecies, a race of energy vampires that preceded the Taelons and Jaridians. Renee and Street are the only ones who know the truth of what's happening: the Resistance is disbanded and the human governments are in no rush to accept the beginning of another war with an alien race. Their only ally is Raj'el, the first and now the last of the Taelons, who is forced to provide covert support from the heart of the Taelon mothership.

To make matters worse, Sandoval, left in control of the Taelon mothership, allies with the Atavus leaders Howlyn and Juda. Together, they are able to keep their presence hidden for much of the season. Their plan is to create an army of Atavus-Human hybrids by means of a joining process, then use the hybrids to awaken other Atavus hives hidden around the world.

As the season progresses, a few familiar faces re-enter the fight: William Boone is brought back as a trap for Renee, but he quickly joins her side. In response, Sandoval and Howlyn revive Zo'or, giving him a new body as a female Atavus, but Renee and Boone are able to defeat their nemesis once and for all.

Final Conflict comes to a head when Liam returns to help Renee stop Howlyn from unleashing his elite warriors from the long-buried Atavus mothership. At the end of the series, Liam, Renee and Raj'el depart in the Taelon mothership, resolving to bring the few trustworthy Atavus home and indulge in a little adventure along the way.

Broadcasting
The series was first shown on CTV in 1997 and ran for two seasons until the network decided to cancel it due to low ratings. The show was, however, resurrected by Chum Limited and was moved to their New Net network for the remainder of its run. The series was broadcast in syndication in the United States.

The series has been re-shown daily on Bravo, and later by Horror, in the United Kingdom, Showcase in Canada, Jimmy in Italy, and Bangladesh Television in Bangladesh. In 2024, it is available on Tubi in the U.S.

The series aired in the Republic of Ireland on RTÉ Two from 22 March 1999 to 2005.

Region 1
ADV Films released seasons three, four, and five on DVD in 2003. Due to different companies owning different rights for different seasons, these were the only seasons they were able to negotiate the distribution rights for. The episodes are presented in uncropped 16x9 widescreen on six discs per season. There were only minimal extras.

On May 5, 2009, Universal Studios Home Entertainment released Season One on DVD in the US. The episodes are presented in 4x3 full-screen on five discs with a small handful of extras included. The episodes appear uncut but are time compressed, running at a slightly faster pace, resulting in each episode running approximately two minutes shorter than in their original unaltered forms. On July 27, 2010, Season Two was released on DVD in the US.

Alliance Home Entertainment has released all five seasons on DVD in Canada. All of these are bare-bones releases, no extras at all and are presented in 4x3 full-screen on six discs per season with both English and French audio tracks. Season One is presented at its original pacing.

Regions 2 and 4
Universal Pictures UK released the first season on DVD in the UK on April 3, 2006.

Pandastorm Pictures started to release the series in Germany on May 29, 2015. Season 2 followed on September 18, 2015. Season 3 followed on January 29, 2016, Season 4 on April, 15th, 2016 On February 4, 2019, the German publisher Pandastorm Pictures had to announce via their Facebook page, that so far it was impossible to find all of the rights holders for Earth: Final Conflict – season five – it is quite likely by now, that they will not be able to publish season five in Germany. They announced the release of Series 1 and Series 2 as codefree, sound: German DD 2.0, English DD 2.0 and subtitles: English.

Via Vision Entertainment has released all five seasons on DVD in Australia.

title: Earth: Final Conflict


text:
Majel Barrett

Majel Barrett-Roddenberry (born Majel Leigh Hudec; February 23, 1932 – December 18, 2008) was an American actress. She was best known for her roles as various characters in the Star Trek franchise: Nurse Christine Chapel (in the original Star Trek series, Star Trek: The Animated Series, and two films of the franchise), Number One (also in the original series), Lwaxana Troi (on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), and the voice of most onboard computer interfaces throughout the series from 1966 to 2023. She married Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry in 1969. As his wife and given her relationship with Star Trekparticipating in some way in every series during her lifetimeshe is sometimes referred to as "the First Lady of Star Trek.

Early life
Barrett was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She began taking acting classes as a child. She attended Shaker Heights High School, graduating in 1950 before going on to the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, then had some stage roles and came to Hollywood. Her father, William Hudec, was a Cleveland police officer. He was killed in the line of duty while operating a police ambulance which was struck by an Erie Passenger Train at East 91st Street and Loren Avenue on August 30, 1955. This tragedy occurred while Barrett was touring with an off-Broadway road company.

Career
Barrett was briefly seen in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957) in an ad parody at the beginning of the film, and had roles in a few films, including Love in a Goldfish Bowl (1961), Sylvia (1965), A Guide for the Married Man (1967), and Track of Thunder (1967). She worked at the Desilu Studios on several TV shows, including Bonanza, The Untouchables, The Lucy Show, and The Lieutenant (produced by Gene Roddenberry). She received training in comedy from Lucille Ball. In 1960, she played Gwen Rutherford on Leave It to Beaver.

Star Trek
In various roles, Barrett participated in every incarnation of the popular science fiction Star Trek franchise produced during her lifetime, including live-action and animated versions, television and cinema, and nearly all of the time periods in which the various series have been set.

She first appeared in Star Treks initial pilot, "The Cage" (1964), as the USS Enterprises unnamed first officer, "Number One". Barrett was romantically involved with Roddenberry, whose marriage was on the verge of failing at the time, and the idea of having an otherwise unknown woman in a leading role just because she was the producer's girlfriend is said to have infuriated NBC network executives who insisted that Roddenberry give the role to a man. William Shatner corroborated this in Star Trek Memories, and added that female viewers at test screenings hated the character as well. Shatner noted that female viewers felt she was "pushy" and "annoying" and also thought that "Number One shouldn't be trying so hard to fit in with the men." Barrett often joked that Roddenberry, given the choice between keeping Mr. Spock (whom the network also hated) or the woman character, "kept the Vulcan and married the woman, 'cause he didn't think Leonard [Nimoy] would have it the other way around".

When Roddenberry was casting for the second Star Trek pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", she changed her last name from Hudec to Barrett and wore a blond wig for the role of nurse Christine Chapel, a frequently recurring character, who was introduced in "The Naked Time", the sixth new episode recorded, and was known for her unrequited affection for the dispassionate Spock. Her first appearance as Chapel in film dailies prompted NBC executive Jerry Stanley to yodel "Well, well—look who's back!"

In an early scene in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, viewers are informed that she has now become Doctor Chapel, a role which she reprised briefly in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, as Commander Chapel. Barrett provided several voices for Star Trek: The Animated Series, including those of Nurse Chapel and a communications officer named M'Ress, an ailuroid officer who served alongside Uhura.

Barrett returned years later in Star Trek: The Next Generation, cast as the outrageously self-assertive, iconoclastic Betazoid ambassador, Lwaxana Troi, who appeared as a recurring character in the series, often visiting her daughter Deanna, the ship's counselor. Her character often vexed the captain of the Enterprise, Jean-Luc Picard, who spurned her amorous advances. She later appeared as Ambassador Troi in several episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, where her character developed a strong relationship with Constable Odo.

She provided the regular voice of the onboard computers of Federation starships for Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and most of the Star Trek movies. She reprised her role as a shipboard computer's voice in two episodes of the prequel series Star Trek: Enterprise, thus making her the only actor to have a role in all six televised Star Trek series produced up to that time. She also lent her voice to various computer games and software related to the franchise. The association of her voice with interactions with computers led to Google's Assistant project being initially codenamed Google Majel. She made a point of attending a major Star Trek convention each year in an effort to inspire fans and keep the franchise alive.

On December 9, 2008, shortly before her death, Roddenberry Productions announced she would be providing the voice of the ship's computer once again, this time for the 2009 motion picture reboot of Star Trek.

Other roles
She appeared as Primus Dominic in Roddenberry's 1973 postapocalyptic TV drama pilot, Genesis II; as Dr. Bradley in his 1974 television film The Questor Tapes and as Lilith the housekeeper in his 1977 TV drama pilot, Spectre. She also appeared in Michael Crichton's 1973 sci-fi Western, Westworld as Miss Carrie, a robot brothel madam; the 1977 Stanley Kramer thriller The Domino Principle; and the 1979 television film The Man in the Santa Claus Suit starring Fred Astaire. Her later film appearances included small roles in Teresa's Tattoo (1994) and Mommy (1995).

After Gene Roddenberry's death, Barrett took material from his archives to bring two of his ideas into production. She was executive producer of Earth: Final Conflict (in which she also played the character Dr. Julianne Belman), and Andromeda. She also served as creative director for Gene Roddenberry's Lost Universe, a comic book series based on another archival Roddenberry concept.

In a gesture of goodwill between the creators of the Star Trek franchise and of Babylon 5, she appeared in the Babylon 5 episode "Point of No Return", as Lady Morella, the psychic widow of the Centauri emperor, a role which foreshadowed major plot elements in the series.

Parodying her voice work as the computer for the Star Trek series, Barrett performed as a guest voice on Family Guy as the voice of Stewie Griffin's ship's computer in the episode "Emission Impossible".

Barrett's widely recognized voice performance as the Star Trek computer inspired the Amazon Alexa interactive virtual assistant, according to its developer Toni Reid, although Barrett had no direct role in it.

Final voiceover work
Some of Barrett's final voiceover work was still in post-production, to be released in 2009 after her death, as mentioned in the credits of the 2009 film Star Trek, again as the voice of the Enterprise computer. An animated production called Hamlet A.D.D. credited her as Majel Barrett Roddenberry, playing the voiceover role of Queen Robot.

Personal life and death
In 1969, while scouting locations in Japan for MGM, Roddenberry realized that he missed Barrett, and proposed to her by telephone. In the version recited by Herbert F. Solow, Roddenberry traveled to Japan with the intention of marrying Barrett. She subsequently joined Roddenberry in Tokyo, where they were married in a Shinto ceremony on August 6, 1969. Roddenberry had considered it "sacrilegious" to use an American minister in Japan, and the ceremony was attended by two Shinto priests, as well as maids of honor. Roddenberry and Barrett both wore kimono, and spent their honeymoon touring Japan. He continued to have liaisons with other women, telling his friends that, while in Japan, he had an encounter with a masseuse about a week after he was married.

The new marriage was not legally binding, as his divorce from Eileen had not yet been finalized. This was resolved two days after his divorce was complete, and on December 29, a small ceremony was held at their home, followed by a reception for family and friends. Despite this, the couple continued to celebrate August 6 as their wedding anniversary. Roddenberry's young daughter, Dawn, decided to live with Barrett and him, and the family moved to a new house in Beverly Hills the following October. In February 1974, Barrett and Roddenberry had a son, Eugene Jr., commonly referred to as Rod Roddenberry. They remained married until Roddenberry's death at Barrett's side on October 24, 1991, in Santa Monica, California.

After her husband's death, Barrett-Roddenberry commissioned Celestis to launch her together with Gene on an infinite mission to deepest space. After manifesting them on NASA's "Sunjammer" mission, the agency cancelled the mission in 2014. Celestis rescheduled their launch for 2020, then later rescheduled for June 2022, the next available commercial mission to deep space. A sample of the couple's cremated remains

Barrett-Roddenberry died on the morning of December 18, 2008, at her home in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, as a result of leukemia. She was 76 years old. A public funeral was held on January 4, 2009, in Los Angeles. More than 250 people attended, including Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner and Wil Wheaton.

Honors
Barrett and her husband were honored in 2002 by the Space Foundation with the Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award for their work creating awareness of and enthusiasm for space.

Amazon code-named the project that eventually became Alexa as “Majel.”

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Majel Barrett


text:
User:Ray Van De Walker

Ray Van De Walker is very proud to have contributed to articles selected for the brilliant prose section four times:

 * Earth- he wrote "Why Earth is wet",
 * Nuclear weapon (he originated the theory of operation, then edited some technically-accurate, but verbose prose that replaced it),
 * Telephone switch- described the guts and algorithms (He's actually implemented a video switch using the same algorithms as a nonblocking minimal spanning telephone switch).
 * spacecraft propulsion- he refactored it into a list of technologies with figures of merit, added many technologies, and is immensely grateful to the hero who put the list into a table, and the other hero who realized that this wanted to be a set of articles.

He refactored: Weapon, radio, Satellite navigation system, International Geophysical Year and these have been generally accepted and extended by the community.

He wrote or improved articles about
 * electricity meter
 * single wire earth return power distribution
 * digital logic
 * music radio (much revised)
 * education reform (much revised)
 * first aid (extensively revised by others), triage,
 * community emergency response team, civil defense, fallout shelter,
 * autonomous building, (also popular; much revised)
 * Originated Farnsworth-Hirsch Fusor, (now much improved by other editors)
 * nuclear pulse propulsion, magnetic sail and solar sail
 * flute
 * Taxation in the United States (because he's run a small corporation),
 * california (extensively revised by others),
 * Classical Education,
 * pendulum clock, quartz clock, atomic clock,
 * navigation, celestial navigation, sextant, Transit (satellite),
 * control unit (of a computer), microcode,
 * telegraph (he added the sections on semaphores, telex and the internet)
 * emergency position indicating rescue beacon,
 * ionosphere, magnetosphere, magnetopause, heliopause,
 * Sail-plan,
 * Huntington Beach,
 * systems engineering,
 * safety engineering,
 * home schooling,
 * Lutheran church,
 * sling, slingshot, assault rifle, m16, and sniper
 * RISC-V, 68000, PDP-11, code optimization and some in electronics,

He documented the bio and filmography of Steven Segal.

He has degrees in Computer Science and Philosophy from the University of California at Irvine.

He abandoned academia because it paid badly, and currently writes embedded real-time software, primarily for mechanism control in systems that require extremely high reliability, such as medical, avionic (aircraft) systems, and oddly electric power meters.

He also wrote the second revision of "The polyForth II Reference Manual," the first successful edition (it reduced hotline calls by 30%!) of the reference manual for Forth Inc.'s version of the FORTH language. This means he is a world authority on the FORTH language and porting techniques. Which makes him a large frog in a tiny puddle, indeed.

He has a number of unpublished science-fiction novels, which some insist are worthy of print.

He has a published book about philosophical Ethics, "How to be Good" which is far more interesting, (to him, at least) but even less salable.

He also juggles badly, is an indifferent thespian, fixes cars, houses and motorcycles, designs houses, is married with children, ran a small corporation, and taught sunday school, none of which pay at all.

/Visitors

title: User:Ray Van De Walker


text:
Passive review

Passive review is the opposite of active recall, in which the learning material is processed passively (e.g., by reading, watching, etc.).

For example, to improve memory through passive review, an individual may read a text today; to not forget it, it is repeated tomorrow and then 4 days later and then 8, 16, 32, 64, etc., days later. They don't ask themselves to explain the content of the text, but only reread the content. If they think to recall something, they are more likely to keep it in their memory. A passive review strategy includes music as an accompaniment. Particularly, the learner listens to Baroque music playing in the background while rhythmically repeating key material.

Passive review can also be combined with other learning strategy to further enhance outcomes. For instance, the so-called Suggestive Accelerated Learning and Teaching Techniques (SALTT) alternate it with active recall and are complemented by physical relaxation exercise, and cooperative learning, among others.

Passive review is a simple method, but it is not as effective. Active recall is more complicated and difficult (because it forces one to recall something) but it is highly effective.

title: Passive review


text:
Talk:Mnemonic

External links modified (February 2018)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Mnemonic. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150325051730/http://www.buildyourmemory.com/foreignlanguage.php to http://www.buildyourmemory.com/foreignlanguage.php

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 02:25, 3 February 2018 (UTC)

"For numerical sequences and mathematical operations" section
A series of IPs have been attempting to add examples to this section. The changes have been unsourced, sourced to broken refs, or sourced to refs that don't support the claims. There also appears to be some OR in the latest versions  and, which couch  the addition in terms of an objection to the wording of the existing  example. The sources added in the second edit are unrelated to the content.. Does anyone see a problem with using a well-known example that uses the word "alcoholic"? I find it very difficult to believe that there would be any serious argument that this word is not appropriate for college students as the IPs suggest ("may be debatably acceptable at college level") and we're not suggesting that this mnemonic be taught to elementary school kids.

If there really are reliable sources out there that state that "one of the central problems with crafting mnemonics" is age appropriateness, and that "remoteness from the topic [is] another central problem of mnemonics" lets see them. Maybe there is a place in the article for such material.. As it is it just looks like WP:OR being used to support the IP's preferred example. Meters (talk) 06:02, 10 August 2018 (UTC)
 * No further attempts to add this since this thread was posted. Meters (talk) 09:09, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

Topic redirection in ja.wikipedia.org‽
I couldn’t find the Japanese-language talk page. Why does the ja.wikipedia page for “mnemonic” (ニモニック) redirect to “Assembly language” (アセンブリ言語)? Is this an April Fools joke? I’m still new to learn the language, so imaging the surprise when a search for mnemonics gives me assembly language, of all things. I’m not capable of reading through that just yet, so could someone please explain in English? I couldn’t find the Japanese-language “Talk:” page for that, if it even exists.

Update: please explain in a way that I can understand. I don’t know assembly in English, let alone in Japanese. I don’t even know Java. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 32.212.121.214 (talk) 05:34, 27 January 2019 (UTC)
 * What the Japanese Wikipedia does is not something English Wikipedia is concerned with, but are you sure it is a redirect and not a link? It would make sense to find links since mnemonics are used in assembler. Meters (talk) 09:15, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

Incorrect example: Masculine countries in French
The following sentence is wrong:

 * Masculine countries in French (le): "Neither can a breeze make a sane Japanese chilly in the USA." (les) Netherlands (Pays-Bas), Canada, Brazil (Brésil), Mexico (Mexique), Senegal, Japan (Japon), Chile (Chili), & (les) USA (États-Unis d'Amérique).

There are 92 countries with masculine names in French, not just eight (see for example, ), therefore this sentence should either be deleted or the mnemonic corrected if it refers to something else. Sophos II (talk) 21:01, 3 May 2021 (UTC)

Original Research & Unreferenced Statements (July 2023)
The whole "Types" section and several other parts of this article contain unreferenced statements and apparent OR. Several unsourced examples in the lists section. 2.31.178.128 (talk) 10:20, 5 July 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Mnemonic


text:
Number of the Beast

The number of the beast, 666 in most manuscripts, is associated with the Beast of Revelation in the Book of Revelation in the Bible.

Number of the Beast also may refer to:

 * The Number of the Beast (album), 1982, by Iron Maiden
 * "The Number of the Beast" (song), from the album
 * The Number of the Beast (play), a 1982 drama by Snoo Wilson about Aleister Crowley
 * Number of the Beast (comics), a comic book limited series
 * The Number of the Beast (novel), by Robert Heinlein

title: Number of the Beast


text:
To Sail Beyond the Sunset

To Sail Beyond the Sunset is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, published in 1987. It was the last novel published before his death in 1988. The title is taken from the poem "Ulysses", by Alfred Tennyson. The stanza of which it is a part, quoted by a character in the novel, is as follows:

... my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die.

It is the final part of the "Lazarus Long" cycle of stories, involving time travel, parallel dimensions, free love, voluntary incest, and a concept that Heinlein named pantheistic solipsism, or 'World as Myth': the theory that universes are created by the act of imagining them, so that somewhere (for example) the Land of Oz is real. Other books in the cycle include Methuselah's Children, Time Enough for Love, The Number of the Beast, and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls.

Plot
The book is a memoir of Maureen Johnson Smith Long, mother, lover, and eventual wife of Lazarus Long. Maureen is ostensibly recording the events of the book while held in prison alongside Pixel, the cat from The Cat Who Walks Through Walls.

Maureen, born on July 4, 1882, recounts her girlhood in backcountry Missouri, discovery that her family is a member of the long-lived Howard Families (whose backstory is revealed in Methuselah's Children), marriage to Brian Smith, another member of that group, and her life—largely in Kansas City—until her apparent death in 1982. In addition, Maureen lives through, and gives her (sometimes contradictory) viewpoints on many events in other Heinlein stories, most notably the 1917 visit from the future by "Ted Bronson" (Lazarus Long), told from Long's point of view in Time Enough for Love, D. D. Harriman's space program from The Man Who Sold the Moon, and the rolling roads from The Roads Must Roll.

Maureen's adventures include a series of sexual encounters, beginning in childhood wherein, having just had her first sexual intercourse, she is examined by her father, a doctor, and finds herself desiring him sexually. Her story then encompasses various boys, her husband, ministers, other women's husbands, boyfriends, swinging sessions, and the adult Lazarus Long/Theodore Bronson. Additionally, she continues a lifelong pursuit of her father sexually, encourages her husband to have sexual intercourse with their daughters, and accompanies him when he does; but forbids a son and daughter of hers from continuing an incestuous relationship, primarily for the sister's reluctance to share the brother with other women. All of these are set against a history lesson of an alternate 20th century in which a variety of social and philosophical commentary is delivered.

She is eventually rescued from prison by Lazarus Long and other characters of various novels in the ship Gay Deceiver (from The Number of the Beast), and after rescuing her father from certain death in the Battle of Britain, is united with her descendants in a massive group marriage in the settlement of Boondock, on the planet Tertius. Maureen ends her memoir and the Lazarus Long saga with the phrase "And we all lived happily ever after".

title: To Sail Beyond the Sunset


text:
Double Star

Double Star is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, first serialized in Astounding Science Fiction (February, March, and April 1956) and published in hardcover the same year. It received the 1956 Hugo Award for Best Novel (his first).

Plot summary
The novel is set in the future, when the Moon, Mars, Venus and Jupiter's satellites have been colonized and the Solar System is governed by a parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy from a capital city on the Moon. The indigenous alien race inhabiting Mars has recently been admitted to citizenship in the human-dominated solar system government. The story, which is told in the first person, centers on down-and-out actor Lawrence Smith (stage name Lorenzo Smythe, also known as "The Great Lorenzo"). A brilliant actor and mimic, he is down to his last coin when a spaceman hires him to double for an unspecified public figure. It is only when he is on his way to Mars that he finds out he will have to impersonate one of the most prominent politicians in the Solar System (and one with whose views Smith deeply disagrees): John Joseph Bonforte. Bonforte is the leader of the Expansionist coalition, currently out of office but with a good chance of changing that at the next general election. Bonforte has been kidnapped by his political opponents, and his aides want Smith to impersonate Bonforte while they try to find him.

Bonforte is rescued, but he is in poor health due to the treatment inflicted on him during his imprisonment. This forces Smith to extend his performance, even to becoming temporary Prime Minister and running in an election. (This is made plausible through Bonforte's extensive Farley files.) The central political issue in the election is the granting of the vote to Martians in the human-dominated Solar System. Lorenzo shares the anti-Martian prejudice prevalent among large parts of Earth's population, but he is called upon to assume the persona of the most prominent advocate for Martian enfranchisement. Smith takes on not only Bonforte's appearance, but some aspects of his personality.

At the moment of electoral victory, Bonforte dies of the aftereffects of his kidnapping, and Smith has to assume the role for life. In a retrospective conclusion set twenty-five years later, Smith reveals that he wrote the first-person narrative as therapy. By this point, he views his early life and ambitions as almost those of someone else. He has applied Bonforte's ideals in his political career to the best of his ability. Penny (Bonforte's adoring secretary and now Smith's wife) says, "she never loved anyone else."

Critical reception
The noted science-fiction writer and critic James Blish was no fan of Heinlein's treatment of his first-person protagonists in a number of his novels. Writing in 1957, however, Blish says that "The only first-person narrator Heinlein has created who is a living, completely independent human being is The Great Lorenzo of Double Star. Lorenzo is complete all the way back to his childhood—the influence of his father upon what he thinks is one of the strongest motives in the story—and his growth under pressure is consistent with his character and no-one else's."

Galaxy reviewer Floyd C. Gale praised the novel, finding it "an excellent example of Heinlein's ability to take one of the oldest plots in any literature ... and present it as an enjoyable reading experience." Admitting "a certain reservation, even disappointment," Anthony Boucher nevertheless concluded that Heinlein was "simply creating an agreeably entertaining light novel, and in that task he succeeds admirably."

At the 1957 Worldcon it received the Hugo Award for Best Novel (Heinlein's first).

In 2012, the novel was included in the Library of America two-volume boxed set American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s, edited by Gary K. Wolfe.

Cover controversy
The cover illustration by Anthony Roberts for a 1970s UK edition of Double Star was the subject of an unlikely controversy when it was used as the basis of an entry for the 2000 Turner Prize for modern art. The artist in question, Glenn Brown, was accused of plagiarism.

title: Double Star


text:
Time for the Stars

Time for the Stars is a juvenile science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, published by Scribner's in 1956 as one of the Heinlein juveniles. The basic plot line is derived from a 1911 thought experiment in special relativity, commonly called the twin paradox, proposed by French physicist Paul Langevin.

Plot summary
The Long Range Foundation (LRF), a non-profit organization that funds expensive, long-term projects for the benefit of mankind that nobody else will even consider, has built a dozen exploratory torchships to search for habitable planets to colonize. The vessels can continually accelerate, but cannot exceed the speed of light, so the voyages will last many years. Each starship has a much larger crew than necessary to maintain a more stable, long-term shipboard society, as well as to provide replacements for the inevitable deaths.

The LRF has found that some twins and triplets can communicate with each other telepathically. The process seems instantaneous and unaffected by distance, making it the only practical means of communication for ships traveling many light-years away from Earth. Before announcing the discovery, the Foundation first recruits as many of these people as it can. Testing shows that teenagers Tom and Pat Bartlett have this talent, and both sign up. Pat, the dominant twin, manipulates things so that he gets selected as the crew member, much to Tom's annoyance. However, Pat does not really want to leave, and his subconscious engineers a convenient accident so that Tom has to take his place at the last minute.

On board, Tom is pleased to find that his uncle Steve, a soldier, has arranged to get assigned to the same ship. The trip is fraught with problems - as trivial as an annoying roommate and as serious as mutiny. The ship visits several star systems, including Beta Hydri. Due to the nature of relativistic travel (see Twin paradox), the twin who remained behind ages faster and eventually the affinity between them weakens to the point where they can no longer communicate easily. Some of the spacefaring twins, including the protagonist, are able to connect with descendants of the Earth-based twins. Tom works first with his niece, then his grandniece, and finally his great-grandniece.

The last planet scouted proves particularly deadly. Unexpectedly intelligent and hostile natives capture and kill a large portion of the remaining crew, including the captain and Tom's uncle. The reserve captain takes charge, but fails to restore the morale of the devastated survivors. When he insists on continuing the mission rather than returning to Earth, members of the crew begin to consider mutiny. Shortly after he notifies Earth of the dire situation, the crew learn to their surprise that a spaceship will rendezvous with them in less than a month; they surmise it must be a much more advanced spaceship. Scientists on Earth have discovered faster-than-light travel, in part due to research into the nature of telepathy, and are collecting the surviving crews of the LRF torchships. The explorers return to an Earth they no longer recognize, and in most cases, no longer fit into. Tom, however, returns to marry his latest telepathic partner, his own great-grandniece, who states she has been reading his mind since childhood.

Reception
Galaxy reviewer Floyd C. Gale praised the novel as "an engrossing yarn", saying "The plot twists will take you by surprise and the characterizations delight you."

title: Time for the Stars


text:
Citizen of the Galaxy

Citizen of the Galaxy is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, originally serialized in Astounding Science Fiction (September, October, November, and December 1957) and published in hardcover in 1957 as one of the Heinlein juveniles by Scribner's. The story is heavily influenced by Rudyard Kipling's Kim.

Plot summary
The human race has developed interstellar spaceflight and is engaged in trade with a number of alien races. However human slavery has reappeared on some planets. The Hegemonic Guard, the space military force of the human government, tries to enforce the law and fight the slave trade on frontier planets. Thorby is a young, defiant boy who is purchased at a slave auction on the planet Jubbul by an old beggar, Baslim the Cripple, for a trivial sum and taken to the beggar's surprisingly well-furnished underground home. Thereafter, Baslim treats the boy as a son, teaching him not only the trade of begging, but also mathematics, history, and several languages, while sending Thorby on errands all over the city. Thorby slowly realizes that his foster father is not a simple beggar, but is gathering intelligence, particularly on the slave trade. In addition, Baslim has Thorby memorize a contingency plan and a message to deliver to one of five starship captains in the event of Baslim's arrest or death. Baslim is arrested for spying, but commits suicide before he can be questioned. While the local police carry out a manhunt for Thorby, he delivers the message to Captain Krausa of the starship Sisu. Because the "Free Traders", to whom Krausa belongs, owe a debt to Baslim for the rescue of one of their crews from a slaver, the captain takes Thorby aboard at great risk to himself and his clan.

The Free Traders have an insular, clannish, matriarchal culture. They live aboard spaceships, traveling from world to world trading. Thorby is adopted by the captain (thereby gaining considerable shipboard social status) and adjusts to their ways, learning their language and intricate social rules. The advanced education provided by Baslim and the fast reflexes of youth make him an ideal fire controlman; Thorby saves Sisu, destroying a pirate craft bent on enslaving the crew. His immediate superior, a young woman named Mata, begins to view him as husband material, taboo by Free Trader custom because they are in the same moiety, so she is transferred to another ship.

The captain's wife, who is also the executive officer and the actual head of the clan, wants to use Thorby's connection to Baslim to enhance Sisu ' s prestige by marrying him off to a woman from another powerful clan. Captain Krausa, however, obeys Baslim's last wish by delivering the boy to a military cruiser of the Hegemonic Guard of the Terran Hegemony, the dominant military power in the galaxy. The captain, who was one of Baslim's couriers, passes along Baslim's request that the Guard help reunite Thorby with his family, if that is possible. Thorby discovers that Baslim was actually a colonel in the Hegemonic Guard who volunteered to spy on Jubbul to fight slavery. In order to avoid paying for a costly background search, Thorby agrees to enlist in the Hegemonic Guard.

Thorby is ultimately identified as Thor Bradley Rudbek, the long-lost primary heir of a very powerful, extremely wealthy family which controls Rudbek and Associates, a large, sprawling interstellar conglomerate. In his absence, the business has been run by a relative by marriage, "Uncle" John Weemsby, who encourages his stepdaughter Leda to help Thorby adjust to his new situation while secretly scheming to block Thorby's growing interest and interference in the company.

Thorby, investigating his parents' disappearance and his capture and sale by slavers, comes to suspect that his parents were eliminated to prevent the discovery that some subsidiaries of Rudbek and Associates were secretly supporting (and profiting from) the slave trade. When Weemsby quashes further investigation, Thorby seeks legal help and launches a proxy fight, which he unexpectedly wins when Leda votes her shares in his favor. He fires Weemsby and assumes full control of the firm. When Thorby realizes that extricating Rudbek and Associates from the slave trade is a monumental task, he reluctantly abandons his dream of following in Baslim's footsteps and joining the elite anti-slaver "X" Corps of the Hegemonic Guard. Knowing that "a person can't run out on his responsibilities", he resolves to fight the slave trade as the head of Rudbek and Associates.

Reception
Galaxy reviewer Floyd C. Gale praised the novel, saying "Heinlein is invariably logical. And invariably entertaining." In The New York Times, Villiers Gerson received the novel favorably, declaring it "better than 99 per cent of the science-fiction adventures produced every year" despite structural problems and a weak ending."

Themes
As in many of Heinlein's books, the principal character grows in wisdom and knowledge, beginning in relative ignorance, learning from experience, receiving the benefits of education, and using that education to resolve subsequent problems - both his own and those of the people around him. Thorby integrates sequentially into four major completely different social settings, each of which presents a form of slavery contrasted with personal freedom.

title: Citizen of the Galaxy


text:
Stranger in a Strange Land

Stranger in a Strange Land is a 1961 science fiction novel by American author Robert A. Heinlein. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who comes to Earth in early adulthood after being born on the planet Mars and raised by Martians, and explores his interaction with and eventual transformation of Terran culture.

The title "Stranger in a Strange Land" is a direct quotation from the King James Bible (taken from Exodus 2:22). The working title for the book was "A Martian Named Smith", which was also the name of the screenplay started by a character at the end of the novel.

Heinlein's widow Virginia arranged to have the original unedited manuscript published in 1991, three years after Heinlein's death. Critics disagree about which version is superior.

Stranger in a Strange Land won the 1962 Hugo Award for Best Novel and became the first science fiction novel to enter The New York Times Book Review 's best-seller list. In 2012, the Library of Congress named it one of 88 "Books that Shaped America".

Plot
Prior to World War III, the crewed spacecraft Envoy is launched toward Mars, but all contact is lost shortly before landing. Twenty-five years later, the spacecraft Champion makes contact with the inhabitants of Mars and finds a single survivor, Valentine Michael Smith. Born on the Envoy, he was raised entirely by the Martians. He is ordered by them to accompany the returning expedition.

Smith is confined at Bethesda Hospital, where, having never seen a human female, he is attended by male staff only. Seeing that restriction as a challenge, Nurse Gillian Boardman eludes the guards and goes in to see Smith. By sharing a glass of water with him, she inadvertently becomes his first "water brother", a profound relationship by Martian standards, as water on Mars is extremely scarce.

Gillian's lover, reporter Ben Caxton, discovers that Smith is extremely wealthy. Ben is seized by the government, and Gillian persuades Smith to leave the hospital with her. Gillian takes Smith to Jubal Harshaw, a famous author, physician and lawyer. Eventually, Harshaw arranges freedom for Smith and recognition that human law, which would have granted ownership of Mars to Smith, has no applicability to a planet that is already inhabited by intelligent life.

Smith becomes a celebrity and is feted by the Earth's elite. He investigates many religions, including the Fosterite Church of the New Revelation, a populist megachurch in which sexuality, gambling, alcohol consumption, and similar activities are allowed and even encouraged and considered "sinning" only when they are not under church auspices. Smith has a brief career as a magician in a carnival, in which he and Gillian befriend the show's tattooed lady.

Smith starts a Martian-influenced "Church of All Worlds", combining elements of the Fosterite cult with Western esotericism. The church is besieged by Fosterites for practicing "blasphemy", and the church building is destroyed, but unknown to the public, Smith's followers teleport to safety.

Smith is arrested by the police, but escapes and returns to his followers, later explaining to Jubal that his gigantic fortune has been bequeathed to the church. With that wealth and their new abilities, church members will be able to reorganize human societies and cultures.

Smith is killed by a mob raised against him by the Fosterites. Jubal and some of the church members return to Jubal's home to regroup and prepare to found new Church of All Worlds congregations. Smith reappears in the afterlife to replace the Fosterites' founder, amid hints that Smith was an incarnation of the Archangel Michael.

Characters
Heinlein named his main character "Smith" because of a speech he made at a science fiction convention regarding the unpronounceable names assigned to extraterrestrials. After describing the importance of establishing a dramatic difference between humans and aliens, Heinlein concluded, "Besides, whoever heard of a Martian named Smith?" The title Stranger in a Strange Land is taken from the King James Version of Exodus 2:22, "And she bore him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land".

In the preface to the uncut, original version of the book reissued in 1991, Heinlein's widow, Virginia, wrote: "The given names of the chief characters have great importance to the plot. They were carefully selected: Jubal means 'the father of all,' Michael stands for 'Who is like God?.

 * Valentine Michael Smith: Known as Michael Smith or "Mike", the "Man from Mars" is born on Mars in the interval between the landing of the Envoy and the arrival of the Champion. He is 20 years old when the Champion arrives and brings him to Earth.
 * Gillian (Jill) Boardman: A nurse at Bethesda Hospital who sneaks Mike out of government custody. She plays a key role in introducing him to human culture and becomes one of his closest confidantes and a central figure in the Church of All Worlds, which Mike develops.
 * Ben Caxton: An early love interest of Jill and an investigative journalist (Jill sees him as of the "lippmann", political, rather than the "winchell", or celebrity gossip inclination), who masterminds Mike's initial freedom from custody. He joins Mike's inner circle but remains somewhat skeptical at first of the social order that it develops.
 * Jubal Harshaw: A popular writer, lawyer, and doctor, now semi-retired to a house in the Pocono Mountains, an influential but reclusive public figure who provides pivotal support for Mike's independence and a safe haven for him. Elderly but in good health, he serves as a father figure for the inner circle while keeping a suspicious distance from it. The character's name was chosen by Heinlein to have unusual overtones, like Jonathan Hoag. Mike enshrines him (much to Harshaw's initial chagrin) as the patron saint of the church he founds.
 * Anne, Miriam, Dorcas: Harshaw's three personal/professional secretaries, who live with him and take turns as his "front", responding to his instructions. Anne is certified as a Fair Witness, empowered to provide objective legal testimony about events that she witnesses. All three become early acolytes of Michael's church.
 * Duke, Larry: Handymen who work for Harshaw and live in his estate; they also become central members of the church.
 * Dr. "Stinky" Mahmoud: A semanticist, crew member of the Champion and the second human (after Mike) to gain a working knowledge of the Martian language but does not "grok" the language. He becomes a member of the church while retaining his Muslim faith.
 * Patty Paiwonski: A "tattooed lady" and snake handler at the circus Mike and Jill join for a time. She has ties to the Fosterite church, which she retains as a member of Mike's inner circle.
 * Joseph Douglas: Secretary-General of the Federation of Free States, which has evolved indirectly from the United Nations into a true world government.
 * Alice Douglas: Sometimes called "Agnes", Joe Douglas' wife. As the First Lady, she manipulates her husband, making major economic, political, and staffing decisions and frequently consults astrologer Becky Vesant for major decisions.
 * Foster: The founder of the Church of the New Revelation (Fosterite), who now exists as an archangel.
 * Digby: Foster's successor as head of the Fosterite Church; he becomes an archangel under Foster after Mike "discorporates" him.

Development
Originally titled The Heretic, the book was written in part as a deliberate attempt to challenge social norms. In the course of the story, Heinlein uses Smith's open-mindedness to re-evaluate such institutions as religion, money, monogamy, and the fear of death. Heinlein completed writing it ten years after he had plotted it out in detail. He later wrote, "I had been in no hurry to finish it, as that story could not be published commercially until the public mores changed. I could see them changing and it turned out that I had timed it right."

Heinlein got the idea for the novel when he and his wife Virginia were brainstorming one evening in 1948. She suggested a new version of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1894), but with a child raised by Martians instead of wolves. He decided to go further with the idea and worked on the story on and off for more than a decade, believing that contemporary society was not yet ready for it.

Heinlein was surprised that some readers thought the book described how he believed society should be organized, explaining: "I was not giving answers. I was trying to shake the reader loose from some preconceptions and induce him to think for himself, along new and fresh lines. In consequence, each reader gets something different out of that book because he himself supplies the answers ... It is an invitation to think – not to believe."

His editors at Putnam required him to cut its 220,000-word length down to 160,000 words before publication.

Heinlein himself remarked in a letter he wrote to Oberon Zell-Ravenheart in 1972 that he thought his shorter, edited version was better. Heinlein also added some new material to the shorter version.

The book was dedicated in part to science fiction author Philip José Farmer, who had explored sexual themes in works such as The Lovers (1952). It was also influenced by the satiric fantasies of James Branch Cabell.

Reception
Heinlein's deliberately provocative book generated considerable controversy. The free love and commune living aspects of the Church of All Worlds led to the book's exclusion from school reading lists. After it was rumored to be associated with Charles Manson, it was removed from school libraries, as well.

Writing in The New York Times, Orville Prescott received the novel caustically, describing it as a "disastrous mishmash of science fiction, laborious humor, dreary social satire, and cheap eroticism"; he characterized Stranger in a Strange Land as "puerile and ludicrous", saying "when a non-stop orgy is combined with a lot of preposterous chatter, it becomes unendurable, an affront to the patience and intelligence of readers". Galaxy reviewer Floyd C. Gale rated the novel 3.5 stars out of five, saying "the book's shortcomings lie not so much in its emancipation as in the fact that Heinlein has bitten off too large a chewing portion".

Despite such reviews, Stranger in a Strange Land won the 1962 Hugo Award for Best Novel and became the first science fiction novel to enter The New York Times Book Review's best-seller list. In 2012, it was included in a Library of Congress exhibition of "Books That Shaped America".

Critics have also suggested that Jubal Harshaw is actually a stand-in for Robert Heinlein himself, based on similarities in career choice and general disposition, though Harshaw is much older than Heinlein was at the time of writing. Literary critic Dan Schneider wrote that Harshaw's belief in his own free will, was one "which Mike, Jill, and the Fosterites misinterpret as a pandeistic urge, 'Thou art God!

Influence
The book significantly influenced modern culture in a variety of ways.

Church of All Worlds
A central element of the second half of the novel is the religious movement founded by Smith, the "Church of All Worlds", an initiatory mystery religion blending elements of paganism and revivalism, with psychic training and instruction in the Martian language. In 1968, Oberon Zell-Ravenheart (then Tim Zell) founded the Church of All Worlds, a Neopagan religious organization modeled in many ways after the fictional organization in the novel. The spiritual path included several ideas from the book, including polyamory, non-mainstream family structures, social libertarianism, water-sharing rituals, an acceptance of all religious paths by a single tradition, and the use of several terms such as "grok", "Thou art God", and "Never Thirst".

Heinlein objected to Zell's lumping him with other writers such as Ayn Rand and Robert Rimmer; Heinlein felt that those writers used their art for propaganda purposes, while he simply asked questions of the reader, expecting each reader to answer for him- or herself. He wrote to Zell in a letter: "... each reader gets something different out of the book because he himself supplies the answers. If I managed to shake him loose from some prejudice, preconception or unexamined assumption, that was all I intended to do."

Though Heinlein was neither a member nor a promoter of the Church, it was formed including frequent correspondence between Zell and Heinlein, and Heinlein was a paid subscriber to the Church's magazine Green Egg. This Church still exists as a 501(c)(3) recognized religious organization incorporated in California, with membership worldwide, and it remains an active part of the neopagan community.

Grok
The word "grok", coined in the novel, made its way into the English language. In Heinlein's invented Martian language, "grok" literally means "to drink" and figuratively means "to comprehend", "to love", and "to be one with". The word rapidly became common parlance among science fiction fans, hippies, and later computer programmers and hackers, and has since entered the Oxford English Dictionary.

Fair Witness
The profession of Fair Witness, invented for the novel, has been cited in such varied contexts as environmentalism, psychology, technology, digital signatures, and science, as well as in books on leadership and Sufism. A Fair Witness is an individual trained to observe events and report exactly what is seen and heard, making no extrapolations or assumptions. While wearing the Fair Witness uniform of a white robe, they are presumed to be observing and opining in their professional capacity. Works that refer to the Fair Witness emphasize the profession's impartiality, integrity, objectivity, and reliability.

An example from the book illustrates the role of Fair Witness when Anne is asked what color a house is. She answers, "It's white on this side." The character Jubal then explains, "You see? It doesn't occur to Anne to infer that the other side is white, too. All the King's horses couldn't force her to commit herself... unless she went there and looked – and even then she wouldn't assume that it stayed white after she left."

Waterbed
Stranger in a Strange Land contains an early description of the waterbed, an invention that made its real-world debut in 1968. Charles Hall, who submitted a waterbed design to the United States patent office, was initially refused a patent on the grounds that Heinlein's descriptions in Stranger in a Strange Land and another novel, Double Star (1956), constituted prior art.

In popular culture

 * Heinlein's novella Lost Legacy (1941) lends its theme, and possibly some characters, to Stranger in a Strange Land. In a relevant part of the story, Joan Freeman is described as feeling like "a stranger in a strange land".
 * The Police released an Andy Summers–penned song titled "Friends", as the B-side to their hit "Don't Stand So Close to Me" (1980), that referenced the novel. Summers claimed that it "was about eating your friends, or 'grocking' them as [Stranger in a Strange Land] put it".
 * In November 2016, Syfy announced plans to develop a TV series based on the novel with Paramount Television and Universal Cable Productions co-producing the series.
 * Stranger in a Strange Land is included in Billy Joel's song "We Didn't Start the Fire", which is based on significant events of the mid- to late 20th century.

Publication history
Two major versions of this book exist:

 * The 1961 version which, at the publisher's request, Heinlein cut by 25% in length. Approximately 60,000 words were removed from the original manuscript, including some sharp criticism of American attitudes toward sex and religion. The book was marketed to a mainstream readership, and was the first science fiction novel to be listed on The New York Times Best Seller list for fiction. By 1997, over 100,000 copies of the hardback edition had been sold along with nearly five million copies of the paperback. None of his later novels would match this level of success.
 * The 1991 version, retrieved from Heinlein's archives in the University of California, Santa Cruz, Special Collections Department by Heinlein's widow, Virginia, and published posthumously, which reproduces the original manuscript and restores all cuts. It came about because in 1989, Virginia renewed the copyright to Stranger and cancelled the existing publication contracts in accordance with the Copyright Act of 1976. Both Heinlein's agent and his publisher (which had new senior editors) agreed that the uncut version was better: readers are used to longer books, and what was seen as objectionable in 1961 was no longer so 30 years later.

Heinlein himself remarked in a letter he wrote to Oberon Zell-Ravenheart in 1972 that he thought his shorter, edited version was better. He wrote, "SISL was never censored by anyone in any fashion. The first draft was nearly twice as long as the published version. I cut it myself to bring it down to a commercial length. But I did not leave out anything of any importance; I simply trimmed all possible excess verbiage. Perhaps you have noticed that it reads 'fast' despite its length; that is why. ... The original, longest version of SISL ... is really not worth your trouble, as it is the same story throughout – simply not as well told. With it is the brushpenned version which shows exactly what was cut out – nothing worth reading, that is. I learned to write for pulp magazines, in which one was paid by the yard rather than by the package; it was not until I started writing for the Saturday Evening Post that I learned the virtue of brevity."

Additionally, since Heinlein added material while he was editing the manuscript for the commercial release, the 1991 publication of the original manuscript is missing some material that was in the novel when it was first published.

Editions
Many editions exist:

 * June 1, 1961, Putnam Publishing Group, hardcover, ISBN 0-399-10772-X
 * Avon, NY, first paperback edition, 1962.
 * 1965, New English Library Ltd, (London).
 * March 1968, Berkley Medallion, paperback, ISBN 0-425-04688-5
 * July 1970, New English Library Ltd, (London). 400 pages, paperback. (third 'new edition', August 1971 reprint, NEL 2844.)
 * 1972, Capricorn Books, 408 pages, ISBN 0-399-50268-8
 * October 1975, Berkley Publishing Group, paperback, ISBN 0-425-03067-9
 * November 1977, Berkley Publishing Group, paperback, ISBN 0-425-03782-7
 * July 1979, Berkley Publishing Group, paperback, ISBN 0-425-04377-0
 * September 1980, Berkley Publishing Group, paperback, ISBN 0-425-04688-5
 * July 1982, Berkley Publishing Group, paperback, ISBN 0-425-05833-6
 * July 1983, Penguin Putnam, paperback, ISBN 0-425-06490-5
 * January 1984, Berkley Publishing Group, paperback, ISBN 0-425-07142-1
 * May 1, 1984, Berkley Publishing Group, paperback, ISBN 0-425-05216-8
 * December 1984, Berkley Publishing Group, ISBN 0-425-08094-3
 * November 1986, Berkley Publishing Group, paperback, ISBN 0-425-10147-9
 * 1989, Easton Press, leather bound hardcover, 414 pages
 * January 1991, original uncut edition, Ace/Putnam, hardcover, ISBN 0-399-13586-3
 * May 3, 1992, original uncut edition, Hodder and Stoughton, mass market paperback, 655 pages, ISBN 0-450-54742-6
 * 1995, Easton Press (MBI, Inc.), original uncut edition, leather bound hardcover, 525 pages
 * August 1, 1995, ACE Charter, paperback, 438 pages, ISBN 0-441-79034-8
 * April 1, 1996, Blackstone Audio, cassette audiobook, ISBN 0-7861-0952-1
 * October 1, 1999, Sagebrush, library binding, ISBN 0-8085-2087-3
 * June 1, 2002, Blackstone Audio, cassette audiobook, ISBN 0-7861-2229-3
 * January 2003, Turtleback Books distributed by Demco Media, hardcover, ISBN 0-606-25126-X
 * November 1, 2003, Blackstone Audio, CD audiobook, ISBN 0-7861-8848-0
 * March 14, 2005, Hodder and Stoughton, paperback, 655 pages, ISBN 0-340-83795-0
 * October 25, 2016, Penguin Books, hardcover, 498 pages, ISBN 978-0143111627
 * 2020, Folio Society, original uncut edition, slipcased hardcover, 616 pages
 * 2021, Suntup Press, original uncut edition, slipcased hardcover, 636 pages, ISBN 1-951-15169-0

title: Stranger in a Strange Land


text:
Glory Road

Glory Road is a science fantasy novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, originally serialized in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (July – September 1963) and published in hardcover the same year. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1964.

Plot summary
Evelyn Cyril "E.C." Gordon (also known as "Easy" and "Flash" ) has been recently discharged from an unnamed war in Southeast Asia. He is pondering what to do with his future and considers spending a year traveling in France. He is presented with a dilemma: follow up on a possible winning entry in the Irish Sweepstakes or respond to a newspaper ad that asks "Are you a coward?". He settles on the latter, discovering it has been placed by Star, a stunningly gorgeous woman he has previously met on Île du Levant. Star informs him that he is the one to embark on a perilous quest to retrieve the Egg of the Phoenix. When she asks what to call him, he wants to suggest Scarface, referring to the scar on his face, but she stops him as he is saying "Oh, Scar..." and repeats this as "Oscar", and thus gives him his new name. Along with Rufo, her assistant, who appears to be a man in his fifties, they tread the "Glory Road" in swashbuckling style, slaying dragons and other exotic creatures.

Shortly before the final Quest for the Egg itself, Oscar and Star marry. The team then proceeds to enter the tower in which the Egg has been hidden, navigating a maze of illusions and optical tricks. Oscar scouts ahead and encounters a fearsome foe who, though unnamed, is clearly the legendary 17th-century swordsman Cyrano de Bergerac, the final guardian of the Egg. After a long fight, the party escapes with the Egg. When they arrive in the home universe of Star and Rufo, Rufo informs Oscar that Star is actually the Empress of many worlds—and Rufo's grandmother.

The Egg is a cybernetic device that contains the knowledge and experiences of most of her predecessors. Despite her youthful appearance, she is the mother of dozens of children (by egg donation) and has undergone special medical treatments that extend her life much longer than usual. She has Oscar unknowingly receive the same treatments.

Initially, Oscar enjoys his new-found prestige and luxurious life as the husband of the Empress of the Twenty Universes. However, as time goes on, he grows bored and feels out of place and useless. When he demands Star's professional judgment, she tells him that he must leave; her world has no place or need for a hero of his stature. It will be decades before she can complete the transfer of the knowledge held in the Egg, so he must go alone. He returns to Earth but has difficulty readjusting to his own world, despite having brought great wealth along with him. He begins to doubt his own sanity and whether the adventure even happened. The story ends as he is contacted by Rufo to set up another trip along the Glory Road.

Reception
Samuel R. Delany called the novel "endlessly fascinating" and said that it "maintains a delicacy, a bravura, and a joy". The novel's second half has been praised as intriguing, as it goes into what happens after a typical hero's journey is finished. Oscar is married to a ruler in a situation that should be "happily ever after" and the end of many works, yet the novel continues rather than stops: having nothing to do and nothing new to conquer is itself a struggle for Oscar. A review at SF Site by Peter D. Tillman thought the book was okay, but felt it had aged poorly in parts. While Tillman acknowledged loving the book while younger and it making a good "pulp" read, he felt that it wasted too much time on Heinlein's personal hang-ups and rants, and that the relationship between Oscar and Star was too much puerile wish-fulfillment.

Glory Road was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1964, losing to Way Station by Clifford D. Simak.

title: Glory Road