I’m surprised and I’m flattered, and then we start talking – just shooting the breeze – and then he starts talking to me about 2001. I don’t even remember exactly what he said about 2001, but we started to talk about the feel, the look, the aura of 2001. To me, like I just finished telling you, 2001 is just the pinnacle of science fiction movies. Kubrick spent an enormous amount of his own personal money to make that movie as realistic as possible. In fact I’ve read that he nearly went broke doing it, and didn’t really make the money back, because it wasn’t exactly a box office hit. I just thought to myself, "If this guy thinks about 2001 the same way I do, then he and I are on the same page, and I’m 'In'". It was then that I decided that this was going to be fun — to work with someone who shares my feelings. So that’s how it happened.

Kevin: Interestingly enough, as an aside, I got a call to interview for the role of science advisor on Battlestar Galactica while I was in Boulder, at SSI, at one of your Imaging Team meetings.

Carolyn: Really? When was that?

Kevin: What…three, maybe four, years ago now.

Carolyn: Oh, OK.

Kevin: With what sort of specific responsibilities has J.J. Abrams tasked you on this film?

Carolyn: Well I haven’t been tasked in detail with anything yet, because my role hasn’t begun yet. They just wrapped up filming and now they’re just getting into post-production and they’re not ready for me yet, they say. We haven’t sat down and figured out exactly what it is that I’m going to do.

Kevin: To what sort of lengths are they going to ensure scientific or technical accuracy?

Carolyn: Again, I can’t say for sure, cause things haven’t started for me yet, but from what I’ve seen so far this is a very sincere group of people who are intent on getting it as "right" as possible. I’m imagining a lot of fun brainstorming sessions with J.J Abrams and Roger Guyett, who’s the head of visual effects for this movie, to discuss what we are going to do, how things are going to look, and so on. I’m imagining that I’m going to serve the role eventually as "planetary police woman", where I ensure that whatever is depicted as far as astronomical imagery, and planetary scenes, look as realistic as possible.

Kevin: That’s great.

Carolyn: I’ve also been contacted by other producers on the film, responsible for other scenes, non-planetary scenes, asking me questions. So I may be an advisor on things that are non-planetary in nature. I don’t know if that’s going to continue…

Kevin: Trust me, it will.

Carolyn: OK.

Kevin: I know that your lab, CICLOPS, is capable of producing animations. Will your shop be doing any of the renderings, or is that strictly Paramount’s purview?

Carolyn: Well you know we are rank amateurs compared to ILM and ILM is the organization that’s going to be doing the graphics — the special effects and visual effects and so on. So I don’t expect to be asked to do anything because we can’t do anything on the same scale as they can. But I’m very much looking forward to working with them, because doing that kind of work is something that I want to do in the future. I’m interested in doing my own films, my own documentaries, and so I see this as a wonderful opportunity to get in there and see how it’s all done — how the whole filmmaking process is done.

Kevin: I can relate. Now I think you’ve answered this next question, but does the production staff come to you with specific questions, or have they given you the script and simply asked you to come up with suggestions of your own to flesh things out or enhance certain aspects of the story? For me, on Galactica, it can work either way so I’m curious how it works for you.

Carolyn: Well, so far I have read the script, and I did so with an eye towards visualizing all the planetary and space scenes. I suspect at some point we’ll all get together and they’ll ask me what I think, and we’ll just go from there.

Kevin: How would you like to see Star Trek expanded, augmented, or improved by your involvement with this film?

Carolyn: Accuracy. Like I said, I’m going to be the Planetary Police Woman, so I’m hoping that we can achieve accuracy in the depiction of otherworldly phenomena, and accuracy in the visualization of the planetary scenes. I presume that’s why they would ask someone like me, and someone like you, to participate. They want to honor, to some degree anyway, reality.

Kevin: Indeed, I agree. Now I know you, like me, do a lot of public speaking and are dedicated to public outreach, and public education of science and space. Do you view this film in any way as an opportunity to advance science literacy?

Carolyn: Well I view it as another opportunity to get people familiar with what we have found in 50 years of propelling ourselves around the Solar System. This is preaching to the choir, but there are few things as exciting as what we do, and few things as exciting as what we are finding. It’s a shame that more people don’t know about it because, to me, it’s an opportunity to feel good about being human. It’s something that we do that is solely done for good, and speaks so much to our hope for the future and our desire to better ourselves. Any success like Cassini’s orbit insertion, landing on the surface of Titan, flying by Enceladus…these are phenomenal achievements. You, of course, know and I know how technically-challenging they are, we’ve been enormously successful, and so everybody should know about it because it would give everybody a chance to feel inspired by others and to do whatever it is that they can do to better themselves. I would love it if people go to this film and they come out saying, "Wow, I didn’t know that such-and-such looked that way. I didn’t know that we knew that much about the bodies in our Solar System…I have never thought about our place in our cosmic neighborhood." That would be just a joy to me if it turned out that way.

Kevin: I couldn’t have said it better, that’s fantastic. Anything I haven’t asked yet that you’d like to discuss?

Carolyn: Well, yeah. I have a company called Diamond Sky Productions, and we’ve just set up the website. We’re just getting started. I have great hopes and dreams about getting science, especially planetary exploration, out there to the public. One thing I’ve done on this web site is set up a forum where I’m inviting people to discuss the intersection of science and the public sphere, because I very much want to hear other peoples’ ideas for increasing science literacy and awareness. Scientists can talk about this, but we really need to hear from members of the public. Why is it in a wealthy technologically-advanced society like ours, so few individuals are interested in science and what it has brought us? It’s understandable in Third World countries, people don’t have the wherewithal to pay attention to anything but surviving. But here? Is science frightening to people? Is it a bias that’s left over from school? I would just love to know what the core issues are. I’d like to encourage people to go to diamondskyproductions.com, we have a forum there and I want to hear your ideas.

Kevin: Outstanding. Hopefully we can revisit this topic, and your involvement in the film, closer to movie release time.

Star Trek XI opens in theaters May 8, 2009.