On This Day in History... A Time Machine was born!

On this day in history, a time machine was born. Seriously. On 21 January 1981, the first De-Lorean car rolled off the production line in Dubmurry, a suburb of Belfast in Northern Ireland. Making the De-Lorean a British car... sort of. Only about 9,000 were ever made before the company halted production in 1983, and so it would have remained an obscure car only known to die hard motor fanatics, were it not for its starring role in one of my favourite films, Back to the Future. So for Back to the Future fans, this is a day worth celebrating.

BTTF DeLorean Time Machine" by Terabass 

The car retailed for about $25,000 (about $60k in today's money) but was so popular that there was a waiting list, and many people were willing to pay over the odds for the car. The company went into liquidation during a huge slump in the US car market, and after the creator, John DeLorean, was arrested on drug trafficking charges. He was later found to be not guilty but by that point it was too late for the DeLorean.

The car had several production runs, but with only very minor differences, and all the production cars were left hand drives as they were made for the American market, although 16 were subsequently modified to be right hand drive. Then there was the pilot test cars, all thought destroyed, until one turned up in a barn in Northern Ireland in 2003. How someone had one of these all this time and no-one noticed I've no idea...

Interestingly there are also three gold DeLoreans, covered in 24 carat gold plating. These were made for American Express, who were planning to sell 100 gold DeLorean's as part of a sales promotion. Only two were made initially however, and one was made later from spare parts which had been ordered by American Express in case of any faults or damage to the cars. A gold DeLorean just isn't the same though, it wasn't in Back to the Future after all, was it?

That's enough about the DeLorean, but I'll be coming back to Back to the Future later in the year as 2015 is a very important year. It is 30 years since the first film came out, but much more importantly, it was the year Marty McFly travelled to in Back to the Future 2. You know, the one with the hoverboards and flying cars...

Film review - Star Trek: Into Darkness

I finally got around to watching the new Star Trek film earlier in the week, and it's a really good one, up there with The Voyage Home & First Contact for best Star Trek film. One of the things I really love about these new Star Trek films is the cast. I mean, there's a much sexier version of Uhuru, there's the classic geekiness of Simon Pegg as Scotty and the slightly nervous geek factor of Anton Yelchin as a Chekov, and this film has got the actor of the moment, Benedict Cumberbatch as bad guy Khan.

What's interesting about this film is that its a sort of re-make of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. I say sort of because it is only loosely similar. There's a bad guy called Khan who lived hundreds of years in the past, but was cryogenically frozen. In the original Star Trek series, after being woken, he was exiled by Kirk after attempting to steal the Enterprise. Years later he escapes and goes after Kirk to extract his revenge, hence the 'Wrath of Khan'. In the new film he's had no prior dealings with Kirk, so doesn't have a vendetta against the Enterprise or its captain but is merely pursuing his own agenda. In fact, at a couple of points you are questioning whether he really is the bad guy, then you remember he's called Khan... In the hands of another actor, this might detract from the role, but Cumberbatch plays it very well.

The ending of the film is quite different too, but again superficially similar. If you've seen the original film and remember what happened, you'll be wondering if history will repeat itself. I won't spoil it by saying any more, except that the the Tribble is the clue...

I've heard that you would enjoy the film more if you re-watched Wrath of Khan first. I didn't, and loved the new film. I am tempted to go back and watch Wrath of Khan again now though...

I'll give it 9/10. A thoroughly enjoyable film that I'd watch again.