New Paul Allen sci-fi museum takes fans on odyssey, but it's an expensive one

By Mark Rahner
Seattle Times staff reporter

The robot in the television series "Lost in Space" is from the Paul Allen Family Collection.

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I've seen the future, and there's cause for hope. But it's a little shaky as things stand.

A glimpse of Paul Allen's Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame a couple of weeks before its June 18 opening reminded me of why I like to watch MTV's "Cribs." It's fun to see what people do when they get enough money to indulge even their most rococo desires and none of sycophants surrounding them have the nerve to say, "Ah, maybe not." (There are curators and a museum director, but it's Allen's $20 million bankroll, and lots from his personal collection.)

In short, the SFM is a wonderful undertaking — noble, even — with some fantastic exhibits, but lots of head-scratchers, too.

The first head-scratcher you'll encounter is the $12.95 adult admission for the little museum housed inside the Experience Music Project. It's separate from EMP's admission. (A ticket for both will cost a Jabba-esque $26.95.)

That makes SFM more expensive than The Louvre (about $10.17) and The Metropolitan Museum of Art: ($12). This requires what writers in the genre call "the willing suspension of disbelief."

So what do you get for all those quatloos? (Hey, Allen's a Trekkie — as evidenced by Captain Kirk's chair and the Kirk and Spock uniforms on display.)

Best of all, you get the long-overdue recognition for the creators whose imaginations have fueled a good deal of the world's pop culture and its real science. Many of them died broke or close to it — Philip K. Dick, Roger Zelazny, A.E. Van Vogt — after pouring their souls into a genre that was ghetto-ized, approximately until "Star Wars" struck gold in 1977.

The Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame Where: 325 Fifth Ave. N., in Experience Music Project, Seattle Center. Opens: June 18. Hours: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Sundays. Cost: Adults $12.95; ages 65-over and 7-17 $8.95; kids 6-under free. Web site: www.sfhomeworld.org Size: 13,000 square feet. Cost: $20 million. Construction time: 18 months. And what's that "icon" outside the entrance? A "striking, unexplained and other-worldly form" that "embodies the theme of science fiction," organizers say.

SFM's beautiful Hall of Fame exhibit features the likenesses of 36 greats etched in glass panels — Theodore Sturgeon, Jules Verne, Arthur C. Clarke — with 15-second videos of each playing on a screen above and an interactive information kiosk behind.

A 25-foot Timeline mural shows milestones from Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" to the present, with a "reader rail" of historic events.

There are also some supremely gee-whiz visual displays. One of the first things you see when you walk in is a 68-inch suspended globe with movie and TV clips projected onto it. A large Spacedock screen is designed like a portal looking out onto the most famous space ships of the genre: The Enterprise from "Star Trek" glides past the Discovery from "2001: A Space Odyssey." A "Star Wars" X-Wing zooms past. The twirling beer-can thing is from Clarke's "Rama" books.

Exhibits showing science fiction's influence on real science are worthy, too. Director Donna Shirley came from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and a "Changing Face of Mars" exhibit will feature a Pathfinder vehicle. (That one was incomplete at the time of my walk-through, so some details, such as whether the Pathfinder is a model or the real thing, were unclear.)

They spared no expense on SFM's first-rate design. The "Fantastic Journeys" section, for instance, is like the interior of a ship, with rounded, padded archways.

	The mask worn by Kevin Peter Hall in the film "Predator II" is among items at the museum.

The exhibits and individual cases are organized by themes, some of which are naturals, others of which are weak and sparse. For instance, "THEM!" houses a couple of the museum's premiere artifacts with clever touches: the enormous alien queen prop from James Cameron's "Aliens" film, behind glass frosted as if it's in cryogenic suspension; and the big, yellow power loader that Sigourney Weaver's Ripley character used to fight it — behind an airport baggage-claim belt. In the same room are reproductions of Robby the Robot from "Forbidden Planet," the "Danger Will Robinson!" robot from "Lost in Space," R2D2 and others.

An armory wall in the "Fantastic Journeys" section features ray guns and other weapons from assorted films: "Barbarella" 's crossbow, some "Star Trek" phasers and the ear-piercing gun that Lori Petty used in "Tank Girl" ... Huh?

An exhibit called "Out of the Ashes" features a couple of "Planet of the Apes" costumes, some books ("Damnation Alley," "Day of the Triffids") and some stills from "The day the World Ended" and "Waterworld" ... Hello?

The ear-piercing gun and "Waterworld" stills are hardly the only dubious artifacts. Submitted for your approval: Matt LeBlanc's spacesuit from the awful "Lost in Space" feature film, next to John Lithgow's from the less-than-classic "2010." A display of "Star Wars" action figures. Rock Em Sock Em Robots (seriously). These are roughly the equivalent of enshrining Will Smith's "Wild Wild West" costume. Hang on: EMP already did that.

	The crossbow used by Jane Fonda in "Barbarella" is among many weapons on display.

So what would be the science fiction equivalent of, say, a Jimi Hendrix guitar or an Elvis jumpsuit? From the film side, maybe an original Gort robot from "The Day the Earth Stood Still," along with more authentic movie props and fewer plain old pictures and stills. There's a Gort reproduction at SFM, the only item visitors can touch. Hard to believe Allen couldn't score the real deal. First-edition books take up plenty of display space throughout the museum — Robert A. Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" and Larry Niven's "Ringworld" — along with lots of old pulp magazines such as "Astounding Science Fiction" and "Planet Stories." These are items fans covet, but they don't make for thrilling viewing. And while the splashy pulp cover art is gorgeous, you can buy the things for $10 or $20 on eBay.

But a gallery in SFM will feature original art by pulp masters, including Chesley Bonestell and Virgil Finlay. Now you're talking.

The museum could be the shining star that makes the region already known for its love of science fiction into the genre's epicenter. Or it could become a black hole that leaves tourists cranky after one visit. I'm going back for another visit soon and am hoping it's the first of the two alternate futures.

Mark Rahner: 206-464-8259 or mrahner@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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