Where fantasy becomes reality: Sci-fi museum has a crowded debut

By Mike Lindblom
Seattle Times staff reporter

JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES Spectators watch the television cartoon family "The Jetsons" in a portrayal of a futuristic city yesterday during the grand opening of the new Science Fiction Museum at Seattle Center.

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Chances are, Dave Fitton of West Seattle was the first visitor to pack a gun into the new Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame.

Fortunately, the weapon in his backpack was a toy phaser, resembling the ones on "Star Trek."

The new museum inside Paul Allen's Experience Music Project opened yesterday, with a red carpet welcoming fans to two floors of memorabilia. Popular displays include the endomorphic movie pal "E.T.," an alien egg coated in barnacles, colorful paintings of space-travel scenes, plus an entire arsenal of firearms to stun, reconstitute or detonate hostile aliens.

Fitton, 42, admired a tethered model of the Starship Enterprise, used by the "Star Trek" television crews in 1966 to portray a spacecraft in motion. "I've got to get one," he joked. There was also a spaceship console, the command chair, a blue shirt worn by Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, and a mustard-colored tunic off the back of William Shatner.

Fitton was wearing the same type shirt.

" 'Star Trek' shows a future where we survive, are not greedy and try to better ourselves. And that has some appeal," he said. The other allure of sci-fi is how it can predict the future, he said, pulling out a model "Star Trek" "communicator," whose shape and function were nearly identical to today's flip-top cellphones.

Earlier, Microsoft co-founder Allen and movie director Steven Spielberg spoke at the opening ceremony. By afternoon there was a 2½-hour wait to get in. Museum staffers spread the visitor flow, leaving space to roam inside.

Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame In Experience Music Project at Seattle Center. Hours: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. (summer hours) Adults, $12.95; seniors 65 and over, and youth 7 to 17, $8.95; children 6 and under, free. Combination tickets for both the science-fiction museum and EMP music museum: adults, $26.95; seniors and youth, $19.95; children 6 and under, free. Web site: www.sfhomeworld.org Phone: 206-724-3428.

The upper floor imposes sensory overload. A globe-shaped television screen hangs near the entrance, surrounded by black walls in flickering starscapes. Sounds overlap from video and audio clips. The calmer bottom floor, which resembles a submarine, contains most of the robot costumes, books, posters and film footage.

The narrations occasionally attempt to be profound: Instead of a Utopia, the Jetsons muddled through the middle-class stress of airborne traffic jams. Monster movies in Japan substitute for openly talking about the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Some fans called the sci-fi display more engaging than the EMP's bigger rock 'n' roll museum.

"In a world where science-fiction fans are geeks, this is a place where we are celebrated," said Wilum Pugmire of Seattle.

People who don't enjoy the genre are more likely to wonder if the $12.95 price of an adult ticket was well spent.

"Wouldn't recommend it," Harold Walton, a tourist from Virginia, told a museum staffer in the elevator.

He explained that a cable television show had led him to expect a peek at current space exploration — the Hubble telescope and Mars landings — that excite him more than the book and movie artifacts.

"Think about it," he said. "We've got people living in a space station 365 days a year."

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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