FAN ATTRACTION Sci-fi museum is set to open in Seattle

The museum also contains the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
By BILL HUTCHENS
TACOMA NEWS TRIBUNE
Mark this on your calendars: Stardate June 18, 2004.
On that day, Paul Allen and a few dozen other science-fiction buffs will open the new Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame at Allen's Experience Music Project in Seattle at the Seattle Center.
Organizers say it will be a place where hundreds of worlds collide, worlds dreamed up in the minds of popular science-fiction writers over three centuries.
Best-selling sci-fi author Greg Bear is chairman of the museum advisory board that includes such other notable members as Ray Bradbury, James Cameron, Arthur C. Clarke, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.
Bear and the museum director, Donna Shirley, were on hand during the first week of April to show off the exhibit space, which is under construction.
The entire museum is tucked into the colorful, odd-shaped EMP building.
The museum is a nonprofit organization that will have to pay for itself from admission fees, Shirley said.
Bear led a tour of the first floor, mostly unpainted wooden walls and empty glass display cases. But the beginnings of what Bear called a "wreck-tech" motif can be seen through the dust created by busy carpenters.
"It's kind of that used-spaceship look," like the inside of the Millennium Falcon from "Star Wars" or the Nostromo from the movie "Alien," Bear said.
3-D images
One of the main attractions on that floor will be "Spacedock" where visitors will be able to study their favorite spaceships, Bear said. A giant high-definition screen will display the ships as visitors use computers to manipulate the images "in glorious 3-D," he said. "It's gonna knock your socks off."
An area simply called "Them!" will be home to otherworldly creatures and robots and will detail our fascination with contacting them.
Allen's construction company, Vulcan, is taking the lead on the project.
Eventually, hundreds of science-fiction artifacts from movies and television will fill display cases -- sort of an Extraplanetary Hollywood. Many of the items are from the private collections of Allen, advisory board members and other sci-fi enthusiasts.
For now, the 18-foot-tall alien queen from the movie "Aliens" rests in a South Seattle warehouse with the mechanical cargo mover that Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) used to vanquish her.
Shirley, former director of NASA's Mars exploration program, showed off the work-in-progress on the second floor of the museum.
And, no, there are no teleporters for "beaming" between areas as in "Star Trek."
"Not yet, anyway," Shirley said.
Hall of fame relocation
The hall of fame part of the museum is being relocated from the University of Kansas where it was founded in 1996. It will be a state-of-the-art interactive display, Shirley said.
Visitors will be able to learn about their favorite authors from Jules Verne to Isaac Asimov and see exhibits such as a first-edition copy of "The Time Machine" signed by H.G. Wells.
Shirley said the new facility will continue the annual induction ceremonies started at the University of Kansas.
Project manager Anne Adams said the third floor, a more open space for parties and conferences, will feature several large installations including the flying saucer from "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and the Police Spinner vehicle that Harrison Ford piloted in "Blade Runner."
"We've relied heavily on the input of the hard-core fans like myself," Adams said. "We're trying to get every detail exactly right."
For information about the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, go to www.SFhomeworld.com.