Threshold

A new speculative series is debuting as I type on CBS....There's a smart "little person," on there that tickles my sense that the acting profession needs to include "different" people like myself.

TNG alumni, Brent Spiner is anything but robotic, playing a cynical, crass, bitter physician.

It's "Invasion" without the juvenile sensibility. I think it will be a good show.

Miracle Worker

James Doohan, the man who played "Scotty" on the original Star Trek Series has passed away. From what I understand complications from pneumonia and the alzheimers that he was struggling with were the cause.

The word is given...warp speed.

A Shatner note:

regarding his appearance this evening at the AFI tribute for George Lucas.

Shatner will do positively *anything* for face time. Anything.

(and I'm a Kirk person, I really am.)

Off Topic and Puzzling

I havent got a problem with what George Lucas said at Cannes, I can see that people on the opposite side of the question would take issue

But "Star Wars" the film is now on a list to be *boycotted* by certain Republicans...

These must be the spiritual desendants of the folks that wouldn't broadcast Trek on certain stations during its initial run.....

I am speechless. I can't even rant about this it's so nuts. More after next Monday when I have seen the film.

Spoilers---Let's go Mind the Store

So....

This takes place during the Enterprise D's missions...

Brent must have recorded "Data's" lines either while doing his own guest stint or as a later unanounced bit.

If the entire episode had been about the NX 01's crew I would have liked it better... I'll take what I can get. Shran and his beautiful little daughter. Tucker and Malcom speculating about possible future Enterprises. Archer being self deprecating and gentle, both about Tucker's death and his own speechmaking ability. T'Pol was written grossly emotional (for a Vulcan) and I agree Jolene Blalok and John Billingsley who went on record as being dissatisfied with the way their characters, indeed the whole NX crew took a backseat to the framing Riker/Troi story.


I was all ready to hate the framing story with the hottest hate I could muster, but Riker's just so damn congenial it's hard to dislike him. After all it's not Frakes and Sirtis' fault they've been asked to upstage Phlox's compassion, T'Pols prickly behavior, or the worst upstage of all, Tucker's death being marginalized by making the whole thing just a holographic simulation...

The only thing that made the framing worth it was the end sequence and even that was two shots shy of perfect...The ships (but where was Voyager?), the spacescape (but where was DS9?) and the complementary voice overs.

Ah, well, engage...

Halfway through

Loved the rocking, rolling shuttle ride...to the end emphasizing the fact that this is not the cushy 23rd or 24th century..."When *I* walked to school through twelve feet of snow," etc. These ancestors of the Starfleeters we know had to have it rougher or one of the few positives of a prequel just falls flat.

"Her name is Elizabeth."

Perhaps some of Phlox's record keeping gets studied by the Vulcan geneticists when a certain Vulcan diplomat and his human lady wife decide to have a child :)


Tucker's emotions at the end of this episode were/are right on target.

And Archer's final speech at the conference. Lord, no wonder Kirk was such a pompous **** by his time.

One down One to go.

These Were The Voyages

No copyright infringment is intended or implied all characters are copyrighted by Paramount


"It's happening Captain....the rift showing the past, the future....that we've had access to for decades now. Decay rate constant. Closure imminent."
"Isn't there anything that can be done for them?"
"Your concern is noble and notable Doctor, but they have sealed their fate. Outside this rift their reality lies on a perilous course. It is logical that," he paused and admitted, "many...positive things...would be left behind."
"It's just one of those moments in history," the Captain(s) said,"We've tried every scheme possible, and we are simply unable to stop it."
"Do they forget," asked the Prophets of the Sisko, "Or do they reject?"
"I am uncertain," said Ben.
"Today," rumbled Worf, "Is not a good day to die."
"Like my people though, " noted Myles, "They'll keep on writing."
"And dreaming," murmured Janeway, "Perhaps too much."
"I believe," said the machine, "That there are always alternatives."
"Intriguing," opined the Vulcan.
"We'll go on whether they do or not," said the youngest of the Captains.
"And you wouldn't have it any other way," interrupted the Frenchman sourly.
He had never gotten used to the other's pronouncements. And where in the hell was Q?
Archer was bemused and annoyed by turns "You say that, " he quipped to young Kirk , "when your voyages ended before their time as well? At least yours weren't hijacked by a pair of-"
"Temper, Temper, " said the Denobulan, smiling. He turned to the Southerner and asked, "How do you account for such volatility in a leader?"
"Comes with the territory," the Southerner answered gruffly. "Hush now. It's beginning..."

Friday May 6th "Enterprise"

I put the title that way because I actually missed the title of last night's episode.

It was so dark and sketchy I won't be writing much about it. Whatever gimmick they come up with next week to produce a little Tuckerette via T'Pol who never got pregnant (cloning, stolen genetic material from both parents without their knowledge) I won't buy it, it's ridiculous period.
Peter Weller is scary because he's understated, not over the top.

and the rhetoric is so heavy handed in its comparisons to many of the debates going on in America today that it overkills its case and interferes with any enjoyment of the "story" such as it is. I do too much of that over at my other blog to have any desire to see it when I switch over to my fun TV

How can it be good writing when you "knew" the reporter chick was a plant! Poor Boomer.

This is the depressed part of the wake.

Also I'm peeved at the programming decision to attach the Berman/Braga finally (as in finally after this they'll shut up!) on top of the second half of this episode. It creates the idea of a false continuity, as if one really has anything to do with the other.

Pfft. My fictional friends are leaving my screen and doing in in a dark and listless kinda way.

I know I'm about 27 years late

to this debate, but I'm going to try to put it in a different framework.

Star Trek and Star Wars aren't or shouldn't be polarized fanbases that chant "Either Mine or Thine" endlessly.

They're actually kind of symbiotic.

1. First connection. Whether Lucas *intended* it or not, in 1977 when the first film aired the most organized, committed group of fans for TV or film fantasy were the Trek fans. They wanted new Trek, and while this wasn't Trek it was surely "new," enough to warrant their interest.

I believe that without Trek, there would have been much less interest in Star Wars, and the series could have died on the vine after the first film.

2. Once Star Wars became the first summer mega-hit, the money to be made from it convinced Paramount that a new Trek film, far from being an albatross around their necks, might bring home some amazing amounts of bacon. Problem was they tried to use the "OOHHHH AHHH" factor in the opening sequence of "Star Wars," to disastrous results. Star Wars is, as a columnist friend of mine wrote, visually stunning. But Star Trek, to succeed, has to be more about characters and their inner conflicts, than about the awesome size of an Imperial Star Destroyer. Lucas himself learned what fleshed out characters and some angst could do for his franchise with 'The Empire Strikes Back.' Star Wars, the original film is sheer fun with template characters, The Boy Hero, The Rascal, and the best Villan to come along in a long time. Star Trek makes you *think.*

Thankfully, Paramount for whatever reasons felt gambling on a second Trek film was worth it. 'Wrath of Khan' did Empire one better. It didn't freeze a beloved character. It killed him. 'Khan' had important links to the franchise's TV past, and made the mover of the story Kirk's big mistake: at the end of 'Space Seed' he left Khan alive.

The committed Star Wars fan and surely some rejuvinated Trekkers combined to make 'Return of the Jedi' a success.

Then for Star Wars fans: The Long Wait, similar to (and longer than!) the filmed Trek drought of the mid Seventies. Detailed novels fleshed out Lucas' vision, but *where* was that new film?

During the 14 year Star Wars wait: Trek flourished with TNG, its *best* incarnation, DS 9, and the less beloved Voyager. Enterprise somehow went backwards, as the Star Wars franchise revved up its latest and last film.

Lucas made great use of the leaps ahead in SFX technology that he himself had started, and the two newest Star Wars films are things of beauty, with a satisfactory tinge of dread. Because they are the story of the triumph of anger over compassion, power over pluralism, and young Vader randomly using his abilities *just because he can.*

I also find it oddly interesting that these two great fantasy franchises will go down together (at least on film) in the same month.

I'll be watching *both* with interest, thank you.

Hilarity

I was unprepared for the Futurama episode that came across my TV last night...but I had never seen it before. It is perhaps the best send up of Trek that I've seen in awhile.

One of the main characters utters the banned words 'Star Trek' and we're off. The show is against the law in the 31'rst century. We get the grumpy, but heroic heads (minus bodies) of the TOS crew in life preserving jars, mouthing off and taken away on a space adventure (with a gleeful Riker head being moved to the front of the shelf when the TOS heads are removed.)

Trek as religion complete with a Christine Chapel.

Shatner, Nimoy, Takei, Nichols and Koenig giving unashamed send ups of themselves.

Shatner, "...In Star Trek V I got such a good performance out of me, because I respected me so much."

Nimoy: "I'm in a gefelte fish jar."

Takei: "Check out these abs."

Fan to Koenig: "Say Nuclear Wessels" Koenig "No!"

Nichols: (on the most heroic thing she did on the series) " In the third season I kissed Shatner."

I promise I'll record it the next time around and write a better column on it...but I laughed the entire time.