TV

Trek Review: “The Devil in the Dark”

Posted on by

I can’t even begin to tell you how much I enjoy this episode.  “The Devil in the Dark” has always been in my top 5 for the entire series.  It possesses all of the elements that make a great episode.

I won’t go into plot details here because that would make this post longer than it should be.

What makes this episode stand out is the acting of Leonard Nimoy when he is mind-melding with the Horta.  To give you a small taste, watch this clip:

“PAAAAINNNN!!!” is what I will always remember.  As many fans know, William Shatner’s father died during the production of this episode, and it’s a long told anecdote of his that when he got back to the set and Nimoy did that bit for him, he said “Somebody get that Vulcan an Aspirin!”  Who knows if that is true or not, but it’s hilarious camaraderie on the set.

The moral questions raised by this episode are great ones.  When it is finally revealed that the miners have inadvertently been killing the Horta’s children, everyone takes the right course of realizing what had gone wrong and are truly sorry.  I always appreciated how everyone, while feeling they had to kill the creature to get the mining facility back up and running, that when they find out you have the last of a kind creature instead… you take a different spin.  The crew realizes that such creature had cause for what was going on.

Eventually, coexistence wins out.  That allegory still could teach everyone in this modern world, 50 years later.  A lot of people could learn from the other and coexist together.  At the danger of sounding political, that lesson is still very, very relevant today.

All in all, this is a top tier story of any Star Trek series.

No show next week, as Star Trek was preempted for an NBC special, so we’ll see you back in two weeks for the introduction of some people you might recognize!

Trek Review: “This Side of Paradise”

Posted on by

If you’ve ever wanted to see an episode of Star Trek where Spock comes out of his shell a bit.   You know, let the human half of him hang out…… that sounded gross, didn’t it….

Sorry.

Anyway, thanks to some spores on a planet where nobody is supposed to be alive, all of a sudden, Spock is bouncy and in love!

A truly great episode, “This Side of Paradise” is an examination of a world where the colonists should be dead, but thanks to the effect of some inconspicuous spores, they are alive!

I have always been truly fascinated by the character of Leila Kalomi (played so wonderfully by Jill Ireland.)  I would love to have more on the backstory of when she was interacting with Spock before their meeting here.  That would be an interesting love story to see unfold.  As it turns out here, Spock just simply cannot love her because of the way he is.

I loved the scene in the final act where Spock beams Lelia up and she realizes that he is no longer under the influence of the spores.  Just watch:

Both Leonard Nimoy and Jill Ireland are just so great in this scene.  It is one of the best scenes in the entire first season, and the tracked music from “Shore Leave” really is well used here.

The one problem I have with the plot of this episode is how the spores just all of a sudden take over the whole crew of the Enterprise.  I mean, couldn’t someone just stop it?  Surely there are enough knowledgeable people on board to not let the situation get out of control.  So much as to the whole crew beaming down to the planet against their will and putting Kirk in the highly dramatic situation of being marooned on his ship!

Don’t get me wrong, I like any excuse to see Shatner ham it up to the extreme as much as the next guy, but come on!  The whole crew?  I hear you out there again… “suspend your disbelief!!!”

But the solution is rather ingenious.  Sonic vibrations to drive the effect of the spores out.  Quite clever.

That’s it for this week… coming up next week, one of the top 10 episodes of the whole series!

When “Gunsmoke” Almost Bit the Dust

Posted on by

The saga of network television and the people that make the programming decisions can be a perilous one at times.  Particularly when you decide to put a long running show out to pasture.  “Gunsmoke” starring James Arness was a tried and true success on CBS, first on radio (from 1952-1961) and then on television starting in 1955.  In those 12 seasons, the western enjoyed great success and was really popular among viewers.  But then, the bean counters at CBS looked at the ratings, and made a rather surprising decision:  to cancel the show!  Look at this article from February 1967 in The New York Times.

You will note that “Gilligan’s Island” got renewed at this point.  Here is where the story gets interesting.  CBS reconsidered that move, and in March they reversed that decision.  A network changing their minds was not very common.  Once a decision was made, that was it.  However, since the beginnign of TV that hasn’t been a concrete rule.  In this article on TV Obscurities, several campaigns saved shows before, but they were few and far between.  As a matter of fact, another one was going on at the exact same time.  NBC was mulling over the fate of “Star Trek” as well, but thanks to viewers inundating the network with a deluge of fan mail, that show was renewed.  Much the case here as well.

In addition to that, a Kansas broadcast owner, Thad Sandstrom, harnessed the energy of fan backlash in that state (which is where the mythical Dodge City of Gunsmoke is), that the House of Representatives even urged CBS to think again about what they did.  Read all about this strange development in this March 20th, 1967 article in Broadcasting magazine.

But wait! It gets even better!  Sherwood Schwartz, creator of “Gilligan’s Island”, has told a slightly different tale about how the “Gunsmoke” was renewed.  The following clip is taken from the E! True Hollywood Story of “Gilligan’s Island,” produced in 2000.

I find it amazing that nobody working on the fall schedule had any idea what the President of the network they were working for actually in fact liked!  That to me is NEED TO KNOW information!  I definitely, wholeheartedly, 100% would not want to have been on the receiving end of what happened when he got back from his vacation.

To add one more piece of perspective on this, a few days later, Milburn Stone, who played Doc on “Gunsmoke,” talked about what it was like when the show wrapped filming of its 12th season.  Then a very low key “wrap party” happened.  I couldn’t imagine being in that precarious scenario of suddenly having to admit it was all over so suddenly.

In summary, it is so amazing to me that this situation even happened in the first place.  It would have been just another footnote in history that “Gilligan’s Island” ended its run after three seasons, than to be renewed then be cancelled in spectacular fashion.  At least that’s what I call it anyway.

Addendum to Yesterday’s Review: General Order 24

Posted on by

I failed to mention one thing in last night’s Trek Review of “A Taste of Armageddon.”  Kirk’s move to call for General Order 24 towards the end of the episode.

If you will recall, General Order 24 is described as such according to Memory-Alpha.org:

General Order 24: An order to destroy all life on an entire planet.

Now, was Kirk bluffing, was he making up regulations?   Remember what he did in “The Corbomite Maneuver,”  in his great bluff of Balok to not destroy the ship.  I don’t think he was bluffing here.  While Kirk doesn’t have to go through with it here, the notion of it does come up again in the Third Season episode “Whom Gods Destroy.”  Captain Garth doesn’t go through with it then, either, but still… the notion of this order is frightening!

I don’t think Kirk ever wanted to go through with it, but given the situation of being held hostage by Anan Seven and the high council of Eminiar VII, he had no choice but to do his duty.  If I were in the same scenario, I would probably be a bit hesitant to do it, but ultimately I would do it too.

Does that make me a bad person?  Depends on your point of view, doesn’t it?

Trek Review: “A Taste of Armageddon”

Posted on by

What do you think of when you think of war?  The first thought that would probably come to everyone’s mind is devastation, chaos or innocent people who are caught in the middle of the conflict.  Now imagine if that same scenario played out, but there was no actual bloodshed.  Instead, the attacks are carried out by computers and the casualties are tallied up on a computer.  The victims of the “attack” have to step into a disintegration chamber and die willingly.  I’ve just described what is going on between the planets of Eminiar VII and Vendikar in the episode “A Taste of Armageddon.”

The subject of war is a very touchy subject, especially in 1967.  The Vietnam war was in full swing.  While this story wasn’t a direct result of that conflict, the end result of what took place on Eminiar VII certainly could be construed as a commentary about the war that was going on.

Think about this: any conflict is still a conflict, no matter if someone is actually shot or not.  People still die, especially in a disintegration machine.   That’s the point that Kirk hammers home, and it’s a very good one.  War is hell in every sense of the word.

In the case of these two planets, they’ve been at war for hundreds of years.  The conflict was handed down from generation to generation.  But why?  Why does an entire culture just blindly keep going on with the same thing that continues to cause death?   That would be an interesting philosophical debate.  I can only imagine that the terror of doing anything different is what kept the Eminians and their terrestrial neighbors on Vendikar locked into the conflict. Eventually, our heroes convince the two sides to negotiate and resolve their differences.

When I first saw this episode, that ending is the one I was hoping for.  I have a good feeling that it was what everyone viewing the show for the first time would have hoped for as well.

Spock practicing his mindful skills

If there is one cool thing I always liked in this episode, it’s the scene where Spock uses his mind probing techniques to get one of the guards to open the door to the room in which they are being held.

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, a great episode all around with themes that are just as prevalent today as they were 50 years ago.  Next week, an episode that was almost called “The Way of the Spores”!

Why Do I Do What I Do

Posted on by

I’m sure at one time or another in life, you have probably stopped for a second and asked yourself, “Why do I do what I do?”  All of us at one time or another might stop for a moment and reflect on who they are, what they do, what they contribute, etc.  There was a time that I asked myself this very question.

I know what you’re thinking.  You’re saying to yourself, “Is he second guessing himself?”  No, no, no.  Not in the slightest bit.  Just a mere reflection.

I have believed and am still confident that my job is important.  People turn to a TV station for many things.  The foremost thing is information.  Information about what is going on in their world.  News, weather, sports, community events, and so forth.  It’s important that the community has a voice.  It’s also very important that those who govern have their say too, but at the same time, since they serve the public interest, they need to be held accountable for the job they do in such service.  This is of paramount importance in news.

But, while you think that directing a newscast is all I do, that’s not all I do.  I have a job to see that the public is given entertainment too.  There isn’t an hour of the day on my station that I haven’t touched at one point or another in my current job.  People turn to us to try and forget the challenges of their day, to be distracted if nothing, at least for a little while.  That part of my job I take seriously as well.

You’d be right to ask yourself what brought this on.  With all of the accusations thrown around lately of “fake news,”  I have never in my life felt more strongly about what I do and who I am.  It’s important that people have essential information to make informed decisions.  That won’t change no matter what.  I’m proud of who I am and what I do.  I think you will agree.

Trek Review: “Space Seed”

Posted on by

This episode.  This one right here.  The definition of a true classic.  I can say that up front with certainty because that’s what “Space Seed” is.

Khan Noonien Singh is the quintessential Star Trek villain.  He’s formidable, he’s smart, he’s strong.  It also helps that he’s been genetically engineered too.  It’s a gripping tale that is quite frightening for someone watching in 1967 to think that the 1990’s might hold such catastrophic events as predicted by this episode here.  Of course, in hindsight now, the 1990s was two decades ago, and there wasn’t a World War then, nor were there genetic supermen ruling the world.  However, to put yourself in the context of when this first aired, it still is very frightening and very unsurprising all at the same time.

When you think about where humanity has been and where we are going, maybe the suggestion of the events in this episode isn’t too far off, just the timing is wrong.  Look at what’s happening in the world now.  Things are happening in many facets of life that we never would have considered before, yet they are happening around us.  That’s what happened in the back story of “Space Seed.”  It’s a cautionary tale for sure.

Ricardo Montalban just proves how much he’s an awesome actor.  Whenever I see something he’s starred in, I am just drawn to him.  His presence,  his charisma, it’s so powerful.  He was one of a kind.

Even though the big fight at the end of the episode, which is the second fight in as many episodes to take place in Engineering, is obviously handled by stunt doubles, it is still very tense and dramatic.  You think I’m kidding?  Look at these screenshots:

Please, leave your disbelief properly suspended at the door!

Oh, and one more thing.  This episode has always been significant on another level for me.  Way back in 1992, this episode was one of the first VHS tapes I ever bought with my own money.  I still have that VHS:

That sucker cost $14.95 at Wal-Mart in Big Stone Gap, VA.  VHS was expensive, even then.  Just look at the adjustment for inflation!

I only got 2 or 3 of those at that price, and not all at the same time.  Imagine buying 80 of those to collect the whole series.  Before tax, that is $1,196. I think anyone’s parents would laugh while saying no to that idea.

Next week, let’s voluntarily step into a disintegration chamber!

Trek Review: “The Return of the Archons”

Posted on by

What would a society be like if all the wild emotional spark that makes everyone their own unique, individual person was taken away and instead you were left with a drab, soulless personality?  Now imagine that across an entire society.  That’s what’s going on at the center of “The Return of the Archons.”  Well, that is, until the Festival, in which for 12 hours everyone goes insane and loots, pillages and commits atrocities only rivaled by anyone in “The Purge” film franchise.

The idea of this episode isn’t so far fetched.  With the current state of affairs in our culture today, there are lots of living beings that wish they could control a society such as this one.  The fundamental difference of course is that it isn’t probably what the original Landru had intended.  If you’ve seen the episode you know that it isn’t really Landru in control, rather it’s a computer that he programmed 6,000 years prior to the story that is running the show.  Of course, a computer doesn’t know how to control a society, as Kirk demonstrates in his always to keen ability to outtalk and outsmart a computer.  I always enjoyed that quality about him.  It’s one of Kirk’s endearing characteristics.

It’s also fun to see Dr. McCoy after he has been “absorbed” into the body.  He gets to play the happy, soulless non-individual.

I’m sure there were people in the audience that couldn’t help but laugh at the silly people running around with long metal poles and in long robes.  As unintended as that is, I can’t fault them for that.  After all, it’s a weird situation so not everything is what you would expect it to be.

This episode ends up being slightly above middle of the road status for me.  I enjoy it, but it’s not the most memorable of episodes.

Next week, a true Star Trek icon makes his first of two appearances in the franchise:

“Stranger Things” Season One Thoughts

Posted on by

As my friends on Facebook have no doubt reminded me, I am way late in watching this show.  I must say that I agree.

This hands down is one of the greatest shows that I have ever seen.  It it so fascinating these days that great shows can come from sources other than broadcast or cable television.

Let’s get into what’s great about Stranger Things:

The cast.  No matter what group of characters we are spending any given moment with, you can bet that I was constantly engaged and fascinated with every last point of plot development.  Most people have been drawn towards the kids on the show, Mike, Dustin, Lucas and El (short for Eleven.)  I can see why.  They are the focal point in the search for their lost friend Will Byers.

It’s great seeing Winona Ryder back in a great role, along with Matthew Modine (who I first saw in Vision Quest many years ago).

One of the greatest things I like about this show is that I feel like I am immersed in the creepy vibe that was very prevalent in early 1980s horror fare.  The one thing that really drives this home is the music score by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein.  I have always had a penchant for moody electronic-style synth music.  Creepier it is, the better it sounds to me.  If it can put me in a certain vibe, it’s effective and I appreciate it.  Most film and TV music does this rather well, and the music of this show does that to great effect.

If you want a sample, just listen to the main title theme:

That right there will just make your skin crawl listening to it.  Even if you haven’t seen the show, if you don’t understand the mood from just the music alone, then I can’t help you.

As of this writing, I still have two more episodes to watch.  I won’t give any spoilers on the plot here, but I already can’t wait for Season Two to come out!  In case you don’t know, it will be released October 31st, 2017.

Let’s go find the Upside Down.

Trek Review: “Court Martial”

Posted on by

Oh me, oh my, where do I begin with this episode?  As you can tell by the tone of that introductory statement, “Court Martial” has never been one of my favorite episodes.  It’s not that the concept of the story was bad, but the execution was very, very lacking.

I’m sure you know the story, Kirk’s old friend dies under his watch… the computer has been altered to make the evidence damning against him, etc.  Herein lies a problem:  how that evidence was damning.  Observe this screenshot from the playback of the visual log:

As suggested in the story, Captain Kirk pressed the jettison button himself.  Why in all creation would he have that button conveniently on his panel?  And for that matter, the Yellow Alert and Red Alert?  And just how can a visual log be that detailed anyway?  A lot of plot contrivance in my opinion.

Also, at the end of the episode, they use a “white sound device” to try and isolate Finney’s heartbeat and establish that he isn’t actually dead.  Dr. McCoy has to go through the process of eliminating everyone else’s heartbeats.  It has been established in previous episodes that the Enterprise can scan and find people on planets, but why in the world can’t they scan their own ship and find a nefarious crewman that has gone rogue?  Very confusing.

There is a good story in there, but I don’t think it was presented to its fullest potential.  Not one of the better episodes of the first season.  I can see why the powers that be wanted to hold it back for telecast at the end of the season.

Next week: Landru!