Author: Nick Brobeck

Trek Review: “Balance of Terror”

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Before I begin my thoughts, watch this trailer for the 1957 20th Century-Fox film, “The Enemy Below”…

Now, imagine some of that out in deep space.  That in a nutshell is the episode “Balance of Terror.”

This show introduces one of the hallmark alien races of the Trek universe… the Romulans.

You have to imagine what it was like for 1966 viewers to see that this new war like race looked the same as Spock.  I surely would have thought about all of the plot possibilities that the writers could go with in future episodes with this new race being unveiled.

This story itself is very enthralling.  However, one or two minor things that I love to nitpick about.  This is assuming, of course, that you have already seen the episode (which I assume in all of these posts as a standard, by the way.)

First of all is the Stiles character itself.  I find it hard to believe exclusively that anyone in a bright future that this 23rd Century entails could hold any kind of bigotry towards someone like Spock.  Anyone on the Enterprise should full well know that if it’s First Officer is anything but loyal, he wouldn’t be in that position.  I have to take exception with that characterization.  It’s OK to certainly have some misgivings, but I think they went a little heavy-handed with it.  If they had toned it back a bit, I wouldn’t have such a problem with it.  Then again, there is no motivation left for having that in the story if you dial it back.  So, I guess it has to stay, right?  (I realize that I’ve just talked myself into a corner.)

The other thing is the safety of working in the phaser room.  If you know the phasers are damaged, shouldn’t you be taking proper precautions.  Check this out…

I mean, shouldn’t Tomlinson and Stiles have known that could possibly happen?  Of course, they didn’t.  But still, why is something like that so exposed to anyone working in that room?  It probably would have worked better had the room exploded.  (OK, now I’m overthinking it a bit.)

Don’t get me wrong, this little nit-picky behavior on my part doesn’t take away from my enjoyment of this episode.  Paul Schneider wrote a great script, and it was masterfully directed by Vincent McEveety.   This one is still highly recommended.

Next week, Star Trek took a week off and showed a repeat of “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” (which aired back on October 20th.)   Here is the trailer that presumably aired during that repeat telecast, for “Shore Leave”.

Trek Review: “The Conscience of the King”

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Shakespeare is the beast that speaks to a lot of people’s souls.  The Bard’s writings are often quoted in a lot of Star Trek series and movies over the last 50 years.  This episode, “The Conscience of the King” is unique in that the participants are actually doing Shakespeare out in space.

They are a touring company, led by Anton Karidian and his daughter Lenore, as they put it in the script:

another in a series of living plays presented in space, dedicated to the tradition of classic theater.

But there is a hitch, Anton might actually be Kodos the Executioner, a figure who declared martial law on a planet where the food supplies had run out some time ago.  And if that wasn’t bad enough, the people who could identify him (his body was never found) are dying left and right and the actors happen to be nearby.  Captain Kirk was one of them.

Now you may ask yourself at this point, “Is this Star Trek? Is this a story that fits into the narrative of this show?”  Well, yes and no.  Trek would deviate more from the norm as later series unfolded.  The list is too long to go into in this post, but you get the idea.

The story is a good premise, but where I find it lacking is the fact that in a futuristic society such as the 23rd century… how could the Karidians get away with it for so long?  Are the authorities who investigate things just so inept with more advanced tools than was available in 1966, and surely in 2016, to not be able to detect where Kodos was this whole time?  Or for that matter that Lenore was committing the murders of seven of the eyewitnesses before the events on the Enterprise unfolded?  I find that very hard to believe.  One has to suspend their disbelief to the extreme in order to swallow the implications of that point.

Once the action gets on board the ship, a couple of questionable things happen.  The attempt on Kirk’s life is made by a phaser set to overload and put in his quarters in the flashing red alert light above his cabin door.  Now how in the world did Lenore get it in there without being discovered?  Where did she get a phaser?  As we find out later on, Riley (the other eyewitness who hasn’t been liquidated at this point) broke into a weapons locker and stole a phaser himself.  They sure don’t secure the weapons very well on this ship, do they?

Oh, and one more thing… in terms of the production order, this is Grace Lee Whitney’s last appearance on the series as Yeoman Janice Rand.  However, she doesn’t go out without a loose parting shot. Just check out this nasty look she gives Lenore Karidian:

If looks could kill…

Next week: another venerable alien race makes it’s Trek debut.

A Look Back at a Jack Benny Special

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December 1st, 1966.  If you were to sit down that night in front of your TV set all warmed up at 8:30pm Eastern time, you might have thought you would see Star Trek on NBC.  At that moment, you would be in for a shock.  Watch…

If you’re a little kid, that announcement at the beginning will probably make you say, “Noooo!” or “Gee whiz!“.   Me, the 1966 TV viewer at the ripe age of 37, would keep watching.   You can’t go wrong with a comedy legend like Jack Benny.  All of the sketches made me laugh.  What’s interesting in this special is the Smothers Brothers.  According to IMDB, their CBS variety show debuted on February 5, 1967.  What I’m guessing is that someone saw them on this special, or something prior to that, and thought that they should have their own show.  They were always hilarious.

The most memorable bit here is by far the Tijuana Strings with Mel Blanc doing the famous “Sy Si Sue Sew” bit that dates back to Benny’s earlier days.

A very hilarious hour indeed.

But wait, there more!

In Knoxville, what happened to this special?  If you’ll remember in this article, Star Trek was not seen on WATE.  So, with this special airing in that slot, there was only one solution.  Tape delay!

It was tape delayed to the following Sunday, December 4th, at 4:00pm.  And it might not have even played at that time because right before it on NBC was an AFL football game between the Boston Patriots and Buffalo Bills.  (Boston won 14-3, in case you’re curious.)   If I had to guess that game probably didn’t run over it’s 3 hour time slot, given for the fact that there were a *lot* less commercials during sports broadcasts in 1966 than there are today.  That’s another examination for another day, however.

The real thing to point out, however, is that if you look at the grid of what was on other stations, you will notice that on WRCB (Chattanooga’s NBC station) and WCYB (Bristol’s NBC station), you will see Meet the Press.  Wait, what?  That means WATE was preempting one network program with a tape delay of another network program that was preempted by a locally ran program.  That sounds totally bizarre, doesn’t it?

That’s why I like looking at old TV listings!

Nick’s Mix Thoughts on Current Game Shows

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In the mix today, my thoughts on some of the current game shows on prime time TV.   Granted, I should probably be watching “Hollywood Game Night”, but I still catch most of the others.

In the video below, I discuss my thoughts on “Match Game” and “To Tell the Truth” along with my first impression of the upcoming NBC game show “The Wall.”

Trek Review: “The Menagerie” Part 2

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Part Two of “The Menagerie” is mainly dominated by the bulk of the first Star Trek pilot, “The Cage.”  As is standard practice here, I am going to assume that you, the reader, are already familiar with the show and have seen it.

The frame story here is not meant to be thrilling at all, but maybe rather just compelling.  Sure, Spock is on trial for his life (I could go off on a whole side rant about why the death penalty still exists in the 23rd Century…), but I guess we’re just intrinsically supposed to worry that Spock might get obliterated before the hour is over.

In hindsight, the whole experience of this two-part episode is really good.  I enjoyed it the first time I saw it, and I continue to enjoy it to this day.  The 1966 version of me would no doubt have felt the same way.

Next Thursday, Star Trek was preempted on NBC for a Jack Benny special.  So, in my attempt to restore the original look of the previews that aired each time, in this case, “The Conscience of the King,” I think it might have looked like this:

By the way, I will be writing a blog post next Thursday (at least.)  Stay tuned…

Nick’s Mix – Thoughts on “This Is Us”

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Oh a whim, back in September, I decided to watch the pilot of a new show called “This Is Us.”  It was kind of a blind shot in the dark for me.  I hadn’t read much about the show prior to that first time I watched it.   Boy, was I amazed, mesmerized, and blown away all at the same time.

If you want a description of the show, I won’t waist your time here.  Try Wikipedia for that.  I’ll just go right into my thoughts.

This is one of the greatest shows I have seen in the last decade.  It’s very rare to have such a high quality, family oriented drama that brings back the great hallmarks of what a TV show used to be and should be.   This is the kind of show that is touching yet modern.

The writing and editing are top notch.  It’s so impressive how they can weave and connect the past of the Pearson family to the present so seamlessly that you’re always having an “aha” moment.  For example, in last night’s Thanksgiving episode, “Pilgrim Rick,”  the hat and the ball of yarn that came from young Kate’s sweater.

I could go on for hours and hours about this show, but I promise you that if you just watch the show, you will be very impressed.  For starters, you can go here and watch it on your favorite device.  Mark my words, this show will be an Emmy contender.  Trust me, you’ll be glad you did.

Presenting “Nick’s Mix”!

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Well, after almost eight years of doing “Nick’s Flix” on YouTube and Facebook, I felt like I wanted to rebrand, refresh and hopefully generate some discussion.  Thus, the morphing that was necessary occurred.  Ladies and gentlemen one and all, I present to you “Nick’s Mix”.

Every day, I will post a video review or an article about anything in the entertainment world that I might find interesting.  You can contribute too!  Post about something and start a discussion.  Suggest a movie, TV show, song, album or whatever that I might like.  I just want it to be an active group of open discussion.  That’s it!

You can go to the Nick’s Mix Facebook page and like it today!

Also, subscribe to my YouTube channel to see Nick’s Mix videos along with other videos that I come up with from time to time!

Trek Review: “The Menagerie” Part 1

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It wasn’t cheap to make Star Trek, even by 1960’s TV budget standards.  Fairly early on, the show was running into not only a money crunch, but was also coming dangerously close to not meeting their airdates.  It got to a point to where they probably would have to consider doing the show live, or even worse, in a gestational phase that is beyond description.

(That last sentence is not meant to be taken seriously.)

I have always thought that while Star Trek had its ups and downs in its first season on the air, it wasn’t as big of a struggle as it was to just get NBC to buy the show altogether.  As you probably well know, the first pilot, “The Cage“ was rejected for not being the series pilot they had hoped for.  That pilot cost over $600,000 to make and yet it was sitting around, collecting dust.  So, Gene Roddenberry devised an ingenious idea, to write a new frame story around the existing footage, and thus, you end up with a dynamic, excellent two-part episode.  Essentially, two episodes for the price of a lot less than one.

So, fast forward to November 10th.  The broadcast of “The Corbomite Maneuver” is on NBC, and at the end, the preview of next week’s show goes out on the air at approximately 9:28pm Eastern time.  The 1966 version of me, along with a lot of other people in the audience upon seeing the clips of the first pilot at the end of this preview, would have more than certainly been saying, “Who were those characters!?” 

I, the 1966 viewer, after seeing that promo most assuredly would have been locked in on this:  The frame story as written is a thing of beauty, giving a great added layer to the already great drama that was inherent in “The Cage”.  What you see of the first pilot (in this case having never seen it before) makes you want to see it again so you can see all of the nuances of the show that were different at this stage of the game.  My drive for information about what this pilot actually was would have been at the forefront.  Keep in mind however that the internet obviously wasn’t around then, so the best way I probably could have determined what that first pilot actually was and the story behind it would have been to take a trip to the local library and possibly look up Variety or Daily Variety.  However, a local library in Knoxville, TN probably wouldn’t have been getting that publication.

So, onward to Part 2, and take note here of some obvious differences between some things you hear in this Next Week preview and what you will hear in the show. More on that next week!

 

Trek Review: “The Corbomite Maneuver”

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We have arrived at the first Star Trek episode to be filmed after it was sold to NBC. This episode (and to a lesser degree, “Mudd’s Women”, the next episode filmed after this one) stands out as different from the episodes that followed in very subtle, and some not-so-subtle ways.

The story takes place almost entirely on the Enterprise, and involves Kirk having to outsmart and outguess a would-be enemy known as Balok of the First Federation ship, the Fesarius. What ends up happening is a test of Kirk’s intuition and resiliency. Thankfully for everyone involved, he passes with flying colors.

Now about those differences. First up:

corbomitemanuever079

Check out that huge collar on Spock’s uniform.  Leonard Nimoy’s costume had to be in two halves so it could be taken off without damaging his time consuming makeup job.

Next:

corbomitemanuever263

Uhura’s gold uniform.  She also wore this in “Mudd’s Women” before she changed to her red uniform with her appearance in “The Man Trap” (the 4th episode filmed in season one.)  I don’t know why they changed the color.  The best reason I can think of is that the red complemented her beauty more than the gold did.  Or at least that’s what I think.

Finally, from the “Before They Were Stars” department:

corbomitemanuever354

Yes, that’s Ron Howard’s brother Clint as Balok.  I guess it pays to know people at Desilu.  After all, they did film “The Andy Griffith Show” at Desilu in Culver City.

The 1966 viewer in me would find this whole episode riveting and very fascinating.  It’s a great “ship in a bottle” bottle show.  It’s more emotionally intriguing in many aspects, albeit Kirk, McCoy, Spock and guest star Anthony Call as the navigator, Bailey.

Next week, we come upon an episode, which at least from the preview, made a lot of people probably say, “What the heck is that footage of those characters I don’t recognize!?!?”

Election Day 2016

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As you go out to vote today (and please, do go out and vote today), remember that having the right to cast a ballot is one of the many great things about the United States of America.  If you take that for granted… I’m sorry.

To put it more succinctly, I’ll say it with claymation: