Category Archives: Star Trek

Movies I’m looking forward to in 2013

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2012 was a pretty good year for geek movies. I’m still boggled, sometimes, that so many comic book, science fiction and fantasy movies – not to mention big-budget, well-crafted ones – are released these days. We might be in a golden age for the genre.

Looking ahead to 2013, the calendar looks like just as much of a treat for fans.

“Iron Man 3.” After the superhero team-up that was “The Avengers,” why look forward to a solo superhero outing? Isn’t that a step back? Well, it would be but for a few reasons. I trust Robert Downey Jr. and director Shane Black. The preview looks dire and action-filled. And the movie kicks off Marvel’s Phase Two, which culminates in “The Avengers” sequel in 2015, so I’m pretty sure they’ll have some references to the big picture. May 3.

“Thor: The Dark World.” The first “Thor,” in some ways, held the promise (threat?) of being the weakest movie in the first phase of Marvel. Yet it was solid entertainment and laid the groundwork for much of the mythology that followed in “Captain America” and “The Avengers.” I feel very much at ease with this realm of big-screen Marvel. Nov. 8.

“Pacific Rim.” This story about giant robots created to fight giant, Godzilla-style monsters looks like something to appeal to all the 12 year olds within us. July 12.

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“Star Trek Into Darkness.” This J.J. Abrams sequel to the reboot looks awesome. Unleash the Cumberbatch! May 17.

“The Wolverine.” I am not the craziest of fans of Marvel’s snikt-happy mutant. But Hugh Jackman has been so good as the character I’m looking forward to this and his role, however big, in “Days of Future Past.” July 26.

“Hunger Games: Catching Fire.” The first movie was a pleasant surprise. The second book is the weakest of the series, but I’m hoping they pull it off. Nov. 22.

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“Oz the Great and Powerful.” This retooling of the classic story, a kind of prequel, could be really fun or really awful. March 8.

“The World’s End.” While we’re waiting for director Edgar Wright to make “Ant-Man,” how about this end of the world comedy starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Martin Freeman? Yes, please. Oct. 25.

Movies I’m almost dreading:

“Man of Steel.” We don’t need another origin story. We don’t need a “dark” Superman. We need a Superman who feels like the last of his kind but isn’t mopey about it. We don’t need a “Dark Knight” treatment, but I’m afraid that’s what we’re getting. June 14.

“World War Z.” I’ve said it before, but here it is again. The preview doesn’t look like the terrific Max Brooks book. June 21.

“The Lone Ranger.” A beloved childhood hero. I’m just not sure about the approach. Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp bring a lot of charisma to the proceedings, however. We’ll see. May 31.

‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ trailer: Five things we noticed

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In the latest in a series of previews of a movie that doesn’t come out until May – and really, by that time I think we’ll have seen all of it, although probably out of sequence – the latest teaser trailer from “Star Trek Into Darkness” debuted online today.

Some random thoughts:

Two narrators this time, both scary. In the earlier teaser we heard Benedict Cumberbatch assuring Kirk and company that they were overmatched. There’s more of that this time, plus words from Bruce Greenwood’s Christopher Pike telling Kirk that his lack of humility will get him and his crew killed. Then we see what might be Starfleet caskets. FOREshadowing!

Solemn is the word. Surely there’s some lighthearted humor in the movie. But we’re not seeing it so far. Maybe there’ll be something funny in the scene that sees Kirk and McCoy running for their lives through a crazy red landscape.

Gary Mitchell? Garth? John Harrison? Who is Benedict Cumberbatch playing? We still don’t know. We’ve been led to believe that Khan, the ultimate “Star Trek” movie Big Bad, is not the character Cumberbatch is playing in the movie. Is that a ruse? Is he really Khan? Is he paving the way for Khan in a third movie? Personally, I’m still betting on Gary Mitchell, Kirk’s old comrade who gets godlike powers.

Cumberbatch hangs out in the Hulk/Loki chamber from “The Avengers.” Not really. But it sure looks like something Samuel L. Jackson would drop from a great height with the right provocation.

Alice Eve is reportedly playing Carol Marcus. Will we see the inception of Kirk’s son, David Marcus?

The movie opens May 17.

‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ teaser: Five things to know

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It was another interwebs meltdown kind of day, with everybody weighing in with their opinion on the new “announcement” trailer – a short version of the teaser trailer, or an even shorter version of the nine minutes of IMAX footage coming in front of “The Hobbit” – for “Star Trek Into Darkness.”

And of course I’ve got a couple of thoughts too. If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the “official” US trailer on iTunes and here’s the Japanese trailer, with the extra few seconds of footage that has everyone so crazy.

Five things:

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That voice. I love the narration, presumably by Benedict Cumberbatch as the bad guy. “I have returned … to seek my vengeance.” Yikes.

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The Cumberbatch! One of my favorite Brit actors because of the “Sherlock” series, Cumberbatch looks damn cool here. Is he playing Khan? Is he playing Gary Mitchell? Somebody else entirely? Whatever!

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The water. I’m still trying to figure out why the Enterprise is in the ocean. The shot of the ship plowing into the water is startling and looks like they’ve decided to wreck the Enterprise again. But the one of the ship rising out of the water? Reminds me of the nebula cloud “submarine” games in “Star Trek II.”

The city mayhem. The shots of people staring up at something horrible happening in a big city – London? San Francisco? – bugged me. Call it a long-lasting 9-11 effect.

The hands. This is the part that’s making everyone crazy. Two hands, separated by glass. One is unmistakably in a Starfleet science uniform and is making the familiar Vulcan gesture that usually accompanies “Live long and prosper.” The similarities to the finale of “Star Trek II” are obvious. But surely they’re not going in that direction again? This is, after all, a rebooted universe. Anything can happen.

We’ll know in May.

 

Unsung actors: Roger C. Carmel

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He’s one of those “Hey, I remember that guy!” actors. Roger C. Carmel was featured in many, many TV series in the 1960s and 1970s. According to his IMDB page, he guest-starred in everything from “The Dick Van Dyke Show” to “The Munsters” to “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” and “Hogan’s Heroes” to “Batman” playing “guest villain” Colonel Gumm.

But Carmel, who died at age 54 in 1986, was best known for two roles. He co-starred in “The Mothers-In-Law,” a 1960s sitcom starring Kaye Ballard and Eve Arden and produced by Desi Arnaz, and he guest-starred in two episodes of the original “Star Trek” series.

Carmel played Harcourt Fenton Mudd, a galactic hustler and con man who shows up in the first season episode “Mudd’s Women,” a fairly straight story about transporting what are, in effect, mail-order brides. But he is probably best remembered for reprising the Mudd role in “I, Mudd,” a second-season episode that finds the Enterprise crew arriving on a remote planet (is there any other kind?) where Mudd is the ruler (and prisoner) of a race of androids.

In the second episode, the tone is much lighter and Carmel plays Mudd with his trademark flamboyance. The effect was appropriate for a returning and not-very-threatening villain.

Carmel provided the voice for Mudd in an episode of the 1970s animated “Star Trek” series. There’s an online reference to plans for him to play the role once more in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” in the first-season episode “The Neutral Zone,” in which three people from the past are revived from suspended animation. It’s a neat Hollywood tale and maybe it’s even accurate.

Carmel, who provided voices for a number of animated TV series in his final years, passed away before he had a third chance to meet the Enterprise crew.

RIP William Windom of ‘Star Trek’

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One obituary I saw today for William Windom referred to the actor, who died at age 88, as a “comedic actor,” and there’s something to that, of course.

But for me and many others in geek culture, William Windom will always and forever be Commodore Matt Decker from the classic “Star Trek” original series episode “The Doomsday Machine.”

Windom played Decker, a friend of William Shatner’s Jim Kirk and captain of the Federation starship Constellation. In this second-season episode, the Enterprise finds the wreckage of the Constellation floating in space as well as its distraught captain.

The Constellation has been targeted by a mile-long planet killing robot ship, a conical structure that fires energy blasts and absorbs matter as food. Think of it as a less chatty version of Galactus.

Windom is by turns weepy, hysterical, sneaky and imperious as the captain who will use any tool at his disposal – including the Enterprise, liberated from Kirk and Spock – to kill the Doomsday Machine.

Windom was among the strongest guest-stars the original series ever had. Sure, he had his moments that were a bit … overplayed … but most of his performance is subtle and heartbreaking.

“The Doomsday Machine” was written by science fiction author Norman Spinrad. It has one of the great “Star Trek” climaxes as Kirk tries to fly the battered Constellation down the throat of the planet killer.

Windom’s career ranged from “The Twilight Zone” to “Night Gallery” to “Murder, She Wrote,” and was one of the most dependable character actors on TV for a couple of decades.

Here’s to Windom, one of our favorites.

 

Have the nerds inherited the earth?

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It wasn’t that long ago that fans of comic books, monster movies, science fiction and other nerdy stuff had to be fairly closeted about their pop culture choices.

I still remember the look on a guy’s face who, when I was a teenager, looked at the paperback book in my hand and read the title: “The Martian Chronicles.” This was Ray Bradbury. The author was — and is — considered a literary lion, for pete’s sake. But the guy glanced from the book cover to me and looked as if I had been perusing the latest issue of “Nuns and Nazis.”

God only knows what would have happened if I had been reading the latest issue of Famous Monsters magazine.

So I still feel a little lightheaded over the rise of geek culture. Not just the number of big-screen, big-budget movies based on comic books. I’m kind of getting accustomed to that.

No, I’m thinking about the TV shows — at least one of them based on a Podcast — that are not only devoted to a celebration of geek culture but even feature honest-to-goodness, real life geeks.

These shows portray the real-world versions of geeks like those in “Big Bang Theory” — without the Hollywood veneer. More about “Big Bang” in a bit.

Here’s a run-down of the geek and nerd equivalents of Johnny Carson:

“The Nerdist:” Back in the day, Chris Hardwick was that snarky guy with the big voice on “Singled Out,” the MTV game show. A couple of years ago, Hardwick began “The Nerdist” podcast, an online audio look at geek and nerd culture featuring not only fans but celebrity guests.

Hardwick and “The Nerdist” — which also features genuinely funny geeks Jonah Ray and Matt Mira as regular panelists — got somewhat wider (or different) exposure when BBC America tapped the three to appear on a “Nerdist” TV series.

Only a handful of episodes have appeared so far, but they feature Hardwick, Ray and Mira chatting with geek culture demigods like Wil Wheaton and Nathan Fillion. The shows — available On Demand and no doubt online — are breezy and silly and don’t have any more substance than your typical talk show. They are, however, about the kind of geeky stuff that your parents used to hate.

“Talking Dead:” Hardwick packed up his geek shtick — but unfortunately not his sidekicks — and hosted this AMC talk show that followed episodes of the channel’s hit “The Walking Dead.”

Although the focus is narrow — it’s all about “The Walking Dead” — the show is entertaining and offers some insight into the series. The episode following the season finale of “The Walking Dead” featured the show’s creators announcing the actress who will play Michonne but also included one of the show’s funniest bits: An “In Memoriam” video montage of zombies killed off during that evening’s episode.

“Comic Book Men:” Somehow AMC has become the channel for nerd talk shows. Airing on Sunday nights along with “The Walking Dead” and “Talking Dead” is “Comic Book Men,” a series set in director Kevin Smith’s New Jersey comic book store.

Smith makes appearances but the series is focused on Walt Flanagan, manager of the store, and three employees/layabouts, Ming Chen, Mike Zapcic and Bryan Johnson.

All four guys are opinionated and entertaining. Chen, the low man on the totem pole, is like the Gilligan of the series.

It is Johnson, sporting a wild mane and wooly beard, who is the show’s highlight, however. Johnson’s online bio indicates that he has acted and directed in projects associated with Smith.

In “Comic Book Men,” Johnson is portrayed as an archetype familiar to anyone who has spent time at a comic book store or convention: The guy — usually older — who always seems to be hanging out, offering up sarcastic comments and withering put-downs. Johnson makes that stereotype immensely likable, however, through his genuine wit.

If “Comic Book Men” has a fault it is that I don’t think it realistically portrays a comic book store in one respect: Nobody ever buys anything! Most of the interaction between the employees and the public comes when people come in hoping to sell old comics or “Catwoman” Barbies. It’s like a nerd version of “Pawn Stars.”

Not even a roundup to non-fiction geek talk shows would be complete without a mention of “Big Bang Theory.” One of the most popular shows on TV, the CBS sitcom is about four geeks who hang out together, playing online games, going to a comic book store and obsessing about sex.

There’s a pretty divisive view of “Big Bang Theory” online. A lot of geeks consider it patronizing and shallow. It is, of course. But it’s no more patronizing or shallow a look at a group of friends than … well, “Friends” was.

And “Big Bang Theory,” like its real-life counterparts, offer a view of geek culture that not even Ross in the depths of his museum-geek persona could reach.

 

 

Great sci-fi TV … and not so great (part one)

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I was watching a few scenes of “Tomorrow is Yesterday,” a classic 1967 episode of “Star Trek,” the other week. My son looked up from his iPod during a fight scene.

“That is so cheesy,” he said, his voice dripping with good-natured scorn. “He didn’t even hit him.”

He was right. The on-screen fight scene between Kirk (William Shatner) and a group of military police officers didn’t rank up there with the most realistic screen pugilism ever. Kirk draws back, throws a right cross … and visibly misses the MP by a mile.

But still.

“Tomorrow is Yesterday” is a great episode of the original series and a great episode of TV science fiction.

Little more needs to be said about what made “Star Trek” as great and enduring as it is. But the exchange with my son made me think about the differences between good TV sci-fi and bad.

So, in a blog entry that will, with any luck, be recurring, a few thoughts on a good sci-fi TV series as well as one that’s not so good.

And yes, I have few doubts that even the series that I choose to pick on here have fans. And I’m a fan of some elements of even those shows, and I’ll cite those elements. But there’s no comparison between the great ones and the not-at-all-great-ones.

This time around: “Star Trek” vs. “Lost in Space.”

(Some of) what makes “Star Trek” great:

1. The show employed some of the greatest writers working in TV and science fiction in the 1960s, and they produced great scripts. Robert Bloch’s “What Are Little Girls Made Of” was an ultra-creepy tale of android love. Theodore Sturgeon’s “Shore Leave” showed that “Star Trek” mixed whimsy and suspense better than anyone. Frederic Brown’s “Arena” was adapted into a gripping episode featuring Kirk one-on-one with a man-sized lizard (hampered only by the makeup and costume limitations of the day).

2. Episodes were so good they were not only memorable for decades to come but provided fodder for sequels and remakes. “The Trouble with Tribbles” spawned a cottage industry in homemade fur balls — as well as enduring love — among fans. “Space Seed” created a memorable character in Ricardo Montalban’s Khan, who inspired the best of the “Star Trek” big-screen roles.

3. Episodes were as formulaic as much of what appeared on TV in the mid-to-late 1960s but transcended most of the competition to prove as lasting as anything ever on TV. Even with today’s mania for remaking old pop culture, only a handful of shows from the time — “Mission: Impossible” comes to mind — are still in the public mind. How’s that big-screen version of “The Virginian” coming?

4. The show was remarkably consistent to its characters. How many shows before, during and after were filled with characters who veered wildly between sensible and nonsensical, bold and mild, jokey and humorless depending on the plot contrivances of the week? Not “Star Trek.”

5. And speaking of characters: “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry and the writers decided they needed a strong triangle of characters to lead the show, so they created man of action Kirk, cerebral Spock and emotional McCoy. Viewers could enjoy the interpersonal dynamic but the triangle also served the plot, with McCoy and Spock acting as antagonists, virtual angel and devil on Kirk’s shoulders, the voices of reason and emotional appeal.

6. Here’s a bonus: For all its space cowboy action, “Star Trek” was remarkably tolerant and progressive in its attitude toward humanity (aliens included) and the dignity of individuals. Why else would the show’s Federation have the Prime Directive, forbidding interference in less-developed cultures? (Okay, so they skirted that directive a few times. Or more than a few.)

(Some of) what makes “Lost in Space” far from great:

1. They bungled a good premise. A space-faring version of “Swiss Family Robinson,” the series could have shown in realistic (even for 1960s TV) manner the dynamics of a family separated from society and fending for itself. But except for a few episodes from the first, more serious season, the show lived firmly in the land of campy entertainment.

2. They let one character run away with the show. Not until Fonzie stole “Happy Days” a decade later did one character — Dr. Zachary Smith, a stowaway on the Jupiter 2 spacecraft — so come to dominate a series, to its detriment. Jonathan Harris — an enjoyable character actor — became more and more the central figure and the other characters faded into the (chintzy) background.

3. The other characters were one-dimensional. The team’s leader and literal father figure, John Robinson, was square and boring. Wife Maureen was usually inside puttering in the kitchen. Major Don West walked into camera range, threatened or insulted Smith, then stalked away.

4. The storylines. Stuck on a random planet for the first season (and then another for the second), the plots usually involved some improbable menace showing up, scaring Dr. Smith, threatening the Robinsons and then being defeated. Yawn.

5. The budget/costumes/effects. Say what you will about the limitations of “Star Trek,” but “Lost in Space” reached the depths of “The Great Vegetable Rebellion,” with actor Stanley Adams in a carrot suit.

Case closed.

More next time.

James Bama: Artist of a thousand faces

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For a compulsive credits-watcher like me, the revelation was dumbfounding: One artist was responsible for some of the most memorable pop culture images of my childhood.

James Bama is a well-known Western artist. For me, he’s always been the man who painted photorealistic but slightly surreal covers for the 1960s paperback reprints of old “Doc Savage” pulp novels.

Since I obsessively checked movie and TV credits and artist and author credits of books, magazines and comic books, Bama was a familiar name to me.

His drawings of pulp hero Savage no doubt helped sell a new generation of fans on the Depression-era adventure stories.

How could young readers not be interested in a hero and an adventure that looked like this?

But when goofing around on the Internets the other day, I realized that the Bama of “Doc Savage” fame was also the artist who painted the cover of  an early “Star Trek” novelization. It’s one that’s still on my bookshelf.

When I realized Bama had created that art, I began looking around and discovered that Bama had also painted the monster art used on 1960s Aurora model kits I loved as a kid.

How is it possible one man created so many pop culture — geek culture — touchstones?

Bama, a commercial illustrator for decades, gave up that life at his peak and left the fast lane behind to become a Western artist. He’s still going strong, painting and selling his art through a variety of galleries and websites.

He’s not drawing the colorful characters of my childhood anymore. But that’s okay. His classic work is already the stuff of pop culture legend.

My worst Halloween memory

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More than 40 years later, I remember the trauma if not the details: When we were elementary school kids at Cowan in the 1960s, we were allowed to wear our Halloween costume to school for that most wonderful of kid holidays.

Most of my memories of Halloween are happy ones: Trick-or-treating with my cousin Mary and friends in her neighborhood, showing off our costumes and collecting great treats.

One year  at Cowan, we got to put on a Halloween costume parade for the entire school.

What a treat … or so it seemed at first.

The teachers lined us all up, in our costumes, and led us through the school. Since all 12 grades were in two big buildings, we got to show off for everybody, even kids as old as high schoolers.

The damn, damn high schoolers.

I don’t remember what my costume was this particular year. But it was  a typical 1960s-era costume like those made by Ben Cooper or Collegeville: A hard plastic mask, secured to my head with an elastic band, and a cheap plastic tunic. If it was an Aquaman or Spock or any number of other similar costumes, the tunic, as you can see from the photos here, was anything but subtle. Instead of being an accurate recreation of the character’s costume from comic books or TV, it was emblazoned with the character’s name in big, dorky letters.

I loved it.

Well, the mask left something to be desired, but I ran into the same problems with every Halloween mask. I was a kid who had worn glasses since the middle of first grade, and masks didn’t work out very well. The masks got warm and my glasses fogged up and I tended to walk into things.

But that year, the parade was going pretty well. I could still see through my glasses as well as the narrow eye slits of whatever the heck costume I was wearing.

I could see well enough, in fact, to notice — too late to do anything about it — one of the high schoolers reach out and pull my mask off my face as I walked past his classroom desk.

He pulled the mask out far enough, of course, that the crappy elastic band broke and my mask came off.

I’m pretty sure I completed the rest of the Halloween parade with my now-useless mask in my hand. I say I’m pretty sure that was the case because I don’t really remember it. The final part of the parade was a blur of tears and frustration.

There’s no final twist, ala Rod Serling, to the story. It didn’t turn out that the offending high schooler was my big brother or anything. I never knew his name. I can still kind of see his laughing face as he pulled my mask off.

I wish I could say that when I became a teenager I found the now-grownup miscreant and soaped his windows. That didn’t happen, though.

If anybody reading this was a high-schooler at Cowan in the 1960s and remembers ripping the mask off a little dork with glasses, I have just just two things to say to you:

Do you remember what my costume was? Because I can’t for the life of me.

And what nursing home do you live in now? Because I just might come by and put a kink in your IV drip.