tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40863442024-03-23T11:29:55.842-07:00Soul of Star TrekThoughts on Star Trek, related science fiction, and the future.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1205125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-18449617095720488982023-09-08T01:34:00.003-07:002023-09-08T23:15:33.558-07:00Strange Old Worlds<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHvtVjza_NzbWqWOE_eyXCqrONCasiuHyUYXnVheiyDkilg_NuRFMFAdz21ZKWU3SR4K5mCv6HfsnvxcpxYQCJjhL-FKH9pYAtSWm3tZBCK-75xJuUFFZEirJMigGcAF9s7Bp5WZgkxX59stryvf6JN8NBrYdBAZnqrdSbSg8SQsVAz6Y80DGI6w/s1440/man-trap-br-008.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1440" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHvtVjza_NzbWqWOE_eyXCqrONCasiuHyUYXnVheiyDkilg_NuRFMFAdz21ZKWU3SR4K5mCv6HfsnvxcpxYQCJjhL-FKH9pYAtSWm3tZBCK-75xJuUFFZEirJMigGcAF9s7Bp5WZgkxX59stryvf6JN8NBrYdBAZnqrdSbSg8SQsVAz6Y80DGI6w/w400-h300/man-trap-br-008.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /> On September 8, 1966 the first season of the Star Trek
series began. It explored strange new
worlds in the galaxy of imagination as well as in television storytelling. But 57 years later, I wonder if it is truly
exploring anything more than its own mythology. Star Trek today seems more and more to be about itself.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The new Star Trek shows display excellent writing, acting,
directing and visual effects. It
produces entertaining television. The current series <i>Star Trek: Strange New
Worlds</i> seems to have tried to recapture that original innocence, with its premise,
its stand-alone episodes and that thrilling variation on the original opening
with updated imagery. But most episodes seem to explore mostly the styles of
presenting the established (if visually updated) Star Trek universe—comedy,
horror, mixing animation with live action, musical comedy. Star Trek now seems to comments on itself more than any
outside world, real or imagined, including the self-consciousness of <i>Lower
Decks</i>.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <i>Discovery</i> tried to push the envelope at times, and
bravely explores diversity and the internal life of a starship in a different
way, though its obsession with feelings feels excessive at times (in my weaker
moments I’ve referred to Captain Burnham as Captain Emo.) While season 4 in particular pushed Star Trek forward, even in this series, Star Trek mythology generated lots of story.</p><p class="MsoNormal"> It’s not that these shows lack values or significant content. And it's not that decades and hundreds of Star Trek stories should be ignored. But maybe the
emphasis seems different. Strange new worlds aren't primary. At best the new shows are about the characters and
their relationships and interactions within the canonical Star Trek
mythology. They seem to be less about exploring the previously unknown, or involved with testing our
assumptions against what is found out there.
Character-driven drama with technobabble is not all of what Star Trek
started out to be.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Maybe it’s at least partly inevitable.
When Star Trek began, nothing like it had been done on television
before. The series invented its story
universe with every episode, and so every episode was exploring the
unknown. Perhaps it’s impossible to get
back that innocence.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> For a lot has happened in 57 years. Back when it began, Star Trek’s content was
shaped more directly by generations of science fiction and not quite two
decades of television drama.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Science fiction that
followed Jules Verne speculated on new technologies and what might be found on
other planets, both imagined from the basis of known fact and science. The science fiction that followed H.G. Wells
used imagined technologies, phenomena and forms of life as metaphors to
illuminate aspects of human life. (This is how Margaret Atwood divides it, and
it’s a good starting point.)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Following either
progenitor, s/f writers also explored highly speculative science with
cosmological and philosophical implications—everything from alternative
archeology and anthropology (some of which has turned out to have some basis in
fact) to implications of quantum physics and the additions and alterations over
the years suggested by new astronomical and sub-atomic data.</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3leH75v_obS9haYdaf3vCvYS0eDyQiKb_dBpimd-9_6kePspchKxd9yNTUSEHPM25D73lGM0fzv0ztSbmHHNSAUJcVSoE3EJy8X6GgxzczDbmlrG2WX06FSGyVcNCqlDNHJUAH_W6zZs_4pCR_0cT5yPL3nm0dIIST7vYGwLcyZGpt02FW-MiEg/s1440/errand-of-mercy-br-154.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1440" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3leH75v_obS9haYdaf3vCvYS0eDyQiKb_dBpimd-9_6kePspchKxd9yNTUSEHPM25D73lGM0fzv0ztSbmHHNSAUJcVSoE3EJy8X6GgxzczDbmlrG2WX06FSGyVcNCqlDNHJUAH_W6zZs_4pCR_0cT5yPL3nm0dIIST7vYGwLcyZGpt02FW-MiEg/s320/errand-of-mercy-br-154.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Just as the Star Trek series adapted technologies
and protocols seen in earlier sci-fi movies and television shows, the stories
followed both Verne and Wells in speculating on a possible future while telling
metaphorical tales, some of which applied to urgent contemporary social and
political questions. <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> While some of these
stories came from science fiction writers, a great many were created by veteran
television writers, sometimes re-purposing plots found everywhere, from ancient
drama and classic fiction to TV westerns and Captain Video. This was television drama, but westerns and
other shows also often told morality tales, and so did Star Trek.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Yet as the first full-hour network drama set in the far
future, Star Trek was also open-ended: everything was possible in locations in
time and space where no one had gone before. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> But seeds of the current situation were also sown back
then. Gene Roddenberry believed that
for a series with continuing characters set in the strange new worlds of the
future, the show had to create and maintain a self-consistent story universe.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> So besides
envisioning the basic template of as diverse a crew as he could get away with
(or perhaps as diverse as anyone could imagine existing in a few centuries), as well as assembling talented collaborators and working carefully on how the series
would look, GR did what Wells and other designers of alternative worlds knew to
do: he made rules. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPAFHDxH-wVgrBkHrHktSCQABYT5ieYTDNm8_b0NFd_NgboIuIELp6R5ezhWDJ1LNw4WAwb0Xys5ZBsiYHzxZDiyIq7Rak40QUBZ3wt3SSSHQLA7WA-8AzGLxlMoBZNRGRoxtWFr-0TaqV3UMjjX3Wnm7TuQcmoIiFxIF2a0p9cBkUoSPRJRP1Tg/s400/dayofthedovehd1059.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="400" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPAFHDxH-wVgrBkHrHktSCQABYT5ieYTDNm8_b0NFd_NgboIuIELp6R5ezhWDJ1LNw4WAwb0Xys5ZBsiYHzxZDiyIq7Rak40QUBZ3wt3SSSHQLA7WA-8AzGLxlMoBZNRGRoxtWFr-0TaqV3UMjjX3Wnm7TuQcmoIiFxIF2a0p9cBkUoSPRJRP1Tg/s320/dayofthedovehd1059.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Every week would bring a new story, but the technologies
would have the same capabilities and work the same way week after week. There was a chain of command aboard the
Enterprise, and a set a standard procedures.
As much as possible for a starship warping through the galaxy, the
Enterprise was grounded.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> As writers introduced new planets and new aliens, later
writers had to honor the basics of those planets and characters if they used
them in subsequent stories. (There were
periods of adjustment but once the template was found—for Klingons, say—it
remained consistent.) Events in one story might inform later stories, until a
kind of backstory was created for the main characters and Star Trek as a whole.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Some of the “rules” were set forth in the Star Trek Writer’s
Guide, which was revised as the series went on (I have before me the third
revision: 31 typed and mimeographed pages dated April 17, 1967.) It provides character background, technology
and capabilities. Believability in
action is stressed, but also meaning, the metaphorical layer.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The rules were needed because each episode had a different
writer and director. That’s also why
actors playing the major roles became caretakers of their characters and what
they did and how they did it. Together
they created the Star Trek universe.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> That universe expanded with new crews in a new century,
beginning with The Next Generation. A rich storytelling universe supported
hundreds of stories for five main crews and sets of characters, over nearly 40
years. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwXzswA3u7uqBR6znI836xMUJRpLzdQTgz-YN2Uv4PCX-49Ndx74e4_gJlRh_Ka_bseaG6-q6ycuyX2n6oZIj7iqC76W-h6F6eLRc7vYHz2m1Yp-rcMY46Erd8U_RtAbF94Ne5vNns-esXi21rHKOM0BWe76tjBFafwbRy0IdTmfQ2inYaSyMBDg/s406/Sarek_(Star_Trek_novel).jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="406" data-original-width="245" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwXzswA3u7uqBR6znI836xMUJRpLzdQTgz-YN2Uv4PCX-49Ndx74e4_gJlRh_Ka_bseaG6-q6ycuyX2n6oZIj7iqC76W-h6F6eLRc7vYHz2m1Yp-rcMY46Erd8U_RtAbF94Ne5vNns-esXi21rHKOM0BWe76tjBFafwbRy0IdTmfQ2inYaSyMBDg/s320/Sarek_(Star_Trek_novel).jpg" width="193" /></a></div>In the meantime, the Star Trek universe generated other
stories, principally in a series of novels.
Though officially permitted by whatever entity owned Star Trek at the
time, these novels often went their own ways in terms of story and
characters. It was I believe in
connection with the novels that the concept of “canon” was first
introduced. “Canon” was meant to denote
all the aspects of the “real” Star Trek universe, at first defined as everything
in the television and motion picture stories (but not the novels.)<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Canon is an interesting concept, and today it is a powerful
one. While the dictionary defines it as a general law or principle, its second
definition is a collection of sacred books regarded as genuine. The Star Trek rules and guidelines (commonly called its Bible), along
with that long history of story, had become canon law.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Those of us raised as Catholics recognize canon law as the
fundamentals of the institution of the Roman Catholic Church. Violations of
canon were serious stuff, heavily sinful.
Canon was zealously guarded by Church hierarchy. Violating canon was
heresy, punished by excommunication (an early version of being
blocked,unfriended or ghosted—in other words, excluded and exiled.) Canon today seems to have become a real
factor in what stories are told.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> But the hierarchy in charge of Star Trek is not the only arbiter. Star Trek’s relationship to
the corporate entities that made the shows was always complicated. According to
GR, he was constantly fighting against corporate control. That control seems to have become more
pronounced at the end of the Berman era.
Today Star Trek is seen as a valuable “franchise,” and the changes in
corporate ownership in recent years has been dizzying. The switch to streaming is still fluid, as
evidenced by recent cancellations and the abrupt changes in access to the
catalog. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> But there is another factor strongly in play, with roots in
the original series era. With GR’s
connivance, fans organized to write letters demanding that the original series
be renewed after the first and second seasons.
After the original series left the air, fans organized Star Trek
conventions. There had been science
fiction conventions where some attendees wore costumes, but there had been
nothing the size and specific focus of those Star Trek conventions in the 1970s
forward. With the letter campaigns and
especially the conventions, the phenomenon of fandom was born—not just for Star
Trek, but for everyone.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Fandom then acquired new tools for expression. Mostly
through the bulletin boards on sites devoted to Star Trek, the Internet started
to have influence, especially in the final years of <i>Star Trek: Enterprise</i>
and the <i>Star Trek: Nemesis</i> feature film. The negativity on the Internet, together with low ratings and box
office failure, ended in the demise of the Rick Berman era in 2005, and the
lineage from Gene Roddenberry through Berman was broken.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> By the time of the J.J. Abrams features, social media was
prominent. Abrams and then the creators
of <i>Star Trek: Discovery </i>and other television shows paid closer attention
to social media, made producers and stars more accessible, and saw conventions
as potent promotional opportunities.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Meanwhile, fandom (which may be defined as a subset of the
more diverse universe of Star Trek fans) was becoming more aware of the
business side of Star Trek. Online
discussions were at least as likely to be about production costs and box office
as possible meanings in Star Trek stories.
Corporate, producers and fandom were growing more aware of each other,
and engaging more directly.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Today fandom is a real force in Star Trek and its
storytelling. In particular, fandom
engages in questions of canon.
Variations are closely debated, and though some are accepted, others are
condemned. Star Trek canon is not enforced only by a corporate Vatican but by a
hyper-informed and vigilant fandom. This process is not
all destructive, but it is consequential. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihi5f6zfha-1clVJcgPiK-uNLFmhB_R827_Ed5hXBNyJ6HXgUrhmzWO6m9t8oShUeTVeBr3FKTJwDa1lDTFBwatl2aMUOqsyAchUiNnI1GW7oXkoDtV_MCsxCN7VnTwopY-LvO-QBuYMzg3KJIOD_UKI-wFSbyEmsPirwJvTQGHY-NifV2QonTHg/s578/darmok.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="578" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihi5f6zfha-1clVJcgPiK-uNLFmhB_R827_Ed5hXBNyJ6HXgUrhmzWO6m9t8oShUeTVeBr3FKTJwDa1lDTFBwatl2aMUOqsyAchUiNnI1GW7oXkoDtV_MCsxCN7VnTwopY-LvO-QBuYMzg3KJIOD_UKI-wFSbyEmsPirwJvTQGHY-NifV2QonTHg/s320/darmok.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>All these past Star Trek stories, with their basic consistencies
and through-lines, form a kind of mythology, and fandom is deeply engaged with
that mythology, its familiar characters and events. Thanks to social media and the structures of the
entertainment business today, Star Trek producers cannot afford to offend
fandom too much. They depend on fans
who operate in social media, and vote by means of streaming subscriptions. In this context, it’s all fan service.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Gene Roddenberry respected fans and interacted with them at
conventions. But he was very direct and
firm that fans would not dictate Star Trek content. Today fandom may not write the stories, but it is one factor that
may be limiting the storytelling. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> These seem to me to be the chief factors leading to my
impression that today’s Star Trek is less about exploring strange new worlds or
ideas and their implications, and more about itself and its own mythology.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The apparent emphasis on character interaction over
situation and ideas may be another important factor. Taken together, the
character emphasis and the self-referencing tendency may help to explain my
impression that current Star Trek gives much lower priority than in its
formative years to really engaging with urgent concerns of today’s world by
means of exploring strange new worlds.
In sometimes awkward but sometimes revelatory ways, that’s what the
original series and TNG did. That to a
great extent is what inspired Star Trek fans in the first place.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Today’s Star Trek shows have revisited and expanded on
issues that past Star Trek stories explored, for a new audience. They have
dealt to some degree with certain implications of technology, though they seem
oddly obsessed with cloning. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA-GioqYYmS8J71j9sf6ksbtBkdKgJHgewKPvT7VihoVedBiOhajquE2g9kJf3jTztTwvFk9044Zg9V7-QWHTqWpH2RbVVJ4xG0eECwnw_uMk_jVvh5S9ioRqcJfVRJD2stiipJI1hQ924GiAM66soYdsqdbR6C3EYvqjSwWPVKq2ovoXe8WweDA/s318/ilight02.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="318" data-original-width="289" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA-GioqYYmS8J71j9sf6ksbtBkdKgJHgewKPvT7VihoVedBiOhajquE2g9kJf3jTztTwvFk9044Zg9V7-QWHTqWpH2RbVVJ4xG0eECwnw_uMk_jVvh5S9ioRqcJfVRJD2stiipJI1hQ924GiAM66soYdsqdbR6C3EYvqjSwWPVKq2ovoXe8WweDA/s1600/ilight02.jpg" width="289" /></a></div>But more powerful technology is no longer the chief source of urgent problems, if it ever was. Many of our
concerns and our understanding of the world have changed in 57 years. We are much more aware of the roles of
ecological factors and non-human life, as we are faced with the challenges of
climate distortion and the imminent possibility of mass extinctions. We are more aware than ever of the dire
consequences of a planet ruled by a few extremely wealthy individuals and
corporations, with everyone else scrambling in uncertainty and insecurity. <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Engaging in such questions as race, the arms race and the
nuclear age, cultural differences and such larger questions as a more complex
reading of human nature, Star Trek formed its character: the essence, the soul
of Star Trek. The commitment to retain
that character by today’s Star Trek creators as well as viewers is
heartening. It was the motivation for
many over the years to become devoted Star Trek fans (whether or not they
became vocal members of fandom.) But
that commitment loses its power if it becomes the rote of canon. It has to be actualized.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Perhaps I’m wrong
about the current shows. My perspective is derived from watching Star Trek for
all of those 57 years. That does not
make me (in today’s terms) the target demographic, to say the least. Perhaps newer viewers see the same kinds of
explorations, and feel themselves changed by them as we once did.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> But consider this possibility: at its best, Star Trek once
engaged with the strange new worlds that illuminate our world—the world that
television drama largely refused to examine. These were the urgent public problems
and mysteries that most vexed us as viewers. Now Star Trek seems to live in the
no-longer-strange old world of its own mythos.
Mythologies can be defining and healthy, generating new stories and
insights, but they can also become stultifying and irrelevant, until eventually
they consume themselves.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-65325111990911483702023-06-22T23:53:00.006-07:002023-06-23T00:11:09.518-07:00Star Trek: Insurrection (Star Trek IX)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNDg4TsYGB5PJ84NIXPP0Ma_PE_r0A1gwoWeXtJ35jfqZs_mDym2-YIly3n-fvUBKZCHuY-_iPc3Vz3xafYKs2ERQcB4fTzojgcup_CCaRcQrEMWQUtTilPSSmJQLG2B-54iq-1BKvvu_Ot-g1HmYDXLCRQix7I5gLqx1VzGC-KNZVL_aJwBaUuw/s1920/insurrectionhd0567.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="1920" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNDg4TsYGB5PJ84NIXPP0Ma_PE_r0A1gwoWeXtJ35jfqZs_mDym2-YIly3n-fvUBKZCHuY-_iPc3Vz3xafYKs2ERQcB4fTzojgcup_CCaRcQrEMWQUtTilPSSmJQLG2B-54iq-1BKvvu_Ot-g1HmYDXLCRQix7I5gLqx1VzGC-KNZVL_aJwBaUuw/w640-h274/insurrectionhd0567.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /> <i>This is the ninth of a series of essays on the first ten Star Trek features, the<a href="http://soulofstartrek.blogspot.com/search/label/Trekalog"> Trekalog</a>.</i><p></p><p>by William Severini Kowinski</p><p><i>Star Trek: Insurrection</i> has become a problematic
movie as the ninth in the original ten (or Trekalog) of Star Trek features.
Even its title has become troublesome. (There’s no insurrection to overthrow
the government in this story. We now
know better what that looks like.) Though I have great affection for this film,
I’ve been bothered by its shortcomings, from the first time I saw it in a
theatre the week it was released in December 1998. I felt then it could have
been a great Star Trek movie, as well as a brave one. In many respects, it
dazzled me. I still believe thematically it remains a major evocation of the
soul of Star Trek. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhApcMtfekGgDfoiucDvL8J8ssp2uZ0mPZzYi25mhkYs0cyk9q84C8GdbnIF40YwU_crBxugI5QQHWVaKQ5YNtmU8eaYmWUu3mwtwKa0cvdsQ1FQbTx6HXAav_1rYQ6ZEvZg5sLon5FMfsb8HeopKfieQfmz2g68VycpZU6SQFBIqqA7bP9xl9Cbw/s385/Star_Trek_Insurrection.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="385" data-original-width="258" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhApcMtfekGgDfoiucDvL8J8ssp2uZ0mPZzYi25mhkYs0cyk9q84C8GdbnIF40YwU_crBxugI5QQHWVaKQ5YNtmU8eaYmWUu3mwtwKa0cvdsQ1FQbTx6HXAav_1rYQ6ZEvZg5sLon5FMfsb8HeopKfieQfmz2g68VycpZU6SQFBIqqA7bP9xl9Cbw/s320/Star_Trek_Insurrection.png" width="214" /></a></div>This film, written by Michael Piller from a story by Piller
and Rick Berman, and directed by Jonathan Frakes, has its fans. At the time it opened, critic Gene Siskel
said it was the only Star Trek movie he truly enjoyed. (His TV partner, Roger Ebert, had a
different view.) <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Others have come to value it over the years, or at least
elements of it. Jerry Goldsmith’s score—especially the lovely Ba’ku
theme—remains one of my favorites, and the acting, the characterizations, the
humor gave it an attractive buoyancy.
After many subsequent viewings, I’ve found more that’s annoying but I also
retain that initial affection, and admire it even more for its courage.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The conventional wisdom has become that it is more of a
television episode than a movie.
Insofar as I even know what that means, I take the opposite view: I
think it tries too hard to be an action movie.
Or more generally, it may simply be that the Star Trek features series
started to run out of luck. Many if not most very good feature films have a
pretty long history. They may have been conceived five or eight or ten years
before they get made. Even some sequels
take years to develop. But Star Trek
movies rolled out at a faster pace—every two or three years. They typically emerged from assembling bits
and pieces of screenplay drafts, often at the last minute, with lots of different imput. This fortuitously resulted in some excellent
films. Unfortunately that kind of luck
doesn’t always appear.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> But before wallowing in the details, the most important
element of this movie is the core story, the principles that are at stake. In special features interviews for the first
expanded DVD of this movie, writer Michael Piller said that he wanted to move
away from the darker Star Trek (not only the previous feature, <i>Star Trek:
First Contact</i>, but the ongoing television stories, particular of Deep Space
Nine) and the darker path science fiction had been taking in general in the
1990s, to revive the optimistic spirit and idealistic modeling of Gene
Roddenberry’s original vision. “I
wanted to do one for Gene,” he said. So
<i>Insurrection</i> pivoted on a moral issue with a real world history, as well as
portraying a society that emphasized a different aspect of the soul of Star
Trek.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTMObmffiLxMQQSudIs9nxzg2DQU17sTMDULRaGClK_nsWDEKJ0qAWMRofuJxmWXW49Hadnpg8SsFM3hx2r2Q-hCqx81LetzQZTETR66A44r8yXZw-F4rE5qH8FAuZWy6Cnvp5BmhYbhTj63SR-BGj_4dyBwJgdvrGPuSDh0ETixyo0FL3Yy3L_Q/s1920/insurrectionhd0390.jpg" style="clear: right; display: inline; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="1920" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTMObmffiLxMQQSudIs9nxzg2DQU17sTMDULRaGClK_nsWDEKJ0qAWMRofuJxmWXW49Hadnpg8SsFM3hx2r2Q-hCqx81LetzQZTETR66A44r8yXZw-F4rE5qH8FAuZWy6Cnvp5BmhYbhTj63SR-BGj_4dyBwJgdvrGPuSDh0ETixyo0FL3Yy3L_Q/s320/insurrectionhd0390.jpg" width="320" /></a><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <br />The title sequence—set to that lilting but slightly
unconventional Goldsmith theme—depicts a happy, healthy and busy agrarian
society with some pre-industrial mechanisms.
But we quickly see hidden observers, Starfleet uniforms and unknown
aliens (the Son’a), just before violence disrupts this peaceful day. The
android Data has seemingly gone berserk, and has deliberately unmasked the
hidden observers. He also appears to be
wounded.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Meanwhile the Enterprise-E is far away, on yet another minor
diplomatic mission (“Does anyone remember when we were explorers?” Captain
Picard asks.) After being contacted by an Admiral Dougherty requesting Data’s
schematics, and then a brief conversation with the Admiral about Data
apparently gone amok, Picard (against the Admiral’s wishes) diverts the
Enterprise to the distant planet involved, in an untraveled pocket of the
galaxy called the Briar Patch because its environment disrupts starship
technologies.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Maneuvering a shuttle and a bit of Gilbert and Sullivan,
Picard and Worf disable Data, and Geordi La Forge learns what went wrong: Data
had been attacked and engaged his ethical subprograms. But why was he attacking the Son’a and
Federation personnel—everyone but the Ba’ku on the planet?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghmvcVUHJmZu272O-FD3LsEfX1LYIMy2jwV_9uFNHCJnhJ8GghL_1gMxtxtZInG2iEFoywnje0IGA1OwBoaHOEd30ySTJi4nnzE2WXJ1WI2ncQllithV0mAwPu0NuEx9VAVgvUJtI7dyZDnxD2otQ_UomLmG7nIkKugB2c8RIJuhQtKRezq8u_PQ/s1920/insurrectionhd0528.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="1920" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghmvcVUHJmZu272O-FD3LsEfX1LYIMy2jwV_9uFNHCJnhJ8GghL_1gMxtxtZInG2iEFoywnje0IGA1OwBoaHOEd30ySTJi4nnzE2WXJ1WI2ncQllithV0mAwPu0NuEx9VAVgvUJtI7dyZDnxD2otQ_UomLmG7nIkKugB2c8RIJuhQtKRezq8u_PQ/s320/insurrectionhd0528.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> Picard and an Enterprise team beam down to free the unmasked
observers Dougherty tells him are hostages. They find instead peaceful, calm
and intelligent villagers, treating the “off-worlders” as guests. Picard soon learns that the Ba’ku are
warp-capable but have chosen a life without advanced technology, on this
welcoming planet. <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Picard and the Ba’ku investigate what Data found that got
him shot: a holo-ship, programmed to simulate the Ba’ku village. When several Son’a attack them, Picard
realizes what is happening: a conspiracy to transport the Ba’ku onto the
holo-ship and abduct them. “You go to sleep one night in the village. Wake up
the next morning on this flying holodeck transported en masse. In a few days, you’re relocated on a similar
planet without even realizing it.” But the question remains: why?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg43aLpzhWJEObA2VigHXfkYueFNXpx6BgOyTxkE9VLyZtfhAPiQMsR0E5clOggzNAzHfRWq9J0djRJSkuCHS7EArDEXjfJ9YVs7AKqbkBzjGrrsR5xXDQC7w1veWfAS6_jl_vc6PbcmqqZSiIe7SVFsPq0RV9kaxWybU1ksIbXk2FglUqDE160_g/s1920/insurrectionhd0842.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="1920" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg43aLpzhWJEObA2VigHXfkYueFNXpx6BgOyTxkE9VLyZtfhAPiQMsR0E5clOggzNAzHfRWq9J0djRJSkuCHS7EArDEXjfJ9YVs7AKqbkBzjGrrsR5xXDQC7w1veWfAS6_jl_vc6PbcmqqZSiIe7SVFsPq0RV9kaxWybU1ksIbXk2FglUqDE160_g/s320/insurrectionhd0842.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> By now some of the Enterprise crew are feeling and acting
oddly. Riker and Troi are re-igniting their old romance, Worf is showing signs
of going through Klingon puberty, and Picard himself feels a burst of vitality
and exuberance. Having danced his way
to a mirror to examine his jawline, he realizes what is happening, and returns
to the planet to speak with Anij and the other Ba’ku, who confirm that the “metaphasic
radiation,” a quality of the rings around the planet that continuously
regenerates genetic structure, is keeping them young and even improves their
health. Just being in orbit around the
planet is enough to affect the Enterprise crew. Three centuries earlier, the
Ba’ku left a war-torn planet and searched for an isolated haven to establish a
peaceful culture, ending up here.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCcNpH6BXXn1IgZIQtcw-NN9wD_njeVjAhQvwhmD6PWG172CxNaXTNktVRgP0Y4TnRaoECUxSfu3Z8unzrPb9_iF91OaDXm3DwzG7ZJTBJE3poxaG6C5Io6wKj3gibAPby4XadJY3uIEVXzIdjjMd3CaxQK4Ia32L63MZ4BMrreI7tpG3SnIAKVQ/s1920/insurrectionhd0877.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="1920" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCcNpH6BXXn1IgZIQtcw-NN9wD_njeVjAhQvwhmD6PWG172CxNaXTNktVRgP0Y4TnRaoECUxSfu3Z8unzrPb9_iF91OaDXm3DwzG7ZJTBJE3poxaG6C5Io6wKj3gibAPby4XadJY3uIEVXzIdjjMd3CaxQK4Ia32L63MZ4BMrreI7tpG3SnIAKVQ/s320/insurrectionhd0877.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> Picard now realizes that the planned Ba’ku abduction has
something to do with the “fountain of youth” effects of the planet’s
rings. He vows to prevent it, and in
explaining his reason to Anij, Picard states in plain language the moral core
of this story: <i>“Some of the darkest chapters in the history of my world
involve the forced relocation of a small group of people to satisfy the demands
of a large one. I’d hoped we had
learned from our mistakes, but…it seems that some of us haven’t.”</i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <b><span style="font-size: medium;">T</span></b>hose forced relocations and related behaviors (up to and
including genocide) have happened multiple times on every inhabited continent
on Earth, from ancient days through our own time in the 21<sup>st</sup>
century. Many would observe that they
are still happening. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWoRu3BYbUoW11VV1lWQvAB90qj9CkbrzavVHYew9xCVM2DhnAxjK7P26nRlNVNNm2_W6Ifg-OqjPG3sxEpo9HOU98ZpxY4KkplWQgzm4bgunREXbcuvb_YUlXEJqEfzTa_z8XFkOUgSnPe6fj2gD3v8hGe2Hdy_FAWjbxFnxkFddWZoNOhmZeMA/s640/t1larg.trail.of.tears.max.standley.courtesy.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWoRu3BYbUoW11VV1lWQvAB90qj9CkbrzavVHYew9xCVM2DhnAxjK7P26nRlNVNNm2_W6Ifg-OqjPG3sxEpo9HOU98ZpxY4KkplWQgzm4bgunREXbcuvb_YUlXEJqEfzTa_z8XFkOUgSnPe6fj2gD3v8hGe2Hdy_FAWjbxFnxkFddWZoNOhmZeMA/w400-h225/t1larg.trail.of.tears.max.standley.courtesy.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> But the instance Michael Piller said was foremost in his
mind when he wrote this script was the removal over several centuries of a
series of American Indian peoples, most graphically represented by the Trail of
Tears that resulted from what was literally called the Indian Removal Act in
1830. Cherokee, Seminole and other
tribal groups were driven from their communities in the southeast (near where
gold was discovered) and forced—including force-marched—thousands of miles to
reservations in the West. Thousands
died of starvation and disease along the way, while others perished shortly
after their arrival.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Later, in his confrontation with Admiral Dougherty, Picard
asserted that removal <i>“will destroy the Ba’ku, just as cultures have been
destroyed in every other forced relocation throughout history.”</i> Relocation and related oppressions certainly
destroyed American Indian cultures that had flourished for many centuries. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhpWS5z1V0aU-w1aq0bTGMUcrC6BiA51kx2ev2cGVylgXYQmdirzn1FyrE5oou3A6dKrxhFlz9G3v1itFB4o53Yd9Hy3QkinTFH2uEkVLMLczoWl3FkdtXWk6c0-vJtMLZbIpLrZXBCdieuoggQklI0A5xXYWif5sjGnfabvTMHoo4WDauc_r2kQ/s1920/insurrectionhd1848.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="1920" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhpWS5z1V0aU-w1aq0bTGMUcrC6BiA51kx2ev2cGVylgXYQmdirzn1FyrE5oou3A6dKrxhFlz9G3v1itFB4o53Yd9Hy3QkinTFH2uEkVLMLczoWl3FkdtXWk6c0-vJtMLZbIpLrZXBCdieuoggQklI0A5xXYWif5sjGnfabvTMHoo4WDauc_r2kQ/s320/insurrectionhd1848.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>In this confrontation, Dougherty makes the case for
kidnapping the Ba’ku. The Son’a have
developed a way to extract the youth-preserving qualities of the planet’s rings
but the process would render the planet “uninhabitable for many generations.” They will deploy the huge, eye-catching particles collector, with technology the Federation can't duplicate. But the planet (oddly, it is never named) is in Federation space, so for this mission the Son’a and
the Federation are partners, sanctioned by the Federation Council.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> After Dougherty parries his proposals to delay the procedure
for further study of alternatives while the Son’a and Ba’ku share the planet,
Picard lays it on the line: <i>“We are betraying the principles upon which the
Federation was founded. It’s an attack
upon its very soul.”</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Though there are technical interpretations of how the Prime
Directive does or doesn’t apply, Picard is consistent in his assertion about history. For him, the nuances of “non-interference”
are based upon a hard-won founding principle, which in a TNG episode he spelled
out to his crew: <i>“We are not invaders.
We are explorers.”</i> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg79XeXMQgZok6CFozlp9yKLaAP0EwzGRGx7Y7RDs-CmMjJ4eF0TT4dDqAweMStR_em_irR5wyl0BGPTTb5ZJSLl6pv9aUcxAzYcX2sh1bT1_O7cNVij9d97HIq3Srcd206-Dvl1xJyvN_X0i9j1HF3-GSK3mk5ubLQ3MZLtuT4FiBt8eIhVrLXWA/s1024/Theodore_de_Bry_-_Columbus_at_Hispaniola_from_The_Narrative_and_Critical_History_of_America_edited_-_(MeisterDrucke-64892).jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="818" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg79XeXMQgZok6CFozlp9yKLaAP0EwzGRGx7Y7RDs-CmMjJ4eF0TT4dDqAweMStR_em_irR5wyl0BGPTTb5ZJSLl6pv9aUcxAzYcX2sh1bT1_O7cNVij9d97HIq3Srcd206-Dvl1xJyvN_X0i9j1HF3-GSK3mk5ubLQ3MZLtuT4FiBt8eIhVrLXWA/s320/Theodore_de_Bry_-_Columbus_at_Hispaniola_from_The_Narrative_and_Critical_History_of_America_edited_-_(MeisterDrucke-64892).jpg" width="256" /></a></div>The distinction is basic, and a huge change. Historically,
explorers were the scouts for invaders. Again, we have to look no further than
the Americas. Explorers, financed by governments and commercial interests,
returned with news of lands to inhabit and resources to plunder and bring back
to Europe. Columbus thought the friendly natives might make good slaves.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> When the Federation
was founded, it committed to not repeating this history, to respecting the
cultures and the lifeforms on planets it explored. A number of Next Generation stories were about this very subject.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> This is what Starfleet’s Prime Directive is really
about. It is what makes the Federation
different, not only in the fictional universe it inhabits, but in our universe
as a vision of justice, diversity, and respect for all life. It is as Picard said, an element of the
Federation’s soul, and a major expression of the soul of Star Trek that has
inspired so many for generations.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Dougherty counters: “Jean-Luc, we are only moving six
hundred people.” </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> “How many people does it take, Admiral, before it becomes
wrong?” Picard replies. “A thousand?
Fifty thousand? A million? How many
people does it take, Admiral?”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> With its swelling music tag, this speech is a popular moment
with many Trek fans. Personally I feel
this choice of tone makes Picard sound too pompous and self-righteous—he’s not
really asking the question, he’s being indignant. It’s no wonder that Dougherty dismisses his objections and orders
him to another part of the galaxy. But
his point is solid—and controversial.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Many people, evidently including some members of the cast,
see sense and maybe a more persuasive case based on the numbers: Dougherty said
that the regenerative properties of the rings’ radiation could benefit
billions. Doesn’t helping billions justify moving six hundred people (and
probably sacrificing their current perpetual youthfulness, perhaps condemning
them to imminent death)? Don’t the
needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb_94kJBDg89fip1E8llrj4GmUpG6Nj-NCb2DG0onWta3Vk7k9MEqzk8193htxeyMemakiNZ-vzdHVSJxUmqs2-xhghi-qH9qdGd6hAP3h8SCS-TvjlKPNk4HbhCO1g559VRM6Z24JDy7xc0sRchG43j4saYCiPcaiXWjZDX4LspJrIdrEPzt-ig/s537/Trail-of-Tears-1839-Zinn-Education-Project-.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="537" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb_94kJBDg89fip1E8llrj4GmUpG6Nj-NCb2DG0onWta3Vk7k9MEqzk8193htxeyMemakiNZ-vzdHVSJxUmqs2-xhghi-qH9qdGd6hAP3h8SCS-TvjlKPNk4HbhCO1g559VRM6Z24JDy7xc0sRchG43j4saYCiPcaiXWjZDX4LspJrIdrEPzt-ig/s320/Trail-of-Tears-1839-Zinn-Education-Project-.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>By positing billions against 600, this script forces a hard
look at the core principles. Doubtless
the European invaders thought timber from American forests for sailing ships
and other purposes, as well as crops like tobacco, would benefit millions in
Europe, and therefore justified getting rid of the cultures of hundreds or thousands living in those
forests and on those lands that were in the way. Just as they justified the Trail of Tears because gold would help
their country’s economy, and therefore more people. <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Invasion and exploitation always justifies itself on
supposed principles, as long as they don’t get in the way of the invader’s
gain. What may look like a sensible
calculus is usually a convenient rationalization for greed, based on greater
military power and (almost always) assumptions of racial and cultural
superiority. Even the implication that the Federation can do what it wants with this planet because it is in "Federation space," (and apparently the Ba'ku who live there don't have to be consulted) is a species of imperialism. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Picard had allowed himself to be swayed by this calculus before, in the seventh season episode “Journey’s End,” as described in an
<a href="http://soulofstartrek.blogspot.com/2022/06/revisiting-tng-journeys-end.html">earlier post</a>. In that story it was
young Wesley Crusher who rebelled against the forced relocation of a group of
American Indians. Perhaps it was this
incident, augmented by the youthful idealism and rebelliousness revived by the
rings, that reminded Picard so forcefully of the costs of violating this
principle—as well as the price of upholding it. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq_YB5rQnPTo7DKkNny7FOWeLLcYW7sxgTcqf2bhkaVlILQTZE2BLbmvYxBK9LsVw7yj80mvsjjroj-U8vk1YUQXreZkmbKnweoT8vihNEstc7U2CLL9bNnmTiOnrp3SQycUjaqJ5vaQ7l87_A7JQUNJcgbJtyG9qIsTuvfrwEVUZWFby4B5TmlA/s1920/insurrectionhd1568.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="1920" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq_YB5rQnPTo7DKkNny7FOWeLLcYW7sxgTcqf2bhkaVlILQTZE2BLbmvYxBK9LsVw7yj80mvsjjroj-U8vk1YUQXreZkmbKnweoT8vihNEstc7U2CLL9bNnmTiOnrp3SQycUjaqJ5vaQ7l87_A7JQUNJcgbJtyG9qIsTuvfrwEVUZWFby4B5TmlA/w400-h171/insurrectionhd1568.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>The rest of the story involves Picard and his core crew—the
Magnificent Seven—and their championing of the Ba’ku. There is a final twist—the discovery that the Son’a and Ba’ku are
the same race, the grotesquely aging children against their perpetually
youthful parents. The Son’a’s motives
are revealed to include revenge.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> There are also a few scenes involving the Ba’ku culture,
particularly two conversations between Picard and Anij, as they grow
closer. In essence, Anij talks about
fully inhabiting the present moment, without reviewing the past or planning for
the future<i>. </i>“You explore the
universe,” Anij says to Picard. “We
have discovered that a single moment in time can be a universe in itself, full
of powerful forces. Most people aren’t
aware enough of the now to even notice.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Here on Earth,
mindfully exploring the present moment is a both meditation technique and its
intention, developed in Zen and other Buddhist practice, only recently adapted
in American and European contexts. A different approach to valuing the present
moment was a theme in <i>Star Trek: Generations</i>, where it was a consequence
of mortality, rather than a lesson of immorality. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvU69PoHcbrEHXQrDQVxl05Qqxd7iGL1hq8XPz-8HnEZzAx_Ttr1rBKJmd1RdYaAFqzr5F6oYpzxIpVGvm6X7jqJtWUBVwGXoaphd7ctb4xL3A8MECrXd3sNQcfC9FzJaNhPhcTc6tuXx7URMlHE2ValvWf0Ai5EjbZzg2J7ol2zSsAz-QOFGqyw/s1920/insurrectionhd1317.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="1920" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvU69PoHcbrEHXQrDQVxl05Qqxd7iGL1hq8XPz-8HnEZzAx_Ttr1rBKJmd1RdYaAFqzr5F6oYpzxIpVGvm6X7jqJtWUBVwGXoaphd7ctb4xL3A8MECrXd3sNQcfC9FzJaNhPhcTc6tuXx7URMlHE2ValvWf0Ai5EjbZzg2J7ol2zSsAz-QOFGqyw/s320/insurrectionhd1317.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Later Anij
demonstrates the ability to slow time down, or at least the perception of time.
(Making the water drops visible as they fall, or the hummingbird’s visible
wings may remind some viewers of effects of a certain herb, and of spending
seeming hours watching smoke curl under a lamp.) The Ba’ku insights may suggest the value that can be derived from
different “alien” cultures, even small and isolated ones, like Tibet (though
forms of Buddhism are prominent in many Asian countries.) Perhaps what the Ba’ku have to teach would
be more valuable than what the rings of their planet can offer.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Though our own (often small) Native cultures were crushed
before many of their profound insights were known or understood, some of those
cultures made deep impressions on the dominant culture, and that continues to
happen. For instance, the Haudenosaunee (or Iroquois) Confederation of tribes
existed democratically, probably for longer than the United States has so far.
Contacts with Founding Fathers and others, some scholars say, meaningfully
influenced the idea and structure of the United States. In turn, it influences the United Federation
of Planets, though the Haudenosaunee had a different Prime Directive than
Starfleet: <i>In every decision, consider the impact on the seventh generation
to come</i>. (For us, seven generations takes us into the 23<sup>rd</sup>
century.) </p><p class="MsoNormal"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXukeOxA59Yqai5gTOAtRi8EHXpoeOiJfZ0Xe-YCK58kWYqax86AUC_U5B96P1KH3KlbMoiPWuw_BFPAIdJC6EjYS9pNLZtCFOPcjGtqg7H9ExUyGFh76t5cFy3CVLx_dLyAUCJ607-5XTbzdPxnmjjefuCdV-sStcPoiRgzc-CJuRmCqc9EfU2Q/s1920/insurrectionhd2128.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="1920" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXukeOxA59Yqai5gTOAtRi8EHXpoeOiJfZ0Xe-YCK58kWYqax86AUC_U5B96P1KH3KlbMoiPWuw_BFPAIdJC6EjYS9pNLZtCFOPcjGtqg7H9ExUyGFh76t5cFy3CVLx_dLyAUCJ607-5XTbzdPxnmjjefuCdV-sStcPoiRgzc-CJuRmCqc9EfU2Q/s320/insurrectionhd2128.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></div><b><br /> J</b>.M. Dillard’s
novelization, published to coincide with the movie’s initial release, was based
on a slightly earlier version of the script, but differs in plot details mostly
in a different ending, in which Ru’afo escapes the collector but plunges into
the rings, speedily becoming younger and younger until he disappears. Apparently this was changed during shooting
when that ending didn’t seem to be working.
The actual ending is disappointing: Picard and the villain climbing and
fighting against a ticking clock to get to a control panel replicates the <i>Generations</i>
climax and there are similar scenes in <i>First Contact</i>, while the blue
background (meant to be the rings outside?) screams unfinished visual effect.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipUEwnvuZ2wbMLNiCBSQkjQ_FEWOCnOhCUtCSvYHIdGHSHW-FyyqZ9U-2wqKXWx78x6gMURavTYMOEaYyCtxxzv9w9TDkZNUc00z5nP6tuPFSazYwgl2afrSaKA8i02pZeNJRDGLsf2T1U_Fg8v8uJlObkY9Jcvggw0w-IIttnzHDSMq1zqkqMrw/s1920/insurrectionhd1824.jpg" style="clear: right; display: inline; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="1920" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipUEwnvuZ2wbMLNiCBSQkjQ_FEWOCnOhCUtCSvYHIdGHSHW-FyyqZ9U-2wqKXWx78x6gMURavTYMOEaYyCtxxzv9w9TDkZNUc00z5nP6tuPFSazYwgl2afrSaKA8i02pZeNJRDGLsf2T1U_Fg8v8uJlObkY9Jcvggw0w-IIttnzHDSMq1zqkqMrw/s320/insurrectionhd1824.jpg" width="320" /></a><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The Son’a’s appearance is different in the novelization—not
the wrinkled wraiths we see on the screen but with surgically thin baby smooth
skin, and ostentatiously adorned in robes and jewels. Perhaps this was too
close to a Hollywood reality. Apart
from their skin stretching salon, just about the only remnant of the Son’a’s
conspicuous love of luxury is the incongruous sofa that is Ru’afo’s command
chair on the bridge of his ship. (In the film, the Son’a have two alien slave
races: the Ellora, who look like Vegas showgirls in body paint, and the Tarlac,
who resemble the aliens in <i>Buckaroo Banzai</i>.)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Apart from some Harlequin romance level descriptions,
Dillard does elaborate on motives and intentions. The duck-blind observation of the Ba’ku, in her interpretation,
was itself always a ruse, to mask the secret of what the Son’a and Admiral
Dougherty were up to. It takes an extra step to realize this from the actual
movie, for the only hint I got was the implication of Dougherty saying the
Ba’ku originally came from elsewhere in space (and hence weren’t covered by the
Prime Directive), suggesting he mus have known they weren’t a pre-warp society
that required secrecy to study. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLUUHzTR8hYmur68cH10wIttTWb7wmN6531KUKdi7p1wbqzjCbvsf479gPpmdX_muCvb-VqusoZ2JZSf7iSj-LreBxUa_Wq-kallxc6Eeal9SFiV0M2zUVsx2PMpY_6VjO-gLPrvf1jW8-zlk2z3-KHNocNkYhNf0YWFSSgPFieLe6K6WcnOJkFQ/s1920/insurrectionhd1740.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="1920" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLUUHzTR8hYmur68cH10wIttTWb7wmN6531KUKdi7p1wbqzjCbvsf479gPpmdX_muCvb-VqusoZ2JZSf7iSj-LreBxUa_Wq-kallxc6Eeal9SFiV0M2zUVsx2PMpY_6VjO-gLPrvf1jW8-zlk2z3-KHNocNkYhNf0YWFSSgPFieLe6K6WcnOJkFQ/s320/insurrectionhd1740.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> Towards the end,
when Admiral Dougherty learns the true relationship of the Son’a and Ba’ku,
Dillard has him realizing that Ru’afo was primarily seeking revenge, and that
he never intended to share the youth-giving technology or its fruits with the
Federation. Similarly, Picard has a
flash of recognition as he confronts Ru’afo on the collector: just as he had
been driven by vengeance against the Borg in the events depicted in <i>Star
Trek: First Contact</i>, so Ru’afo was obsessed with revenge against the Ba’ku
who had rejected and exiled him. Even though revenge seems the default
motivation for Star Trek movie villains, this movie might have benefited from
such clarifying moments.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Dillard also elaborates earlier on Picard’s thoughts from
his initial confrontation with Dougherty.
He reasons that the Federation would probably need no more than a few
years to figure out a better way to benefit from the cellular regeneration
effects of the rings, and that the Son’a were rushing things for reasons of
their own. He doubts that the full and
true plan had ever been presented to the Federation Council. Clearer indications of Dougherty’s and
Picard’s suspicions and realizations in the movie (perhaps as Dillard developed
them) might have added texture and interest to the movie’s story, making it
more of the unraveling of a mystery.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <b><span style="font-size: medium;">I</span></b> don’t want to belabor what I experienced as flaws in the
film. Every film has flaws, but some
are serious enough—or there is an accumulation of them—to weaken the
credibility and flow of the movie, or to engender confusion and raise questions, all of which are harmful when they take the viewer out of the story. My disappointments are no doubt heightened by my conclusion that this could have been the best of the TNG features.</p><p class="MsoNormal">My first impression
that this was a movie that just missed being really good was based on what
seemed to be a confusing rhythm, a sense that, despite some slow scenes and
comic moments, it just rushed on, with no rhythm but momentum. I felt it needed more pace; it needs to
breathe. It’s not as if running time
was a problem—this was the shortest of all Star Trek features. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzL3gu_19hfL6yssSV6VieDMZmQLJSGj6f_JxMFmZQR_Zw-jGBLvOf-oXJyec72N1Mg5DJI-OrOBzbYzYwiABJnhaeEvFC8B0vhc9uX-W10Nf-WD_cj5xfHtS56HfFYgMTjLDnXUOXtFQtIhypyTdJQw-pEYfIRFUBw4Ue08RB9BRE3BEpp481Ow/s1920/insurrectionhd0949.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="1920" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzL3gu_19hfL6yssSV6VieDMZmQLJSGj6f_JxMFmZQR_Zw-jGBLvOf-oXJyec72N1Mg5DJI-OrOBzbYzYwiABJnhaeEvFC8B0vhc9uX-W10Nf-WD_cj5xfHtS56HfFYgMTjLDnXUOXtFQtIhypyTdJQw-pEYfIRFUBw4Ue08RB9BRE3BEpp481Ow/s320/insurrectionhd0949.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I felt this most acutely on first view in the cut from
Geordi’s viewing of a sunrise—the first time in his life he’d seen one with
normal vision, due to the planet’s regeneration effect. In his original commentary to <i>First
Contact</i>, director Jonathan Frakes noted the temptation to cut off a scene
too quickly just to keep the movie moving.
The quick cut from the sunrise and Geordi’s eyes to an overview of
orbiting ships was jarring, and to me trivialized what could have been a more
powerful moment. <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> I was also taken out of the flow by elements of the story that didn't seem credible, like the simpleminded plan to relocate the Ba’ku (they
weren’t going to notice they were no longer on their planet, with its hills and
sky?) or Data and the others in their invisibility suits tromping around
supposedly undetected, as if the Ba’ku had no other sense but sight.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> I was always uneasy with the portrayal of the Ba’ku, though
the actors rescued it for me.
Subsequent viewings suggest why they seem less credible than symbolic:
their gracefully styled but rigidly earth-tone clothing, their uniformly
pristine village buildings-- more elegant versions of a Phoenix suburb (as
Marina Sirtis suggests in a recent commentary) and (as Jonathan Frakes notes)
their unbroken whiteness. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHtOziM1AzZw7k9K2GIYhK2ycMqIAQB2mkP2YCxxLzlmOc5r2mDzZ7ak59_8uZYl5Qn0DEWxpU9VpwpZSQVJo9D2fbeY3usl6ewUYN1jdlqjyZAjG2WRS02HJWqE7h5drZPPyc2_MaTeU-vTTTrBsdnxD-eVFbiKH3aatdtqTYTPJghJNuGqSSmA/s1920/insurrectionhd2292.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="1920" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHtOziM1AzZw7k9K2GIYhK2ycMqIAQB2mkP2YCxxLzlmOc5r2mDzZ7ak59_8uZYl5Qn0DEWxpU9VpwpZSQVJo9D2fbeY3usl6ewUYN1jdlqjyZAjG2WRS02HJWqE7h5drZPPyc2_MaTeU-vTTTrBsdnxD-eVFbiKH3aatdtqTYTPJghJNuGqSSmA/s320/insurrectionhd2292.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Then there are the missed opportunities, including a clearer
sense (perhaps from a single point of view, like Picard’s) of the contrast
between the trivial hurry of the Enterprise greeting a new Federation member,
and the slower, fuller life on the planet, absent
phaser fire. Another is the
assertion that deploying the collector would destroy life on the planet for
generations, implying for more than its people. So even if the Ba’ku were removed, all other planetary life would
be destroyed, an act of geocide that would have been a major concern in a TNG
episode. (And if Ru’aflo didn’t misspeak when he said “everything in this <i>sector</i>
will be dead or dying," on more than one planet.)<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> I get the impression now that not everybody making this
movie was on the same page, contributing to a lack
of clarity and pace that can prevent viewers from just riding along on a voyage, with its ups and downs, sidetracks and problems solved together. Confusion and disagreement about the core issues probably
also contributed. Even in the third
season of <i>Picard</i>, Captain Shaw’s erroneous if funny description of this
movie’s events, particularly that it was Picard who violated the Prime
Directive, suggests this confusion, as well as how the story might be whispered
about at the time so that the Federation saves face.) </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT6VdUhEHIafGyjhSKtup59N-6PD1nUDAMzsqou8m-pDl54_FlKmqwV1bONJ2hb1l9hlzhutejY9ZWa0w4l7EZwO4gsL0mmgKza1R5rca-oHoJXGP7-f8m6EpIr_hYwwCoOE88GqylCJWeXgXE6LR_9zM0zD06AS79pBd2SfBO-M0T0Hthg2t9MQ/s1920/insurrectionhd1459.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="1920" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT6VdUhEHIafGyjhSKtup59N-6PD1nUDAMzsqou8m-pDl54_FlKmqwV1bONJ2hb1l9hlzhutejY9ZWa0w4l7EZwO4gsL0mmgKza1R5rca-oHoJXGP7-f8m6EpIr_hYwwCoOE88GqylCJWeXgXE6LR_9zM0zD06AS79pBd2SfBO-M0T0Hthg2t9MQ/s320/insurrectionhd1459.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Yet a lot of the pieces are there: the exodus from the
village, the Enterprise space battle, the transporter and holoship
trickery on the Son'a, the hummingbirds. Some fans reacted against the
humor, and the change in characterizations.
I enjoyed all of that. (Sure, Data in the haystack was sappy and forced,
but so goofy that isolated it remains an awkward highlight.) The Enterprise crew didn’t
need an alien virus to get a little silly, as in The Naked Now/Time—just an
infusion of youth. It’s fun watching
these actors do humor, and do it well. In this (as well as other respects) it reminded me of <i>Star
Trek IV: The Voyage Home</i>, when the Kirk Enterprise crew loosened up. It also turns out to be a kind of preview to
aspects of the TNG characters as they appear in <i>Picard</i> season 3. <p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-E9xLBtdwCl29myDtZXV5HPvJDdctqWJ4x543f2RvW8G0GQlC9LpvtjY4li3nrVWQ3hkwujjdeCBXK_wbji1YB4kjVzP7wtCoZQfNdbAwLnSDW-Ys4GjnsiyKKHDPKEsRJez8MIv9maZBrqUwBqmLCmT4AconrJiLQzhK8XDZNw_OF-44S4v59g/s1920/insurrectionhd1718.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="1920" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-E9xLBtdwCl29myDtZXV5HPvJDdctqWJ4x543f2RvW8G0GQlC9LpvtjY4li3nrVWQ3hkwujjdeCBXK_wbji1YB4kjVzP7wtCoZQfNdbAwLnSDW-Ys4GjnsiyKKHDPKEsRJez8MIv9maZBrqUwBqmLCmT4AconrJiLQzhK8XDZNw_OF-44S4v59g/w400-h171/insurrectionhd1718.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> If the viewer gets
swept past the incongruities, then the buoyancy and the scenery in this movie
combine for a bright ride. There are plenty of incidents, a fine romance for
Captain Picard and Anij (though their kiss got cut entirely) and along with the
main cast there are solid performances by F. Murray Abraham (Ru’afo), Anthony
Zerbe (Admiral Dougherty) and Donna Murphy (Anij) as well as Gregg Henry (Son’a
Gallatin),Daniel Hugh Kelly (Ba’ku Sojef) and a very young Michael Welch (Ba’ku
child Artim.) <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQdDva7PQ0H7u2bIszhyepJCnTxdAaX5zWVUsLN_5etwR1vDs4PmJp8vkNzKUUAR6tanCUoYShuxA79Ci9iH-AnU9pVDNwgDs5AZbH-ee3AE_euViLMQ_nPUF8kLKlucMV8Lq1Y3dF2b7nlpvPmoU3lCdbXdpYGWniSq0-rgA1QETgG3fowQy5kQ/s1920/insurrectionhd2287.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="1920" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQdDva7PQ0H7u2bIszhyepJCnTxdAaX5zWVUsLN_5etwR1vDs4PmJp8vkNzKUUAR6tanCUoYShuxA79Ci9iH-AnU9pVDNwgDs5AZbH-ee3AE_euViLMQ_nPUF8kLKlucMV8Lq1Y3dF2b7nlpvPmoU3lCdbXdpYGWniSq0-rgA1QETgG3fowQy5kQ/w400-h171/insurrectionhd2287.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> Director Frakes had approached <i>First Contact’</i>s Enterprise
scenes as a horror story, using some traditional horror movie moves. Those scenes were dark—often literally.
Everyone—from Paramount to Rick Berman to Patrick Stewart, credited for the
first time as a producer, wanted something lighter for this film. So this time Frakes directed an action
adventure out in the bright daylight, like a western. That final shot of the
seven Enterprise officers all lined up, capped the reference to <i>The
Magnificent Seven</i> heroes defending a helpless village. <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <span style="font-family: inherit;">The
CGI is now a little outdated (this was the first Trek film to use it
exclusively) but the Briar Patch is visually stunning, and the action scenes
are fun. Despite its reputation, this
movie didn’t do so badly at the box office, either. It’s too bad that it couldn’t more seamlessly bring together its
moral center, the story and the mood, as did its model predecessor, <i>The
Voyage Home. </i></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-4418175792433986492023-05-02T03:17:00.003-07:002023-05-16T22:49:19.178-07:00Picard3: Many Happy Returns<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh01RwZdkjTW2qC_vQV1XsKjEY9Xeoe3a1oX-cb3ymhpDuVNw2ZW9GI6aQScZvUiWJLjNEtrGZZf7726oRdTIUERZiMIETq9My5-CF14SsKnDZPmrt46RukZs_yrEZZ9ecdCIRKZbn-C72h5kaOkP1n7tYJ2aY7pjqCRnJ8BoKCQR16jlxFv4A/s1200/c7034bcc-0005-4a6e-b165-381df2708cec-enterprise-d-saucer-picard-s3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh01RwZdkjTW2qC_vQV1XsKjEY9Xeoe3a1oX-cb3ymhpDuVNw2ZW9GI6aQScZvUiWJLjNEtrGZZf7726oRdTIUERZiMIETq9My5-CF14SsKnDZPmrt46RukZs_yrEZZ9ecdCIRKZbn-C72h5kaOkP1n7tYJ2aY7pjqCRnJ8BoKCQR16jlxFv4A/w640-h336/c7034bcc-0005-4a6e-b165-381df2708cec-enterprise-d-saucer-picard-s3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />The final season of<i> Star Trek: Picard</i> has been widely and deservedly
praised as a triumph. It certainly
seemed to be the most self-assured of the three seasons. Producer, writer and director Terry Matalas
infused this new form of the 10 episode series with elements of the old movie
serials, complete with cliffhanger endings.
But he also provided a couple of episodes that ended in temporary
resolution, so the audience could catch its breath. This series had some
pacing—difficult in a (roughly) ten hour movie chopped up into ten pieces a
week apart. Matalas pulls together all the strands of the story in a finale that is complete and satisfying. (It is described beautifully, for example, by<a href="https://blog.trekcore.com/2023/04/star-trek-picard-series-finale-review-the-last-generation/"> Jim Moorhouse</a> at Trekcore.)<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> I still maintain that despite intentions to aim this series
towards adults, it’s inevitably going to get younger viewers, f-bombs and
all. Still, while several moments of
violence were shocking, they were within conventional bounds and unlikely to be
traumatic.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXht4qVhp3qA4_BFXPDUNnd5oVILUg-drC9jX_7AzPk0CyZ0eUpvtFmCIiLgL_LJbJ2BfNehfNxs5wdy5Xwj9PlhEx_P8GyFnX6Di0kSPInk4u8XkRtl3h76NYEnFpi9oaOYwmn-jcP0osV2x4gyOaJKyFCwTsJLwsvJP9Hu9mbC1yc1ig2qs/s3000/02picard-recap-videoSixteenByNine3000.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1688" data-original-width="3000" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXht4qVhp3qA4_BFXPDUNnd5oVILUg-drC9jX_7AzPk0CyZ0eUpvtFmCIiLgL_LJbJ2BfNehfNxs5wdy5Xwj9PlhEx_P8GyFnX6Di0kSPInk4u8XkRtl3h76NYEnFpi9oaOYwmn-jcP0osV2x4gyOaJKyFCwTsJLwsvJP9Hu9mbC1yc1ig2qs/w400-h225/02picard-recap-videoSixteenByNine3000.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> Matalas said his goal was to provide the Next Generation
characters with the send-off that their last feature didn’t give them—partly
because they didn’t know it was their last feature. That was <i>Star Trek Nemesis </i>in 2002, written by John Logan, who
impressed the cast with his fanboy knowledge of Star Trek, and directed by
Stuart Baird who impressed them with his willful ignorance. Logan apparently had a thing for Counselor
Troi, with unfortunate results. This time,
Matalas focused on Doctor Crusher, in a very different way and with much better
effect.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Gates McFadden has been a real soldier for Star Trek, gamely
decorating the movies with little to do, while thoughtfully articulating the
Star Trek ethos whenever asked. If you believe a little scene in Jeff
Greenwald’s book <i>Future Perfect</i> in which Brannon Braga dismisses her
phone message suggestion for <i>First Contact</i>, she didn’t get a lot of
respect from the higher ups. Yet
elsewhere in that book she’s very articulate about the core—the soul—of Star
Trek. She seems to have been an
underused resource, and it’s great to see her character given so much substance
and power in this series.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgANqQfzBu6LZnZTpTkXBvsLPMoiOl2HzixV-NzeOxmiJHLRnl2eVZeIxfNft9Rsieh9ZuPsRQkWutUjiSbJfqT8gUw1SiV0OKgPRNnqivy0JJFLiPKCIXQfQuZihkVJkBZxRVp0X9iVN3uN32u0c_CEGal3sY8qjURPWO3GZ_BkO-1YqFJoow/s1200/306-ten-forward-02.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgANqQfzBu6LZnZTpTkXBvsLPMoiOl2HzixV-NzeOxmiJHLRnl2eVZeIxfNft9Rsieh9ZuPsRQkWutUjiSbJfqT8gUw1SiV0OKgPRNnqivy0JJFLiPKCIXQfQuZihkVJkBZxRVp0X9iVN3uN32u0c_CEGal3sY8qjURPWO3GZ_BkO-1YqFJoow/s320/306-ten-forward-02.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> All the acting is outstanding in this third series, in
general and within this context: actors who haven’t played the character in 20
years finding the differences they can play that still work within the
characters they established, and first-time actors, especially Ed Speelers,
creating convincing characters that fit. Jonathan Frakes, who hasn’t acted much in recent years, comes across relaxed and genuine as a seasoned, sassier Riker.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzpfX4Kg_cU-uy89PWaaHx3t5tKEK8aBGWXeFpB5Fu-jGhqp-Pcmxqy_D78UKDwmCQdRPIbdd1mqxKcDgk1K6wUqFBRaZa-os6NgvdcLq-JYGf_AkFjRd5t9Ceuo7pk38gFdSXSXOcBG1453sH6zvxoQ2Xmp5UQ11hcCvS10lvAcemd8LTu5Y/s1200/troi-riker.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzpfX4Kg_cU-uy89PWaaHx3t5tKEK8aBGWXeFpB5Fu-jGhqp-Pcmxqy_D78UKDwmCQdRPIbdd1mqxKcDgk1K6wUqFBRaZa-os6NgvdcLq-JYGf_AkFjRd5t9Ceuo7pk38gFdSXSXOcBG1453sH6zvxoQ2Xmp5UQ11hcCvS10lvAcemd8LTu5Y/s320/troi-riker.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> Brent Spiner has
tour de force moments as the new Data, while Patrick Stewart, Jeri Ryan and
Michelle Hurd of the Picard cast from prior seasons have exceptional moments as
well. Scenes between Patrick Stewart and Gates McFadden, and between Jonathan
Frakes and Marina Sirtis, are rightly lauded for their economy and power. <p></p><p class="MsoNormal">It was great to hear
the voices of Majel Roddenberry and Walter Koenig in Star Trek again, as well
as classic Star Trek musical themes, and—well, there’s a YouTube video that
shows emotional fan response to the bridge crew on the Enterprise-D—the (next to) final
big reveal that the series managed to keep a surprise. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZkeNKc59rUfQEWaJz7T5glCgJyuHNioc3Zd6V6UlR6pvEZ9degdW7KVz-FOO91rhtpV2j8XzQn9bdaLKaDwRiXHXkFkK-N6WZcAuZcYGBxIxoditgth-rQGGwQjma1ZToOLxNWMR1ctRYOJQfirAKZCvo5fTcQsbynl_kSoG0FV4pWUCcnMI/s1200/306-titan-bridge-04.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZkeNKc59rUfQEWaJz7T5glCgJyuHNioc3Zd6V6UlR6pvEZ9degdW7KVz-FOO91rhtpV2j8XzQn9bdaLKaDwRiXHXkFkK-N6WZcAuZcYGBxIxoditgth-rQGGwQjma1ZToOLxNWMR1ctRYOJQfirAKZCvo5fTcQsbynl_kSoG0FV4pWUCcnMI/s320/306-titan-bridge-04.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></b></div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">M</span></b>uch has been made of the “conflict” between these familiar
characters as they were introduced in this series, as different from the past
when they didn’t conflict. It’s worth
going a little deeper into that.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> For not all “conflict” is the same. In a drama (especially
melodrama), conflict among characters usually means real opposition and intent
to do harm, with at least one character driven by suspicion, ambition, envy,
jealousy, vengeance, desire, fear etc.; racial/ethnic/gender/class hostility or just
personal animosity. These characters
often engage in deceit, intimidation, subterfuge and scheming against others,
if not overt violence. Characters actively or passively do harm through
manipulation, bullying, subversion, or any number of other destructive
behaviors, often driven by unexamined and unconscious forces.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> None of that applies
to the TNG characters in these episodes, even though they made different
choices responding to different experiences over the years of their separation,
and even if during the episodes they engage in disagreements that they may not have actively pursued before
(or then again, they may have). </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR01mPsx4ce4rQw5mUcxZ-eVOzTa646dYUmys4AW830sT_pL2iDeNxZiptAdanbpdomDDb5CR0inv-AYG-_Opr42aDMof8I6aH-C9RPHHMJQisKroL7z2f1fkCsGD9QTl8LWOfS9zNaPK8t7gRhjBUUjpUWq2MEYX1gaD6fk_880DArvZW300/s1200/306-transporter-room-01.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR01mPsx4ce4rQw5mUcxZ-eVOzTa646dYUmys4AW830sT_pL2iDeNxZiptAdanbpdomDDb5CR0inv-AYG-_Opr42aDMof8I6aH-C9RPHHMJQisKroL7z2f1fkCsGD9QTl8LWOfS9zNaPK8t7gRhjBUUjpUWq2MEYX1gaD6fk_880DArvZW300/s320/306-transporter-room-01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The kinds of conflict seen in Picard were seen in the TNG
series, including marital or other relationship troubles (though perhaps not so
often among the senior officers.)
Wherever conflicts at the level of problems occurred, they were solved
the same way: through recognizing them and talking them out. That happens again in this year of <i>Picard</i>.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The Roddenberry-mandated lack of the first kinds of conflict among the main characters in Star Trek was meaningful: it said that in the future, a diverse group of
individuals will have achieved the degree of self-awareness to step back from
their own emotions and see their actions or feelings from a different
perspective, and they will have the concepts and vocabulary to engage in
solving these problems. And by the 24<sup>th</sup>
century, they will have a ship’s counselor to help them through these
processes. (If there was no conflict between or within members of the crew,
the counselor would be unnecessary.)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> For example, one of the major conflicts of <i>Star Trek: First
Contact </i>was Captain Picard’s obsession with hurting the Borg that distorted his
judgment and behavior. It was internal
conflict, but it took a literary parallel to give him the perspective to see
it. But he did see it, and changed.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ngLWaKH5QrXvZR6BxJG40wyOHPTVwsSafATZKfT0C3rZ0MbcWWQeqIoTMIES38m6JOhmzKU1_sFCcPESZPQJCK9bw0bO__uAhh5VLgymAmHyd78G1LUG2GJqNppi93Z1DTKSE9IvaGB8VNCf_v4ubYSuTVli3mmw1Smn_s7AKTM20a3LLw4/s1200/307-laforge-engineering.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ngLWaKH5QrXvZR6BxJG40wyOHPTVwsSafATZKfT0C3rZ0MbcWWQeqIoTMIES38m6JOhmzKU1_sFCcPESZPQJCK9bw0bO__uAhh5VLgymAmHyd78G1LUG2GJqNppi93Z1DTKSE9IvaGB8VNCf_v4ubYSuTVli3mmw1Smn_s7AKTM20a3LLw4/s320/307-laforge-engineering.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> What’s necessary for these conflicts to be resolved is
self-respect and respecting others.
From the original series onward, the evident fact that people on Star
Trek treated each other with respect was one element that attracted fans who
did not see people respecting them or each other in their real lives. As Dave
Marinaccio discovered when he was researching his book <i>All I Really Need to
Know I Learned from Watching Star Trek</i>, this revelation actually changed
lives.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The TNG characters had a long history of respecting each
other so that they trusted each other absolutely, and that made it possible for
problems arising from divergent choices to be resolved in Picard. (Parenthetically,
had these characters not respected each other for seven years, I wonder if the
actors playing them would have become as close for as long as they did?)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhssV-tgi4UVcEUSd8tg2AqcAzfjkCuZ5G-UxcL5QTdEpPGM1cskAzyDpy-lcoNZECe1wRGavQAZHioCDD3L46qsWhcOXQXuIqTX2CfV0XTD9cMJKu_O02u6Ogsy2jbkJ4AmZWqIKB7Wx3vMcBt-DP7b2enrJYRmfBBY4Mt9pf-CpYb3DbZVvA/s1600/l-intro-1681903758.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="902" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhssV-tgi4UVcEUSd8tg2AqcAzfjkCuZ5G-UxcL5QTdEpPGM1cskAzyDpy-lcoNZECe1wRGavQAZHioCDD3L46qsWhcOXQXuIqTX2CfV0XTD9cMJKu_O02u6Ogsy2jbkJ4AmZWqIKB7Wx3vMcBt-DP7b2enrJYRmfBBY4Mt9pf-CpYb3DbZVvA/w400-h225/l-intro-1681903758.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> There was another reason for Star Trek characters to treat
each other with respect in the Roddenberry canon: they needed to work together
in service of a larger whole: the ship, Starfleet, the Federation and
ultimately all life in the galaxy. Even
aboard a ship of exploration and peace, the Enterprise crew had to guide their
actions according to the integrity of others and the welfare of the whole. That was their sworn priority.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> And this isn’t just a matter of math, of the needs of the
many. It’s about defining and then
defending the whole and its integrity—that which ultimately we are part of. In the fictional 23<sup>rd</sup> and 24<sup>th</sup>
and 25<sup>th</sup> centuries of starships and life among the stars, it is the
galaxy. For us in the 21<sup>st</sup>
century it is the Earth. We have the
power to help heal the Earth we have unknowingly been destroying. But now we know, even though the harm still
goes on, and we know it is self-destruction. At the same time, we learn something new every day from science or other branches of knowledge that it is the integrity of the whole that supports us. Addressing the global threat needs to be our priority.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRBQInSY_LSK1rFny9NkEmOEmxIsHDi6kJSHl7OLuXXIIKnUVzfO38iVxktcjdDTG2hPAbX3uQXqGNx2CNuSCflR1ZPliQoeZKfUxOqiUsL9ILL_ZUQfFhMnwm8O3KLkr-ThLWUEuES84V-_xmjpcl30Er0ncTgJh1WcUbmb5QY-LS9R_sfAQ/s1250/jupiter.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="521" data-original-width="1250" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRBQInSY_LSK1rFny9NkEmOEmxIsHDi6kJSHl7OLuXXIIKnUVzfO38iVxktcjdDTG2hPAbX3uQXqGNx2CNuSCflR1ZPliQoeZKfUxOqiUsL9ILL_ZUQfFhMnwm8O3KLkr-ThLWUEuES84V-_xmjpcl30Er0ncTgJh1WcUbmb5QY-LS9R_sfAQ/w400-h166/jupiter.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> The final episode of Picard3 had moments of adventure movie ebullience:
the reaction to Doctor Crusher’s sharpshooting, Data using the Force to find
the Borg target. But it was brilliant
also in showing the price these characters were willing to pay to defend the
whole.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Ever since the filmmakers of the 70s became old enough to be
parents (and to get divorced), defending the family became the
unquestioned prime motivation in movies, including science fiction. Several
major villains in Star Trek movies were avenging the deaths of their
wives. Yet Counselor Troi had to decide
to sacrifice her husband, Doctor Crusher her son. Picard’s journey had taken
him unexpectedly to find completion as a father, and he was willing to
sacrifice himself for that, but not at the cost of the whole. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAd25AsrV-ZQ9DZ-XnUChRKI6kmQgQtGEVRG5OV11mjP8wxlVUNBdvCjUL7_kdOYc6ACxT6BzAw718dKmAnJE9D_7fvcxpdnThdvHUnomq5zoBXbeOtxlW9wTATQNCmwcbWOnHC4hMlbjfJeAi_bkGLXnOxj_yJSi0r90JkI2avjmGTbul0eY/s1800/309-vox-bridge-10.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1800" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAd25AsrV-ZQ9DZ-XnUChRKI6kmQgQtGEVRG5OV11mjP8wxlVUNBdvCjUL7_kdOYc6ACxT6BzAw718dKmAnJE9D_7fvcxpdnThdvHUnomq5zoBXbeOtxlW9wTATQNCmwcbWOnHC4hMlbjfJeAi_bkGLXnOxj_yJSi0r90JkI2avjmGTbul0eY/s320/309-vox-bridge-10.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Saving the galaxy may be a kind of Star Trek cliché (“I take
it the odds are against us and the situation is grim,” said Nexus Kirk in
Generations,) a kind of cosmic MacGuffin.
But slowing things down to suggest the real costs and consequences
re-centers Star Trek on an element of what it is about and why it was
different. <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> At the same time, the story in this third series suggests
consequences of the Federation’s questionable past decisions, specifically from
the DS9 and Voyager eras. This series
confirmed that (as portrayed in post-9/11 Star Trek novels) the Federation
engaged in torture. I was glad to hear Picard say that the Dominion War was a "travesty." The consequences depicted here have their real world counterparts in the modern history of terrorism and war, as elsewhere in history. Even in the 90s, as the Star Trek saga started
to sprawl, its stories driven not by those who had seen war but who had seen a lot of war movies, it began to lose focus. The
overwhelmingly positive response to this season suggests that the TOS and
particularly the TNG era are still the heart and soul of Star Trek.</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5bxmKUsuKzQf-bJJvOw68F4h_TCwwX5lyvbQofBKjhhD2DylvR7GqrdDH_dJ27fpjuF14LWCjDi1GtWAeP1FPI1f03t9qwb8rszZ1Qd-jFRRmWgZIcFIGUnLH-crd8tX6f986iJFipnvYdUORcfMQ5D1-cv1lcuCFCWvHwTOeYe3KjAFA24Q/s1200/306-briefing-01.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5bxmKUsuKzQf-bJJvOw68F4h_TCwwX5lyvbQofBKjhhD2DylvR7GqrdDH_dJ27fpjuF14LWCjDi1GtWAeP1FPI1f03t9qwb8rszZ1Qd-jFRRmWgZIcFIGUnLH-crd8tX6f986iJFipnvYdUORcfMQ5D1-cv1lcuCFCWvHwTOeYe3KjAFA24Q/s320/306-briefing-01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>That Star Trek deals with our contemporary issues doesn't mean it replicates the contemporary world in one-to-one correspondences. Quite the opposite: it shows consequences, and it offers alternatives. Star Trek similarly can comment on war and conflict by illustrating the skills of peace and conflict resolution.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal">(However, a little sly commentary on our society is also part of the Trek tradition--and I wonder if there wasn't some of that in the ability of the Borg to turn the young into zombies by connecting them to a central control--maybe like a viral technology we already know, via the phones everyone bows to and holds up to their faces all the time? And that they needed the old people with their skepticism, individuality and old technology? Nothing that blatant, of course.)</p><p class="MsoNormal"> Critics (including some writers for Trek) complained that
the Roddenberry rules concerning conflict and human nature aren’t realistic,
perhaps forgetting that Star Trek posits faster than light travel to meet up
with dozens of alien civilizations comprised of people who look like us with
some added facial appliances, and are so similar that we can exchange recipes
and interbreed. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSc6S_IceLUUbbxb3dq680QZ5cDiLinjX1J7OJ62kXggtQbmtM_RMetszfbtTr8xnzbl5JOktVTLyhkMuJgFnB8ndlodYYlyuDHoAHKljxp0xNAToOQaPy1sVm3fdxlJhwqWt8PIWlRda168PO-VA80SMCrddpcIjW5QKXKc-b2KPghIv1d6M/s1800/309-vox-bridge-02.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1800" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSc6S_IceLUUbbxb3dq680QZ5cDiLinjX1J7OJ62kXggtQbmtM_RMetszfbtTr8xnzbl5JOktVTLyhkMuJgFnB8ndlodYYlyuDHoAHKljxp0xNAToOQaPy1sVm3fdxlJhwqWt8PIWlRda168PO-VA80SMCrddpcIjW5QKXKc-b2KPghIv1d6M/w400-h266/309-vox-bridge-02.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> Is all that more realistic than people using skills, heart and consciousness to solve problems? This is science
fiction—a believable branch of fantasy, wonder tales, allegory and myth that
operates on a different level to open minds to new possibilities—such as what a
more hopeful future might necessarily look like. <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> At this, no Star Trek has done better than The Next
Generation. Picard3 was less conceptual
than character-driven, but it supported the Star Trek vision through these
characters, and especially through the continuity as well as the changes in the
characters with history enacted over scores of stories and hundreds of
hours. Revisiting these characters as they are decades later, with their history, was unique. So far...</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-51429859126037953922022-12-11T17:44:00.007-08:002022-12-23T21:10:20.452-08:00R.I.P. 2022 Star Trek Family<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjawJ7_8z4FgHyWTusMJhXQ4Z_kqEoVFLT0UdV7-usZfvLou6qOTL317k4i4O8ckjDSb-Y8tegx6GC781299H3tZVZ8rkcmM2_9mIh3Z3ysVCt789UE9aWYX_R3LsKkA_aiufXadgVFPM2sz0bbPmK3se0067u67ca98-hd-3MiG3kzyP6t9-E/s1440/balanceofterrorhd173.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1440" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjawJ7_8z4FgHyWTusMJhXQ4Z_kqEoVFLT0UdV7-usZfvLou6qOTL317k4i4O8ckjDSb-Y8tegx6GC781299H3tZVZ8rkcmM2_9mIh3Z3ysVCt789UE9aWYX_R3LsKkA_aiufXadgVFPM2sz0bbPmK3se0067u67ca98-hd-3MiG3kzyP6t9-E/w400-h300/balanceofterrorhd173.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Star Trek lost one of its brightest stars in 2022. I wrote about <b>Nichelle Nichols</b> <a href="http://soulofstartrek.blogspot.com/2022/08/nichelle-nichols-portrait-of-lady.html">here</a>.<p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikbLECL_o5Hurgm3J9e8cT2Xk68XS6jSw5PG2EqxJBFda4_H2QO-7vLaKlgto6bLMfcgcZ6xq-okpy5t1tv9XLFOHCM8mt2wvlW33uBC-CTI2H30HSefWXNna01s32G6ituqCS9ga0paUrBcXTrDN4KRLfH5IzoL0wmz_j6C2SApnq3kGgVsk/s1920/tuchd0542.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="826" data-original-width="1920" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikbLECL_o5Hurgm3J9e8cT2Xk68XS6jSw5PG2EqxJBFda4_H2QO-7vLaKlgto6bLMfcgcZ6xq-okpy5t1tv9XLFOHCM8mt2wvlW33uBC-CTI2H30HSefWXNna01s32G6ituqCS9ga0paUrBcXTrDN4KRLfH5IzoL0wmz_j6C2SApnq3kGgVsk/w400-h173/tuchd0542.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />In a stellar career, British actor <b>David Warner</b> appeared on screen in two Star Trek movies (notably as Chancellor Gorkon in Star Trek VI) and one memorable episode of TNG. He also appeared in a 2013 episode of Doctor Who, and as a voice actor, played roles in various Star Trek, Doctor Who (playing the Doctor) and Star Wars audio productions and games, and numerous other franchise, as well as other science fiction (especially playing Jack the Ripper in Nicholas Meyer's <i>Time After Time</i>) and dramatic roles. He was an accomplished stage actor, and his 1965 <i>Hamlet</i> is still considered the definitive Hamlet of his generation. <p></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivEzvZJPUveT1B-GQv47SS7NIEhWlHIYcR1JJm0UHoLcrWRC8XssKj7xT-iFoWnQpQ2ABgnOtta68GO8tg6Yg28A480WI46ziEihM2wO1C6h4DO9MNyVY0m8c9g5ksNqsxhaLRl8G85VCtVt1R3sIzy1IpUuHq_6kqEdPjpQnTSbbeKd82WYs/s1440/wherenomanhasgonebeforehd066.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1440" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivEzvZJPUveT1B-GQv47SS7NIEhWlHIYcR1JJm0UHoLcrWRC8XssKj7xT-iFoWnQpQ2ABgnOtta68GO8tg6Yg28A480WI46ziEihM2wO1C6h4DO9MNyVY0m8c9g5ksNqsxhaLRl8G85VCtVt1R3sIzy1IpUuHq_6kqEdPjpQnTSbbeKd82WYs/s320/wherenomanhasgonebeforehd066.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></div><b>Sally Kellerman</b> was a guest star in the second Star Trek pilot, which then became an episode in its first season, "Where No Man Has Gone Before." She was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in the film M*A*S*H.<p></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcdf9sOsShvih76zmbi3BbOJpsGidMMhxC5K_GXXdDLn0IIRhmU_u72ClQ2zkA4vAFKOMaxdvk_L9-m5L93lyCl5asLdHWLf11R4k6z9mO8IWmIlwOIZgBlOuVKdvkmcYf5gJyE9TGFznVk9RaitSjaCscLTlh2gUA1bCFa-5TVCllAvgHR4E/s973/st2-twok-dc-2151.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="806" data-original-width="973" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcdf9sOsShvih76zmbi3BbOJpsGidMMhxC5K_GXXdDLn0IIRhmU_u72ClQ2zkA4vAFKOMaxdvk_L9-m5L93lyCl5asLdHWLf11R4k6z9mO8IWmIlwOIZgBlOuVKdvkmcYf5gJyE9TGFznVk9RaitSjaCscLTlh2gUA1bCFa-5TVCllAvgHR4E/s320/st2-twok-dc-2151.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></div><b>Kirstie Alley</b> played Vulcan Lt. Saavik in <i>Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.</i> She had an Emmy-winning career on television as well as roles in feature films.<p></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4xyEVzKXStHR1SysVYfxrfR5xNByjmyiMw78kU8CX8okjzZ0wGWx7zA2jgtSaondHss9crJggPfW4E0IauU6Q_aFwEvf-OF3PBbTQEqUHJ5YbUWnDb7u4tXMrpt76UX57Q155EAa-HkXJCD2qqRP2FKrbtwbi5ztxre_IqKYaxUEF1P9xXWs/s1032/ds9-documentary-080.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1032" data-original-width="837" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4xyEVzKXStHR1SysVYfxrfR5xNByjmyiMw78kU8CX8okjzZ0wGWx7zA2jgtSaondHss9crJggPfW4E0IauU6Q_aFwEvf-OF3PBbTQEqUHJ5YbUWnDb7u4tXMrpt76UX57Q155EAa-HkXJCD2qqRP2FKrbtwbi5ztxre_IqKYaxUEF1P9xXWs/s320/ds9-documentary-080.jpg" width="260" /></a></b></div><b>Louise Fletcher</b> played Bajoran religious leader Kai Winn Adani in a number of later episodes of Deep Space Nine. She won an Academy Award for her performance in <i>One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest</i>, and was nominated for two Emmy awards for her work in the TV series Picket Fences. <p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_OOb9XBIyNp4Mu310L4ioefGab2vrRWDlFVotAHKGRw600QDyw0XYkKT3bwm-Y3qZaMqROV7HL4lMJb-9YiOFndSKTgiY_HjYFTZyJBN1Ej8RQj762mv2fwMiw_gVaxw8y_NXQ9-_2ji115AJCyO_9coAEPhpNaWkZLGp9a_GTfjp3GRagto/s1436/homeward-hd-048.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1436" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_OOb9XBIyNp4Mu310L4ioefGab2vrRWDlFVotAHKGRw600QDyw0XYkKT3bwm-Y3qZaMqROV7HL4lMJb-9YiOFndSKTgiY_HjYFTZyJBN1Ej8RQj762mv2fwMiw_gVaxw8y_NXQ9-_2ji115AJCyO_9coAEPhpNaWkZLGp9a_GTfjp3GRagto/s320/homeward-hd-048.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Prominent movie actor and award-winning stage actor <b>Paul Sorvino</b> appeared in a 7th season episode of TNG, "Homeward" as Worf's brother Nikolai.<p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwlg1j2x03ist2rIzjh0P3-1RBGa7eeZInK_xkChi594jDVJhCzroq0_QorqEILU0lb1K9RPuVY7R_bQsxlSITpgC7qBsauMV9xzLwKdYsEN7ngjuL2bpDLt-nAvTpKyqLoDf9M1VV5GWoCW2uqO29Dg0rFmcJoIaQLlxsy5rk39GSpdGf5mw/s419/marsha-hunt-too-short-a-seasonj.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="419" data-original-width="370" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwlg1j2x03ist2rIzjh0P3-1RBGa7eeZInK_xkChi594jDVJhCzroq0_QorqEILU0lb1K9RPuVY7R_bQsxlSITpgC7qBsauMV9xzLwKdYsEN7ngjuL2bpDLt-nAvTpKyqLoDf9M1VV5GWoCW2uqO29Dg0rFmcJoIaQLlxsy5rk39GSpdGf5mw/s320/marsha-hunt-too-short-a-seasonj.jpg" width="283" /></a></div><br />At the age of 104, <b>Marsha Hunt</b> was the oldest of the Star Trek actors to pass away in 2022. After a Hollywood career beginning in the late 1930s, and a period sidelined by the Hollywood Blacklist in the 1950s, she appeared in one episode of TNG, "Too Short A Season." <p></p><p><b>Douglas Trumbull</b> was a pioneer genius in visual effects, adding <i>Star Trek: The Motion Picture</i> to his innovative work on <i>2001: A Space Odyssey</i> and <i>Close Encounters of the Third Kind, </i>and many more. He also directed movies, including the cult classic<i> Silent Running</i>.</p><p><b>Harold Livingston</b> was the credited screenwriter for ST: TMP. He had previously worked on the Star Trek: Phase Two series that was never made, in favor of the Motion Picture. <b>Tony Dow</b>, famous for portraying Wally Cleaver on TV, directed an episode of DS9. Esteemed science fiction writer<b> Greg Bear </b>wrote a series of Star Trek novels. Among his many novels is the s/f classic <i>Darwin's Radio</i>. Veteran and multiple Emmy Award-winning director <b>Marvin Chomsky</b> directed a Star Trek episode. Although he never acted in Star Trek, <b>Ray Boyle</b> appeared in the 1952 movie serial<i> Zombies of the Stratosphere </i>with Leonard Nimoy. His many subsequent TV roles included parts in Captain Video and numerous westerns. He was 98.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEzIxE_G1vL-g_0wxzldFTUTXRpieS99fRPM1M1LgemBnYKguoPNvgQK3ARnNqShFpTW3rlvIHBGbn3kSXG3YwOYwcCdN9P29b8jRULbCm7XL15ZYgTIHK6HP0C3O2LYQU2_981oBhZeS2kpRRsZwW8-JW-W-2ruptAYZPNDPPHAZt-gHA7io/s1436/theempathhd0321.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1436" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEzIxE_G1vL-g_0wxzldFTUTXRpieS99fRPM1M1LgemBnYKguoPNvgQK3ARnNqShFpTW3rlvIHBGbn3kSXG3YwOYwcCdN9P29b8jRULbCm7XL15ZYgTIHK6HP0C3O2LYQU2_981oBhZeS2kpRRsZwW8-JW-W-2ruptAYZPNDPPHAZt-gHA7io/s320/theempathhd0321.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kathyrn Hayes as "The Empath" TOS </td></tr></tbody></table>Among the actors and others from the Star Trek family who died in 2022: Brad William Henke, Tim McCormack, Ralph Maurer, Eric Whitmore, Laurel Goodwin, Kirk Bailey, Michael Ryan, Kathyrn Hayes, Valora Noland, Estelle Harris, Nehemiah Persoff, James Bama, David Birney, Neal Adams, Michael G. Hagerty, Marvin Hicks, Robert Brown, Fabio Passaro, Leslie Jordan, Andrew Prine, William Knight, John Aniston, Maggie Thrett,<p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /> </p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhgw63Z1JTE5ObLlHwsbPFWR3BpQ3H3mRLkETKvoXgbAxaFkh6xtRBKbV0wCVYdDYefEsAQHQUJFEBmrFaOPB6EPUNbLYhOPA-jKIHiyzAq6041g-ysVV9bVFMm-sEHRxsundgOI8m3SDnBberCbuH0Sc-kHu0oh6xy_m9WtJq3lw72wPeVAs/s1436/times-arrow-part-ii-hd-043.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1436" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhgw63Z1JTE5ObLlHwsbPFWR3BpQ3H3mRLkETKvoXgbAxaFkh6xtRBKbV0wCVYdDYefEsAQHQUJFEBmrFaOPB6EPUNbLYhOPA-jKIHiyzAq6041g-ysVV9bVFMm-sEHRxsundgOI8m3SDnBberCbuH0Sc-kHu0oh6xy_m9WtJq3lw72wPeVAs/w200-h151/times-arrow-part-ii-hd-043.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pamela Kosh TNG</td></tr></tbody></table>Pamela Kosh, Gary Bullock, Kenneth Welsh, George Perez, Jack Kehler, Gregory Jein, Michael Braveheart, Leon Harris, Webster Whitney, Walter Soo Hoo, Dorothy Duden, Mary Mara, Mike Reynolds, Gregory Itzin, Neil Vipond, Gene Le Bell, Wayne Grace, Amanda Mackey Johnson, visual effects artist Richard Miller.<p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK1CJsUwoi9iFzk-H_GeCum-p4940iWtbcVPo0AEfQmekAewMN1RsYDpBNngIsDH-Hx9702OtZGj4LoT_fiZz5SPjCo5XQtWP-Ta6R_b8XvQIwtpSf0elZRT9dVDTXRGuDdlwwcJCbSEhv3SxcvCPWn3WtYWdJs9W5xZ5kYXFPYRldaKJyVmE/s640/bernard2.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="604" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK1CJsUwoi9iFzk-H_GeCum-p4940iWtbcVPo0AEfQmekAewMN1RsYDpBNngIsDH-Hx9702OtZGj4LoT_fiZz5SPjCo5XQtWP-Ta6R_b8XvQIwtpSf0elZRT9dVDTXRGuDdlwwcJCbSEhv3SxcvCPWn3WtYWdJs9W5xZ5kYXFPYRldaKJyVmE/w378-h400/bernard2.png" width="378" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bernard Cribbins with David Tenant</td></tr></tbody></table><br />The <i>Doctor Who</i> family lost veteran and much beloved comic actor <b>Bernard Cribbins</b>, who had a featured role opposite David Tenant and Catherine Tate in series 4 and the Tenant specials, recently voted by fans as the best season of revived (21st century) Doctor Who. Cribbins apparently reprised the part for next year's 60th anniversary season, though it's not known if his performance will appear. He was 93.<p></p><p>Other members of the <i>Doctor Who</i> family who died in 2022 included writer Henry Lincoln (the last surviving writer of the 1960s seasons), designer Spencer Chapman, and BBC vision mixer Shirley Coward who devised the original regeneration effect. Also actors David Warner (who not only appeared in a Matt Smith TV episode but played the Doctor in audio dramas), Jeremy Young, Ann Davies, Sonny Caldinez, June Brown, Lynda Baron, Jane Sherwin and Stewart Bevan. </p><p>May they rest in peace. Their work lives on.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-61671045275353916382022-10-09T01:41:00.006-07:002022-10-09T03:06:14.480-07:00Star Trek's Greatest Failure<p><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguMKv4jj11nZB8pGsHjPux07M1SxQksxhTC0aGero7_LuVrvsf6x4YbVB4vTcZMoCtmtoTL6RuVW_b25upxNg4mUAxjdOzQ7uSj6rB18S-HM73rUZ5gweXg06_89OznUzrHCvx4RPc9LFci1T4gSJHWOv0U9uAABNBBl5r-nd4bb6WnLnviRI/s740/cli01.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="740" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguMKv4jj11nZB8pGsHjPux07M1SxQksxhTC0aGero7_LuVrvsf6x4YbVB4vTcZMoCtmtoTL6RuVW_b25upxNg4mUAxjdOzQ7uSj6rB18S-HM73rUZ5gweXg06_89OznUzrHCvx4RPc9LFci1T4gSJHWOv0U9uAABNBBl5r-nd4bb6WnLnviRI/w400-h205/cli01.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>As the hype for the new season of various Star Trek TV shows
accelerates, I don’t want to let the last season pass without comment,
particularly what I regard as the greatest failure of the year, which may well
turn out to be Star Trek's greatest failure, period.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The first season of <i>Star Trek: Strange New Worlds</i> was in most
respects an invigorating triumph. The
second season of <i>Star Trek: Picard</i> featured wonderful acting, production
and scene writing and dialogue. But
both series involved the 21<sup>st</sup> century on Earth, to a lesser or
greater extent. Both had the
opportunity to add relevant information to the little that has been established
about this century. The importance of
what they said or didn’t say happens to be greater than ever, for the simple
fact that we are living on Earth in the 21<sup>st</sup> century. These programs are being made and exhibited
in that 21<sup>st</sup> century. And we face problems that threaten our present and the future.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> In the all-important opening episode of Strange New Worlds,
Captain Pike tried to dissuade the citizens of an alien culture from using
weapons of mass destruction on a catastrophic level. He did so by illustrating
a brief history of Earth’s 21<sup>st</sup> century. Pike mentions the Eugenics War and the horrific destruction
of World War III, both part of the established “future history” of the Star
Trek universe. But he began by referring to the “second Civil War” breaking out
(presumably in the U.S.), accompanied by images of the actual assault on
the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
This was new, bold and extremely relevant.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFWeEZ6eY8vWa6B3Lf8BGuyJQ6xYMu5RPXP7aKUas4vmkxOdh5doXj_gNUIebm-_B3sQeeUdPWUw-wVUsFXDoykq7KnoieGzXebmPKP0xpL2icTU-c3TrtpVfJi9SyELfrGCQcwDtVV8s3ROGoVkv02wRnKTCOKfanArPm-18iIPXQ9IId7bQ/s275/cli03.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFWeEZ6eY8vWa6B3Lf8BGuyJQ6xYMu5RPXP7aKUas4vmkxOdh5doXj_gNUIebm-_B3sQeeUdPWUw-wVUsFXDoykq7KnoieGzXebmPKP0xpL2icTU-c3TrtpVfJi9SyELfrGCQcwDtVV8s3ROGoVkv02wRnKTCOKfanArPm-18iIPXQ9IId7bQ/s1600/cli03.jpg" width="275" /></a></div> Yet in even a brief catalog of challenges to the Earth in
the 21<sup>st</sup> century, he did not mention the climate crisis—a stunning
omission, particularly after the obvious effects the world has suffered in
recent years. There is little doubt that climate distortion and disruption will
be the single most consequential factor in the lives of human beings, at least
by the second half of this century.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Moreover, if there is a World War III, effects of climate
distortion are likely to be principal causes.
For at least the past decade, the Pentagon has regarded the climate
crisis as the greatest security threat on the planet. A committee that included civilian experts published a report
saying so.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Climate distortion effects don’t just constitute a potential
threat to the peace, but is already a major factor in ongoing wars (including
in Ukraine) and conflicts (including civil wars and political disturbances) of
the recent past. Droughts, lack of food, and mass migrations resulting from
climate distortions have been and are major factors in warfare in Africa and
elsewhere. These are growing factors in
political around the world, especially as they contribute to the hostilities
surrounding immigration in many countries. They play a role in Russia’s invasion
of Ukraine, with its food and energy resources, just as the climate crisis underlies anxieties reflected in U.S. political warfare.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimHH3dwKbg_brg_OKK6cSy9LkPWioRqod911_y9Qb4UKNZDvcm_MgNVQIYT1lwsNBPfk1ztK-LQ8g8yXN9uHquRXrJAm-m0VJeZsxv64IK4ZAEB5mtQkdUrLM47rP2iXTHmbj6pWA_SO4HmJnNqN1UvJTuLxhq6pVhf_vAz2YbSdW2CwuudEY/s275/cli02.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimHH3dwKbg_brg_OKK6cSy9LkPWioRqod911_y9Qb4UKNZDvcm_MgNVQIYT1lwsNBPfk1ztK-LQ8g8yXN9uHquRXrJAm-m0VJeZsxv64IK4ZAEB5mtQkdUrLM47rP2iXTHmbj6pWA_SO4HmJnNqN1UvJTuLxhq6pVhf_vAz2YbSdW2CwuudEY/s1600/cli02.jpg" width="275" /></a></div> Put simply, climate
distortion is the most likely potential cause of a World War III. Yet we remain willfully blind to this
element of the crisis, let alone the more obvious violence of weather and
growing tragedies resulting from climate distortion, such as the poisoning of
the oceans and climate’s contributions to onrushing extinctions. Star Trek had an opportunity to at least
show an unmet climate crisis as the threat that it is. Given Trek’s credibility
and its vast popular audience, it might have brought this home.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <i>Strange New Worlds</i> presented the 21<sup>st</sup> century
only in a few minutes of images. But <i>Star Trek: Picard</i> spent a major part of its
second season in the 21<sup>st</sup> century. Though some climate distortion effects were
in the background, the climate crisis was never directly referenced.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> In this mystifying omission, Star Trek is hardly alone.<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/oct/04/tv-shows-movies-climate-crisis">According</a> to a recent survey, less that 3% of TV shows and films shown between
2016 and 2020 mentioned the climate crisis, or any of the key words associated
with it. Whether it is perceived corporate pressure or squeamishness in the
writers room, our storytellers are sticking their heads in the increasingly hot
sand.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Star Trek’s own
tradition of identifying crucial issues in its stories holds this saga to a
higher standard. Star Trek continues to
champion diversity, individuality within community, service and ethical
behavior. But it has failed to address
a vital issue that we in the audience, approaching the end of the first quarter
of the 21<sup>st</sup> century, are experiencing through violent storms,
intense firestorms, more extreme and longer heat waves, persistent droughts,
depleted wildlife, rising sea level and other less obvious strains and manifestations. It gave
itself the opportunity to do so by revisiting the 21<sup>st</sup> century. It
failed to do so. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTHpiAjRmi6T4KLcrlOPkyq-MIESAgB_cmR-WC9LYKxPCt_g1aW1yQdjbSVRp_WasZgIv4ID89wduWV6vYBdocsAzD284ok-5XOIR_f3e-Lv8azGV9Ljc1ki1lTunw92X101DvNFiUei7WUOaohjr4JS3i3WBXi3qTslxgPGyX_-cL97H6wFg/s1200/cli04.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTHpiAjRmi6T4KLcrlOPkyq-MIESAgB_cmR-WC9LYKxPCt_g1aW1yQdjbSVRp_WasZgIv4ID89wduWV6vYBdocsAzD284ok-5XOIR_f3e-Lv8azGV9Ljc1ki1lTunw92X101DvNFiUei7WUOaohjr4JS3i3WBXi3qTslxgPGyX_-cL97H6wFg/s320/cli04.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Some sort of environmental crisis is apparently behind the
action in <i>Star Trek: Picard’s</i> 21<sup>st</sup> century, though Picard’s
mission is to see that a spaceship bound for the moon Europa succeeds, piloted by a
Picard ancestor. When Picard returns to
his present (2401, the beginning of the 25<sup>th</sup> century), he learns
from Guinan that an alien microbe discovered on this voyage was later developed
to save Earth’s oceans. This is as
close as the narrative gets to addressing 21<sup>st</sup> century environmental
crises, though its “happily-ever-after” feeling neglects to deal with the
otherwise established fact that World War III begins shortly after that Europa
mission.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Apart from suggesting another technological miracle that
functions as a deus ex machina to save humanity, the climate crisis and the
ongoing mass extinction event are not seriously addressed. They aren’t even named. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Yet it is increasingly clear that unless the 21<sup>st</sup>
century successfully addresses the causes and effects of the climate crisis, as
well as the related mass extinction event, it is unlikely that our civilization
will have a future.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxdx8hOW5DmXsPmDF0_MIiZfCOoHYNj-0fRfWse9UUIdeO2WnXIdtR5PRcM67TxN7_1DjgPxO2oSj-GvAYKw1CAiXOjl3j9Ac8z4j4EYmrYPXfQWn_C9YziHxRHPCSa67f9d2v39ZRL9iRdAhN0gxyu-zC7uXfV_fLncN6vNuhDJIYqzIppgA/s269/cli05.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="187" data-original-width="269" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxdx8hOW5DmXsPmDF0_MIiZfCOoHYNj-0fRfWse9UUIdeO2WnXIdtR5PRcM67TxN7_1DjgPxO2oSj-GvAYKw1CAiXOjl3j9Ac8z4j4EYmrYPXfQWn_C9YziHxRHPCSa67f9d2v39ZRL9iRdAhN0gxyu-zC7uXfV_fLncN6vNuhDJIYqzIppgA/s1600/cli05.jpg" width="269" /></a></div> Other TV shows and movies have begun to incorporate climate
crisis issues, and there are apparently some
in development or slated for the near future that do address the climate
crisis future. Such stories have power to reach people emotionally, to connect them (surveys show that Americans feel their climate crisis concerns are not shared as widely as they are) and to lead to action, to motivate career choices and commitments by the young (as Star Trek has often done.) With its emphasis on a diversity of minds and hearts working
together to solve problems, and because of its tradition of modeling a better
future that is part of its soul, Star Trek would seem to be a natural storytelling universe in which to
address the climate crisis.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Star Trek has dealt with important issues through metaphor and allegory (arguably including the climate crisis, in the TNG episode "Force of Nature"), but these Star Trek shows this past season gave themselves the golden opportunity to potentially make a difference in the real world by dealing with these transcendent realities of our 21st century as they threaten the future. They failed to make it so. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-77795789455109127432022-08-09T22:59:00.001-07:002022-08-09T23:14:25.935-07:00Nichelle Nichols: Portrait of a Lady<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqdabTopeYHyBx3rP5p1FYa0oGJEPQSXqEdKI13JQaIEuUytf2VV6utOm-63yYfofUwJLgOt2gCfctgxXVTbQv1HyTTFJdI-0z-cjTs4hV_RDeXRFZQ1tOiIpSl_cFgeCqfIUuhtLXTGcFRibyggK41f6yJglKdecApOe8kimrZcG-Q-sZI_A/s1024/Nichelle_Nichols_LEGO-1024x699.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="699" data-original-width="1024" height="436" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqdabTopeYHyBx3rP5p1FYa0oGJEPQSXqEdKI13JQaIEuUytf2VV6utOm-63yYfofUwJLgOt2gCfctgxXVTbQv1HyTTFJdI-0z-cjTs4hV_RDeXRFZQ1tOiIpSl_cFgeCqfIUuhtLXTGcFRibyggK41f6yJglKdecApOe8kimrZcG-Q-sZI_A/w640-h436/Nichelle_Nichols_LEGO-1024x699.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br />I first met Nichelle Nichols at what’s become known as the
Farewell Scotty convention in Los Angeles in 2004, when I was writing a story
about Star Trek for the New York Times. I believe I was the only reporter at
the Saturday night formal dinner, seated with several Star Trek fans at a table
near the front, and the area in front of the dais where distinguished guests
would dine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The lighting in that area
was dim, so I could not distinguish all the figures whose backs were to us, but
I did see Nichelle Nichols arrive and sit at one end of the table nearest to
me.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> So in a lull before serving began, I approached that side of
the table. I quietly introduced myself
to her, so she might recognize me in the hubbub of the convention when I would
seek to briefly interview her. I was
ready to duck back to my table when she said, “Let me introduce <i>you</i> to
someone.” That someone was Neil
Armstrong, the main speaker that night. I hadn’t even seen him when he popped
up out of the darkness near the other end of the table, and suddenly I was
shaking hands with the first human being to touch another world.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> I’ve often wondered why she did this, what prompted her to
instantly, spontaneously perform this act of grace that included introducing me
by name, even though she had only heard it once. It was a moment of singular generosity and thoughtfulness. It was the act of a singular lady. <b><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYch-Gpm7Zj0zBRcvQNeL2wYcLCK-7JcOEyOClwDYYMfEts-VR5KfCL4AaypDDJPmTitHhp_5RK6gvDKzx0RjFOjzsf4Ja7scMSmgcUCCUaEfeYrHV3yN0bHjtCdeXAo3sOZjG1EN_ZZhXifp4uw6lKj_O3yRsWYfm6dRuypDzcDayclTZmR0/s718/1388656597.0.x.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="718" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYch-Gpm7Zj0zBRcvQNeL2wYcLCK-7JcOEyOClwDYYMfEts-VR5KfCL4AaypDDJPmTitHhp_5RK6gvDKzx0RjFOjzsf4Ja7scMSmgcUCCUaEfeYrHV3yN0bHjtCdeXAo3sOZjG1EN_ZZhXifp4uw6lKj_O3yRsWYfm6dRuypDzcDayclTZmR0/s320/1388656597.0.x.jpg" width="214" /></a></span></b></div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">S</span></b>he was Uhura, and (as asserted in the title of her
autobiography), she was beyond Uhura.
Her story as she told it in her book is a very American story. The heritage within her included African
American, European White (a grandfather) and Native American (her mother was
half Cherokee.) She grew up in
Robbins, Illinois, a town founded in the late 19<sup>th</sup> century by Henry
E. Robbins, who purchased land some 30 miles from Chicago from disappointed
speculators, and began selling lots and homes to Black and mixed race families,
otherwise shut out of home ownership solely because they weren’t White (Robbins
was himself a White southerner.) That’s
why from that day to this, Robbins has always had a Black mayor.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"> In the 1930s, that mayor was Nichelle’s father. It was in the era that Al Capone and other
mobsters fought and ruled in Chicago over the liquor trade that Prohibition
made illegal, and gave Chicago an international image that lasted well beyond
that decade. This led to a situation
that begins <i>Beyond Uhura</i>, in which, just months before Nichelle’s birth,
her mother held a gun on Capone’s brother in her parlor. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTZV4tzzD6sjL9DTl6kJu5PoxrzrlKmgOoAiz1DrgdrVcR6-I4j7-rkYsl0Hsaai4ETNBKCHs_VHAMqpGm3Qip7xdo3R483GXf7ZcI5bqyPfQnOp3eTnf7puA5egopwf-E-kU7Aaa1FebrIA6NmtIvEVDsEmGYjDLiNrKyNTmhbR14GQUxEiQ/s789/712ca381fc94d227eff2b3b61dcc4372.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="789" data-original-width="526" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTZV4tzzD6sjL9DTl6kJu5PoxrzrlKmgOoAiz1DrgdrVcR6-I4j7-rkYsl0Hsaai4ETNBKCHs_VHAMqpGm3Qip7xdo3R483GXf7ZcI5bqyPfQnOp3eTnf7puA5egopwf-E-kU7Aaa1FebrIA6NmtIvEVDsEmGYjDLiNrKyNTmhbR14GQUxEiQ/s320/712ca381fc94d227eff2b3b61dcc4372.png" width="213" /></a></div>But mostly her childhood was idyllic, full of art and books,
though her mother was troubled by a psychic gift for precognition. Nichelle loved to sing and dance, and after
rigorous local training in early adolescence, she became the first Black dancer
to be accepted into the Chicago Ballet academy. But after two years of training to become a ballerina, she
wandered into a class of Afro-Cuban dancers, and quickly converted. This soon led to her first professional
appearances.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> But there were difficult times. A failed early marriage left her a single mother with a young son
to support. She became a popular night spot singer and entertainer, which at
times involved her with organized crime figures who for decades either owned or
controlled many clubs. Once on tour in
the 1950s she was brutally refused a hotel room because of her race (not in the
deep South but in Utah.) In another incident, a prominent citizen in the town
where she performed sexually assaulted her, and left her alone overnight in an
isolated cabin in the woods. But she
was not intimidated: she reported him to the police and returned to testify at
his trial, where he was convicted and sentenced to prison. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbCKZ0I2ZeqjkUOoCt3Y6qHyeS-YfHDqeJXgR8VgqZIlkRjFxs8sBGnm9HdIU3T8bRMZe9EMAyQvAu5Aa6Vm_sdaNigZvBNeE9kM2S0g27koGBzzCXgIun0NIo8SbdxhbcRSpWeA5R-YllTGTKOzx7KaPWIMNnGoCxCkPrlL49pWq3XP0aeD0/s1500/image.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbCKZ0I2ZeqjkUOoCt3Y6qHyeS-YfHDqeJXgR8VgqZIlkRjFxs8sBGnm9HdIU3T8bRMZe9EMAyQvAu5Aa6Vm_sdaNigZvBNeE9kM2S0g27koGBzzCXgIun0NIo8SbdxhbcRSpWeA5R-YllTGTKOzx7KaPWIMNnGoCxCkPrlL49pWq3XP0aeD0/s320/image.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>The brief summaries of her life and career that have
appeared since her death often leave out important details.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">She not only sang with the Duke Ellington
band—Duke himself commissioned her to choreograph and perform in an Ellington
dance suite, in addition to later featuring her as a singer.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">Years later, she not only acted in a
triumphant Los Angeles premiere production of James Baldwin’s first play, she
essentially produced it for the theatre company she started with her partner,
actor and director Frank Silvera. That production went on to succeed on
Broadway.</span></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> When more years
later, she created a one-woman show in which she sang new songs in the style of
past greats, she didn’t have to research them through old records and film
clips. She’d known many of them and
heard them perform, including Josephine Baker, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald
and Lena Horne. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> A small part in the movie of <i>Porgy and Bess</i> made her
known to Sammy Davis, Jr. (with whom she had a sort of romance), Sidney
Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge and her dancing partner, Maya Angelou, whose fame
was to come later as one of the great writers of the age. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHW9ScOA6JDpAkZJ_EhuwYXmREwy1sxcDeH_0gdBg2XwdwFPC5qVyddzqUXgik3Buq9Ml5eCUJPV38UaFmmknALeMTIM9SywJ2VQ6XtWA6IqM5ogPf_wa6guwY_7SxLxUNY9CYv6ugaRIEeR33x3rqCflgjHNRw753KM9n0eJaIJok-Wj4cjA/s400/nichelle-nichols-b-meredith-rare-orig-theater_1_5fb112d1d54d41eaef4d2c9e16f9e761.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="329" data-original-width="400" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHW9ScOA6JDpAkZJ_EhuwYXmREwy1sxcDeH_0gdBg2XwdwFPC5qVyddzqUXgik3Buq9Ml5eCUJPV38UaFmmknALeMTIM9SywJ2VQ6XtWA6IqM5ogPf_wa6guwY_7SxLxUNY9CYv6ugaRIEeR33x3rqCflgjHNRw753KM9n0eJaIJok-Wj4cjA/w200-h164/nichelle-nichols-b-meredith-rare-orig-theater_1_5fb112d1d54d41eaef4d2c9e16f9e761.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>She costarred in an ill-fated Broadway show with Burgess
Meredith, and was a hit in her debut as a singer at New York’s Blue Angel.
Through Frank’s theatre and film work, Nichelle came to know many other
luminaries, including Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda and Tony Bennett. But hobnobbing with the stars didn’t stop
racism from being a fact of life and occasionally surfaced in a blatant way, as
when she and Frank were refused residence in a house they had rented in
Manhattan when the caretaker saw Nichelle.
Sexism of the most Hollywood sort also came into play, when she lost a
lucrative contract with MGM because sleeping with an executive was required. <p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKQz7yG-LIWn4Na-vpMk_aMhj5aQ0v5NAPVAssox8GuZHHxlJTDoJ4YmJn1dLl1npABN_u3XLh3johhcQyS0Nk-ip-Y7UCb27dprXGfEJYpii8OWCkyyktnczDYBXvNSO54kcO-PAbWR_VsHiB7_PeL1kdEzh5h3jM2I7hMfmcssqkWUXoUjQ/s1033/lt.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="733" data-original-width="1033" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKQz7yG-LIWn4Na-vpMk_aMhj5aQ0v5NAPVAssox8GuZHHxlJTDoJ4YmJn1dLl1npABN_u3XLh3johhcQyS0Nk-ip-Y7UCb27dprXGfEJYpii8OWCkyyktnczDYBXvNSO54kcO-PAbWR_VsHiB7_PeL1kdEzh5h3jM2I7hMfmcssqkWUXoUjQ/s320/lt.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Then in 1963, Frank asked her to do an acting scene with one
of his students, Don Marshall. Another
student named Joe D’Agosta was so impressed that he told his employers at a
television production company about them. The executives watched Nichelle and
Marshall do the scene (from Arthur Miller’s <i>A View From the Bridge</i>—a
title that would soon take on different meaning), and hired them both. It was for an episode of the TV series <i>The
Lieutenant</i>, produced by Gene Roddenberry.
D’Agosta would become the casting director for <i>Star Trek</i>.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> With <i>Star Trek</i>, she would become probably only the third
Black woman featured in a continuing non-stereotyped dramatic role in series television.
(The first two played the same social worker-- a very young Cicely Tyson, with
Diana Sands substituting for one episode-- in the short-lived but significant
social drama <i>East Side West Side</i> in 1963, starring George C. Scott.)
Nichelle Nichols’ presence was more prominent, but still…</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheHwUOYozp1C9N7Y342IhxwPzKACtMGrmEyX7Hr-sLjQ0kaPZCf5V75kF1Pz1tYKxuQcrEEjSLCn4gkY01uHMUkN07O6151uGFSlqzhcxd9O-Y9558dqUCHCT6pDmrLgbOfTOL5lyaLfKlQj0mt4pyvjspRtUH7aNKa1KAVK9hFP8RTSS4NRo/s1024/13498604414055-1024x768.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheHwUOYozp1C9N7Y342IhxwPzKACtMGrmEyX7Hr-sLjQ0kaPZCf5V75kF1Pz1tYKxuQcrEEjSLCn4gkY01uHMUkN07O6151uGFSlqzhcxd9O-Y9558dqUCHCT6pDmrLgbOfTOL5lyaLfKlQj0mt4pyvjspRtUH7aNKa1KAVK9hFP8RTSS4NRo/w400-h300/13498604414055-1024x768.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> With prodigious talents expressed on stage and screen,
Nichelle Nichols lasting fame results mostly from what must be described as a
relatively small role. For three years she had to get up in the middle of the
night to appear on set, where typically she would sit in one place, and say and
do very little. Given her skills and
experience, it is reasonable to wonder why she bothered.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The answers begin with expectations: she had reason to hope
her part at Lieutenant Uhura would be larger.
She saw scripts in which she had better scenes, more lines and more to
do. Her book makes it clear that in <i>Star
Trek’s </i>first year, her part was diminished due primarily to network and
studio demands, which involved fears of audience reaction, but in the end
reflected race and gender bias. How
deep that went is indicated by her assertion that executives kept most of the
fan mail she was getting (almost equal to that of stars Shatner and Nimoy) from
being delivered to her. In other words, she’d proven them wrong—she was accepted and she was popular. But they had to deny it.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> By then she was ambivalent about her role (a feeling
played in a different way by Celia Rose Gooding as the younger Uhura on the <i>Strange
New World</i> series, which also seems to be dramatizing aspects of Uhura’s
backstory that Nichols and Roddenberry invented, but never could portray.)</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzzJS5qOUT1necyAgw4-CB5RaMXakUdmq_9C5dotp5nsG8yrdSIYP7-UgWl1w7dgNqT3UDLKxYDjTO9k-rylQxaPfkLfv9ml2TRqMJNLvv5eP8QtVeqQLlVu6myjpmUyrhWZ50tB37xBRoqyMB_OjVU9or-Turs8gbifdRlJG1xVl-yWFRLPo/s2400/220731-nichelle-nichols-jm-1508-dc48d2.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="2400" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzzJS5qOUT1necyAgw4-CB5RaMXakUdmq_9C5dotp5nsG8yrdSIYP7-UgWl1w7dgNqT3UDLKxYDjTO9k-rylQxaPfkLfv9ml2TRqMJNLvv5eP8QtVeqQLlVu6myjpmUyrhWZ50tB37xBRoqyMB_OjVU9or-Turs8gbifdRlJG1xVl-yWFRLPo/s320/220731-nichelle-nichols-jm-1508-dc48d2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> So it wasn’t surprising that she was leaving the series
after that first season, until her now famous encounter with Martin Luther
King, Jr., who talked to her about the power of her presence on television, and in the 23rd century. Her status as a role model
for Black and minority viewers, especially children, and most especially girls;
the ground she was breaking in television for other Black and minority
performers, and the simple fact that she embodied a Black presence in the
future, were all reasons to stay, even knowing that she was missing other
opportunities, and possibly typecasting herself indefinitely. And even when her role was further
undermined in the second season and thereafter by William Shatner’s insisting
(with the connivance of the Suits) that scripts focus heavily on Captain Kirk,
and then Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> But an equally compelling reason that she stayed seems to
have been that she believed deeply in Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the Star
Trek future. Her book describes the
vagaries of their personal relationship, but her devotion to his vision never
wavered. Her absolute conviction is
expressed in this extraordinary sentence in her book: “Every time I sat down at
my console on the bridge of the Enterprise, I felt that I <i>was</i> in the
twenty-third century, that I <i>was</i> Uhura.” </p><p class="MsoNormal"> It was this conviction that resonated with fans and made her
a convention favorite. It was this
nobility as well as her intelligence, experience and cultural depth that made
her an eminence as her hair turned silver.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRQVyxl7lzKqmMVzKGeOFsWMQGvPNNyNBGJHQWhD4dEH6XGGom4nPiAlemeYZoubZnkEOefGbZFEr2bICB4gg6OjJ4XvmRGoHqoH0HlzQgMh0c3Agl4Jd59nWXz5UC2Q4_Qi__SbmY8hB2UZ4dqjheOh46F5KLPzJxhzDdl38YRL7nc59RrGk/s801/cdc38a125b35291d1de9467c107206a0.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="801" data-original-width="801" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRQVyxl7lzKqmMVzKGeOFsWMQGvPNNyNBGJHQWhD4dEH6XGGom4nPiAlemeYZoubZnkEOefGbZFEr2bICB4gg6OjJ4XvmRGoHqoH0HlzQgMh0c3Agl4Jd59nWXz5UC2Q4_Qi__SbmY8hB2UZ4dqjheOh46F5KLPzJxhzDdl38YRL7nc59RrGk/s320/cdc38a125b35291d1de9467c107206a0.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> By accounts and observation, she was energetic, thoughtful,
kind and at times mercurial, with a wicked sense of humor. Her book makes clear
that she was a proudly passionate person, as also suggested in person by her
occasional naughty references and raucous laugh. But from the start, and especially as she grew older, she
radiated and embodied a confident dignity.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Before her final years and the conflicts surrounding them,
she valued her prodigious memory. She put it to work in <i>Beyond Uhura</i>.
Those who wish to honor her life can do so by learning more about it—by reading
her autobiography. Our lives and what
we experienced and learned ultimately are our legacy. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF6iOIhubLtXZlTNugc7eBaNLCN2OwOGPE_m12hlRI5MPvxRo22B_MHYTGNwTg4ysQxz-tcBu4C1L3Z8Mfue25WatB8BE0jdLt3UIsieJfyRgk9fEoIXNVBXkj2Wk0K07aW3GSP3t1h-dHJCiyn4dyAL9indSh_F31GPy2BP_p4pAexALU2NA/s2939/download.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2939" data-original-width="2000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF6iOIhubLtXZlTNugc7eBaNLCN2OwOGPE_m12hlRI5MPvxRo22B_MHYTGNwTg4ysQxz-tcBu4C1L3Z8Mfue25WatB8BE0jdLt3UIsieJfyRgk9fEoIXNVBXkj2Wk0K07aW3GSP3t1h-dHJCiyn4dyAL9indSh_F31GPy2BP_p4pAexALU2NA/s320/download.jpg" width="218" /></a></div>She was always more than what was obvious. It’s become
widely known that in the period between the Star Trek TV series and the movies,
she helped recruit minority and women to NASA, especially candidates for Space
Shuttle astronauts. But this achievement
has also been slighted in some quarters.
In fact, this inclusion was a need she saw, and a proposal she made,
carried out as one of a number of contracts by the company she ran. She was astute at business and organization
as well as artistically multi-talented.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Her efforts were among the principal reasons that the world
of fictional space exploration and real space exploration intermingled in
public, leading to among other things, the first human to step foot on the moon
speaking at the Scotty Farewell Star Trek convention of his wish to pilot the
Enterprise.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidxxoTHrK4PNA0ZrZmdx-Upl5zuo7QZ5BZSTZ7eDcTnjCK6QkKOftSKXxS464zcTAwTKAn-_K3G_NHoBWIw0iBzFfZ0X78hVFf8RC3qY7WSner3u__ssfg81Ey-_t3aw3cdEDUIZuWnOlqAvZ4pS-wBu-3O8arnOQuBhYsL-XH7HztPOQgCxw/s918/0_STARTREK.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="918" data-original-width="615" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidxxoTHrK4PNA0ZrZmdx-Upl5zuo7QZ5BZSTZ7eDcTnjCK6QkKOftSKXxS464zcTAwTKAn-_K3G_NHoBWIw0iBzFfZ0X78hVFf8RC3qY7WSner3u__ssfg81Ey-_t3aw3cdEDUIZuWnOlqAvZ4pS-wBu-3O8arnOQuBhYsL-XH7HztPOQgCxw/s320/0_STARTREK.jpg" width="214" /></a></div> I did interview her on the Sunday at the end of that
convention. She was direct and articulate. “Because the fans are loyal to
Gene’s dream,” she told me, “we are loyal to the fans.” But she also wasn’t
abject before them. When a fan tried to
talk to her during our interview, there was iron in her voice when she
prevented the interruption.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> When my story appeared on the New York Times arts section
cover Monday morning, she was the one who held it up to the crowd gathered to
witness the ceremony marking the installation of James Doohan’s star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> I saw her again two years later at the 40<sup>th</sup> anniversary
convention in Seattle, where I led a panel on the soul of Star Trek. I was one
of several people greeting her as she entered “the blue room,” where
participants gathered, and wondered if she would recognize me. Perhaps she
didn’t, but in any case she greeted me with an embrace and the brush of a
kiss. </p><p class="MsoNormal">May she rest in peace. Her work and her legacy live on.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-11402694110710663142022-06-06T02:06:00.010-07:002022-07-11T01:05:55.396-07:00Revisiting TNG "Journey's End"<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzeJZyGpmaOJarPbPyb8JTUYIEKswvRIV6ss4kwx1ueGsmQZmfX_l2zAq4C9c6dxjBEOJez5g4taL0Kkh9QN93G9LT-1ESl_lQg0tYrIoSqQ6vVLXL2h45sD6mCsBeVIK6RITHWXGEQskKrAlk9oZ-Hs0PEGXUg6Hwkagkg9svQEkCK3k_pnE/s1436/journeys-end-hd-294.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1436" height="482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzeJZyGpmaOJarPbPyb8JTUYIEKswvRIV6ss4kwx1ueGsmQZmfX_l2zAq4C9c6dxjBEOJez5g4taL0Kkh9QN93G9LT-1ESl_lQg0tYrIoSqQ6vVLXL2h45sD6mCsBeVIK6RITHWXGEQskKrAlk9oZ-Hs0PEGXUg6Hwkagkg9svQEkCK3k_pnE/w640-h482/journeys-end-hd-294.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />I am revisiting the TNG seventh season episode “Journey’s
End” for several reasons. The most
obvious and proximate is Wesley Crusher’s brief scene in the final episode of <i>Star
Trek: Picard’s</i> second season, his first official reappearance since this
TNG episode, some 28 years previously. (His very different kind
of moment in the 2002 feature film <i>Star Trek Nemesis</i> wound up on the cutting
room floor, and in discarded scenes special features.)<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The second reason is that the story of “Journey’s End”
relates to the story of the ninth Star Trek feature film, which is next on my
list to write about in this site’s way too longstanding “Trekalog” series.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> But the third reason is the most compelling: I’ve always
wanted to write about it, because contrary to other opinions, this is one of my
favorite TNG episodes, especially as it informs this site’s theme of the soul
of Star Trek.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> “Journey’s End” came late in The Next Generation’s final
season, when elements that would be important in the ongoing Deep Space 9
series, and the upcoming <i>Star Trek: Voyager</i> were shoehorned into TNG
stories, not always to their benefit.
So this episode featured Cardassians—major DS9 villains—and established
the existence of Native American settlers in Cardassian space, anticipating
Voyager.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The episode title primarily applies to Wesley Crusher, whose
TNG journey began with the first episode, when as a 14 or15 year old boy (played, as he always would be, by Wil Wheaton), he
was accompanying his mother, Doctor Beverly Crusher, in her new assignment,
living on the new starship Enterprise-D. When this story begins (six years
later), he is in his final year at Starfleet Academy. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The title can also be applied to the group of
North American Indians, whose search for a new planetary home had ended after
two centuries on the remote world called Dorvan Five. But because of the new peace treaty between the Federation and
the Cardassians, Dorvan Five was to be no longer a Federation planet but under
Cardassian jurisdiction. The Indians
would be required to leave this new home for another. These two superpowers
determined that their journey had not ended--until they come together to allow it.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The Indians' journey to a new home remains over, but in a sense a new journey begins: the Indians under
Cardassian rule. And after ending one journey Wesley begins another with the Traveler—which eventually
leads him to becoming a Traveler himself, and to return to Earth to also recruit a new
member. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWOsTh2W3IPQLmSz9XARLUNGzGZdZnfYkajwDzeaarM1WpLQsC7csNqQ-ogtiX1GQSFMZrwm826ubShBDLesqeJX6F7F3tRn7qdEWoSRas39Rm6yW9fKEps-PI7cCe8VRIqX5hl7rEHrB5cAED-IJrc9aoJM3YTH_1_lDWskS1ctnGYa4tRBM/s1436/journeys-end-hd-020.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1436" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWOsTh2W3IPQLmSz9XARLUNGzGZdZnfYkajwDzeaarM1WpLQsC7csNqQ-ogtiX1GQSFMZrwm826ubShBDLesqeJX6F7F3tRn7qdEWoSRas39Rm6yW9fKEps-PI7cCe8VRIqX5hl7rEHrB5cAED-IJrc9aoJM3YTH_1_lDWskS1ctnGYa4tRBM/s320/journeys-end-hd-020.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>“<b><span style="font-size: medium;">J</span></b>ourney’s End” begins with Cadet Wesley Crusher visiting
the Enterprise-D for a school break. His mother Dr. Beverly Crusher escorts him
to the new separate quarters he requested. He is welcomed by Geordi and Data,
but barely manages to say what he believes they want to hear, and the scene
ends with him sitting alone on his bed, isolated and uncertain.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Admiral Necheyev
also arrives on board the Enterprise to meet with Captain Picard. She shows him the new borders of Federation
and Cardassian space resulting from three years of negotiation as part of their
peace treaty. </p><p class="MsoNormal">According to the treaty, several planets switch
governances and colonists must relocate.
One of these is Dorvan Five, settled 20 years before after a long search
by a group of North American Indians, who left Earth to preserve their
culture. Picard immediately sees a
problem in historical context. “You
see, Admiral, there are some very disturbing historical parallels here. Once more, they’re being asked to leave
their homes because of a political decision that has been taken by a distant
government.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> In fact, virtually all American Indian peoples had been
driven from their ancestral lands, none more dramatically than the five tribes,
including the Cherokee, forced in the mid-19<sup>th</sup> century to walk
across the country from the Southeast to the West, leading to thousands of
deaths in what became known as The Trail of Tears.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The Federation is aware of this, it was debated but
ultimately the decision was made “for the greater good,” the Admiral says. It will be up to Picard to persuade the
Indians to leave (with promise of aid in finding another planet) or, failing
that, to forcibly remove them—also a painful part of American Indian historical
experience, as Picard knows. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Meanwhile Wesley’s repressed emotions boil over in an ugly
scene with Geordi in engineering, a combination of undergraduate sneering at
elders’ supposed old-fashioned ideas, and a late adolescent snit. Beverly learns that his Academy grades have
been falling, that he’d been moody and distracted. He would later admit that he’d been depressed.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyearOKHH1udNCMWTPkzbh7q06vv8qjxm0By6uP38e7RpIy1IeVq5P9AIp7q1-NOIK1I6dM38dX2MiJ3Ku6Hr4HuY4-hNGpgkyvjSH63yiqnMBn58gdD3NC-6VCV3gjCV19D74YMYmpyKG4wjH96oVzwLlsJIaUAj52W-ZxOtizBALegHD3hE/s1436/journeys-end-hd-067.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1436" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyearOKHH1udNCMWTPkzbh7q06vv8qjxm0By6uP38e7RpIy1IeVq5P9AIp7q1-NOIK1I6dM38dX2MiJ3Ku6Hr4HuY4-hNGpgkyvjSH63yiqnMBn58gdD3NC-6VCV3gjCV19D74YMYmpyKG4wjH96oVzwLlsJIaUAj52W-ZxOtizBALegHD3hE/s320/journeys-end-hd-067.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> Picard and Counselor Troi meet with an Indian council to get
them to agree to relocation but the parties seem to be talking past each
other. Troi points out that there are
three other nearby planets with similar environmental conditions. But Anthwara, the council leader, speaks of
other “more intangible concerns.” “When I came here twenty years ago, I was
welcomed by the mountains, the rivers, the sky…This planet holds a deep
spiritual significance for us. It has
taken us two centuries to find this place.
We do not want to spend another two hundred years searching for what we
already have.”<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> They agree to
reconvene the next day, and Picard invites them to a reception on the
Enterprise that evening. At the reception, Anthwara asks Picard to tell him
about his ancestral family, for ancestors are very important to his
people. “They guide us, even now.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Wesley arrives late and meets Lakanta, an Indian who tells
him that two years before he had a vision that Wesley would come to Dorvan
Five. “I know why you came to us, Wesley.
To find the answers that you seek.” </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb96at6m3ja8nHGUg6L7j-Y2G7_B4kvK5HIVvtVVY0ZioB0aIpwF8YJrlmU-4sCIV_O-RAY-fG0_UHV6UsWx1hTgBjEuhLF19m_v-sx_OYgB54sfFwR8CLqf8Kg2Hc-n8ZlacShEmByrxQxafVTDd8MG2MVs-PN8fRHfnnez4o25ROfM-tUp4/s1436/journeys-end-hd-117.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1436" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb96at6m3ja8nHGUg6L7j-Y2G7_B4kvK5HIVvtVVY0ZioB0aIpwF8YJrlmU-4sCIV_O-RAY-fG0_UHV6UsWx1hTgBjEuhLF19m_v-sx_OYgB54sfFwR8CLqf8Kg2Hc-n8ZlacShEmByrxQxafVTDd8MG2MVs-PN8fRHfnnez4o25ROfM-tUp4/s320/journeys-end-hd-117.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wesley beams down to the surface and is met by Lakanta, who
asks Wesley what is sacred to him. But
that concept is not part of Wesley’s world.
“Look around you,” Laconta says.
“What do you think is sacred to us here?” Wesley guesses Laconta’s necklace, and designs on a building
wall.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> “Everything is sacred to us,” Laconta says. “The buildings, the food, the sky, the dirt
beneath your feet. And you. Whether you
believe in your spirit or not, we believe in it. You are a sacred person here, Wesley….So if you are sacred, then
you must treat yourself with respect.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Wesley responds that no one has ever told him he was sacred,
but admits that he’s been lacking in self-respect lately. Laconta sees this as a sign that Wesley is
ready for his own vision quest.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Some viewers have denigrated what Laconta said as a
Hollywood version of Indian spirituality.
This episode doesn’t get everything right (and the vision quest, a real
ritual in some tribes, seems to have captured the non-Native imagination.) It requires a suspension of disbelief to accept that an Indian culture would choose to leave the Earth that nurtured it, but many tribes did relocate over the centuries for one reason or another, even before Europeans showed up. The ceremonial space of the “Habak” where
Wesley’s vision occurs is decorated with designs and objects that seem often to miss
the point of real Native designs and objects, but this is partly because the
real American Indian consultants to this episode did not want anything to
identify a particular tribe (the original idea was a Hopi or Pueblo kiva.)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> But this key concept—that everything in the given world is
sacred—is not Hollywood; historical research and contemporary accounts,
including those of tribal members, affirm that it is central to Indigenous
beliefs among peoples across North America and Central America. It is as well a core concept in Buddhism. It is moreover
a major moment in Star Trek, because it runs counter to the assumptions of our
technological civilization—but might be another way to express a key value in
Star Trek, especially TNG.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> Laconta makes another important point in a seemingly casual way that is true to today’s Native peoples.
Wesley notes that in the Habak collection of ceremonial figures (similar to
Kachinas) is one that looks Klingon.
Laconta laughs, and acknowledged that it is. “Our culture is rooted in the past,” he says, “but it’s not
limited to the past.” This is something that non-Natives often don’t realize,
at least at first. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqn9x_sTeQJQD0zrH4u-rUErQ6IitmkrVjw9EDEbrfYvuEZo-t4-lqyJ4kzrFhiZmTIlukWEimUGXUnUJ8IVy01iGuV2Mi7atAGgMfaUhsXYEUWlCHpzSqnPSV1OG7quWdX8cih7pwfWu42mBqcDv68h3X4O_KD4nPT1zJydXThS5XBTyh8C0/s1436/journeys-end-hd-176.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1436" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqn9x_sTeQJQD0zrH4u-rUErQ6IitmkrVjw9EDEbrfYvuEZo-t4-lqyJ4kzrFhiZmTIlukWEimUGXUnUJ8IVy01iGuV2Mi7atAGgMfaUhsXYEUWlCHpzSqnPSV1OG7quWdX8cih7pwfWu42mBqcDv68h3X4O_KD4nPT1zJydXThS5XBTyh8C0/s320/journeys-end-hd-176.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>In the Habak, perhaps under the influence of a ceremonial
hallucinogen, Wesley has a vision of his father, a Starfleet officer who was
killed in the line of duty when Wesley was very young. “You’ve reached the end, Wesley,” he says.
When his father died, Wesley “set out on a journey that wasn’t your own. Now it’s time to find a path that is truly
yours.”<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Wesley says he doesn’t understand. “Yes, you do. It’s just
hard for you to accept.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Later, when talking to his mother, Wesley admits that the
vision only crystallized what he already knew. (Recall also that in the fourth
season episode “Family,” Wesley saw his father as he was when Wesley was born,
in a holotape he made that Beverly had just retrieved with other possessions
she’d left behind on Earth. His father mused then that Wesley might grow up to
wear the Starfleet uniform.) </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Meanwhile, the Native leader Anthwara tells Picard that one
of his ancestors had participated in a brutal and bloody slaughter of
southwestern American Indians, and that they believed he was sent to make
amends. Picard tries again to petition
Starfleet to revisit their decision, but to no avail. The Native villagers will not leave. Picard orders Worf to make plans for their removal via the
transporter.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> But the situation on
the planet has become more complicated with the premature arrival of
Cardassians to conduct a survey of the buildings and other resources they will
inherit.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> When Wesley leaves the Habak, he sees Worf preparing the
beam-out. He shouts out a warning to
the villagers to resist. The Starfleet
team is forced to return to the ship.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSVgO6L48gxCTAvEyDnOke9rVlurlRu-_65mcSIy2WxwK97DVllNLM6ONnnjj7EzZ-zvFLM-Km1Z6EgxM1sl9KoDDtxFyUkHAqGP2upPqHdsIDbUQwX7wvAKewJsI8AOotDfEmBSM_nuCgyapOY54NaE-BnuohfOiDyAwROEqv02xOoble3hc/s1436/journeys-end-hd-201.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1436" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSVgO6L48gxCTAvEyDnOke9rVlurlRu-_65mcSIy2WxwK97DVllNLM6ONnnjj7EzZ-zvFLM-Km1Z6EgxM1sl9KoDDtxFyUkHAqGP2upPqHdsIDbUQwX7wvAKewJsI8AOotDfEmBSM_nuCgyapOY54NaE-BnuohfOiDyAwROEqv02xOoble3hc/s320/journeys-end-hd-201.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> Captain Picard is livid in his confrontation with Wesley,
but Wesley calmly tells him, “What you’re doing down there is wrong. These people are not some random group of
colonists. They’re a unique culture
with a history that predates the Federation and Starfleet.”<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Picard responds, “this does not alter the fact that my orders
are to—“</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> “I know Admiral Necheyev gave you an order, and she was
given an order from the Federation Council.
But it’s still wrong.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> This speech will echo in the future, but this time Picard
tells Wesley he must follow orders as long as he is in Starfleet, and Wesley
tells him he is resigning.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> Before a shocked Picard can respond, he must meet with the
Cardassian Gul Evek. It is at this
point that Wesley explains to his mother how the vision revealed what he had
already known, that his path did not include Starfleet. She then remembers the Traveler telling
Captain Picard that Wesley “was destined for something quite different from the
rest of us.” But at this point, his new
direction isn’t clear. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Y1hHV7ol3heZ97p3o5ACLemkDcJM1nGobE5LAGCqUmjlOPqhSeIrbmWG8u10RT-WA44VFhAU0TpT1XOMtQypB7znHw-_WRq7G4IqzTlYGUHjwUGfcEn0m8zh1ZTbpCLpVRILudxF6d5xDbN4x1X_l9rpTSA9S3pNees5JWqVeLyyOomtDoI/s1436/journeys-end-hd-248.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1436" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Y1hHV7ol3heZ97p3o5ACLemkDcJM1nGobE5LAGCqUmjlOPqhSeIrbmWG8u10RT-WA44VFhAU0TpT1XOMtQypB7znHw-_WRq7G4IqzTlYGUHjwUGfcEn0m8zh1ZTbpCLpVRILudxF6d5xDbN4x1X_l9rpTSA9S3pNees5JWqVeLyyOomtDoI/s320/journeys-end-hd-248.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Meanwhile, villagers have taken some Cardassians prisoner,
and things are moving swiftly towards an armed confrontation between the
Cardassians and the Enterprise, which would lead to a resumption of war. Wesley is on the surface when a villager and
a Cardassian are struggling over a weapon, and a Cardassian is hit. Wesley shouts “No!”—and everything stops.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Across the frozen tableau, Laconta strides towards
Wesley. “You pulled yourself out of
time,” he tells Wesley. “You took the
first step…to another plane of existence, another way of thinking…You’ve found
a new beginning for yourself. The first step on a journey that few humans will
ever undertake.” </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0zNZwAbdFhPAoHy_Hgl-ssEcJlw7G5HVuGeaKYjVf4JvW6zrMqef2NVahyjSoGiHknV6vG22KeUqmUAEjNjzPNRriYdDxumNB1wmZJs0Sl7rqIjLyDQtZOyciK8_4jfz_i_NWwgsNhatBgB8L9EwwapmdeakS37wQ4VcKnq5k2VAaDsAYX80/s1436/journeys-end-hd-259.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1436" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0zNZwAbdFhPAoHy_Hgl-ssEcJlw7G5HVuGeaKYjVf4JvW6zrMqef2NVahyjSoGiHknV6vG22KeUqmUAEjNjzPNRriYdDxumNB1wmZJs0Sl7rqIjLyDQtZOyciK8_4jfz_i_NWwgsNhatBgB8L9EwwapmdeakS37wQ4VcKnq5k2VAaDsAYX80/s320/journeys-end-hd-259.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Laconta then reveals himself as the Traveler, who offers to
take Wesley with him. “You’ve evolved
to a new level—you’re ready to explore places where thought and energy combine
in ways you can’t even imagine. And I
will be your guide, if you would like.” <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> They leave, with the Dorvan Five situation unresolved. The
Traveler tells Wesley to have faith in the others’ ability to solve things on
their own. “They must find their own destinies.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> After Picard pleads with him not to restart the horrors of
war, Gul Evek pulls back from confrontation.
An arrangement is made for the Native villagers to remain on Dorvan
Five, but under Cardassian jurisdiction. Anthwara believes Picard has “wiped
clean a very old stain of blood.” </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDowH7ys8vy3F3Y3VILHTuPiF-MyNbS6h9TzR2tSn6nAIceWLgR8OKlfqlJNn50AkaPXRVWqINvoykaTk0mcR41pKSBXaGKSvGa6LL72BG24RHQsIyo_EqEmFepEWDZGzK_b164mxiiC9olje6gTK7MYKOLEf21l-v_P2RXqovg0O6lWaIpuM/s1436/journeys-end-hd-286.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1436" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDowH7ys8vy3F3Y3VILHTuPiF-MyNbS6h9TzR2tSn6nAIceWLgR8OKlfqlJNn50AkaPXRVWqINvoykaTk0mcR41pKSBXaGKSvGa6LL72BG24RHQsIyo_EqEmFepEWDZGzK_b164mxiiC9olje6gTK7MYKOLEf21l-v_P2RXqovg0O6lWaIpuM/s320/journeys-end-hd-286.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The final scene is Wesley’s transporter room sendoff by
Doctor Crusher and Captain Picard. “Where will you go?” Picard asks. “The
Traveler said that my studies would begin with these people,” meaning the
Natives on Dorvan Five. “He said that
they’re aware of many things. I can
learn a lot from them.” <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> After emotional goodbyes, his transporter trace ends with a
benevolent smile, and Beverly and Picard leave together, mother and
father-figure, with the prospect of never seeing their son again on his
unimaginable journey.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Though Laconta and the Traveler seemingly being the same person
complicates things, that the Traveler has Wesley begin his explorations with
this Native culture is also a major moment: a further acknowledgement of the
legitimacy, the importance, of their very different knowledge and point of
view.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">S</span></b>tar Trek crews explore the universe with high technology,
and they meet other technological species. But from the beginning, the Star
Trek universe has included beings that defy the science upon which those
technologies are based. They reflect
aspects of reality that these sciences don’t touch. Each contact with another culture raises questions of ethics and
principle, and causes them to reevaluate their sense of themselves and their
place in the universe.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Similarly, Star Trek ships are crewed by individuals
responsible for using and maintaining that technology. Their jobs require
technical skill and knowledge, and often enough, technical creativity and
brilliance. But beginning especially aboard the Enterprise-D of the Next
Generation, many of those individuals explore other aspects of their inner
beings, through music, art, books, drama, dance as well as spiritual pursuits
and engaging with animals and plants. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> They explore history and archaeology, engage in rituals, and
explore their minds through psychology and meditation. They confront ethical questions, both in
relation to other species and each other.
They pursue relationships and confront elements of their past
relationships, including family. They do so individually and in groups, and
they support each other’s endeavors. In
other words, they take care of the machinery, but they also cultivate soul.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> This is what has set Star Trek apart from other space
opera. Star Trek takes another step in
this episode by recognizing a way of seeing and experiencing reality different
from the technological and sometimes technocratic premises and practices of the
dominant culture, by a culture with more ancient roots on Earth.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> It would not be the last time a Star Trek story explored
cultures with such beliefs—these became more common in DS9 and Voyager. The results were mixed and arguably
superficial, but they were acknowledgements. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJpOlbFoVCifnmrp1K_OQntsCeJHigfzcqXaTOto4-jO6HOwcOW5EFlbU9kp7qHLwN-tcRuOvRhiYqPtgSse05f8WWedjC8vls6iJAet8qj-u7xzRfcL1etncQ7dnZRioOrT3eN3E4xFdcr_QmQpAt76Q1o4Mnm0PJKDfk8ZslKiwa3mlY0pc/s1436/journeys-end-hd-128.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1436" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJpOlbFoVCifnmrp1K_OQntsCeJHigfzcqXaTOto4-jO6HOwcOW5EFlbU9kp7qHLwN-tcRuOvRhiYqPtgSse05f8WWedjC8vls6iJAet8qj-u7xzRfcL1etncQ7dnZRioOrT3eN3E4xFdcr_QmQpAt76Q1o4Mnm0PJKDfk8ZslKiwa3mlY0pc/s320/journeys-end-hd-128.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> In this episode, however, a particular move is made: the
core beliefs of Native Americans and many Indigenous peoples is linked to the
realities beyond scientific knowledge and mindset, the unimaginable “levels of
existence” known to the Traveler—and that Q on occasion suggested to
Picard. <div><br /><div> This is daring, and causes a certain amount of disbelief,
resentment and even anger among some Star Trek viewers. Yet it is a vital contribution to the soul
of Star Trek.</div><div><br /></div><div>Moreover, among Native peoples these beliefs have motivated practical care for life and the Earth that is the basis for ecology. Today's Native tribes often practice sound ecological science on their tribal lands, and several are taking on responsibility in managing national parks and forests, because of their commitment and expertise. These sciences and these transcendent beliefs coexist. </div><div><br /></div><div> It is worth noting that this episode aired in early 1994.
Beginning in 1992, the 500<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the first voyage of
Columbus to the New World, there was an unprecedented degree of attention to
the history, arts, literature, beliefs and contemporary lives of the Native
American peoples who had been living in that New World for thousands of
years. </div><div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The relevance of these beliefs to the plight of the planet
Earth became more recognized, as did the sometimes uncomfortable relationships
of some Indigenous beliefs to ideas implied by the most advanced physics. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> This episode, like
others from the seventh season (for instance, “Phantams,” “Parallels,”
“Genesis” and “All Good Things) and before (such as “Inner Light,” “Darmok,”
“Transfigurations” and “Where No One Has Gone Before,” the first season episode
in which the Traveler and Wesley meet) broke ground that led to later Trek
explorations as well as the many time-dilation and multiverse stories of
today. But this episode stands out in
suggesting that societies with advanced technology (historically based on
heedless destruction of the natural world) are not innately superior to
so-called primitive cultures—that it is not a question of a linear “superior”
versus “inferior” civilization, or a sense of evolution as “progress” towards
high technology. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Granted it is only a suggestion: there is not much depth in
this episode. Profound ideas can sound
trite without context or relationship.
But the basics—the sense of sacredness of nature and community, and the
consequent attitudes of respect and connection—are correctly if simply
stated. By definition the sacred is not
to be disrespected, dishonored or carelessly exploited. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_OJwqdg40Cn7asllAA5FB83_s-6jFjArvvoiI-OmzMUFbcjyrLbBaIIGxvoeq_aN3VRF8ZycLrMNcdikjg0x5hhWH0Bnz0ypf_le3rxBVLZ-XOeldsU76ncocjP7bz66UY2x6xae1xXcJuk9ugsIvas_5KDIJpm2d9kVf7dzvS5s9WcPUyZI/s1366/meyer02.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1366" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_OJwqdg40Cn7asllAA5FB83_s-6jFjArvvoiI-OmzMUFbcjyrLbBaIIGxvoeq_aN3VRF8ZycLrMNcdikjg0x5hhWH0Bnz0ypf_le3rxBVLZ-XOeldsU76ncocjP7bz66UY2x6xae1xXcJuk9ugsIvas_5KDIJpm2d9kVf7dzvS5s9WcPUyZI/s320/meyer02.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>This is also the respect for life that is at the center of
many TNG episodes—be it alien life of a previously unencountered kind, or
sentience in machines. There are hints
that this respect extends to environments, though the issue of self-destructive
exploitation arises too seldom. In this
regard, I note one of the special features to the latest TNG movie collection
that discusses the villains in Star Trek features. Towards the end when villains of 9 of the first 10 features were
described, writer and director Nicholas Meyer asks, Who is the villain in <i>Star
Trek IV: the Voyage Home</i>?.. "It’s us.” <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> It is human beings who hunted the whales to near
extinction. There are Native peoples
who traditionally hunted whales, but they consider them sacred, so they take only what they need, with respect and rituals of appreciation. This is just
one aspect of these cultures that mitigates against hunting whales to
extinction, or otherwise destroying their environment for future
generations. The respect for life--and our planetary life support--is more than logical (at least in human terms.) It is a profound outcome of a certain understanding of the universe.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In “Journey’s End,” the two journeys that end and begin
again will eventually be joined by a third new journey, when Captain Picard
faces a situation very similar to what he found on Dorvan Five, but makes a
very different decision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s the
subject of the third TNG feature film, <i>Star Trek: Insurrection</i>.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><i>Thanks to<a href="http://www.trekcore.com"> Trekcore</a> for screencap images.</i></p></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-13026253858485940522022-01-16T03:41:00.010-08:002022-02-08T02:11:22.697-08:00Don't Look Around<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiFdLM5ybfLz1tTYZAsMyLqTsO1IxsvD7qRB7lMl7NjNcQdJzWLEVdwxl9YPaRtXUC0k0OvdntRXG5Z-cuLT5IIGKScxL16BREDzpxTNxE5qKryKzhi8J_VNMiYaSrxWkqJC4vHGCaFStwU_qoeQuAnxyq-o4YvpgA7z_xqWTr4SA-SEjN6Pg=s318" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="159" data-original-width="318" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiFdLM5ybfLz1tTYZAsMyLqTsO1IxsvD7qRB7lMl7NjNcQdJzWLEVdwxl9YPaRtXUC0k0OvdntRXG5Z-cuLT5IIGKScxL16BREDzpxTNxE5qKryKzhi8J_VNMiYaSrxWkqJC4vHGCaFStwU_qoeQuAnxyq-o4YvpgA7z_xqWTr4SA-SEjN6Pg=w640-h320" width="640" /></a></p>By sheer number of viewing hours, the new feature film <i>Don’t
Look Up</i> is an enormous hit—the biggest Netflik has had since it began. Adam McKay’s movie portraying responses to the
warning of a comet about to obliterate life on Earth has also been met with deeply
divided critical and popular opinion.
Presumably a large proportion of that opinion is guided by the movie’s
metaphorical target: America’s response to the climate crisis.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi-QBhhnCmHZ_E0qWmq6XsYXmqWhLjiYmFNi7yKyMm5jsml06LWVERklbmH5lXgSkfIkiS9RfZA5EasncUWsq99l3hY8HPNRGJ18I7Pv3rC_EaDiNBq48N_AFdA46YFkcVljQdPAul7Sys8c7kFvLX5VmDHUe15l-RRPzssT_YTJUFkS-BWmw=s469" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="469" data-original-width="320" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi-QBhhnCmHZ_E0qWmq6XsYXmqWhLjiYmFNi7yKyMm5jsml06LWVERklbmH5lXgSkfIkiS9RfZA5EasncUWsq99l3hY8HPNRGJ18I7Pv3rC_EaDiNBq48N_AFdA46YFkcVljQdPAul7Sys8c7kFvLX5VmDHUe15l-RRPzssT_YTJUFkS-BWmw=s320" width="218" /></a></div> Apart from comparisons to the satirical standard of <i>Doctor
Strangelove</i> (1964), few written reactions to the movie reach back much
farther than 1998’s <i>Armageddon</i>, in which Bruce Willis saves the world
from an oncoming asteroid (the other such movie of that year—and the better
one—<i>Deep Impact</i>, is seldom mentioned.)
But the basic movement of <i>Don’t Look Up</i> follows a template that
goes back at least to the 1951 George Pal classic, <i>When Worlds Collide</i>: Astronomers accidentally find the
planet-killing object, they sound the alarm to “the authorities,” they are
ridiculed and disbelieved. <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> It is the specifics of how the plot plays out in
contemporary America that McKay portrays with mesmerizing precision. He also manages to get laughs, but it is
really the laughter of recognition, the release of seeing the absurdity of our
reality playing out. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <i>When Worlds Collide</i> emerged at the beginning of
another age of absurdity, the nuclear age.
The history of the period makes clear that almost immediately after
Hiroshima, a lot of people realized how craziness had come to rule the world. But official denial in the decade of
conformity and McCarthyism forced an eerie and sometimes frantic quietism. Besides which, the specter of sudden nuclear
apocalypse at any moment was too overwhelming to contemplate. Official denial became deliberate and then unconscious
national denial.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> But then there were all those atomic monsters, alien
invasions and cosmic catastrophes in mostly B movies all through the decade. <i>On
the Beach</i> (1959) was a drama about nuclear war without showing it. There
never was a feature film that depicted nuclear holocaust—and it wasn’t until
the 1980s that television took it on, notably with <i>The Day After</i> (1983),
watched by 100 million Americans—and President Ronald Reagan, who was
powerfully affected by it. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjoj20wdZyBX416eKjAfpa1qm1WMw0sFdNQiPrvhvUlHaEYsijDHmfqPVWwmtpBnZZEn6s3-tNPmNf2UmuiLrcSLG1j20zBz9OAzFWHCvIqjAbU0nWoFxCMtWouYxk-ZsDX222zqGCZ1lAFhzAG26scIcdJgIW2-jjLtcGfTD4QbZPxnmxfbQ=s290" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="174" data-original-width="290" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjoj20wdZyBX416eKjAfpa1qm1WMw0sFdNQiPrvhvUlHaEYsijDHmfqPVWwmtpBnZZEn6s3-tNPmNf2UmuiLrcSLG1j20zBz9OAzFWHCvIqjAbU0nWoFxCMtWouYxk-ZsDX222zqGCZ1lAFhzAG26scIcdJgIW2-jjLtcGfTD4QbZPxnmxfbQ" width="290" /></a></div>But by 1964 it could be the subject of satire. Though <i>Doctor Strangelove</i> is now a
widely recognized classic, it was controversial in its day. Its plot was absurd and yet could
happen. Several of its key characters
seemed like caricatures, yet they resembled known types and even real
people. The difference between real
life General Curtis Le May and movie character General Buck Turgidson may have
chiefly been that George C. Scott was a more expressive actor.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The characters in <i>Don’t Look Up</i> are notably not so
exaggerated. In the age of Trump, not
even Meryl Streep’s President is as over the top. (Jonah Hill as her son and chief of staff—presumably a stand-in
for Don Jr.—may be the movie’ s only overt comic character.) The absurdity of nearly everyone else is in
the main plot is real—in some cases, speeded up, but true to contemporary life.
Without blatant stereotypes and simplistic caricatures, some viewers don’t
recognize this as satire. But the
history of satire is richer than recent movie history. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7IdNdM0wf996IsoZjLz_uCpQCGscHqTOVWFW9kNaGquyZMZdBniFkuPyzHv2bOMLlRCopZIcqEaxXSdoFjtw_rYyJH7NX2DrKG0SGXMCBahfaUekamjZHMmkcDoDjJdKQ7v6aUPVf0Zf0955MnEZ6K-5Ff2gF-1HDcgUbdW2mGf51WoDxRw=s1320" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="743" data-original-width="1320" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7IdNdM0wf996IsoZjLz_uCpQCGscHqTOVWFW9kNaGquyZMZdBniFkuPyzHv2bOMLlRCopZIcqEaxXSdoFjtw_rYyJH7NX2DrKG0SGXMCBahfaUekamjZHMmkcDoDjJdKQ7v6aUPVf0Zf0955MnEZ6K-5Ff2gF-1HDcgUbdW2mGf51WoDxRw=s320" width="320" /></a></div>The satire is partly in the metaphor. The filmmakers are apparently not being shy
about saying their intent was to make this movie metaphorically about America’s
treatment of the climate crisis. As some
writers have recognized, the metaphor can also extend to the Covid Crisis, and
the ongoing political crisis symbolized by January 6/2021. <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The climate metaphor works in some ways and not in others,
but that’s par for the course—otherwise it wouldn’t be a metaphor. Unlike an annihilating comet collision, the
effects of climate distortion destroy over a long time. Its causes are different, and different
measures are required to address it.
Those measures are not as simple as shooting a rocket at it. In terms of awareness and acceptance, the
expensive and long term campaign by giant fossil fuel interests to deny its
existence may well have been decisive, and that factor is absent from this
film. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgTxMeC0RPZ7TpoJSzXA7EwAX0vNPicLD-k6mpz6OyiaVxFR4CkH6NXk8yqVrSzzCx7tCMhzZHR-1mK4i_NNz6eKrXYAw7zGygUKhbb06hG5FwY1obC9sH_qEcaR7QRu6FpR9Apo6V94V61HFBD-D57Wafsc3EuRCiU9Uv-TYsbsIeP6UQNhQ=s300" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgTxMeC0RPZ7TpoJSzXA7EwAX0vNPicLD-k6mpz6OyiaVxFR4CkH6NXk8yqVrSzzCx7tCMhzZHR-1mK4i_NNz6eKrXYAw7zGygUKhbb06hG5FwY1obC9sH_qEcaR7QRu6FpR9Apo6V94V61HFBD-D57Wafsc3EuRCiU9Uv-TYsbsIeP6UQNhQ" width="300" /></a></div>But like a comet on the edge of the solar system, climate
catastrophe was a future threat not discernible to the naked eye. And political
self-interest as well as media trivializing have been factors in supporting the
natural reluctance, the manufactured resistance and the toxic denial that
prevented society from facing the consequences before they become inevitable.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> There’s a difference between oversimplifying (always a
tendency in movies about a complex subject as well as in traditional conventions of satire), and
simplifying in order to concentrate on similarities, which is what this movie mostly succeeds in doing. For its subject, after all, is not climate or comets. The subject is how America reacts to a
credible if unfamiliar threat to its existence--such as the very real and extremely consequential example of the climate crisis.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> In an otherwise cogent article in Vox, Kelsey Piper rejects
the climate metaphor by glibly and without explanation dismissing the idea that
the climate crisis is a threat to human survival. Clearly such destruction would not necessarily happen all at
once, like a comet colliding. But there is plenty of evidence that the threat to the survival
of human civilization as we know it is real and profound. The UN has more or less officially linked
the climate crisis with the threat of a mass extinction event, meaning that
life as we know it on this planet would be over. If the climate crisis gets predictably worse and mass extinction
occurs, some remnants of the human species may survive, but life as we know it
almost certainly will not. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhyEBko2b9WaFaQoQ275H3w88MIaVMDNP2RuyaSRT4WMIzEG8xilrZMxNKXh2_W0KfM1Dlr0tSGMM40rEGNjA3zWnzdgf1KnNpXTA2cfzLG7SwmPlzspBMbdMkBqwADRV31RuLdYdeq9Os9DsUMJzA1utZiorxCKHLlQK7ZYnkbECcGRW81Lg=s1778" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="983" data-original-width="1778" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhyEBko2b9WaFaQoQ275H3w88MIaVMDNP2RuyaSRT4WMIzEG8xilrZMxNKXh2_W0KfM1Dlr0tSGMM40rEGNjA3zWnzdgf1KnNpXTA2cfzLG7SwmPlzspBMbdMkBqwADRV31RuLdYdeq9Os9DsUMJzA1utZiorxCKHLlQK7ZYnkbECcGRW81Lg=s320" width="320" /></a></div>Which brings us to the final scene of <i>Don’t Look Up</i>. The political conflict in the latter part of the movie is
between those who plead for people to “look up” and see the comet, which is the
analogue of seeing the evidence, both scientific and in the fires, floods, sea
rise and extreme weather in the obvious world.
But the metaphorical MAGA crowd follow their leaders’ chants of “don’t
look up.” Which is: don’t look at the fires, don’t notice the Covid death toll,
and don’t look at the footage of the attack on the Capitol. Again, as blatant
and absurd as the real American moment.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Throughout the film, the astronomers played by Leonardo DiCaprio (Dr. Mindy) and Jennifer Lawrence (Kate Dibiasky) have tried to get
leaders and the public to face the reality and do something about it before it
is too late, while their personal lives spiral out of control. By the end, as the comet is about to arrive,
they come together in the DiCaprio character’s Midwestern suburban home,
forming a last family, for a final dinner.
They pointedly ignore talking about what’s about to happen, though they
do each say what they are grateful for, a ritual that some now observe at
Thanksgiving. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh6zVVQWRwiL4IHODXxcD96Hmt9bXL1O7VlKaF2km8_26_ugEUH5xLVzZ8VE5McjETdjn0UsJeVcvTmVBjtFTQZWRl4fV8Ib022AwL217x8Sd-HxopG2eglCU5ZnUhHnZz4ZogdOqNnIxkqvZ9DFFA36-Iy9o7ct7UpyNNJL4lObGBO-oi7xw=s600" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="600" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh6zVVQWRwiL4IHODXxcD96Hmt9bXL1O7VlKaF2km8_26_ugEUH5xLVzZ8VE5McjETdjn0UsJeVcvTmVBjtFTQZWRl4fV8Ib022AwL217x8Sd-HxopG2eglCU5ZnUhHnZz4ZogdOqNnIxkqvZ9DFFA36-Iy9o7ct7UpyNNJL4lObGBO-oi7xw=s320" width="320" /></a></div>After the meal is over, and they are chatting about apple
pie and coffee, Dr. Mindy leans back and says, “We really did have everything, didn't we?” And then the walls explode.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> To me those are the most devastating lines in the film. As defined by its ending, this is an apocalyptic movie. Like <i>When Worlds Collide</i>,
there are a few human survivors, both on Earth and in the far future and far
reaches of space—though in this film it is more than hinted that in neither place are they
likely to survive for very long. The
implication of Doctor Strangelove’s ending is that human civilization is
totally destroyed, but to the absurdly inappropriate tune of “We’ll Meet
Again,” a sentimental song of weary courage from World War II. The satirical point of it in <i>Doctor
Strangelove</i> is that once the bombs start to fall, we won’t meet again. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> There is some irony in Dr. Mindy’s statement when applied to
the climate crisis metaphor, since that “everything” came at a cost of
deforming the climate and everything that results. Still, given the circumstances of that scene, a couple of other
interpretations are possible.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> In his Vox article, Piper sees this scene and this statement
as motivating action before it is too late. He sees it as urging us to “look
up,” to become aware of survival threats, to “acknowledge, and then to actually
act.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> That’s the traditional role of an apocalyptic story: as a
cautionary tale. I might add that “look
up” is applicable to more than the sky—especially when there are so many people
walking through the unseen world with their eyes constantly cast down to the
devices in their hands, and their heads and hearts in virtual communities where
agreement is more important than observing the real world.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> This cautionary tale interpretation is perfectly appropriate, especially
for viewers who will likely live into the decades when the dangers increase
substantially, particularly the effects of the climate crisis as it jars the
world order, and the mass extinctions that tear at the support systems of the planet.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> But I could not help but think of the experience of the
person saying those lines in that last scene.
Jennifer Lawrence has her own connections to dystopian stories (The
Hunger Games films) but Leonardo DiCaprio is extensively connected to the possibilities
of apocalypse in the real world. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgLug74XalcZK3rZ2NEheEdQwBjETuwdFxueYQJTojx6Q-5ZZV7EX-lM0cNLLhQqAa0esx_eVet1k95Bol7rGKtzu4Q-XRg0WOndNCkqsWckg72uJ2qW1qdVsZ8DW1m2HzGw6Pfi86T5anvG5KwMFoDTOrDkVRGMQe17odFRE8qF-NFYpjiKQ=s477" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="310" data-original-width="477" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgLug74XalcZK3rZ2NEheEdQwBjETuwdFxueYQJTojx6Q-5ZZV7EX-lM0cNLLhQqAa0esx_eVet1k95Bol7rGKtzu4Q-XRg0WOndNCkqsWckg72uJ2qW1qdVsZ8DW1m2HzGw6Pfi86T5anvG5KwMFoDTOrDkVRGMQe17odFRE8qF-NFYpjiKQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div>For there is no
prominent actor on the planet more deeply and obviously involved in
environmental action, and particularly in warning of the threats to survival because of the climate crisis than Leonardo DiCaprio.
Those efforts go back to at least 1998 when he formed his foundation to
address these issues. I count at least
three documentaries on climate that he narrated, hosted, produced or co-wrote,
or a combination of these roles: The <i>11<sup>th</sup> Hour</i> in 2008, <i>Before
the Flood</i> in 2016 and <i>Ice on Fire</i> in 2019. He used his best actor Oscar speech in 2016 to talk about the
climate crisis. He was an official UN representative on climate, and spoke at
UN climate summits in 2014 and 2016.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> During that time (from the 90s to now), addressing the
climate crisis went from being a bipartisan promise to a wedge issue dividing
political parties as well as families.
Actions taken so far, or even pledged, are widely known to be
insufficient. Meanwhile, effects have
gotten worse faster than even worst-case scenarios predicted. For the past
several years, activists have concentrated on efforts to prevent the worst from happening in the far future, while warning that we need to prepare for the devastating effects that are by now all but inevitable in the nearer future, and in fact are underway.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> But this past year particularly shows that American society
is not up to the challenge in significant ways. The ongoing response to the
Covid crisis and the crisis of American democracy as well as the ongoing
effects of climate suggest this society can’t deal coherently with much of
anything. That’s the awful truth we
like to avoid confronting: don’t look around.
But if there is any chance to limit climate related devastation, this
must be faced and fixed. Releasing us
to first laugh about it and then deal with it is this movie’s chief
contribution. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When Midwestern American academic scientist Dr. Mindy utters
those last words, he knows what’s going to happen, and why.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suspect that with his own set of
experiences in learning the dimensions of the climate crisis, trying to communicate
and then observing how things are at this moment, the actor Leonardo DiCaprio
might, at least in part, be joining in the same sentiment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For this remarkable scene in particular
makes <i>Don’t Look Up</i> not only a cautionary tale, but an elegy. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjbscUflVTR4iXcpuYkiQK8_VaybUBNvs09uAi1jm3i1ufo9Eo8bZRGuYx8jBXzOxtjFJE5_U_Yp22NlVC4j1KUUQrpbrYr2rl98EggeHjgGGk5hzyFB6chRqUZd3ID6b8-VTK_4Ac634KbhIK9Clox-24PQhIs61Z4aJRHMIbDQtXy1Tc4JeY=s689" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="530" data-original-width="689" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjbscUflVTR4iXcpuYkiQK8_VaybUBNvs09uAi1jm3i1ufo9Eo8bZRGuYx8jBXzOxtjFJE5_U_Yp22NlVC4j1KUUQrpbrYr2rl98EggeHjgGGk5hzyFB6chRqUZd3ID6b8-VTK_4Ac634KbhIK9Clox-24PQhIs61Z4aJRHMIbDQtXy1Tc4JeY=s320" width="320" /></a></div>In the Star Trek universe, the future is interrupted by a devastating world nuclear war in the mid-21st century, leading to a new Dark Ages until the first warp flight and First Contact with the Vulcans. Civilization resumes, with new goals, new attitudes, new rules. As we get closer to the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, it's increasingly possible that climate crisis effects (drought, hunger, etc.) could itself trigger nuclear exchanges. There are all kinds of ways the world could devolve into chaos before the worst effects of an unaddressed climate disruption change our Earth for a very, very long time. That future would look nothing like the same San Francisco and New Orleans of Star Trek's 24th century.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal">But Star Trek at least imagines a future and how we might get there. At the same time, through the metaphor of aliens, it imagines the lives of others who are different. Imagining the future is a step towards taking responsibility for how the present shapes that future. Imagining others engenders the empathy needed to work together to create a better future--and not incidentally, a better present. There is a sense that elegy is appropriate and inevitable, given our current circumstances. But a commitment to the kind of future Star Trek represents constitutes grounds for hope, and perhaps opportunity.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> <i> Footnote (or maybe the after the credits bonus)</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In <i>When Worlds Collide</i> film, there’s also intervention at a key moment
by a very rich man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The difference is
that in the Pal movie, the millionaire wants to save his own life, so he
finances the building of a spaceship. In the McKay movie, the tech billionaire
prevents the effort to break up the comet for the prospect of profit—and then
when that doesn’t work, he escapes in his own spaceship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The alarming new roles of tech billionaires,
as well as the more familiar corruption and cynicism of politicians (who don’t
have to be Trumpians) and the conscious and apparently endemic failures of news
media, together move this movie way too close to being a documentary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-15854517329060776262021-12-19T23:14:00.001-08:002021-12-19T23:19:02.822-08:00Star Trek/Doctor Who R.I.P. 2021<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhoKaA1L8uCA37U3SJpj6padRTWFLRoRD9vxLXo0Ea_ZVnsTstuXaSbjczHi34UhqW4r6QyjXUl1e4lYo_Q7CKFB1EJUmS7C_mrc29GTBsKeyBfYVJaj03zJmw3LfdcFz_Wk3Z_zolrg2YArIRxSuIWI0g7NGSd9CWsc3cT9QDFETqKr8LtoRw=s1920" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhoKaA1L8uCA37U3SJpj6padRTWFLRoRD9vxLXo0Ea_ZVnsTstuXaSbjczHi34UhqW4r6QyjXUl1e4lYo_Q7CKFB1EJUmS7C_mrc29GTBsKeyBfYVJaj03zJmw3LfdcFz_Wk3Z_zolrg2YArIRxSuIWI0g7NGSd9CWsc3cT9QDFETqKr8LtoRw=w400-h225" width="400" /></a></div>The first impression of <i>Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered
Country</i> as the nearly perfect way for the original crew to end their
adventures has only been strengthened in the years since. Part of that film’s success is due to a
strong supporting cast, especially David Warner and Christopher Plummer. <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Plummer began as a classical actor in Canada. He was already a star at the Stratford
Shakespeare Festival in 1956 when he was stricken with a sudden illness, and
his understudy—a young actor named William Shatner-- had to replace him in
performing the lead role in <i>Henry V</i>.
It was the beginning of Shatner’s career as a leading actor.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> But Christopher Plummer didn’t exactly fade away. He maintained an astonishingly long and
varied career, both as a stage actor (classical and otherwise) in England and
North America (including Broadway), and in supporting and lead roles in
Hollywood movies. He won an Oscar,
several Tonys and Golden Globes, as well as the British academy award. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Plummer had been acting all around the world for almost 40
years when he reunited with his Canadian understudy in Star Trek VI, in between
Harold Pinter’s stage play <i>No Man’s Land </i>with Jason Robards, Jr. and
Spike Lee’s movie of <i>Malcolm X.</i>
His portrayal of a smirking Klingon villain, General Chang, was a
perfect stylistic match to Shatner’s Captain Kirk. Plummer’s career continued unabated well into the 21<sup>st</sup>
century, and he won his Oscar at age 82.
His last (award-winning) film was in 2019. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhQyiFoHetAlyRQJI3j-blfFlWHTPTLDleF5oAMNlds64dUMGzhIb9_evs2elEwIpzIdq9ex2p2KHk5LYVtNy2b6gCAEmtk_krvirJfxaDKjNCeWJ5FNLKYnIwR8sSrldhF_MIBAcZ7XSBxxv-y1rTdXLByu5VrKrn3FYI_JmSukNh1WkpPlLI=s689" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="689" data-original-width="606" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhQyiFoHetAlyRQJI3j-blfFlWHTPTLDleF5oAMNlds64dUMGzhIb9_evs2elEwIpzIdq9ex2p2KHk5LYVtNy2b6gCAEmtk_krvirJfxaDKjNCeWJ5FNLKYnIwR8sSrldhF_MIBAcZ7XSBxxv-y1rTdXLByu5VrKrn3FYI_JmSukNh1WkpPlLI=w282-h320" width="282" /></a></div>Norman Lloyd was another well-known actor (especially for <i>St.
Elsewhere</i>) who had a memorable appearance in <i>Star Trek: The Next
Generation</i>, playing Dr. Galen in the key episode “The Chase.” <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhycW34Qqo48_qBIxWH_Qc2jU5ocxiHmMGn6kZ-Ei8TbGePrQm2j_1uccbH3TZoIB_CD-DUo3cTppoofHexeW9SU-jvd2aMGSMZyC5V_i6PICPkBnunJq-Aof6oUeRVkR-DQJLUY5vZ27m6TO1S4YjxQUXUy10O8sQ-EtDPGs5Uh-l3p0p9fNE=s969" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="915" data-original-width="969" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhycW34Qqo48_qBIxWH_Qc2jU5ocxiHmMGn6kZ-Ei8TbGePrQm2j_1uccbH3TZoIB_CD-DUo3cTppoofHexeW9SU-jvd2aMGSMZyC5V_i6PICPkBnunJq-Aof6oUeRVkR-DQJLUY5vZ27m6TO1S4YjxQUXUy10O8sQ-EtDPGs5Uh-l3p0p9fNE=w200-h189" width="200" /></a></div><br />Veteran actor Dean Stockwell appeared in one episode of <i>Star
Trek: Enterprise</i>, reuniting him with his <i>Quantum Leap</i> co-star Scott
Bacula, captain of the first Enterprise.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjzaCW6rsd207HTWQPtb-IblE9w-vqx5oXtSguifXt2RdUn5QykFTTzplT1wgtiU6f7Em46D0XLhl_x9naXlGxlu4pghO9lnloRFkPNmRTh0MvFiy1Q_5YGxelFI9sEW5bLbfeGg9tp9BOooqPWzYQMX5-9nxcqxjhqyhyjASH8UgMbOIPOEn0=s1430" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1430" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjzaCW6rsd207HTWQPtb-IblE9w-vqx5oXtSguifXt2RdUn5QykFTTzplT1wgtiU6f7Em46D0XLhl_x9naXlGxlu4pghO9lnloRFkPNmRTh0MvFiy1Q_5YGxelFI9sEW5bLbfeGg9tp9BOooqPWzYQMX5-9nxcqxjhqyhyjASH8UgMbOIPOEn0=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br />Clarence Williams III, known forever for <i>The Mod Squad</i>,
appeared in the <i>Deep Space 9</i> episode “To The Death.” <p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Eddie Paskey was at the opposite end of the stardom
continuum from Christopher Plummer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
his appearances in original series Star Trek (mostly uncredited) were
unique.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was the ultimate Redshirt,
appearing in 62 episodes—more than George Takei (51.).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His one named role was honored in an episode
of the independent series New Voyages when he played Admiral Leslie.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjpO2H6M_pn-zQ0BkeZ4RjAE79X83_ASgVHdO1U-N6jzW_TvWGbLjjLfMQie_rxtaFrXkjdj5vb1KktY5NkdjhO1qXq0KHpQW7JjBIwyyjkc8ckZJZ2qN9OWH3l05NzmROQcxdCJeEyzeIVh2joUBqteDun1nTD5Pvd3J8P64UeBS3yfwF3qDs=s878" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="878" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjpO2H6M_pn-zQ0BkeZ4RjAE79X83_ASgVHdO1U-N6jzW_TvWGbLjjLfMQie_rxtaFrXkjdj5vb1KktY5NkdjhO1qXq0KHpQW7JjBIwyyjkc8ckZJZ2qN9OWH3l05NzmROQcxdCJeEyzeIVh2joUBqteDun1nTD5Pvd3J8P64UeBS3yfwF3qDs=w320-h243" width="320" /></a></div>Distinguished television actor and acting teacher Joanne
Linville made a memorable appearance as a Romulan commander attracted to Mr.
Spock in the TOS episode “The Enterprise Incident.” <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Writer-producer Jeffrey Hayes helped develop <i>Star Trek:
The Next Generation.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Douglas Cramer
was a producer on TOS third season. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Though I’d been a Star Trek fan since the beginning, my
enthusiasm went into warp drive when the original series was first in
syndication, especially after seeing a little noted but favorite episode “The
Empath.” John Erman was its director. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjTspGDyFgi3XJvUiXgxT73HVAWxz5d9lpFDFYgFO4AgQtV_x6vZk42Tpt9MiblSwBt549HxnaCnsHX4qO0MGFa_IypDRFaO3zYcFlk1hpC6aj2LkEUVwhjsaXUg6XYx63RHKOy2-zLRIDbxhtFsReBKDABvle98bM59-lXW9CbJJjM289M8hs=s499" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="335" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjTspGDyFgi3XJvUiXgxT73HVAWxz5d9lpFDFYgFO4AgQtV_x6vZk42Tpt9MiblSwBt549HxnaCnsHX4qO0MGFa_IypDRFaO3zYcFlk1hpC6aj2LkEUVwhjsaXUg6XYx63RHKOy2-zLRIDbxhtFsReBKDABvle98bM59-lXW9CbJJjM289M8hs=w134-h200" width="134" /></a></div>Science fiction novelist Margaret Wander Bonanno’s Star Trek
novel <i>Stranger From the Sky </i>reached the New York Times Best Seller list
in 1994. Her other Star Trek fiction
includes <i>Saturn’s Child</i>, co-written with Nichelle Nichols.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Reuben Klamer designed an early TOS phaser. Robert Fletcher (Wycoff) designed costumes
for the first four Trek features. Chuck
Hicks was a stunt player for TNG and two movies, but got his acting moment as
the drugged soldier in TNG’s debut episode, “Encounter at Farpoint.” Gil Mosko
was a makeup artist for three series and three features. Robert Herrion and Anthony Sillia were stunt
players on the first Star Trek pilot, “The Cage.” </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiDakzqIKDHC6UWP1isgRjK-RV1QCT87gGJXTXV6EX5Vxtdoc_5X8G700-4aZhFr64QWDSlGgiyuGYJr-pYelvpQw8DMS3qMALTrNSIrSxAAmbpFYm76pCms4vT2NfGFg4DJLB5YjX5OKSft7NhjgIXr_J7EW4FFISSgzG0pH7jgvMqy5FxRYg=s780" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="780" data-original-width="768" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiDakzqIKDHC6UWP1isgRjK-RV1QCT87gGJXTXV6EX5Vxtdoc_5X8G700-4aZhFr64QWDSlGgiyuGYJr-pYelvpQw8DMS3qMALTrNSIrSxAAmbpFYm76pCms4vT2NfGFg4DJLB5YjX5OKSft7NhjgIXr_J7EW4FFISSgzG0pH7jgvMqy5FxRYg=s320" width="315" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fran Bennett</td></tr></tbody></table>Other deaths in the Star Trek family this past year include:
researchers Kellam de Forest (TOS) and Richard Arnold (TNG), special effects
artist (TNG) Peter Greenwood, stunt players Ralph Garrett (TOS) and Danny
Rogers (3 movies), and actors Mimi Cozzens (TNG), Nathan Jung (TOS), Gregory
Sierra (DS9), Peter Mark Richman (TNG), Camille Savida (DS9), Walker Boone
(TNG), Ron Arrants (TNG, VOY), Henry Darrow (TNG, VOY), John Paragon (DS9), Mary Linda Rapelye
(TOS), Byron Bealine (TNG). Tom Le Garde (TOS), Fran Bennett (TNG), Willie
Garson (VOY), Gavan O’Herlihy, Richard Evans (TOS), Patrick Hagan (TOS), Jan
Shutan (TOS), Mario Roccuzzo (TNG), William Lucking (DS9,ENT.) <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigTcDF0WmLGq9Ff0csy17-IOU1jWRkd-c712y7BnjXSTWkiu7tBIaGLnKSa5T92BEZYzfLh2rhvFwuFhKuK3hLK30m50fUQW0J2ELKE9Zsur64T5KMjIfRbf-doiO57EPFujw19d0mHbJrve2jcv-dKcLURZ-3jKV7rXUi-swW8Hh5r-uoaZQ=s570" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="310" data-original-width="570" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigTcDF0WmLGq9Ff0csy17-IOU1jWRkd-c712y7BnjXSTWkiu7tBIaGLnKSa5T92BEZYzfLh2rhvFwuFhKuK3hLK30m50fUQW0J2ELKE9Zsur64T5KMjIfRbf-doiO57EPFujw19d0mHbJrve2jcv-dKcLURZ-3jKV7rXUi-swW8Hh5r-uoaZQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br />Among 2021 deaths in the Doctor Who family were Bob Baker
(writer and creator of K-9), directors Michael Ferguson and Frank Cox, and
actors Tony Selby, Damaris Hayman, Jackie Lane, Arthur Cox, David Baillie, Myra
Francis, Harry Fieder, Alan Curtis, David de Keyser, Ken Sedd, Bernard Holley
and Clifford Rose.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Apologies for omissions and misspellings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>May they rest in peace—their work lives on.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-39929556234558018392021-09-05T01:23:00.005-07:002021-09-08T01:22:17.494-07:00Message To Star Trek at 55: Don’t Ruin It<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6P4uQpgGmmnKp2BL3i6XKs_TbmlWobIKYLlOo7CQ_EKBxRvv3eC4OaJClsjTeQ2EvlPh2Bjo_F53k4tsMO9GCa6NGeh23-eYK8B4H-z1rmvuet3SqvXx_7wtMlH0VuK3stG6OBQ/s1440/themantraphd001.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1440" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6P4uQpgGmmnKp2BL3i6XKs_TbmlWobIKYLlOo7CQ_EKBxRvv3eC4OaJClsjTeQ2EvlPh2Bjo_F53k4tsMO9GCa6NGeh23-eYK8B4H-z1rmvuet3SqvXx_7wtMlH0VuK3stG6OBQ/w400-h300/themantraphd001.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Star Trek turns 55 on September 8, the anniversary of the
first episode to air in 1966. There are
extensive posts on this blog about Star Trek history <a href="http://soulofstartrek.blogspot.com/search/label/Trek50">from the 50<sup>th</sup></a>
and even <a href="http://soulofstartrek.blogspot.com/search/label/Trek%2040th%20anniversary">the 40<sup>th</sup></a> anniversaries.
But instead of just the past, this time I have thoughts about the future—and
a plea: please don’t ruin Star Trek.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Unlike the 50<sup>th</sup> anniversary, this year sees Star
Trek feature films and television under single command. While the landscape continues to change for
feature films (theatrical v. streaming), in television the transition from
broadcast to cable to streaming is much more complete this year. There are (or will soon be) five Star Trek television
series being streamed. And there are proposals and plans for more, plus a
number of proposed and/or in the works feature films.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The 55<sup>th</sup> anniversary will be celebrated on the
Paramount streaming service with a series of panel discussions, some of which
will focus on the legacy of Star Trek, and one on Gene Roddenberry’s vision
that was the rationale for Star Trek’s particular storytelling. Star Trek evolved based on it, and at its
best expanded that vision (especially in the Next Generation era), until it had
a more definite identity: its soul. The
question has always been, can the soul of Star Trek survive and thrive as the
world around it changes?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Today’s media corporations prize the “tent pole franchise”
with a history and built-in fandom, and Star Trek is again a hot commodity in
the media marketplace. So the
temptation to diversify, to create all kinds of programs and stick the Star
Trek name on them is strong. So is the
temptation in feature filmmaking with enormous budgets to follow trends
regardless of the integrity of what became a unique saga with a soul.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> But populating a story with Star Trek uniforms, even with
characters, ships and plots derived from stories deep in the “canon,” does not
make it Star Trek, no matter who owns the trademark. Nor is slavishly obeying the demands of the loudest fans on
social media. And it’s not even paying
pious lip service on the margins to previously championed values.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik5EmItpZK7MFQezPYliiAQmxSVyKNGMaQkaZBt8gB1u4rA3KENYuObPgZ8GuDqhrA0QTkaPUwuWY2SLi6sYqEi2ohVpe3xcIOf8pRfyj3WV_zHsrEV3RwNPDTzdlM6P9oNH-M2A/s2048/discovery+use+crew.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1106" data-original-width="2048" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik5EmItpZK7MFQezPYliiAQmxSVyKNGMaQkaZBt8gB1u4rA3KENYuObPgZ8GuDqhrA0QTkaPUwuWY2SLi6sYqEi2ohVpe3xcIOf8pRfyj3WV_zHsrEV3RwNPDTzdlM6P9oNH-M2A/s320/discovery+use+crew.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> In my view, the current series <i>Star Trek: Discovery</i>
(at least in its second and third seasons) enacts the value of diversity while
continuing in other ways as well to model a better future through its
characters and stories in the Star Trek tradition. While adopting contemporary visual and storytelling styles, it
continues the mythic qualities of Star Trek heroes. It even provides that Kirk-like, almost over the top acting style
in Sonequa Martin-Green’s Burnham. <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> But another current series, <i>Star Trek: Lower Decks</i>
makes me nervous. It’s a cartoon series
focusing on the lower ranked officers (apparently Starfleet has no enlisted
personnel) that employs broad comedy. For those who enjoy this approach, it can
be a workplace comedy on a starship, with a series of in-jokes for
Trekkies. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> But even though some implied pretensions of previous Star
Trek series and its bridge officers are satirized at times, notice that the
series focuses on what essentially is the starship’s working class, not the
bridge officers. Making fun of the
lower class has been an historically easy comedy reflex. It’s akin to the broad ethnic humor that
characterized much of the American past, well into the 20<sup>th</sup>
century. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2wvsWWksOS15SH2p8XFr66RV1bqzkzLGwK3ToHBgeGT3vbF33I6OU6u24gR9KOhW61O1u0kZ3l2HgNGNaoJo2LOMFavnm5qWWgXMX_6Hvmc8X7X5MhydDBbxairNJGeiLDNmhNQ/s1436/lower-decks+use.jpg" style="clear: right; display: inline; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1436" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2wvsWWksOS15SH2p8XFr66RV1bqzkzLGwK3ToHBgeGT3vbF33I6OU6u24gR9KOhW61O1u0kZ3l2HgNGNaoJo2LOMFavnm5qWWgXMX_6Hvmc8X7X5MhydDBbxairNJGeiLDNmhNQ/s320/lower-decks+use.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />Compare this approach with the much-praised (and fan
favorite) episode of The Next Generation that ostensibly inspired this series,
titled “The Lower Decks.” It followed
several young lower rank officers in a story that is primarily dramatic, but
with the same kind of character-based comic moments as the rest of the
series. It portrayed them as awkward
but learning without demeaning them, and ultimately as heroes.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Classic Star Trek created recognizable characters but with a
difference: the Starfleet culture of the future. Making a contemporary
situation comedy on a starship risks diluting the Star Trek difference and
therefore its identity as Star Trek. The cartoon series will do well to avoid
such easy pitfalls.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> I worry as well about how the (sometimes) imminent Section
31 series could be handled. Invented
for Deep Space 9 in 1998, the black ops Section 31 truly emerged in Trek
fiction during the fevered post-9/11/2001 years in which alien terrorism became
an obsession, and “extraordinary rendition” and torture suddenly became okay,
because terrorism was the greatest danger.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8XNsKwZ4VqIGD_34_97oqWbACjobJBUR6KJHBhoxC7jXQyGh2kleZWxVCIurWjeYoEMJLLE51VoR7QR36VI4uoaYfEoyEEByD7lAWelYckCze4EpTNAB94-B1XUhbXrV8wXlllw/s1947/georgiou-in-sickbay-star-trek-discovery-s3e8.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1947" data-original-width="1387" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8XNsKwZ4VqIGD_34_97oqWbACjobJBUR6KJHBhoxC7jXQyGh2kleZWxVCIurWjeYoEMJLLE51VoR7QR36VI4uoaYfEoyEEByD7lAWelYckCze4EpTNAB94-B1XUhbXrV8wXlllw/s320/georgiou-in-sickbay-star-trek-discovery-s3e8.jpg" width="228" /></a></div> Nowadays we’ve got a deformed climate literally wrecking the
world, we’ve got an ongoing pandemic, armed white supremacists and Orwellian
cults running state legislatures and apparently the Supreme Court—all much
greater threats than alien terrorism, and still the obsession with
off-the-books violence against the violent.
Where is Starfleet’s Climate Corp?
Starfleet Medical bringing public health to the galaxy? Michelle Yeoh is
always watchable, but if Section 31 turns into a decades-old video game,
haven’t we seen enough of it already? <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> More worrisome are two other proposals (or rumors of
proposals) for Star Trek stories. One is the much-discussed Quentin Tarantino
feature film. When it was first
announced, and met with near universal gushing online, I was more than
skeptical but kept quiet because I didn’t believe it would actually
happen. And it hasn’t. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> But more recent news (assuming it is modestly accurate)
suggests the plan was for an R-rated movie (I assume for violence) based on the
original series episode in which the Enterprise confronts a planet run by gangsters imitating human mobs of the Capone era. It’s not impossible for a director as talented as Tarantino to
develop a good story. But if this report is true, it’s really troubling that an
ultraviolent feature with an easily exploited premise was even contemplated for
Star Trek—or may still be.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The second proposal I’ve seen referred to more than once is
for a Star Trek horror series, a truly horrifying prospect. There are so many ways such a series could
shatter Star Trek. Even the idea of
depicting horror movie violence as entertainment in a Star Trek context is so
antithetical to Star Trek storytelling that it could damage the credibility of
other Star Trek series. Though the Star Trek identity can probably survive two
cartoon shows, it is already being diluted. A horror series attacks that
identity directly.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> (If the idea is inspired by the Borg and the First Contact
feature, we may be actually talking about a Star Trek zombie series. But that
sounds like simple and degrading exploitation.
Star Trek is not genre cardboard.)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Star Trek became an international phenomenon partly because
of what it stood for, and how it told its stories so that generations could
watch it together, parents and now grandparents and children sharing a culture
of the future. If Star Trek gets sliced
and diced into niche programs for different audiences, its universality could evaporate. A horror series is the definition of a niche that repels other
viewers. It’s a horrible idea. </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZoMfeQ0JHwnqakuCECffsz_HvgS5dD_iNh2xsRKYATeXzv-BdPPOjPAx3kHF9N3yVbPcx1dK0aCI9DoVa9k7ITQJf39SgUtcxtp1-o9AEquISBuXY8qDzygEGTnjWNA8LxwiNAQ/s971/tnguse.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="728" data-original-width="971" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZoMfeQ0JHwnqakuCECffsz_HvgS5dD_iNh2xsRKYATeXzv-BdPPOjPAx3kHF9N3yVbPcx1dK0aCI9DoVa9k7ITQJf39SgUtcxtp1-o9AEquISBuXY8qDzygEGTnjWNA8LxwiNAQ/s320/tnguse.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>At their best, Star Trek stories exist on a particular but
very thin line. They are not realistic, but moment-to-moment they are
truthful. They ground the symbolic and
allegorical in human response. They deal with the complexities of existence,
through heroes and heroic institutions. They may contain irony and even
physical comedy, but basically they are sincere. They provide models in the
future for people in the present, and models of a culture worth aspiring to and
especially worth building. <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> For all its drama and science fiction adventure, in the
classic sense Star Trek has also always been a comedy. It follows the classic U
shape of comedy defined by literary critic Northrup Frye and others: the story
starts at a high point when all’s right with the world, plunges into
difficulties with whatever danger it faces, confronts the danger at its worst,
then ascends as it works together to solve the problem, until it basically
reaches the high point where it started,though with something added, like
knowledge, even wisdom. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> This is not exactly real life; this is Story World. But it is the kind of story that Star Trek
is. It is the way it explores and
excites, dazzles and inspires. It is how it contributes to the lives of its
viewers, the aspirations of the culture, and the soul of the future.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> In a way, new Star Trek shows are none of my business. I am not the audience for them. But still, I repeat my plea:
in the rush to “expand the Star Trek universe,” please don’t ruin it. Because if you do, you could ruin to some
degree not only its future but its 55 year old past.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><i>I've revised part of this piece thanks to a comment correction by Unknown, about which one of the original series episodes was the basis for the proposed Tarentino Star Trek film. </i></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-28556409675228579362021-03-29T22:55:00.001-07:002021-03-29T23:00:37.881-07:00Discovering Discovery<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQE-uY3wGT-K35hq1bN4l1z_UI39PVcDymMDche_otVO1cQqCSd-LjdUGuEgWNnH3KutZTt2lBOGEJHaDQzsPfDE6P_2zXbSIjzZUAOAVdvCLtETPnYIgAVCicsMspUVcLV6WVaQ/s1100/burn.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1100" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQE-uY3wGT-K35hq1bN4l1z_UI39PVcDymMDche_otVO1cQqCSd-LjdUGuEgWNnH3KutZTt2lBOGEJHaDQzsPfDE6P_2zXbSIjzZUAOAVdvCLtETPnYIgAVCicsMspUVcLV6WVaQ/w640-h408/burn.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /> The first season of <i>Star Trek: Discovery </i>I’ve watched
all the way through was its most recent: its third season. Although I didn’t
exactly binge-watch, I did wait until all the episodes were available to
begin. I read capsule descriptions
before watching an episode but little of the media and none of the social media
chatter. Because I hadn’t seen previous
seasons, I’m sure I missed character and plot developments, but basically I had
no trouble following the arc of this season or the individual stories.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The season begins with the Federation starship Discovery
science officer Michael Burnham arriving alone from <i>Discovery</i>’s pre-Kirk
era to the year 3188, which is approximately 800 years after the 24<sup>th</sup>
century era of The Next Generation (including the <i>Picard</i> series) and
therefore farther in the future than any previous Star Trek story has yet been
set.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The problem of
imagining and showing technology of a future that far ahead is partly
ameliorated by what Burnham discovers: that more than a century before, a
sudden and inexplicable accident (called “the burn”) destroyed most of the
dilithium that fueled warp drive, along with the starships using it, everywhere
in the universe. The implication is
that in the resulting disconnection and chaos, technological advancement mostly
stopped. Reference is made to the 23<sup>rd</sup> century as a kind of golden
age of technology. By now, the
continuity of technology in Star Trek is such a complete muddle that this
incongruity barely registers. It’s become
part of the suspension of disbelief necessary to watch the new shows. But the “burn” and subsequent falling apart
of the Federation is the major driver of this season’s stories.</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6wmw7DEX_yZ4ljfBU96iVDsq9gtmTi_jHuMryIneSH2waFFlD4JRKTupl229StrFEPs9MheFyvF8B-0JNraPjFwMb5RWukkSKSNgaXv5F5P12hyphenhyphenqOc8EWWPvRPvNk9_1vsEJciA/s1600/burnsaru.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6wmw7DEX_yZ4ljfBU96iVDsq9gtmTi_jHuMryIneSH2waFFlD4JRKTupl229StrFEPs9MheFyvF8B-0JNraPjFwMb5RWukkSKSNgaXv5F5P12hyphenhyphenqOc8EWWPvRPvNk9_1vsEJciA/s320/burnsaru.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> Burnham (played by Sonequa Chaunte’ Martin-Green) meets
Cleveland “Book” Booker (David Ajala), a “courier” with his own spaceship. They “meet cute” (as the old movie cliche
goes) and go off together, he to rescue threatened species and she to search
for Discovery, which was to follow her.
The starship arrives in the second episode, and Burnham finds it in the
third. By the fifth episode, Discovery
has located the remnants of the Federation, rejoins it, gets an upgrade (with
“programmable matter,” the chief innovation in technobabble.) Discovery becomes especially valuable to the
Federation because it employs a “spore drive” that can take it anywhere
instantaneously without dilithium. And
the story goes on from there.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Thanks to the quality of acting and characterization, I
pretty quickly bought into this Discovery crew, and of course that’s essential,
not only to the arc of the season but to the individual and often
character-driven episodes.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVPpwuESdBGnKLrLU12fNmj361KBSMlOyM-V4htZ3SbOvBjq52KzfVFkXLXwzFsvfrzI1LzsWPojouLox71jf947Ys69keMrI4QNoMk-Z0FFS8gyrCxt-E5Th2vQsUPDP5tCAM5w/s1200/disc+4cast.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVPpwuESdBGnKLrLU12fNmj361KBSMlOyM-V4htZ3SbOvBjq52KzfVFkXLXwzFsvfrzI1LzsWPojouLox71jf947Ys69keMrI4QNoMk-Z0FFS8gyrCxt-E5Th2vQsUPDP5tCAM5w/s320/disc+4cast.jpg" /></a></div> Discovery visits Earth, the planet formerly known as Vulcan,
and the Trill home world, all of them no longer members of the Federation. All these worlds are tense and troubled.
With the season’s third episode, “Forget Me Not,” which takes Discovery to the
Trill home world, I was surprised to find it at times both dazzling and moving.
That’s become an unfamiliar feeling.
Moments in the Abrams movies and <i>Picard</i> were stirring or nostalgic, but
not this kind of emotional lift I remember from movies and episodes of the
Roddenberry/Berman era. <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> While one of the baddies of the season was fairly creepy,
the villains seemed pretty rote. At least
they weren’t as operatically evil as the Romulans in Picard. The Georgiou character was intriguing, and
her subplot was mildly interesting, but pretty obviously a setup for a spinoff. This sequence however included the absolute
worst episode of the season for me, “Terra Firma” part 2. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> From what I knew about the series, its greatest weakness
seemed to be its dependence on the mirror universe, and all the pitfalls of
that concept were on parade in this episode.
The unfamiliar worlds of science fiction cause a particular set of
problems in maintaining the credibility necessary for drama. It’s a very delicate balance. The cartoonish nature and characterizations
of the evil twins in the mirror universe can easily push it over into
caricature and unbelievability. Despite
some insights, that happened here. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Sure, we all have a dark side, and here in the US we’ve seen
what society going over to the dark side looks like. But there are other ways
to make these points. The mirror universe in Star Trek worked exactly once, in
the original series, because it was a high concept and sui generis. Ever since, it’s principally been an excuse
for the actors to overact, and the writers to relax their necessary discipline
and indulge themselves. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> But this episode makes it even worse with an extended
sequence of what must be called torture porn.
Perhaps an audience used to zombie carnage as entertainment doesn’t see
it this way. But for me it doesn’t belong in Star Trek. It seems however that
these new shows are determined to indulge themselves. The notorious instance of graphic violence in <i>Picard</i> is
why I now always read the capsule descriptions of these episodes before
watching. I want to know what I should
skip, or (as I did in this episode) fast-forward through.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The final set of episodes concerning the dilithium planet
and the showdown at Federation headquarters end the season on a high point,
though some of the plot points don’t bear close examination. These episodes had some intriguing science
fiction ideas, a climax of feeling, and both enacted and stated the season’s
theme: the value and necessity of connection. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVRPwrmVEOCAyQfxOjg6FVqv_H8Az5K6UkVA9e-26QbNHmdUERjDtfPw1TQ2lvYVphOnzr8u8KOGo4-Ia2dbwEGUsH1fdvj6CIKTQZ8k6u4mFXLagRkuTaaSvXEoo83Vep2X-8dw/s419/disc+trio.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="419" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVRPwrmVEOCAyQfxOjg6FVqv_H8Az5K6UkVA9e-26QbNHmdUERjDtfPw1TQ2lvYVphOnzr8u8KOGo4-Ia2dbwEGUsH1fdvj6CIKTQZ8k6u4mFXLagRkuTaaSvXEoo83Vep2X-8dw/s320/disc+trio.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> I did run across a comment suggesting that the story
reflects the isolation and disconnection of a Covid 19 plagued world. I didn’t see that. I did see a metaphor for the current hard divisions in politics
and society, the seemingly unbridgeable gaps between factions (and what is in
at least one case an armed camp.)
Viewed this way, the theme of connection is a powerful one, in the Star
Trek tradition. (And in this context,
the insistence on justice in the final episode is also to the point.)<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The theme works in tandem with <i>Discovery</i>’s most
conspicuous representation of an aspect of Star Trek’s soul: championing
diversity by enacting it. The point I
want to make above all others here is this: as an old fart who was watching
when Captain Kirk first appeared on the television screen, I love that there
are so many strong women characters in this series. I don’t mean this just as a matter of principle, but as
dramatically successful. And when I say
strong I mean full and varied characters, not simply assertive fighters. This series foregrounds them, and I was
completely engaged.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Similarly, <i>Discovery</i> may not have had much Star Trek
competition in the portrayal of non-awkward non-heterosexual relationships, but
this season it portrays them and the characters involved so naturally that
anyone can identify with them. Just as
importantly, these characters contribute and they are connected with everyone
else on the crew. Though the writers
struck gold in using the previously established Trill as at least
metaphorically non-binary etc., more than anything, the actors involved made
this work. The characteristic they played most effectively I thought was
dignity. That fit especially well with
the understated nobility of the Discovery crew.</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw7DaAIS_SD9Ry71rO3-VrY0O_FUy4FWcu5GEl4v24t5KZYYxIPqBTGym1RVbbcs_LKjzi23lI8fHnjS2cUvKw1KEYe4BTMxtC0zZUAqG-khz2WdAnxrt_LqnSE3DPU3mglVRW2A/s1280/burnbook.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw7DaAIS_SD9Ry71rO3-VrY0O_FUy4FWcu5GEl4v24t5KZYYxIPqBTGym1RVbbcs_LKjzi23lI8fHnjS2cUvKw1KEYe4BTMxtC0zZUAqG-khz2WdAnxrt_LqnSE3DPU3mglVRW2A/s320/burnbook.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> At the same time, this season of </span><i style="text-align: left;">Discovery</i><span style="text-align: left;"> gave us an
ongoing man/woman heterosexual relationship with some heat.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">That’s pretty rare in the Star Trek
past.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">But Sonequa Chaunte’ Martin-Green
and David Ajala have such chemistry that the romantic comedy banter was giddy,
with a subtext of passion.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">Ajala
creates a compelling character, with a quiet masculinity, a watchful confidence
and ready but not showy strength. Both actors have charisma to burn, which only
adds to what is among the most successfully portrayed romances in Star Trek.</span></div></span></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Doug Jones as Saru was convincing. He is one of the more
conspicuous characters to depict the difference that the Starfleet or Federation
ethos makes in a person’s sense of self and sense of purpose—something that’s
deep in the knowledge of old-time fans.
Oded Fehr’s credibility as the head of Starfleet was crucial to the
season. But it’s the charisma and
abilities of Sonequa Chaunte’ Martin-Green that thread through this season to
bring it home.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-1371854195266113432021-03-26T21:57:00.003-07:002021-03-29T22:59:18.814-07:0090<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgzgAp0G-_rg6sv1FXMjMrjf8cV6bVlNZFKjV0_EgFy0aAZlXYqGA8UNUcOSMfvwTnqVrX2I-B-x4YvMw2XyBtN0BLZVfApqGyd_Dm5JVsf37PbrVVGnYXEi4InUS9fGjtfpjSjw/s500/nimoyshatn.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="341" data-original-width="500" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgzgAp0G-_rg6sv1FXMjMrjf8cV6bVlNZFKjV0_EgFy0aAZlXYqGA8UNUcOSMfvwTnqVrX2I-B-x4YvMw2XyBtN0BLZVfApqGyd_Dm5JVsf37PbrVVGnYXEi4InUS9fGjtfpjSjw/w400-h272/nimoyshatn.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />Happy 90th birthday to William Shatner (March 22), and remembering Leonard Nimoy on the 90th anniversary of his birth (March 26.)</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-52742193798277892692021-02-18T23:05:00.001-08:002021-02-18T23:25:30.480-08:00Gulliver's Star Trek<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9AVdh4qF7B-0TRHwBeM_oqAm7yAvfA7cvetQ9f8xOsm-0rjyCUlfIHH-kWtauvve7y8wfsKuz-FyzUYM_6qN5NYZv9nlu-leBVwCwy1SbrmTQ8fDRe2HHW7JngfFg-ly-ZUAxJg/s783/Christopher_Pike_The_Cage.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="783" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9AVdh4qF7B-0TRHwBeM_oqAm7yAvfA7cvetQ9f8xOsm-0rjyCUlfIHH-kWtauvve7y8wfsKuz-FyzUYM_6qN5NYZv9nlu-leBVwCwy1SbrmTQ8fDRe2HHW7JngfFg-ly-ZUAxJg/s320/Christopher_Pike_The_Cage.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Captain Gulliver?</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Marking Herb Solow’s death last year, I was among those who recalled his suggestion of the Captain’s Logs as one of his contributions to Star Trek. The idea came to him in discussions with Gene Roddenberry about a book they both admired, <i>Gulliver’s Travels</i> by Jonathan Swift. But that was not this book’s only influence. Gulliver’s Travels is an important ancestor not only of Star Trek but of science fiction in general. <div><br /></div><div> Apart from Roddenberry, the key participants in developing Star Trek from a concept to a television series were probably executive Solow, producer Robert Justman and writer Sam Peeples. In the early pages of <i>Star Trek: The Real Story</i>, the book Solow authored with Justman, Solow recounts how enthusiastic he and Gene Roddenberry were about Swift’s classic in one of those early discussions. It got to the point, he wrote, that they were ready to rename the entire series Gulliver’s Travels, and instead of Captain Pike or Kirk, the starship would be led by Captain Gulliver.</div><div><br /></div><div> A few days later they thought better of it and returned to the original title.
Solow wrote that, having studied Swift’s 18th century book in college, he had more easily suspended disbelief in the fantastic story because the narrator was recounting travels he’d had in the past, in the matter-of-fact manner of a report. Swift was commandeering for his own purposes a well-known narrative form, the traveler’s tale, or the tale of exploration that flourished from the 15th century well into the 19th. Solow theorized that the Captain’s Log voiceovers, placing the voyages in the past, would make them more credible.</div><div><br /></div><div> Unfortunately that’s not what the Captain’s Logs actually do in the series or its descendants. They are updates in the midst of a mission such as questions a Captain is trying to answer, actions they intend to take, or simply summaries of events that have taken place off-camera (during the commercials perhaps)—but the mission being described is not in the past. </div><div> </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjaq5PXoHLrWUSTd8fBzjK0qydtejX0iCw6oq6rMTBONDoJ8nfuMFr-ZaJGYQ2p4cTpAZzDyJGtU1DN7oftY3Nng_6kTCyW9B_BkVfKyqwRB7H0vyDRcRS94I0PwA-8FSRh0Z2tg/s670/cage05.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="670" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjaq5PXoHLrWUSTd8fBzjK0qydtejX0iCw6oq6rMTBONDoJ8nfuMFr-ZaJGYQ2p4cTpAZzDyJGtU1DN7oftY3Nng_6kTCyW9B_BkVfKyqwRB7H0vyDRcRS94I0PwA-8FSRh0Z2tg/s320/cage05.jpg" /></a></div><br />Still, Gulliver’s Travels was a major influence on Star Trek, and on Gene Roddenberry. He talked about one important aspect in an interview.
“I thought with science fiction I might do what Jonathan Swift did when he wrote Gulliver’s Travels,” Roddenberry said. “He lived in a time when you could lose your head for making religious and political comments. I was working in a medium, television, which was heavily censored, and in contemporary shows I found I couldn’t talk about sex, politics, religion and the other things I wanted to talk about. It seemed to me that if I had things happen to little polka-dotted people on a far-off planet, I might get past the network censors, as Swift did in his day.” </div><div><br /></div><div> Indeed, Swift saw his work as a veiled critique of his times. So in his account of Gulliver’s first voyage, Lilliput stood in relation to the neighboring kingdom of Blefuscu as 18th century England did to France, and a number of characters were based on statesmen and military leaders of the time.</div><div><br /></div><div> But had these parallels to now long forgotten people and events been the dominant aspect of Gulliver’s Travels, by now it would be an obscure literary footnote. Other features of Swift’s tale kept it alive through the centuries, and in the process, deeply influenced even the science fiction and fantasy of our time, including Roddenberry’s Star Trek.</div><div><br /></div><div> <b><span style="font-size: medium;">M</span></b>ost modern science fiction can be traced directly back to one author in the last decade of the 19th century: H.G. Wells. In his book <i>Alternate Worlds</i> science fiction writer and teacher James Gunn lists fourteen classic themes of science fiction. Wells is the first author to employ eight of them, and the second or third writer to use four more—which is all the themes except two. Scholar Frank McConnell comments, “The omission of Wells from those two is debatable.” Science fiction scholar Darko Suvin is even more specific: “...All subsequent SF can be said to have sprung from Wells’ <i>The Time Machine.</i>”</div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiih5M_mq1clvcJmBncJ5pjockwTrAYw1i0AJdK6TbEA4UmGbEWpNs0-IlxqI-2eAZ_ybbUoDppT2pnDd6w0qFqYmnjq3T4AIltYPkfo6tN2J3VXlsAskcpUg19ESPuQXWtshLklg/s1000/wells+sf+novels.JPG" style="clear: right; display: inline; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="732" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiih5M_mq1clvcJmBncJ5pjockwTrAYw1i0AJdK6TbEA4UmGbEWpNs0-IlxqI-2eAZ_ybbUoDppT2pnDd6w0qFqYmnjq3T4AIltYPkfo6tN2J3VXlsAskcpUg19ESPuQXWtshLklg/w146-h200/wells+sf+novels.JPG" width="146" /></a> <br /><br />In a preface to a collection of his science fiction novels, Wells noted: "My early, profound and lifelong admiration for Swift, appears again and again in this collection...” And while he also cited its influence in his “predisposition to make the stories reflect upon contemporary political and social discussions," what else he learned from Swift—including ways to use a connection to even earlier sources—is evident in the range of his science fiction. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT5a78WAoJtNUKo9hYKgISEr_4iEZLH042jTwSQX6jkOqngoPb9jzntRSnLrMFB76pwkpPL4MNw3dKk5H0O1oSyQmsi6y5YXUNUtJloQke6EnZqzfWjoRLhl6WjQ7RDUcKNtxT5g/s1198/gullivertrek.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1198" data-original-width="1137" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT5a78WAoJtNUKo9hYKgISEr_4iEZLH042jTwSQX6jkOqngoPb9jzntRSnLrMFB76pwkpPL4MNw3dKk5H0O1oSyQmsi6y5YXUNUtJloQke6EnZqzfWjoRLhl6WjQ7RDUcKNtxT5g/s320/gullivertrek.jpg" /></a></div><br /> <span style="font-size: medium;"><b>A</b></span>t this point it might be useful to briefly review what Gulliver’s Travels contains. Most people are first exposed to it as children, but almost entirely to the story of Gulliver’s first voyage, to Lilliput, where he is an immense giant in comparison to the tiny size of the Lilliputians. In fact, a Google image search for Gulliver’s Travels yields illustrations mostly of this episode. The illustration I use here is from the My Book House series, and the very book where I first saw the story. At least the words I read were Swift’s—most children today see film or cartoon versions that use the premise but not Swift’s writing.</div><div><br /></div><div> However, Lilliput represents only the first of four voyages in Gulliver’s Travels. Gulliver’s second voyage is to Brobdingnag, a nation of giants in which Gulliver is about the size that Lilliputians were to him. </div><div><br /></div><div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFUrgxcBRvlyDwiD27qdUyBQEw_O3VmwxKGkfX54j7lZgZwo3VeUcBrQ60QLw7HEzlRqeZkI9edrb7hS8jtwb2lQ5vBa9FtjyRIAxpC1YH7_0ks1_oOWsuaBgmskiL487Xg5geDg/s1144/brobdingnag.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1144" data-original-width="906" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFUrgxcBRvlyDwiD27qdUyBQEw_O3VmwxKGkfX54j7lZgZwo3VeUcBrQ60QLw7HEzlRqeZkI9edrb7hS8jtwb2lQ5vBa9FtjyRIAxpC1YH7_0ks1_oOWsuaBgmskiL487Xg5geDg/s320/brobdingnag.jpg" /></a></div><br />The third voyage took him first to Laputa, an island floating in the sky, with a population of intense thinkers whose tortured musings on science, mathematics and music led them to contempt for anything practical, like a well-built house. Also, due to their astronomical observations, they were excessively fearful of catastrophes in the far future.</div><div><br /></div><div> Laputa ruled over the continent below, called Balnibarbi, where Gulliver went next. There he found a society that had amplified and misinterpreted a few shreds of science from Laputa, and devoted their society to utopian projects of impossible complexity to be realized in an ever-receding future, while neglecting the work and the efficiency available to them in the present.</div><div><br /></div><div> Making his way home, Gulliver visited Glubbdubdrib, described as in North America west of California. It is an island of magicians, where the Governor had the power to call into being any historical personages that Gulliver desired to meet. Then among the Luggnuggians he learns the disadvantages of living too long.</div><div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU5C3KWz_3v4hx-nXyyT0AyaBXgtemL2rLCxMz09Lc5OIy_3AbLq4_8osql9EosUoYeomNKr7gMR7KUAVkOeVFXkvOp-UMxStCgi7oS1_peaMpAjTcJzRQoFmUwIX7HYJt1ZxWOw/s1000/gulliver+horse.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="681" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU5C3KWz_3v4hx-nXyyT0AyaBXgtemL2rLCxMz09Lc5OIy_3AbLq4_8osql9EosUoYeomNKr7gMR7KUAVkOeVFXkvOp-UMxStCgi7oS1_peaMpAjTcJzRQoFmUwIX7HYJt1ZxWOw/s320/gulliver+horse.jpeg" /></a></div><br />On these voyages, Gulliver had signed on as a ship’s doctor, but for his fourth voyage he began as the captain of a merchant ship. But when several of his crew died of a sickness, he was forced to hire unscrupulous replacements who soon engineered a mutiny and left him on an unknown shore. There he was captured by the Yahoos, primitive humans, then rescued by the Houyhnhmns, a race of intelligent horses.</div><div><br /></div><div> This brief outline itself suggests any number of science fiction stories, including Star Trek episodes. They also suggest science fiction’s roots in folklore, and the basic stance, the secret ingredient, that makes science fiction work in its role of illuminating our present. </div><div><br /></div><div> Centuries after the society Swift was criticizing and satirizing has disappeared, Gulliver’s Travels retains its charm, its magic, and even its relevance. A major reason why is its connection to more ancient folk and mythological stories, and to figures that may intrigue and delight us, but may also have deeper relationships to archetypes of human experience.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSDf1ifVd2kNK3I3FdtDPlRa9exQ2HxYRZq0jsCfB5wPRLiqLeoEO9P_cJNbqy8tHigpr0nfPxRfFcs7kLahF1P604oQ75JbCFZGwDDM9GtL3Ak6DTJkA4MgXKI2dMzp2MYTkGxQ/s777/tomthumb02.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="777" data-original-width="614" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSDf1ifVd2kNK3I3FdtDPlRa9exQ2HxYRZq0jsCfB5wPRLiqLeoEO9P_cJNbqy8tHigpr0nfPxRfFcs7kLahF1P604oQ75JbCFZGwDDM9GtL3Ak6DTJkA4MgXKI2dMzp2MYTkGxQ/s320/tomthumb02.jpg" /></a></div><br /> For example, Swift’s best-known invention, the Lilliputians, were preceded by the “little people” in various mythologies of Europe, Asia and the Americas, as well as Tom Thumb, the first fairy tale to be published in English.</div><div><br /></div><div> There are giants and satyrs in Greek mythology, and magicians capable of conjuring up ghosts in many folk traditions. The very idea of a voyage to unknown lands where strange beings and strange societies exist—I’m trying hard not to say strange new worlds—is the theme of many fairy tales and folk tales.</div><div><br /></div><div> Like Swift, H.G. Wells populated his science fiction with new versions of old wonders. This was a key insight by Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin in his perceptive essay on Wells. (Zamyatin was the author of the pioneer dystopian novel We, as well as a book editor who published Wells in Russia). “The motifs of the Wellsian urban fairy tales are essentially the same as those encountered in all other fairy tales: the invisible cap, the flying carpet, the bursting grass, the self-setting tablecloth, dragons, giants, gnomes, mermaids, and man-eating monsters,” he observed.</div><div><br /></div><div> But the essential lesson is suggested by that bit of misdirection that both Wells and Roddenberry mentioned—by setting the tale in some strange time and place—some Out There—its relevance to this time and place can either be inferred or ignored. It can even be denied. It’s just a story.</div><div><br /></div><div> But that has more general and more profound applications. For another place and time provides a perspective, a place to step back and look with fresh eyes. That idea can then be expanded in all kinds of ways, as Swift did, and as science fiction does. It’s about perspective, about a place to stand and look. </div><div><br /></div><div>In science fiction, it’s about looking at humanity from an alien’s point of view, or looking at an alien society and seeing more clearly the hopeful or uncomfortable aspects of one’s own world. Or, as often happens in 23rd and 24th century Star Trek, clarifying the insights and principles humanity has come to embrace.</div><div><br /></div><div> Strange new worlds provide a perspective—a way to view humanity and its societies as from the outside, or in contrast to very different beings and societies. This ability to stand outside the contemporary world, even a little, is essential to science fiction, and two of its primary modes: the dystopian and the utopian tale.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpE3AkmP4rTugZDhqpxIeWv_kpek69O0dDuKBTPWWkIa4He3qFAm2hawyb2UzLZOHjOD7tdbdVjuzU6kyugSHbQfrPakbIGn5-qUCeUopX38GHvv5pQ08dgqLlL7OOAmT4UJxa7g/s1331/voyhome.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="822" data-original-width="1331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpE3AkmP4rTugZDhqpxIeWv_kpek69O0dDuKBTPWWkIa4He3qFAm2hawyb2UzLZOHjOD7tdbdVjuzU6kyugSHbQfrPakbIGn5-qUCeUopX38GHvv5pQ08dgqLlL7OOAmT4UJxa7g/s320/voyhome.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> Swift did this partly by inference and allegory, but also directly as when Gulliver discussed his own society with the leaders of the various places he visited—first with great pride, but then with increasing doubt and dread. In science fiction this can be accomplished by time travel, as when the 23rd century Enterprise crew visits the San Francisco of the 1970s in <i>Star Trek: The Voyage Home. </i>Similar scenes can be found in many science fiction tales over the years. </div><div><br /></div><div> Wells learned the lesson of contrasts, which intrigue us and provide new perspective. Just as Gulliver learned about his own pretensions when he found himself humbled by giants, Wells’ stories work out how perspectives change when someone is the only person who can see in a country of the blind, or who has taken a drug that speeds up his perceptions so that he effectively becomes invisible (an idea that recurs in Star Trek.)</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLt0EMnAbE_plkCMDeIRg00OTicZQeBIai5yUTDwB-vK_nbN_CV0fiipaMoU2eomtC-Nif-4jyhhCQNpTV7GQN_L0XhZQxZkVaTkx4bhkLbEQkA50WuIrNzZ42aFAss3uHMejzcQ/s400/flashflyingcity.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="318" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLt0EMnAbE_plkCMDeIRg00OTicZQeBIai5yUTDwB-vK_nbN_CV0fiipaMoU2eomtC-Nif-4jyhhCQNpTV7GQN_L0XhZQxZkVaTkx4bhkLbEQkA50WuIrNzZ42aFAss3uHMejzcQ/s320/flashflyingcity.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> Science fiction has often followed these patterns.
Sometimes Gulliver’s Travels influenced science fiction directly. Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon, particularly the Buster Crabbe movie serials, made Flash a kind of Gulliver, as well as pretty much copying the island floating in the sky. And there is at least a glimmer of Spock in the fourth book, where the intelligent horses are models of restraint who, when hearing Gulliver describe his human society, consider it totally illogical. </div><div><br /></div><div> There’s even a little 18th century preview of Star Trek technobabble that opens the second book, where Swift goes into detailed and nonsensical nautical jargon (“We reeft the Foresail and set him, we hawled aft the Foresheet.. belayed the Foredown-hall...and hawled off the Lanniard of the Wipstaff...”), which he copied out of a mariner’s magazine. </div><div><br /></div><div> The lessons of contrast may link Swift to Star Trek in a more specific way. In one of the critical analyses included in the Norton Critical Edition of Gulliver’s Travels, Samuel Holt Monk wrote about the idea of “man’s middle state” that was prominent in the 18th century. Swift’s friend, the poet Alexander Pope expressed it this way: “Placed on the isthmus of a middle state/A being darkly wise, and rudely great.” Roughly speaking, humans were below God and the angels, and above the animals, but human nature contained elements of both higher and lower beings.</div><div><br /></div><div> In its 23rd century way, Star Trek explored humanity’s middle state as the Enterprise confronted beings vastly more powerful and intelligent, and civilizations much more primitive. By changing proportions the way Swift did in Lilliput and Brobdingnag, features of human society and attitudes are revealed more clearly.</div><div><br /></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7IDUxdO8TyHd2vP-LYZuV3gW_Yy8VWn5qOT0BrQ-RsRN8yCJmGFyzWl6-1negkmbAterAlb6ew2pQ-2mJfTngF1rE3fjaOdxA8dMzKZ4eKpk3Vx5lvUWco6dbnZlgFtg7T5oh-Q/s1440/errandofmercyhd656.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7IDUxdO8TyHd2vP-LYZuV3gW_Yy8VWn5qOT0BrQ-RsRN8yCJmGFyzWl6-1negkmbAterAlb6ew2pQ-2mJfTngF1rE3fjaOdxA8dMzKZ4eKpk3Vx5lvUWco6dbnZlgFtg7T5oh-Q/s320/errandofmercyhd656.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Organians in Errand of Mercy</td></tr></tbody></table><br /> Sometimes the more powerful beings are revealed as arrogant and failing in feeling, especially compassion. One such original series episode even included the Greek god Apollo to emphasize human growth from a more primitive and passive time. Occasionally, the higher civilization reveals the follies of human (and Klingon) preoccupations, as in the classic episode “Errand of Mercy.” Often the more powerful beings test humanity through the Enterprise crew. </div><div><br /></div><div> On other voyages, the Enterprise encounters societies that suggest humanity in earlier stages of cultural evolution, or even societies almost equal in development that lack a key insight that 23rd century humans have adopted.
These encounters often lead to the Enterprise crew recognizing the strengths and weaknesses, but above all the reality, of their middle state: their combination of physical passions, emotional connections, mental intelligence and spiritual yearnings and commitments—the constituents taken together and harmonized, say contemporary writers, of the human soul. </div><div> </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkM1oVCcuWcHc3GylOgFzQgus9w1z568UoTnZLncfBGLqdQfg0SjguVKi1J9TnfFdTKndmaudVQACJpMZzgmhJ1ptFU7qg6hKbcRh7WgJAFshMS8EVajNCPB8m7s7SZcNqSnIJiA/s1439/mcoykirkspock01.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="809" data-original-width="1439" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkM1oVCcuWcHc3GylOgFzQgus9w1z568UoTnZLncfBGLqdQfg0SjguVKi1J9TnfFdTKndmaudVQACJpMZzgmhJ1ptFU7qg6hKbcRh7WgJAFshMS8EVajNCPB8m7s7SZcNqSnIJiA/s320/mcoykirkspock01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Sometimes their ability to imagine or conceptualize alternatives proves important; other times their emotions (especially when the more powerful beings are machines.) Seeing himself split in two revealed to Kirk the need to accommodate all sides of his nature.</div><div><br /></div><div> This interplay of qualities is mirrored in the crew itself, especially the so-called triumvirate of the original series: the cerebral and ethical Spock, the emotional McCoy, the passionate Kirk, who understands his need as Captain to preserve the balance of these qualities. The Captain is the hero of the middle state. </div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHHlr_d83CxCYiSAH1a3wTrEwOWE07ixsm8ksy0kOlD0xwndYDZvGbcqbm7LZiqCnyCS4KeREu5AjchFKfFTAIREGPQCemQJ1gV4GfpaghqMdYvCdwS3k6G5s03N21wxbEhVmMWg/s1440/wherenoone_hd_402.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHHlr_d83CxCYiSAH1a3wTrEwOWE07ixsm8ksy0kOlD0xwndYDZvGbcqbm7LZiqCnyCS4KeREu5AjchFKfFTAIREGPQCemQJ1gV4GfpaghqMdYvCdwS3k6G5s03N21wxbEhVmMWg/s320/wherenoone_hd_402.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Traveler in TNG</td></tr></tbody></table><br />The middle state also implies diversity: the diversity of humans on the bridge, the diversity of humans and aliens working together. This also is an example for “higher” beings and “lower” civilizations that tend to be one-sided. (The emphasis changes somewhat in the Next Generation and later, where some “higher” or just vastly different beings are viewed with humility and respect, and lesser beings are honored as all life forms are.)</div><div><br /></div><div> For just as Star Trek stories about the Federation v. Klingons or Romulans are in some sense allegories for encounters between human societies, other Trek stories or aspects of stories find models in folk tales and teaching stories about animals and magical creatures, although often filtered by earlier science fiction or television plots. All of them function as a place to view some aspect of humanity from the outside as well as subjectively.</div><div><br /></div><div> But the potential for using such figures to tell stories about the human condition was demonstrated by Jonathan Swift. And by going along on Gulliver’s travels, storytellers from H.G. Wells to Gene Roddenberry and beyond defined and demonstrated what science fiction could uniquely do. So maybe it was Gulliver's Star Trek after all.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-51581978031540535312020-12-27T22:36:00.002-08:002020-12-27T22:40:45.961-08:00R.I.P. in 2020<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinyNyzt8L7EcDcVu9lAP1J5ZdEq9L06EQ7bpFbvoM-9RnAYmCjMcaTlQNmcxuWAEXf2Dp5qqXCA6xVdgwDOgQB3emNEJSoAwi-INsKwr9k5kBjjaiAdUo97BlW9gDWgJmh-EX-4w/s765/solownimoybig.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="765" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinyNyzt8L7EcDcVu9lAP1J5ZdEq9L06EQ7bpFbvoM-9RnAYmCjMcaTlQNmcxuWAEXf2Dp5qqXCA6xVdgwDOgQB3emNEJSoAwi-INsKwr9k5kBjjaiAdUo97BlW9gDWgJmh-EX-4w/s320/solownimoybig.jpg" /></a></div><br />In 2020, Star Trek lost the last of its founders in Herb Solow. Along with Robert Justman and Sam Peeples principally, he helped Gene Roddenberry develop Star Trek as a television series. He shared Gene’s enthusiasm for <i>Gulliver’s Travels</i>, noticing that it gained credibility by being a report made afterwards. This suggested the device of the Captain’s Log. As a new Desilu executive, Solow guided the series into its two pilots and then into production. With Justman, he later co-authored<i> Inside Star</i> <i>Trek</i>, which besides engaging in the score-settling that occurred after Roddenberry’s death, adds to the panoply of information about Star Trek’s origins and first years.<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglEmCv5EF36nUNDGny3_6yk_QPRBizJyf5wFGx2t2G4hTRcunXbddi-nU4qcSxPnLSQ2CSnmOcbeIyYJU2u_0jrm7x1Qj64oPqDrYXlEJqGjG1ZfkqpOVMrWDIOpiCrN10Pj8UjA/s640/ben+bova+color.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="548" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglEmCv5EF36nUNDGny3_6yk_QPRBizJyf5wFGx2t2G4hTRcunXbddi-nU4qcSxPnLSQ2CSnmOcbeIyYJU2u_0jrm7x1Qj64oPqDrYXlEJqGjG1ZfkqpOVMrWDIOpiCrN10Pj8UjA/s320/ben+bova+color.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> 2020 also saw the death of probably the last major figure of the pulp science fiction magazine era in writer, editor and anthologist Ben Bova. A six-time Hugo Award winning and prolific author, Bova also edited Analog, following the iconic John W. Campbell in 1971. He was an editor of the glossy future-oriented magazine Omni in the late 70s and early 80s. He’d been a technical writer on the first U.S. satellite launching rocket program for the Navy, Project Vanguard, and later became scientific advisor for a number of television shows and movies. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlt4ZNtyGdc41smoemmnwn_mQeVX0RlGWIiuEIesxarnJb-yEUZLVhLQNmVI26ptnIy4ySn78OvOdRjfbGM4rgA8S4NKRWYPIb-AyjDmKa23px6A-NLtbEtef_kpU3IptEeR2Gxw/s1436/the-chase-hd-512screen.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1436" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlt4ZNtyGdc41smoemmnwn_mQeVX0RlGWIiuEIesxarnJb-yEUZLVhLQNmVI26ptnIy4ySn78OvOdRjfbGM4rgA8S4NKRWYPIb-AyjDmKa23px6A-NLtbEtef_kpU3IptEeR2Gxw/s320/the-chase-hd-512screen.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maurice Roeves</td></tr></tbody></table><br /> Among Star Trek actors who passed in 2020, probably the most prominent is Ben Cross, who played Sarek in the J.J. Abrams <i>Star Trek</i>. Cross achieved initial fame with his signature role in the Oscar-winning film <i>Chariots of Fire</i>.
The accomplished UK actor Maurice Roeves played the Romulan commander in the TNG episode “The Chase,” as well as appearing in a classic era Doctor Who story. He appeared in feature films through 6 decades, beginning with the role I best remember: Stephen Dedalus in the 1967 production of James Joyce’s <i>Ulysses</i>. </div><div><br /></div><div> Among the original series actors who died in 2020 were Robert Leroy Samson, Marj Dusay, Dyanne Thorne, Erik Holland and Harry Basch. </div><div><br /></div><div> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCNwSbNR_yMK9efAerUg6ygKK3nIvnXkIRe6ywRxSDOA1zk-5luklG6xAVEZkqSswLdSuXYqnPNGW_rCNj5Kvx7alt39-_3t5qSgHWuOwTcE0-xUE098m2iq1m9tNYfZh35KKjyg/s1436/mrs+carmichael.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1436" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCNwSbNR_yMK9efAerUg6ygKK3nIvnXkIRe6ywRxSDOA1zk-5luklG6xAVEZkqSswLdSuXYqnPNGW_rCNj5Kvx7alt39-_3t5qSgHWuOwTcE0-xUE098m2iq1m9tNYfZh35KKjyg/s320/mrs+carmichael.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pamela Kosh</td></tr></tbody></table><br />TNG actors include Kevin Conway (who also starred in the TV version of Ursula LeGuin’s <i>The Lathe of Heaven</i>), David Lander, Michael Keenan (who also appeared in DS9 and Voyager), Anthony Jones, Edward Penn and Cheryl Marie Wheeler Duncan, William Thomas, Jr. and Pamela Kosh (who memorably played Mrs. Carmichael in “Time’s Arrow part 2.”) TNG also lost writer Lan O’Kun (co-writer of the story for “Haven.”)</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw6J6XOCO5zwutakZPvyY4xxIVL2-PV4ZzAUlqO1uS6XdI1WCik_1Mxq8hdqiQyIWvkE_k8Z8CgAIedIzYfAi5RgyjGVp8z6qzbzSQ1dnZ8_Ot7aA5jsifQ5TIBpfadJl5ZMjI-w/s432/Korena_Sisko+galyn+gorg.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="432" data-original-width="379" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw6J6XOCO5zwutakZPvyY4xxIVL2-PV4ZzAUlqO1uS6XdI1WCik_1Mxq8hdqiQyIWvkE_k8Z8CgAIedIzYfAi5RgyjGVp8z6qzbzSQ1dnZ8_Ot7aA5jsifQ5TIBpfadJl5ZMjI-w/w281-h320/Korena_Sisko+galyn+gorg.jpg" width="281" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Galyn Gorg</td></tr></tbody></table><br /> Deep Space Nine lost actors Galyn Gorg (Korena Sisko), James Otis, William Dennis Hunt, and director of photography Douglas Knapp. </div><div><br /></div><div> Among those Voyager lost were veteran actor Richard Herd (who played Owen Paris), Garret Sato, Mel Winkler and Ryan MacDonald.</div><div><br /></div><div>Tommy Lister, Jr., John Mahan and Geno Silva appeared in Enterprise. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiumzMQSJanFz4XtijBZQALuKOspqRPxBKFOA0p9iLj_IBtMbPquJ5Ev4A-qiaKpoaVoAQbjpcEHS496P-K4jrsTGe37VeZREMxNOc0dbpENJb-SpzDhd_tdBsUbRXdpHiXdoM9A/s502/Son%2527a_officer_2+claudette+nevins.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="502" data-original-width="400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiumzMQSJanFz4XtijBZQALuKOspqRPxBKFOA0p9iLj_IBtMbPquJ5Ev4A-qiaKpoaVoAQbjpcEHS496P-K4jrsTGe37VeZREMxNOc0dbpENJb-SpzDhd_tdBsUbRXdpHiXdoM9A/w159-h200/Son%2527a_officer_2+claudette+nevins.jpg" width="159" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Claudette Nevins</td></tr></tbody></table><br /> George Sasaki appear in <i>Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan</i>, and Claudette Nevins in <i>Star Trek: Insurrection.</i> Stunt player Noby Arden worked on <i>Star Trek: Nemesis</i>. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-orlCsQkMM_FV67yUDn7aI9o8EkgdtNsIaoAFjDrLrBkyFfkoN9iO0CIATmp9lv57mnTQ03Mj62wXH8L4gRpTvR-u_HYjF5d_r5j3_Um9RiVwtWrju5LW_za4iYWXqNecRuQsvw/s1011/vervoids.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="759" data-original-width="1011" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-orlCsQkMM_FV67yUDn7aI9o8EkgdtNsIaoAFjDrLrBkyFfkoN9iO0CIATmp9lv57mnTQ03Mj62wXH8L4gRpTvR-u_HYjF5d_r5j3_Um9RiVwtWrju5LW_za4iYWXqNecRuQsvw/w200-h150/vervoids.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Honor Blackman</td></tr></tbody></table><br /> The most prominent actor to appear in a classic Doctor Who story to die in 2020 was likely the famed movie and television actress Honor Blackman. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxL8fy8QIojfMlCH_XbUu1NAlFU_peK2H2Yvtr1ZWdLuYw4N16FoM3pio51tfUazgodh9lHrY0jWn9mlrFi4DbCB7tNeBurL-AMF6-NnDoe2_Ez35erU3Kjd70zuJXrbCp7VWlJw/s666/Earl+Cameron+dr+w.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="666" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxL8fy8QIojfMlCH_XbUu1NAlFU_peK2H2Yvtr1ZWdLuYw4N16FoM3pio51tfUazgodh9lHrY0jWn9mlrFi4DbCB7tNeBurL-AMF6-NnDoe2_Ez35erU3Kjd70zuJXrbCp7VWlJw/s320/Earl+Cameron+dr+w.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ed Cameron</td></tr></tbody></table><br />The oldest veteran of Doctor Who so far died in 2020: the distinguished British actor Earl Cameron was 102. Among those that Doctor Who lost were David Collins, Nicholas Parsons and writer Pip Baker.</div><div><br /></div><div>May they all rest in peace. Their work lives on.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-38651597735829937782020-07-14T22:18:00.000-07:002020-07-15T23:30:40.042-07:00On Picard: Pretty Much My Last Word<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've finally gone back to see the last four episodes of <i>Star Trek: Picard</i>'s first season, including a re-view of the first four episodes and the last one. I will on no account ever watch the fifth episode again, and the sixth seemed dominated by my least favorite elements, so I skipped it. Though I didn't intend to write any more about this series, I was persuaded to do so.<br />
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I remain impressed by the quality of the acting, and for the most part of the writing and direction. Patrick Stewart and (in multiple roles) Brent Spiner were classic, and Jeri Ryan brought an effective new personality to Seven of Nine (importing flavors of the character she played on the <i>Bosch</i> series.) The new actors had to contend with the fragmentation of the story-telling and the fitful writing, especially if Patrick Stewart's experience in not knowing that Picard would die in the final episode generally meant the actors didn't know the full arc of their characters when they started.<br />
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Those that ended up as the new crew also ended up as appealing and differentiated characters, particularly Michelle Hurd as Raffi, though it's not clear to me how they all got there. The series narrative approach strikes me as more novelistic, and takes some getting used to. Maybe viewers younger than me get it faster. Or there were just too many new characters and not enough time.<br />
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Though the moral questions confronting individual characters are worthy and dramatic, I don't think that, even at best, the story advances the Star Trek saga very much. <i>Star Trek VI</i> is perhaps the most specific of many examples that cover much the same territory about fears of the Other, and <i>Generations</i> made the case for mortality as defining what's human (although this series takes it further, to a point that seems dubious to me--but that's a broader philosophical question.) Questions that arise from artificial life forms were dramatized in both the Next Generation and Voyager series. And to me other such questions were dealt with more artfully in the Spielberg/Kubrick feature film, <i>A.I</i>.<br />
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The episode with the Rikers was a high point, less fan service than a concise and convincing portrait of this aging couple, and their tragedy that resulted from the Federation's synthetics ban. At the same time, their daughter (played beautifully by Lulu Wilson) represented youthful hope.<br />
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There were elements of the finale that didn't pass the smell test for me, such as Soji's sudden total identification with the synths, to the point of pleading with Picard to see things from "our" point of view, as they were about to wipe out intelligent biological life, when she had consciously been a non-human synth for about five minutes. Her villainous doppelganger, like the Romulan sister and brother, was cartoonishly evil. (But then so is Donald Trump, so maybe that was the point.) The synths we saw on their planet were generally as lively as manikins, and seemed about as smart.<br />
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The finale itself seemed rushed, while earlier episodes seemed overly elaborated, even granted the character moments. But this gets into a broader point of where this series falls in television history, and in Star Trek.<br />
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<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">S</span></b>tar Trek: The Next Generation</i> was born into a world of television in which cable channels were starting to be influential with original programming, but which was still dominated by the three broadcast networks.<br />
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The original series <i>Star Trek</i> got its second and bigger life through syndication (often on small UHF stations with weaker signals that themselves got new and bigger life when they were included on cable systems.) The Next Generation was produced to go directly to syndication, and its success (including a prime time Emmy nomination for Best Dramatic Series) helped change television.<br />
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Now television fiction has gone through cable to streaming services, which have developed their own forms and preferences. The 8 to 12 episode series, sometimes released all at once, has become something of a standard. Dramatic shows are less often a series of separate stories in a common story universe and continuous time-line, than a single season-long story told in fragments. The model in many ways for fiction in a fictional and fantastic world became <i>Game of Thrones,</i> with fiction in a purportedly realistic world modeled after, for example, <i>House of Cards</i>.<br />
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To maintain interest and create buzz, character and plot developments are often sensational and extreme. There might be a kind of winking quality to this, a "meta" fiction vibe that exploits the most simplistic techniques for effect while simultaneously inviting the audience to laugh ironically at it all--and tweet about it as they watch. <br />
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I might isolate two elements of this new television world as they apply to <i>Picard</i>. The first element is the new relationship of fans to the storytelling, represented by the new term, "fan service."<br />
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The new dramas depend on buzz that is maintained on social media and through websites, more or less the equivalent of continuous fan magazines. "Tentpole" movies are marketed in a similar way, with creators interacting with fans. While Gene Roddenberry encouraged and even organized fan expression and interaction during <i>Star Trek</i>'s network run and afterwards, he drew a stern line at fans being able to dictate or directly influence story and storytelling. He turned back any such demands with no room for doubt.<br />
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To its credit, <i>Star Trek: Picard</i> does little of this. Perhaps the story gets contorted a bit to include favorite characters, but mostly they add a lot to story and the characters. The continuing chemistry among the Next Generation actors is both well-served and inspiring. However, bringing back beloved characters just to kill them off (elegantly and not really for major characters, cruelly and distastefully for minor characters) might even be seen as some kind of revenge on the concept of fan service.<br />
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The second element is the language and depiction of violence. The broadcast networks controlled and still control these, while cable and especially streaming services are largely free of restrictions. In the past at least, the broadcast networks were partly responding to features of the laws governing signals over the "public airwaves" versus the cable and Internet, which are treated as unregulated private property. They also had commercial sponsors sensitive to public upset.<br />
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In the original Star Trek series, Gene Roddenberry chafed under the restrictions of network drama, including active network censorship. But his greatest concern was commercial censorship--in the example he often gave (apocryphal or not), characters in a western were not permitted to "ford" a river if the sponsor was Chevrolet. His approach to language however was to avoid slang and expressions of the time that could become dated, and were not credible in the mouths of characters in the 23rd or 24th century.<br />
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Similarly, given GR's vision for the Federation and Starfleet, the use of 20th or 21st century profanity is not credible, at least in most instances that appear in <i>Picard</i>. The head of Starfleet has exactly two scenes in the series, with maybe three lines each time--and yet she drops the F-Bomb both times. While I laughed, I was also taken out of the scene, and the whole sequence became a joke. I could not take her seriously as head of Starfleet. As a background speaker starts to say in <i>Star Trek VI</i>, just because you can do a thing, doesn't mean you must.<br />
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That goes more than double for the graphic violence, particularly in episode 5. Perhaps the slasher aesthetic, the Game of Thrones syndrome, softens this for contemporary audiences, but to me it seems at best a lapse of taste, and exactly the opposite experience I expect from Star Trek. As I've written previously, children who assumed this was the Star Trek they knew could have actually been traumatized by this violence. I pretty much was myself, also because I didn't expect it in a Star Trek production. (A similar situation to the violence that opened the fifth episode recurs in the finale, but it is handled much differently. Was that so hard?)<br />
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This kind of violence and language has a particular ramification. One result of both network standards and GR's vision of the future Federation was that <i>Star Trek</i> was a show that children could watch, as well as adults. This was true even when <i>Next Generation</i> was not as directly controlled, since it was produced independently. <br />
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This became a cherished characteristic of Star Trek: not only that children could watch it--and then watch it again as adolescents and adults, seeing new things within it each time--but that families could watch it together. Star Trek became something which parents introduced to their children, and they in turn introduced to their children.<br />
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But today's television environment is intentionally fractured, and programs are specialized. This has become the trend within the "tentpole" "franchises," or storytelling universes, like Star Wars and Star Trek. Even when Star Trek had three new series running at the same time, the audience--a general audience-- was broadly speaking the same for all of them. Today's Star Trek television shows are fairly rigidly divided into the action-adventure of <i>Discovery</i>, the adult drama of <i>Picard</i>, and now the comedy of <i>Lower Decks</i>. <i>Picard </i>is now and forever an adults-only space. And that's more than a pity.<br />
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I would suggest a further implication of all this that seems to me expressed by the Picard series, especially when combined with some internal Star Trek history.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">T</span></b>wo things changed the Star Trek universe: the Dominion war in Deep Space Nine, and 9/11. It has never changed back, nor gone forward.<br />
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In an effort to darken the Star Trek universe and introduce more (or easier) dramatic conflict, writers chafing under GR's vision for Starfleet and the Federation went back to old war movies for their continuing story of the Dominion War. Like those war movies, these stories weren't realistic, but pushed adrenaline buttons with hatred, intrigue and revenge. Gene Roddenberry, Gene Coons and other writers and participants who had actually been in World War II and Korea, who knew the reality that no drama could fully express, had a far different vision for the stories they wanted to tell. They told the stories that made Star Trek different, and that gave this storytelling universe its character.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The alien terrorist attack on Earth in Enterprise</td></tr>
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Then just as the new series <i>Star Trek Enterprise</i> was about to take Star Trek back to the wonder of discovery and exploration, two passenger airliners hijacked by terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center, another crashed into the Pentagon, and a fourth was brought down into a Pennsylvania field by a revolt of passengers. This was the day forever known as 9-11, and <i>Enterprise</i> immediately changed its emphasis to fictionalize such a situation.<br />
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It was not a temporary adjustment. Even after <i>Enterprise </i>stopped production, Star Trek novels continued to obsess over terrorism, covert operatives and--reflecting the new U.S. policy--torture. One Next Generation novel actually had Picard's Enterprise (and Counselor Troi!) torturing prisoners for information--an explicit rejection of one of the series' most famous episodes.<br />
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The J.J. Abrams films continued the mood, with an increasingly militarized Starfleet, complete with Nazi-style uniforms. All of this tended to reshape GR's Star Trek universe until new Star Trek had little in common with it but the names and technologies. <br />
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In terms of the soul of Star Trek, this comes back to the essential point: the Star Trek future was at its best a model, a beacon of hope, a thought experiment that said, what if society consciously institutionalized the best human qualities, while guarding against its worst? What if we actually learned from centuries of bloody mistakes, so it was in some sense not all in vain? What would that look like?<br />
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What it did look like was unlike anything else on television or at the movies. But now the Star Trek universe seems to me all but identical with other mostly dystopic portrayals of the future, especially the cycles of war and chaos in the Star Wars universe. It is true that the moral questions in Picard are vastly more sophisticated--but those decisions confront individuals, the basis of most drama. It's valid and worthy drama. But the universe is mostly wrong.<br />
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In this story universe, the Federation is so panicked that it turns away from anything synthetic after a single horrible outcome, with a fanatical rigor such that even medicine is affected. It abandons the Romulans, insuring that they will again be enemies, having learned nothing from the Treaty of Versailles after World War I (or, in the opposite way, from the Marshall Plan after World War II.)<br />
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Starfleet is so stupid that its head of security is a Romulan general, a spy and the fanatical head of a Romulan cult within its secret police. As presented in this series, it's cartoonish. That she passes herself off as Vulcan is interesting, but undeveloped.<br />
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It may seem also a reflection of contemporary reality, when the most transparently buffoonish people run governments. Or when everyone is so easily manipulated, even as the synthetics are convinced by a ploy (colluding in the killing of one to instantly motivate the others to kill every biological intelligence in the universe) that wouldn't pass muster in a Horatio Hornblower novel about warfare in the early 19th century. <br />
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But grant historical precedent to the ease of this deception. That history doesn't have to repeat itself was precisely the message--or the model-- in many if not most Star Trek episodes of the GR era.<br />
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Yes, Star Trek always reflected issues of the contemporary moment. But it confronted those issues within the 23rd or 24th century context of the Federation and Starfleet. How do they handle what we can't handle? Instead, this Federation and Starfleet only tell us that humanity hasn't learned anything. Not much of a future to aspire to.<br />
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In the finale of <i>Star Trek: Picard</i>'s first season, Starfleet rides to the rescue anyway, and our new Picard crew warps off to new adventures, each of them changed, apparently in a changed universe. Maybe the future is better.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-52186435134439476902020-05-04T02:40:00.000-07:002020-05-04T03:27:08.716-07:00On Picard: Not the Last WordNot that anyone is waiting for my follow-up, but I did leave my response to the first season of Star Trek: Picard at its midpoint. The reason I haven't posted is that I haven't seen the following episodes, and by now it's clear to me that it will probably be awhile before I do.<br />
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That's because of where I saw it going in that fifth episode combined with everything I've read about the rest of the story. Though it's clearly unfair to judge a series by the opinions of others, everything I know about the story makes me very receptive to the sentiments expressed, for example, in Stephen Kelly's <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/mar/27/star-trek-picard-is-the-dark-reboot-that-boldly-goes-where-nobody-wanted-it-to">piece</a> in the Guardian titled <i>"Star Trek Picard is the dark reboot that boldly goes where nobody wanted it to." </i><br />
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Kelly puts his finger on an overriding issue, which I wonder if post-Roddenberry era Star Trek creators really understand: <i>"Yet the idea that the grittiness of shows such as Picard makes it mature and relevant, while the ethos of yesteryear Star Trek is now naive or too old-fashioned to survive, feels misjudged. The hope, optimism and sincerity of the original 60s series was in itself a radical act: a way of portraying the future as it should be (a multiracial cast in a time of civil rights struggle; peace and cooperation in a time of nuclear terror), rather than merely wallowing in things as they were."</i><br />
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The objection isn't to the depiction of darkness, or of troubled characters. It is partly on the dominance of darkness, partly on how it is depicted, and partly on what seems to be missing, some of which is fundamental to Star Trek. But I might test my doubts by seeing these episodes if I was drawn to the story. While I recognize Michael Chabon's particular interest in the golem (a theme in his novel, <i>The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay</i>) and its fictional descendants, I don't share that enthusiasm. New Trek's obsession with "synthetics"--perhaps the least credible creations in the Star Trek universe, apart perhaps from Romulans with Roman names--leaves me completely cold, and frustrated. There are so many more important and relevant--even crucial-- themes to explore.<br />
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But I'm getting ahead of myself. All I wanted to say here is that what I've read about the story has left me profoundly disconsolate. Maybe someday I'll end up appreciating this series. But right now I'm not yet ready to risk disappointment even in parts of this series I was looking forward to, notably the episode with the Rikers. In the grips of coronavirus lockdown, things are just too weird now to invite more disillusion.<br />
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However, I do intend to resume posting here with essays on <i>Star Trek: Insurrection </i>and <i>Star Trek: Nemesis</i>, and explorations of the soul of the Next Generation, the series.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-91791294284565853812020-02-21T18:21:00.000-08:002020-03-02T01:59:30.125-08:00Star Trek's End? (With Update)Just as I can't un-see what I saw in the fifth episode of <i>Star Trek: Picard</i>, I wonder if the damage it has done to the Star Trek universe can ever be undone.<br />
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The episode opens with the most graphic violence in the Star Trek saga, by far. It was the worst moment I have experienced in watching television for a half century.<br />
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But that wasn't all. There was further shock-inducing violence. There were fine moments and performances. Michelle Hurd played an affecting scene as Raffi. Jeri Ryan played Seven of Nine with a new wit and panache, more like a character I saw her play since her Star Trek days, on the <i>Bosch</i> series. She presented an ethical dilemma, and her scenes with Picard were excellent. Though she engaged in violence that was less graphic, it was still shocking. It's not just that she vaporized her antagonist, but that she casually killed a number of others in the process.<br />
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And then the final act of wanton violence, in the twist, when the character that seemed to embody the audience's innocence--a kind of Wesley character--turns out not only to be a deceptive double agent but commits the cruel murder of a former lover, and watches him suffer and die, as we do. And that was pretty much the end of it for me.<br />
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People die in science fiction, but the manner of death as well as the reason for their deaths are important. This is but one aspect of this episode that seems to attack the very nature of Star Trek as a television and movie saga. The other is the now unremitting bleakness of the future it portrays, the apparent moral corruption of Starfleet and the effective collapse of the Federation. <br />
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I was in the first audience for Star Trek in the 1960s. The times had elements of hope and adventure, but they were also very bleak, and we felt the assault and despair, every single day. We were just a few years from the day in 1962 when I went to school feeling that I might not come home, on the most dangerous day of the Cuban Missile Crisis. But the possibility of thermonuclear fire and fallout were also part of everyday life, and had been since early childhood, including the Duck and Cover drills of first grade. <br />
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It was a time not only of political strife but of political violence. I was in school when my hero, President Kennedy, was shot and killed, and I saw the gunning down of his alleged assassin on live television. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy--my hope for the immediate future--were killed within weeks of each other in 1968. In between several other leaders were shot and most were killed. In addition, there was racial violence, and several times there were entire areas of American cities that burned.<br />
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Above all there was the despair of the Vietnam War. Leaders were lying, and my contemporaries were dying. Taken by force of law into the armed forces, their lives were never to be the same. More of us suffered trauma, disability and death than any generation since.<br />
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The point of this summary is to suggest that these times we are experiencing right now are not the only bleak times, though I won't try to make comparisons. The 60s was when Star Trek began--and while it told stories involving then-current moral and political issues, it depicted a better future. <br />
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It did so during the political, economic and moral traumas of the 1970s, 80s and 90s. And there was plenty of despair to go around in those decades as well.<br />
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Star Trek was a beacon of hope to so many because it modeled that better future--not just the technology but the behavior, the culture of Starfleet and the Federation. As such it was also a guide for how people could live their own lives in the present. There is plenty to document all of this. Despite the bleak times, Star Trek showed how things could be better--and people could be better.<br />
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This is essentially, more than any other one aspect, the soul of Star Trek. Crucially, it was also part of the experience of watching Star Trek. One of many unique qualities of the Gene Roddenberry Star Trek (from the original series through Enterprise, and the first ten movies) was that it entertained and inspired viewers of all ages, from children to their grandparents. <i>Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation </i>in particular were rare instances of shows that several generations of a family could watch, together. <br />
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I can't comment on <i>Star Trek: Discovery</i> because I've seen very little of it. But clearly this is no longer the case with <i>Star Trek: Picard. </i>If I lost sleep over what I saw, I assume that even children of today could be damaged by seeing it. I don't see a family watching this together.<br />
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I could let Discovery go by, and be watched by contemporary audiences used to this kind of television (the manipulation and contrivances, shock for effect, etc. that I've seen in the few episodes I watched of other popular sagas.) Eventually I made peace with the Abrams movies, and what I didn't like about them. For they were all the products of creators unrelated to the GR Star Trek. They were of little relevance to me, but they didn't disturb the prior Star Trek TV and movies, which also remained the bedrock for many if not most Star Trek fans. <br />
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But I cautiously and somewhat skeptically looked forward to watching <i>Star Trek: Picard, </i>because of confidence in some of the people involved, especially those who carried with them the knowledge of that earlier Star Trek era. Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes were of course a big part of it.<br />
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I was heartened as well as challenged by the first four episodes. So I let myself look forward to Thursdays and a new episode of Picard. That ended with episode five. A day after seeing it, I still feel that the nature of that violence, and the entire tenor of this episode, undermines the Star Trek universe. It makes it hard even to see Star Trek's past in the same way. If this is the future that follows all that we saw, what was the point? The future is bleaker than ever. Humanity has failed. This may reflect what many of us feel about things at this historical moment, but except for individual commitments, it is no model.<br />
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Maybe that's the point. But I repeat: <i>Star Trek</i> did not chiefly reflect the bleakness of the 1960s. It modeled a possible future that gave some focus to the present, and some escape to a better world. Many people watched it like they watched <i>The West Wing </i>during the Bush years, and some people--including me--watched <i>Madame Secretary</i> during these horrific years.<br />
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Of course there is dramatic justification for everything in episode five. But for me <i>Star Trek: Picard</i> has become more 2020 television than Star Trek, and I will treat it as such. I have no idea what the big secret is at the heart of this story, and I now no longer care enough to watch each episode as it becomes available. It's not worth it. My trust in this series and the people creating it is on hold.<br />
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More to the point, I will no longer innocently watch these upcoming episodes. I will read the plot summaries after they air. If I'm sufficiently interested, I'll watch them after the series concludes.<br />
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I gather from the day-after reviews and comments I've read online that this is a minority if not unique view. People seem more upset that the same actor wasn't used for a couple of the returning characters than the violence of their demise. So I'm also not confident that even spoilers will alert me to similar scenes in future episodes. But for me this crossed a line that may not be able to be uncrossed, whatever happens in the rest of the series. And it colors all of Star Trek with darkness, perhaps fatally.<br />
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<b><span style="color: yellow;">Update:</span></b> On his Instagram, Showrunner Michael Chabon responded to similar critiques of this episode, notably on its violence. His response was reproduced by various sites including Trek Movie<a href="https://trekmovie.com/2020/02/24/star-trek-picard-showrunner-michael-chabon-responds-to-more-fan-questions-plus-frakes-interviewed-and-more/"> here</a>.<br />
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In my post here, I perhaps overdramatized the effect of this episode on Star Trek as a whole, and perhaps lacked patience in seeing how Starfleet and the Federation come out in this story, which is the first and only story so far to be set in its time period after the last TNG movie, apart from the setup in Abrams' first movie. <br />
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But otherwise I stand by this post, especially my interpretation of Star Trek's history and soul. I continue to feel strongly that the specific violence that opened this episode is a lasting scar on Star Trek storytelling, as well as a bewildering failure of taste. I am aware of Chabon's skill as a fiction writer. I've followed his career since his first novel, and a little before that--as I taught briefly in the same University of Pittsburgh writing program in which he was a student, though I believe my time was a few years after his. I found his at times convoluted response on this episode to be reasonable but somewhat troubling in terms of Star Trek. In any case I have read summaries of the sixth episode but have not watched it. I don't plan to change that procedure before the series ends.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-61945088895964472862020-02-05T00:00:00.000-08:002020-05-04T02:56:56.697-07:00Star Trek: First Contact (Star Trek VIII)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i><br /></i>
<i>This the eighth of a series of essays on the first ten Star Trek movies, the <a href="http://soulofstartrek.blogspot.com/search/label/Trekalog">Trekalog</a>.</i><br />
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by William S. Kowinski<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">T</span></b>he 2020 television series <i>Star Trek: Picard</i> begins with a sweet dream, of Picard and Data playing poker on the Enterprise-D, though it ends suddenly with destruction. When asked about his dreams Picard says, "The dreams are lovely. It's the waking up I'm beginning to resent."<br />
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The 1996 feature film <i>Star Trek: First Contact</i> begins with a nightmare. Captain Picard relives his partial assimilation into the Borg collective, seems to wake, but the nightmare is not over. Nor is the nightmare of the reality that is to come.<br />
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When the Next Generation crew were scheduled to make their first solo movie (after the transitional <i>Star Trek: Generations</i>) probably the easiest creative decision to make was selecting the antagonist. It had to be the Borg.<br />
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The chief antagonist of the original series 23rd century crew was the Klingons, who captivated viewers and had an expanding presence on subsequent series and original crew feature films. The antagonist of the 24th century Next Generation crew that seized imaginations and quickly became iconic was the Borg, even though they appeared sparingly. "Resistance is futile" became almost as familiar as "Beam me up, Scotty." (So it's not surprising that the Borg show up in the plot of <i>Star Trek: Picard</i>'s first season.)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From "Q Who." Screencaps via <a href="http://trekcore.com/">TrekCore.com</a>.</td></tr>
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Developed by writer Maurice Hurley from an idea by Gene Roddenberry, the Borg were cybernetic beings (or cyborgs), organisms physically augmented by technological implants. The individual Borg were linked into "the Borg collective," constantly communicating and operating with a single plan and purpose. Their general purpose was to "assimilate" other civilizations by physically absorbing and transforming other beings into the Borg. Their technology was much more advanced than that of the Federation, so they appeared unstoppable.<br />
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The Borg then are the sum of many sci-fi fears, taking on characteristics of machine beings, as well as relentless biological beings like ants, and the various forms of zombies in folklore and fiction. (In fact, in <i>First Contact</i>, the 21st century character Lily calls them "cybernetic zombies.") Their closest conceptual ancestors were probably the Cybermen from <i>Doctor Who.</i> At least at first glance the Borg are the paradigmatic Other or alien, so different from "us" that there is no common ground, nothing to engender empathy, let alone rational communication.<br />
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The role of the Borg is related to that other iconic TNG creation, the omnipotent cosmic being Q. The Enterprise first encountered the Borg because Q brought them together. The Borg originate in the vastly distant Delta Quadrant, and otherwise might not have come across humans for centuries, if ever.<br />
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In Q's first appearance in the series premiere ("Encounter at Farpoint"), he was particularly annoyed by what he saw as human arrogance. Indeed Captain Picard does exhibit this Achilles Heel of an advanced society that had radically bettered itself. Though the transformation merits satisfaction and self-confidence, Picard sometimes sounds a little smug and self-righteous.<br />
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Picard bests Q in this encounter but in a subsequent meeting ("Q Who"), Q is again annoyed by Picard's overconfidence. With his vast experience of the cosmos, Q introduces an adversary in the Borg that Picard is forced to admit is beyond what the Federation can cope with or even understand. <br />
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Later, in "The Best of Both Worlds" two-parter, Picard's confidence is turned into utter humiliation when he is partially assimilated by the Borg, and his knowledge of Starfleet is used to destroy the armada assembled to defend Earth. The Enterprise crew rescues Picard, who then provides the key to destroying the Borg cube. In the next TNG episode ("Family") Picard is shown at his ancestral home--the Picard vineyard in France-- trying to deal with the traumatic aftereffects.<br />
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But remnants of that trauma remain buried in Picard, and this is a starting point for the First Contact feature. <br />
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Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore, writers of the previous feature <i>Generations</i>, were assigned to write First <i>Contact</i>. They started with the Borg and the device of time travel, but the story went through many versions and iterations. Eventually they hit upon the premise of the Borg trying to stop the first warp drive flight and subsequent first contact of humanity by alien beings that transformed human history and sent it on a trajectory that included Starfleet, the Federation and the 24th century home of the Enterprise.<br />
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The story would travel back in time, but to an era that was, from the perspective of the movie's audience, still in the future, This decision would mean writing Star Trek history concerning the mid- 21st century, augmenting if not completing the story of how the Star Trek universe began.<br />
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Even at this point, however, the story went through major changes. The first draft that made the rounds within the production had Captain Picard on the 21st century Earth's surface, trying to make sure the warp flight happens on schedule, while Commander Riker is on the Enterprise in orbit above, battling a Borg incursion. Among those objecting to this draft was Patrick Stewart, who felt the Captain belonged on the ship. The decision to switch the Picard and Riker locations was the key to First Contact's success, as a movie and as probably the most profound exploration of the soul of Star Trek in any single story.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Patrick Stewart as Captain Ahab<br />
in 1998 TV film of Moby Dick</td></tr>
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It's not clear at what point the writers decided to invoke Herman Melville's <i>Moby Dick</i> in a key scene late in the movie, nor if they consciously structured Picard's story to refer further to Melville's novel, even mapping it to some extent. It may be that they--or others involved --had studied the novel and knew it well (for instance, Patrick Stewart, who provided the paraphrased quotation Picard recites, and who just two years later starred in a film version.) Or at the other extreme they only knew its basic premise and had never read it, like Lily in this movie. But the echoes add to this story's profundity, not only in the arc of Picard's character, but that of Starfleet, the Federation and the Star Trek universe itself.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">P</span></b>icard's nightmare that opens the movie story is of his real experience with the Borg, numbed and violated with implants, a technological torture. (The camera pulls away from him to show for the first time the immense size of the Borg cube, a move that is quoted in the first episode of <i>Star Trek: Picard</i>.) His secondary nightmare is that the nightmare is over, he's safe and intact on the Enterprise, but he's not--an implant erupts from his skin. Then he awakens to the real nightmare of the Borg invasion of Federation space.<br />
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At first the residual effect of his assimilation experience seems to be a ghostly connection with the Borg collective mind, an ability to faintly hear what it is saying to itself. Sidelined by Starfleet (because of his assimilation, he's not trusted) as the Borg approach Earth, he ignores orders and arrives as the fleet is being destroyed by a Borg cube, a repeat of the past. But this time his knowledge of Starfleet is not being used by the Borg; instead he is able to use his knowledge of the Borg to locate the vulnerable spot, and the cube is destroyed.<br />
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But not before a Borg sphere emerges and heads for Earth, with the Enterprise pursuing. The sphere creates an envelope that travels back through time, with the Enterprise-E caught in it. (The Enterprise-D was destroyed in <i>Generations</i>, providing an opportunity for a new, more feature-film friendly set. <i>First Contact</i> was made as the Deep Space Nine series portrayed a darker 24th century, and the Enterprise-E is more of a ship of war.) Before it leaves the 24th century, the Enterprise observes the Earth changing to a Borg planet. The Borg sphere is about to change the past in a way that totally alters the future.<br />
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Following the sphere back into the past, they see it fire on a target on the Earth's surface. The Enterprise quickly destroys the sphere, undefended against technology they did't expect to encounter. But what was the target? It was an old missile complex in Montana, from which the first warp drive rocket would be fired the very next day. Its warp signature would in turn alert a passing starship, and the ensuing "first contact" would lead to transformations that later would lead to Starfleet and the Federation.<br />
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But none of that would happen without that first warp flight, accomplished by one of the 24th century's most revered historical figures, Zephram Cochrane. By preventing that, the Borg changed the future. Now it was up to the Enterprise-E to save that future.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Encounter at Farpoint"</td></tr>
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As the Enterprise finds itself orbiting above a mid-21st century Earth, we get the first new glimpses of that historical period in the Trek universe since TNG's series opener, "Encounter at Farpoint." We learn that what is now called World War III left 600 million dead and most major cities destroyed, paving the way for the regression of civilization and the post-apocalyptic horror suggested by Q's inquisitional court in "Farpoint." <br />
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Viewers of this movie today, even more than its first viewers, have cause to shudder at the chronology. The mid-21st century is just a generation or so in our future, and scientists expect that global heating will be creating major stresses on many places and on many governments at about that time. The US military and other experts have been warning for years that the climate crisis is the most dangerous threat to the future, partly because of the warfare it could easily engender. If there is a nuclear war, issues arising from climate would be the most likely cause, in our future.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr. Crusher inoculates herself and crew against radiation poisoning<br />
before beaming Lily up to the Enterprise for treatment</td></tr>
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The Enterprise arrives about a decade after the war. But in Montana, Zephram Cochrane (played by James Cromwell) and his associate Lily Sloane (Alfre Woodard) interpret the Borg missiles as an attack by a combatant faction of that war.<br />
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So when Captain Picard and his away team arrive, Lily assumes they are hostile and fires on them. Data disarms her, and Dr. Crusher beams her back to the Enterprise to be treated for radiation she absorbed while checking out the damaged warp ship, a converted intercontinental ballistic missile, aptly renamed the Phoenix. (The movie shot these scenes in a real decommissioned ICBM silo converted to a museum, with a spacecraft cockpit constructed to fit neatly on top of a missile where the warhead would have been.)<br />
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But when he checks in with the Enterprise, Picard understands what apparently minor problems with environmental controls actually mean--somehow the Borg transported from the sphere into the Enterprise undetected, and were beginning to assimilate the ship, after which they would assimilate the planet, and the future with it.<br />
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Picard and Data immediately return to the Enterprise, while Riker, La Forge and Troi remain on the surface to make sure the warp drive flight really happens. The action in these two locations, with this configuration of characters, comprises the rest of the movie.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">T</span></b>he story on the surface is relatively straightforward, often with a comic tone, beginning with Troi getting drunk with Cochrane (this is probably the best-remembered scene featuring Marina Sirtis.) The main action is getting the Phoenix ready for its scheduled flight. Its running gag is that an obviously flawed Cochrane is increasingly uncomfortable learning of his heroic status in the future.<br />
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In contrast, there are at least three threads to follow on the Enterprise, with three distinct tones. One is the relationship of Lily and Picard, after Lily escapes from sickbay armed with a phaser.<br />
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The Enterprise officers must divulge the future to both Cochrane and Lily, for somewhat different reasons. On the ground, Cochrane's cooperation is needed to repair the Phoenix and complete the warp flight that will restore that future. On the Enterprise, Picard must first of all prevent Lily from vaporizing him, and then soothe her into her fantastic surroundings, though he must also tell her about the Borg.<br />
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The result is bringing together and augmenting strands of Star Trek mythology and stating them more definitively than before. On the ground, Riker, La Forge and Troi explain the stakes of the warp flight to Cochrane. A passing survey ship of unnamed but friendly aliens notices the warp signature of the Phoenix, and decides to land and initiate first official contact with Earth. It changes everything. It brings the peoples of the Earth together in ways no one thought possible, Troi tells him, unified by the knowledge of a populated universe. Within fifty years, Earth sees the end of poverty, disease and internal warfare, while humanity begins its star trek (Cochrane blurts out the two words himself.)<br />
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Cochrane sees only the distant Enterprise through his telescope. But Lily is our stand-in on the ship, as we again experience the wonder of all this, beginning with her first view of the Earth's surface from orbit ("You're not in Montana anymore," Picard said, which is a literal statement of fact as well as a smile for those who get the <i>Wizard of Oz</i> reference. This line was apparently a late addition, as it doesn't appear in the novelization.)<br />
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Picard tells her about the Federation, comprised of over 150 worlds spread across 6,000 light years of space. She wants to know the size of the Enterprise--Picard tells her it's 24 decks and nearly 700 meters long (facts that--according to Jeff Greenwald's book <i>Future Perfect</i>--the writers had to get Star Trek technical guru Michael Okuda to estimate on the fly, after first admitting that he didn't really know. The Enterprise-E was that new.)<br />
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Picard also explains to Lily a key Star Trek concept, previously mentioned but fully articulated for the first time here, though according to the movie's commentary by writers Braga and Moore, the words were from something written by Gene Roddenberry. When Lily asks how much the ship cost, Picard replies: "The economics of the future are somewhat different. Money doesn't exist in the twenty-fourth century...The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity."<br />
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This core idea, bizarre to some (including Ron Moore) but increasingly intriguing to others (see my post on <a href="https://soulofstartrek.blogspot.com/2014/03/trekanomics-ubiquity-and-economy-of.html">Trekanomics</a>) speaks to the destructive distraction of money--the need to use up time in "making a living" instead of living, and especially to the energies it absorbs that could be better employed.<br />
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Apart from economic technicalities, the idea is a dividing line. On one side are those who believe humans are inevitably lazy and corrupt, captives of the deadly sins of avarice, greed and sloth who wouldn't lift a finger without the enticement of riches or the whip of the necessity to earn money across their backs. On the other side are those that believe creativity and self-fulfillment as well as compassion and idealism would flourish without the self-deadening restrictions, general enslavement and selfish self-fulfilling prophesies of money.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Original crew's unfamiliarity with money is played<br />
for laughs in Star Trek: The Voyage Home</td></tr>
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Gene Roddenberry's idea of a future without money was an exciting concept that motivated a number of participants in creating Star Trek. "You don't have to work at something you don't like," noted production designer Herman Zimmerman. "You can find the thing that allows you to contribute and that is what you can do for a living." <br />
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"'Where is my next meal coming from? Am I going to have a job next year?' These concerns have been eliminated, so humans could focus on their own inner growth," said producer Jeri Taylor. "When you take away the need to make a living, a lot of other things are possible."<br />
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But there's another element in Picard's calm evocation of his 24th century reality, that of a self-satisfaction that suggests smugness, that human society has been perfected and human individuals will always act according to what he later calls their "more evolved sensibility."<br />
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While Picard's statement to Lily indeed expresses, as Braga calls it in the commentary, "the soul of Star Trek," the human soul is still complex. According to some ancient philosophers as well as contemporary thinkers, "soul" is the essence that involves a dynamic harmony among human elements that involve the head and heart, the mind, spirit and body. A further illustration of this is the Data story in this film.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">D</span></b>ata has been captured by the Borg on the Enterprise, and he meets the Borg Queen--another new element in this movie. She is meant to be an embodiment of the Borg collective, yet she has a singular personality.<br />
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Data has famously been endeavoring to become more human since the introduction of his character in "Farpoint," and has taken an additional step in that direction in the previous film, "Generations," when he installs and activates his emotion chip, and has a range of human feelings for the first time. In this film, in order to gain Data's cooperation (and the encryption code to the Enterprise main computer), the Borg Queen links his emotional capabilities to a new physical dimension--she gives him living human skin. He must deal with the pleasures, dangers and temptations of the flesh. As played by Alice Krige, the Borg Queen is creepy and sexy simultaneously.<br />
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Meanwhile the basic story thread on the ship is Picard's battle with the Borg. These scenes are as dark as TNG ever got. Picard and Worf lead teams armed with phaser rifles through the dark corridors among Borg drones. The mood of horror is accented by Jonathan Frakes' directing; in his commentary he talked about using horror movie moves. <br />
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This is also where we see another residual effect of Picard's violation by the Borg. At first it seems that Picard is only proceeding with the focus and serious intent commensurate with the threat they face. But gradually we see the darkness within him emerge. <br />
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When a crewman in the process of being transformed into a drone calls out to Picard for help, and Picard responds by killing him with a phaser blast, it could seem like only a grim necessity.<br />
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But when Picard ingenuously traps two Borg drones in a holodeck simulation (of the Dixon Hill detective novel world of 1940s San Francisco in the early TNG episode "The Long Goodbye,") he kills them with a machine-gun--a weapon for which they are unprepared--with undisguised rage, continuing to fire after they have fallen. Lily is shocked by this, as well as his apparent disregard for the humanity of the Enterprise officer (Ensign Lynch) assimilated into one of the Borg drones he killed.<br />
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All of this leads up to climactic scenes on the bridge and in the adjacent observation lounge. After going out on to the Enterprise hull (a unique scene) to successfully foil the Borg attempt to set up a beacon to alert reinforcements, Picard and Worf return to the bridge to hear his officers report that their weapons are now completely useless against the Borg. Picard now has only one card left to play: the Borg have not yet broken into the main computer. He can evacuate the crew from the Enterprise and order the ship's self-destruction, destroying the Borg in the process. Both Worf and Beverly Crusher advise that he do this.<br />
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When Picard refuses, Worf calls him on it. "With all due respect sir, I believe you are allowing your personal experience with the Borg to influence your judgment." But he doesn't reach Picard--he only inflames him, and Picard calls him a coward.<br />
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Then Lily confronts him in a now classic scene. She repeats what she has heard: his officers have advised a plan that will save the crew and destroy the Borg. But they don't know the Borg as he does, Picard says, and describes his assimilation, "cybernetic devices implanted throughout my body...every trace of individuality erased."<br />
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Now Lily understands: it's personal. "This is about revenge. The Borg hurt you and now you're going to hurt them back."<br />
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The important thing to remember about the unconscious, Jung said, is that it is <i>really</i> unconscious. It hides, and it has methods to remain hidden. One is the defensive instinct of denial. This is accompanied by rationalization--reasons that may in fact be reasonable, but aren't the real motive, perhaps in part or maybe at all. (Understanding that the unconscious provides rational explanations was a key insight for me in even accepting the idea of the unconscious.)<br />
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So first Picard angrily denies the charge, and here his confident assumptions about his advanced society provide an automatic answer, as a further explanation to this primitive of the 21st century: "In my century, we don't succumb to revenge. We have a more evolved sensibility." It is the kind of smug Picardian statement that drove Q crazy. <br />
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But Lily is more succinct. "Bullshit," she calls. She mentions his disregard of Ensign Lynch, but that troubling memory is too much of a distraction for Picard, who orders her out. "Didn't mean to interrupt your little quest," Lily says. "Captain Ahab has to go hunt his whale."<br />
<br />
Now she has Picard's attention. Throughout the series, Picard's regard for the wisdom embedded in literature was consistent. He knows the reference and at first rejects it with the reasonable rationalization: "This is about saving the future of humanity!"<br />
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"Then blow up the ship!" Lily cries.<br />
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"No!" shouts an enraged Picard, who gestures with his phaser rifle with such force that it breaks the glass of his display of ship models. Yet he maintains his brain's emphasis on the common good, and delivers lines well remembered from this movie, though often for the wrong reasons: "...they assimilate entire worlds, and we fall back! Not again! The line must be drawn here--this far and no further!" But then another truth slips through. "And I will make them pay for what they've done!"<br />
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Now he's said it, and he's heard himself say it. He is after revenge. As Lily starts to leave, Picard recites from memory lines from <i>Moby Dick. </i>When Lily admits she hasn't actually read it, he summarizes the story. "Ahab spent years hunting the white whale that crippled him. A quest for vengeance. But in the end, the whale destroyed him, and his ship."<br />
<br />
He goes back onto the bridge, and orders the crew to evacuate the Enterprise.<br />
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Various writers used the basic <i>Moby Dick</i> story in episodes of one Star Trek series or another, and it was an extended subtext for the second Star Trek movie, <i>The Wrath of Khan</i>. When Starfleet officers first come upon Khan's compound, they find a paperback copy of the novel on a empty bunk. Later, Khan himself recites entire speeches spoken by Ahab in the novel, though without attribution. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan</td></tr>
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The obsession for revenge is an ancient motivation in stories, and all too common in today's movies and television dramas. Like Khan's, it is often revenge for the death of a wife or family (as it was again in the J.J. Abrams' <i>Star Trek </i>feature.) In fact, it is so overused that its appearance as motivation is a kind of signal that the story isn't really about the motive; the motive is just an excuse for the action.<br />
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Perhaps even more insidiously, revenge as motive is seen about as often for heroes as villains. As such, it is usually accepted completely and never questioned. Sometimes it is somewhat masked as "getting justice" but clearly it is "payback" or revenge.<br />
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But here in <i>First Contact</i>, it is shown to be irrational and self-destructive, but also wrong, partly through the <i>Moby Dick </i>resemblances. Picard is angry on behalf of others--especially all the members of Starfleet who were killed by the Borg, as well as all the civilizations that were assimilated. <br />
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But rage over his own violation by the Borg, reflected in the opening nightmare, has been awakened, though it seems to have slumbered for a long time, obscuring his ability to see beyond it and judge the situation before him. This is similar to what Melville says about Captain Ahab in <i>Moby Dick</i>: <i>"…his torn body and gashed soul bled into one another; and so interfusing, made him mad. Then it was only then, on the homeward voyage, after the encounter, that the final monomania seized him…" </i><br />
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The power of that rage is expressed in the passage from the novel which Picard slightly misquotes, and which Patrick Stewart selected, who knew the novel well and just a couple of years later played Captain Ahab in a film version of <i>Moby Dick</i>. (For those who are interested, here is the appropriate passage as Melville wrote it: <i>"He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it." </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
And here is the passage as Picard recalls it: <i>"He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the rage and hate felt by his whole race…If his chest had been a cannon, he would have shot his heart upon it." )</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
But most importantly, though Ahab and Picard felt the same obsessive rage for vengeance, Picard was able to consciously see the error his unconscious was making, and correct it. This is a meta-message of all of Star Trek. It is possible to take a step back and understand, and to act on that understanding. <br />
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This takes a certain intelligence and a certain humility. In this case, it was also because Picard knew the whole story as Melville wrote it. He had that objectivity, because he knew the literature. This is a function of literature, from the great tragedies to the cautionary tales of science fiction. We can learn from it, and change our minds--or more specifically, change our behavior. Perhaps even more than the Roddenberry quote, this is a crucial example of the soul of Star Trek. It's not that 24th century people don't feel the rage for vengeance. It's that they can engage the perspective to understand it and its endless loop of self-corruption and mutual destruction. They can overcome it, because they understand how important it is to do so.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">P</span></b>icard, his humanity reclaimed, stays behind as the crew evacuates, in order to rescue his missing friend, Data, who is a Borg captive in engineering. He confronts the Borg Queen, and his memory of her is revived--she had wanted him, as Locutus, to be by her side as an equal. He had refused.<br />
<br />
Now he accepts that offer, if she releases Data. The Borg Queen admires his nobility, but she has already won Data's loyalty. Data cancels the Enterprise self-destruction sequence, and she orders him to fire torpedoes to destroy the Zephram Cochrane ship, now in flight but not yet in warp. He seems about to do so, but the torpedoes go astray and Data punctures a pipe that releases plasma coolant, deadly to flesh and organic life (a plan that Picard has proposed earlier in the story.)<br />
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Picard grabs a cable and climbs up beyond the coolant's spread, as the Borg Queen attempts to follow. But Data--his new flesh seared off-- pulls her down, and Picard later severs what's left of her spinal cord. Just as Picard has overcome the pain that fueled revenge, Data has overcome the temptation of sensual pleasure that threatened to undermine his integrity. He'd considered it, he admits to Picard--for "0.68 seconds. For an android, that is nearly an eternity." <br />
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While all this was happening on the Enterprise, Riker and La Forge were in the Phoenix, behind pilot Zephram Cochrane. As they prepared for launch, Cochrane has finally had enough of the 24th century revisionism about his heroic vision. He admits that he built the warp drive not for a noble cause but to make money, so he could retire to a tropical island.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">When the Phoenix deploys its nacelles, it's a visual connection to<br />
starships to follow. Theater audiences applauded.</td></tr>
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This is the final payoff to the anti-hero portrait of Cochrane, doubly ironic in that it both complicates the hero worship that had become much too larger than life by the 24th century, and it asserts that the future without the degradations of money began with money as the motivating desire. (Though it is likely that Cochrane is exaggerating a bit.) The warp flight is accomplished.<br />
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The Cochrane scenes are clever, and thanks to actor James Cromwell, they work within the movie, especially as release from the intense Enterprise scenes. And whether intended or not, this portrait of Cochrane inevitably suggests a covert take on another flawed hero with a vision: Gene Roddenberry. But Cochrane as portrayed--as a fairly clueless drunk with a taste for rock and roll-- lacks credibility as the inventor of warp drive. <br />
<br />
However, J.M. Dillard's excellent novelization adds details (which may have been part of earlier scripts) that makes this Cochrane more believable. As a physicist before the war, he was one of a group of scientists working on practical applications of the theories on hyperspace. As a university student, Lily heard rumors of an imminent breakthrough. Then the sudden nuclear attacks and the war ended all of that.<br />
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Additionally, Cochrane was diagnosed with a manic-depressive mental illness, for which there was effective treatment--until the war ended that as well. By the time he made his way to Montana, Cochrane was self-medicating both his manic and depressive episodes with alcohol. <br />
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But he still had his notes with him, and he kept working on warp drive ideas. Then he realized that the nuclear warhead of the missile at the Montana complex could be used to fuel his warp experiment. In a particularly frenzied manic episode, his constant and concentrated work resulted in a workable warp drive. When Lily showed up at the same complex, with a skill for acquiring materials one way or another, together they could convert the missile to the warp drive rocket, the Phoenix, rising from the ashes of human civilization.<br />
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In the movie as well as the novel, Cochrane pilots the Phoenix into orbit, and then on the first warp into space. By the time he is back at the Montana colony (by means not explained, although it's likely the Phoenix crew were beamed back by the Enterprise), he is--according to the novel--permanently cured of his mental illness, thanks to Dr. Crusher's hypospray. He is now ready to become the first human to greet a being from another world.<br />
<br />
Recall that<i> First Contact</i> made its first contact with theater audiences in 1996--in the earliest days of the World Wide Web, well before the social media universe. As a member of such an audience, I can testify to the experience--especially this part of it. When an alien ship slowly landed in the Montana night, and its door opened and walkway extended, we in the audience did not know who we were going to see emerge from that ship. The identity of the species to make first contact had been a secret, and it was kept.<br />
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So when the tall alien lowered the hood from his head and we saw the Vulcan ears, there was an audible gasp all around me. A quiet thrill ran through the rows of us, bathed in the same light of wonder, joy and hope. A Star Trek circle was joined, from Spock and Kirk to the 24th century and back to the beginning (including the 22nd century to be explored in the series <i>Enterprise</i>), and even further back--to us. <br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">S</span></b>o much came together in <i>First Contact</i>--the Star Trek TV and movie universe at its most popular point, the continued creativity at a high level of Star Trek veterans like designer Herman Zimmerman and composer Jerry Goldsmith, the story and script that came from Moore and Braga, but also Rick Berman, Patrick Stewart and others.<br />
<br />
That a narrative with so many moving parts appeared seamless was partly miraculous but largely due to Jonathan Frakes' direction. It combined the extra juice and creativity inspired by a first feature with Frakes' familiarity with the Star Trek universe, and his great working relationship with his fellow actors, friends and Enterprise crew members. <br />
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I re-watched the Special Collectors Edition DVD with Frakes' commentary that is also included with the Blu-Ray. Frakes takes what has become an unusual approach to commentaries: he responds to the scenes he's actually watching rather than talking about whatever comes into his head (Braga and Moore mostly do this also, though they wander off on meeting Prince Charles during key scenes.) Frakes is engaging and interesting, and a perfect companion. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Neal McDonough as Hawk</td></tr>
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Frakes credits his prior friendship with 1983 Academy Award Best Supporting Actress nominee Alfre Woodard for helping to get her in the cast. James Cromwell was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar the same year as <i>First Contact</i> was released, for a film he'd made the year before, <i>Babe.</i> Neal McDonough, who played the unfortunate bridge officer Hawk, went on to appear in many movies and TV series, including <i>Minority Report, Captain America</i>, TV's <i>Arrow, Van Helsing</i> and the current series <i>Project Blue Book</i>.<br />
<br />
<i>First Contact</i> was made as CGI visual effects were starting to mature (all the ships exteriors were computer generated, with the exception of the huge Enterprise deflector dish set) while traditional sets, models and practical special effects were also employed. According to Frakes' commentary, this was the last Star Trek movie to use visual effects by the Star Wars-associated Industrial Light and Magic. A lot of the film was shot on actual locations: the Arizona missile museum and Angeles National Forest outside Los Angeles standing in for Montana, and the art deco lobby of the Los Angeles Union Station train depot as the nightclub in the Dixon Hill holodeck scene.<br />
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It was so successful as a Star Trek movie that fans mostly overlooked plot holes, and beyond fandom, it was arguably the most successful Star Trek film with general audiences since <i>The Voyage Home</i>. It remains secure within the Star Trek canon as a high point of The Next Generation and an expression of the soul of Star Trek.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-23857607035048798152020-01-31T21:39:00.003-08:002020-02-01T05:34:38.956-08:00Star Trek Picard: Understanding Darkness<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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After two episodes, the dimensions of <i>Star Trek: Picard</i> success so far are clearer. The first episode was not only widely watched, it was the most watched program in the short history of CBS All Access streaming. And not only was the first episode well-received by critics, it scored an amazing 95% approval rating on the most monitored Rotten Tomatoes site.<br />
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The show has certainly brought interest back to Star Trek, and with that interest, a number of misconceptions are revealed. For example, that all elements of the future portrayed in past Trek--including the Federation and Starfleet--were positive and "optimistic." <br />
<br />
A GQ <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/michael-chabon-star-trek-picard-interview"><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">interviewer</span></a> reflected this in a question to writer, executive producer and first season showrunner Michael Chabon: "Was there a conscious effort to include the sense of old-school optimism that’s so integral to Star Trek?"<br />
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Chabon, who knows his Trek, answered: "I think that optimism is an easily misunderstood term. There’s this misconception that Star Trek was always sunshine and roses. But its optimism was hard-won. It was always fairly clear-eyed about the darkness in the human soul. The potential for violence, for greed, for criminality, for hatred. All of that felt very much present from the very first episode of Star Trek in ‘66. It’s just that people are working their asses off to overcome it, and it’s a constant effort. It’s always there, even in the episode titles: “The Enemy Within.” “The Turnabout Intruder.” That dark side of human nature is always waiting to emerge again.
So, is that optimism? It is optimism, but it’s a very sober optimism that understands darkness. It’s a deliberate, conscious optimism that goes hand-in-hand with the kind of clear-eyed vision that allows you to reflect the times that you’re living in."<br />
<br />
The darkness in this show reflects the darkness of our time, of literally the days we are seeing these episodes, in at least a few aspects. There is one notable expression of that darkness, if "the synths" are seen as metaphors for migrant and immigrant populations, or any other Others. (It's more than foreshadowed that the ultimate Others, the Borg, are going to have a more complex role in this story.) But being aware of the darkness, knowing it when you see it, and doing something about it are the keys. By seeing through Picard's eyes, we can see the darkness contrary to the soul of Star Trek. I'm certainly staying tuned.<br />
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Meanwhile, I'm working on my First Contact review. It should be up soon.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-84794322120798132942020-01-25T21:47:00.001-08:002020-01-25T21:47:18.488-08:00Star Trek: Picard--It's A Hit!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The first episode of <i>Star Trek: Picard</i> has already won widespread praise from critics and fans. Patrick Stewart's performance is almost universally lauded. Some suggest the series is the most successful Trek since the 2009 <i>Star Trek</i> feature film. Others go further back, to the 1996 feature, <i>Star Trek: First Contact</i>.<br />
<br />
In honor of the new series, I plan to complete my retro-reviews of the first 10 Star Trek features (the "Trekalog"), and the next film on the list happens to be <i>First Contact. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
That film, and the two that follow, constitute the last times we saw Jean-Luc Picard. The first episode of the new series contains several echoes of<i> First Contact</i> and subsequent movies as well as <i>Star Trek: The Next Generation </i>series episodes. So these reviews may shed light on the new series as well.<br />
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So watch this space.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-40838268299194116282019-12-29T00:31:00.000-08:002020-01-25T22:10:16.237-08:00R.I.P. 2019 The Star Trek Family<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Early December 2019 was especially devastating for the Star Trek family. On December 2 came the death of D.C. Fontana, among the last major links to Star Trek's beginning. Starting out as a secretary, she wrote and rewrote early episodes and--rare in network TV as well as science fiction--became the series story editor. Her involvement with Star Trek spanned 40 years, including an episode for <i>Star Trek: New Voyages. </i><br />
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How devoted to science fiction was Dorothy Fontana? When the remnants of the original time machine model from the 1960 George Pal film was discovered in a junk shop, she was among a group of sci-fi friends who donated their time to restore it. <br />
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Fontana's first episode for Star Trek--and the second to be aired--was the memorable "Charlie x." The death of its star, Robert Walker, was announced just three days after hers, on December 5, 2019.<br />
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On December 7, Michael Lamper passed away. He was the husband of Marina Sirtis and a background actor on a <i>Next Generation</i> episode. <br />
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Then the next day came the death of Rene Auberjonis, a distinguished and dedicated actor, known to Star Trek fans for his portrayal of the shape-shifter Odo on <i>Deep Space Nine.</i><br />
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Another fondly remembered DS9 regular, Aron Eisenberg (Nog), also passed in 2019. <br />
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Michael J. Pollard had several noted film roles, but Star Trek will remember him for the original series episode "Miri."<br />
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Other actors on the original series who died in 2019 include Morgan Woodward, Stephen D. Mines, David Hurst, Sid Haig, William Wintersole and Steven Marlo.<br />
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<i>The Next Generation </i>lost Jeremy Kemp, a distinguished British actor who played Captain Picard's older brother in "Family." Another veteran British actor, W. Morgan Sheppard, played Dr. Ira Graves in Next Gen, as well as other characters in <i>Star Trek: Voyager </i>and two Star Trek feature films. <br />
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TNG also lost actor Barbara March (the memorable Klingon sister Lursa) as well as actor Dick Miller, story editor Scott Rubenstein and writer Peter Allen Fields, who also wrote for DS9. Cosmo Genovese was script supervisor for TNG and Voyager. Ivy Bethune appeared in the TNG episode "When the Bough Breaks." She died in 2019 at the age of 101. <br />
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<i>Star Trek Voyager</i> lost actor Beverly Swanson. <i>Star Trek Enterprise</i> lost actors Billy Mayo and Jack Donner, who was one of only five actors to appear in both <i>Enterprise</i> and the original Star Trek series.<br />
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Other 2019 deaths in the Star Trek universe include fictionist Vonda N. McIntyre who wrote the novelizations of Star Trek movies II through IV, and Keith Birdsong, who illustrated Star Trek novels. Emil Richards was a percussionist on soundtracks for several Star Trek features and TV episodes. James Schmerer wrote for the animated Star Trek TV series. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clive Swift</td></tr>
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The perennial UK series <i>Doctor Who</i> lost one of its giants of the classic era, writer and script editor Terrance Dicks. The world of Who also lost actors Wendy Williams, Paul Darrow, Royce Mills, Stephen Thorne, Ian Cullen, Stephen Moore, Glyn Houston, Clive Swift, W. Morgan Sheppard and Clinton Greyn, as well as writers Donald Tosh, Tommy Donbavand and Graeme Curry.<br />
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Finally, science fiction literature lost one of its all-time greats in Gene Wolfe, best known for his Book of the New Sun series.<br />
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May they rest in peace. Their work lives on. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-56100128589291872772019-08-05T21:26:00.006-07:002019-08-06T21:49:47.317-07:00Star Trek Original Series: Re-Viewing the Third Season, Fifty Years Later <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Fifty years ago, the summer reruns of <i>Star Trek</i>'s third and final season were coming to an end. Most observers consider this the weakest season of the series, limited by small budgets and the growing knowledge that the show was not going to be renewed, and everybody would need to be looking for new jobs.<br />
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This summer I watched most of those third season episodes, and enjoyed them. The season overall may be the least impressive of the three, and several of these episodes are misconceived. But the repetition of their reputation obscures the best of them, and the season overall.<br />
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An element missing in prior evaluations is new, for I watched the latest remastered versions that include new visuals: the CGI intro images, and typically new images of the planet of the week and space vehicles, as well as grander cityscapes and (where possible) planetary surfaces and features. These and other improvements enhance episodes for the first two seasons, but they nearly transform the third season episodes, since they were skimpy on such effects. These new images that usually begin the episode encourage a fresh look at them, perhaps with the wonder that accompanied first viewing in 1969.<br />
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I was also reminded that when I tuned into Star Trek in syndication in the mid 1970s, many of the first episodes I saw were from this third season. I watched these stories every afternoon, and the cumulative effect was pronounced. It was the very nature of these episodes--tight dramas, character and idea-driven morality plays--that made me a long-term Star Trek enthusiast.<br />
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Another feature of this season is the final definition of the major characters of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock. Kirk's romantic involvements may be many, but they are not merely the conquests that critics call them. Taken individually, they make sense. Taken cumulatively, these episodes demonstrates Kirk as the active principle as well as the principal character. Spock is the reactive character, calm where Kirk is excitable, deliberate where Kirk is intuitive. But when in command, Spock as well as Kirk is decisive, though with different factors in his decisions. Fascinating.<br />
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Despite Leonard Nimoy's many acerbic comments about the third season scripts, his portrayal of Spock during this season is definitive. I'd watched episodes from all three seasons when they first ran, but sporadically. Since these episodes were the first I saw daily in syndication, they formed my idea of Spock.<br />
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The third season featured two episodes by Jerome Bixby. I've written <a href="http://soulofstartrek.blogspot.com/search/label/%22Day%20of%20the%20Dove%22"><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">here</span></a> at length about "Day of the Dove," a season highlight. The other is "Requiem for Methuselah," the basic plot idea of which Bixby would use in the obscure but fascinating 2007 film, <i>The Man From Earth</i>. A notable moment at the end of the episode is Spock, seeking to ease Kirk's pain in losing a woman he loved, performing a quick Vulcan telepathic fix, by whispering "forget." It is of course the counterpoint to the moment more than a decade later in the feature film <i>Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan </i>in which the dying Spock whispers to Dr. McCoy, "Remember."<br />
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Other highlights of the season might include "Is There in Truth No Beauty?," "Wink of An Eye," "The Cloud Minders" (in which Star Trek deals with class issues, a more common theme in classic Doctor Who) and "All Our Yesterdays." "Plato's Stepchildren" made television history with the first interracial kiss. <br />
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Other usually derided episodes turn out to be not so bad, such as "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" (in which McCoy gets the romance), "And the Children Shall Lead," even "The Paradise Syndrome," "The Savage Curtain," and "Spock's Brain" (which is silly but fun.) I can't begin to defend the gender politics of "Turnabout Intruder," an unfortunate way to end the series. (Ironically the worst episodes of the season were written by Gene Roddenberry and Gene Coon, who in prior years together created the character of Star Trek as well as many of its best episodes.)<br />
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But I also saw third season episodes that are hardly ever mentioned favorably, but were among those that first drew me to Star Trek. They include the stage-set morality plays I still find fascinating: " Spectre of the Gun" and especially "The Empath." If there is one episode I remember that got my attention when I saw it in syndication, it was "The Empath," a story told on essentially a bare set--yet with those challenging issues and ideas that set Star Trek apart from other science fiction. That the character of the Empath communicates basically through movement was brilliant, and is still enchanting.<br />
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Yes, the costumes and sets are often laughable, but Star Trek often played near the edge of the absurd. I noticed something else when watching these episodes: the skill with which they built suspense, layering on the jeopardy. I remember that also was a big attraction.<br />
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I appreciate again that the stories are actually about strange new worlds, and not Federation politics and personalities, or spies and warfare--easy devices to hold viewers, but not what Star Trek was about.<br />
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I also miss the relative modesty of the stakes. The Enterprise and members of its crew were often in danger. A planet that needed medical supplies, or was in the path of an asteroid, were crises enough. These episodes didn't need to put Earth or the galaxy or the fabric of the universe in danger of extinction every week. They created drama on more of a human scale. They are a real relief from the meaningless and bloated clashes of superheroes invented for the purpose of creating jeopardy and adrenalin-surging CGI battles. <br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">A</span></b>nother historical note: While these episodes were re-running, the first human <a href="http://soulofstartrek.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-first-step.html"><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">stepped</span></a> foot on the Moon. It was the culmination of the US manned space program which had been ongoing for a decade, including the three years Star Trek was on NBC's weekly schedule. But it came at Star Trek's lowest point. <br />
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The series had been cancelled, which until then permanently sealed the fate of a show. William Shatner, not only unemployed but broke (due to a recent divorce), described watching the moon landing on a portable TV set, trying to hold its uncertain reception as he reclined in the back of his truck, which was his traveling home while doing summer theatre. The fictional Captain Kirk of the starship Enterprise watched the actual moon landing alone in an empty parking lot.<br />
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When the third season reruns ended, fifty summers ago, it seemed that Star Trek was nothing more than a failed television series, and would never be seen or heard from again.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-35954029596746652192019-07-20T00:00:00.000-07:002019-08-06T01:54:17.965-07:00The First Step<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">F</span></b>ifty years ago today, a human being first set foot on another world for the first time. Some 600 million people on Earth were watching and listening as Neil Armstrong descended to the surface of the Moon from the Apollo 11 lunar lander, saying (in words slightly obscured by static) <i>"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."</i><br />
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Those of us who were alive and old enough usually remember where we were. I was visiting Colorado, and had spent the afternoon in a car winding through the dry bare mountains near Denver, which seemed to me as desolate as a moonscape. Kathi, the driver, and my girlfriend Joni were from Denver and we were seeing the sights, but I remember this landscape (and possibly the thin air that I wasn't used to) just made me despondent.
A few hours later we were in the basement rec room of Kathi's parents' house as we watched the ghostly image of Armstrong on the Moon.<br />
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I felt it--that I was watching in real time an extraordinary moment in human history. At the same time, that indistinct black and white image was a little like watching Captain Video on an early black and white television set when I was five or six.
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nichelle Nichols, Neil Armstrong
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Years later the worlds of science fiction and factual history collided again for me at a Star Trek convention dinner. I stopped to speak to Nichelle Nichols at a table in the darkened ballroom when she said she wanted to introduce me to someone. From the seat next to her up popped a man in a suit holding out his hand--it was Neil Armstrong. I shook the hand of the first human to really touch another world.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">W</span></b>ell into the 1950s the prevailing public view was that the idea of rocketing humans into space was childish fantasy, which no sane adult could afford to believe and remain reputable. Then when it began to happen in 1961, all kinds of vistas seemed to open, along with all sorts of fears. In the US, the manned space program really caught the public imagination.
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The Apollo program to deliver humans to the moon was perhaps the last great public enterprise to engage government, private businesses and the public in a large common endeavor, although it was still fairly limited. There was a feeling of common purpose that permeated the program and extended to the media. The story of humans in space, of humanity on the Moon, was so powerful and inspiring that it often overrode selfishness and spin. The Star Trek dream of a united states of Earth exploring the galaxy seemed a natural ideal.<br />
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Between 1962 and 1972 there were a lot of manned space flights, and a lot of firsts--the first American in space, the first American to orbit, the first woman in space (Russian), the first two-person mission, first spacewalk, etc. Then the first manned spaceship to orbit the moon, which focused immense global attention. Finally the first landing and the first humans to step onto the Moon's surface. (Parenthetically, this is why those who say that Star Trek would have done better in the ratings if the Moon landing had happened sooner are wrong. There was huge public attention to a number of manned space shots during Star Trek's run.)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The last human on the Moon, so far...</td></tr>
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There were more moon landings over the next three years after Armstrong, while the public gradually stopped paying much attention. Eugene Cernan climbed back aboard his moon lander in December 1972. He is until this day, more than 46 years later, the last human to walk on another world.<br />
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When asked what surprised him about the space program, eminent science fiction writer and futurist Arthur C. Clarke said that it was that humans would get into space, and then stop.<br />
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This year, science fiction novelist Kim Stanley Robinson published <i>Red Moon</i>, which posits that humans are going regularly to the Moon in 2047, and most of them are Chinese. Despite noise out of Washington, that seems the most likely possibility.
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He uses the decades-old experiences to describe what being on the Moon might actually be like. He's especially good on the persistent complications of lower gravity, and on the intensity of the deeply black-and- brightly white contrasts of the surface.<br />
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Much of the action of the book, however, is driven by political developments on Earth, which also seems likely. The US and Soviet space programs were driven financially by Cold War politics. But then, many if not most scientific discoveries and endeavors in history were driven either by military ambitions or commercial interests. Apollo was not untainted, but it was as close to furthering an ideal of a united humankind and a common enterprise as any so far.<br />
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In interviews as well as his fictions, Robinson suggests that the possibilities for humans in space needs major revisions from the hopes of the 1960s, or even the dreams of some present day promoters. Yes, humans will return to the Moon and probably get to Mars, he suggests, but their habitation will remain on a small scale, basically like scientific outposts in Antarctica. The chances of large settlements, let alone "terraforming" other planets are remote at best.
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As for exoplanets beyond our solar system, even if humans were to develop the means to reach them, they would face what essentially is the reversal of what H.G. Wells Martians experienced when they tried to invade Earth in <i>The War of the Worlds,</i> and Terran microbes killed them. If another world is lifeless, humans can't survive there long enough to create conditions for life, and get it started. If another world has life, it is likely to be lethal to humans on the microbial level. Not to mention the likelihood that the environment of the Earth is the only one that will sustain the collection of organisms we call the human body. Or as KSR (among others) repeats: There is no Planet B. Humans will have to unite their efforts on their own world, or not at all.<br />
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The enduring images from the Apollo program are not of the Moon but of Earth--the images known as Earthrise and The Blue Marble. Humans have continued to go into space in low Earth orbit, and have recorded visible increases in pollution, witnessed huge storms and fires. Many have felt humbled by the beauty, fragility and rarity of our planet seen from space. Star Trek and other fictions help stretch our imaginations, and nurture our sense of wonder, while providing stories that help us in other ways. But perhaps this inward look from space is the most important.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-32466179551010607422018-12-28T22:58:00.000-08:002018-12-29T23:05:37.874-08:00R.I.P. 2018<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Late in 2018, Star Trek lost another of its original creators in <b>John D. F. Black,</b> a producer, story editor and writer and collaborator in Trek's earliest days. He wrote the classic episode "The Naked Time." He then repeated that formative contribution in the early days of <i>Star Trek: The Next Generation.</i><br />
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Many believe that the first season episode "City on the Edge of Forever" was the best of the original series. <b>Harlan Ellison</b> wrote the script upon which that episode was based. The outspoken and mercurial Ellison was a force of nature in science fiction from the 1960s onward. In addition to his own prolific fictions (like the classic "A Boy and His Dog") his contributions included the <i>Dangerous Visions</i> collection of stories, and its sequel, which helped define the New Wave era in American science fiction. <br />
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Emmy-winning sound designer <b>Douglas Grindstaff </b>populated the Star Trek universe with many of its defining and memorable sounds. Similarly, <b>John M. Dwyer</b> helped create the look of Star Trek as set decorator for the original series, a season of TNG and six of the feature films.<br />
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<b>Richard H. Kline</b>, cinematographer and <b>Frank Serafine</b>, sound director and editor, both for <i>Star Trek: The Motion Picture,</i> died this year.<br />
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Veteran actors did guest turns on various Star Trek episodes, including <b>Joseph Campanella </b>and <b>Georgeann Johnson</b>, who passed away in 2018.<br />
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<b>Celeste Yarnall </b>made a lasting impression with one role as Yeoman Martha Landon on the original series episode "The Apple." After her TV and film career she again became part of the Star Trek family, appearing with other Trek alums in the independent film <i>Of Gods and Men</i>, produced by Sky Conway and directed by Tim Russ.<br />
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Also making a lasting impression with one TOS role was <b>Roger Perry</b> as the 20th century astronaut taken out of time by the Enterprise in "Tomorrow is Yesterday."<br />
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Perhaps the most tragic Trek-related death of 2018 was the suicide at age 33 of <b>John Paul Steur</b>, an actor and musician who was the first to play Worf's son Alexander in TNG. <br />
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Other guest actors who died in 2018 include <b>James Greene</b>, <b>Richard Merrifield</b> (TOS), <b>John Eskobar</b> (TNG), <b>Robert Mandan</b> (DS9) and <b>Yyonne Shoz</b> (Voyager). <b>Donald R. Pike</b> (Star Trek VI) and <b>Ann Chatterton</b> (Star Trek II) did stunts. <b>David Bischoff </b>was a writer for TNG.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Peter Miles (right)</td></tr>
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Among the guest actors during the decades of <i>Doctor Who</i> who died in 2018 were Peter Miles, Pamela Ann Davy, Helen Griffin, Jacqueline Pearce and Allan Bennion. Also Who directors Derrick Sherwin and Bill Sellars.<br />
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Other contributors to science fiction classics on screen were actor <b>Margot Kidder</b> (Lois Lane in the Chris Reeves' Superman films,) Douglas Rain (the unforgettable voice of HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Gary Kurtz (producer, <i>Star Wars</i>), Al Matthews (actor, <i>Aliens</i>), Michael D. Ford (art director, <i>The Empire Strikes Back), </i>Michael Anderson (director, <i>Logan's Run</i>), Donnelly Rhodes (actor, <i>Battlestar Galactica</i>), and Kin Sugai (actor,<i> Gojira/Godzilla.</i>)<br />
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The crossover comics/s.f. genre lost two of its originators in 2018: writer, editor and impressario <b>Stan Lee</b> and writer <b>Steve Ditko</b>, who among other things, each co-created The Amazing Spider-Man.<br />
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The written word of science fiction lost one of its greatest in <b>Ursula K. LeGuin.</b> Among her many classic works is the novella "The Word for the World is Forest", which first appeared in the second Harlan Ellison anthology, <i>Again, Dangerous Visions</i>, and won a Hugo. Her legacy continues to grow. <br />
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Other valued and remembered contributors include writer and elder Karen Anderson, Peter Nicholls (editor of the <i>Encyclopedia of Science Fiction)</i>, and writers Dave Duncan and Mary Rosenblum. <br />
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May they all rest in peace. Their work lives on.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086344.post-19067280632935367852018-10-09T04:33:00.001-07:002018-10-09T04:33:41.688-07:00Who Is This? The Doctor Is Back<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The new season, new Doctor and new showrunner had their debut on Sunday. Thanks to the BBC America ap on our Firestick or whatever it is, I got to see it.<br />
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So the long whatever that was of Steven Moffat is over, as thrilling and challenging as some of it was. With Chris Chibnal we are back in Russell T Davies territory, with the emphasis on real life and family, along with the interstellar multi-dimensional adventures. Like in Davies stories, good people and sympathetic characters die, but the Doctor carries on.<br />
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Similarly, Jodie Whittaker returns the Doctor to the exuberant pro-active David Tennant mold. But those early reviews I saw <a href="http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2018/10/the-woman-who-fell-to-earth-press.html">quoted</a> at Doctor Who News that claimed, apparently as praise, that within a few minutes they forgot the Doctor is now a woman, really missed the point. Jodie Whittaker brings a different flavor of exuberance to the Doctor, and it's unlikely that this will be the only difference that feels like it comes from this actor who is a woman. This Doctor is definitely a woman.<br />
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The Doctor Who News <a href="http://reviews.doctorwhonews.net/2018/10/the_woman_who_fell_to_earth.html">review</a> felt the regeneration was handled most similarly to the first Matt Smith episode, but I definitely saw resemblances to the first David Tennant story, right down to the wisp of regeneration energy that escapes the Doctor while she sleeps. But regeneration was even more of a theme--as the Doctor turns it into a possibility for everyone at every decisive moment: the chance to change while remaining the same person.<br />
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The result is that I felt good after seeing it in a way I haven't since Tennant and Davies' "Christmas Invasion" (however much I admired the episodes introducing Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi). I think I get to see a couple of more episodes of this season before BBC America shuts me down. Oh well--I'm not used to the commercials anymore, and I could really use subtitles, so I hope they will still make DVDs because that's likely to be the way I will eventually see it. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0