SG-1 Revisited

Welcome back to the week, folks. It has been a bit crazy with the whole Indiegogo campaign NOT really taking off and I am almost certain unless within the next 13 hours it will change that the funds we have earned will be refunded. Yippee... But enough grumbling about that and we focus on the week in question which consists of those planetary explorers, defenders and instigators from Stargate Command. That's right, SG-1. None have known more physical and mental pain than these folks. The Doctor hasn't seen that much torment...well okay probably he has but he'd rather not talk about it so just go peek in his diary.

A woman and a black guy???  What the Sam scratch is goin' on?

For the next few days we will find some fan favorite episodes, go through the Chappa'ai and experience more deafening explosions outside of some popular Trekkie shows. Over the years of interacting with SG-1 and Atlantis fans shows me there is no one answer to what episode is more popular then the other. For some, it is the guest star. For others it is the writing and every so often it is a body swap episode or alternative Earth Mirror Mirror effect.

With the need to scavenge the universe for advanced technology to appease the committees that fund the Stargate Command, along with gaining allies in the struggles against superior firepower, interstellar ships and older races that conquer and enslave lesser developed planets, the SG teams constantly have to weigh the pros and cons of helping others, get involved with their day-to-day events and even understand the cultures, social and political concerns. 

The safety word is "Apples"

I know, soooo wordy. Let's get to the real reason we are here. What do you deem is one of the best SG-1 episodes and why. I have compiled a handful of suggestions but feel free to write me back and let me know what episode moved you to laughter, tears or even both.

This is SG-1 Revisited Week.

Star Trek Favorites: Spock's Brain

Welcome, welcome one and all back to Day 5 of Star Trek Favorites. We move into Season 3 episode one of which has been mocked, ridiculed and been picked apart by hardcore Trekkers to the causal observer. I myself have a place in my heart for the oddly specifically titled episode in that the absurdity is outweighed by the total seriousness of the acting attached to it. The whole concept feels so convoluted and over the top the centered actor approach makes it that much more fun. This is Spock's Brain.

Just sneaking this fart and see if Shatner notices...ahh.

Out and about is the fearless crew of the starship Enterprise under the command of Captain Kirk , when they encounter a ship of unknown configuration. Initiating first contact rules, a beam emits from the ship beaming a gorgeous woman on board the bridge. Before anyone can act she stuns the bridge crew with some device attached to her wrist, then seems to examine them all but pauses on Spock. The crew finally wakes up and McCoy finds Spock in Sickbay with his brain removed. Thankfully due to the plot device er um I mean Vulcan physiology, Spock's body can remain alive under artificial circumstances for up to 24 hours, time enough to plunk his mind back into his skull, reconnect all nerve fibers to their proper locations and get Spock on his feet in no time at all. Yeah you really need to suspend disbelief at this point.

Bad enough they stole his brain but his pants too?? That's just mean.

Using the sensors of the ship, Scotty trails the unknown vessel to a nearby star system and they play a hunch on which of the 3 class M (a planet capable of supporting carbon based life) planets the ship is hiding on. The landing party funds the ruins of a destroyed city but the technology is preserved. With Spock in tow via a device that allows the motor functions to be remote controlled and allowing him to move, our team is in hot pursuit of the nefarious brain nappers. Will they find Spock's brain in time? Can McCoy even hope to transfer it back into Spock's head? How many times did McCoy make Spock slap himself in the face?

How about some trivia? This is the only Star Trek original series episode that had a series regular's name in the title. In his book, William Shatner referred this episode as one of the worst and went on explaining how Nimoy was completely embarrassed during the course of the shoot. Written by Gene L. Coon (The Killers, Wagon Train, No Name on the Bullet, It Takes a Thief, Mod Squad and The Streets of San Francisco), left Paramount to pursue a larger contract for Universal but it was believed that Lee Cronin a.k.a. Gene L. Coon's pseudonym was crafted because of this episode he was contracted for and loathed it out right. Nope, just wanted a bigger paycheck, kids.

Dead or alive, you're coming with me.

Star Trek Favorites: The Trouble with Tribbles

Felicitations Trekkies and welcome to Day 4 of Star Trek Favorites. I have chosen to stay within the confines of Season 2 because I have always found some of the most entertaining episodes in the series here. Some were fraught with mystery or a disturbing, hidden menace while others made me laugh. From the writing to the performances, Season 2 truly shines on but what do you do when your show revolves around the importance of grain and potential sabotage? Why you simply add a fuzzy creature to distract you from political agendas and cowboy brawls. This is The Trouble with Tribbles.

Totally not wearing pants under this table.

Starfleet official Nilz Baris (William Schallert of The Patty Duke Show, In the Heat of the Night, Santa Barbara, Innerspace and Bag of Bones) of space station designate "K 7" is near the Klingon Empire's neutral zone and Sherman's planet of which both the empire and Starfleet have claims over. Mr. Baris is in charge of the distribution and allocation of a new genetically engineered grain known as Quadrotriticale. According to Starfleet science it will be able to produce food supplies in gross in virtually any environment. A misuse of the disaster emergency channel establishing a disaster had not occurred. Mr. Baris informs Kirk and Spock that the Enterprise is at his fingertips to respond with how high to his command of jump.

A Klingon battle cruiser is in orbit of K7 declaring their right to shore leave and recreation. Captain Koloth (William Campbell of Love Me Tender, Cannonball, Dementia 13, Star Trek: Judgement Rites and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) of the Klingon Empire is representing his government's claim for the planet for shore leave. Meanwhile in K7's bar, a grifter or peddler Cyrano Jones (Stanley Adams of Breakfast at Tiffany's Highschool Big Shot, Requiem for a Heavyweight, Lillies of the Field, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask and The Great Gundown) is introducing one of his favorite marks to a life-form known as a Tribble. These creatures replicate asexually and can breed into infinite numbers provided they have enough food.

You have angered my dance belt, Kirk.  For that, I will blow you out of the stars.

Scotty, Chekov and some of the rest of the Enterprise are told be on their best behavior while on shore leave while Koloth's men lead by his second-in-command Korax (Michael Pataki of Broadside, Batman. Five the Hard Way, The Flying Nun, Superdome, The Amazing Spider-Man, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers) gets a little pickled and taunts our Starfleet boys into a donnybrook that Scotty himself throws the first punch.

With the tensions high on both sides, Koloth and Kirk are at their wit's end while Baris is frustrated with the whole scenario, gripes and complains even further when the Tribbles have been mass breeding as Spock and McCoy attempt figure out how to stop their breeding cycles or slow it as they are all over the ship.

Will the Klingons be able to lay claim to the planet? Will the grain be any use to them? Will Starfleet reprimand Kirk for allowing too many fuzzy wuzzies dominating his ship?

Now a few bits of trivia for this episode. To create the one Tribble to move on its own the prop supervisor bought a battery powered toy dog, stripped it down the mechanical works. Recovering it with fur they had several ones of this same toy dog that the railing of the bridge the toys were so loud the dialogue had to re-recorded and looped. James Doohan (Scotty) insisted on doing his own stunts in the big barroom brawl. The working title of this episode was "A Fuzzy Thing Happened to Me..." Eight takes is how many times Shatner had to be bombarded with Tribbles from the hatched storage compartment which were dumped on him by the production team. He should be grateful it wasn't some sort of fluid instead.

You get one more hair in my drink, I will gut you like trout.

Star Trek Favorites: The Squire of Gothos

Howdy space cowboys and cowgirls and welcome to Day 1 of Star Trek Favorites. Skipping through the ranks of three seasons, it seems only fitting and proper we cover the first phenomenal creature that can alter space, time and matter itself to suit its means. With an 8 day mission of relief supplies for one of the existing colonies under the Federation, a rogue planet seems to be formed out of nothing. Marked as a future exploration and setting back on course our space explorers find they cannot leave orbit. With investigation under way our team looks into this further. This is Star Trek: Squire of Gothos.

Roguish air of mystery or foppish dandy?

Lt. Sulu (George Takei of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Miami Vice, Return from the River Kwai, Kim Possible, Star Trek: Shattered Universe and Heroes) is whisked away by no means of conventional transporting and no sooner has Captain Kirk (William Shatner of Incubus, The Twilight Zone, 77 Sunset Strip, Impulse, T.J. Hooker, Tekwar and Boston Legal) is an alert for his missing crew member, he himself is also taken to parts unknown.

The planet is classified as toxic to most forms of life and Commander Spock (Leonard Nimoy of Wagontrain, Man from U.N.C.L.E., Mission: Impossible, Transformers: The Movie, The Simpson, Futurama, Fringe and Star Trek Into Darkness) hypothesizes that they have very little time to mount a rescue party and give both men medical aid. Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley of Trackdown, Bonanza, Death Valley Days, Star Trek, Night of the Lepus and Star Trek Adventure) preps his landing party for hostile environment and breathing apparatuses..? Um apparati? Damn mail-in Latin correspondence course. 

Sulu, you beef?

 Breathing masks at the ready the team beams down to a lush forest that should not be there under the previous scans let alone a Gothic castle where both Kirk and Sulu are fine and healthy. They are being treated well and the food is nourishing. This brash man in 17^th century garb calls himself General Trelane, retired (William Campbell of Night of Evil, Dementia 13, Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte, Blood Bath, The Streets of San Francisco, Star Trek: Judgement Rites and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) offering conversation, food, drink and entertainment from their long journey. Kirk urgently explains their ongoing mission but Trelane will hear none of it. Spock manages to lock transporter beams on all carbon based lifeforms and beams them up. Trelane's readings made no sense to the sensors, not unlike the planet itself. Annoyed that his guests were abducted back, Trelane scoops up the entire bridge crew and demands he be heard.

Can the crew escape from this being of almost deity quality? Will they have to challenge its authority? Doesn't this almost feel like being judged on high by the Q?

Here are some fun facts about the episode and its actors.

William Campbell comes back to Star Trek playing a Klingon commander in The Trouble with Tribbles. The description of matter transmogrification from shifting energy into matter and creating different matter is almost a precursor to the holodeck technology of Star Trek: The Next Generation or even the replicator tech they had for food, tools and supplies.

According to an interview with William Campbell in The World of Star Trek, in his hunt of Captain Kirk in the forest, he fell down and dislocated his shoulder. Due to the agonizing pain, he flung his arm directly up and it popped right back in the socket. The episode's filming went a day over schedule being filmed in seven days instead of the standard six. This episode inspired comic book writer/author Peter David's novel Q-Squared claiming Trelane was in fact a teenage Q still reliant of technology rather than his own matter transference skills.

The manly art of combat!

Star Trek Favorites!

Good day and hello my readers and welcome to the week. Now I know I just did more than the proverbial nod to science fiction so what I am proposing (Jake, so soon??) is a reflection on one of the most successful sci-fi TV series created from the godfather of television sci-fi, Gene Roddenberry. Hah, you thought I was going to say Rod Sterling didn't you?! Case in point, without Rod Sterling we might all sleep more soundly but I am referring to Star Trek. What started as nothing short of Wagontrain in space spawned 5 TV shows, 10 motion pictures and two rebooted films to resurrect this ongoing franchise that has existed since 1966.

Come now, sir.  The fanciful dress party is in full swing.

From its humble beginnings of force perspective, dissolving film footage and poor sweltering men in rubber suits, this concession to print money has brought about a cartoon, merchandise, novels, audiobooks and a cult following that it and SCA originated cosplay. Yes people without Trekkies, running around in costumes before or after Halloween would be construed as crazy behavior and those people would be locked away... not sure if that is a blessing or curse but this simplistic view of morality, honor and tension brought both the US Marshall of frontier justices and the height of the Cold War to your living room in a dynamic that allowed messages to be heard and opinions of government to be questioned. Captain Kirk knew in his heart that he was not the end all role model but that he did his job, got to have more than his fair share of women for his misogynistic pleasures and in general, was a decent guy... who could not commit to anything aside from Starfleet and his ship.

Breaking ethnic barriers, misconceptions of culture and overall decent story telling, Star Trek brought plenty to the United States as well as around the planet. You will be hard-pressed to not find Trekkies in foreign lands. We just have to gloss over certain French captains that happen to speak in classic English dialect. With that in mind, this week we look back at the original series and find a few fan favorites. Make it so.  

Muscling in our racket, will ya??