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??

Sci-Fi Gems Week: Silent Running

Welcome back boys and girls for Day 4 of Sci-Fi Gems Week. I had a tough call on what to cover today. On one hand the well known cult classic Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange which has probably been covered more times than I could count or the lesser known Douglas Trumbull film Silent Running. Well for all you Kubrick and McDowell fans I am sorry but the more obscure seemed the best way to go. Besides zany Bruce Dern is in this flick so how can you go wrong? This is Silent Running.

Portrait of the sleep deprived.

In the far away future all plant life on Earth is gone and the planet is covered in various gases as oxygen is almost null and void. A handful of species have been preserved in gigantic greenhouse like domes connected to American Airline space freighters (so they will probably crash or lose a door in mid-geosynchronous orbit) just a stone throw from Saturn, Botanist and ecologist specialist Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern of Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte, The War Wagon, Hang 'Em High, The Cowboys, The Burbs and Nebraska) spends most of his time in the domes tending to crops, accelerating growth and even bringing animal life to fruition. Just then as if by some plot device, orders from from Earth states they are tired of footing the bill for the costs of these domes. They are ordered to destroy all the domes and return back to commercial use for goods and services.

GIANT FONT FOLLOWING US INTO DEEP SPACE!

Horrified at this information Lowell attacks his crew members ,killing one in the process and even traps two more in one of the domes as it is jettisoned and blown up. Four of the six domes have been destroyed initially and the fifth has been removed as well. With the assistance of the service droids or drones, Lowell hijacks his ship The Valley Forge in a desperate attempt to save the sixth dome.

His only companions consist of three drones he cruelly named Huey, Lewie and Dewey. I guess he was a huge Disney fan or maybe their residuals paid for this star freighter. The plants do not seem to thrive as heavily as they did prior when Lowell realizes it is due to lack of direct sunlight and proceeds to run about installing UV lamps to fix this oversight when another frieghter name of the Berkshire attempts contact with the Valley Forge. Knowing full well he will go to trial for his 3 counts of murder not to mention to direct violation of the dome's destruction, Lowell must take action in order to preserve the sixth and last dome. Can Lowell and the drones be able to pull a fast one thus saving the forest? Will Lowell go to trial and will the bots be melted to slag? And what of Timmy still stuck in the airlock?

And now some trivia on the film. The several shots of both the Valley Forge and its sister ships were later re-used for Battlestar Galactica as agricultural ships in the refugee fleet. The same named aircraft carrier Valley Forge which saw World War II, Korea and Vietnam was decommissioned and used after a few modifications and paint as the Valley Forge star freighter in the movie. It was later scrapped after all filming on it was completed. The Saturn sequence was originally intended for Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey but the tech needed for the visual effects team to do was not ready for use at that time.

Creator of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Cinematic Titanic, Joel Hodgson states that Silent Running was a major inspiration for his own show... and yet not that many references in the show to said movie. More like little nods or homage. Not receiving enough of an audience alone, Silent Running was released as a double feature alongside Robert Wise's The Andromeda Strain. I say give both movies a view.

Damn Tandi equipment!! Nothing works right!!!

Sci-Fi Gems Week: Logan's Run

Heyas folks and welcome to Day 3 of Sci-Fi Gems Week. What say we head into a time of the year 2274, a society composed of young carefree people with all the comforts of automation, food replicators and rampant desires of the flesh? Sounds pretty decent overall; that is until you reach the age of 30 and you are fated to engage in the ceremony known as Carousel. So grab your flame pistol, your negligee toga and prepare to run. This is Logan’s Run.

Ugh, mall walking is still a thing??!!

Based very loosely on William F. Nolan’s novel of the same title, this utopia gives humans very little to do in the terms of work relations. Only a handful of men are selected to be Sandmen, a quasi-police force that ensures no one over the age of 30 skips out on the time of renewal. It is said at the age of 30 that your time is up and new life must begin to take the place that you left behind in order to keep population down and resources maintained and managed. According to their religious standing that has been founded God only knows when, these people have lived in harmony but unaware of their beginnings. The schools only teach so much and history is almost frowned upon. All knowledge of the Earth seems to be erased and no one would think of what is beyond the great domed city. The New You face lifts, tucks and sculpting for when you are tired of that appearance anymore comes in handy. To track their years of life, at birth they are fitted with a Lifeclock crystal in the palm of their hand that changes color as they approach their “Last Day.”

So yours is starchy and itchy, too?

A sandman named Logan 5 (Michael York of The Three Musketeers, The Four Musketeers: Milady’s Revenge, Murder on the Orient Express, Seven Nights in Japan, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Lady and the Highwayman, Night of the Fox and Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery) begins to wonder, to query about the meaning of life and the point of Carousel. His friend Francis 7 (Richard Jordan of The Yakuza, Rooster Cogburn, Alibis, Les Miserables, Dune and The Mean Season) warns him that such thinking undermines Carousel and all its teachings. They are force to chase a runner and terminate him. Logan fins a pendant in the shape of an ankh. By the by, booty calls are quite simplified as it would be bad manners to turn a person down. Logan selects a young girl for the evening, a one Jessica 6 (Jenny Aguttter of Walkabout, A War of Children, The Eagle Has Landed, The Man in the Iron Mask, Dominique, An American Werewolf in London and Love’s Labour’s Lost). As the two get cozy Logan notices that Jessica wear an ankh as well and questions its origin. He takes it to the main computer to verify it. The computer explains it belongs to an order known as Sanctuary. A haven for runners to flee to and hereby orders Logan to destroy Sanctuary. Moments later, his lifeclock starts flashing red a year too early forcing Logan to become a runner.

I had a few observations on the movie and wither or not it has stood the test of time. The exterior shots of the domed city is obviously forced perspective and scale models for walk ways, tram system and buildings. Obviously there is a far amount of blue screen being used for matted shots and the robot servitors look a bit hokey and those poor actors in the suits must have been broiling but I do not think that should derail you from the story. I don’t think it is the pinnacle or apex that science fiction has created but it should be considered at the very least of a view of what times are ahead. An alternative timeline for humanity if you will and that has always made for good sci-fi.

Apparently given this is 1976, bras were outlawed in this utopia and brother does that ever show. I guess the sexist pig producer came to the conclusion if babies are genetically engineered and raised by machines, then breast feeding and lack of offspring meant no sagging or gravity. Trust me, there was a pig with a cigar making this decision.

Well I am not a huge fan of werewolves.

Sci-Fi Gems Week: Rollerball

Welcome back fans of my garbled writing to Day 2 of Sci-Fi Gems Week. Harken in the blue box with the madman to 1975. A film about a dystopic future where corporations dominate the planet, and control access to all transports, housing, communications and even food based in the economic downpour. Without passion behind any potential up-rises the masses can be entertained in violence. This is Rollerball.

Yup, dig me.

In the far away time of 2018, a sport similar to Roller Derby in that both sports compete in a round track, Rollerball involves a dozen players with 9 in body armor and on roller skater with three cycles. A steel ball is shot out in the arena with an in and out zone, one of the team must grab the ball and fire it into the goal on the other side of the stadium. The skaters can use the momentum of the cycles to block, jab or slam into the other. Skaters can also use their own momentum and smack each other but there will be penalties and time lost on the clock. If a player is injured they can be rescued by medics or simply replaced by a substitute.

And the crowd goes wild!

Enter Johnathan E. (James Caan of El Dorado, The Godfather, Funny Lady, Hide in Plain Sight, Thief, Misery and For the Boys) the best Houston district er um I mean Rollerball team has to offer and the board of Energy Corporation are a bit antsy. Head chairman Mr. Bartholomew (John Houseman of The Paper Chase, Three Days of the Condor, St. Ives, Aspen, The Cheap Detective, The Fog and Noble House) afraid Johnathan is too easily recognizable, offering him stature above his station that he will encourage others to strive rather than remain corporate drones and tries to tempt Johnathan with a retirement package, funds, wenches and whatever else could appease him but they never bother to ask if John wants to retire. John keeps himself entertained with his corporate concubine Mackie (Pamela Hensley of Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, Kingston: Confidential, The Six Million Dollar Man, Switch and The Nude Bomb) and explains skill and technique to rising, upcoming whipper snappers... I mean new Rollerball recruits. In spite of being treated like a conqueroring gladiator of old, John finds so much censoring on reading material, music, arts and even film. Puzzled by this, John does not know what to make of it and corporate sends him yet another concubine, Daphne (Barbara Trentham of The Possession of Joel Delaney, Rollerball, Sky Riders and Death Moon) with the object there being, "Too much energy? Pork away!"

With Rollerball to distract the masses, they cannot be able to question how badly they are getting screwed by the upper 1% so Johnathan's popularity must also go and with that it becomes a blood sport to the likes even the most hardcore Rollerball fan is stunned by. Will Johnathan come out on top or will he end up a broken man?

A few things to mention about this film now. This is another good example about well written Sci-fi, given the political and social commentary within the film. With a fraction of the budget of say 2001: A Space Odyssey you have a movie pointing out political agenda, class separation, power and greed satiring on the directionless society we have already become because we are too lazy or too self-indulgent to fix our own mistakes!!! Now, that being said on my ranty soapbox, I totally want a flame gun! You kids playing in my yard again?? PHOOOM!!!

So this patch will help me understand Windows 8??

Sci-Fi Gems Week: Time After Time

Ah the 1970s... They brought many things. Muscle cars, disco, cocaine freaks and more shenanigans than this particular blog is will be violate his PG-13 rating at. At the same time we got eye-popping effects of Star Wars, bizarre lands like West World and big budget-bloated blockbuster potential like Damnation Alley (WHICH WAS NOTHING LIKE THE NOVEL!!!). Every so often like most decades a film comes along that is heard by a few and word is spread to their friends and so on. Imagine a monster as horrific as Jack the Ripper hiding in a time-line as 1979, a larger bustling metropolitan era which so many willing victims and only his once time friend Herbert George Wells can stop him. This is Time After Time.

My word, women are more abrasive.

Writer/director/producer Nicolas Meyers (Invasion of the Bee Girls, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Time After Time, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Voices) brings us the concept of H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell of A Clockwork Orange, Voyage of the Damned, Cat People, Wing Commander III: Eye of the Tiger, Tank Girl, Halloween and Halloween 2) a brilliant writer showing that he is also a brilliant inventor creates a vehicle that can transverse through time itself forward or backward in time and gave a detailed explanation to his chosen friends and while they remain skeptical, they are intrigued.

As everyone makes their way back to the drawing room, a knock at the door has several police constables arriving at the house in search of Jack the Ripper. With a satchel of John Leslie Stevenson, a friend of Herbert's and talented surgeon filled with blood-stained gloves everyone is convinced that Stevenson (David Warner of The Wars of the Roses, Straw Dogs, The Omen, Time Bandits, Tron, The Company of Wolves, Waxwork, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and In the Mouth of Madness) is in fact the Ripper when Wells has the awful thought, rushes to his basement to find his time machine is gone, as is Stevenson.

Mind if I cut in?

Having escaped into the future, Stevenson explores this fascinating new world of America in the form of San Francisco, makes a few exchanges of currency (yet no one asks questions on his pounds being roughly 86 years old) and proceeds to the nightlife of disco nightclubs with potential victims galore. Oh the possibilities. Because Stevenson did not have the “non-return” key on his person, the machine automatically returned to 1893, allowing Wells to go trailing after Stevenson's last known co-ordinates.

Wells is stunned as he leaves the machine at a display in the San Francisco museum to find not the enlightened utopia but cars, planes overhead and a substantial history of wars, crime and bloodshed the likes he could not have imagined. Deducing Stevenson would require coin of the realm, Wells asks about for banks offering such exchanges and makes his way to the Chartered Bank of London, meeting the lovely Amy Robbins (Mary Steenburgen of Melvin and Howard, Ragtime, End of the Line, Parenthood, Back to the Future Part III, The Butcher's Wife and Nixon), a liberal gal that takes a bit of a shine to Wells in spite of him being proper and quite stiff.

Wells finds Stevenson and demands his return to 1893 to accept justice. The two struggle when they are interrupted by some random passersby and Stevenson bolts only to be hit by a car. Is that the end of Jack the Ripper? Could he have survived this automobile accident? What will Wells do if he encounters him again?

A few fun facts now if you don't mind and if you do, well shush I am writing them up anyway.

This is Corey Feldman's film feature debut as a bit part of a child in the museum. All three of H.G. Wells' children were still alive at the time of this film's release. Malcolm McDowell fell for Mary Steenburgen during the filming of this movie and the two married for ten years and have two children, Charles Malcolm and Lilly Amanda. Nicolas Meyer originally wanted Edward Fox (The Day of the Jackal, Gandhi, Never Say Never Again and The Bounty) as the Ripper. At one point, Mick Jagger expressed interest in playing this heartless criminal but Meyer couldn't quite see Jagger pulling off the sophisticated surgeon. Sorry Mick, you can't always get what you want.

Advancements in dental hygiene fascinate everyone!

Sci-fi Gems Week

Well hello there readers that somehow haven't found anything better to gaze upon yet I am glad to have kept your interest! Well we have managed our way through Italian horror fairly well and I thought... Hey, perhaps these devoted folks might want to see some decent sci-fi that doesn't hail from a channel rhyming with squiffy. So this week I am digging into my own archives of yesteryear, maybe a few years back and those that simply got missed.

My nose itches.. I don't mind tellin' ya.

Yes as often I have covered this particular genre, I am now going to be rummaging through the various sub-genres and excavating a fairly competent lot of science fiction that will be fascinating for some, boring and long-winded for others and lacking enough explosions for the 12 year old boys inside most menchildren. This of course can range from time travel to straight up hostile environment to the Last Man on Earth scenario that is far too coveted by Americans. Seriously, check with your friends of foreign lands and see how predominant or ruling that is stateside.

Keep in mind that I will be hitting the way back machine without Mr. Peabody's expertise and/or permission but his boy Sherman assures me everything will be nominal. So from the 1960s to Now I am hoping for find more than a few gems to share with you lot in the hopes to prove there is good Sci-fi out there you just have to look... sometimes for a very long time. Might help if a Hollywood Video or Blockbuster still existed in my immediate area but thank God there's a Redbox handy... for all my dated Sci-fi needs. I f&*king hate Redbox. Without further adieu, This is Sci-fi Gems Week!

My hair remains fabulous.