The Old Ones Return

A few weeks ago I had Gemini try to create a book cover in a style similar to the old Bantam Star Trek tie-ins of the 1970s. "Return of the Old Ones" might have made a better title. 
 

A Minor Thrill from Thriller

 

From 1960 to 1962, Boris Karloff hosted Thriller, an anthology of suspense and horror stories. Midway through the first season, early in 1961, "The Hungry Glass" aired. It's a story about a young couple who buy an old mansion in Cape Caution, New England. As if that name weren't enough, the locals consider the mansion haunted, perturbed by the previous owners who removed all mirrors from the house. 

The new owners are played by William Shatner and Joanna Heyes; they're escorted to the mansion by their realtor and his wife--Russell Johnson and Elizabeth Allen. 

Before watching this episode, I had no idea that two actors so foundational to my tastes in popular culture had ever appeared in anything together. As Captain James T. Kirk and Professor Roy Hinkley, these two men left a strong impression on my young mind. Kirk was strong, compassionate, intelligent, decisive; the Professor was brilliant, inventive, curious, and somewhat gawky--a quality that I felt I shared. 

In "The Hungry Glass," the two characters played by Shatner and Hinkley start off friendly, then adversarial as the house starts to make Shatner paranoid. Haunted by his trauma from the Korean War, Shatner begins to see things--unexplainable double exposures in his photographs, faces in the glass. Hinkley manages to talk some sense into him--until Shatner's wife screams from upstairs. Shatner charges up and sees her being dragged into a mirror by ghosts. He grabs a poker and smashes the mirror, intending to chase after her--only to be stopped by Johnson, who reveals that Shatner, in his delerium, has actually killed his wife with the poker. 

Minutes later, as Johnson and his wife attempt to console Shatner, his wife's ghost appears in the upstairs window and beckons him forth; Shatner leaps through the window, to his death, to be with her. Johnson's wife faints, and he sees the ghosts of the doomed lovers; he carries his wife to safety. 

It's a grim, heartbreaking story, one that sees the violent dissolution of one marriage, two potentially close friendships (the two wives were becoming closer), and trauma for the survivors. Johnson and Shatner play off against each other really well. I wonder if anyone ever asked either of them what it was like to work together. I'd love to know. 

The Extra Special Guest Star

 Something occurred to me while watching the first and second seasons of Columbo. In multi-part film and television stories--basically all film and television stories save anthology series and stand-alone films without sequels--producers will often cast a stable of actors multiple times as different characters within those stories. 

In the James Bond films, for example, multiple actors have played characters such as M, Q, Moneypenny,  Bill Tanner, Felix Leiter, Blofeld--and even Bond himself. 

Roger Moore's Bond worked for two Ms, but neither he nor Moneypenny remarked upon their boss' change in appearance. Nor did Bernard Lee's M remark on Bond's change in appearance from On Her Majesty's Secret Service to Diamonds Are Forever to Live and Let Die. 

This is, of course, because characters are played by different actors in different productions all the time. We, the audience, don't remark on it, so why would the characters? 

Consider the inverted case: a guest actor appears several times during a television series, playing different roles. On Star Trek, for example, Diana Muldaur played Doctor Ann Mulhall in "Return to Tomorrow" and Doctor Miranda Jones in "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" Years later, she played Doctor Katherine Pulaski throughout the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. No character on either show confused Muldaur for any of the other characters she played within the same continuity. 

Of course. Same actress, different characters; in the shared universe of Star Trek, they're simply three distinct people who happen to look alike (to the eyes of the audience, at least). 

Forgive this rambling preamble; I'm aware that anyone who watches television or movies is well aware of the phenomena I've just described. 

But wouldn't it be fun if a creative team took advantage of our familiarity with the common practice of actors reappearing as different characters?  

Imagine, for example, Doctor Pulaski at the end of season two of Star Trek: The Next Generation. What if the good doctor had actually been Doctor Ann Mulhall the entire time, having faked her own death at some point between the 23rd and 24th centuries and given herself a new identity as Pulaski? Furthermore, what if, during the events of "Return to Tomorrow," Thalassa actually retained control of Mulhall's body and simply pretended to be her from that point forward? 

Imagine a two-part second season finale for TNG. In part one, Troi, working on a project with Pulaski more closely than usual, senses something off about the doctor. Furthermore, the doctor seems troubled by her conscience, and remarks on how old she feels--even though by 24th century standards she's in robust, middle-aged health. At the end of part one, during the course of a solo scientific mission in a shuttlecraft, she changes course and appears to be preparing to fly straight into a star. 

Part two opens as the TNG crew prevents Pulaski's suicide. Troi tries to counsel her, and naturally Riker, Picard, Data, and the others are concerned and reach out in different ways, trying to figure out what's gone wrong in Pulaski's life. 

The audience should be wondering too, because to us, she's Pulaski. By season's end, most viewers will have long forgotten that they remember Diana Muldaur from the original series. In fact, I'd wager 99% of viewers would be just as confused by Pulaski's actions and demeanor as the show's heroes. 

Finally, Pulaski lets slip a cryptic phrase, quoting some of her own words from "Return to Tomorrow:" "I told him oblivion together didn't frighten me. I lied." 

Then, a beat later, just before she successfully kills herself: "I'm not frightened anymore. Forgive me, Ann." 

For fans just familiar enough with Star Trek lore, the puzzle pieces should snap into place with what I hope would be dramatic impact. 

Our main characters are traumatized by all this--suicide being incredibly uncommon in the utopian world of the 24th century. In the episode's denoument, Troi and Data uncover Pulaski's past, reporting their findings to Captain Picard, who has to decide what to make of all this. The story of Mulhall/Thalassa/Pulaski is a triple-pronged tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, and a dark finale for the show's sophomore season. 

At the very least, I think this would have been better than "Shades of Grey." Plus, it would have given Doctor Beverly Crusher a powerful in-story reason to return--to be there for Picard and her other friends in the wake of such traumatic events. 

Taking Deep Space Nine and Voyager to the Next Level

In 2012, CBS released three episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation on blu-ray disc, with reach episode remastered in high definition. This was no mean feat, because the show was shot on film, but the episodes were edited on video, which effectively meant that any shots with special effects were, by their nature, restricted to standard definition. The producers of the blu-ray sets had to re-edit every episode from its original elements, an incredibly expensive and time-consuming process. 

To test the market, they released this disc, which included the remastered pilot, "Encounter at Farpoint," one of the series' most beloved episodes, "The Inner Light," and the Worf-centric "Sins of the Father." 

According to CBS, the blu-ray releases of seasons one through seven of TNG did not sell well enough to giving Star Trek: Deep Space Nine or Star Trek: Voyager the same treatment. Indeed, to this day, every Star Trek series except for those two has been released in high definition. 

But what if CBS had decided to forge ahead, once again releasing sampler discs before the season sets of DS9 and Voyager? What episodes might they have included? 

Doubtless they would once again include the pilots for the shows: "Emissary" for DS9 and "Caretaker" for Voyager. Both pilots are excellent, with plenty of outer space action to show off the remastered special effects. That leaves two more episodes for each series. 

Were I in charge, I'd choose "Duet" and "Far Beyond the Stars" for the DS9 sampler disc. While the episodes are light on special effects, they offer some of the very best dramatic storytelling the franchise has ever produced, and the great performances of the cast would look amazing in high definition. 

As for Voyager's sampler, I'd choose "Death Wish" and "Living Witness." "Death Wish" features an appearance by Q and Commander Riker while telling a compelling story about the consequences of immortality and the right to end one's own life. And "Living Witness" is simply one of Voyager's best episodes, giving us an alien perspective on the ship's adventures through the Delta quadrant. 

I want to believe that one day the business case will make sense and that someone will release DS9 and Voyager in high definition, maybe even sooner rather than later; physical media seems to be making a comeback. 






 

The Young Man from Elsewhere

Today I watched a fifth-season episode of St. Elsewhere, and who should turn up but Wil Wheaton? He plays a prodigy with an IQ of 160 who's completed Einstein's unified field theory. 

Never mind that such a feat might fundamentally alter the world in which St. Elsewhere exists, Wheaton's character decides he wants to be a doctor, so even though he's only 14, he joins the cast for rounds. 

Wheaton is very good here, and it's interesting to see him in a role that comes after his star-making turn in Stand By Me but before he joined the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation as Wesley Crusher. 

Other Star Trek alums appear in this episode: Bruce Greenwood, who joined the regular cast this season and who appeared as Captain Pike in the first two Kelvin timeline movies, and Ed Begley Jr., who guest-starred on Star Trek: Voyager. Mind you, several St. Elsewhere regulars have appeared on Star Trek, perhaps most famously Jane Wyatt, who played Amanda Grayson, Spock's mom. 
 

How Much for Just the Painting?

In John M. Ford's How Much for Just the Planet?, one of my favourite media tie-in novels, Kirk and a Klingon get involved in a slapstick chase. At one point, Kirk escapes through a window in the bathroom, and the Klingon pursuing him attempts to follow. Unfortunately, the Klingon is too heavy for the toilet seat to support, so the lid shatters and the Klingon winds up getting his foot stuck in the toilet. Because I have the sense of humour of a two-year-old, I still find this scene uproariously funny. 

That's why, a few weeks ago, I tried to recreate the scene with Gemini. Alas, it appears my prompt was insufficient to the task. I should have commissioned Jeff to paint it for me. Maybe that can be a birthday present to myself someday. 
 

The Westphall

I was playing with Gemini tonight and asked it to turn a collection of images of a prop from an old 1970s kid show into a futuristic ambulance registered to St. Eligius. Then I remembered that technically, thanks to Tommy Westphall, St. Eligius exists in the same universe as the United Federation of Planets. So I turned my attention to the air tram seen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. 

Voila, a Federation-style hospital shuttle, the Westphall, assigned to St. Eligius in Boston. 

In an eerie coincidence, just as I opened up blogger for this post, an amnesiac patient on the episode of St. Elsewhere I'm currently watching was flipping through television channels. We hear Captain Kirk say "Space, the final frontier," and the amnesiac's channel surfing ends on the famous MTM production cat animation--a cute in-joke. 

Of course, this means either that, in the expanded St. Elsewhere television universe, Star Trek exists as a television series that somehow foretells over 80 future events (counting the episodes and movies). Alternatively, the universe of St. Elsewhere has a show that duplicates our version of Star Trek's opening title sequence. 

I feel like the universe has been trying to tell me something important for years. 

Series Assimilation Misstep

SPOILERS AHEAD for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
Episode Five, "Series Acclimation Mil" 

I've had more than enough time to reflect on "Series Acclimation Mil," the first episode of Starfleet Academy focused on the school's sole holographic cadet, for whom this episode is named. (Everyone just calls her "Sam.") And while I wanted to love this episode, it demonstrates that good intentions alone cannot deliver a satisfying dramatic experience. 

In this episode, Sam hears the legend of Captain Benjamin Sisko. She decides that because Sisko was known as "the Emissary" by the Bajorans, and she, Sam, is an emissary of her people to humanity, she should investigate the final fate of Captain Sisko as a project for school. It's a pretty tenuous connection, and not a great beginning. Worse, the episode feels strangely bifurcated between Academy carousing shenanigans and Sam's research. There are also some bold directorial and editing choices that feel a bit too wacky for an episode with some pretty serious themes--loss, grief, and most importantly, perhaps, ambiguity. 

In the real world, Avery Brooks, who had played Captain Sisko in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, retired not long after the series concluded. At the end of that series, Sisko jumped into a pit of fire and "joined the prophets" in the Bajoran wormhole. But before leaving what the wormhole aliens call "linear time" forever, Sisko promised his wife and son that he would return--a line added at the actor's insistence, because he did not want to contribute to the racial stereotype of a black father abandoning his family. 

That left the character's fate in limbo; to this day, we haven't learned whether or not Sisko kept his promise. That was the actor's intent, but apparently the showrunners wanted a clearer ending, one indicating that Sisko had made the ultimate sacrifice for Bajor. 

So here we are, thirty years later in our time, almost a thousand years later along the fictional Star Trek timeline. If you're going to tackle a story point that has been festering for decades, you'd better know what you're doing and have some kind of satisfying catharsis, one way or another. 

Unfortunately, the episode plays it safe, leaves things ambiguous, and in doing so compounds the downsides of the original story choices. There are some nice moments in the episode to be sure, including Tawny Newsome in a guest starring role and the return of Cirroc Lofton as Jake Siskso. But the themes here were too large and too complex for these particular writers to handle. They did their best, but some stories are best left alone. 


 

Captain Jellico and Tuvix Explore the World of the Mad Butcher's Superb Sausages

 

Still Almost Maybe Nearly Famous

Every once in a while, I search "Earl J. Woods" on the Internet to gauge my level of infamy. Fortunately, my infamy remains low, but just a few minutes ago I discovered a new hit: my name appeared on a long list of people associated with something called the Western Front. 

At first, this alarmed me. In an instant, I thought: "Western Front? Either people think I'm a crazed militia member, or I'm on an enemies list of a crazed militia." 

Neither is true. As their website states, "Western Front is a non-profit artist-run centre in Vancouver." Whew! My apologies, Western Front. 

As I'm turned out, I'm listed on the site because in 2010 I attended an exhibit put on by my cousin, artist Keith Langergraber, and brought along "Finger Puppet Star Trek" for exhibition, the first and only public showing of a movie I made with some friends from the University of Alberta Star Trek Club. Note that "Finger Puppet Star Trek" was not made in 2009, as claimed above; it was actually made sometime in 1991 or 1992. 

Cozying Up to "Ko'Zeine"

After the action, suspense, and heartbreak of episode six, episode seven delivers a quieter character study in "Ko'Zeine." Making good use of the A story/B story format often used in the 90s Star Trek shows, "Ko'Zeine" focuses on the personal struggles of four cadets during the "All Worlds Day" break. Darem and Jay-Den wind up on a Kionian moon, which is to host Darem's long-arranged marriage. Meanwhile, Careb declines to leave the Academy for the holidays, and for duplicitous reasons on her own, Genesis returns to the Academy rather than visit her father, a Starfleet admiral. 

What follows is a fairly laid-back, somewhat predictable hour of character development. It's perhaps the weakest episode of the season so far, but it's nice to see an hour exploring issues that have caused teenage angst since time immemorial: lying for stupid, fear-based reasons and freaking out over the idea of being caught, not knowing how to reconnect with a girlfriend after you've had a fight, and being forced to make decisions very early in life that will impact your path for decades to come. 

Tig Notaro is the highlight of this episode, as she often is, just by playing a version of herself. I'm so glad she came over from Discovery. 

There's really not much to say about this one. The actors do their usual credible job, the stakes are relatable, and several interpersonal relationships move forward in a way that feels organic. It's not a memorable episode; nor is it objectionable. 
 

Come, Let's Review "Come, Let's Away"

SPOILERS BELOW for "Come, Let's Away,"
Episode Six of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

I came to the latest iteration of Star Trek with low expectations, given my disappointment with Star Trek: Discovery and its last three seasons in particular. But I must say, I feel like the show keeps getting better with each successive episode, and "Come, Let's Away" is certainly its best hour yet. 

Once again, I'm glad that the showrunners have learned you don't need world-ending stakes to create suspense and meaning in science fiction. I note this because the stakes for this episode change as the story progresses, to excellent effect; it starts as a training exercise, entertwined with the fate of a budding relationship, progresses to a hostage situation, and then pulls the rug out from under the audience with an 11th hour turn that reveals the stakes are higher than this cast has ever faced--and as a bonus, the good guys lose in a big way by the time the curtain drops. Characters we came to enjoy over the course of the first five episodes meet their final fates here in a way that feels organic and earned, relationships evolve naturally, and we learn things about our protagonists and, in a welcome return, one of our chief antagonists--Paul Giamatti's Nus Braka. 

Indeed, there are couple of scenes with Nus Braka and Holly Hunter's Chancellor Nahla Ake that are utterly compelling, a master class in acting from both performers. 

Crucially, the plot points all make sense, too, progressing logically, and none of the characters are stupid; they make good decisions, they have backup plans--and they still lose, because the opposition is just a couple of steps ahead. It's great to see--proper drama with relatable stakes. 

Come, let's bring on the last three episodes of season one! 

P.S. I do have thoughts on last week's episode, "Series Acclimation Mil," but I haven't put them to . . . well, not to paper, but to screen. I haven't decided how I feel about the episode yet, because there are parts I genuinely love, and parts I have reservations about, and I haven't decided if the problems are with the episode or my perception. 

 

Parallel Treks

 

In some universes, Star Trek never existed. Instead, those universes have

• Stork Trek (storks)
  
• Stone Trek (Flintstones-style)
• Stark Trek (Gritty and tragic film noir)
  
• Stab Trek (Redshirts die violently every episode via stabbing)
• Snark Trek (Everyone is sarcastic)
• Swap Trek (Alternative lifestyles)
• Swamp Trek (Hillbilly style Trek)
• Stay Trek (Boldly going nowhere) 
  
• Styx Trek (Escape from Hell if you can)
• Shirt Trek (Fashion Trek)
• Shart Trek (IBS trek) 
• Sport Trek (Jocks in space)
• Squirt Trek (water gun fights) 
• Squint Trek (everyone is nearsighted) 
• Scare Trek (horror version) 
• Squash Trek (vegetarian version)
• Stag Trek (bachelor version)
• Stun Trek (at least one person gets comically phaser stunned per episode) 
• Stir Trek (set in a Federation rehabilitation colony)

Stable Trek: Deep Space Nine--Season One

To generate title-based images for the first season of DS9, I asked Gemini to incorporate the title into the scene and specifically told the engine these are all DS9 episodes to avoid generic titles triggering generic images. Here's "Emissary," the pilot.

"Past Prologue"

"A Man Alone." Generic, but...I guess this could be Bajor? 

"Babel." Captures the episode's problem! 

"Captive Pursuit." The alien doesn't look much like Tosk, nor do the hunters look much like the hunters, but O'Brien is captured pretty well, and he's the focus of this episode. 

"Q-Less." Well...not the episode we got, but I would have enjoyed this.

"Dax." Huh! They went with the symbiont pools. Interesting. 

"The Passenger." That is not Dr. Bashir. 

"Move Along Home." Probably better than the episode, the weakest of the first season.

"The Nagus." Good job, Gemini. 

"Vortex." Would be better with a Federation runabout being sucked into it. 

"Battle Lines." Not bad. Love the trench. 

"The Storyteller." Not bad! Almost like Gemini watched the episode.

"Progress." Not a bad concept, but would have been way cooler if they'd incorporated some Federation tech--a shuttle, for example. 

"If Wishes Were Horses." No relation to the episode here. 

"The Forsaken." 

"Dramatis Personae." Ha. 

"Duet." Not bad at all. Kira captures exactly how I felt at the end of this episode, one of the best of the series, if not THE best.

"In the Hands of the Prophets." It's not bang on, but not bad. 

Stable Trek: The Next Generation--Season Seven

 

"Descent, Part II" 

"Liaisons"

"Interface" 

"Gambit"

"Gambit, Part II" 

"Phantasms"

"Dark Page"

"Attached"

"Force of Nature"

"Inheritance" 

"Parallels" 

"The Pegasus" 

"Homeward"

"Sub Rosa"

"Lower Decks"

"Thine Own Self"

"Masks"

"Eye of the Beholder"

"Genesis"

"Journey's End"

"Firstborn"

"Bloodlines"

"Emergence"

"Preemptive Strike"

"All Good Things..."