Out of Time (1988)

There are a few TV shows and movies that aren‘t available on DVD or streaming.  In some cases, like Doctor Who, the tapes were wiped.  New episodes are made available as lost tapes are found, but many are still missing.  Other productions don’t have enough demand to be released on DVD.  It’s a shame because many of them were good enough to at least be worthy of streaming.

One made-for-TV movie that I remember watching was called Out of Time.  It was about a police officer from the future who chases a criminal back to what was then the present.  It was exactly what you’d expect of a failed pilot episode, but I remember liking it.  My only option, apparently, was to watch it streaming on Amazon.

The movie starts in the year 2088.  Channing Taylor is a Los Angeles police officer who doesn’t trust a computer to do a human’s job.  He’s after Richard Marcus, who is up to something.  Taylor comes to realize that Marcus might have a time machine.  It’s the only thing that makes sense.  Taylor figures out when and where the time machine will appear.  Marcus shows up just in time to get the machine, himself.  The two end up back in 1988, where Channing Taylor meets his great-grandfather, Max Taylor.

The movie wasn‘t quite as good as I remember it.  (I can see why it wasn’t picked up for a full series.)  Channing is your typical fish out of water.  Even in 2088, he’s a police officer mostly because Max Taylor was such a great police officer. (No mention is made if any other Taylors made the force.)  When Channing tries to navigate 1988 Los Angeles, he seems to know just enough to get what he wants.  He’s able to use future technology to win money in a scratch-off lottery, but has no idea what a tie is.  He also seems ambiguous on what a bank is, even though Marcus is going to rob one.

The movie is somewhat generic and cliché.  Part of this could be attributed to the fact that it was supposed to be a TV series.  The writers may not have wanted to use up all of their good stuff in one episode.  Other things, I can’t let off so easily.

For instance, Channing has to use his last bit of fuel to save Maxwell.  Since the fuel won’t be invented for a while, it’s used to strand Channing in the past.  Couldn’t the writers have found another way?  Maybe have enough to make one trip back, but have Channing decide to stick around.  He was suspended, so I could understand there being no rush to get back to 2088.

I’d say that it could make for a good TV show, but a similar concept was used for Time Trax.  (This is another TV series I’d like to see released on DVD.)  I think Out of Time may have suffered from more than a few setbacks.  Part of it is the writing.  I’d like to think the movie would have made more sense as part of a series, but it just doesn’t work as a standalone release.  Channing and Maxell seem just too goofy to take seriously.

Also, I suspect that there wasn’t enough of a budget to make it work.  There are almost no special effects to speak of.  We see a laser effect maybe two or three times.  When we do see it, it comes across as just this side of obvious.  The props look like rejects for kids toys.  Channing’s gun looks like someone found a piece of acrylic somewhere and found a way to make it vaguely look like a gun.  I’m really not surprised that it didn’t get picked up for a full season.

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Star Trek -- Season 1 Episode 12 (The Menagerie: Part II)

The Menagerie was the first two-part episode for the Star Trek franchise.  As I mentioned in the review of the first part, it was done as a means of getting the show back on schedule.  Spock abducted the former captain, Christopher Pike, so that he might be brought back to Talos IV and live out his days with a happy illusion.  He’s now confined to a wheelchair, but the Talosians could make him believe that he has is old body back.

Part II picks up where Part I left off.  Spock’s trial resumes, as does the transmission from Talos IV.  The transmission being shown is actually footage from the original pilot, The Cage.  Either way, appears that the Talosians’ reach goes far beyond their planetary system, making it seem useless to threaten would-be visitors with the death penalty.

This episode is almost entirely the reused footage from The Cage.  The episode ends with Spock taking Pike to the transporter room to be beamed down to the planet.  The Talosians give Kirk one final message that Pike will be taken care of.  However, I wonder if they’ll be able to do this.  It was established in The Cage that they had never seen a human before and it would stand to reason that they haven’t seen one since.  I’m not sure what they’ll do if Pike needs medical attention.

Either way, the entire trial was an illusion generated by the Talosians.  They knew that Kirk would never just sit back, given the situation.   Starbase 11 contacts the Enterprise and tells them that no charges will be pressed.  I have to wonder, though, why go through all the effort in the first place?  Did the Talosians feel that it was a way of repaying Pike for what they put him through?

Consider that the Talosians wanted Pike to start a population of humans to rebuild their planet.  It would have been bad to keep him captive for this reason.  I suppose Pike is little more than a captive either way, but why is it better for the Talosians to have him now?  Is being able to think he’s healthy again really worth it?  Is their guilt that bad?

Unfortunately, we never hear form Pike or the Talosians again in any of the TV series or movies.  It would have been interesting for The Next Generation to at least mention it.  (I have to wonder what would have happened if the Borg assimilated the Talosians.  That really would have been a threat.)  I always wondered if the Talosians had kept their word.  Their final line, “Captain Pike has an illusion and you have reality.  May you find your way as pleasant,” could just be a way of alleviating any worry or guilt on Kirk’s part.  The Next Generation was a lot better with continuity.  It would have been nice to have even a small throwback.

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Star Trek -- Season 1 Episode 11 (The Menagerie: Part I)

Certain episodes make more sense once you learn what happened behind the scenes.  It always bothered me that Star Trek: The Next Generation’s third-season finale had only Captain Picard get assimilated by the Borg.  It would have made more sense to me to assimilate more of the bridge crew, if not the whole ship.  Then, I read that there was some doubt as to whether or not Patrick Stewart would return.  Apparently, there was some sort of contract dispute.  Picard would live or die depending on the outcome.

Similarly, The Menagerie raised a few questions for me.  It starts with the Enterprise called to Starbase 11, ostensibly at the request of Captain Christopher Pike.  Commodore José Mendez is a bit confused by this, as Pike couldn’t possibly have sent out any such request.  Pike has been confined to a wheelchair since a recent accident.  That same accident has left him unable to speak with anyone.  His mind is still active, but his body is useless.

It turns out that Spock lied.  He’s brought the Enterprise to Starbase 11 to abduct Pike.  The reason?  Spock will bring Pike to Talos IV, where the inhabitants can let Pike lead a seemingly normal life.  Spock has the ship programmed not to stop until it reaches its destination.  In the meantime, he’s put on trial.

As evidence, Spock shows Mendez, Kirk and Pike footage from the first mission to Talos.  Using this, he explains his plan.  The Talosians can generate very real illusions.  Pike can believe that he’s living out any fantasy.  This is why Starfleet has banned travel to the planet.  Spock risks death not only for himself, but for the rest of the crew as well.

The episode ends partway through the trial.  As a cliffhanger, one would have had to wait until next week to find out what happened to Spock.  Of course, through the magic of steaming and home video, it’s just a matter of calling up the next episode.

The premise had me a bit confused.  The most obvious flaw, as brought up by others, is that Pike can only communicate through a flashing light.  One flash means yes; two flashes means no.  Morse code existed back then.  I would also imagine that other forms of binary communication existed, which would have allowed for better communication.  It appears to be done more to show how bad Pike has it.  He can’t even communicate with people, so going to live with the Talosians seems like a good idea.

That being said, why did Spock have to hijack the Enterprise?  We’ve met Harry Mudd, so there are shady individuals that would have transported Spock and Pike for a price.  I suppose that few would have been a match for the Enterprise.  One could also argue that Spock would have needed a decent ship with a doctor onboard.  Still, it doesn’t appear that Spock even entertained the idea.

The entire episode is little more than a cheat.  From what I’ve read, production was behind schedule.  The Menagerie allowed the show to produce two episodes wile basically filming one.  They just had to film the Starbase and the trial.  It also serves as a way of getting the original pilot into canon.  (If you haven’t seen The Cage, don’t worry.  It looks like most or all of the footage made it in.)

One might also wonder why the Talosians didn’t make an illusion of Pike so that he might speak for himself.  The truth is that Jeffrey Hunter wasn’t available.  He had already moved on to other projects.  He is shown in the footage from The Cage.  However, the man in the wheelchair is a different actor.

It’s an interesting premise, at least.  A main character risks life and career for a former commander.  It’s not the thinnest of plots, but it is up there.  It does help if you try not to think about it.  I suppose Pike is lucky that Spock was still serving on the Enterprise.  The premise might not have worked, otherwise. 

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Star Trek -- Season 1 Episode 0 (The Cage)

Most Star Trek fans know that the original series had two pilots.  When Gene Roddenberry produced The Cage, NBC rejected it.  What the network eventually got was the version with Kirk, Spock and McCoy.  Before Captain James T. Kirk was Captain Christopher Pike.

The Cage starts with Pike considering retirement.  It’s not that being a captain is boring.  Quite the opposite.  He’s still licking his wounds from a mission where he lost several crewmembers.  That’s part of the job, but it doesn’t make it easy.

Before Pike can seriously consider it, The Enterprise gets a distress call from Talos IV.  It appears that a scientific expedition had been missing for almost two decades and crashed on the planet.  Most of the people are men.  The only notable exception is a young woman named Vina, who the men claim was born just as the ship landed.  Her beauty allows Pike to be taken in long enough to be captured by the native Talosians.

The entire crash site was an illusion projected by the Talosians for the purpose of capturing a male human.  Why?  Talosian society destroyed the surface of the planet.  They need a race of slaves to rebuild.  The idea is to use Pike and Vina to breed that slave race.

The one big problem is breaking Pike.  He seems to be resistant to all forms of persuasion and punishment.  Even though Vina is a real woman, she can be made to look any way Pike might desire.  They even allow two women from the Enterprise to beam down for Pike to choose from.  Even the threat of hell doesn’t seem to make Pike any more compliant.  It isn’t until the Talosians go through the Enterprise library that they realize humans aren’t suitable for their needs.  They allow the crew to leave, knowing that the Talosian race is ultimately doomed.

Even when I first saw the episode, it seems odd that they would only take one male from the landing party, especially considering that there were several to chose from.  You can’t really get a good breeding population with just one couple.  Even with three women, inbreeding would become a problem.  They actually have an entire ship to get people from.  (Pike eve gives the exact number of lives he’s responsible for: 203.)

My only thought is that the Talosians may have wanted to study humans before trying any long-term commitment.  It wasn’t stated that they were ignoring the ship.  Their main focus was simply trying to figure out how Pike worked.  Once they got him compliant the rest of the crew would have been easier.

It’s odd to think of what might have become of Star Trek if this pilot had been used.  Spock would be the only character retained and would become a lot less emotional.  (He can be seen smiling in this episode.)  The first officer was female.  Pike only called her Number One and she was played by none other than Majel Barrett.  From what I’ve read, that was just a little too progressive for NBC, who specifically told Roddenberry to get rid of the guy with the pointy ears.

The reworked series went on to air 79 episodes.  That was apparently enough to get it into syndication.  There’s no way to tell if NBC made the right call ordering a new pilot.  The original cast may or may not have done better.  Even with the changes, NBC moved the show around enough to eventually kill it.  Still, assuming it had been the pilot, what would it have been like to have a female first officer that early in the show?  During the run of the original series, Uhura is never shown taking command of the ship.  It wouldn’t be until the Next Generation that a woman would be in the captain’s chair.  (For that matter, what would the spin-off series even looked like?)

I enjoyed watching The Original Series when I was younger.  It wasn’t until years later that I would learn a lot of what went on behind the scenes.  Roddenberry would go on to marry Majel Barrett.  Apparently the two were having an affair at the time.  There are a few behind-the-scenes specials that I’ve seen that are interesting and offer some insight to the show.  (Two that come to mind are The Truth Is in the Stars and Chaos on the Bridge.)

Because of the magic of The Internet, I now have the opportunity to watch The Original series once again.  Thanks to Netflix, I now have access to Star Trek, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise as well as The Animated Series.  I may wait a while to start watching Discovery, as I can only get that through All Access right now.  Maybe I’ll have some other option in the near future.

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