Invasion Of The Body Snatchers!

I'd rather forgotten what a scary ass movie the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers was. Kevin McCarthy as the raving man at the beginning sets a tone of upset which reminds a viewer of the set up to the classic Dr. Caligari's Cabinet. His story of alien invasion is one which in the real world we'd immediately consider the ravings of a man in need of no small amount of professional care. But as the viewer we know it's all probably true, at least today as you watch it. I've always wondered what the story would be like if I didn't already know if the aliens were really here. 

In the small town of Santa Mira a doctor returns from a trip to find many of his patients in distress. They seem to think that their closest relatives are not really who they purport to be. His loyal nurse seems fine as do colleagues who tell him they've encountered the same thing. He finds a woman he once loved has returned to town and they strike up the old flame just in time for the danger to reach to touch them when friends find a strange body. They get little help from the authorities and even his colleagues seem different. They find huge seed pods which generate bodies when a person is asleep and copy that person utterly. The threat is real and getting more widespread. Finally, only the doctor and his girlfriend are the only ones left with the entire town after them, and then only him. 

Great tale, a classic paranoic delusion. The movie benefits from the excellent work of Kevin McCarthy as the narrator and doctor and head psycho. Dana Wynter is pretty and does the girlfriend thing adequately, especially in the latter parts of the movie. This one has a sturdy and reliable cast of others who ground the movie in a nice classic cinematic reality. Don Seigel the director is ideal and never lets the fantastic overwhelm the normal save in key moments. 

Jack Finney's tale has been adapted to the screen several times. The best if the original but not far behind is the 1978 version with Brooke Adams, Donald Sutherland and Leonard Nimoy. One thing that makes this yarn feel more real is that the invasion is that as far as we know is a natural process with seeds from space just finding the Earth and propagating as nature intends. This is a classic horror science fiction tale which when told with subtlety can be incredibly effective. But I always wonder, what if it really was real. 

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Star Trek - The Animated Series!

On Star Trek the Enterprise was famously on a five-year mission. But thanks to the hostility of NBC to Gene Roddenberry and his little TV show, only three years made air. But in 1973, four years after the cancellation of the show, the fourth year was finally broadcast. Now admittedly it was not live action, but animation, but that was actually a good thing. 

When the Roddenberry machine hooked up with the Filmation outfit, we got a Star Trek that was even more capable of going "where no man had gone before", because it's way cheaper to draw the unknown and impossible than to cast for it. Star Trek - The Animated Series kept the smart bits which made Trek special and added scope. 

The smartest thing was making sure that cast members like William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy along with most of the rest were available to voice their animated counterparts. This more than anything else gives the show its legitimacy. Save for Walter Koenig who was not cast for cost reasons, the whole gang is back. Nichelle Nichols and George Takei are on the bridge, though the latter was unavailable for a time because of TV fair time rules because Takei was running for public office in California. James Doohan proved to be perhaps the most important member of the animated cast as he provided a cavalcade of voices for the show. Many of the others did too, but nowhere near as many as Doohan. One source said he did nearly fifty different characters for the run of the show in its two season. 

I also think the Enterprise looked fabulous in its animated form. It was sleek and moved across the screen with a casual grace the live action had not been able to present. In the two seasons which added to a total of twenty-two episodes (sixteen in the first and another six in the second) Kirk and his crew found all sorts of new threats and all manner of different alien species. 

Two new aliens actually served on the ship, one a three-legged and three-armed navigator named Arex and the other a catlike communications officer named Mress. Many of the aliens the crew encoutnered were equally off the human model. In fact the designs often reminded me of the science fiction art of Jack Gaughan. And that added a whole layer of utter weirdness that the live-action shows of the time were just not able to match. 

I'm an enormous fan of the animated Star Trek. I think the shorter episodes of twenty-two minutes make for a more brisk storytelling and even at this size some of the stories seem to dawdle. Filmation uses limited animation by necessity and having so many different faces and form to switch back and forth between made Star Trek a visually more vibrant show than some of their efforts. The cartoon show kept the Star Trek boat afloat at a time when there was an enormous swell of interest in the show. Syndication had proved to be a surging and fabulous success. 

The comics from Gold Key were finding an eager audience. The "Trekkie" was a new creature lurking among us. There was interest in those wags who had killed it off to try to find a way to get a little of the golden goose they'd let slip between their fingers. They were anxious to get of the glamour and maybe that might be on the big screen. A few years later when a little thing called Star Wars taught Hollywood a thing or two, a Star Trek movie was a certainty. But more on that next month when the Dojo reviews the Star Trek movies starring this great first cast. 

Live long and prosper.  

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Mr. Spock's Music From Outer Space!

Star Trek was a hit, at least it made a big impression on those Americans who were susceptible to its science fiction charms. Attempts to monetize that success among the cast was best accomplished by Leonard Nimoy who as "Mr. Spock" was a sex symbol to some of the younger set. Tall, dark and sort of handsome in a weird way is an apt description of the Vulcan Spock. 

Leonard Nimoy would go on to record several albums, but his first played hard on his Spock image. Dot Record's Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock's Music From Outer Space was released in the spring of 1967 and achieved some success, reaching 83 on the Billboard chart. The album was rereleased in the United Kingdom in 1973 as the relentless mania which is Star Trek took hold overseas. I wouldn't call Leonard Nimoy a singer really, but his voice isn't unpleasant and blended with copious gimmicks it almost works. 

"A Visit to a Sad Planet" was the only actual "hit" from the album when it was released as a forty-five single. The B-side of the record was the Star Trek Theme.

To listen to this truly amazing recording check out Music From Outer Space at this link.

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Star Trek Season Three!

Star Trek has become such a sensational success that it's really difficult to fathom that the original series was loathed by the network which presented it. NBC seemed to work actively to make sure the show was a failure and in that pursuit in the third season, gained only after a potent and unprecedented mail response, saw to it by putting the show on late in the evening on Friday. This time slot was a virtual death sentence for a TV show at the time. The audience for Star Trek was young and on Fridays the young were out and about, and not home watching television. NBC well knew this and so did Gene Roddenberry, so when the time slot was revealed, Roddenberry stepped away from the show which he had husbanded into existence.  As producer he brought aboard a man named Fred Frieberger, a man who has been unfairly blamed for the third season's woes. 

The humor in the second season was not popular with Roddenberry and when Gene Coon departed he directed that the show again become the serious science fiction vehicle he wanted. He wasn't alone in that desire. So Freiberger was instructed to make the show serious which seemed to rile writers of episodes like "The Trouble with Tribbles" who saw potential sequels axed. Freiberger was ordered by NBC and the new owners Paramount to see to it the show stayed within budget, something it had failed to do in its previous two seasons and some of the reason NBC was put out by Roddenberry. At the same time they cut that budget. So Freiberger was given a battery of instructions and then told to go make it work. That it didn't work as well as it had in the previous seasons is hardly his fault alone. Roddenberry had already assigned most of the stories for the season, so Freiberger had little or no control over that aspect of the production either. It was truly a thankless task. But in the end despite the woes and complaints, Frieberger did deliver Star Trek on time and on budget, the first time that had been accomplished and if that had been the norm, maybe the show would not have been such a pariah with the network. But that's pure speculation. 

There seems to be a general agreement that the third season was inferior to the first two. I'm not sure I agree. "Spock's Brain" is held out as possibly the worst episode of the entire series. I rather enjoy it. Some Star Trek episodes can get a bit slow as a sometimes thin story is formatted to fit the four-act structure of hour-long episodic television. That never happens to "Spock's Brain". And it features some of my favorite Nimoy acting, almost a parody of his normally reserved response to his environment. 

But there's certainly no shortage of quality science fiction concepts such as the world in which people move so swiftly they cannot be detected by our human senses in any real way. This hyper speed is a great gimmick, even if a few concessions must needs be made to allow it work.It certainly showcases the most direct suggestion of an overt sexual act when we get the scene where Kirk is slipping on his boots as the comely alien adjusts her hair. Racy stuff for the simple-minded TV of the day. 

Episodes such as the one featuring Yvonne Craig's Orion slave girl have fun aspects even if she's not quite as alluring as Susan Oliver was in the second pilot show. She's still pretty hot. The characters are developed well in episodes like "Spectre of the Gun" which has the crew recreate the shootout at the O.K. Corral almost. I've never been a great fan of the episode which has Kirk marry an Indian maiden only to see her die, but I got more a sense of its depth this time. Maybe my life has matured enough to allow to share his pain somewhat. 

The "Tholian Web" is regarded as a great episode and I concur. Less well regarded is "Let this be our Last Battlefield" which does a great job (if a bit on the nose) of approaching the topic of racism. This show was produced and shown in 1969 at a time when the United States was boiling with violence in the streets and elsewhere in response to the Vietnam War and savage assassinations within the borders. 

Maybe I'm nostalgic for these episodes because this was the only season I actually was able to see (in part) because of its new schedule, the one intended to kill it off. I was a youngster and staying up until ten to see a great show was a struggle (still is) but I succeeded more than a few times. I think people who hold Gene Roddenberry in high esteem are quick to dismiss this season as lesser because his imprint was not as strong on it. I frankly think that Roddenberry is a bit overrated, though still a significant figure in television science fiction. Frieberger did more with less than Roddenberry did, and he did it his way. I get that some folks are not going to cotton to that. 

Star Trek was cancelled in brutal fashion. As was common in shows of the era, things could go bad quickly and NBC intent on getting rid of Roddenberry and his show saw to it that Star Trek was gone and prepared for the onslaught of letters from fans. NBC was intent on not backing down this time and prepared for the avalanche of mail they were about to receive. The show was of undeniable high quality and better ratings initially than has become legend. Given the times, it should have survived, but it didn't. The stories were often quite smart and dealt with the issues of the times, and that I think is really why NBC wanted this albatross from around their collective necks. Star Trek in each episode was capable of saying something which might stir up controversy and that was not good for business overall.  Star Trek stopped production and went into syndication. More on that next time when I take a closer look at the cartoon version of Star Trek. 

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Star Trek - The Future Begins!

Is Star Trek - The Future Begins a perfect movie? Of course not, but it's a dang good movie with a brisk pace and some very good casting. The story is just complicated enough to hang in there for the duration, and the villains are dastardly looking enough for several films. The heroes are youthful and frankly seem way too young for the duties which have fallen to them. That's the point I know. But I couldn't escape the feeling I was watching sidekicks. (That could be my age revealing itself.)

There are some fall down funny sequences, especially when the late Anton Yelchin's Pavel Chekov cannot make the computer understand his exotic speech pattern. The bit with Bones giving Kirk a disease was hilarious. Loved it all. The way these new guys got the voice patterns of the classic characters was fantastic at times, especially Karl Urban as Bones McCoy. The interplay between Chris Pine's Kirk and Bones is super, always lively and entertaining. Uhura is beautiful and resourceful as played by Zoe Saldana. John Cho's Sulu is impressive especially in the unexpected swordfight. When Simon Pegg shows up as Scotty, the humor gets broader still. 

But all that aside I did find the sense of threat minimal. Part of that has to do with emotion. Not enough time is spent establishing the villains and their motivations. I know the back story from the comics prequel, but I shouldn't have to bring that prior knowledge to this movie, the movie should do that work for me. The failure to make Nero a full-fledged character and not just a malevolent baddie cost the film some of its emotional depth, especially between Nero and Spock. The are two sides of the coin, but that isn't brought into focus the way it might've been. 

And I know it's necessary for the story and I know it's a tradition with new versions of this franchise, but the use of Nimoy as Spock the Elder really didn't click for me. It undermined the freshness of this new...ahem...enterprise. And frankly the somewhat maudlin Spock that Nimoy has perfected seemed out of place in this new environment at the time, perhaps that was intentional. I do know that since seeing the movie for the first and knowing that it was the final performance of Leonard Nimoy as Spock, the scenes are more impressive. 

That said, the action is swift and relentless. The fight sequence atop the drill is outstanding, and the Enterprise never looked better to my eye. The veneer is all here, and I can see good things for the future. But next time I hope they slow it down just a smidge and ramp up the feeling. Check back in a few days to see how they did. 

NOTE: This is a Dojo Revised Classic Post. 

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Star Trek Season Two!

Laughter is the best medicine. The second season of Star Trek is held in high esteem by some because a bit of humor was added to the mix of science fiction and character drama. Others think this took away from the purity of the series. The approach gave us "The Trouble with Tribbles" and "A Piece of the Action", two of my favorite episodes. The template of Star Trek proved well capable of handling comedy and the actors seemed to relish the opportunity. There always seemed to be a tension within the creators that the show would become silly or at least be perceived as such. That was a worthy concern, but to remain humorless limited the show's range to tell entertaining stories. 

The man responsible for the added bits of fun was Gene L. Coon, a veteran television writer who became the producer under Gene Roddenberry. Coon was a skilled TV creator who was comfortable with comedy and wasn't afraid to add it to the mix. He wasn't awed by the thing which was Star Trek which I think some of the creators might have been. Roddenberry's conception of the show was specific but all too often might end up allowing it to lean too heavily into its important themes. The trick was always to find a middle ground which allowed the show to talk about serious things, but not be afraid to humor to spread the message. 

In the first season of Star Trek, a show intended to focus on one Captain James T. Kirk, the rise in popularity of Mr. Spock of Vulcan created both tensions and opportunities. Spock's popularity meant that the first show of Season Two was "Amok Time", in which we learn about the somewhat peculiar mating rituals of the Vulcans. We meet other Vulcans, and realize that the Vulcan ideal of logic came to realization in several ways. 

Leonard Nimoy's popularity gave the actor leverage and he became at once a difficulty for the production and a blessing. He also got the chance to use his fame to follow other avenues of revenue such as record albums. In fact Nimoy recorded several albums, and his singing became a tiny part of future stories. Other cast members who made albums were Nichelle Nichols and infamously William Shatner. Bantam Books started its long and successful run of screenplay adaptations by James Blish, an established science fiction writer. Revell's model of the Enterprise was flying off the shelves. Gold Key even started a comic book as they did for many shows of the time. 

We had met alien races in the first season such as the Romulans and the Klingons. There was also the Gorn.  The second season added the pig-nosed Tellarites and the Andorians who actually had nifty antennae. The relatively small budgets for the show meant that as many stories as possible were told aboard the Enterprise. These were called "bottle stories" and despite the stated mission of the Enterprise which we heard each week, showing the places "no man had gone before" was rather expensive. 

One notable addition to the crew was Ensign Chekov (Walter Koenig) who was given a Beatles wig and told to play it young to capture that Teen Beat audience. His Russian heritage also showcased how times had changed in the time of the Federation, and this was especially important in the days when the Cold War still raged. One notable deletion from the cast of was Yeoman Rand (Grace Lee Whitney) who became extraneous as Captain Kirk seemed to find romance all over the galaxy and didn't really require a steady. 

Star Trek had posted good ratings in its first season, contrary to common Trek lore. But NBC had a grudge against the difficult Roddenberry and took it out on a show they never much took the time to promote. They also played with the time slot, making it more and more difficult for fans to catch it. Also. during the second season Desilu and specifically Lucille Ball who had made the show possible sold out to Paramount and the special care the production had received began to end. The ratings in the second season were weaker, but still decent against very strong competition. Still, NBC was eager to kill it off. 

Star Trek was making its mark in the larger society and had found a devoted fan base. When the rumors that the show might not be renewed for a third season rumbled, an avalanche of letters and postcards changed NBC's mind at the last minute. But that didn't happen by accident and while he claimed innocence, Roddenberry had a little bit to do with it. The powers at NBC were caught off guard by the fan response and so Star Trek did get a third season, but barely. More on that next time. 

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Star Trek Season One!

This is arguably the best season of Star Trek. When I say that, I mean to say the best season of Star Trek of any kind or variety. I am a fan of the TOS, "The Original Series" as the fans dub it. Later incarnations of the series have held my attention for periods of time, but none of them caught lightning in a bottle like this  first season of this first series did. It was simply not possible for them to have done so. So much was new for the time, so much was not the way TV usually worked or felt. We have become all too accustomed to television series which are thoughtful with a point of view. That was not usually the case back in the heyday of broadcast television when the main mission was to attract as large a crowd as possible. One fear was always to make a show too smart for the audience. Science fiction shows were rare for that reason as they relied on knowledge of the physical nature of world to fully deliver their themes. But the late 60's was a serious time and was about to get even more so as a foreign war was eating at the soul of one nation and demolishing the culture of another. 

Most American TV shows are all to happy to throw the audience into peril alongside the heroes, but work especially hard to make sure that world has been righted by the end of the episode. Endings needed to be upbeat to make sure the audience left with a positive feeling and the illusion that the status quo had been restored. The endings of many if not most of the episodes in the first season of Star Trek end on somber notes, and most often focus on the man who carries the responsibility for the ship -- the captain James T. Kirk. In this first season there was no doubt that William Shatner as the captain of the Enterprise was the focus of our attention. 

As the season progressed his dour ally Mr. Spock played by Leonard Nimoy became increasingly a focus of fan attention. And when oddly it became necessary for folks to lobby NBC for a second season much of that effort pointed to the Spock character as being especially fascinating. But the good ship Enterprise was a place in which not humans and "Vulcanians" could work together, but a place where different kinds of humans could work side by side. Unlike the real world of the United States, the future of this new Federation was filled with a variety of humanity. While the parts were smaller it was not insignificant to see Nichelle Nichols as a black woman on the command bridge, nor was it unimportant that George Takei, an Asian man was often the pilot of this enormous spaceship which housed over four hundred crew members. 

As open-minded as the show was about race, it was still rather backwards in regard to women in many cases. Majel Barrett was only a nurse helping Deforest Kelly's "Bones" McCoy, and Yeoman Rand played by Grace Lee Whitney was a woman meant to serve the captain, yet also intended early on to become a romantic interest. Sexual harassment was not yet a concern it seems in the 23rd century. That James Tiberius Kirk became something of a "lothario" during the show was an unfortunate relic of the time even on a show which looked to the future. Perhaps that had to do with Gene Roddenberry's own tendency to use the casting couch to his benefit. In the real world the elevation of D.C. Fontana to script supervisor gave her enormous influence on the show and on Star Trek long after the end of the brief three-year run.

Watching the series again after many years, I tried my best to come to each episode with fresh eyes and that redounded to me with positive effect. I came to appreciate some shows that I'd dismissed in years previous. Shows which improved with time and perspective were "Charlie X", "Miri", "Dagger of the Mind" and "Court Martial". But I still savored shows which have long been favorites such as "What are Little Girls Made Of?", "Squire of Gothos", "Arena", and "Devil in the Dark".  One show is a big favorite is "Shore Leave" and that one just doesn't click for me as much as others, though still a nice diversion. There are of course the great shows like "City on the Edge of Forever" and "The Naked Time". The first season was strong science fiction, if at times mediocre television. 
 

In Marc Cushman's These Are The Voyages - TOS Season One a reader will find an amazing cached of detailed information, memos, and images which open up the series in new ways. We read about Roddenberry's struggle to get his "Wagon Train of the Stars" on the air. (Sam Peeples likely came up that description by the way.) I learned for instance something a lot of folks might've known and that was that Nichelle Nichols was a girlfriend of Roddenberry's, a guy who apparently cheated on his wife a lot. Majel Barrett was current flame at the time the show was getting made. The casting couch seemed in full use in Roddenberry's office. I gained new respect for William Shatner who worked diligently to make the series succeed. Likewise Leonard Nimoy who required the first season to get a handle on the offbeat Mr. Spock. Nimoy's popularity is what in many ways kept Star Trek on the air for more than one season, that and a dedicated fan base which discovered the show despite NBC's indifference and failure to promote it. 

More next time when I take a gander at Season Two, when things lighten up on the show. 

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