Welcome
back to Underrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek
episodes that I love…which may not be the most popular or even liked by
most. On my last Trek installment of the year, I wanted to talk about a
special category of episodes. Some are serious. Some are funny. Some are
relevant. Some are stupid, and others brilliant. Then you get an
episode that makes you wonder, where the hell did this idea come
from???? This is one of them:
It seems like every so often Star Trek will do a “Make-up” show,
where the make-up effect is the focus of the attention. TOS had “The
Deadly Years”, DS9 had “Distant Voices”, Voyager had “Threshold”, and
this was one of TNG’S. But is it any good? Let’s discuss it:
As
we enter the Halloween season, and begin concluding my year long
celebration of Star Trek, it seemed like a good idea to discuss some of
the scarier moments from this show. Yeah some may be surprised at that
word but Trek can be many thing. We’ve already discussed how it can be
funny and light, but it can go the other way and can be downright dark
and disturbing too, with visuals which will haunt you dreams for years!
Here are ten examples of Trek moments that gave the willies!
Charlie X (TOS)
Charlie X is about a teenager who has more power than he knows what to
do with. It’s pretty good especially for season one TOS. Toward the ends
of the episode he begins to use that power to punish the crew. Leading
to this disturbing image of a woman with no face!
Welcome
back to Underrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek
episodes that I love…which may not be the most popular or even liked by
most. Comedies on Trek can be hit or miss, for one “Trouble with
Tribbles” we have the dreadful “Profit and Lace”. There’s nothing wrong
with doing a light episode once in while, but man when they’re bad they
are soooo bad. Today I want to single out one light episode for specific
reasons. This is:
I got the idea to do this after reading Pretty Boy’s great article on
this episode, and he commented that he didn’t like it. That’s fine I
totally respect that and he made some good points. The episode does
become a farce by the end. But I always liked this episode. Why? Let’s
take a closer look:
Ok
let’s round out my list of favorite characters with supporting
characters. Course this is a tougher category. Technically, anyone in
the original series who isn’t Kirk, Spock, and MccOY could be considered
supporting characters. And DS9 kind of cornered the market on
supporting characters, and some may be surprised how few made the list.
And villains can often be considered supporting characters, but I
covered that are so no villain characters (with one or two sort of
exceptions).
#10.Soval
I need one from Enterprise and of all the supporting characters, this
was the one one that made an impression on me. I must have a fondness
for Vulcans, every major one has made one of my lists. Anyway, this guy
was just cool. When we first saw Sarek in he original series we didn’t
really understand why he hated Starfleet. Soval makes us understand, his
prejudice for Starfleet is obvious but being a Vulcan he’s cool about
it.
#9.Naomi Wildman
Voyager was a tough one too but I found at least one (sort of two but
we’ll cover that). I did really like this character, for the most part.
She was overused for a bit but that’s ok. She was basically what Wesley
on TNG should have been, a precocious child who wanted to learn more
but for the most part stayed out of the way. She never saved the ship or
showed up the other characters. She felt like a real kid, which is why
people liked her. I especially loved her scenes with Seven of Nine,
somehow Naomi really brought the humanity out in Seven.
So I did my favorite Trek characters it was only natural I do the
villains also. Since I already did movie villains, this is limited to
just one’s that appeared in the various series. And yes I know these
villains appear in other media but just TV appearances count.
#12.Seska
I tried to find a villain from Voyager to put on here, but it was
hard. Amazing that even Enterprise managed one memorable villain but
Voyager couldn’t. The closet was the Borg Queen but since that character
came from First Contact, it sort of didn’t count. Then I remembered
this witch. Man was she a nasty one, betraying Voyager to the Kazon
(who were mostly dull). I hated her so much one of my favorite Voyager
moments was in “Shattered” when a fully Borg’d Seven of Nine takes her
out!
#11.The Gorn
So why in the world is something as corny and silly as a man clearly in a
green lizard suit remembered fondly? Because fans are willing to look
beyond the goofy costume, and recognize what the creators were going
for. The Gorn are nasty bastards, and the fight he has with Kirk is
pretty intense. Usually when Kirk has a fight you don’t really think
he’s in any jeopardy (Amok Time notwithstanding) but “Arena” was a huge
exception to that. You really felt like Kirk’s life was in jeopardy! I
almost put The Tholians here, but they didn’t stand out as memorable as
The Gorn did. And Enterprise did their take on The Gorn and to be
honest, the CGI version was pretty damn cool.
At
the start of the year I discussed the “perfect” Star Trek cast. But
with the criteria involved I picked the characters I thought best filled
various positions, even over a character I liked more. So it occurred
to me, if I take all the criteria away, who are simply my favorite
characters of all the series? Yes some of these choices will be the same
as that earlier list, but for different reasons.
The one rule is these have to be main characters, if I included
supporting characters I think my head would explode. Here are my 15
favorite Star Trek (main) characters…period.
#15.Archer Picking from Enterprise was…very hard. To say the least. And while
Archer is not my favorite captain, as I said that is irrelevant to this
list. Archer was probably the strongest thing in this series, and while
he often did things people disagree with you can’t deny that he had a
certain kind of charm. Scott Bakula did a good job playing him.
Last year after I had done a slew of DC Comics related articles, I
felt it was only fair to give some love to the other major comic company
out there. So I listed off things from Marvel I really really liked.
This year since it’s the 50th anniversary of Star Trek I have done lots
of Star Trek articles. Heck, I’ve done almost 100 articles on Trek since
I started these silly blogs. What about Star Wars? Three, maybe four.
Yeah it’s no shock I am just not as huge a fan of Star Wars. But why is
that?
A lot of people like to compete over what is better, Star Trek or Star
Wars. And while to someone who doesn’t really know these franchises they
can seem similar (space battles, etc) the truth is comparing the two is
like comparing apple’s or oranges. Star Trek and Star Wars are very
different when you really look at them. I have said that the Abrams Trek
movies were his turning Star Trek into Star Wars. That’s because of the
emphasis on action and the downplaying on morals and ideas which is
what Star Trek is really about. The two have their similarities, beyond
space battles. Both franchises have good strong characters that have
become part of pop culture. Who is more popular, Spock or Darth Vader?
Heck even in Back to the Future when Marty disguises as an alien he
incorporates elements from both franchises into his disguise (in one of
the film’s best jokes).
I was trying to figure out why I love Trek so much more than Wars,
and in reading another article I came across the answer. At least one I
am going with. Star Trek has morals, and they tell good stories we love
to come back to again and again. Star Wars is pure fantasy, action and
adventure as we watch our heroes rise up and defeat the bad guys. Trek
is about exploring the human condition, and Wars is a space opera about
heroes vs villains- good vs evil. As awesome as that is, Wars just
doesn’t bring me back time and again (feel free to comment and disagree
if you’d like). Of course it doesn’t help there are hours of Trek and
only seven Wars movies. It’s no wonder Star Wars expanded media has
taken off (which I had mostly ignored for the record). And yes, for the
record, I enjoyed Star Trek Beyond more than Star Wars The Force
Awakens.
Ok this is turning into a rant, I have a list to get to. At one point
I though of doing a a more extensive look at the two franchises back to
back, but decided that has been done elsewhere by others much smarter
than I. Besides this is about giving Star Wars some love. It was
supposed to be ten things, but I added a few, and hey since I’ve talked
so much about Trek I can add a bit if I want.
So twelve things from Star Wars I truly love (in no particular order):
12.The Theme
Yeah it’s pretty hard not to smile when I hear that theme music.
Especially if it’s in the theater. John Williams did a lot of fantastic
music but this melody will always be my favorite. As soon as you hear
that fanfare you know epicness is on its way. And yes the rest of the
music is good including the classic Imperial March, but if I cover all
the music then this list will just be that!
Welcome
back to Underrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek
episodes that I love…which may not be the most popular or even liked by
most. But today, we’re doing something a little different!
Fifty years ago today, September 8, 1966, something remarkable
happened. Even though at the time, it was just another Thursday night
watching Bewitched. Well, at least I am guessing that is what most
people watched. On NBC a little show was premiering for the first time, a
show called Star Trek! Could any of the people who tuned in on that
September evening possibly imagine the silly images they saw on the
screens was starting a phenomenon? I doubt it. It still amazes that back
then, it was just another TV show. I always love to see old clips of
promo’s and interviews the stars gave at the time, they talk as if it
wee just an ordinary TV show. Of course, in 1966 that’s all it was. So
what episode did they see? A little episode called :
I decided the the best way to celebrate the official anniversary of
this wonderful franchise was to review the first episode that ever
aired. Why did this air and not the pilot? I guess it was part of a
sneak preview stunt, and the critics were very unimpressed. It did beat
it’s time slot thanks to the fact it was up against re-runs. But once
the new shows started up the series fell and fell in the ratings. So was
this episode a good start to this series? Let’s discuss.
With
all this talk about Star Trek lately, I think it's really important to
remember the people behind the scenes that helped to make this franchise
what it is today. We all know Gene Roddenberry, who came up with the
idea and was the main force which gave us the "wagon train to the stars"
that was Star Trek, but who else shaped these series? Here are ten
notable names
D.C. Fontana
It might be fair to say that we wouldn't have Star Trek today without
this wonderful woman. She wrote some of the series best episodes
including "Charlie X", "This Side of Paradise" "Journey to Babel", and
"Tomorrow is Yesterday" while also doing re-writes on other stories. She
also did a remarkable job fleshing out the characters, especially
Spock. She tried to work for TNG when it started but her writing style
just didn't mesh with the new show and, well, there's a long story
there.
When
I say TV reunion a lot of things come to to mind. There are reunions on
talk shows for instance. There are also reunion movies or new series
where the original cast will reunite for something new. But I wanted to
talk about a specific kind of “reunion”. It was announced that Katey
Segal would appear on Big Bang Theory this season premiere as Penny’s
mother. Of course, Segal already played the mother for Kaley Cuoco’s
character on 8 Simple Rules making this a reunion for the two from that
series.
It’s always fun when two actors who appeared together in one show
reappear in another, usually as different characters. Not only is it
cool to see the two together, but to see the difference in the character
interactions of these very different characters can be quite striking.
Of course these are not a new thing we’ve had plenty from Robert Reed
reuniting with Defender’s co-star E.G.Marshall on The Brady Bunch to
Johnny Galecki reuniting with Roseanne co-star’s Laurie Metcalf and Sara
Gilbert on Big Bang Theory to Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell
appearing together in Prison Break and Flash as very different
characters. Another variation on this is when two celebrities who are
related in real life appear on their relatives show, like when Missy
Gold’s sister Tracy appeared on an episode of Benson (at the same time
she was in Growing Pains).
Here are some of my favorite TV reunion’s either from previous cast
mates or relatives that I love. This list is in no particular, and only
covers times when the actors appared as a totally different character so
some obvious choices may be missing.
Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd on Spin City
This was a favorite of mine, for very obvious reasons. Yes in one
episode Christopher Lloyd reunited with Michael J Fox (do I really have
to tell you what they starred in?). They even had a few gags calling
back to that fantastic movie. It’s always strange to see Lloyd play a
regular guy (for the most part). And yes Family Ties co-stars Meredith
Baxter and Steven Gross also appeared in other episodes of Spin City.
