Star Trek V: The Final Frontier at 25

Summer of '89: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

by Tony Dayoub

A camera pans across a desert, its cracked ground rife with holes. A miner runs obsessively from one hole to the next. His reverie is broken by the distant sound of a horse galloping. Cut to a cloaked figure shimmering like some dark wraith as he rides toward the miner, slowly growing clearer and more substantial as he gets closer and closer.

This sequence, a visual quote of David Lean's epic Lawrence of Arabia, is the eerie opening to Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, the ambitious failure directed by the science-fiction franchise's star, William Shatner. Though Shatner had already directed nearly a dozen episodes of his other notable TV series, T.J. Hooker, The Final Frontier was his feature directorial debut, a contractual obligation owed him because of a clause that gave him parity with co-star Leonard Nimoy, who had just directed a pair of Star Trek's most successful films, The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home.

CONTINUE READING AT THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR

Seventies Cinema Revival: Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

by Tony Dayoub


[This is a contribution to the Robert Wise Blog-a-thon currently running at Octopus Cinema from September 1st through the 7th.]

Almost thirty years ago, on December 7, 1979, Paramount released the long awaited Star Trek: The Motion Picture. One of the last films Robert Wise would direct, it followed the reunion of the intrepid crew of TV's starship Enterprise as they head out to confront an enormous cloud of energy threatening Earth. Once referred to as "The Motionless Picture" in Harlan Ellison's 1980 movie review for Starlog, the film was definitely a sober, more restrained version of the kaleidoscopic-paletted science fiction adventure series it was based on. But the story behind the making of the movie is full of the kind of gossip and intrigue that is the stuff of Hollywood legend.

Star Trek Podcast, Part 2

This post concludes my Star Trek coverage. It's part 2 of the podcast that has proven to be extremely popular with many of you. For those who didn't hear part 1, I was a guest on the Monster Sci Fi Show podcast. My host, Monster, brings his fanboy perspective. His co-host, Mr. Gene, brought the business angle into the mix. So I served as counterpoint, bringing the Trek purist's viewpoint. After the podcast, I've included links to the rest of the Star Trek coverage. I hope you enjoy the podcast, which you can listen to here: More Star Trek coverage: First Look: J.J. Abrams' Star Trek J.J. Abrams' Star Trek - Speculation on What to Expect Star Trek Week Begins Blu-ray Review: Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 1 (1966-67) Movie Review: Star Trek (2009) Star Trek Podcast, Part 1

Star Trek Podcast, Part 1

So, due to my, some would say obsessive (I'd just call it unusual... or embarrassing), depth of knowledge on the subject of Star Trek I've been making the rounds on the intertubes. If you frequent some of the same blogs I do, then you've probably seen my name in the comments sections. But the sheer geeky fun of being a guest on the Monster Sci Fi Show podcast has been unmatched. My host, Monster, brings his fanboy perspective. His co-host, Mr. Gene, brought the business angle into the mix. So I served as counterpoint, bringing the Trek purist's viewpoint. Do I love this film? Yes, indeed I do. But I still find a lot to nitpick, as you'll soon hear... More Star Trek coverage: First Look: J.J. Abrams' Star Trek J.J. Abrams' Star Trek - Speculation on What to Expect Star Trek Week Begins Blu-ray Review: Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 1 (1966-67) Movie Review: Star Trek (2009) Star Trek Podcast, Part 2

Blu-ray Review: Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 1 (1966-67)

"Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 1" was released on Blu-ray last week, and it has been wonderful reexamining the science fiction classic in the run up to today's release of J.J. Abrams' new film. What is truly compelling about the first season in particular is how solid it is dramatically, compared to the show's subsequent seasons which arguably slid into more parodic and iconic iterations. Much of this is due to the easy camaraderie between the series regulars, Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), science officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and ship's doctor, Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley). The three of them really sell the strong bond of friendship with great aplomb, giving their interstellar heroes a strong dose of humanity, laidback familiarity, and witty sarcasm, making the space opera believable despite its papier-mâché-and-colored-lights set design. Shatner is at his least hammy early in the first season, not having yet fully developed the much maligned staccato delivery that Kirk would so often give in to later in the series. Utilizing considerable stagecraft, he endows Kirk with the relaxed attitude of a veteran space traveller, giving his character bits of business like munching on the bridge while sharing a conversation with McCoy in "The Man Trap," drinking coffee while searching for missing crewmen in "The Galileo Seven," or casually sitting on the railing in the ship's bridge while rubbing his eyes, contemplating a crisis with Spock in "The Corbomite Maneuver." These moments serve to deflate some of the stiff self-importance space operas like Buck Rogers or Lost in Space shared in common. Shatner's Kirk had not yet devolved into the caricature so often mocked nowadays of the guy who slept with the green alien chick to resolve a crisis. Instead he was quite charming as the leading man, and not just a little mythic as this exchange from "The Conscience of the King" proves:

LENORE: Tell me, Captain Kirk. KIRK: Anything. LENORE: Did you order the soft lights especially for the occasion? KIRK: If I had ordered soft lights, I'd also have arranged for music and flowers. Unfortunately, it isn't so. On the Enterprise, we try to duplicate earth conditions of night and day as closely as possible. LENORE: Star light, star bright. I wish I may, I wish I might. Do you remember that, Captain? KIRK: It's very old. LENORE: Almost as old as the stars themselves. And this ship. All this power, surging and throbbing, yet under control. Are you like that, Captain? All this power at your command, yet the decisions that you have to make... KIRK: ...Come from a very human source. LENORE: Are you, Captain? Human? KIRK: You can count on it. LENORE: Tell me about the women in your world, Captain. KIRK: I'd rather talk about you. You must have wanted to perform since you first saw your father act. When was that? LENORE: In the beginning. KIRK: Tell me about it. LENORE: That's not fair. You haven't answered my question about the women. KIRK: What would you like to know? LENORE: Has the machine changed them? Made them just people instead of women? KIRK: "Worlds may change, galaxies disintegrate, but a woman always remains a woman." LENORE: All this and power too. The Caesar of the stars and the Cleopatra to worship him.

There was nothing mythic about the all too human McCoy, on the other hand. DeForest Kelley invested a great deal of gruff sarcasm and good-natured humor in the good doctor, making him a fan favorite. When one viewed the threesome as a unit, a Freudian might find that if Kirk was the Ego, and Spock the Superego, then McCoy was definitely the Id, the embodiment of Kirk's emotional side. Nowhere was this more aptly demonstrated than in Richard Matheson's "The Enemy Within." In this episode, Kirk's decisiveness eludes him after a transporter accident divides him, creating a "good" Kirk, and an "evil" one. With the good Kirk, more ambivalent than usual, he comes to depend on Spock to give suggestions based on logic, while McCoy couches his advice in emotion.

KIRK: Get the transporter room ready. McCOY: Could be, if, maybe. All guesswork so far. Just theory. Jim, why don't you give me a chance to do an autopsy and let Spock check the transporter circuits again. KIRK: That sounds, sounds reasonable. We should double-check everything. SPOCK: Aren't you forgetting something, Captain? KIRK: No, I don't think I've forg--- SPOCK: Your men on the planet surface. How much time do they have left? KIRK: Yes, that's right. The men. We have to take the chance, Bones. Their lives McCOY: Suppose it wasn't shock, Jim. Suppose death was caused by transporter malfunction. Then you'd die. They'd die, anyway. Jim, you can't risk your life on a theory! SPOCK: Being split in two halves is no theory with me, Doctor. I have a human half, you see, as well as an alien half, submerged, constantly at war with each other. Personal experience, Doctor. I survive it because my intelligence wins over both, makes them live together. Your intelligence would enable you to survive as well. KIRK: Help me. Somebody make the decision. SPOCK: Are you relinquishing your command, Captain? KIRK: No. No, I'm not. McCOY: Well then, we can't help you, Jim. The decision is yours.

It's hard to imagine it now, but Spock proved to be a more difficult proposition for actor Leonard Nimoy. His performance was a work in progress for much of the first season, starting off as highly excitable in the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before,"* before gradually becoming the stoic icon we know today. Seeing the episodes in their production order (you can find the order anywhere on the internet), rather than the airing order in which they are presented, proves to be the most illuminating in regards to Spock's evolution. The Vulcan is more impish, playing into the devilish appearance of the character, making perverse observations such as this one to Yeoman Rand (Grace Lee Whitney) after the evil Kirk assaulted her

SPOCK: The, er, impostor had some interesting qualities, wouldn't you say, Yeoman?

Nimoy worked hard to invest the character with more dignity, coming up with the Vulcan Neck Pinch to avoid Spock getting into the dirtier hand-to-hand fights that were characteristic of sixties television. And he relished underplaying the inner turmoil of the character who wrestled with emotions and logic under the false impression that his people had purged themselves of all irrationality. Kirk and McCoy would eventually teach him by example that this was not the case, demonstrating that tempering intuition with logic, rather than replacing it, was far more effective in achieving inner peace. Notable guest stars such as Ricardo Montalbán and Joan Collins populate this first season, and the Blu-Ray looks spectacular. The vibrant colors of the series are restored to their beautiful saturated glory. In addition to some wonderful extras ported over from its previous DVD releases, there are some new picture-in-picture commentaries that summarize some of the best behind-the-scenes tales for the fans. The best part is that through the magic of seamless branching, one can see the episodes with their original - some would say "cheesy" - special effects, or the spiffier CGI effects created for its recent rerelease in syndication. "Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 1" is a great reminder that the new film has a strong legacy to live up to. *The first pilot isn't in this collection, but is incorporated into "The Menagerie," which is included, and stars Jeffrey Hunter as the Enterprise's previous captain, Christopher Pike. More Star Trek coverage: First Look: J.J. Abrams' Star Trek J.J. Abrams' Star Trek - Speculation on What to Expect Star Trek Week Begins Movie Review: Star Trek (2009) Star Trek Podcast, Part 1 Star Trek Podcast, Part 2

J.J. Abrams' Star Trek - Speculation on What to Expect

I know, it's been awhile since my last post. Sorry, but it couldn't be helped. I had been fiercely ill all week, trying to prevent passing it on to my pregnant wife and our 2-year-old. Posts might start getting spotty from this point until the end of the year, because our baby is due within the next two weeks. But I'll post here as often as I can with some pretty interesting stuff. First up, J.J. Abrams' Star Trek, due out May 8, 2009. There are some spoilers ahead, so be forewarned. Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek was sci-fi's hopeful beacon during its three season run in the turbulent late sixties. In the Watergate-era it became a hit in syndication, always hinging on the dynamic between the hotheaded maverick, Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley), and the cool, cerebral, Spock (Leonard Nimoy), both tempered and moderated by the thoughtful but decisive Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner). As someone who has been a Trekkie since close to the day he was born, I am happy that Abrams, the writer-producer behind Felicity, Alias, Lost, and now Fringe, is the producer and director behind the new Star Trek film. He did a somewhat credible and underrated job bringing Mission: Impossible III (2006) to the screen, steering it back to the grittier, duplicitous espionage tales of the original series, and away from the over-the-top action stylings of John Woo's M: I-2 (2000). With his TV writer's penchant for strong character moments, and his producer's knack for honing in on the spirit of whatever show he is working on, director Abrams might be the strong managerial hand needed to revitalize the long stagnating Trek franchise. The emergence of George Lucas' Star Wars, in the late seventies, transformed what we expected out of a science fiction epic from visionary to fantastic. No longer could Trek's morality tales hold the interest of young viewers, or even old. Trek would need to spice it up with modern visual effects, and more action to compete with Star Wars. While it managed to do that to some degree in the continuing movie adventures of Kirk and his crew, subsequent spinoffs (four of them) never quite captured the first one's rhythm, with each growing stiffer and more stately than its predecessor (Deep Space Nine is the exception, and probably the closest to the original Trek in spirit and tone). Even Abrams has admitted more of an affinity for Star Wars than Star Trek. But he brought in his M: I-3 writers, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, both well-versed in Trek lore, to reinvigorate the moribund franchise. Orci and Kurtzman also know how to renew excitement in sci-fi stories once thought to only appeal to only their cultish fans, as demonstrated in their script for the hit film Transformers (2007). In Trek's case, it means retaining its action-adventure spirit and its optimistic philosophy of our future, casting young actors that evoke the spirit of its original cast, and starting with their never-before-seen first adventure, thus giving a new audience a fresh look at a story that has always been saddled with an intimidating amount of continuity without jettisoning it completely. Like politicians eager to win new voters, but unwilling to scare off their base, there is enough here to have this flick fit in with the original's continuity, for long-time fans like myself. The film begins with this man, a Romulan named Nero (Eric Bana), who lives in the Next Generation era where, last we left it, the Romulan Star Empire had started making peace offerings to our heroes' Federation. This rapprochement was, in no small part, due to Vulcan Ambassador Spock (still Nimoy), now in his hundreds, and his efforts to unite the two factions. Nero, presumably angry at the weakening of the usually hardline Romulans' lust for power, decides that the root of his empire's misfortune lies in the first human to ever defeat them, Captain Kirk. He decides the answer is to go back in time to destroy Kirk before he ever becomes the hero he is destined to be. While the famous Enterprise's appearance has yet to be revealed, one can see in the picture above that Abrams is following on his impulse to amp up the visual effects, with a look at the U.S.S. Kelvin, helmed by Captain Robau (Faran Tahir), where Kirk's father, George (Chris Hemsworth), supposedly serves. Here it is in battle, maybe trying to stave off one of Nero's attempts to eliminate James Kirk... before he is born? Once the elder Spock gets wind of Nero's plan, the only person he can look to for help, and trust to keep the timeline safe, is... young Spock (Zachary Quinto). But young Spock hasn't yet learned to control his emotional human half, as seen above in his violent outburst towards Cadet James T. Kirk. On an icy planet, Cadet Kirk (Chris Pine) bails out from a pod with the Enterprise's call letters emblazoned across it. Is this part of a training exercise? Reportedly, Spock and Kirk are brought into conflict because of Kirk's infamous resolution to the "Kobayashi Maru" exercise that measures a cadet's strength of character in a no-win situation. Kirk famously cheated his way to being the only cadet to ever win that situation, a decision that he would pay the price for many years later. Is Nero the unwitting catalyst that, paradoxically, may have initially brought the famous Enterprise crew together in the first place? Cadet Kirk with the rest of his future crew on the U.S.S. Enterprise. From left, Chekov (Anton Yelchin), Kirk, Scotty (Simon Pegg), Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban), Sulu (John Cho) and Uhura (Zoe Saldana). Kirk taking his familiar seat on the bridge of the Enterprise, with "Bones" at his side, Spock at his post, and Sulu at the helm. Notice the female officer wearing the familiar miniskirt of old. There will be cameos by some prominent actors as famous Trek characters. Spock's father, Ambassador Sarek is played by Ben Cross (Chariots of Fire), with Winona Ryder (Girl, Interrupted) playing his mother, Amanda Grayson. Kirk's mother, Winona, is played by Jennifer Morrison (House). The Chief of Starfleet Academy is played by Tyler Perry (The Family That Preys), and the Enterprise's previous captain, the doomed Christopher Pike, is played by Bruce Greenwood (I'm Not There). Abrams' film seems to look promising to the top brass at Paramount Pictures. The film was due out this Christmas, but was pushed back to the lucrative summer season where they expect it to bring in even more money at the box office, even against the Hugh Jackman X-Men spinoff, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which opens the same weekend. With the bleak economic and political landscape we currently face, and the dawning of perhaps a new era in political leadership, the visionary and hopeful future presented by Star Trek may just be timely enough to soar to new heights. More Star Trek coverage: First Look: J.J. Abrams' Star Trek Star Trek Week Begins Blu-ray Review: Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 1 (1966-67) Movie Review: Star Trek (2009) Star Trek Podcast, Part 1 Star Trek Podcast, Part 2 I'd like to thank some of the sites that served as sources for this post, primarily TrekMovie.com, Ain't it Cool News, IGN.com, UGO, JoBlo.com, and MTV.com. Stills courtesy of Paramount Pictures.