Category: TV

“Star Trek”: 15 Things You Never Knew About The Vulcans

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Scott Baird and ScreenRant present Star Trek: 15 Things You Never Knew About The Vulcans.  Here are three of my favorites…

15. LEONARD NIMOY INVENTED MAJOR PARTS OF VULCAN LORE
The fans of Star Trek were introduced to the Vulcan culture through Mr. Spock, who was played by Leonard Nimoy. Whilst Nimoy was often overly associated with the character (to the point of being typecast), he was also proud of Spock’s cultural impact, which was partly due to his performance and his additions to Vulcan lore.

In the episode “Amok Time”, we first see the Vulcan hand gesture. This was pitched by Nimoy, as he felt that the Vulcan’s needed a special greeting. The hand gesture comes from Judaism, as a Rabbi performs a similar move with their hands during prayer. Nimoy saw this as a child and it stuck with him, which is why he used it in Star Trek.

The other major aspect of the Vulcans that was invented by Nimoy was the Vulcan nerve pinch. Spock was originally supposed to knock out an opponent in “The Enemy Within”, but Nimoy felt that this wasn’t something that he would do. Instead, he came up with a takedown move, where he could use telepathic abilities to knock his opponent out. (It was more of a nerve pinch that telepathic powers. – Craig)

11. VULCANS ARE SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE THE DEVIL
There have been fans of Star Trek who have accused the Vulcans of being nothing more than “Space Elves”. The most well-known feature of the Vulcans is their pointed ears, which is shared with the concept of Elves in fantasy fiction (like Lord of the Rings). This isn’t the case, however, as the pointed ears of the Vulcans were created due to budgetary reasons. Creating prosthetic ears was a cheap way of establishing that one of the cast members was an alien, without getting in the way of the actor’s performance.

According to Gene Roddenberry, he intended for the design of Spock to be similar to that of the Devil. The ears and curved eyebrows were intended to evoke the image of Lucifer, which was going to be “provocative” to women. This might seem like a silly idea, but Spock’s design did cause concern at NBC, as they felt it was too devilish. It got to the point where they airbrushed Spock’s ears in the promotional material for the show, in order to remove the points.

13. THE VULCAN TV SHOW
Star Trek: The Original Series ended with its third season. The show had performed poorly during its initial airing (or at least not well enough to justify its budget) and it was axed. It wasn’t until the show hit syndication that Star Trek: The Original Series became massively popular. Despite this, it took over a decade for the franchise to return, in the form of the movie series. There had been many attempts to revive the series before this, as both the fans and the people involved with the production were eager to see Star Trek return to television.

One of the many attempts to revive Star Trek involved a TV show that was set on Vulcan. After The Original Series was cancelled, Paramount approached Gene Roddenberry with the idea of a show that was centered on Spock. The show would depict Spock’s life after leaving the Enterprise, as he returns to Vulcan to live among his own people. Gene Roddenberry refused to helm the project and it was shelved.

The Best TV Shows Ever

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Daniella Lucas and GamesRadar present The Best TV Shows Ever.  Using just their choices here are three of my favorites…

2. Breaking Bad
It’s funny thinking of Breaking Bad as an all-conquering franchise. For most of its run, it was barely watched at all. And then, somewhere around season four, the mainstream started to take notice. The story of Walter White – a genial high school chemistry teacher who starts cooking crystal meth following a terminal cancer diagnosis – is a bleak but hilarious crime epic. Walt epitomises Bad’s genius. As each season progresses you find yourself thinking, “Right, I’m done with this guy…” but Bryan Cranston’s remarkable performance means that even at his most despicable – and he gets pretty low – you can always see his lethally pragmatic point of view.

15. The Shield
The first episode of The Shield ends with anti-gang cop Vic Mackey shooting a colleague in the face, and his crimes just get worse from there. A twisted tale of police corruption in LA, it bagged awards by the score and was a clear influence on Breaking Bad. It’s also that rarest of things – a TV show that actually gets better with each season.

12. The Walking Dead
“The zombie story that never ends!” That was creator Robert Kirkman’s initial idea for his absurdly popular comic. It carried over into the TV adaptation which just wrapped up its sixth season, with a spin-off well into its second season. Beyond the scares and the gore and the zombies, it takes a long, hard look at humanity. What does living in a hostile world for so long do to civilised people, it asks. The results are rarely pretty.

Shows not making the list that might have changed my choices include: Justified; The Wild, Wild West and The Honeymooners.  What else?

30 Things We Learned from James Mangold’s “3:10 to Yuma” Commentary

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Rob Hunter and Film School Rejects present 30 Things We Learned from James Mangold’s 3:10 to Yuma Commentary.  Here are three of my favorites…

17. His second feature, Cop Land, was viewed by him as “a western, but setting it in the context of the suburban tri-state area.” The original 3:10 to Yuma served as an inspiration of sorts, and he extended that film a nod “in the sense that Stallone’s character is actually named Freddy Heflin and I named him after Van Heflin, the actor who played Dan Evans in the original.”

24. The cave where they huddle against a nighttime assault of bullets is in Los Angeles and is actually the same one featured in the Batman TV series where the Batmobile exited. It had gotten “so cold” in New Mexico that they returned to Hollywood to film the scene.

“No one should be playing a villain. Everyone should be playing a fully-realized person… No person in the world including Hitler or Osama Bin Laden walks around believing they’re a bad guy.”

Joss Whedon on Reboots/Reunions, Binge-Watching & More!

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Joss Whedon (Writer – Director – Producer – Actor) makes some interesting observations in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.   Two things that stuck out for me were Whedon’s thoughts on reboots/reunions and binge-watching tv episodes.

Whedon on reboots/reunions…

“I see a little bit of what I call monkey’s paw in these reboots. You bring something back, and even if it’s exactly as good as it was, the experience can’t be. You’ve already experienced it, and part of what was great was going through it for the first time.”

Whedon is on point.  As much as we want to bring back favorite favorites, it is so difficult.  There has to be some growth or we’re getting more of the same and we’ve seen that.  And Whedon is so right — part of what was great was experiencing it for the first time.

 

Whedon on binge-watching tv episodes…

 

“…the more it (television watching) becomes lifestyle instead of experience. It becomes ambient. It loses its power, and we lose something with it…I would not want to do it. I would want people to come back every week and have the experience of watching something at the same time… I loved event television.”

 

Technology has made movie and television watching less of an event.  I love the convenience of being able to record and watch what I want when I want, but when was the last time watching something became an event (not counting live broadcasts)?  When I was a kid, The Wizard of Oz was shown once a year and you’d better be in front of the tube when it was broadcast.  I can still remember the thrill of being allowed to stay up late to watch it, or Hitchcock’s The Birds.  The series finale of The Fugitive was another tv event that was huge.  So was the murder of JR, a new episode of All in the Family.

 

Binge-watching takes away the event feel.  Not only that, because the series is available ANY time you want, there is less of a pull to watch it.  My wife and I tuned in every week for Longmire.  When it switched to Netflix, we followed but now we could watch it whenever.  We have a full season yet to be watched.  Same with Daredevil.  I’ve yet to watch a single episode of House of Cards or Luke Cage.  What’s the rush?  They’ll be there when I’m ready.

 

15 Revival Series We Want That Will Never Happen

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Padraig Cotter and ScreenRant present 15 Revival Series We Want That Will Never Happen.  Using just Cotter’s list, here are my top 3 suggestions…

  • Frazier – I loved the series and it could be fun to revisit the characters to see how they’ve matured.
  • Firefly –  I came to Firefly after it had already been cancelled, but really enjoyed it.  Yeah, I’d tune in if it came back.
  • Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – I’d bet they could even get Arnold to guest occasionally now!

Breaking Bad and Seinfeld were two shows that I absolutely loved and they made their wanted revival list.  Not for me though.  For Breaking Bad the story has been told.  And told very well.  Leave it alone.  As for Seinfeld, it is a classic comedy series.  Perhaps the greatest comedy series ever.  The finale is a stain on the memory of Seinfeld and a revival would just look like grumpy middle-agers complaining.

How about these three series that didn’t make the cut, but I’d revive in a heartbeat if given the chance:

  • Justified: There are more stories to tell for Raylan Givens… even if they don’t involve Boyd Crowder… although they could.
  • The Shield: Bring back Vic Mackey!
  • The Twilight Zone:  We need a good anthology.  Twilight Zone was the best.

 

The 30 best TV Shows Ever

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Daniella Lucas and GamesRadar.com present The 30 best TV Shows Ever.  Lucas’ list is a good one, with the understanding that for the most part, we’re looking at dramas.  Otherwise you’d have to include at least one of the following: The Honeymooners, Andy Griffith, Seinfeld, All in the Family, etc.

With that said, it is still tough to limit the list to 30.  Using just their list, here are my top three (in alpha order) and reasons…

  • Breaking Bad – The first time I can ever remember seeing the main character’s arc take them from being a good character to someone so evil.  Also my first binge-watching series.
  • The Shield – I was rooting for the bad guy each week.  Wha-what?
  • The Walking Dead – Love the genre.  Was a huge fan of the comic from the first issue.  AMC took a chance and made the series into a huge hit.

Shows I would have included had they been on the list: The Wild, Wild West and Justified.

 

11 Nifty Little Visual Details You Never Notices in “Star Trek”

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Me-TV presents 11 Nifty Little Visual Details You Never Notices in Star Trek.  Here are three of my favorites…

THE KLINGON’S BELT BUCKLES ARE BUBBLE WRAP.
Yep, that’s just gold-painted bubble wrap. That’s not so strange. Batman’s utility belt was once made out of sponges.

D-DAY HERO JAMES DOOHAN WAS MISSING HIS RIGHT MIDDLE FINGER.

Doohan served in the Canadian Infantry in World War II, landing at Juno Beach on D-Day. After taking down two snipers and holding position on higher ground for the evening, he was hit by six rounds of friendly fire, including one in his right hand. His finger was amputated. As an actor, he tried to conceal this, but you can spot his war wound here and there, like when Scotty carries a platter of Tribbles.

KIRK AND SPOCK VISITED MAYBERRY A COUPLE TIMES.

As it was a Desilu production, Star Trek often shot outdoors on the studio’s Forty Acres backlot, also home of The Andy Griffith Show. Thus, you can spot the familiar landmarks of Mayberry in “Miri,” “The City on the Edge of Forever,” “The Return of the Archons” and “A Piece of the Action” — but Mayberry can best be seen in the first two.

 

RIP – Bill Paxton

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Bill Paxton died today from complications from surgery.  Mr. Paxton was just 61.

I first took notice of Bill Paxton in his role as Chet in Weird Science.  Not long after that I realized that I’d seen Paxton in small but memorable roles in Streets of Fire and The Terminator.  Paxton followed Weird Science with a small role in Commando.  He then landed his breakout role as Private Hudson in Aliens.

Paxton went on to a have a career that spanned over 40 years appearing tv shows and movies.  A few of my favorite Bill Paxton performances include:

  • Weird Science – Chet
  • Aliens – Private Hudson
  • Near Dark – Severen
  • Tombstone – Morgan Earp
  • True Lies – Simon
  • Twister – Bill
  • A Simple Plan – Hank
  • Frailty – Dad Meiks

Paxton also appeared in Miami Vice, Next of Kin, Navy Seals, Predator 2, One False Move, Trespass, Apollo 13, Titanic, Mighty Joe Young, U-571, Spy Kids 2 & 3, Frasier and so many other shows and movies.  He was currently starring in the tv series Training Day.  Anything Mr. Paxton appeared in, he made better.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Bill Paxton’s family, friends and fans.

11 Things You Never Knew About Khan, the Greatest Star Trek Villain

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MeTV presents 11 Things You Never Knew About Khan, the Greatest Star Trek Villain.  Here are three of my favorites…

HE WAS ORIGINALLY AN ANCIENT GREEK, THEN A VIKING SPACE PIRATE.

So, yeah, the “Khan” character was originally a Greek, and obviously not named “Khan.” When Wilber pitched his old idea for Star Trek, he changed the antagonist to a Nordic named Harold or John Ericssen, who is later revealed to be a vicious Viking space pirate named Ragnar Thorwald. Roddenberry was apprehensive about using such outward criminals. Oddly, Lost in Space would air its episode “Space Vikings” (seen here) a week before “Space Seed.”

AFTER CASTING RICARDO MONTALBÁN, THE CHARACTER WAS NAMED SIBAHL AND GOVIN.

Mexican actor Montalbán was hardly a good fit to play a Scandinavian, so the villain was tweaked. However, this being Hollywood in the 1960s, producers figured he could play a Sikh. (That being said, he must not be observant, as he does not wear a Dastar.) Roddenberry and writer Gene Coon changed the name to Sibahl Khan Noonien… until a fact-checking research company noted that “Singh” is a much more appropriate Sikh surname. They suggested the name “Govin Bahadur Singh.” Coon and Roddenberry met them halfway and settled on the canonical Khan Noonien Singh.

CHEKOV IS NOT IN THIS EPISODE — DESPITE THE FACT THAT KHAN RECOGNIZES HIM IN ‘STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN.’

At the beginning of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Chekov encounters a vengeful Khan, who puts that creepy bug in the Starfleet Commander’s ear. Khan immediately recognizes Chekov from the events of “Space Seed.” There is just one major problem: Chekov was not aboard the Enterprise for that first-season episode. In fact, Walter Koenig did not join the cast until season two. Tie-in novels have since tried to explain this plot hole, while Koenig jokes they met in the restroom. Sulu is also not in “Space Seed.”