Nov 17 | Originally hired as co-executive producer to help with the second half of the show's first season, Kevin Murphy has now taken the reins of Caprica, the Battlestar Galactica prequel on Syfy, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He now serves as an executive producer along with Ronald D. Moore, David Eick and Jane Espenson and oversees the day-to-day functions of the show.
Nov 12 | Star Trek star Zachary Quinto is loosely attached to star in the romantic dramedy Whirligig, reports Risky Business.Quinto would play the lead role in the independent Canadian film, which is aiming to shoot early next year. The movie centers on a man who, in a misguided attempt to woo an older woman, befriends the woman's adopted son.Chaz Thorne is directing the pic, based on a screenplay by Michael Amo, creator of the Canadian supernatural series "The Listener."
Nov 11 | The CNS Foundation, is hosting an on-line charity auction at www.charitybuzz.com. One of the items they are auctioning is a signed movie poster of the new Star Trek movie which has all the cast members and writers. The president of our organization is Carol Abrams, JJ's mother, and she arranged for the donation from Bad Robot Production Company. J.J. Abrams is also a major donor to their organization. The funds raised will go to help find a cure to neurological disorders in children. The auction link is here.
Nov 10 | Candice Bergen, Charles Lisanby, Don Pardo, Gene Roddenberry, Tom and Dick Smothers and Bob Stewart have been selected as the next inductees into the Television Academy's Hall of Fame. They will be honored at a Jan. 20 ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hotel. "This year's inductees have challenged and shaped popular culture, changed television for the better and entertained us royally while doing so," TV Academy Chairman-CEO John Shaffner said. More info at the Hollywood Reporter
Nov 08 | Unreality-SF.net has interviewed Star Trerk author James Swallow about some of his upcoming projects. He talks about Titan: Synthesis and Seven Deadly Sins: The Slow Knife, as well as some forthcoming Doctor Who and Stargate stories.
It was a major struggle to bring the original STAR TREK to television, but when it came to staying on television, it became an even bigger struggle. The first season of Gene Roddenberry's bold attempt to produce a continuing weekly science fiction television series with maturity and seriousness resulted in some of the series' -- and one of television's -- finest hours altogether during the first season. With a level of quality shown in the production, and in the capable hands of some of science fiction's top writers, STAR TREK should have been a colossal hit across the board. Unfortunately, it wasn't. Even at its height, it could only muster a 52nd place rating in the Nielsen ratings system. That kind of rating didn't completely translate to instant renewal for most television series of the time. But behind the scenes at NBC, something deeper was occurring.
Even while the first season was still in production, talk was brewing of replacing Roddenberry with another writer/producer, one who could degenerate the series into standard science-fiction cannon fodder of ray guns and aliens by removing Roddenberry's forward-thinking themes, thereby reducing it to a substandard "kiddie" program to compete with CBS's more "sophisticated" fare, LOST IN SPACE. Furthermore, talk brewed of cancelling the series altogether. It didn't matter how word got out to the fans who watched STAR TREK, what mattered was that it did -- and this was years before the advent of instant computerized communications via the Internet. The first campaign to go out was a much quieter one, spearheaded by some of science fiction's top writers of the day, some of whom contributed scripts to the series. Under the collective banner name of "The Committee", letters were sent to NBC petitioning the network to keep STAR TREK alive and going for a second season. Obviously, the network listened, and STAR TREK returned for a second season of adventures in the final frontier in the fall of 1967.
Gone from the first season was Grace Lee Whitney, whose character of Yeoman Janice Rand was, in the eyes of NBC executives, too much of an emotional distraction for the non-committal Captain James T. Kirk. Also considering leaving was Nichelle Nichols, whose role of Lieutenant Uhura had been reduced from a rich character with potential in some of the early first season episodes to little more than a glorified telephone operator saying, "Hailing frequencies open, sir." As she has stated over the years, it was her fateful meeting with Dr. Martin Luther King in 1967 during the series' hiatus that convinced her to remain on the series.
With the start of the second season came a new cast member to the series: Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov, the ship's navigator. Chekov's inclusion into the series is equally divided into two camps, both solidified in fact yet mired in personal choice. On the one hand, Roddenberry had read a Russian newspaper article in which the series had been faulted for not including a Russian crewmember on board the U.S.S. Enterprise, since the Russians were indeed the first citizens of Earth to send men into space. On the other hand, STAR TREK had developed a strong following among the youth, and during the 1960's the Beatles reigned as the kings of rock and roll, even spawning the comic spin-off "Pre-Fab Four" group known as the Monkees. In Chekov's first appearances on the bridge of the Enterprise, Koenig could be seen sporting a large Beatle/Monkee-style mop top wig; it would be abandoned only two or three episodes later. I had the pleasure of meeting Walter Koenig, who personally related this entire latter story to me in 1990, which I had not known about. Either way you look at it, Chekov was a welcome addition to the STAR TREK family.
Roddenberry and company rose to the challenge of telling strong character-based tales in this new season that rivaled the first season's episodes. This time around, more character-based moments permeated the series, largely due in part to the appeal of William Shatner's at-times campy, at-times driven portrayal of Captain Kirk, Leonard Nimoy's austere portrayal of the unemotional Mr. Spock, and DeForest Kelley's often-humorous yet humane portrayal of Dr. McCoy. But STAR TREK was not just about the lead trio but also about the other cast members as well. Each one of them merited an equal turn in the spotlight, though ultimately Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley would carry the bulk of the episodes. Later autobiographies by Koenig, Nichols, and James Doohan would all point the finger at Shatner for unjustly stealing the spotlight from them, a sentiment echoed in Shatner's two STAR TREK MEMORIES books.
The series got off to a fantastic bang in its second season with the highly acclaimed episode "Amok Time", written by Theodore Sturgeon. Suffering from an intense salmon-like mating call, Spock convinces Kirk to take him back to Vulcan so he can bond with his betrothed T'Pring; otherwise, he will die in the process. "Amok Time" is filled with twists and turns at every corner that leaves you hanging on the edge of your seat until the very end. Of course, the Vulcan landscape is almost laughable by today's production standards; upon first glimpse sharp-eyed fans could spot the lighting lamps in the landscape -- but none of that got in the way of a first-rate tale. And who could forget Spock's near-emotional reaction at the episode's end that, according to McCoy, would have brought the house down? Strong episodes like these form the hallmark of a classic television series, and STAR TREK certainly delivered a classic.
Later in the season, we would be treated to another glimpse into Spock's background, in the classic episode "Journey to Babel", written by D.C. Fontana. What made this particular episode stand out on equal footing was not the first appearance of the aggressive Andorians and Tellarites, but it was the arrival of Spock's parents, Sarek (Mark Lenard) and Amanda (Jane Wyatt). During the midst of an important mission to transport Starfleet diplomats to an important conference, we learn of Spock's troubled background and the 18-year rift between father and son that drove Spock to enroll in Starfleet Academy. Of course, the mission is endangered when Kirk's life is on the line. But it's not just Kirk's life at stake, it's also Sarek, who is in need of a critical operation. Like any child caught in the middle of a dysfunctional family, Spock is faced with a difficult choice: fulfill his duty as a Starfleet officer, or fulfill his duty to his estranged father. The byplay among Nimoy, Lenard, and Wyatt makes this a fan favorite to this day. Continued...
Which leads me to my original post. As you can tell, I never bought into the G.R. myth. You know the one: that he was some kind of "great" philosopher and writer (Hegel was a great philosopher, Camus was a great writer, but G.R.? Unlikely). At best, he was a great TV series conceptualist, having created a wonderfully elastic format and fun universe to play in.
Unfortunately, many sources indicated that he had a bit of a dark side: major rewriting of others' work, credit stealing, defending his interests but rarely sticking up for those close to him, womanizing (from what I've read, G.R. would be the first to approve of T'Pol's behaviour and catsuits), running away from confrontations, especially if he had to be the bearer of bad news. And if you believe some writers, serious substance abuse issues. He certainly had his insecurities.
Does this in any way deter from his accomplishments? No. but he certainly wasn't alone in creating Trek's finest moments.
At any rate, I find G.R. a fascinating person, and I still await a really meaty, definitive biography of him. By that I mean one that isn't treacly or written by obsequious toads, or one that isn't a nasty "dirt" digger either. There would be a great biopic in there too, come to think of it.
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"Dieu fort, Père paterne
Qui mua l'eau en vin,
Fais de mon cul lanterne
Pour luyre à mon voisin."
- Panurge, dans le Cinquième Livre de Françoys Rabelais
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