I Can Remember It For You Wholesale
A.J.Madison
>
> A Few thoughts on _A Fist Full of Datas_.
>
> I speak with friends who are of a slightly
> different age of ST-TOS who also remember the show from
> 'real time.' "Oh, that's the program where every other
> week they land on a planet that looks just like
> Griffith Park in Chicago." Or, "Was there a rubber
> monster this week or did the crew mutiny... or both?"
>
> In 1965, 1966 one of the major television
> producers, Irwin Allen had a show on called _Voyage to
> the Bottom of the Sea_. It was roughly contemporaneous
> with ST-TOS. On a regular basis, that show had to
> combat various rubber monsters, crew members being
> hypnotized and crew mutinies for a variety of reasons
> (they were on a NUCLEAR sub, after all. No wonder
> Richard Basehart is a major heart throb on Mystery
> Science Theatre 3000.
>
> Oh yeah, there was also the _Time Tunnel_ to reuse
> those old costumes and _Land of the Giants_ to reuse
> the props from _The Incredible Shrinking Man_ and maybe
> _Tom Thumb_ starring Russ Tamblyn (as far as I know,
> the only film he made after _West Side Story_.)
>
> We're talking about a major lack of ideas here.
> DS9, if the advanced press is any indication, may break
> company with this bankruptcy. I say may. I am by no
> means convinced. Maybe it's because I've watched
> television for too long. I am, after all, out of the
> range of the targeted audience: I was 18 in 1966.
>
> Let's call it oral tradition then: 'Well
> sonny/susie, back when dinosaurs roamed they earth they
> were telling stories just about like this one blah blah
> blah.'
>
> Well o.k., the TOS episode _A Piece of the Action_
> was one of the best ever made for the series: best
> written, best directed, best acted.
>
> But the point remains: any time they drag out the
> old costumes, beware. They're going to the well for
> some free water.
>
> And for those who have read with me this far, what
> ever happened to the same sex couples we were supposed
> to see holding hands in the background in the current
> season?
I was shocked to learn that one of the major criteria for TNG script approval
was the ABSENCE of planetside locations. If all of the principle action can
take place on the -D, all the better. Why? Because building exterior sets,
or filming on location costs major bucks, and we can't allow that. Besides,
we've spent all this money on these ship interior sets.
Admittedly, when I was watching first run, or first run syndication of ST:TOS,
I looked forward to episodes that took place entirely on board, but then I
was an Enterprise bigot in those days. I was comfortable with the Big-E, I
wanted to learn all about it. The alien planets were weird, strange, wacky
places and usually never explored in depth. Those episodes worked my
imagination centers much too hard. Yet, some of them, I really enjoyed,
_Arena_, _A Piece of the Action_, and _Shore Leave_ among my all time ST
favorites.
These were the episodes that the various principles really believed in. They
had a good idea, developed it, and stuck to making an interesting story as
well as a statement. Then there some of the other series that were on in
the same time.
For instance, "Outer Limits" sometimes interesting, sometimes trite, often
silly was supposedly written with the premise of "Monster of the Week." A
superficial examination of the show that indeed, there was a different
monster or at least monster costume(s) in every episode. In comparison,
"Twilight Zone" set no such limitations, often used cheap, existing, and/or
simple sets, and was capable of telling fascinating, thought provoking
stories.
Then there is "Time Tunnel". The story I read was that the parent studio of
the show (MGM I think) created the show as one of those "glue" concepts. Not
unlike one of those "Review" episodes exploited shamelessly by sit-coms these
days. For the price of recording five to ten minutes of "Remember when
harry/frank/tom did this?" then cutting to a previous shown clip results in a
full episode on the air. Supposedly the reason "Time Tunnel" lasted only one
season was that the studio ran out of clips! When I watched the show, I
always thought, gee, haven't I seen this before?! Now I know.
Ah yes, "Land of the Giants" and "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea". Don't get
me started on Irwin Allen. I think his heart is in the right place, at least
he tried to get SF on TV. For those of us who can remember SF on TV in the
early to mid seventies, it was a vast desert. I remember it as Star Trek
reruns or "Starlost". Starlost really shouldn't have been on network TV, but
my suspicion is that PBS said, but we already have Dr. Who!
For the time being, we have the TNG. At least it has reasonable production
values, the acting is better than "Lost in Space," and NBC is not trying to
cancel it every other day, though I bet they keep wishing they could. I am
not trying to make excuses for it. Its better than nothing. Or is it? I
too am getting tired of shows that take place entirely on the Big-E dash D.
There is some imagination in the ideas, but my patience is wearing thin with
the constant scrimping and saving. While I don't recommend the show resort
to the exceses of late 70's movie making of Francis Ford Coppola or Michael
Cimino, I know that they could risk more dollars and produce more
extravagance. But they don't even have to do that. Just have more
conviction.
Which brings me to same sex characters holding hands. They have, sort of,
but in a squishy sort of way. We've seen (young) Jean-Luc and Riker hugging.
We saw Data embrace Worf. Riker had a horribly embarred look on his face.
Worf was terrified of what he knew was about to happen. Its happening (and
only between male characters) but it has some really negative connotations
to it. I'm surprised more people haven't been up in arms over the imagry.
Come on Paramount, its the 90's. Please, join us.
--
when everyone is out to get you, being paranoid is just good thinking.
- Dr. Johnny Fever <in other words, standard disclaimer>
A.J. Madison a...@sequoia.com
Sequoia Systems Inc.