Tonight I’m going to see Star Trek. As the time nears, I find I have an almost irresistible urge to order the Star Trek original bridge and action figures reissue sets. I would love to get my hands on James T. Kirk. And in my playhouse on my starship, Uhura would kick some serious butt.
But tonight, unlike another occasion many star dates past, I am not going to dress up.
lying for a living 
Not even spock ears? I’m way too excited to see this film, but i’ll have to wait until after exams and then find someone to drive me and I refuse to watch it on the internet it’s just not the same.
Also I know i’m a little late but congratulations on winning an Edgar and for winning best procedural novel.
I saw it last night. Thoroughly enjoyed it, accepting it for what it is meant to be, an alternative reality.
Great casting and many nods to the original.
In fact, I loved it. Except for the dentures. Honestly, they can send folks to space but haven’t perfected the art of the denture? And Winona Ryder as Amanda? Laughable. Still, I loved it.
At a table by the theater entrance, some Trekkies had the original play-action figures. I showed Capt. Kirk to the kids and told them about how he pantsed himself in front of you during Midnight Mass that one year at the Santa Barbara Mission.
Good times!
Yes, Snart, Capt. Kirk pantsed himself. All by his little plastic lonesome. Unh-huh.
It took me years to get that moment out of my head, and now it’s back. Gah.
I loved the original Star Trek so I have a hard time with all of these spin-off things.
What were your top 5 favorite original Star Trek episodes Meg?
Oh, my, Dana Jean. What a question.
The City on the Edge of Forever. (Kirk & Spock go back in time to earth in the 1930s to find McCoy.)
The Doomsday Machine. (The planet-killing cone with the horrible bright engine inside… Kirk’s friend Decker goes mad fighting it.)
Tomorrow Is Yesterday. (Enterprise goes back in time to the 1960s, accidentally captures an air force fighter pilot… featuring NASA, Gary Seven, and Terri Garr.)
Mirror, Mirror. (Crew gets switched with counterparts in an alternate universe. Featuring “Evil Spock” with the goatee.)
The Trouble With Tribbles. (Just because!)
And… a sixth: The Gamesters of Triskelion. (Kirk forced to fight as a gladiator; featuring that awesome dissonant fight music. Da-da-dahh-dahh-dahh-dahh-da-da-di-DAH-DAH…)
I could go on, but I have to go to the movie. Thanks for psyching me up.
OH MY GOD! I hate that Doomsday one because that captain was such a tool! I was so glad when he got sucked into that great big Horn of Plenty!
I’m impressed you actually knew the names of the episodes. Not that you asked, but these are mine:
The one where the hippies come on board and Spock rocks out with that guitar synthesizer combo thingie. Are you One or are you a Herbert?
The pilot was super. I really liked Pike and those big veiny headed dudes.
I loved Harcourt Fenton Mudd when he lures the Enterprise to the planet of Normans et.al. I loved that they cloned his wife a kazillion times.
I also liked The Squire of Gothos. Who doesn’t love a Harpsichord?
I also liked that one where the witch and wizard? get the crew to their planet and she wanders the castle as a cat and then at the very end, they are a brussel sprout/wilted lettuce leave puppet creature. If you look close, you can see the fishline moving them around!
Aaah, good times.
Since you asked, Meg:
1. The Enemy Within (where Kirk is divided into the Good Kirk and the Evil Kirk)
2. Arena (Kirk battles the Gorn, the giant lizard…and tears his shirt!)
3. City on the Edge of Forever (Kirk in love, for reals)
4. Amok Time (for an inside view of Vulcanicity)
5. Bread and Circuses (Roman gladiators and worship of the Sun/Son: cheesy, yes, but lots of beef, too)
6. And, finally, Paradise Syndrome (where Kirk marries an Indian maiden and has a child…but can’t finally know happiness….sniff).
And for the record, I HATE The Trouble with Tribbles!
Why oh why couldn’t William Shatner have stayed gorgeous?!
snart, I forgot about Amok Time and Bread and Circuses! I loved both of those too. And, that reminded me, I loved the one where that God guy captures the ship with his big ghosty hand in the sky and he just wants to be worshipped like in the old days.
What a great series.
Dana Jean, people mock it, now and years ago, but it definitely had its moments. I think it provided a release from stress and the balm of hope.
It also frequently featured Capt. Kirk shirtless, and for a 12-year-old girl watching reruns, that was tight!
I laugh in the face of their mockery snart! Kirk was pretty damn cute wasn’t he? What a stud. (Until he got all bloaty).
The show was original and fun. And I learned so many things from watching it. Like how no matter what the Clanton Gang would have done, they were destined to end up at the O.K. Corral; and never let Abraham Lincoln wander off alone (what a pussy); if you see what looks like a colony of plastic vomit clinging to buildings, don’t go near them because they will fly right off of there and stick to your back and f you up bad!
Don’t touch tears; don’t smell flowers (they’ll shoot little arrow things up your nose); never wear the red shirt; when someone offers you drugs, don’t take their word for it that it’ll make you look younger unless they are a licensed and practicing physician; never come between a rock and its babies; anyone with antennae on their head are probably FBI; and most importantly, if Ricardo Montalban wants to sex you up–let him.
So many lessons! I don’t know how today’s kids survive. (Oh. That’s right. I also learned, never, ever trust kids! They were always evil little bastids–except Ron Howard’s little brother Clint. He was just batshit crazy, Corbomite this and Corbomite that, blah, blah, blah.)
Oh wait. It was Kirk that used the Corbomite Maneuver wasn’t it? Clint just kept offering him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and calling him Barney.
(And if you get THAT reference, well, we watched the same great shows!) 😉
Dana Jean, I am humiliated. Barney? I fail.
It’s okay, you’re just a youngun’.
Clint Howard played Balock (sp?) on the STar Trek episode, The Corbomite Maneuver. Clint is Ron Howard’s brother who used to play Opie on The Andy Griffith Show.
Many times, Clint did a cameo on the AG Show playing a character known as Leon. Leon was a little boy, usually dressed as a cowboy, who always had a peanut butter sandwich in his hands and would invariably offer the sandwich to Barney Fife when Barney was very busy scheming on how to solve a crime. Of course, Barney would tell him, “No thanks Leon.” And then he would go on to have this one way conversation with the kid who just stood there looking at him with PBand J all over his face.
He was cute then. Then he turned into that creepy Balock kid with the very toothy cackle. It was scary. 😉
My dad would have loved to be in on these comments. However my dad is not very good with computers. He did make me watch the first season of the original Star Trek one weekend and when I told him I had an English essay to write, he told me to stop making excuses. The only one I remember had something to do with a big white bunny?
Well my dad won’t be too pleased with that, but whatever.
have fun at the movie!
I gotta agree with “Space Seed” (Ricardo was hot then, but hotter in “Wrath”, too bad he was abusive), “The Squire of Gothos,” “Paradise Syndrome”, “Amok Time”, and the one where Spock gets shot up with the flower spores and hangs upside down from a tree, falls in love and smiles. From that episode on, I could never choose between Kirk and Spock. And yeah, I was the 12-year-old girl then too, Snart!
And Dana Jean, my question is, would Clint Howard have an adult career at all without Big Brother??
Monita, I’m thinking that’s probably a big “NO.” But, I’m sure he is a wonderful guy in real life–and he’s always done a very nice acting job in whatever he’s been in (mostly Ronnie’s movies).
Was Ricardo abusive? Well, that’s just a total bummer. He was such a nice looking man.
Dana Jean, I misspoke: Khan was the abusive one, remember how he knocked around the yeoman who ended up following him onto the planet? (talk about head games–but still hot) From everything I’ve found, Ricardo Montalban was a prince of a man, may he rest in peace.
Man, I love getting up in the morning, checking the blog, and finding such an excellent comment thread.
Dana Jean, I know the episode names because the intertubes let me find them quickly on Wikipedia. And I love the life lessons you learned from Star Trek.
And the new movie? Un-be-liev-able. I loved it. To quote my son, who has never been a fan of the show and has never sat through an entire episode: It’s awesome. It entertains from the first second onscreen to the last moment of the credits. I may post more about it later, but for now: yeah!
Wow – and I thought I liked Star Trek.
Taking my son on Saturday, and can’t wait.
Oh, and City on the Edge of Forever is my number one, too.
aaah, glad to know Ricardo is still a-o.k. to be sexing up.
Meg, I would love to hear more of your thoughts on the new movie. Moving around the internet, I’ve not seen one bad thing about it.
Oh. And I know there is a wealth of information out there on the interwebs. I forget it’s just right at my fingertips. I’ve got to do better. I can’t tell you how many times my son disgustedly tells me, “Wiki it, mom.”
Wipe that look off your face junior or I’ll wiki you…
Glad to hear you liked it, Meg O’Death. There’s life in the ol’ franchise yet!
But do you agree about Amanda and the dentures?
I thought it was, don’t trust Grups…
Heck, I watched every episode. First time, summer reruns, syndication. Darned if I can now remember some of those you’ve mentioned.
But yes, I recall City on the Edge of Forever, where Kirk had to stand by and let the love of his life (for that episode) be killed– to save the future as they knew it.
And, as I recall, when they got back to the Portal and order had been restored in the universe, he said to Spock and Bones, “Let’s get the hell out of here.” First time I’d heard swearing on a TV show.