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Saturday, July 06, 2013

Trekkin'




I wouldda won, I WOULDDA!

"The Squire of Gothos" is one of the standout episodes of Star Trek TOS.
I strongly suspect Trelane is a member of the "Q" Continuum.
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Watching "I Saw What You Did". Saith the Dread Dormomoo:
"This movie has a little horror, and a lot of tedium"
That's why we love 'er!

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The Seaview is just the SEXIEST sub ever!












16 comments:

Rigel Kent said...

According to Q-Squared he's Q's son. See here: http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Q-Squared

If you're a William Castle fan you might want to check out Homicidal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt_jnqty5rU

Yeah, he's rippin' off Hitchcock here, but he's doing an excellent job of it.

Don't know anything about the Seaview, but the picture looks really cool.

The Aardvark said...

I have read Q-Squared, but had forgotten the title. Great fun, and a decent read from a series of books I normally find to be lackluster. (Ford's How Much For Just the Planet is a giggle, and I'm a sucker for Diane Duane's writing.)

Yeah, I am fond of Castle. He *ahem* "borrowed" from Hitchcock in this one as well...the shower murder scene is, ummm...reminiscent.

The Seaview is from Irwin Allen's movie, then series "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea". Reliably, the first season was B&W, with some taut Cold War stories. The second season was IN COLOR!, and devolved into the "Salad-bar monster of the week" format for the kiddies. OTOH, they also had The Flying Sub added, which covered a multitude of script sins!

-Warren Zoell said...

MOTHER: If you cannot take proper care of your pets, you cannot have them at all.
TRELANE: Oh, but I was winning. I was winning.
FATHER: They're beings, Trelane. They have spirit. They're superior.

-Warren Zoell said...

I built the metre long kit of the Seaview. Great kit.
http://thegreatcanadianmodelbuilderswebpage.blogspot.ca/2010/06/seaview.html

The Aardvark said...

Warren- The Father was voiced by Doohan! I *think* that the Mother was the evil chick on Platonius.

I would LOVE to build the Uber-Seaview, but that would require my clearing a large planar surface....

The Aardvark said...

Well DERP! Bart La Rue voiced the Father, according to IMDB

-Warren Zoell said...

Scotty also did half the voices for the animated series as well as invent the Klingon language.

Michael W said...

@Warren/Aardvark --- I also lust after that meter-long Seaview kit (and would also have to clear a considerable and Currently Unavailable Amount of Space for it).

I agree that the Flying Lab covered up a lot of sins, but count me as another who's nostalgic for the original Seaview (with the separate forward observation deck, rather than the later version where it was part of the Control Room). For one thing it made a heck of a lot more sense. The "revised Seaview" was hopelessly messed up in terms of scale (as demonstrated by Frederick Barr's "Seaview Technical Manusl". I credit Barr with having the stones to try such a thing, but if you saw how he tried to reconcile the interior of the "revised Seaview" with the exterior you knew it was a suicide mission from the word go).

Two axioms of Irwin Allen were (1) his series always started out good and strong but inevitably ran low on steam, and (2) he was responsible for the most beautiful and iconic SF concepts ever created.

Michael W said...

And I meant "Flying Sub" rather than "Flying Lab".

(This is what happens when you occupy a lot of fandoms simultaneously.)

The Aardvark said...

Michael, I noticed that, and smiled....

-Warren Zoell said...

Michael - You may be interested that both versions are available.
http://culttvman.com/main/?p=19251

Michael W said...

@Warren --- I've been an appreciative follower of the CultTVMan website for some time now. I especially like Randy Neubert's work on his "movie Seaview":

http://culttvman.com/main/?p=24029

I should mention that, along with finding space for a really good Seaview model, I also have a problem finding the geedus to afford such a thing.

(Some time to sit down and actually work on models would also be nice. But I suspect we'll be moving in around five or so years, and I don't want to devote loving care to putting a model together, only to risk having it banged up while in transit.)

Rigel Kent said...

Trek novels are very hit and miss. Sometimes I'll read one and go "Why do I bother?" Then I'll read something like Spock's World and go "Oh yeah, that's why."

I'll have to check that Castle out sometime. I've only watched a little of his stuff so far, but I like what I've seen so far and everything I've heard about him makes me think I'll enjoy his stuff.

Models. Wow. That's been a long time. A very long time. I keep on meaning to pick one up again, but somehow I never get around to it.

Michael W said...

@Rigel Kent --- I've been trying to get back into Trek novels, but the recent releases have all been garbage. Not that they were consistently better before, but there used to be some decent reads in the mix (the novels of Diane Carey come immediately to mind).

Rigel Kent said...

@Michael W One of the problems with newer Trek books is that there's a lot more direction from on high. This is to ensure better continuity and that the books are more in line with Star Trek's philosophy, as interpreted by the publishing house.

Theoretically this could be a good thing. In practice, not so much. Previously when the editorial hand was a little lighter good stuff could slip through. The problem is good stuff tends to look at the Trek universe in a different way and challenges the preconceptions of the characters and they way we, the readers, consider them.

But now that kind of thing is strictly verboten, because the books all have to tow the same company line, so to speak.

Also the kind of writers that are willing to put up with that kind of thing aren't exactly going to be top notch. Since I'm on a rant here' let me bring up a specific example.

The most recent Trek book I read (or tried to read at any rate) was set on DS9 after the series finale. Bajor had joined the Federation and one of the subplots was about how Quark was going to manage to keep his bar going now that Bajor wasn't going to use money anymore. Yeah, they kept that particular gem.

The solution they came up with? They had Rom (who is Grand Nagus) intercede diplomatically with the Federation to allow Quarks to still use money. Query, how is that even a solution to the problem? Yeah Quark can use money, but the majority of his potential customers won't have any!

I know most writers are economically illiterate but you don't need to have read Adam Smith to know that if the people you're planning to sell goods and services to don't have money then you're not going to make any money doing business with them.

Okay, rant officially over. I now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging.

Michael W said...

@Rigel Kent --- Oh boy! Talk about setting off some rants.

As you pointed out, theoretically the greater control from on high could be a good thing, but in practice it's not always the case. It would work only if the Star Trek franchise was controlled by talented minds who could appreciate one of the better-conceived universes in the science-fiction genre. But it is my feeling that too many people in the top office see Star Trek only in terms of "product" and not in terms of a creative effort.

(This isn't limited by any means to Star Trek. The movie industry, for instance, is controlled by people who are only interested in a bottom line, and who could care less about releasing original films.)

(And, needless to say, I am not happy with the way the Trek franchise is currently being handled.)

I cannot recall the last time I enjoyed a Star Trek novel. And this from a person who, along with his wife, used to purchase every piece of Trek fiction which came down the pike because, early on, the odds were good that the result would be worth reading.