Final Season Blues

This post investigates the final seasons of great TV shows and asks the question – why do so many of them fall short? I’ve been inspired to write this down following one of the most disappointing final seasons I’ve ever seen.

Dexter used to be such a great show, defined by morally ambiguity and dark plot lines. The remarkable writing meant that, against all the odds and our own best judgement, the viewer sided with a serial killer. With clever plot twists and intriguing mysteries, some of which evolved over many seasons, Dexter made for compelling viewing.

Below are three shows which I feel had terrible final seasons…

Dexter
The problem: Lazy and inconsistent characterisations, coupled with ill-conceived plot lines and narrative dead ends.

In the final season of Dexter, I found that I no longer cared what happened to the character, or how the plot unfolded because nothing made sense any more. For a start, characters stopped behaving in believable ways. If you were a beautiful blonde woman hiding out from the police, wouldn’t you dye your hair? or wear clothes that didn’t attract attention to you?

The final season provides no closure, the tension doesn’t rise to a crescendo, instead the season plods along until Dexters former lover Hannah shows up. Dr. Vogel , played brilliantly by Charlotte Rampling, is revealed to be the woman responsible for introducing Dexter’s code (he only kills killers). Initially, the character is interesting and strong, but soon becomes a dull, useless victim. Finally, she is revealed to be completely stupid as she tries to re-connect with her own serial killer son, with predictable results.

Other plot lines introduced in the final season, such as Masuka’s protegé/daughter are left unresolved and go nowhere. Deborah’s hatred for Dex disappears incredibly quickly following a counselling session with Vogel after she tries to kill him. Right at the end of the series, there is suddenly a hurricane to facilitate the end of the story.

Remind yourself that the show was great: Re-watch season 4. Arthur Mitchell, played by John Lithgow puts in one of the most compelling performances in recent memory. Dexter just doesn’t get better than this.

Lost
The problem: The writers were making the story up as they went along and never gave thought to the payoff.

‘Doing a Lost’ should enter the lexicon as ‘a failure to payoff viewer investment’. After six seasons full of mystery and intrigue, the payoff was that the characters were in a sort of ‘purgatory universe’ between heaven and hell. The finale left us with narrative dead ends and unresolved plot lines. The whole thing was a quasi-religious mess and it became clear that the writers never had a resolution to the mysteries that they had developed.

Remind yourself that the show was great: Re-watch season 1,2 or 3. A personal favourite is ‘Walkabout’ from Season 1.

Star Trek: The Next Generation
The problem: A final season that eschewed any proper Science Ficton for self-indulgent soap opera.

The Next Generation always had a nice mix of soap opera in with the hardcore SF concepts. Sadly though, the final season of TNG focuses far too much on family.

We see Picard dealing with a clone of his son, Geordi dealing with the death of his mother, heck, even Data meets his android mum.

When the show does do a high concept SF episode, it’s the nonsensical ‘Genesis’ where the crew de-evolve into primitive creatures. Fortunately, the season is saved with a couple of great episodes (Parallels and The Pegasus spring to mind) as well as the best episode of the series – All Good Things.

Remind yourself that the show was great: The series finale ‘All Good Things’ was brilliant, a proper hardcore SF concept mixed in with a terrific performance from Patrick Stewart. The final scene, where he joins the ‘family’ for a poker game is a poignant high point for the show.

These three aren’t the only culprits, House also had a weak final season, bogged down with increasingly unlikely scenarios. Quantum Leap, like Star Trek: The Next Generation, had a poor final season, but also made up for it with a brave and brilliant final episode in which Sam meets God in the form of a bartender who has been leaping him about to ‘put right what once went wrong’.

I had expected that the writers of Dexter would introduce one clever final twist that would make the season cohesive, as they had so cleverly done in Season 7, with a stunning final twist. Alas, it was not to be and the series will always be compromised with a limp ending for a show that had dared to be bold and different.

Star Trek: Photo – shopping

Top left to bottom right: Shatner/Pine, Nimoy/Quinto, kelley/Urban, Takei/Cho, Koenig/Yelchin and Nicholls/Saldana

I love these photo shopped creations that combine the new and old actors from Star Trek. Thanks to Photoshop and some impressive skills, ThatNordicGuy has created hybrid faces that seem surprisingly believable.

Check out the larger versions here: http://imgur.com/a/caYim

 

 

Top left to bottom right: Doohan/Pegg, Montalban/Cumberpatch, Besh/Eve and Hunter/Greenwood

All of the melds are good, I particularly like the Kirk, Khan and Scotty composites.

Now, I might not have the skills demonstrated in these composites, but here is a YouTube morph I made of my own face turning into Shatners.

Star Trek: Film Review

‘This is not your father’s Star Trek,’ proclaimed one of the trailers for the 2009 Star Trek movie.  This counterfactual and somewhat tired statement rubbed some in the Trek community up the wrong way. It’s a specious tagline because actually, this is your fathers Star Trek.

For evidence, just check out this piece of dialog- which could just as easily come from the classic 1966 show as the 2009 movie.

Leonard “Bones” McCoy: Permission to speak freely, sir?
Spock: I welcome it.
Leonard “Bones” McCoy: Do you? OK, then. Are you out of your Vulcan mind? Are you making a logical choice, sending Kirk away? Probably. But, the right one? You know, back home we have a saying: “If you’re gonna ride in the Kentucky Derby, you don’t leave your prize stallion in the stable.”

The 2009 reboot is far closer in terms of spirit to the gaudy, fun sci-fi action format espoused by classic Trek. The task of re-casting archetypal heroes like Kirk, Spock and McCoy must have been daunting. Yet Pine, Quinto and Urban all take to the roles like they were born to them, capturing the essence of the characters without being mere parodies or ciphers. When Spock turns down the offer to study at the Vulcan Science Academy, his ‘Live long and prosper’ put down is a great character moment, but one can’t imagine Nimoy delivering the line in quite that way.

ILM provided superb special effects for Star Trek 2009

This is the most cinematic of all the Trek movies, from the epic and emotional opening sequence to the action packed finale. Abrams kinetic direction, where he literally bangs on the side of the camera lends a sense of urgency to the film. Incidentally, I like his use of lens flares too because of the sense of immediacy they create. The action sequences are superb, but unlike the recent Star Wars films, its the characters that drive the movie.

From a technical standpoint, the film is excellent – with Scot Chambliss providing superb design work and ILM excelling with strong visuals. Michael Giacchino provides the film with a suitably bombastic score that has echoes of previous Treks. The End Credits sequence superbly reinterprets Alexander Courage’s immortal television theme, providing a highly emotional payoff to the Trek faithful.

The films stroke of genius is to set the movie in an alternate timeline to the previous Star Trek series. This alternate timeline, created by having Nero destroy the USS Kelvin, in no way diminishes the Trek’s that have come before. What is achieves is to free up the writers from the constraints of 40 years worth of mythology. It means that Star Trek can be unpredictable and exciting again. One of the big problems with the cancelled Star Trek: Enterprise prequel was that it had to contend with all the future history that it could not contradict.

The film is not flawless however, for a start, the film’s protagonist is poorly drawn and his motivation seems muddled and unclear. The narrative flow should not have been better structured, without having Nimoy’s Spock provide a convenient expository info-dump midway through the movie. Furthermore, Kirk’s meeting with Spock was far to much of a coincidence and should have been contrived.

For me, the best Star Trek’s are the ones that combine a proper hard Science-Fiction concept with Roddenberry’s humanist values. Star Trek 2009 is primarily an exciting action-movie, but it does chart the emotional journey of Star Trek’s most beloved character – Spock. By the end of the movie, Pine and Quinto emulate the same connection as Kirk and Spock as played by Shatner and Nimoy.

Kirk and Spock check out the new Apple store…

Trekkers will pointlessly argue over the minutia, arguing that the Enterprise should have been constructed in space and that its warp nacelles are too large. Such arguments are of no consequence the majority of filmgoers and are trivial at best. This Star Trek honors the original series’ legacy by harnessing its best qualities – it’s characters, futuristic setting, ground-breaking effects and action format.

Rating: 8/10

Dren, Hezmana and Gorram Felgercarb!

The title of this post is composed of made-up swear words from various Science Fiction TV shows. I’ve recently been re-watching Farscape on Fox HD, and I’ve noticed the prevalence of amusing fictional swears. Lets take a look:

“By the yotz!”

Frell – basically it’s the F-Bomb.
Dren – lets call it an unwanted substance (sh*t)
Hezmana – replacement word for Hell – as in what the Hezmana!
Shaltan – not sure on this one- “I’ve been screaming my shaltan head off!”
Mivonks – bollocks – “D’Argo is thinking with his mivonks again.”

and there’s more – check out the Farscape Encyclopedia Project.

So Farscape had some innovative cursing, but what about other Sci-Fi shows? Well, Joss Whedon’s short-lived Serenity had ‘gorram’ – a simple twist on god-damn. Far more amusing was when the characters swore in Chinese: “Ching-wah tsao duh liou mahng” translates as “frog-humpin’ bastard” for example.

Lets go for something a bit more mainstream…

Battlestar Galactica.

Cyclons are referred to as ‘toasters’ in the TV show – hence the novelty value of this item.

Frak – The F-bomb again! both in the original 1978 TV show (spelt Frack) and the far superior re-imagined version used this fictional expletive . The word has transcended Battlestar Galactica and appeared in other shows including Chuck, 30 Rock, Warehouse 13 and others. The real-world F-bomb is accidentally (or not) dropped in at least two episodes though (check out Daybreak Part 1). The original Battlestar Galactica also used ‘Felgercarb’, but I’m not sure what that one translates as.

Babylon-5 also dropped a variant on the F-bomb with Delen spouting ‘Abso-fragging-lutely, dammit’. Pretty much every other line of dialog in B5 included the word ‘damn’ or ‘hell’, though intricately plotted, the dialog in that show was often pretty ropey.

The biggest of the Sci-Fi franchises, i.e the ones with ‘star’ in the title have disappointingly mundane fictional profanity. Star Wars gives us the child-like ‘laserbrain’ and ‘Nerf Herder’, as well as the rather lame Poodoo. Star Trek doesn’t really have prevalent fictional swears, there is some real-world profanity though as Picard uses the French word ‘merde’ early on in TNG’s run and characters occasionally use hell and damn. As for Stargate, I’ve drawn a frakking blank.

Finally, in Sci-Fi comedy, we have ‘smeg’ from Red Dwarf and ‘Shazbot’ from Mork and Mindy. So swearing might be the last recourse of the unintelligent to win an argument and some might say that swearing isn’t big, clever or funny. But now you can use Sci-Fi’s rather amusing swear word substitutions to perplex and amuse friends and colleagues in equal measure.

The rise and fall (and rise?) of Space Opera.

Sci-Fi comes in many different guises, but my favourite is the space opera. Stories of exploration, daring battles and unique characters with epic storylines. I yearn for a brave new take on the space-opera format, but the biggest barrier is that space based shows are expensive. Why take a risk, when a standard drama, or reality-based TV show can be made for a fraction of the cost?

Following the ratings success of Star Trek: The Next Generation, science fiction TV shows were flavour of the month. The 90’s would see a variety of new space-based TV shows, from long-lived successes like Babylon 5 and Stargate SG1, to one season wonders like Space Above and Beyond.

As we moved into the noughties, it seemed that the space opera was developing and evolving, with darker and edgier stories. The genre had matured with the, grimy and complex Star Trek Deep Space Nine (launched in 1993). Ron Moores excellent update of Battlestar Galactica would take the gritty space opera format and run with it.

Battlestar would use clever camera techniques to add a layer of realism to proceedings. The show used jerky camera zooms and handheld cameras, rejecting the slick, clean look and false jolliness of what had gone before. Characters were flawed, situations were not clear-cut and outcomes to stories were often unpredictable.

Stargate Universe would try to emulate and capitalise on this style, but it was not in keeping with the camp, fun style of previous Stargate series. SGU ultimately alienated it’s fan base with its dull and dour tone and would last just two seasons. The last bastion of the space opera on TV is the recently cancelled animated show Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

But now it looks like the space opera may be resurgent once again, at least on the big screen, with the forthcoming Star Trek and Enders Game movies. Also exciting is the upcoming new Defiance TV show, developed by Rockne S. O’Bannon – creator of Farscape. Whilst this show looks to be Earth based, the trailer shows plenty of space-ships and aliens.

While I wait for new space based Sci-Fi, here are some space operas that are a little more obscure than the usual Star Trek and Stargate shows.

A travesty that this wonderful show was canned. Series rating: 9/10

Firefly.

Chances are that unless you are really into Sci-Fi, this one might have slipped under your radar. The show lasted just 14 episodes and had a cool western TV show vibe and was very well written.

The show was popular enough that a movie – ‘Serenity’ was released following it’s cancellation. It’s an excellent film that complements a superb TV show.

Farscape: obscure genius. Series rating: 7/10

Farscape.

Weird and inventive aliens with intricate plotting and episode structure. Farscape had a surreal quality and was not afraid to innovate (it even had an episode in the style of a looney tunes cartoon).

Andromeda – not Gene’s best. Series rating: 3/10

Andromeda.

Based on an outline written by Gene Roddenberry, this series followed Dylan Hunt, who wakes up after being frozen for 300 years on a sentient star-ship called Andromeda. The first season of this show is passable, but later seasons suffer badly from poor acting, poor special effects and paper-thin plots. This show is best avoided.

SGU: Not bad. Series rating 6/10

Stargate Universe (SGU).

Heavily influenced by the far superior Battlestar Galactica, SGU was the last gasp in the fatigued Stargate franchise. This was an altogether more serious Stargate show that lasted a mere two seasons. It has much to recommend it, including strong acting performances from Robert Carlyle and David Blue.

Avoid this show at all costs. Series rating: 1/10

Crusade.

A spin-off from the far superior Babylon 5, Crusade followed the crew of the Excalibur who were searching for a cure to a deadly plague that had infected the Earth.

The show is hindered by terrible dialog and poor special effects. The score is especially bad, with lots of loud synthesizer music. Babylon 5 could get away with the odd bit of bad dialog and some ropey F/X work, but that’s because unlike Crusade, it had such good story arcs and interesting characters.

Star Trek: Generations Film Review

Captain Picard, with the help of a purportedly dead Captain Kirk, must stop a scientist (Dr Tolian Soran) from destroying a star which will result in the death of millions and the destruction of an entire planet.

Star Trek Generations was released in 1994, when Star Trek was at the height of its popularity. To say I was excited about watching this movie was an understatement, but sadly, with the exception of Star Wars: Episode 1, this is the most disappointing film that I’ve ever seen.

It’s not that Generations is a terrible film – indeed it is actually quite ambitious in its story-telling, but Generations is conceptually flawed and a bit dull.

The main problem with the movie is the concept of ‘the nexus’. The nexus is a weird kind of destructive energy ribbon that tears through space. If you enter the nexus then you can live in a kind of nirvana, where all your fantasy’s come true.

The nexus is an intangible notion that does not translate well to the big screen. Furthermore, when Picard decides that he wants to leave the nexus, we are told that he can leave anytime, and go anywhere. This is a major plot hole in the film. Why would Picard return to the point just before Soran fires his rocket into the sun? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to travel back to just before Soran boards the Enterprise?

The nexus is a fantasy plot contrivance.

Conceptually, the film is about how we deal with ageing. All three men, Kirk, Picard and Soran are thinking about and/or seeking immortality in three completely different ways. Picard, grieving over the death of his nephew, realises that his family line will now die out. Soran has lost his family to the Borg and wants nirvana in the nexus. Kirk meanwhile wants to make a difference again and is finding retirement a little dull.

After Cliff Eidelman’s beautiful score for Star Trek VI, the music for Generations feels like a massive step in the wrong direction. Dennis McCarthy’s score is adequate but underwhelming. I find that it is too restrained and the soundtrack feels like a TV score. The main theme lacks power and is understated, the bombast of the Star Trek theme is muted.

David Carson directs this installment and it’s like he’s filming a TV movie. All his shots are medium to close-up shots. There are a lot of talking heads, there is precious little in the way of creative camera positioning or movement. Shots are static and dull, lending a pedestrian feel to the film. Compare this with the recent JJ Abrams movie, which is full of camera movement for a sharp contrast in styles.

Thankfully, the director of photography – John A. Alonzo does a fantastic job on the movie. Photography is warm and filmic, a standout scene is the scene with Patrick Stewart and Marina Sirtis where Picard learns of the death of his nephew.

The acting in the movie is also self indulgent and lack lustre. Shatner and Stewart reportedly got on very well, but their scenes together lack chemistry. Shatner seems to be playing himself rather than Captain Kirk, and I was irked that the woman Kirk was with in the Nexus was not one of Kirk’s established lovers like Carol Marcus or Edith Keeler.

Patrick Stewart seems to be still acting for TV, some of the line deliveries are poor and the dialog needed a polish. Kirk’s death scene is anti-climactic and lacks the emotional impact that the death of Spock had in Star Trek II.

Brent Spiner’s Mr Data has a sub-plot where he receives an emotion chip. Spiner takes real chances with some broad comedy acting that enlivened the film no end. I know that some fans found the comedy to be over the top and annoying, but I felt that it gave the film some much-needed fun. Overall though, the supporting cast are side-lined – a problem that would afflict later movies as well.

Mr Tricorder

Generations was made on the cheap and it shows. Various shots of the Enterprise B are cribbed from Star Trek VI, as is the explosion of the Klingon Bird of Prey. The model effects work is accomplished though the saucer crash sequence is not wholly convincing. It’s quite a primitive element for a film franchise that used to push the boundaries of visual effects technology.

The saucer model is hugely impressive, a real work of art. The saucer crash used one of the largest landscape miniatures ever used in the movies.

Generations was the fist film to ever have a dedicated web page on the internet to officially publicize a motion picture. The site was a huge success, and was viewed millions of times leading up to the film’s release. Remember, this was at a time when fewer than a million Americans had internet access. The website allowed you to download the movie poster at the huge resolution of 387×480 pixels!

Generations should have been a brilliant film, sadly though, the plot lacks focus and the movie feels like an extended TV episode rather than a movie event. The film suffers from gaping plot holes, badly played characters and a lack of excitement. Star Trek VI acted as a much more dignified swan song for Kirk and the original Star Trek series.

The film feels rushed, with half the crew in the new DS9 uniforms and some in their standard TV uniforms. Reportedly, filming began just ten days after the series finale was made. I think that some of the rush to capitalise on the huge TV success is evident on-screen. A similar problem would afflict The X-Files, which also tried to capitalise on its popularity by transitioning to the big screen.

Rating: 4/10

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Film Review

Star Trek VI – the walls coming down in space…

After an explosion cripples the energy needs of the Klingon Empire, peace talks begin with the Federation. The Enterprise responds as the first olive branch to escort the Klingons to a peace conference.

Inexplicably, the Enterprise fires on the Klingons, Kirk and his crew must uncover a conspiracy in order to save the peace process and prevent all out war.

In 1991, Star Trek would celebrate its 25th Anniversary and the promotional opportunity of a new movie proved too good to pass up, despite the fact that some of the cast were now into their seventies. However, after the weak box office of Star Trek V, Star Trek VI was given a relatively small 25 million dollar budget and a tight shooting schedule.

Star Trek VI is notable as one of the first movies to deal (allegorically at least) with the collapse of the Soviet Union. As such, the movie is important, for it deals not only with the ending of an important peice of popular culture, but aims for historical significance as well. In one early exchange, Kirk is upset that he is to be the first olive-branch to peace as he is so close to retirement. Spock retorts with the line “Only Nixon could go to china…” meaning that as Kirk is infamous in the Klingon Empire, no-one could accuse him of being sympathetic to the Klingon cause or doubt the sincerity of the Federation towards peace.

Furthermore, General Chang’s line, “Don’t wait for the translation! Answer me now!” is a reference to Adlai Stevenson’s similar demand of Soviet Union representative Valerian Zorin at the United Nations in 1962 whilst debating over the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Further depth is added to the film by having the Klingon General Chang declaring that ‘You have not read Shakespeare unitl you have read it in the original Klingon’. According to director Nicolas Meyer, this was a reference to Nazi Germany’s attempts to claim the bard as their own. The use of Shakespeare underscores the political nature of the plot.

When General Chang states that ‘no peace in our time…once more unto the breach, dear friends’, the character is mocking British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain who in a speech regarding the Munich Agreement said that “I have returned from Germany with peace in our time.” Ironically of course, less than a year later, Germany declared War on the Allies.

One of the major themes of the film is change, and how people react to it. By the end of the film Kirk has realised how predjudiced he was against the Klingons and was initially reluctant to attend the peace talks. Even Spock, who saw the logic in peace asks of Kirk “is it possible that we two, you and I, have grown so old and so inflexible that we have out-lived our usefulness. Would that constitute….a joke?”. An especially nice line of dialog as it could equally well refer to the ending of the original Star Trek movies and be construed as Nimoy asking the question of Shatner.

Industrial Light and Magic were back on board to produce the special effects, and some of the sequences were amazing. The shockwave effect produced by the explosion of Praxis would be used in the Star Wars Special Editions, Independence Day, Stargate and any number of other big 90’s films.

Star Trek Generations would use a spherical shockwave effect that is more scientifically accurate than this ‘ring like’ effect.

Other notable visual effects included digital morphing effects for a shapeshifting character. This was a refined version of the effect seen in Terminator 2, but the camera moves during the effect and the character continues to deliver dialog.The other outstanding sequence with the CG Klingon blood was on paper prohibitavely expensive, but low tech solutions such as suspending actors on wires and building sets that were rotated 90 degrees allowed the sequence to be conceived without extensive blue screen photography. The wires were removed digitally where needed and the scene was lit with harsh lighting so that the wires were obscured.

Cliff Eidelman provides the film with an excellent muscial score, that accompanies the on-screen action to great effect. The music reflects the darker, more serious tone of the film well, with a somber and ominous opening. In the more sentimental sequences, where the crew are basically saying goodbye, Eidelman’s sparing use of the Alexander Courage Star Trek fanfare is perfectly used. I lament that Cliff Eidelman does not get enough credit for the musical score that he provided for Star Trek VI.

Star Trek VI is also the first of the Star Trek movies to really utilise digital surround sound effects. For sure, it’s the only original series movie that will test your home cinema system.

Eagle-eyed Trekkies will spot cost-savings in the film as many of The Next Generation sets were redressed for the movie, notably the Ten Forward set. As usual with a Star Trek movie, there are some inconsistencies, the most glaring of which is the removal of touch screen interfaces (seen in Star Trek V) at the helm and navigation position. When Kirk orders Chekov to fire a photon torpedo, the camera zooms in on Chekov’s hand, which clearly presses a button marked ‘mode select’.

The actors who began playing their roles in the Kennedy/Vietnam years went out holding a mirror up to the then new era of Gorbachev, Glasnost and Clinton. Speaking of the actors, the original cast members all get a chance to shine and put in great performances. The supporting cast of David Warner, Christopher Plummer and Kim Cattrall also make their mark.

I love how well this movie ties into multiple plot strands on The Next Generation, from Unification Part 1 and 2 to Yesterdays Enterprise and more episodes besides. Star Trek had developed into a modern myth that was neatly bound together in Homeric fashion. How much of this was by accident or by design I am not sure.

The film is replete with allusions to death, endings, and time’s passage. For instance, Chang quotes from Henry IV when he leaves the Enterprise:  “Have we not heard the chimes at midnight?” This lends a melancholic feel to the denonument of the movie and a sense of regret that we won’t see the original cast together again. The stirring music accompanied by the cast literally signing off is quite emotional.

Spock explains that the painting shows the expulsion from paradise, it is a reminder that all things end.

For me, Star Trek VI is the best of the Original Series movies, a culmination of all the movies that came before it. It combines the epic scale and ideas driven plot of The Motion Picture with the action and excitement of The Wrath of Khan, the emotional heart of The Search For Spock, the humour of The Voyage Home and the sense of family that was explored in The Final Frontier. Its the perfect swansong for the Original Series and elegantly passes the baton on to The Next Generation.

Rating: 9/10

Addendum: The studio’s desire to make this the last original series movie was, in my opinion a terrible marketing move. Star Trek VI would be the 15th highest grossing film of 1991 and have the best opening weekend of any movie up to that date. Star Trek VI had a worldwide take of around a hundred million dollars from a twenty five million dollar budget. This profit excludes VHS, DVD and now Blu-Ray sales.

The Importance of Star Wars

The magic of the original Star Wars trilogy has been diminished for many, thanks to the atrocious Star Wars prequels.

Vocal fans and critics have railed against George Lucas, with spurious and often conceited personal attacks. Many a fanboy has been heard whining that ‘Greedo shot first’ (OK, that includes me), or churlishly exclaiming that ‘George Lucas raped my childhood’.

So popular was that last phrase that it has spawned T-shirts, a documentary and a terrible song (just search YouTube if you’re desperate to hear it).

But the legacy of the original trilogy is not that it made loads of money, or that it spawned a host of imitators. It’s not even that it re-defined optical effects technology.

Did you know that prior to Star Wars, there was only one Science Fiction film that was the highest grossing movie of its year? That movie was Frankenstein, released in 1931, and which could equally be classified as a Horror movie.

Sure, there were successful Science Fiction movies prior to Star Wars. The awesome Planet of the Apes in 1968 made a lot of money and was in the top 5 highest grossing movies of that year. But Star Wars literally changed the face of cinema, with Close Encounters of The Third Kind, Superman and the god-awful Moonraker all succeeding in the wake of Star Wars’ epic success.

Star Wars gave the genre of Science Fiction the economic and cultural legitimacy that would see Science Fiction movies gain a stronghold at the cinema that continues to this day. Last year, the highest grossing films were; The Avengers, The Dark Night Rises and The Hunger Games (all SF movies).

Those hardcore SF fans, you know the type, the ones who pour scorn on the Star franchises (Star Wars, Trek and Gate) and who argue that Star Wars is for children miss the point.

Without Star Wars, you wouldn’t have the funding for the less commercial (but equally good) Science Fiction. The Studios might not have taken a punt on The Matrix, District 9, Inception or Looper. And let us not forget that without Star Wars, the great Star Trek would likely not have been reborn in 1979.

All Science Fiction fans owe Lucas a debt of gratitude, even as we shake our heads in collective dismay over his recent output. One thing is in-arguable, he had a vision and for better or worse, he was able to acheive it. It seems to me that whilst he may have become a business man, he started out as an independent visionary film maker. Just pretend those prequels didn’t happen.

Star Trek V: Film Review

When a terrorist group take hostages on the so called ‘planet of galactic peace’, the Enterprise must respond to the threat posed by a religious mad man who believes he knows the location of the planet ‘ShaKaRee’ (Eden). Hijaking the Enterprise, the crew venture through the great barrier at the centre of the universe to meet their maker…

A parity clause in his contract meant that William Shatner would take up the option to direct the film. Sadly, this movie would prove to be the weakest of the original Star Trek movies and proved to be a huge disappointment at the box-office…

Shatner really aims high, reaching for an epic cinematic feel for the movie. His ambition is clear from the opening scene that tries to ape Lawrence of Arabia, with Sybok riding out of the desert. He also employs some lovely establishing shots in Yosemite. Shatner also tries for some immediacy by using a steadicam to show actors entering and leaving the turbo lifts. It’s a far artier and innovative effort than Nimoy employed, but you’ve got to wonder if Shatner was so focused on the filming of the movie that he lost sight of some other factors.

Let’s look at the plot. Unfortunately, it’s a pretty predictable Star Trek story, where the crew of the Enterprise find that an alien is pretending to be God to further its own nefarious ends. In fact, when one compares it to episodes of the Original Series, it’s very similar in terms of story structure to a truly terrible episode called ‘The Way to Eden’. I’ll elaborate.

Inspirational nutcase with loyal followers wants to visit mythical planet of Eden. CHECK.
Nutcases actually convince some crewmembers of their beliefs. CHECK.
One of the crew has a very personal relationship with one of the nut-jobs. CHECK.
Nutcase and henchmen take over the Enterprise. CHECK.
Nutter reaches Eden/alien planet and is killed. CHECK.

Much of the films humour comes at the expense of the characters. Sulu and Chekhov (helmsman and navigator) get lost whilst out hiking in an early sequence. Scotty declares that he ‘knows this ship like the back of my hand’ and then proceeds to knock himself out on a bulkhead. Both of these sequences are quite funny, but the humour comes at the expense of the characters and we are laughing at them rather than with them.

Clearly, there was pressure to introduce more humour after the success of Star Trek IV. Regrettably, the comedy here is too broad and gags are ‘constructed’ rather than coming from the characters situation. Star Trek should not be Police Academy.

Without ILM available for the visual effects, the production went to Brian Ferren. The results were nothing short of terrible. Instead of an optical composite, Ferren preferred rear projection techniques. His rather simple visual techniues included using chemicals, which were dropped into a large water tank to create swirls and other reactions in order to produce the ‘Great Barrier’ sequence.

Famously, the ending was to have featured giant rockmen, but in those pre-CGI days, the effect could not be achieved within budget. Instead, Kirk is chased by amorphous and unconvincing blobs of light. The film re-uses visual effects from previous movies because much of the newer material was very poor. Check out the shot below – it’s flat and lifeless. Clearly unfinished.

It’s a special effect Jim, but not as we know it.

So, is Star Trek V an unmitigated disaster with no redeeming features? No – that’d be Star Trek Nemesis. Star Trek V has some wonderful moments, my favourite of which is Kirk’s question to what would appear to be the almighty. His line delivery is perfect and this small exchange really sums up Star Treks credo nicely.

Deforest Kelley also gets to show his acting range with a touching scene showing him euthanizing his dying father. McCoy’s added torment that a ‘god damn cure’ was found shortly after is palpable.

Towards the end of the movie, McCoy ask’s somewhat rhetorically if God is really out there. Kirk replies: “Maybe he’s not out there. Maybe he’s in here—in the human heart.” Again, it’s a statement entirely in keeping with Star Trek, it’s a small sweet moment in the film that I really liked.

The musical score is one of the movies unmitigated triumphs. Goldsmith riffs on his theme from The Motion Picture and also creates some wonderful sequences such as the music that accompanies the exploration of the planet at the centre of the Universe.

Ultimately, the studo should have spent more money on the visual effects for this movie. To release it in a clearly unfinished state is laughable. The film is carried by some excellent acting, Laurence Luckinbill’s performance as Sybok is particularly good. However, there are some unforgivable sequences in the movie. Watching a fifty-something Uhura doing a fan-dance is akin to accidentally copping an eyeful as Grannie walks out of the shower.

The definition of sophomoric is ‘conceited and overconfident of knowledge but poorly informed and immature’. Unfortunately, that sums up the film nicely. The humour is particularly sophomoric (now that I know what that means).

This movie could easily have ended the Star Trek film franchise and I believe that only the spectacular popularity of The Next Generation allowed Star Trek VI to go ahead. Star Trek V is not a worthless picture, it just lacks the sophisticated technical and dramatic adeptness that the previous pictures had in abundance. The whole God narrative is a conceptual no-win scenario, which leaves the denouement of the film, and its amorphous lightning-shooting deity face all the more ridiculous.

Rating: 4/10

Star Trek IV: Film Review

The Enterprise crew are now renegades. Returning to earth to face up to their crimes, they have no option but to journey back in time to 1984 in order to rescue a pair of humpback whales so that they can talk to an alien probe that is causing damage to the Earth.

Star Trek IV, or the ‘whale one’, was a sizeable hit back in the day and is the film that seemed to have the biggest appeal to the non-trekkie audience. Looking back on the movie today, it’s still an immensely enjoyable film, with some really nice gags.

Nimoy rightly felt that the film franchise required a change of tone after two movies that dealt with conflict and he wanted a film without a main villain. It’s something that I wish the Next Generation had been brave enough to do, namely take a chance with a different type of storytelling.

The special effects in the movie are so good that many people assumed that they were real. I am of course talking about the animatronic whales used in the production. Wildlife groups wrote to complain that the film-makers must have disturbed real whales by getting so close to them. It’s a triumph for practical special effects and this aspect of the movie has held up really well.

The music is scored by Leonard Rosenman and it is probably my least favourite score in the original movie series (though it is still rather good). It has a weird kind of Christmassy feel to it, and whilst it suits the film, it’s a little bit forgettable and light weight. That said, the score does reference Alexander Courage’s original Trek theme, which is underused.

The films ecological message is hammered home without subtlety or refrain and yet the film is not overtly preachy. It is sad that the plight of the blue whale especially is still so desperate.

There are some wonderful ‘fish out of water’ jokes in the film, Nimoy plays straight man to Shatner and they share some of the films best scenes. It’s also great to see that the supporting cast all get sizeable chunks of screen-time and are pivotal to the plot. Shatner appears to be channelling Cary Grant in this film and he puts in quite a charming performance.

Catherine Hicks is great as the Marine Biologist and has a nice chemistry with Kirk. It is often said that there aren’t enough strong roles for women in the movies. Yet here, Gillian is easily Kirk’s equal and is a confident and knowledgable scientist.

In these Star Trek movie reviews, I often mention instances of great dialog and this film is no different.

Spock: [in response to McCoy’s query regarding the afterlife] ‘It would be impossible to discuss the event without a common frame of reference’.
McCoy: ‘You mean I have to die to discuss your insights on death’.
Spock: ‘Forgive me Doctor, I am receiving a number of distress signals’.
McCoy: ‘I don’t doubt it’.

Nimoy as director excels, notably with the tense and desperate dash to stop a whaling ship from killing the humpbacks that they need to return with to Earth. I must’ve seen the sequence a hundred times, but I’m always on the edge of my seat, willing the bird of prey to protect the whales.

I love the ending of the movie when after the trial, Sarek makes amends with Spock, by admitting that he was wrong to oppose his son joining Starfleet. It’s a wonderful scene, delightfully played by both Nimoy and Mark Lenard and it brings to a close a story arc that began in the original series episode ‘Journey to Babel’.

Looking at the negative side of things, some of the matte paintings on Vulcan look a little rough, as does the one showing the Cetacean Institute and it would have been nice to learn a little more about the probe that was sent to Earth to talk to the whales. As a nit-pick, I obviously don’t like that the bird of prey seems to go to warp inside the Earth’s atmosphere as it contradicts the established logic of the series.

With the huge mainstream success of Star Trek IV, it was pretty much guaranteed that there would be a Star Trek V. Nimoy’s deft hand at comedy would also provide him with another mainstream hit: Three Men and a Baby. It was also around this time that the announcement of a new TV show ‘Star Trek The Next Generation’ was made.

To sum up then, Star Trek IV is a delightful film, in which everyone seems to be having fun. The camaraderie, combined with a genuine heartfelt ecological message makes for a movie that’s impossible to dislike.

8/10