Borg borg borg. THEBOOOOORRRRGGGGG!!!!!! [ahem] If there’s any particular plot device Star Trek: The Next Generation over-used – other than the separation of the saucer section from the ship – it has to be the Borg, although Star Trek: Voyager used it far more yet. Still, the mindless inhumanity of the machine is a powerful image and one which is tough to beat for the sheer insurmountability of the challenge of its defeat. So… there’s that.
Star Trek VIII: First Contact (1996)
This one is intriguing in that we not only go back to the time that Earth first makes direct contact with an Extra-Terrestrial (April 4th, 2063; a few days prior to my 97th birthday; something to look forward to), we also get to meet the guy who invents Warp Drive. It also turns out that the two things take place not only on the same day, but in the same location, the one causing the other to occur. The guy who makes the faster-than-light propulsion engine ends-up being, frankly, a bit of a jerk, as he really wants to be left alone to tinker on stuff, not become some sort of high-technology hero figure. Granted, both Edison and Tesla were cranky bastards as well, so there you are.
Directed by Johnathan Frakes, this is effective as a story, even if the pacing seems slightly television-like in its rhythm in the editing and a tad conventional in its lighting and camera-work. He does well, however: even when the action is taking place in three locations we don’t get stuck with typical meanwhile… in an other part of space jump-cuts.
The story draws heavily on the themes of personal sacrifice being valued for the benefit of the larger goal, as well as the notion that everyone plays a role in the continuing development of history, no matter how insignificant they might seem to be in their contributing of details. Solid stuff, and we’ve seen it before, but it always works. Plus there’s a bit of comedy sprinkled throughout and that always helps.
The Borg Queen is actually a bit sexy, frankly, which goes back through James Bond, Dracula, and all the way to Cassandra and Medusa in its roots. Evil is always a seductress, causing otherwise intelligent individuals to lose their minds along with their principles in the pursuit of the bawdy and powerful opportunity being offered. Again, this isn’t over-played, and the dénouement is perfectly controlled without being filled with “gosh darn, aren’t we just something, gang?” hokum. Hooray!
This is probably the best of the 2nd iteration of the “Star Trek” series of films, although it also marks the beginning of a tendency to be too connected to the television versions running at the time.
Writing credits Gene Roddenberry (television series Star Trek) story by Rick Berman&Brannon Braga&Ronald D. Moore with screenplay by Brannon Braga&Ronald D. Moore
This year, I’ve been watching DVDs from the library for a number of reasons, mostly to do with a combination of “filling in the gaps in my ‘pop culture’ knowledge”, as well as a concerted effort to better understand story editing by both watching a film and then re-watching listening to people who have studied that particular movie for years in order to better appreciate the themes, plot construction, symbolism, and so on.
The process would be nothing without the secondary audio tracks. Sometimes it’s like having actually been through the film-making process with the people involved.
Okay now, here we go… out with the old, in with the new, and so on. Now we head into the territory occupied by the Enterprise numbered NCC-1701D and then shortly after meeting it get to say good-bye to it as well. Meantime we get to have an entirely new crew thrown at us, presuming we haven’t already met them on TV in the series Star Trek: The Next Generation, thus the title, which cunningly informs us that we’re possibly going to get something a little extra.
Star Trek VII: Generations (1994)
We start with the launch of the NCC-1701B, which is attended by a bunch of the now retired original crew (but not Spock, as Nimoy rightly said that his lines were so non-specific to the character that they could be anyone’s, and – given they ended up being uttered by Scotty – he was right). Because Kirk is on board (honestly, do not invite this guy onto your ship, everything goes to Hell when he’s around), there’s a crisis and the squeaky-clean Enterprise rescues as many of the passengers as it can who are on two vessels trapped inside “the Nexus”, which is a sort of energy beam / ribbon thing.
ZAP!! We’re seventy-eight years in the future and on the bridge of the NCC-1701D Enterprise with Captain Jean-Luc Picard at the helm, and the Nexus shows up again.
What this ends up being is a cross between Star Trek and James Bond, as Picard and company band together to defeat an obsessed crazy-man who is determined to return to ‘the Nexus’ where he will ive forever: FOREVER, I TELLYOU! HA-HA-HAAAAAA!!!
There’s also a sub-plot involving Data experimenting with an emotion-inducing plug-in, which is good for a few chuckles, but ultimately gets as wearisome as one would imagine the rest of the crew would find it in reality.
It’s okay, and I remember enjoying it in the theatre (possibly even on the opening night), but its best task is providing a bridge from one team to another.
Writing credits Gene Roddenberry (television series Star Trek) story by Rick Berman&Ronald D. Moore&Brannon Braga and screenplay by Ronald D. Moore&Brannon Braga
This year, I’ve been watching DVDs from the library for a number of reasons, mostly to do with a combination of “filling in the gaps in my ‘pop culture’ knowledge”, as well as a concerted effort to better understand story editing by both watching a film and then re-watching listening to people who have studied that particular movie for years in order to better appreciate the themes, plot construction, symbolism, and so on.
The process would be nothing without the secondary audio tracks. Sometimes it’s like having actually been through the film-making process with the people involved.
Here’s where SF really gets some proper treatment. As pointed out in the last one, the important doo-hickey is to use the weird setting of the vacuum of Space and characters who are gooey and / or green in order to discover more about the human beings of here and now. Ergo: The Day the Earth Stood Still has less to say about saucer technology than it does about the xenophobia and ‘Red Scare’ aspects of early-’50s America. Science is the platform that the fiction is placed upon, but then the setting supposedly makes the examination of delicate current topics ‘safer’ or less contentious, thus permitting more rational consideration of the points of both sides of the question. It’s also often done by setting bits of William Shakespeare’s work in new settings, such as Orson Welles’ Fascist Germany-set production of Macbeth demonstrating a battle for power by a success-driven megalomaniac.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
Thus, we have “Star Trek VI” re-examining the question of racism, the original series having already done so in the episode “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” (Season III, Episode 14), which I happen to have seen projected on a big screen locally when I was young. Here, however, the ‘extra complication’ is that it’s not merely another race, but a former deadly enemy involved. The parallel here is USA suddenly dealing with a post-fall of the Berlin Wall Soviet Union. Given the ‘Cold War’ history of the two nation’s interactions, plus the fact that Cuba still exists – which, in a pinch, could be seen as a Romulan Empire… kind of… maybe – makes it all work really well.
Due to the above Really Big Questions makes the character development fairly substantial, and it’s about damned time, frankly; in a way it’s a shame this is the last outing for the original crew of the Enterprise, as it really makes you think of Kirk as a far more intellectual and philosophical individual than before. Until now, the Klingons were “the bad guys” and we felt quite content to see them blown-up all the time. Yet, what would one think if one were Klingon? Is there a more intellectual and understandable side to them with which we might recognize our own need to expand our territories for use as food supply, raw materials for material wealth, and so on? Is it possible to see ourselves through their eyes as being simply irrational beings, clinging inconsiderately to our resources for no reason, when they might make better use of those materials for the benefit of all?
Even if one can make the jump to understand the need to trust the former enemy in a “new galaxial order”, can one truly feel that on a visceral level? Can one actually stand side-by-side with them and say “yes, we are brothers”? Would you let your daughter marry one?
This last question is actually posed in the script, and there was a bit of controversy about what, if anything, the reply might be. Another line was re-assigned due to Nichelle Nichols refusing to make a reference to the famous movie Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?, which itself dealt with racial discrimination at a time that great tension was caused even by the mentioning of the topic itself.
So, thus, there’s more than enough validity in asking these questions, whether you assign national, racial, or even planetary roles to the specifics of the question. Until such time as the poignancy of the question is no longer existent, the theme must be employed.
This probably is the best of the entire series, and is easily the best of the films for the original crew. What a shame it’s also the last, as well as still looking like a TV show with much of its camerawork.
Writing credits Gene Roddenberry (television series Star Trek) story by Leonard Nimoy plus Lawrence Konner&Mark Rosenthal screenplay by Nicholas Meyer&Denny Martin Flinn
This year, I’ve been watching DVDs from the library for a number of reasons, mostly to do with a combination of “filling in the gaps in my ‘pop culture’ knowledge”, as well as a concerted effort to better understand story editing by both watching a film and then re-watching listening to people who have studied that particular movie for years in order to better appreciate the themes, plot construction, symbolism, and so on.
The process would be nothing without the secondary audio tracks. Sometimes it’s like having actually been through the film-making process with the people involved.
This could have been good. Well, maybe ‘good’ is too strong a word; ‘better’ is probably more apt. Given the title – which is either one which was long-overdue for them to have used, or so painfully obvious that they ought to have avoided it altogether – it ought to be about the ultimate challenge between Good and Evil, or Life and Death, or Heaven and Hell, or… something. As it is, it ends up merely being “the one Shatner wrote and directed, with him climbing El Capitain at the start and the big talking cloud at the end”.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
I admit to having seen this in the theatre, which meant I paid damned good money to gain access to it. I hope Mr. Shatner appreciates that. I expect a nice hug the next time we meet. Well, if we meet, really.
Part of the reason this wasn’t as grandiose it was originally intended is due to the budgetary restraints, as well as the fact that the boffins at Industrial Light and Magic were already busy crafting things for Ghostbusters II and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It was fairly substantial at one point, but that sequence had to be cut out as a result of awful-looking special effects. So, the extra scenes were replaced by more shots of a face in a big cloud, except the eyes of the face glowed. Thus the film’s ending was badly chopped down to one where Kirk is simply being chased by a huge fuzzy cloud with a face in it whose eyes glowed.
Originally, the big revelation of an ending was to be an homage to Dante Alighieri, with all the levels of Hell he invented represented in a massive pit into which Kirk stared. Now that would be an ending! To come face-to-face with Hell itself, that would truly be the Final Frontier!
Sadly, no.
The lead-up to the ending has all sorts of lengthy expostulation, back-story galore for Spock, and generally a great deal of time-consumption. We get to see people on their ‘shore leave’, which is cut short. Thus, there’s Kirk on a camping trip with McCoy and Spock, during which they drink Kentucky bourbon and discuss the effect beans have upon them as well as attempt to convince the Vulcan that the lyrics of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” are both logical and worthy of memorization. We see Sulu and Chekov hiking, and Uhura doing a little moonlighting on an out of the way security detail. This is about as exciting as it gets, folks.
After that we get some flying through space sequences, some ‘leaning back and forth in chairs on the bridge’ sequences, and some ‘running around on a planet surface’ sequences. Basically, this is a TV episode, only longer, and with a bigger budget. Again, had the ending been in tact, we might have had something worthwhile, but – as it’s a stand-alone story – you can miss this one out without a problem.
Writing credits Gene Roddenberry (creator: based on Star Trek) screenplay by David Loughery from a story by William Shatner&Harve Bennett&David Loughery
This year, I’ve been watching DVDs from the library for a number of reasons, mostly to do with a combination of “filling in the gaps in my ‘pop culture’ knowledge”, as well as a concerted effort to better understand story editing by both watching a film and then re-watching listening to people who have studied that particular movie for years in order to better appreciate the themes, plot construction, symbolism, and so on.
The process would be nothing without the secondary audio tracks. Sometimes it’s like having actually been through the film-making process with the people involved.
For those of you wanting to be reminded which this is, it’s the one with the whales, people learn how to swear, Scotty uses a computer, and we get to chuckle at the way Chekov speaks. It’s also where we finally meet NCC-1701A. Yeah, that’s the one.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
Here we get the ‘fish out of water’ variety of time travel-based comedy – yes, I realize there’s a joke to be made there, but let’s try and be above that, okay? – and it’s probably a good thing as the whole “Spock needs to be re-built from scratch” deal is getting a bit tired. Sure, the Vulcan’s have a cool culture and everything, but there’s only so many incomprehensibly named ceremonies involving logic and ration thinking you can stand. At the core of any story you’re supposed to focus on who we as a people are, not who someone else is; to reveal that which is within ourselves is the key, is it not?
Given the rather unbelievable quality of the plot points, as well as the forgettable cinematography – the damned thing looks so much like a TV episode I swear they used the least number of camera set-ups possible without actually resorting to ‘nothing but the master shot’ for the whole picture – it’s a wonder that there are so many memorable bits of dialogue. I’d quote some, but there’s far too many spoilers as a result. Let’s just say that this is easily the funniest in the Star Trek series in any form.
The rules for time-travel are followed accurately (or as near as I can tell; nothing stuck out as wrong, let’s say), but there’s some fair amount of science which – even for Star Trek’s usual standards – is incredibly wrong and / or not developed enough dramatically.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), alternate poster
BRIEFASIDE: While the need to suspend disbelief is key to any story, and especially a movie, when something is done in Science Fiction, you’d like the science to be at least semi-plausible in some way. The exact details may be wrong, but when basic laws which are known to even someone as non-science aware as this artsy-bastard™ are not only ignored but stricken from the room, there’s something very very wrong.
The basic concept here is that our boys go back in time to 1986 (the time of the film’s release), when Grey Whales were alive, and no one had any fashion sense [see image of alternate poster, left]. To accomplish that, the ship zooms around the Sun to use its gravitational orbit as an acceleration mechanism to “sling shot” the ship into the past. The explanation on how this is accomplished is non-existent. The description of how it is accomplished is simply the actions which they achieve. A tautology is not acceptable to me, frankly. I’d like some pseudo-science at the very least, please.
Meanwhile, later, they “beam-up” a whale into the hold of a ship, along with the water immediately around it. Again, this isn’t explained as to specifics of the matter; beyond Scotty’s “I never donna this a-fore, Cap’n!” anyway. Once more, I’d like to have some pseudo-science about ‘increased pay-loads requiring greater power-supply’ and possible some sort of adaptation of their transporter array infrastructure – both for pick-up and delivery, for that matter – as well as some dramatic “golly, we’re never going to accomplish this, because of [whatever the pseudo-science demands are]” dialogue and story points. A missed opportunity there, really, and disappointing over-all in this area.
It really does feel like the team had a good time making it, however, and we have a good time watching it; they really feel like a team now, for one thing. Nothing wrong with that at all. In the end, all my grumbling included, worthwhile.
Writing credits Gene Roddenberry (television series Star Trek) story by Leonard Nimoy&Harve Bennett screenplay by Steve Meerson &Peter Krikes and Harve Bennett &Nicholas Meyer
This year, I’ve been watching DVDs from the library for a number of reasons, mostly to do with a combination of “filling in the gaps in my ‘pop culture’ knowledge”, as well as a concerted effort to better understand story editing by both watching a film and then re-watching listening to people who have studied that particular movie for years in order to better appreciate the themes, plot construction, symbolism, and so on.
The process would be nothing without the secondary audio tracks. Sometimes it’s like having actually been through the film-making process with the people involved.
Ian Alexander Martin [IAM] is the Proprietor of Atomic Fez Publishing, as well as formerly being an actor and theatre director based in British Columbia, and also was Founding Editor and Publisher of the theatre magazine The Boards. [read more]
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