Yearly Archives: 2009

Wiki Trek: “And the Children Shall Lead”

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I like this episode okay. Melvin Belli, the celebrity lawyer, plays a space demon who takes over a bunch of kids. The kids use telepathy to take over the Enterprise, but then Kirk shows them a tape of the old days when they had parents, so the kids come back to normal and reject the demon. The story works okay and the children playing the possessed kids are nice.

Belli’s shower curtain.  Mem Alpha says Walter Koenig was pissed because casting Belli meant that a working actor wouldn’t get the job. If I recall right, co-producer Robert Justman also objected. Belli seems okay in the role, but he comes to us thru a lot of studio tricks that make him blurry and fuck with his voice. His costume is a real crime, but I don’t think anyone got cheesed off about that.

Here is the translucent Belli (b. 1907 in Sonora, Calif.) wearing his Mother Hubbard/shower curtain:

 

 

Shatner’s musical director.  The skinny redheaded kid who’s ringleader of the messed-up children. This guy (b. 1953, Minneapolis) has had the most extraordinary high-level schlock music career you can imagine. Mem Alpha doesn’t do it credit; you have to check Wiki.



 

He did a lot of tv acting and jazz combo-leading in his teens, took a couple of years to study “progressive, multi-dimensional philosophy with a number of important futurists,” then started the high-level Hollywood schlock music career.

How to say this? He became “the Music Director for William Shatner, appearing in many shows and concerts, and helping to create songs such as Rocket Man, and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Of course Shatner did his “Lucy in the Sky” in 1968, so the kid would have been just the age he in this episode. Maybe Shatner figured the kid had what it took.

Also, in the early ’80s the kid “began performing most of the synthesizers on a variety of Stevie Wonder albums, and later with Earth, Wind & Fire. This prolific era culminated with a half year project in which Huxley performed most of the keyboard work on Michael Jackson’s Thriller.”  This career section largely is not schlock. But he also contributed bits to the scores of the first four Star Trek films, he produced the soundtrack of 2010, and he wrote and produced (or helped to) the music for Captain Eo.

Started the Enterprise Group (I guess the Star Trek connection was a good calling card with clients), which Billboard “named the #2 mixing studio in the US” in 2001.

All in all, that’s a lot.

 

 



Cute kids.  Above, Felix’s little girl in the tv Odd Couple. What a cute little blond girl (b. 1959 in LA), now an animal rights activist who likes to go to Trek cons and sign autographs. She was quite good in “Children,” notably better than the skinny redheaded boy.

She did a lot of movie and tv work in the ’60s/’70s (“the original voice of Lucy Van Pelt in the Peanuts series of television films,” the lead girl’s voice in Charlotte’s Web, etc.), became a nurse, married a surgeon, and the two of them got into animal rights. IMDB lists 72 roles, starting with an ep of The Littlest Hobo in the early ’60s, ending with Christmas the Horse in Elf Sparkle Meets Christmas the Horse (2007). Around the time of her Trek episode she was doing Monkees, Green Acres, Custer, Gunsmoke, Mad Mad Scientist, Blondie (5 eps), an ep of The Flying Nun called “The Reconversion of Sister Shapiro” in which she played “Linda Shapiro.”


  

One and only.  Above is a one-and-only appearance, and Mem Alpha doesn’t give his age. There’s a moment when Belli as space demon is giving the kids their instructions and this boy breaks into a grin. Not in line with the scene, but it was charming.


Career start. The guy below (b. 1959, LA) has done a ton of voice work and tv guest spots, including a Next Gen episode.”Children” was his first role. 

          

 


Takashi from Revenge of the Nerds 1, 3 and 4. (James Cromwell was also in the listed films, which blows my mind). Also Police Academy 3 and 4. He was also a St. Elsewhere reg for one season, and the voice of Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1, 2 and 3.  Wiki says, “Of Asian ancestry, Tochi frequently plays characters who are Japanese, Chinese, or of other Asiatic origin, adopting the appropriate accent as needed.” IMDB lists 74 acting jobs, of which “Children” was the first, then a Brady Bunch, a Partridge Family, a Nanny and the Professor, 14 eps voicing a kid in The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan, and so on to “Preacher” in I Do (2007). 



Doesn’t like it.  Melvin Belli’s kid, b. 1957. Made a face over some ice cream, if I recall. Role was also a one-time thing.


 

In the grip.  Above is the hypnotized tech guy who mouths off to Scotty. Name was Lou Elias, did two other Trek episodes, both as guards. Mem Alpha: “Additional TV credits include Batman, Gunsmoke, M*A*S*H, Hill Street Blues, The Fall Guy, Knight Rider, and L.A. Law … performed stunts for films like Spartacus, True Grit, The Wild Bunch, The Longest Yard, Flashdance, and Dick Tracy.”

 

            


Jewish redshirt.  The redshirt who was going to arrest Kirk. Dick Dial, b. 1931. In “The Apple,” left, he was the only Jewish redshirt I’ve heard about, Lieut. Kaplan.


Photobucket


Enigma.  The episode’s mysteriously beautiful but wordless tech guy. He was Jay Jones and also worked as Doohan’s stunt double.


“To Serve Man.”  The man below, no birth year, is listed as “Second Man in Line” for the Twilight Zone episode “To Serve Man,” the one about aliens who are really doing a cookbook. In “Children” he’s the lost colony’s leader who delivers a warning on tape. He looks a bit like Randy Quaid. IMDB lists 13 acting jobs, starting in 1950 as “Welsh Captain/Gardener” in a (I think) British tv version of Shakespeare’s Richard II, then over to the U.S. with Zone, then a few others. Did a Lucy Show (as “Airport Passenger”) and in 1968 a Mission: Impossible (as “Hotel Manager”), right after his Trek. The Trek part may have been his biggest on screen. Last credit is 1972. 



Living Hand to Brain

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Inspired by Suat and some comments on his post, I surfed over to Thought Balloonists, and poked around a bit. The article Suat referenced on Dash Shaw by Charles Hatfield was certainly thoughtful and well argued, but did little to dispel my generalized indifference towards everything I’ve heard about Shaw and his comics. There was a lovely essay by Craig Fischer on Steve Ditko though. Basically, Fischer argued that in Ditko, illustration of hands carry much of the emotive power. Fischer then suggests that this focus on hands rather than on a more diffused expressiveness or sensuality is linked to Ditko’s deep discomfort with sexuality and, indeed, (especially later in his career) with emotion in general. Fischer then concludes that Ditko may have suffered some sort of abuse, which may be the cause of his repression.

As I said, it’s an interesting argument overall. I’m no Ditko expert myself, but the discussion of the use of hands (inspired in part by comments by Bill Randall, it looks like) and the repression in Ditko’s art seems pretty spot on. I think it’s really dicey to try to use that to extrapolate information about Ditko’s past trauma, or lack thereof. Mostly because, as Fischer notes in comments, people are really surprising and unpredictable. People can be repressed or uncomfortable with certain kinds of material for all sorts of reasons, some of them pretty counterintuitive. Knowing pretty much nothing about Ditko’s biography, I can say, you know, maybe Ditko was beaten as a kid and so feels uncomfortable with sex. Maybe Ditko’s gay and repressed and so feels uncomfortable with sex. Maybe he had a religious background and so felt uncomfortable with sex. Or, you know, maybe he’s just uncomfortable using sex in his work for reasons that connect to a lot of things, but not to any one clear explanation. Works of art can sometimes work like puzzles that you can fit together and solve, but people aren’t like that. It seemed to me that Fischer’s essay was in some ways an effort to forgive Ditko’s schematic view of humanity by turning Ditko into a schematic himself.

Bound to Blog: Wonder Woman #15

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As I said earlier in the week, Wonder Woman #14 was okay but not great. For this one, though, Marston and Peter are back to form, with a tale that starts right out with preposterous and just snowballs from there. You know you’re in for a ride when the coverpage features a tigeape….

And the splashpage features a flying fish with octopus tentacles being ridden by a knight.

So anyway, the story begins with a giant chunk of the planet Neptune falling to earth as a new continent. You’d think that such an apocalyptic event, probably heralding the end of life on earth as we know it, might be the basis for the entire comic that follows…but, nah, not really. Continents hitting the planet just cause a few buildings to shake; not a big deal really. Instead, the really cool adventure happens when we go to visit that new continent and discover that..well, see for yourself:

And furthermore:

You have to adore the way Diana looks all hunched up and startled when she falls into the water…and also the fish swimming by her as she changes to WW…and the purply swirls. Underwater scenes just really bring out some of Peter’s best work, I think because of the chance to do all the swirling patterns and lines…and the undersea creatures of course. What a perfectly beautiful page.

You’re probably wondering why on earth the ocean water has parted and formed giant walls. Have no fear, all is explained:

There are tons of pseudoscientific explanations just like that throughout this issue, and every one is a keeper. Where does Marston get this stuff? The man’s a genius, I tell you.

Anyway, no sooner has WW gotten the ship back afloat than the crew (including the Holiday Girls, who, as always, have come along on the dangerous military mission) are attacked by those octoflyingfish we saw on the splash page

WW and crew defeat the flying fish, which are controlled, as it turns out, by good looking guys from Neptune.

This is a lovely page, I think, by the by; I think it’s partially the color palette that gets me; all those oranges and yellow oranges. But I also like the way that it’s sparse but balanced. And, of course, the toothy flying fish floating off to the side at the bottom are pretty hysterical.

WW and company take the Neptunians back to their home continent (strangely undamaged by its trip through space,) and while chitchatting they discover why it is that the Neptunians are so mean and unpleasant:

I like the way Marston just has WW state flat out that men will just fight, fight, fight if there aren’t women around. And the Neptunian doesn’t even really contradict her; he just explains that there’s no war because most of the men are turned into robots. It’s moments like this that you realize that Marston never did have a moments doubt; there was never an instant where he thought, “You know, almost no one agrees with me…maybe it’s just not true that women should rule over men.” This was a guy who was very secure in his worldview.

Here’s another stellar page:

Again, there isn’t any one thing or panel in this page that leaps out at you, but it works as a lovely whole, with lots of active lines and a unified, pleasing color palette. The filigree in the background, much of it obscured by the word balloons, lends a subtle, baroque feel to the whole image. It’s pages like this that make me want to compare Peter to Winsor McCay; he’s not as explicit about it, but he really does, like McCay, seem to see the page as an aesthetic unit, and work with it as such. It’s not something that is done very often or very well, especially not in super-hero comics of this era.

Here’s another, maybe clearer example;

The net there is used as a design element; the mesh pattern flowing through the different panels gives a dynamic sense of movement and unity to the page. The spiraling and shifting pattern is emphasized by the simple tiered layout — which itself has a nice rhythm (long, short, short, long, long short.) I think Les Daniels said at some point that Peter had trouble with page design early in the WW run. If that was ever true (and I think there is something to it) it’s certainly not the case by this point.

All right; repressing the urge to just post every single page of this book now…they’re all pretty much amazing….repressing, repressing…okay, more or less successful. Let’s move on to another awesome pseudo-science explanation:

They turn men into machines by robbing them of salt, because salt is what gives you flavor, doncha know. But the best part is…it doesn’t work on women. And why not? Witness:

Again I ask…why isn’t DC taking these panels and printing them as posters, damn it?

The Neptunians are so terrified of women now that they make a pact with the U.S. offering to become a vassal state if the Americans will guarantee that no women can come onto the Neptunian continent. The U.S. agrees…and so to keep tabs on the devilish Neptunians, WW is forced…to wear drag. Of a sort. I’d wondered before if Marston ever provided examples of good-girl cross-dressing (he has several of his villainesses cross dress.) This issue has the closest we’ve gotten so far, as WW and the Holiday girls dress up as at least nominally male tigapes.

Not really conclusive, but maybe another datapoint to suggest that Marston didn’t seem to see cross-gender dressing as particularly or innately evil. And it’s certainly more evidence for the fact that he just found dressing up in general hot; the Tigeape costumes were first donned during a sorority hazing ritual, which is one of Marston’s favorite things. (HIs academic research involved sorority hazing rituals, so of course his interest was strictly scholarly. Of course.)

Also, add “furry” to Marston’s impressive list of kinks. Of course, furries weren’t even invented when WW was penned…but he Marston was a pioneer in this, as in many things….

The comic ends happily ever after when the Neptunians plot is foiled and the island is given over to women to govern.

If only our actual political leaders were that docile. Go forth, WW, and teach unto Dick Cheney the loving submission. Barack Obama too, just as long as I don’t have to read the slash.

Wiki Trek: “Enterprise Incident”

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The Romulans have a woman commander, and she’s in charge in all, but she has to do the sort of dumb things a commander has to do in a bad tv script. The big thing: she romances Spock without knowing about the seven-year mating cycle. (WTF? Mem Alpha says this of D. C. Fontana’s first draft: “the first draft script describes Spock as ‘raining kisses on every square inch above the shoulder.’” Fontana wrote that? Apparently she went further and used a Trek novel to rejig the rules so that Vulcans didn’t become horny every seven years, they became fertile, which is bullshit. Spock in “Amok Time” does not behave like a man who is suddenly and painfully fertile.

To me D.C. Fontana will always be the woman who wrote “Journey to Babel,” the script that did the neatest job of getting drama and fun out of the three core series regulars. Disappointing to see her do this silly tap dance.)

 



 


The commander, b. 1928, Bakersfield, Calif. IMDB lists 74 parts. She did some movies, but mainly tv. Her credits go back to 1954 and Studio One, then the Kaiser Aluminum Hour, things like that. She and Shatner played husband and wife a few times. Wiki says her “many television credits include appearances in The Twilight Zone, COronado 9, The Eleventh Hour, Bus Stop, Hawaii Five-O, Dr. Kildare, Ben Casey, Kojak, I Spy, Bonanza, Felony Squad, Gunsmoke, The Streets of San Francisco, L.A. Law, Columbo, The Invaders, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Charlie’s Angels.”


Married to director Mark Rydell from 1962 to 1979, per Wiki. Mem Alpha says they’re still married and “it was only for a supporting role in his 2001 TV biopic on James Dean that she briefly came out of retirement” (to play Hedda Hopper).


… The Romulans have knit uniforms. That’s unexpected for a warrior race.





The number-two Romulan, b. 1928, LA. Wiki says he did “such shows as The Streets of San Francisco, Mannix, Kojak, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and eleven episodes (the most by any guest star) of Mission: Impossible. … He founded Oxford Theater with fellow actor Lee Delano. Their students included Barry Levinson, Craig T. Nelson, Barbara Parkins, and Don Johnson. He now has a recurring role on General Hospital as Nikolas and Spencer Cassadine‘s butler Alfred.”


 

          


Romulan tech officer, b. 1938. He directed and co-wrote Macon County Line and Return to Macon County, a couple of mid-’70s guns-and-gas exploitation films. Then he directed tv episodes for a couple of decades, including a first season episode of Next Generation. He was also in “The Deadly Years.”


Romulan tech flunky, b. 1938.


 


The commander’s guards.


 


Unknown redshirt, goldshirt . Mem Alpha says they were also at Kirk’s funeral in “The Tholian Web.”


         

              

 



Two Romulan hostages. Notable for the shadowy glimpse of their plus-fours.


Disney Owns Miracleman, Rest of Marvel

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update, erik b. sums up what probably lies ahead: not a lot of Mickey Mouse/superhero crossovers, “More likely you’ll see a Marvel section of your local Disney store (if any of you actually go in them)” 

update 2,   Some possibilities from Atlantic’s Daniel Indiviglio:
Expect to see a Spider-Man character walking around Walt Disney World … new theme park rides and rollercoasters based on Marvel characters 

… some Pixar-assisted animated movies based on Marvel characters. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Marvel story made into a 3-D movie before too long. On the call Disney mentioned that the Pixar staff was excited about the acquisition.
***

Stan: “I love both companies.” Article estimates Ike Perlmutter’s take at $1.5 billion, eleven years after he bought the place; nothing on what Stan does or doesn’t get.


From the article, it sounds like Marvel is already pretty licensed up:

For example, Sony Corp.’s Columbia Pictures is developing the next three “Spider-Man” sequels, starting with “Spider-Man 4” set for a May 2011 release. News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox has the long-term movie rights to the “X-Men,” “Fantastic Four,” “Silver Surfer” and “Daredevil” franchises.

Both studios maintain those rights in perpetuity unless they fail to make more movies.

Separately, Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures has a five-picture distribution deal for Marvel-made movies, the first of which will be “Iron Man 2,” set for release next May. Paramount said it expects to continue working with Marvel and Disney.

General Electric Co.’s Universal Studios has an attraction called Marvel Super Hero Island in Orlando, Fla., that will stay in existence as long as Universal wants to keep it there and follows the contract terms, Universal said.

But Disney says it had to deal with Pixar and its licenses, the implication presumably being that things turned out okay.

(Via Benen)

And Vom Marlowe Too

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Vom Marlowe, a frequent commenter here and a fine writer in her own right, has agreed to join us as a blogger here on HU. Some of you may possibly remember her as one of the contributors to the Gay Utopia: her trans/slash/spy story is here.

So give her a warm welcome to the blog, y’all.

Wiki Trek: “Paradise Syndrome”

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Kirk loses his memory and marries an Indian princess. Spock does his second mindmeld on Kirk in 3 episodes, by Mem Alpha’s count. The site also says:

  • The obelisk was built especially for this episode.
  • The lake featured in this episode is the Franklin Reservoir above Los Angeles. It has been featured in hundreds of westerns and police shows, but is most famous as the fishin’ hole in the opening credits for The Andy Griffith Show.
  • Other than the street sword fight in “All Our Yesterdays“, this was the only episode with outdoor shooting in the entire third season.
  • Uhura is not on the bridge in this episode, but stock footage from “And the Children Shall Lead” places her there for a moment.
  • During the first attempt to deflect the asteroid a rare top shot of the Enterprise is shown.

A lousy episode unless you enjoy seeing Shatner making an ass of himself. It’s a ham display, and not the familiar, herky-jerky hamminess Shatner fell into when trying to goose a line. Here we see Shatner’s special mode, in which he would physically try to overwhelm whatever emotion he had to put across, bring his whole body into it. In this episode he has to convey Kirk’s deep happiness at being an Indian god and marrying the Indian princess in a beautiful forest, so he squeezes his eyes shut and swings his arms wide while swiveling. He puts a lot of force into the squeezing and beaming; I think his face goes red. The moment isn’t so much fake as unreal. A fine distinction, of course, but watching him you don’t feel like Shatner is trying to shortcut his way to his goal. He’s just deeply misguided. Very few people could make such a mistake and then pursue it at such white heat.


The Indian princess is played by Sabrina Scharf. “Born Sandra Mae Trentman in Delphos, Ohio,” per Mem Alpha, and IMDB says she was a bunny at the Playboy Club in NYC. No birth year.


 


She was a late ’60s/early ’70s type exemplified by Ali MacGraw: long straight black hair, wholesome features. Barbara Hershey was another. Don’t think Angelina Jolie today would qualify, too facially exotic. The earlier type was more like a lush, wholesome blonde but with the hair somehow gone black.

Scharf’s credits start in 1965 with a role on Gidget (“Penelope Peterson”). Her Star Trek role was her 10th in 3 years, including a couple of movie parts. The movies have really dreadful period titles: The Virgin President (“President’s Girlfriend”) and the very hard-bitten Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round. The credit line for the second film, per IMDB, is “Girl in bed with James Coburn.” In 1969 she was in Easy Rider as Sarah, possibly not a large role. (update,  In Comments, Joe S. Walker says this: “Sabrina Scharf was the female lead in “Hell’s Angels On Wheels”, a 1967 American International effort starring Jack Nicholson. It’s been a long time since I saw “Easy Rider” but as I recall Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper spend some time in a commune where she’s one of the leading spirits, and she questions why they want to go back out into the bad wide world.“)

Also in 1969  she married Bob Schiller, who had been doing fine as a comedy writer since the 1950s and would do even better in the 1970s, thanks to Norman Lear. Scharf had a dozen more roles, mainly tv, after the marriage, then her credits stop in 1975. Mem Alpha says that at some point she entered politics and even became a state senator, but that’s all it says. Googling turns up a bunch of little show-biz items that also mention her being a state senator but say nothing about party, period served, etc. Damn.

The episode shows off her legs a bit, and they’re not just long but toned. Nowadays being toned is standard for actors/actresses. Back then it wasn’t, even for cheesecake.


The jealous lug, b. 1934, Stanislaus County, Calif., had 50 parts by IMDB’s count, started in 1957, ended in 1983 with a Quincy. Mem Alpha: “Solari died of cancer in 1991 at the age of 56. A popular acting coach and theater director, Solari once had a theater named after him. It has since been renamed.” Jesus.


 

 


The old chief. His name was Richard Hale, b. 1892 in Rogersville, Tenn. IMDB lists 130 credits, earliest None Shall Escape (1944, his role was “Rabbi David Levin”), latest a Police Woman ep (1978, ep was titled “Sons”). The site dug up some photos from very, very early in his career; at least I assume they’re for/from theater work.


              Photobucket


“Blind Man,” “Soothsayer,” “King Chandra,” “Chief Xolic,” “Gaunt Man.” He was in the Night Gallery pilot. Mem Alpha says, “He was often cast in the role of a Native American, and as such, made guest appearances on seveal television Westerns, including Bonanza, Cheyenne, Gunsmoke, Rawhide, and Wagon Train. He has also appeared in several episodes of Perry Mason.”


… There’s a movie called The Explosive Generation, from 1961, William Shatner as a sex ed teacher with a turbulent classroom. Tag: “They look like kids — but they want love like adults!” Trailer here, though Shatner just sticks his hands in his jacket pockets and registers concern.