Star Trek: The Ultimate Review - Part One

I'm about to drop some truth photon torpedoes on you. And while none of them will contain Spock's body, I hope you will find them all to be quite... logical.

"Hey Deeesher, do you prefer Star Wars or Star Trek?"

I prefer good writing.
To clarify, I have a real problem with blind devotion over any franchise. Whether we're talking about Star Trek, Star Wars, Marvel or DC, there are always some great versions, and some not so great versions. Anyone that says, "...We should be happy we're getting new *insert franchise here*!", clearly has no idea what they're talking about. This is how we get the Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Batman and Robin (bat-nipples anyone?), and of course, The Star Wars Holiday Special. I hope I've made my point.

I always want studios to respect the source material, but if they change something, make it a good change. As fans, we deserve to be given a quality product. And if it's badly written, call them out on it! If the online fan fiction is better than the theatrical release, Hollywood should be ashamed of themselves.

*DISCLAIMER
Before giving my reviews, I want to make it very clear, these are MY opinions. Your opinions may vary, and that's great, because you are human (allegedly). I'm not here to change anyone's mind. I just want to try to put things into perspective and explain why I like/dislike something. So if I should say anything you strongly disagree with, please try to refrain from becoming overly emotional. My motto remains the same:
I prefer aliens to alienation.

Space... the final frontier. Before these legendary words could be spoken by the equally legendary William Shatner in 1966, creator Gene Roddenberry (aka The Great Bird of the Galaxy... yes, that's his real alias) had quite an uphill battle ahead of him. Originally pitched in 1964, his vision of a wagon train to the stars was to be a space western set hundreds of years in the future *COUGH*firefly*COUGH*, with the crew of the Enterprise exploring strange new worlds. Every week, they would seek out new life, and new civilizations. Basically, they would be boldly going where no man (or woman) had gone before...

In those days, getting a series like this sold was quite a challenge, because most studio execs just didn't get it. But there was one major exec that loved the idea, who just happened to own a studio: Lucille Ball, of Desilu Productions, aka the Godmother of Star Trek.

She approved a pilot, and Star Trek began filming the first episode, titled The Cage. This version starred Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike and a female first officer *gasp* simply called Number One, (played by soon-to-be Mrs. Roddenberry, Majel Barrett).

But still, studio execs didn't get it. And they genuinely hated "the guy with the ears", Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy). They felt the story was just too cerebral for audiences.

Roddenberry tweaked some stuff and created a second pilot, called Where No Man Has Gone Before. Rumor has it that Jeffrey Hunter's wife didn't feel Star Trek was right for him, and preferred he focus on a movie career instead, so he was 'unavailable' for the second pilot. Instead of re-casting Pike, the roll of captain was re-invented for William Shatner to play Captain James T. Kirk. And yes, they kept the guy with the ears.

This was finally accepted, and season one of Star Trek could begin it's five year mission.

And, over fifty years later, the legacy continues. But it has gone through MANY different incarnations, with each version quite different from the last. And I don't mean simply in appearance. Of course special effects get updated, but the heart and soul of the series has changed. Whether that's good or bad depends on your personal views. 

I would say the entire franchise can be broken down into three distinct parts. And that is exactly how I'm going to write this review. Let's begin our adventure with: 
The Original Series (TOS).

The Cage (unaired pilot - 1965)

Personally, I love it. There are a lot of good story elements, and it's interesting seeing Captain Pike convey the heavy burden of his command. 
"I'm tired of deciding which mission is too risky and which isn't. And who's going on the landing party and who doesn't. And who lives. And who dies." 

So when the Talosians give him an opportunity to live his life in a perfect fantasy illusion, you can easily empathize with how conflicted he feels. This becomes particularly difficult after meeting Vina, who they decide will be his mate. 

Vina was played by the beautiful and talented, Susan Oliver who, in the real world, following two near fatal plane crashes, decided to became a licensed pilot and was named pilot of the year in 1970. She would also be one of 19 women admitted into the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women (DWW), and was one of the first female directors for television. 

In this pilot episode of Star Trek, she also became the first green Orion slave girl, predating Slave Leia by about twenty years.

It's a great episode, but is it a good place to begin watching the series? Maybe not...? There is definitely some good drama, but I can see how people with short attention spans might not appreciate it. This is real science fiction. And yes, there is some action scenes, but they also spend time discussing what's going on, and how to resolve it. Fundamentally, this is (should be) the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek.

Star Trek: "What do these aliens want? How can we communicate with them? How can we convince them we mean them no harm so they don't kill us all?"

Star Wars: "Look! Something evil! I'm going to throw it across the room with magic!"

Neither one is bad, and I think both have their place... if well written. I found The Cage very well written.

Star Trek: The Original Series (1966-1969)

"Hey Deeesher, you must be old since you like a show from the 1960s!"
First, I'm still a millennial, and in a few years, I'll be Gen Z... as far as you know. Obviously I have no idea how age works.

The point is, there are many shows and movies I enjoy that were created before I was born. You just need a high tolerance for low budget effects. If all you see are cheap effects, you really aren't paying attention to the story. 

Obviously we all want realism in our science fiction, but not unlike reading these things called 'books', you can sometimes use this thing called your 'imagination'. And in fairness, for the 1960s, those effects were really pretty good. 

Fortunately for us, those not-so-great-for-today effects are a thing of the past. Due to it's popularity, Star Trek received a makeover a few years ago, and the effects were thoroughly updated and the series completely remastered. Maybe this will help some of you holdouts accept it more.

As a kid, I don't remember understanding Star Trek, but I do remember it often terrified me. Although at the time, I think nearly everything terrified me.

As an adult (ish), this is my favorite incarnation of Star Trek. Over the years, I've learned to really respect some of the amazing performances, as well as the great writing. It helped that many episodes were crafted by real science fiction writers, such as Harlan Ellison, David Gerald, Robert Bloch, and Norman Spinrad. In most cases however, Roddenberry himself, or his script editor, DC Fontana, would make some adjustments to the final version. If the rumors are true, even Shatner himself had a hand in some changes to the script, much to the chagrin of the writers. Harlan Ellison even wrote a whole book about his frustration with the process, (which I highly recommend!). 

If I could, I would sit down with you and watch some of these episodes, giving my commentary on each moment, so you have a better understanding of why I appreciate this series. In lieu of that, let me try to convey some of the nuances with my top five quick picks, (aka required viewing) to try to explain the genius contained within this series. 

And no, I will not being doing such a detailed breakdown on the other Trek shows. While other versions are good, I feel like these are worthy of a closer look. 

1. Doomsday Machine

This episode deserves all the awards. The Enterprise finds a trail of rubble in a solar system that once contained several planets. Upon further investigation, they find the Constellation, another Federation ship, which had been badly damaged after a battle with, what is basically a giant planet killer... a Doomsday Machine. The commander, Commodore Matt Decker (William Windhom) is the only survivor after sending his entire crew to one of the planets, fearing the Constellation would be destroyed in the battle. Then he has to watch helplessly as the Doomsday Machine suddenly looses interest in his ship.

Kirk: "Matt, where's your crew?"
Decker: "On the third planet."
Kirk: "There is no third planet."
Decker: "Don't you think I know that? There was, but not any more!"

Windhom's performance is simply amazing. Essentially playing Captain Ahab from Moby Dick, his thirst for revenge drives him completely insane. Decker commandeers the Enterprise trying to destroy this seemingly unstoppable killing machine, while Kirk is trapped on the derelict Constellation, helpless to save his own crew from this madman. If you aren't on the edge of your seat by the last ten minutes, you've obviously spent too much time staring at your phone during this episode. The editing, story, and performances are just fantastic.

And the glue to hold it all together, is the brilliant score by composer Sol Kaplan, written specifically for this episode. FYI the "Planet Killer" theme would eventually inspire John Williams in composing the theme for Jaws.

This is why I love Star Trek!

2. Mirror, Mirror

Even in the future, we need tech support. And never is it more obvious than when a transporter malfunction accidentally sends the away team to an alternate universe. And the people in this particular alternate universe are not so nice. One might even say they are self-centered, sadistic, and opportunistic. Somehow, Kirk and his team have to figure out a way to blend in to avoid being detected, while discretely trying to find a way back to their own universe. Some great moments as everyone explores their own dark side, not to mention a wonderful speech where Kirk tries desperately to inspire a revolution. I'm not even mad at their uniforms.

3. The Naked Time

A crewmember contracts a disease on a quarantined planet after removing his glove and touching his face, (um... ahead of their time?). Transmitted through touch, the results are that everyone behaves insane in their own unique way. To make matters worse, one of the crewmen has locked himself in the engine room and randomly starts pressing buttons for fun, not only causing the ship to spiral towards the planet below, but completely shutting down the engines in the process.  

There are plenty of great moments, and seeing the exasperated look on everyone's face as they continue to try to do their job, while others are falling apart around them is fantastic. 

But maybe the most powerful scene is how Mr. Spock reacts to the disease. Leonard Nimoy's performance is chilling, as a logical Vulcan who desperately tries to stay in control of his own emotions, but fails. The camera follows him with no edits as he desperately tries to keep his feelings in check. 

4. Amok Time

Speaking of Mr. Spock... Let's take a moment to discuss Vulcans.

Space is big. I mean really big. So it comes to reason that it's populated with a vast array of aliens that not only look much different than us, but have completely different philosophies. Having explored a bit of the original series lore, I always felt Vulcans were extremely... fascinating. Like us, they have emotions, but through mental disciplines, they've learned to control them. It was necessary for the survival of their race. In their past, they were a brutal war-like society, but thanks to the teaching of Surak, he helped them overcome their animalistic nature. He taught them a logical and unemotional way to a better world. 

And whether due to their purge of emotions, or just common Vulcan physiology, they do have a rather unique issue that has to be dealt with. Every seven years, they need to mate, or they will go insane and die. And no, this is not something they are proud of. In the original series, there was a certain privacy and mysticism surrounding Vulcans, and generally speaking, Starfleet, or at least humans, never knew about many of those details. I read somewhere that Vulcans had a certain power in their hands, which is why they don't greet by shaking hands. This is also how they perform the nerve pinch, and mind melds. And did I mention they are much stronger than the average human...?

So I particularly love this episode, partly to explore Spock's homeworld, partly because of yet another fantastic score composed specifically for this episode, and partly because it's a great story.

We also see Vulcan women, and no they do NOT have the same bowl haircut as the men as future incarnations of Star Trek will have you believe. For example, here is Spock's wife.

Which brings us to...

5. Balance of Terror

Ever notice how Vulcans and Romulans look alike? That's because hundreds of years ago, when Vulcans purged their emotions, there was a segment of their society that hated the idea, so they left the planet. They relocated on planet Romulus and became... Romulans.

This is the first appearance of Romulans, and their cloaking device. It's an amazing cat and mouse story with Kirk battling wits with the Romulan commander. It also features an important message about racism. One of the helmsmen suspects Spock to be a Romulan spy after seeing their similarities in appearance.

Stiles: "I was suggesting that Mr. Spock could probably translate it, sir."
Kirk: "I assume you're complimenting Mr. Spock on his ability to decode?"
Stiles: "I'm not sure, sir."
Kirk: "Well, here's one thing you can be sure of, mister: leave any bigotry in your quarters. There's no room for it on the bridge."

And FYI, the actor playing the Romulan Commander would eventually become known as Sarek, who is Spock's father. 

Left is the Romulan Commander. Right is Sarek, Spock's father. Both are Mark Leonard. 

So those are my particular top five, however depending on my mood, I could have easily substituted:

Man Trap - An alien that feeds on the salt in humans, and can disguise itself as anyone. This creature gave me nightmares for years!

Trouble with Tribbles - Funny episode involving Tribbles that are cute and fuzzy, and continue to multiply.

Galileo 7 - Spock commands a shuttle that crashes on a desolate planet. He tries to keep everyone alive, but the crew accuse him of being too unemotional during the crisis.

City on the Edge of Forever - Considered by most fans to be the best episode. Unless of course you're the writer, Harlan Ellison, who hated it. Kirk and Spock travel back to the 1930s to rescue McCoy after he accidentally overdoses on a drug, and changes time. Love story with Joan Collins ensues. It's definitely worth adding to the list.

Space Seed - This was the inspiration for the second Star Trek movie, Wrath of Khan. Ricardo Montalbon is fantastic. Like rich corinthian leather.

You could also include, This Side of Paradise, All Our Yesterdays, Assignment Earth, Tholian Web, Wink of an Eye, Tomorrow is Yesterday, and I Mudd.

Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-1975)

There's a big debate about whether this series is actually canon or not. It has all the original actors, as well as many of the creative team behind it. And having re-watched recently, there are some very well written episodes. Unfortunately, they were limited to not-so-great animation, and had to resolve an entire story in less than thirty minutes. Had they been full length live action episodes, some of these story ideas would have been great! But often the episodes felt rushed, and the low budget is frustratingly obvious. Season one for the most part, is well written, but later episodes in season two felt like they tried to simplify stories to appease the younger Saturday morning audiences. They're really not bad. But this particular series is definitely for the more hardcore fans.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

This is where it all changed.

Star Trek had an overwhelming fanbase at the time. One might even call them rabid. There was a demand for the series to continue, but nothing ever panned out. There were plans for a Star Trek Phase II series, with a new crew... like a 'next generation' crew, if you will. But this never happened either.

Fortunately for us, George Lucas made a movie called Star Wars in 1977. And as you can imagine, suddenly studios wanted some of that sweet, sweet sci-fi box office money. So studio execs desperately pulled some elements of ST: Phase II out of their trash bin, and in 1979, a Star Trek Motion Picture was approved.

In many ways, this version of Star Trek could easily be equated to Star Wars The Phantom Menace. Sure everyone flocked to the theater to see it, and the fan knee-jerk reaction was to love it. But is it what we wanted?

 From Leonard Nimoy:
"It was a very finely crafted film, and it did well. But from the actor's point of view frankly, it was frustrating. We didn't feel that we were getting to play the characters that we enjoyed playing in the way that we knew how to play them, and it was frustrating for Gene Roddenberry too. It wasn't the story or script he had wanted, and the gaps seemed filled with too much emphasis on special effects."

For some reason, it was rated G. They hired the director of West Side Story (Robert Wise), and he initially didn't want to do it, but his wife convinced him. There were constant re-writes during shooting. The music was different, (although good), the uniforms were drastically different (ugly and very bland), the characters felt plastic, and the dialogue was often cheesy. Even the Klingons suddenly looked completely different for no reason whatsoever. Sure the effects looked great, but we got way too much of that. There were seemingly endless scenes of the camera just panning across the ship. Before the Paramount logo appears, there is over a minute of music with a blank screen. During the first appearance of the Enterprise, there is over four minutes of the camera panning around the ship as Kirk and Scotty fly around in a shuttle. No dialogue, just music and the Enterprise... for four minutes! I cannot confirm whether or not Kirk was actually masturbating during those four minutes. 

The story was okay, but this was not the Star Trek we had grown to love. And it's unfortunate, because from this movie, the franchise was never the same again.

That's not to say there aren't still good versions of Star Trek. Case in point...

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

This is the Star Trek fans wanted! Instead of focusing on effects, they dealt with characters, story, and action. And they did it beautifully. Everyone was at the top of their game, particularly Ricardo Montalban, who should have won all the awards for reviving his performance of Khan, and ramping it up exponentially.

Following the events from the original series episode, Space Seed, Khan's hatred for Kirk was fueled to rather epic proportions. After escaping his exile, he eventually tracks down Kirk to extract his vengeance.

And can we talk about the soundtrack here?? The music composed by James Horner easily rivals John Williams, and is one of my favorite movie soundtracks.

We also got a new character. Kirstie Alley played the half Romulan half Vulcan, Lt. Saavik.

Now, if I'm being completely honest, I think the casting of Merrit Butrick as Kirk's son just felt wrong. But there's so many other wonderful things about this movie, I try to overlook it.

 Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

How can I explain this movie, without spoiling the events of Wrath of Khan? Well, it's been a few years, so maybe you know by now, Spock died. Or did he? Sarek (Spock's father) tells Kirk they need to get his body so they can bring him back to life. Obviously, they have to search for him, despite Starfleet telling him no.

I think this movie is too underrated. I really enjoyed it, and there are some very good moments in this one.

And for some reason, Lt Saavik is played by Robin Curtis this time. I'm not mad.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

Directed by Leonard Nimoy, this is another fan favorite. The characters started to once again feel like they did in the original series (finally!). They had fun, and it shows. Even the story felt like it could have been in one of the episodes of the series. It was an original idea, and not connected to the other movies, except continuing where Star Trek III ended.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

Um, do I have to talk about this one? Ugh... fine. It was a movie. I'm sure they made money from it.

Okay, a bit more. Directed by William Shatner (for some reason), we suddenly find out that Spock has a brother and I guess he wants to meet God.

This is also where the rumor began that all odd number Trek movies suck. And I'll say again, I liked III. But yeah, you can not only skip it, but ignore that it was ever made.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

Another enjoyable movie. Not one of the best, but some good moments as the crew tries to unravel a mystery, and Kirk deals with his own prejudice against Klingons. It helps that we have a fantastic cast, particularly one David Warner, who has always been one of my favorite actors.

This is also the last we see of the original series cast together. Bittersweet, but it was time for their journey to come to an end.

And this is where part one of my review ends. Coming up: The Next Generation.

Live Long and Stuff,

Deeesher

Star Trek 2009 Review

I am not sure which had more hype, the 2009 *cough* “re-boot” of Star Trek, or the anticipation for my review of it.

 

Having recently seen it in an overly packed theater (which goes against everything I stand for), here is the moment you were waiting for:
It was pretty good.

Before you read too much into this, let me clarify, it was not great! I have read many of the reviews and opinions of others, and I still feel the masses are being swayed by the pretty lights and big explosions. We, as a nation of Trekkies, (Trekkers? Trekkons? Trekastitions? Trekatholons?), have been starved for quality Star Trek for some time now, and this movie is better than the constant vomit the team of Berman/Braga spewed at us for the past twenty years or so.

Okay, maybe I am being a bit overly dramatic, but I think their constant re-writes of the Trek mythos really damaged the franchise and became very skewed from what Gene Roddenberry originally envisioned. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed a lot of episodes of Next Generation, and some of Voyager (particularly the Seven of Nine episodes… weird huh?). I really wanted to like Enterprise, but it became so painful to watch, and by the time they figured it all out, the show was cancelled. I’ve only seen one season of Deep Space Nine… that was quite enough thank you.

So like many of you, I was eager for a new Trek, but given all the factors, I was quite terrified at the concept, (see the pre-review blog here). I am however, very happy to report that it was not as bad as I had feared… but it was still flawed in a few ways.

Let us take a moment to dissect this movie with a fine toothed phaser:

J.J. Abrams – Director: This is a billion times better than Cloverfield, but someone seriously needs to buy this man a freakin’ steadicam! Much of the shaky camera and tight shots on the action were frustrating to watch. Overall, there was nothing that overly impressed me visually; with the exception of some of the starships… those were cool. The interiors all felt a bit cramped to me. The Enterprise is a ship that stretches out for half the length of a football field, so you would think they could space things out a bit better. Even in The Original Series, they had plenty of room to throw each other around in.

Story: Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman created a simple safe straightforward storyline. I mentioned in my pre-review blog that they wrote for Xena and Hercules and this movie was at least as good as any of those episodes were. They created some nice homage’s for Trek fans, and I appreciated that. They were able to sort of re-create the universe and keep the essence of the characters intact. But, seeing it in a packed theater, I would expect the occasional cheers or applause during big moments. There were none. Was my audience all asleep, or maybe it just didn’t have any of those ass kicking moments like we would have enjoyed.

James T. Kirk (Chris Pine): For me, this is one of the huge flaws in this movie. I was not looking for a cheesy William Shatner impersonator, but the concept of Captain Kirk is someone who kicked ass, took names, and then had sex with a green skinned alien woman. Maybe he did all those things in this movie, but it felt somehow forced, or like he was just going through the motions. The key word here is charisma, (or maybe even star power). I did not feel any of that from him. There was nothing about him that made me excited to see him on screen (let alone in the Captain’s chair). If the casting here is flawed, I would also point a finger to the writing as well, because any sane military commander would have thrown him in the brig in the first five minutes. Oh, but I guess the ship didn’t have one? Weird…

Nero (Eric Bana) aka bad guy: Two important aspects of a movie of this type are how good the hero is, and how good the villain is. This would be flaw number two in my book. The bad guy was very bland and painfully forgettable. I am amazed I remembered his name long enough to do this review. He was a disgruntled Romulan Miner. He’s no Khan, he’s no Palpatine, and he’s no Sylar. Now who was I talking about…?

Spock (Zachary Quinto): Very nice! He looked and felt like Spock. Was he doing a Leonard Nimoy impression? I don’t think so, but I still enjoyed it. Zach is one of my friends on myspace by the way, (call me buddy!). Warning: High Geek Content Alert! Everyone knows him as Mr. Spock, but there was an episode (This Side of Paradise) where someone asked his first name. His response: “…you couldn’t pronounce it”. I have been eagerly awaiting his first name since that time. It seems they overlooked this extra nerdy fact for the movie as everyone simply calls him Spock. Oh well…

Leonard McCoy (Karl Urban): Very cool again! He stepped nicely into the scrubs of Deforest Kelly. It was nice to see the friendship between him and Kirk during the academy days.

Nyota Uhura (Zoe Saldana): I felt a bit disappointed by this. Maybe I am being too nitpicky here, but Nichelle Nichols had a certain aura about her. She was a classy intelligent beautiful lady. She almost felt like royalty somehow. Zoe is a beautiful sexy lady, but maybe does not have the air about her that the original Uhura had. Maybe I should just shut the hell up and enjoy the memory of her in her bra and panties.

Hikaru Sulu (John Cho): I have two words for you… White Castle.

Really?? Are there no other young Asian men with a good physique and deep voice like George Takei available in the world? As he drove the Enterprise, I was eagerly awaiting him to ask the captain to make a quick stop at the White Castle first.

Pavel Chekov (Anton Yelchin): Okay, maybe the actor is Russian, but why did his accent sound like a parody of Russians? Warning! More High Geek Content Alert! The original concept for Chekov was to attract younger people to the show, so they brought in Walter Koenig who they felt had a Beatles/Monkees look to him. Somehow, I think younger people seeing this guy will think… what a dork.

Scotty (Simon Pegg): Sure. Works for me. Oh, you want more? Um… James Doohan was the original Scotty, and I met him once. We both liked the same episode of the original series (Doomsday Machine). I have always liked Simon Pegg, so maybe he would enjoy it as well, cause I know in the real world, he is quite nerdy himself, (See Shaun of the Dead, or the BBC series Spaced).

Yes, I’ll buy the Trek 2009 DVD when it’s released, and yes I would watch the series if they made one, and yes I’ll be interested to see a sequel. But I still don’t think it’s as awesome as others are saying for the reasons mentioned. Maybe I would give it eight green skinned Orion women out of ten.

For now, I think its way past time to change my profile picture.

Deeesher

Boldly Going Where No Blog Should Go

This may come as a shock to some of you… but I’m a bit of a nerd. While I try to maintain a certain amount of coolness, at the end of the day, I’m just a big dweeb.

I try to balance my dork-dom with a bit of cool, by having a cool job, (well, its SUPPOSED to be cool anyway…), and by having varied musical tastes ranging from cool artists like Coldplay, Green Day, Beatles, Stone Temple Pilots and Neil Young; (well, some people say they're cool), to the not so cool, like… well, that’s kind of why I brought you all here today.

How would everyone feel if I say the name… William Shatner?

Yea, that’s kind of what I thought.

William Shatner is known for having a very ‘set-phasers-on-cringe’ musical styling. He is most commonly known for butchering Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, which is accepted as one of the worst cover songs of all time. George Clooney has said he would bring this song with him if he was stranded on a deserted island because, “…If you listen to [this song], you will hollow out your own leg and make a canoe out of it to get off this island.” Ironically, I felt the same way about watching your Batman & Robin, George.

Check out Shatner’s classic rendition of Elton John’s Rocket Man.

In the end, I respect this because it’s so bad… it’s good. Say what you want, but I do enjoy cheesy cover songs. I loved his versions of songs on the MTV movie awards years ago, and I enjoy the over-acting goodness of his Priceline commercials too.

So, when I accidently came across his 2004 song, Common People, I loved it! It was fun, and pop-rocky and really made you want to build a shrine towards all things Shatty. So, I got the entire album it was featured on, called Has Been.

Here’s where things get weird…

I expected big, over-the-top goofy Shatner. But, while listening to him doing a song about a man trying to meet his estranged daughter, and a song about a man striving for success but finding none, and then hearing him do a monologue on finding his wife in the pool after she overdosed on alcohol and valium, I began to realize… this is serious.

But here’s the twist… its good! I mean, NOT in a goofy over-acting sort of way, (although there are a few goofy songs on here), but in a well written, and well performed sort of way.

Not only is Shatner’s dialogue extremely enjoyable and heartfelt, the music is incredibly well produced and performed. Turn’s out there is a reason for this, by the name of Ben Folds, who produced and co-wrote many of the songs with him. It also features, Joe Jackson, who does the vocals on Common People, Aimee Mann, who does vocals on another song, and Henry Rollins on yet another. Isn’t this one of the signs of the apocalypse when Henry Rollins performs with William Shatner???

I don’t think The Shat did an actual video for anything from this album, (surprisingly), but I did find a live version when he performed on Jay Leno. While not quite as good as the CD version, this is still pretty decent.

Joe Jackson & William Shatner - Common People by Pius35

Bill (as close personal friends like me call him), recently released Seeking Major Tom, which didn't impress me as much.  Maybe he needs someone like Ben Folds, who understands him.  Maybe someone like me, (call me, Bill!). 

At this point, I usually make some attempt to summarize and wind this blog up… but I think I’ve said too much already.

DISCLAIMER

The picture on my profile is edited in Photoshop, and NOT me dressing up to go to the conventions.

Id like to say I still have some dignity but... okay, yes I've gone to conventions dressed up.  But NOT as any Star Trek characters!  

...Yet,

Deeesher