Let's talk about Star Trek - the original series. You know, the genuinely entertaining one with hair on its sack. The one that's not just for nerds. The one that was "just a tv show" at the end of the day, but still showed the power of pulp fiction to connect to our culture and society. etc.
It's been streaming on NetFlix and I finally got around to revisiting it. Boy, am I glad I did. Here's what I learned.
1. I approve of the "remastering." I love rewatching things in HD and seeing things I couldn't before (stuntmen are very prominent), but there's even more here. The vibrant colors are fantastic, so 60's. And Lucas could learn a lesson from how tastefully the updated special effects were inserted. They conformed to the overall aesthetic and even enhanced the storytelling where the old, cheap effects - though charming - were limited. But Lucas won't listen. And he did his damage already, anyway.
2. Now that I'm grown up, I appreciate the futuristic babe-fest that was completely over my head when I was a kid watching re-runs while eating hamburger with a fork and knife (because there were no buns) at my divorced dad's apartment. I now have a major crush on Michelle Nichols. And here's two others: if you don't know who they google Julie Newmar or Barbara Bouchet. Hubba hubba
3. Everyone of the actors is so very lovable (Checkov's a little disposable, but that doesn't matter). Though they all have real chops, I think the writing and the narrative and directing conventions of the time have a lot to do with the affection audiences feel for these characters (Think of other decent actors stranded in mediocre SciFi flicks). I know I've always loved Kirk and McCoy, but I'm not sure Spock was always a favorite of mine. I've come to relish Spock-centered episodes, however, because Nemoy is a real fucking class act, and there's a lot of subtlety to his craft.
(BTW I can now recognize his Boston accent in his sometimes broad, English-sounding "a's," Like in "Transporter" or "Can't." I was very pleased with myself, like when I recognized the Boston accents of the Scarecrow and Tin Man last time I watched the Wizard of Oz. I enjoy that sort of thing.)
4. All that said, William Shatner fucking rocks the house. Yes, he's a ham, but this world needs hams. Enough with the gruff, laconic, tortured leading men of the past decades, Kirk needs to be a real Hero and a leader of men. In terms of acting, Shatner's like the front man of a great rock band. If you want to enjoy a superlative performance, You need to take the whole manic, egotistical, narcissistic package. You can't tell Axl Rose, Mick Jagger, or David Lee Roth, to "just turn it down a few notches."
5. They weren't kidding about those Red Shirts.
6. Scotty, you're fucking useless. Can't you, just for once, do something without all the drama? I kid, but Kirk maybe should think about whether a new Chief Engineer might help things run a little smoother.
7. They really loved their gams in the 60's. It's a Federation regulation or something that if you're a nice-looking gal with great gams, your outfit must reveal every inch of shapely thighs you've got. Even if that means silly little cheerleader shorts underneath the miniskirt that peek out every time you bend over even slightly.
8. I love the Jewish angle, being a jew myself. It's something lacking from the new movie franchise, along with a sense of narrative economy. Anyway, I IMDB'd Shatner, and I'm from the same Jewish stock he's from: those endomorphic Urkranian tribesmen. I relate to his early-middle age struggles to maintain a physique that he was used to as a younger man. And I love him for it. He would not be out of place at a family gathering of mine.
Spock's another kind of Jew, and the dynamic between Kirk and Spock can be seen as having a real intra-Jewish dynamic to it, an ongoing conversation between two tribes of Jews. And McCoy, who is Southern, is America. Or Something.
Or in broad, American terms, Kirk is the American Heartland, Spock is the cold, hard, Yankee Northeast, and McCoy is the sentimental, passionate old South.
Or maybe Spock is the brain and McCoy is the Heart, both for Kirk.
8. Brawls! You'd think in the future all these guys would fight real slick and quick like Jason Bourne, but this is the sixties, and all the fight choreographers were probably working on some Old West barroom brawl the rest of the week. I love the cut to the wide shot when the fight music starts. Gets me pumped. And is it just me, or is the camera woozily swaying to obscure the stuntmen, who are definitely Drunk Russian Sailors that they crammed in to costumes that are one size too small?
That is all for now
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