Glad to know I'm ahead of somebody!That's next week for me!
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Watching Star Trek for the first time (again)
- Thread starter Neopeius
- Start date
The style of the show was that they were playing it in a way that could be taken perfectly straight by the kids, but was very tongue-in-cheek for the adults at the same time. If you're a kid, it's action/adventure; if you're an adult, it's comedy. Adam West was pitch perfect in carrying this approach. And try a Frank Gorshin Riddler episode and tell me that it's dull and stilted. He set the standard for guest villain scenery chewing on the show.
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What versions are you using? The pre-broadcast WNMHGB is commercially available. The black and white 16mm print "Cage" is floating around (from a 1990s Brazilian VHS with Portuguese subtitles).
Interesting thing about that is that the tests for both sets of actors include a Batcave scene with the actors unmasked in non-final costumes. I noticed in my last viewing of the show that they never, ever showed Bruce or Dick unmasked in costume...even though they did it with the Green Hornet and Kato, who were guests from another show.
Just the ones that came with the early 2000s clamshell DVDs. I recognize they might not be perfectly authentic.
The episode watches are going to be great, though. I've already got The Man Trap set up with commercials, NBC bumpers, and even bits of the preceding and succeeding shows!
He's in Episode 1! He was Lorelei's least favorite villain (Meredith was tolerable).
Sorry, man. It's just not our bat..er..bag!
As some of you know, I run Galactic Journey where we live time-shifted 55 years from today, day by day. I started the project in "1954" and have gathered folks along the way, as fans and as associates. There's now around 20 of us!
Of course, the thing I've been waiting for the most, as we've read and watched all of the science fiction of the time as it came out, is Star Trek. Today, we held a private watching of "The Cage" to simulate the showing at Tricon '66 (with Gene Roddenberry himself!)
(one of our attendees pulling off a fantastic Number One costume)
I'd been trepidatious. Could I appreciate the show with virgin eyes? Would it hold up? Was it really as revolutionary as I thought?
Oh My God, yes.
Having watched SO much TV over the last many years, complete with commercials and everything, and including the complete runs of Twilight Zone and Outer Limits, "The Cage" was nothing short of a masterpiece. The special effects were Forbidden Planet quality, but the film was so much smarter and better than Forbidden Plant. And I know folks make a lot of the casual sexism of the show, and some point out the "can't get used to a woman on the bridge" exchange, but folks, there were seven main characters in this production: three men, an alien (truly androgynous -- female actor, male dubber!), and three women.
That kind of proportion just didn't exist on TV in 1964. Moreover, there were three women on the bridge, and one of them was first mate. There are entire swathes of the show when she is commanding the equivalent in complement of a destroyer -- this is something that wouldn't happen in the US Navy until 1990. It was absolutely unheard of on TV at the time. It's a shame that this element was lost in the actual show, but since it's preserved in the Menagerie, Trek at least gets partial credit.
(If Trek had debuted in '65, it would have aired alongside Lost in Space, which did have three female characters of seven in an ensemble cast, as well as Big Valley, which featured two of five. In that regard, I suppose it'd be one of a crop. But the LiS females were, shall we say, relegated to traditionally female roles for the most part. Big Valley was pretty cool and progressive, though still playing within the boundaries of Western society. At least Hollywood Western. Nevertheless, "The Cage" was still cutting edge even if it wasn't quite alone.)
People make a lot of Spock's yelling and emotion, but that's all from a modern lens knowing what Spock becomes. In "The Cage", Nimoy does a fine job and is a prominent presence as an alien. Undeveloped, perhaps, but piqueing curiosity just in his existence.
The pacing is excellent, and the attention to scientific detail is lovely, particularly the bits about spectrographic analysis and polarimetry. No Twilight Zone asteroids with Earth atmosphere and gravity here!
I wasn't quite as enamored with Jeff Hunter's performance (my daughter immediately exclaimed, "It's the guy from The Longest Day!") but he was fine. I very much appreciated that he never kissed Vina, and the show is not a romance or get-the-girl plot. Indeed, the one scene that could be called exploitative, the Orion scene, was Vina's idea, and Pike was having none of it.
So, long story short, seeing it from a contextual perspective, in a way no one has been able to do in 55 years,"The Cage" deserves all the praise it gets, and not much of the invective. It's pretty much the best SF had ever gotten on screen as of 1964.
Tomorrow, we watch "Where No Man Has Gone Before", and on Wednesday, "The Man Trap"... with commercials!!
Of course, the thing I've been waiting for the most, as we've read and watched all of the science fiction of the time as it came out, is Star Trek. Today, we held a private watching of "The Cage" to simulate the showing at Tricon '66 (with Gene Roddenberry himself!)
(one of our attendees pulling off a fantastic Number One costume)
I'd been trepidatious. Could I appreciate the show with virgin eyes? Would it hold up? Was it really as revolutionary as I thought?
Oh My God, yes.
Having watched SO much TV over the last many years, complete with commercials and everything, and including the complete runs of Twilight Zone and Outer Limits, "The Cage" was nothing short of a masterpiece. The special effects were Forbidden Planet quality, but the film was so much smarter and better than Forbidden Plant. And I know folks make a lot of the casual sexism of the show, and some point out the "can't get used to a woman on the bridge" exchange, but folks, there were seven main characters in this production: three men, an alien (truly androgynous -- female actor, male dubber!), and three women.
That kind of proportion just didn't exist on TV in 1964. Moreover, there were three women on the bridge, and one of them was first mate. There are entire swathes of the show when she is commanding the equivalent in complement of a destroyer -- this is something that wouldn't happen in the US Navy until 1990. It was absolutely unheard of on TV at the time. It's a shame that this element was lost in the actual show, but since it's preserved in the Menagerie, Trek at least gets partial credit.
(If Trek had debuted in '65, it would have aired alongside Lost in Space, which did have three female characters of seven in an ensemble cast, as well as Big Valley, which featured two of five. In that regard, I suppose it'd be one of a crop. But the LiS females were, shall we say, relegated to traditionally female roles for the most part. Big Valley was pretty cool and progressive, though still playing within the boundaries of Western society. At least Hollywood Western. Nevertheless, "The Cage" was still cutting edge even if it wasn't quite alone.)
People make a lot of Spock's yelling and emotion, but that's all from a modern lens knowing what Spock becomes. In "The Cage", Nimoy does a fine job and is a prominent presence as an alien. Undeveloped, perhaps, but piqueing curiosity just in his existence.
The pacing is excellent, and the attention to scientific detail is lovely, particularly the bits about spectrographic analysis and polarimetry. No Twilight Zone asteroids with Earth atmosphere and gravity here!
I wasn't quite as enamored with Jeff Hunter's performance (my daughter immediately exclaimed, "It's the guy from The Longest Day!") but he was fine. I very much appreciated that he never kissed Vina, and the show is not a romance or get-the-girl plot. Indeed, the one scene that could be called exploitative, the Orion scene, was Vina's idea, and Pike was having none of it.
So, long story short, seeing it from a contextual perspective, in a way no one has been able to do in 55 years,"The Cage" deserves all the praise it gets, and not much of the invective. It's pretty much the best SF had ever gotten on screen as of 1964.
Tomorrow, we watch "Where No Man Has Gone Before", and on Wednesday, "The Man Trap"... with commercials!!
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If you started that far back, that makes me wonder all the more why you chose 55 years ago instead of 50.
That's laying it on a bit thick.
Think that parenthetical ended up in the wrong place. Leonard Nimoy was neither female nor dubbed.
More to the point, it was Gene's idea.
Because 60 years would have been too far, and 50 years wasn't far enough.
We loved "The Cage". We hated Forbidden Planet.
I'm talking about the Keeper.
I figured I'd keep posting pictures as I see the stars and guests on other shows. It's not "pre-watch" anymore so now it's "watch" and eventually will be "post-watch" but we might as well keep it all in the same place.
I figured I'd keep posting pictures as I see the stars and guests on other shows. It's not "pre-watch" anymore so now it's "watch" and eventually will be "post-watch" but we might as well keep it all in the same place.
There's already a "Star Trek actors in other shows" thread that pre-dates yours by many years.
If the pre-watch is done, then it should be closed and you can use the existing thread for further pics.
I'd rather keep my thread open, please. The framing is different. And at this point, the thread has been going on for many years, too.
So the decision of how far back to go was arbitrary to when you chose to start doing it? I'd have played the long game and started at 60, then. If you started in 2009, you'd have been including the entirety of the '50s, rather than starting with the decade in progress.Because 60 years would have been too far, and 50 years wasn't far enough.
As far as 55th anniversary Trek rewatching goes...you're catching a lot of us a couple years after we completed a three-year 50th anniversary rewatch.
We hated Forbidden Planet.
ETA:
Was the Keeper the alien in the main cast?
As I said, the parenthetical was misplaced. Clearly the main character who's an alien is Spock; and the parenthetical about the Keeper belongs someplace else.
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When I started the project, I hadn't expected it to become as big a deal as it has (three Hugo noms later... )
It was originally a framework to read the massive SF collection my father had left me, the magazines of which became reasonably complete in 1954. I started in 2009, so 55 years made sense. As I've gone on, I've found more resonance between 55 years ago and today than either 50 or 60. Sometimes it's uncanny.
The parenthetical is not misplaced. I'm speaking of gender, not race. It's true Spock is an alien (except, from the pilot, we don't know how alien or what alien. He just looks unusual). I'm speaking of the main characters in the pilot, and they are (in rough order of lines delivered):
Pike
Vina
Keeper
Number One
Spock
Boyce
Yeoman Colt
Three clearly males, three clearly females, one ambiguous. That's what I meant.
)It was originally a framework to read the massive SF collection my father had left me, the magazines of which became reasonably complete in 1954. I started in 2009, so 55 years made sense. As I've gone on, I've found more resonance between 55 years ago and today than either 50 or 60. Sometimes it's uncanny.
The parenthetical is not misplaced. I'm speaking of gender, not race. It's true Spock is an alien (except, from the pilot, we don't know how alien or what alien. He just looks unusual). I'm speaking of the main characters in the pilot, and they are (in rough order of lines delivered):
Pike
Vina
Keeper
Number One
Spock
Boyce
Yeoman Colt
Three clearly males, three clearly females, one ambiguous. That's what I meant.
That's an odd definition of main characters, particularly when comparing to the regular casts of other shows. In a series context, Vina and the Keeper would have been guest characters; while the others were meant to be series regulars. And not counting Spock as an alien is downright bizarre and confusing.
I'm taking "The Cage" as a self-contained entity, a short feature film, if you will. Again, the point is that this hour-long SF production from 1964 had tremendously progressive representation of women.
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