As always, I feel compelled to point out that Meyer wrote a third Sherlock Holmes novel, "The Canary Trainer," that apparently nobody else has ever read!
I'm definitely behind the times; I didn't know that Meyer was a novelist....
What you did or didn't like about TUC....
- Thread starter Joel_Kirk
- Start date
I'm definitely behind the times; I didn't know that Meyer was a novelist....
As always, I feel compelled to point out that Meyer wrote a third Sherlock Holmes novel, "The Canary Trainer," that apparently nobody else has ever read!
I'm definitely behind the times; I didn't know that Meyer was a novelist....
His first Holmes book, "The Seven Percent Solution," was actually a big bestseller back in the seventies. It's Holmes meets Sigmund Freud, basically. They even made it into a movie (which I confess I have never seen).
The sequels are not as good, but fun.
Likes:
The story
General Chang
Colonel 'Odo'
The Excelsior and Captain Sulu
The Soundtrack
Rura Penthe
The battle scenes
The 'we is condemning food' scene
Admiral Cartwright
David Warner
Scotty swearing!
Worf!
Dislikes:
Should have been Saavik, not Valeris
Valtane. Not Dead (Check your memory again, Tuvok!)
William Shatner macking on Iman.
The story
General Chang
Colonel 'Odo'
The Excelsior and Captain Sulu
The Soundtrack
Rura Penthe
The battle scenes
The 'we is condemning food' scene
Admiral Cartwright
David Warner
Scotty swearing!
Worf!
Dislikes:
Should have been Saavik, not Valeris
Valtane. Not Dead (Check your memory again, Tuvok!)
William Shatner macking on Iman.
All in all, it ranks right up there with TWOK, but that Romulan ambassador's presence in the conference has always bugged me a lot, too.It just doesn't make any sense. Ithink maybe they were just trying to throw in as many things as possible. That aside, this movie is the equilivant to hitting a triple in your last at bat ever.
Nimoy didn't nix it, but Roddenberry -- who had no control whatsoever -- threw an absolute shit fit when he read the script and saw Saavik as the traitor. Meyer went to Variety and said, "I created Saavik. She's mine, not Gene's. If he doesn't like what I'm doing with her, maybe he can give back the money he's made from my films. Maybe then I'll care about what he has to say."
It was rendered a moot point, though, as Meyer had no desire to use Robin Curtis, and Kirstie Alley, who was already starting her weight gain phase, wanted Shatner / Nimoy money, which was not going to happen on a $30 million movie.
trevanian
Rear Admiral
As always, I feel compelled to point out that Meyer wrote a third Sherlock Holmes novel, "The Canary Trainer," that apparently nobody else has ever read!
I'm definitely behind the times; I didn't know that Meyer was a novelist....
His first Holmes book, "The Seven Percent Solution," was actually a big bestseller back in the seventies. It's Holmes meets Sigmund Freud, basically. They even made it into a movie (which I confess I have never seen).
The sequels are not as good, but fun.
His novel that came out while TWOK was in production, CONFESSIONS OF A HOMING PIGEON, deals with some of the same themes and is a terrific read. Also, his book on the making of LOVE STORY is very interesting (far more interesting than the source novel or film, obviously, since I actually FINISHED Meyer's volume.)
What I didn't like about The Undiscover Country, they made Klingon blood pink instead of red to void an R rating. In my own opinon I think the cloaking device they had on the Klingon BOP seems like something the Romulans would come up with. In The Next Generation era the Romulans were testing a device called phase cloaking.
trevanian
Rear Admiral
Not true, it was colored for plot reasons only. Blood VOLUME would have dictated ratings, not color, something the VFX guys all stuck by when interviewed by me and other people.
The color/ratings story is something Berman pulled out of his ... buffer pattern ... for a ST COMMUNICATOR interview, and has no basis in reality according to anybody I've ever talked with on TUC (and that includes Meyer, though given how bad his recollections have been in the excerpts I've seen from his recent book, he may have started doing the 'print the legend'/LIBERTY VALLANCE kind of thing himself with respect to altering history.)
I also really liked the purple blood, and always thought that the red blood in TNG and DS9 was the continuity mistake, not the other way round.
The purple vs. red blood was part of the plot, as can be seen in the Extended Cut when Col. Worf looks at the death assassin and recognizes "This is not Klingon blood."
The purple vs. red blood was part of the plot, as can be seen in the Extended Cut when Col. Worf looks at the death assassin and recognizes "This is not Klingon blood."
There were two reasons why they changed the blood. Again, one was to avoid an R rating, since most Star Trek movies are rated PG or PG-13. It was use to show the differences between humans and Klingons in the movie. The anatomies being different from each other. This was said by the producers from the movie. Later on TNG we find out the Romulans and Klingons have similar organs.
I've read it. I'm not a great fan of The Canary Trainer. It can't hold a candle to Sam Siciliano's The Angel of the Opera, which came out about the same time and also pits Holmes against the Phantom. There's really nothing wrong with The Canary Trainer. It's just... dull. *shrug*As always, I feel compelled to point out that Meyer wrote a third Sherlock Holmes novel, "The Canary Trainer," that apparently nobody else has ever read!
Withers
Captain
I loved this movie. It's my favorite of all of them. I could list the reasons but I don't think it is really necessary. I just liked this movie a lot.
I'm only posting because there's a scene that always makes me laugh and it wasn't intended to be funny (at least I don't think it was.) Chekov says "She's listing" followed half a milisecond later by Kirk saying "She's spinning out of control!" The entire time they're showing the Klingon ship on the view screen.
In my head the rest of crew is saying to themselves "Jesus Kirk... we know what he was talking about." lol
I dunno, that might be only funny to me, but I still laugh every time I see it.
-Withers-
I'm only posting because there's a scene that always makes me laugh and it wasn't intended to be funny (at least I don't think it was.) Chekov says "She's listing" followed half a milisecond later by Kirk saying "She's spinning out of control!" The entire time they're showing the Klingon ship on the view screen.
In my head the rest of crew is saying to themselves "Jesus Kirk... we know what he was talking about." lol
I dunno, that might be only funny to me, but I still laugh every time I see it.
-Withers-
I read "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution" and I was actually disappointed. It felt like two different stories crammed into one novel, and the second one felt shortchanged. It's like he had this great team-up idea and then didn't know where to take it.
I-Am-Zim
Captain
Out of all the Star Trek movies, TUC is by far my favorite. Like all ST movies, it's not perfect by any stretch. It has it's various inconsistencies and such. But overall, it's a great movie. As far as Trek movies, it's the best IMO. As far as conspiracy movies, it's pretty good. My favorite scene was when General Chang was interogating Kirk and says "Do you deny being demoted for these charges? Don't wait for the translation! Answer me now!". I immediately recognized that as a reference to the verbal exchange between US Ambassador to the UN, Adlai Setvenson and Soviet Rep. Valerien Zorin during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 (Chang's line was a quote from Adlai Stevenson). It sent a shiver down my spine. Of course, in TUC, the roles were reversed. Chang was Stevenson and Kirk was Zorin. It was very interesting that they did that. I wonder how many other people noticed. Anywho...I loved that movie. In fact I just watched it this morning.
I've read it. I'm not a great fan of The Canary Trainer. It can't hold a candle to Sam Siciliano's The Angel of the Opera, which came out about the same time and also pits Holmes against the Phantom. There's really nothing wrong with The Canary Trainer. It's just... dull. *shrug*As always, I feel compelled to point out that Meyer wrote a third Sherlock Holmes novel, "The Canary Trainer," that apparently nobody else has ever read!
Personally, The Canary Trainer might be my favorite of Meyer's Holmes books. I've tried to get through Siciliano's The Angel and the Opera twice & it wasn't able to hold my interest either time. I think the Dr. Verner "Everything Watson ever told you is wrong" intro just puts me in the wrong frame of mind to enjoy the book.
The Things I Love About Star Trek VI:
-The Praxis explosion. The shock wave effect was really cool and unusual for the time.
-Captain Sulu of the USS Excelsior. Nice to see one of the crew moving forward with his career.
-The WONDERFUL revamp of the bridge from STV (a set I never much liked).
-Nick Meyer's direction gives a nice kinetic energy to the film.
-Cliff Eidelman's The Planets-inspired score.
-The new Klingon uniforms. For once, they don't look like the KISS army.
-We get one last evil double of Kirk for old times' sake.
-I love the irony of Humans, Klingons & Romulans all working together to stop Humans & Klingons from making peace & working together.
-Everyone in the Big 7 contributes to the plot in a significant manner.
-Colonel Worf.
-Christopher Plummer, Kim Cattrall, David Warner, Brock Peters, Kurtwood Smith, Rene Auberjonois, Mark Lenard, John Schuck, W. Morgan Sheppard, Iman, even a Christian Slater cameo... This film has, pound for pound, the most impressive supporting cast of ANY ST film.
-It's a fun story and a fitting farewell for the original cast.
What I Dislike About The Film:
-They weren't able to get Kirstie Alley to return as Saavik. Kim Cattrall gave a wonderful performance as Valeris, but it was screamingly obvious that the brand new crewmember was in on the conspiracy. If it was Saavik, most everyone would've been shocked.
-Valeris' mismatched uniform that they were forced to stick with for the entire movie.
-There are some plot holes that betray the haste with which the movie was made.
-The recycled TNG sets are occasionally obvious.
I-Am-Zim
Captain
I loved TUC! But there was one little thing that has bugged the heck out of me for years. It's one little line. And I had hoped they would have fixed it in the special edition version. But they didn't. When Kirk is in his quarters on the Enterprise-A recording his Captain's log and Valeris is waiting outside his door, he says "I've never trusted Klingons. I CAN never forgive them for the death of my boy." Okay, later, at the trial, Kirk's personal log was used as evidence against him. This time, the quote went like this: "I've never trusted Klingons. I'VE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO forgive them for the death of my boy." That's a big difference. That's six sillables and four words difference!! After 19 years, you would think that would have been fixed eventually. I know it's a minor thing, but it irritates me. I noticed it the very first time I watched the movie and it's bugged me ever since.
Well, there were people out to get Kirk--Starfleet and Klingons--so they might have tampered with the tapes...
And General Chang wasn't really giving Kirk and McCoy a chance to explain themselves; they were already found guilty.
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