Is Avery Brooks a little out there?

[indranee]

Is this documentary available anywhere to watch or dl? I missed it and now all I can find are clips here and there

 

[indranee]

It is indeed.

However, if I was taking a college course and pulled Brooks as a professor, It'd get old quick if everytime someone asked a question, he played a jazz solo or just redefined the question by challenging your perception of reality.

Still my favorite captain though.

I actually did have him as a prof and he was fantastic.

 

[Shatnertage]

Did he talk the way he talked in the documentary? Did he do a good job of communicating what his expectations for the course were? Just curious.

 

[indranee]

No, he was actually extremely focused and strict and specific. But his office hours were a different matter altogether

He was a really popular professor at the time I was there (this was way, waaaay before DS9).

 

[Shatnertage]

^ That's good to hear. Having never seen him speak, just going from his act in The Captains, I would have thought much differently. He wasn't even speaking in sentences much of the time--it was very disconcerting. It had to be a put-on. As my wife was saying, if he really was that loopy, he wouldn't have been able to show up for all those 12 hours days on the set.

Although some professors I know could give him a run for the money in the incoherent rambling category.

 

[Technobuilder]

Exactly!

Originally I was more worried about him based on the documentary footage, (since that was the most recent thing I'd seen him in) but after checking out that comic-con link, I was reassured somewhat.

Once you see the film indranee, let us know your thoughts. It'd be a nice comparison.

 

[spooky spice]

Dude, what a buzz kill.

Bigger buzz kill than Buzz Killington...




I've never met the man, so I don't know how he is in real life, but it is possible that he was ACTing the fool, bouncing off Shatner's OTT on camera persona

 

[CommanderRaytas]

One neat thing I was surprised about: Avery Brooks is the film's music supervisor, too. That sounds about right.

Can't blame him. Hanging w/nut-job profs a Rutgers would do that to anyone

This too sounds about right. I've had philosophy, english, and history professors -- and a couple of improv teachers -- who would go off on similar tangents (though I've never gone to Ivy League. I can't imagine what it'd be like to have those profs).

Someone should have gone "It's REEEEAAAAAL!" on him, but this was before the episode even existed, right? Oh well.

It sounds kind of smartass to say "people, it's not a real ship". Come now, Avery, suspention of disbelief and all that? Or maybe he was just quoting the commander from Galaxy Quest, who knows.

Honestly, it sounds like he made a simple lighthearted joke, the kind you expect to find at conventions anyhow. Let's remember that this is the guy who used to tape his lectures for students in his DS9 uniform, whenever filming prevented him from being on campus. From all other things I've heard about him at conventions, he seems genuinely enthusiastic to go up on stage (like many Trek alumni, that is).

I wasn't really being serious.

 

[indranee]

Exactly!

Originally I was more worried about him based on the documentary footage, (since that was the most recent thing I'd seen him in) but after checking out that comic-con link, I was reassured somewhat.

Once you see the film indranee, let us know your thoughts. It'd be a nice comparison.

Check your PMs please, Technobuilder

 

[Kytee]

Is this documentary available anywhere to watch or dl? I missed it and now all I can find are clips here and there

On Amazon it says it will be for sale on Oct 4th 2011, day before my birthday I missed it on T.V. so I'm asking for it for my B-Day, can't wait

-Kytee

 

[indranee]

That'd be nice too Kytee. Thanks for the heads up for the Amazon sale

 

[Eddie Roth]

One neat thing I was surprised about: Avery Brooks is the film's music supervisor, too. That sounds about right.

Can't blame him. Hanging w/nut-job profs a Rutgers would do that to anyone

This too sounds about right. I've had philosophy, english, and history professors -- and a couple of improv teachers -- who would go off on similar tangents (though I've never gone to Ivy League. I can't imagine what it'd be like to have those profs).

Someone should have gone "It's REEEEAAAAAL!" on him, but this was before the episode even existed, right? Oh well.

It sounds kind of smartass to say "people, it's not a real ship". Come now, Avery, suspention of disbelief and all that? Or maybe he was just quoting the commander from Galaxy Quest, who knows.

Honestly, it sounds like he made a simple lighthearted joke, the kind you expect to find at conventions anyhow. Let's remember that this is the guy who used to tape his lectures for students in his DS9 uniform, whenever filming prevented him from being on campus. From all other things I've heard about him at conventions, he seems genuinely enthusiastic to go up on stage (like many Trek alumni, that is).

I just saw him yesterday and the day before at the Captains Table Con in Germany. I definitely got a "weird" vibe off of him, but in a good way. Enthusiastic he is, and grateful to the fans, you can tell. But he did do a lot of what you all describe (haven't seen The Captains, though). He would bounce questions back to the person who asked it, evaded them often, or went off on incredible tangents that were sometimes hard to follow. Impossibly enough, they made sense! (That is, if you listened as I did.) But man, those were some complicated ways he cooked up of answering simple questions!

That said, I fully understand the impatience some (most?) of the actors have for questions that indicate that the fan is unable to draw the line between fiction and reality. What kind of question is "What was it like to command the Defiant?" anyway? There isn't even a way to answer that.

As an aside, at the same venue last night, Kate Mulgrew couldn't help laughing out loud when a guy asked her - in horribly garbled English, no less - what happened to "ze Bäby on ze Borg Kube". She had no idea what he was talking about - she filmed that episode, what? 12 years ago? And she didn't write it. Besides, why would anyone in their right mind waste what might be their one chance in life to ask a question of these people on such nonsense? For comparison: Someone else asked her about her late mother (which she appreciated, by the way), another about the US election campaign and the Tea Party women.

But I digress. Point about Avery Brooks is that my impression was that he is a deeply thoughtful man who operates, as he said time and again, on the sum of his life's experience - which however he doesn't want to impose on anyone in the form of good advice or lecturing. Which I find impressive considering that he could very well use the standing he has with fans to do just that all the time. He just wanted to have a conversation with fans as equals, not hero to lowly worshippers. (Case in point: When a 17 year-old asked him whether it was better to make decisions rationally or emotionally, his response was to tell him "It's up to you" and then giving the boy the stage for a few minutes.) The additional fact that he has his idiosyncrasies (weird as they may be) just shows me that here is a man who has lived long enough to not give a rat's ass about whether that kind of behavior is what is expected of him. I like that.

(But concerning the Captains documentary, here's an interesting thing: He was asked about working with Shatner on it, and at first he didn't seem to know what that was about... then he said to rather ask Shatner that question. I got the impression that somehow he was unhappy with it. Then again, it might just have been his aforementioned quirks that provoked that kind of answer...)

 

[LitmusDragon]

edit:
Nevermind, answered my own question.

 

[Satyrquaze]

I just watched The Captains, and I think there are four possibilities:

1. Avery Brooks has gone completely insane.
2. The day that they filmed this, Brooks had a high fever or was on some serious medication.
3. It was all a put-on, just Brooks having some fun at Shatner's expense.
4. Shatner recut the footage to make Brooks look crazy.

having watched the doc, I'm inclined to believe its a combination of choices 3 and 4.

 

[spot_loves_data]

I love him as a captain, but he's a little out there. He has this stream of consciousness style of speech that makes me wonder what's going on in his brain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M9SMMnBmYQ&feature=related

Fast forward to 7:10 and listen to Larry King's opinion of him.

 

[JHoffman555]

I've seen THE CAPTAINS.

The scenes with Brooks are impossible to watch.

I'm thinking it is a 50/50 split of him trying to jerk Shatner's chain and to try and a ruse to come off like a mad scientist.

Or maybe he was just on LSD while they were shooting.

 

[Gary7]

No... I wouldn't say that Brooks is "out there." Nor was he jerking Shatner's chain. He was just being himself. He is a very color, creative man. And he enjoys speaking in music, a language that Shatner is not as skilled in. Shatner did ask some difficult questions and Avery just felt inclined for a musical response, beckoning Shatner to join in with him. I thought it worked out very well. It's great to see Avery so relaxed and at peace. He doesn't appear to be as driven as everyone else. Maybe he's in a semi-retirement pace of doing things, as long as he's having fun.

The thing I enjoyed most about The Captains was the diversity of interview experiences. It wasn't peppered with the same exact questions for everybody. There had to be some things in common, but overall they each took on their own flow and direction.

Brooks was terrific, IMHO. I'd really like to be on a nearby couch sipping brandy, watching him improvise jazz on the piano. That would be one hell of a memorable evening.

 

[Gary7]

I love him as a captain, but he's a little out there. He has this stream of consciousness style of speech that makes me wonder what's going on in his brain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M9SMMnBmYQ&feature=related

Fast forward to 7:10 and listen to Larry King's opinion of him.

Are you kidding? I didn't see anything disparaging of him there. Actually, start with 6:30 to lead into the context. But just listen to what he has to say. He's there. His style is a bit free associative, but not so much that you're left wondering what he's saying. At least, I was able to follow him...

 

[spot_loves_data]

Are you kidding? I didn't see anything disparaging of him there. Actually, start with 6:30 to lead into the context. But just listen to what he has to say. He's there. His style is a bit free associative, but not so much that you're left wondering what he's saying. At least, I was able to follow him...

I didn't say there was anything disparaging there. King handled the weirdness with humor and the interview went well. And it's not like he spouts totally incoherent gibberish, you can understand what he was saying, but I still wonder what's happening in his brain. The man's wacky. That's not necessarily bad, but he's wacky.

I'm thinking it is a 50/50 split of him trying to jerk Shatner's chain and to try and a ruse to come off like a mad scientist.

Maybe. I got the impression Brooks was being himself and Shatner was, at various points, humoring him, tiptoeing around him, trying to keep up, and trying to tease out answers from Brooks' responses. I was impressed with Shatner here, I wouldn't have known what to say, but Shatner went with the flow and got some usable footage.

 

[Gary7]

^ Ah, OK--I see where you're coming from. Yeah, he is a little trippy. I do wonder if he indulged in psychedelic drugs in his youth.

I agree, Shatner did a great job in working with Brooks. That's just it... Shatner isn't afraid of the unknown. He's curious about it. Much like death. Oh my....