Merritt Butrick/David Marcus
- Thread starter Praetor
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trevanian
Rear Admiral
'Showcase' roles differ; I mean, there was something like that on QUANTUM LEAP with Julie Brown (an ep she wrote, I believe), and yet she didn't register anywhere near as well as she does in pretty much everything else she ever did.
As for Curtis, I saw her in one episode of some show where she was a rebel teacher who took the fall for being up front and honest with her students, and her performance had real fire.
She had the goods alright.
Makes me think she'd have DUSTED Kirstie Alley if they'd written for her talent and not hamstrung her with dead-end direction.
It was some network show on a Sunday night at 7am, and she was guest star, but I have no idea what it was.
That's not really a fair comparison, because Saavik in TWOK was supposed to be a Vulcan/Romulan hybrid who sometimes had trouble keeping her emotions in check. The scenes explaining her heritage ended up on the cutting room floor (and for whatever reason were not restored by Meyer in either the ABC-TV edit or the Director's Edition DVD), but they were shot, and they did inform her performance. Nimoy and Bennett took advantage of that scene having been cut to revamp Saavik as a full-blooded Vulcan for TSFS.
In the movie novelization, wasn't either explicitly states are alluded to that they were at the beginning of an intimate relationship?
... The 80s sure were scary.
As one who was single and dated alot during that time period, it sure was.
I was a bartender at a couple of NYC bars at the time and I remember first hearing about AIDS (although I don't think it was called that at that point) from some friends, I think it was actually referred to as Gay Cancer or something like that - honestly.)
Anyway, I am telling you this because at the time the belief was the only people who got it were gay and you could only get it in gay neighborhoods, etc... Therefore, if someone died of AIDS, they were generally presumed to be gay - rightly or wrongly.
This sort of ignorance lasted until the general public got over its prudishness and could actually say the word condom. With that came the understanding that the disease could be spread through unprotected intimate contact and across genders.
I remember reading about them talking about their differing body temperatures due to their physiological differences while laying in bed together, so I presume yes.
On a related note, I was recently reading about the original Romulan-featuring story outline for the movie, which featured no Carol or David at all, and had Saavik confessing her love for Kirk on Genesis.
I always thought it was a nice bit of reciprocation that David saved Saavik in this movie, after she saved him from Terrell's phaser blast in TWoK, though unfortunate that he had to die to do so.
I'm obviously a bit biased on having David die, but I think given the circumstances the way that they evolved, I am grateful Merritt was allowed to reprise David at all (and get to play a death scene, which my actor friends tell me is a highlight) given that Merritt died only a few years later.
... The 80s sure were scary.
As one who was single and dated alot during that time period, it sure was.
I was a bartender at a couple of NYC bars at the time and I remember first hearing about AIDS (although I don't think it was called that at that point) from some friends, I think it was actually referred to as Gay Cancer or something like that - honestly.)
Anyway, I am telling you this because at the time the belief was the only people who got it were gay and you could only get it in gay neighborhoods, etc... Therefore, if someone died of AIDS, they were generally presumed to be gay - rightly or wrongly.
This sort of ignorance lasted until the general public got over its prudishness and could actually say the word condom. With that came the understanding that the disease could be spread through unprotected intimate contact and across genders.
Good lord. That's just... horrible. And so inaccurate, all of it. It's remarkable the conclusions people can jump to. I've heard about that kind of thing, but not from a first-person perspective like yours. Thank you.
If anyone's wondering, I've still been doing research on Merritt and from the best I can discover if anyone knows for sure whether he was gay or straight they aren't saying. There are a lot of opinions, but no facts. Apparently both he and his parents were rather private people and his parents, understandably, don't really want to talk about it now. (He was apparently their only child.) We will probably never know, and it really doesn't matter.
I do know that apparently his parents chose not to allow a public memorial service despite their apparently being a desire for one and simply had him cremated (on my 4th birthday) and sent to Oregon, where his father lived. A couple of sources suggest this was because they were uncomfortable that he essentially died from AIDS.
I have also ordered the 'Square Pegs' DVDs from Amazon after having watched several episodes online. I actually quite like it, although I can very much uncerstand why his performance as Johnny Slash would be difficult to forget when seeing him in TWoK almost immediately afterward.
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Well as I just posted in another thread, I had a huge crush on Merritt Butrick when I was a kid. So I've always loved him in the Trek movies, and this has added to my love of Kirk. I do know that he died of complications from AIDS. He's in Fright Night 2 which was just a few years after Trek III - and he looked really bad. I remember reading a quote by someone on the film talking about him after his death, and saying that he was very ill while making the film. It was very depressing for me.
My neighbor when I was little was gay, and he died of AIDS and there were all these news stories at the time that presented it as a gay disese and I was convinced that I'd be dying of it eventually. It was a very dark time.
My neighbor when I was little was gay, and he died of AIDS and there were all these news stories at the time that presented it as a gay disese and I was convinced that I'd be dying of it eventually. It was a very dark time.
I think it's rather startling if you compare how he looked in 1982
to 1988 on Trek
there was some definite decline. He was pretty skinny on 'Pegs' compared to how he looked in TWoK and TSFS anyway, so it's probably a fair comparison. Although it's something of a personal quest of mine to find every image I can of him, those TNG screenshots depress me.
IIRC, HIV first appeared in the US in 1978 in NYC, so he could have potentially gotten it anytime after and of course not known it until it had taken most of its toll.
to 1988 on Trek
there was some definite decline. He was pretty skinny on 'Pegs' compared to how he looked in TWoK and TSFS anyway, so it's probably a fair comparison. Although it's something of a personal quest of mine to find every image I can of him, those TNG screenshots depress me.
IIRC, HIV first appeared in the US in 1978 in NYC, so he could have potentially gotten it anytime after and of course not known it until it had taken most of its toll.
from the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion - concerning "Symbiosis":
"the late Merritt Butrick (his name was misspelled in the credits as "Merrit")" ...
"Buttrick, who reprised his role as Kirk's son in Star Trek III, was already showing the ravages of the AIDS he died of a year later, in March 1989."
Yes; there was a lot of ignorance during the early years of AIDS. Even after facts came out about how you can actually contract it, there were still some very ignorant people.
I remember a woman at work back then said she wouldn't sit on the toilet because she thought she'd get it from sitting on the seat! I tried to educate her, but to no avail. So, I guess she held it all day long!
Doug
I remember a woman at work back then said she wouldn't sit on the toilet because she thought she'd get it from sitting on the seat! I tried to educate her, but to no avail. So, I guess she held it all day long!
Doug
I remember that as well - pfft - had totally forgotten the toilet seat paranoia. I am guessing from the responses that some of you are younger then me (mid 40s) but there were ongoing battles about how condoms were generally thought to be a good way to prevent the spread of the disease and the absolute outrage to try and prevent spreading that message. If I recall, the Gay Mens Health Crisis Center in NY, which was originally founded to help educate and help the gay community went around distributing free condoms or wanted to, and all these holier then thou types just interfered with the rationale that this would cause MORE promiscuity.
Anyway, back on topic, that picture of Merritt from TNG he looks better then in some of the Square Pegs shots were he looks a bit too pretty. He looks like Kirk from TOS season 1, if you squint your eyes a little bit. That TNG shot is actually probably one of the best pics of him I have seen and all the more so considering the battle he was fighting personally.
I remember that as well - pfft - had totally forgotten the toilet seat paranoia. I am guessing from the responses that some of you are younger then me (mid 40s) but there were ongoing battles about how condoms were generally thought to be a good way to prevent the spread of the disease and the absolute outrage to try and prevent spreading that message. If I recall, the Gay Mens Health Crisis Center in NY, which was originally founded to help educate and help the gay community went around distributing free condoms or wanted to, and all these holier then thou types just interfered with the rationale that this would cause MORE promiscuity.
Yeah, I've never understood that argument. At all. Then again, I'm 23. It seems to me though that what going to happen is going to happen, and teaching people how to be safe is more important than judging people.
I was also just reading that apparently the HIV vaccine is nearly ready.
I can see that actually. It was some pretty good casting as Kirk's son.
Having just bought and been watching the 'Square Pegs' DVDs, he is very pretty on there. I also picked some of the prettier ones from there to show. In others he looks more manly and in some he even makes very 'David Marcus' type expressions. I will take some better screencaps. (They did a good job remastering it.)
I also agree that he did look a rather dignified 29 in TNG, especially considering the illness. I also picked one of the better images. There are ones in which he does not look as good. Some of it is the TNG season one film and lighting, though. Generally, I would say he doesn't look 'bad' just tired. Of course, I'm rather biased. I wish the Ornarans had been the human-looking ones so he wouldn't have had to wear the nose prosthetic.
