MeTV's SuperSci-Fi Saturday Night

[Christopher]

You can't pronounce "QUNCKKK!"?

Not in a way I find convincing. One could simplify it to something like "koonk" or "kwunk," but neither would quite fit. A U after a Q is essentially a consonant rather than a vowel, with the same value as a W, so "QUNCKKK!" is essentially vowelless.

The option I tend toward is to interpret the Q as having an Arabic/Klingon sound, in which case it would be standalone and would free the U to function as a vowel. But that makes the Q a bit tough to pronounce unless you're practiced at Arabic and/or Klingon.

 

[DWF]

Speaking of odd, there were a couple of imaginatively weird "sound effects" this week -- ZGRUPPP! and the unpronounceable QUNCKKK!

You can't pronounce "QUNCKKK!"? "ZGRUPPP", on the other hand, I have trouble working my mouth around.

I am so reminded of Red Dwarf's Timeslides, you get your junk caught in your zipper and you'll make that sound.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

"Wonder Woman vs. Gargantua": Really? A fake gorilla?

The real ones are such prima donnas on set...

 

[RJDiogenes]

I actually got to see most of Wonder Woman last night. It was an entirely new one to me, and I liked it. The gorilla really hearkened back to Silver Age DC when gorillas abounded, because, as everyone knows, a gorilla on the cover of your book is guaranteed to increase sales. The scene toward the end when the gorilla grabbed Diana in a bear hug (I love multi-cultural animal antagonists) would have made a perfect cover.

And Gretchen Corbett was in it! Gretchen Corbett in a Wonder Woman suit. Aside from that one bikini scene in Columbo, I think that was the sexiest scene she ever did, which is a real shame.

This is the way to do a superhero TV show.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

DC really has shown love for the gorillas over the years, hasn't it? I remember I bought a Superman comic when I was a kid just because the cover had a giant gorilla that shot kryptonite beams out of its eyes lol.

 

[The Old Mixer]

^Titano the Super-Ape!

It's also worth noting that the Golden Age version of Wonder Woman foe Giganta (similarly named to Gargantua in this episode) was supposed to be a gorilla transformed into a woman or something like that.

 

[Christopher]

DC really has shown love for the gorillas over the years, hasn't it? I remember I bought a Superman comic when I was a kid just because the cover had a giant gorilla that shot kryptonite beams out of its eyes lol.

Well, if perpetuating a stereotype is "love." Gorillas are the gentlest of the great apes, but fiction has embraced the myth of them as ferocious savages -- a myth invented by the first European explorer to encounter gorillas, Paul du Chaillu, who liked to shoot them and stuff them and preferred to claim he'd been defending himself against rampaging man-eaters rather than slaughtering peaceful herbivores. It's really the chimpanzees who are the most savage and violent apes (aside from Homo sapiens, of course), but they've been stereotyped in turn as cute, childlike, and harmless. It's always amused me that the original version of Planet of the Apes got their psychologies completely backward, with the chimps as the pacifists and the gorillas as the militants (not to mention making orangutans the heads of social institutions, when they're actually the least social great apes). The new movies are more accurate in their primatology.

That's why I'm glad this episode made a point of establishing that gorillas aren't naturally savage and that Gargantua was a victim of torture.

 

[DWF]

"Wonder Woman vs. Gargantua": Really? A fake gorilla?

The real ones are such prima donnas on set...

And the CGI versions are so fake looking. Had Grodd appeared on Wonder Woman he too wou;d've been a mere man in a suit as well.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

DC really has shown love for the gorillas over the years, hasn't it? I remember I bought a Superman comic when I was a kid just because the cover had a giant gorilla that shot kryptonite beams out of its eyes lol.

Well, if perpetuating a stereotype is "love."

 

[Christopher]

Anyone watch the Leonard Nimoy tribute on MeTV this evening? I wanted to watch the Columbo episode, "A Stitch in Time," but the timing didn't work out for me to watch it, but hey, turns out the series is streaming on Netflix, so I watched it there instead. And it's a really good episode, one of the best. Nimoy's character is one of the most cold-hearted, calculating bastards Columbo ever faced, but the climactic chess moves between them are terrific.

Also, I'm fairly certain the operating-room footage in this episode was recycled in the pilot of The Six Million Dollar Man for Steve Austin's bionic surgery. It's the same light fixture and the same overhead camera angle.


Incidentally, I also just watched another Nimoy appearance, the 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which I haven't seen in decades. It's a pretty effective and well-made film, and Nimoy gets to be a villain again. It took me a while to realize it was made just a year before Star Trek: The Motion Picture -- whereas the Columbo was just a year after his Mission: Impossible tenure and probably not long before he recorded ST:TAS. (It's also the first of two Nimoy films I'm aware of that featured "Amazing Grace" in the score.)

 

[RJDiogenes]

I've got Columbo and Twilight Zone on DVD, but I recorded Man From UNCLE and Get Smart. On Saturday morning, I watched his first episode of Mission: Impossible on Hulu and on Saturday evening I dug out my Outer Limits DVDs to watch him in "I, Robot" (one of my favorites). I guess he was in several Westerns on MeTV on Saturday afternoon, but I didn't get to see them.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Anyone watch the Leonard Nimoy tribute on MeTV this evening? I wanted to watch the Columbo episode, "A Stitch in Time," but the timing didn't work out for me to watch it, but hey, turns out the series is streaming on Netflix, so I watched it there instead. And it's a really good episode, one of the best. Nimoy's character is one of the most cold-hearted, calculating bastards Columbo ever faced, but the climactic chess moves between them are terrific.

Columbo writers usually brought out the best in performers best known for other roles. One of Robert Conrad & William Shatner's best characters were on Columbo episodes.

Also, I'm fairly certain the operating-room footage in this episode was recycled in the pilot of The Six Million Dollar Man for Steve Austin's bionic surgery. It's the same light fixture and the same overhead camera angle.

I have the SMDM pilot on DVD, and i'm not sure the shot you refer to comes from there. Both series were produced by Universal, and in the 70s, set pieces/props...along with production staff could be found on the aforementioned series, while appearing on McCloud, Ironside, Kolchack, or any of the Jack Webb series on air at the same time.

 

[Christopher]

Also, I'm fairly certain the operating-room footage in this episode was recycled in the pilot of The Six Million Dollar Man for Steve Austin's bionic surgery. It's the same light fixture and the same overhead camera angle.

I have the SMDM pilot on DVD, and i'm not sure the shot you refer to comes from there.

Of course it didn't come from there, since the Columbo episode was made first. I'm suggesting it came from Columbo and was recycled in 6M$M a year later.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Also, I'm fairly certain the operating-room footage in this episode was recycled in the pilot of The Six Million Dollar Man for Steve Austin's bionic surgery. It's the same light fixture and the same overhead camera angle.

I have the SMDM pilot on DVD, and i'm not sure the shot you refer to comes from there.

Of course it didn't come from there, since the Columbo episode was made first. I'm suggesting it came from Columbo and was recycled in 6M$M a year later.

The point is that it is not certain the exact shot was recycled--unless you have the scenes to compare.....

 

[Tribble puncher]

We had Count Gregor....he was awesome...

 

[Christopher]

Programming note: After this week, MeTV will no longer be carrying Adventures of Superman on weekday afternoons, replacing it with Star Trek. Superman will remain part of Super Sci-Fi Saturdays, and will continue running through season 2 episodes from where the weekdays left off. This means that "Star of Fate," the episode that was skipped the previous time through, will not be showing on Friday the 13th as I expected. If they keep to the normal episode schedule, it will air on Saturday, April 11.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

It'll be fun to see Star Trek on in the afternoons!

 

[RJDiogenes]

Yeah, it's been a long time since TOS was on weekdays. I'll only be able to catch the last ten minutes or so, but still....

 

[The Old Mixer]

I'm glad to see the show getting a little more love, but I wouldn't normally be able to catch it in that slot without recording, and there's no point since I have the DVDs (non-remastered, which I generally prefer).

 

[Christopher]

Batman: "The Ring of Wax/Give 'Em the Axe": Odd that they gave the Riddler two additional themes -- wax and books/literary quotes -- on top of his usual riddling. It's a little cluttered, conceptually. Still, not a bad story, though.

And for once the villain has the sense to stay and watch the deathtrap, or at least attempt to until the fumes drive him away. Although he didn't have the sense to check the "bodies" to confirm their death.

Nice sight gag in the library vault -- a whole shelf labeled "Rare Old Books on the Treasures of the Incas," with only one book on the shelf. "Enormous Candle Dipper" is fun too.

The neck of Batman's cowl looked odd while they were hanging over the dipper. It's like the ruff of the cowl was tucked in under the shirt or something, rather than sitting on top of it as usual. I never really noticed before, but the ruff of the cowl is the greatest departure of this costume from the comics' costume. In the comics, the cape and cowl are one continuous piece, or at least are usually drawn that way.

Kinda hardcore for Batman to put the bad guys inside torture implements, though it didn't last long. And giving the Riddler a spin at the end there was sort of payback for the deathtrap with the spinning turbines.


Wonder Woman: "The Pluto File": Hey, it's Mike Brady vs. Dr. Bellows! I wouldn't have recognized Robert Reed as the debonair, British agent if I hadn't seen his name in the credits.

Something's screwy with the chronology. It's set in 1942, yet the Manhattan Project has been underway for over two years? It didn't really get started until late '41. The first self-sustaining atomic reaction wasn't achieved until December '42. Also, of course, it's impossible for a nuclear reactor to explode (it would just melt down), and that line where the scientist claimed his uranium fission reactor recreated the Sun's hydrogen fusion was just totally random.

Nice to see Wonder Woman using her superior Paradise Island scientific education, but I'm a little disappointed that the elaborate reactor set wasn't the site of some big physical stunt to save the day.