Nicholas Meyer writing a Trek memoir?
- Thread starter ScottDS
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Awww, man. I wish I'd known; my copy is a pan-and-scan presentation on Bravo from sometime around the year 2000 or so.
Oh, I know. I even bought the laserdisc on eBay, but that turned out to be full-frame, too. I check TCM's website every so often, but I think they may have lost the broadcast window for the film, sadly...
One of my mostest favorite movies EVER. I too would like to see what he's got to say about it. His commentary track on the DVD is pretty interesting, BTW.
well, by today's standards, it doesn't pack as much of a punch. But back in the day, to have such a downbeat story as a TV movie was a big deal. And remember who was president at the time, so people were really worrying about the Bomb...
...and Meyer did Time After Time? Another one of my favorites!
Trust us, it's a wonderful movie. H. G. Wells versus Jack the Ripper in San Francisco, circa 1978. Humor, suspense, romance, time travel, "free love" . . . it's got it all.
And, yes, it's very similar in tone to STAR TREK IV. No surprise, since Meyer worked on the scripts for both.
Anyone seen THE DECEIVERS? That's one Meyer film I've never caught.
Far be it from me to defend Reagan, but fears of nuclear annihilation were pervasive for a couple of decades before he took the oath of office. Remember the Cuban Missile Crisis? A generation or more of people grew up sincerely expecting the world to end within their lifetimes. It wasn't just that the movie was depressing, it was that it was a realistic depiction of something that, as far as anyone knew, could actually happen at any time. If you'd asked anyone in 1983 which was more likely, that the world would be destroyed within a decade or that the Cold War would end peacefully and decisively within a decade, just about anyone would've picked the former.
These days, we live in a totally different world. We still fear war, but on a smaller, more localized scale. We still fear the end of the world, but as a gradual, long-term environmental collapse we probably won't have to face in our lifetimes. There isn't the same perception of a sword of Damocles hanging over us. So watching The Day After would be a very different experience, more like science fiction or alternative history. To us, it would just be a depressing hypothetical scenario with no real bearing on our lives. It would be hard to experience it the way audiences did in 1983.
trevanian
Rear Admiral
I don't know anyone who found DAY AFTER impressive in the least back then. In fact, the ABC special afterward discussing 'real' nuclear war was a lot more interesting. For all the hype, DAY AFTER didn't hold a candle to SPECIAL BULLETIN, a similar nuclear event film that came out the same year.
Wow, I really disagree. Everywhere I went The Day After was really discussed. People were just amazed by its candor. I rank it right up there with Testament and, as you mentioned, Special Bulletin (from the writers/directors of thirtysomething).
--Ted
trevanian
Rear Admiral
If you can find it, his novel CONFESSIONS OF A HOMING PIGEON is definitely worth reading, especially if you rewatch TWOK afterward. CONFESSIONS was the book he wrote just before doing KHAN (reading it was the one thing that got me excited about the movie, since I was still 'down' from TMP), and you can see that his 'dealing with death' focus was already getting worked out, very impressively IMO.
trevanian
Rear Admiral
George Grizzard was in WRONG IS RIGHT; are you referring to Ed Flanders?
Yes. I had changed it thirty seconds after posting it, but man --- you're FAST!!!!
--Ted
Had there been a nuclear exchange in 1961, it would have been extremely one-sided. The Soviet delivery systems simply weren't capable, at that time, of delivering an extinction-level blow to the enemy. It wasn't until about 1970 that MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) became, not just a possibility, but a certainty in a nuclear exchange between East and West.
That may have been the reality, but the fear that World War III would annihilate everything was pervasive for generations before that. It hangs over numerous original TWILIGHT ZONE episodes, the PLANET OF THE APES movies, and every 50's b-movie set "after Mankind destroyed itself." Even TEENAGE CAVEMEN!
All those people digging fall-out shelters in the 1950s weren't thinking about delivery systems, just mushroom clouds.
All those people digging fall-out shelters in the 1950s weren't thinking about delivery systems, just mushroom clouds.
trevanian
Rear Admiral
Soviets had a zillion aircraft (to offset their lack of really good rocket stuff), and there's no way we'd've intercepted everything, we'd've gotten pasted anyway.
And even though we didn't know about the effect yet, what we didn't shoot down coupled with what we tossed at them would've probably brought about nuclear autumn, if not nuclear winter.
I think he's defining one-sided in a very General Turgidson way.
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