PeterDavid.net

PAD, have you gotten any of my e-mails today? I fear I'm running up against AOL's spam filters...

So, Peter, did the kids call Gene Roddenberry "grandpa"?

-- Ken from Chicago

My wife and I also met because of Trek, so we're in the same boat. However, I still maintain that what sealed the relationship was my reading of Imzadi to her.

Then you got a fan for life by doing a dramatic reading of Skippy to our then three-year old girl. She still likes watching the video of that con once in a while.

Thank you doesn't seem to say enough, Peter, but "Thanks!"

The thing that always gets me is when people say to me, Hey, I caught a Trek episode the other day, and it was REALLY good. I forgot how good some of those were. Cracks me up every time. Like so many people out there would follow it so heavily if it was garbage. Granted, not EVERY one is great, but hey...!

Peter, I have to say this. It must be really cool to be you. The closest thing I can do to the six degrees thing is con appearances (although I did see one of the original cast sign some girl's underwear, which I thought was hysterical.) And now I want ribs, and there's no place good to get them around here.

I too am jealous. About the ribs.

I cannot believe they cut dialogue to fit in more commercials. You'd think just once, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary, the episodes could remain intact.

Off-topic, but Peter, I apologize THOROUGHLY for my insane friend at Dragon*Con who accosted you in the bathroom.

I can't take him anywhere without leashes. Really.

Thanks for signing the books and not annihilating him instantly with mad ninj0rz skills of doom. Hope you like the CD.

The funny thing for me with Trek is that I was never really a big fan of TOS, even though I enjoyed most of the movies with TOS cast.

I think the only episode I've seen in full any time in the last 15 years is The Trouble With Tribbles (and not just because it was on tv tonight, I only watched bits of it).

I do vividly remember catching episodes when I was a small child though, especially that damned big-green headed alien they would show at the end of the credits... I *hated* seeing that thing. :)

"The funny thing for me with Trek is that I was never really a big fan of TOS, even though I enjoyed most of the movies with TOS cast."

Yeah, I like most of the movies (especially IV), but the actual TV show was just awful. I never even liked it as a kid.

I do vividly remember catching episodes when I was a small child though, especially that damned big-green headed alien they would show at the end of the credits... I *hated* seeing that thing. :)

I had nightmares about Balok for years. I must have been 3 or 4 years old, sitting really close to the big console TV we had while I was growing up, the first time I saw Balok pop up right in my face. It was years before I got over it by turning it into a joke amongst my friends and myself. It was only a couple of years ago that I finally sat and watched "The Corbomite Maneuver" in full. My final reaction? "That was it? A childhood of bad dreams and running from the room every time the end credits rolled, all over a whole 30 seconds of screen time?"

Well, now that we've had more of a look into my psyche than anywone ever wanted...

I can't necessarily attribute my marriage to Trek, and I still haven't been able to cajole her into reading any of the books, I HAVE gotten her to read PAD's non-Trek prose, and still hold out hope that those books will serve as a sort of literary gateway drug to the franchise. Ain't I a stinker? :P

Well, happy 40th Trek! Here's to 40 more!

-Rex Hondo-

I read an article today about the fact that NBC had JUST started breaking down things by demographics, and the ratings on the third season were the ones that advertisors wanted, but it was too late to save the show. Roddenberry often said in interviews that the show was cancelled because "It couldn't sell enough toilet paper." What a different TV world it would have been if they'd broken things down by demographics a couple of months earlier.

But then, given the hit-and-miss nature of the third season, perhaps everything worked out for the best. I don't know that Star Trek fandom would have survived another five or six "Spock's Brain"s. :P

-Rex Hondo-

Oh, I don't know, Rex, I found some value in "Spock's Brain." If nothing else, the episode provided me with the catch phrase I now use whenever someone says or does something incredibly stupid: "BRAIN AND BRAIN, WHAT IS BRAIN?!?!?!?"

I found that I enjoyed Trek more when it came on DVD and you could pick and choose episodes. Instead of having to watch 'em one at a time, in sequence, unable to fast-forward, you can be thinking of the series as a slush pile with you as the editor. "Lame...terrific!...this is a half-hour concept stretched to an hour...good...fantastic!...ugh, if this were any preachier, they'd be passing a collection plate in Act 3...keep this one...lame..."

When Trek was terrific, it was fantastically terrific. The ending of "Amok Time" continues to be one of my favorite endings of any TV show and contains one of my favorite lines from TV or movies. And when it was bad, it was horrifically, comically, Jerry Lewis On Percodan Doing The 1977 Telethon bad. Anyone who defends the Frank Gorshin half-black, half-white episode is either on crack or some sort of hybrid clown/Jolson fetishist.

Fortunately, I think everybody can "find" the Trek they they like.

If you're still wanting to see uncut Trek on TV, G4 does a mini-marathon every Saturday morning to make up for their horribly done "Trek 2.0". I think it's usually around 5 or six eipsodes. They usually run around 1:09, so they just run enough to get it back to the top of the hour.

Now the real question is, what are your feelings on the new "Special Editionalization" of TOS by CBS? I think it'll just draw more attention to the things they can't tweak (Costume & Set design, the writing & acting) and think they should just leave it in its nostalgia bubble.

Haven't seen an episode of the "new" version yet, although presumably this will be the one TV Land starts airing as Star Trek when they pick up the series in November. Sometimes you can appreciate corporate ownership (TV Land/Paramount=Viacom).
I'll reserve judgement until I actually see one for myself, but if they only did what they said they've done and did it right (opening credits, outer space scenes, and other special effects), then in my humble opinion, they showed a lot more respect to the original property than George Lucas did with the first Star Wars trilogy (Episodes 4-6).
I'm not saying Lucas didn't have the right(s) to do so nor that the "Special Edition"s were bad, just why mess with a classic? It would be along the lines of Ted Turner colorizing "Casablanca", which he did. And has anyone noticed that version hasn't been on the air since its TBS debut?

"Met him...met him...he was my best man...wrote his autobiography..."

Can you tell us whose autobiography? I actually read a few of them last year.

I don't think having modern day effects against original Trek is going to put across shortcomings. Sure didn't hurt the DS9 "Tribbles" episode.

I wrote Jimmy Doohan's autobiography.

PAD

Darn.

I keep coming here expecting a response to this:

http://reid.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=262624&&year=2006&

I guess Democratic Senators threatening ABC's FCC license isn't enough to get PAD's juices flowing.

James I realise you're just trying to start something, and I should probably ignore you, but i have to ask why on earth do you think PAD should be upset by that article?

Anyone who defends the Frank Gorshin half-black, half-white episode is either on crack or some sort of hybrid clown/Jolson fetishist.

I don't think I can defend the episode itself, but I'd defend Gorshin's performance in a heartbeat. Gorshin's abilities are routinely underrated, I think -- certainly, he was the only actor to play a villain in the '60s Batman series who came across as convincingly and insanely dangerous. (Cesar Romero? Please.)

I don't think having modern day effects against original Trek is going to put across shortcomings. Sure didn't hurt the DS9 "Tribbles" episode.

Absolutely true (and I still adore said episode), but that was a little different, in that it was taking the previous source material and weaving a different story into it. This is re-presenting the same stories with some shots newly packaged, and I could certainly see people worrying how other things might stack up.

I wrote Jimmy Doohan's autobiography.

That begs a (hopefully interesting) question I've been meaning to ask for a long time now. When you're writing the autobiography of someone who isn't you (a difficult issue at best), it strikes me that the hardest part of it is trying to make sure your contributions stay true to the subject's authorial voice (particularly given that by the strictest definition possible, really nobody should be able to write an autobiography of somebody else). How did you manage that here -- in other words, I guess, who contributed what to the process?

TWL

Personally, I'm looking forward to the enhanced original Trek. But then, I really liked the Star Wars Special Editions. Of course, from everything I've read, with Star Trek, they'll be leaving the actual story strictly alone, so the "Han shot first" crowd shouldn't have TOO much to complain about. Regardless, there will always be rabid "purists" who want to pick a fight, despite the fact that the original versions have been available on DVD for years now.

-Rex Hondo-

Trek on TV Land.

OH, NO!

Here's what will happen to the episodes.

They will trim out little bits and pieces in every scene and also speed up the film. Thus, dramatic pauses will cease to exist, and the movements of all the actors will be herky-jerky, as if they had been filmed in the manner of the old Buster Keaton Black-and-White silents.

Tim, you're right about Frank Gorshin--he was so good in that episode that it actuallyThurt the premise. We weren't supposed to find either of the two antagonists overly sympathetic but clearly he was playing a pretty bad guy, by our standards. The problem was that he was just so much better than the other guy (Lou Antonio) that you couldn't help but root for him.

I don't blame Mr. Antonio. The writers really let him down. And he had the misfortune to be opposite Frank The Man Gorshin who, in that stupid makeup, with that dopey dialogue, still managed to make his part work.

For one thing, Gorshin's delivery and mannerisms really made you think he might be alien--there's something unnatural about it, without being goofy.

The one part that sticks with me--and this is from memory so maybe I've TOTALLY misremembered it--is at the end when their planet is revealed to be dead, presumably from a race war. Gorshin has a meltdown right there, his body contorted by grief. "My people..." he weeps (and I remember it being delivered sort of like a Frank Gorshin impersonation of Kirk Douglas) "My people...you...murderer!" as he grabs the other guy and they go all sparky like. This leaves poor Mr. Antonio to just come back with something like "Your people? MY people!" or something equally flacid.

Then they run around the Enterprise for what seems like 15 freaking minutes. It's bad enough when shows are padded out with gratuitous lesbian scenes but I can cope with those, this feels like they finished it and suddenly realized they had a huge amount of time to fill and there was nothing else they could do.

(But check out how Gorshin runs! Weird! But don't try this at home! You are not Frank Gorshin! Run like that in most schools and even the gay kids will beat you up and call you a fag.)

I do believe G4 tv channel is running Star Trek uncut,airing the episodes complete. This is different that the Star Trek 2.0 that they also run as well. Watched one today. Good times.

Bill, this running thing...you're not speaking from personal experience, I hope? And the differences between Bele and Lokai (yeah, I'm one of THOSE Trekkies) in their speech and their motions I thought was supposed to be the difference between the Common Man and the Establishment or Authority or Whatever. Maybe (Hey, Look! Straws! Let's Grasp Them!) the whole running sequence was supposed to be representative of the time involved in developing the conflict between two groups.

Just thinking about the Way Trek Changed Lives. My Trek pin was the second thing my ex-girlfriend noticed about me. She got me into gaming, which got me into the Games Club in college, where I met all my current friends, which is how I got one of my jobs, where I met another woman who became an ex-girlfriend but not before she got me a job in a computer store, where I met Stace, who married me and gave birth to my son. All because I wore a Trek pin.

On another topic all together, Peter, how about a post about writing the new Spider-Man comic now that you have hit your one year anniversary? Would love to hear your thoughts about writing Peter Parker, the whole identity thing, and the rest. Oh, and congrats on the last year!

Ah, it seems like not too long ago when I was going to the 30th Anniversary convention in Huntsville. Fun times, those.

Happy 40, Star Trek. And here's to many more.

Posted by Bill Mulligan at September 9, 2006 10:08 PM

...The one part that sticks with me--and this is from memory so maybe I've TOTALLY misremembered it--is at the end when their planet is revealed to be dead, presumably from a race war. Gorshin has a meltdown right there, his body contorted by grief. "My people..." he weeps (and I remember it being delivered sort of like a Frank Gorshin impersonation of Kirk Douglas) "My people...you...murderer!" as he grabs the other guy and they go all sparky like. This leaves poor Mr. Antonio to just come back with something like "Your people? MY people!" or something equally flacid.

I too am one of THOSE Trek fans, so I'll attempt to reproduce the dialog between Lokai & Bele that you made a heroic effort to remember:

Bele: My people. All DEAD?

Spock: Yes, commissioner. All of them.

Lokai: No one alive?

Spock: None at all, sir.

Bele(to Lokai): You and your band of murderers did THIS!

Lokai(to Bele): You GENOCIDAL MANIACS did this!

I thought Gorshin AND Antonio did an excellent job of illustrating The Class/Race War as it existed in the '60s as well as today, sad to say. At least when young people only remember Gorshin as an impressionist and a comic, I can show them this episode to reveal "Frank Gorshin: the actor."

Posted by Tim Lynch at September 9, 2006 08:49 PM

I wrote Jimmy Doohan's autobiography.

That begs a (hopefully interesting) question I've been meaning to ask for a long time now. When you're writing the autobiography of someone who isn't you (a difficult issue at best), it strikes me that the hardest part of it is trying to make sure your contributions stay true to the subject's authorial voice (particularly given that by the strictest definition possible, really nobody should be able to write an autobiography of somebody else). How did you manage that here -- in other words, I guess, who contributed what to the process?

I've read several autobiographies where the actual person who typed the words shared credit on the cover. An example of this is Tina Turner's auto "I Tina" that she wrote with Rolling Stone's Kurt Loder.

I would presume that the "writer" asked a series of questions, the "subject" provided the answers in the form of anecdotes and memoirs, and the "writer" typed them on his computer/typewriter and an Autobiography is born.

I don't remember the title or the collaborator at the moment, but I believe that Stan Lee recently participated on book of his life that was called an "autography" because it was a combination of biographical data provided by the author with Stan himself writing "his side of the story" in the form of a personal memoir.

"Beam Me Up Scotty" could have been described this way as well, but it was told in first person form from beginning to end, so the word "autobiography" still fits IMHO.

I'd like to echo the comments about Frank Gorshin. His Riddler conveyed an actual sense of menace, not an easy task given the deliberate silliness of the'60s Batman T.V. series. John Astin's Riddler never even came close to touching Gorshin's rendition.

I liked "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" moreso than some of you did, apparently. And it's a totally separate issue from my crack addiction, Andy.

Yeah, as much as I loved John Astin as Gomez Addams, I always hated him as the Riddler. Frank Gorshin's Riddler was my favorite villain on that show.

Who was your best man, PAD?

The legendary Harlan Ellison was Peter's best man at his SECOND wedding.

As an adjustment to an earlier post, I meant that Kurt Loder was a writer/editor for Rolling Stone Magazine, NOT a band member of The Rolling Stones.

The TV Land airings of Trek are going to be the same syndication edits we've seen for years... the "special edition" episodes are still being done, and will be released once a week to local syndiation, starting next weekend. Look for the station that was airing "Enterprise" reruns in weekend syndication in your market - that's where you'll find the TOS revamp...

David S,--Thanks! You know, for an episode usually regarded as one of the worst, I now have a desperate itch to see it again.

You don't see many impressionists like Gorshin any more. There are folks who can sound very much like the people they impersonate...but BFD. If I want to hear Jack Nicholson I can, you know, go see a Jack Nicholson movie. So they come up with some stupid ass situation to wring some semblance of larfs out of it. "What if Marlon Brando had to fill in for Tom Petty? I think it would go something like this--" Meh.

Gorshin was an artist. His John Wayne didn't sound like John Wayne, but when he did it you knew who he was doing. And he could have read the phone book as John Wayne and it would have been funny.

People like Gorshin were so good at what they did that when you think of James Cagney or Edward G Robinson or Richard Nixon you often think of the impressionist's version, not the real guy. Cagney never said "You dirty rat!" but that's the line he's remembered by.

What ever happened to those classic impressionists? Is it because today's stars are so bereft of distinctive personalities that they can't be lampooned and most kids don't remember the stars of yesterday? You could walk up to me and do a dead on perfect Brad Pitt voice and I'd be none the wiser.

"I wrote Jimmy Doohan's autobiography."

Damn. That's the one I haven't read.

Let me second Tim Lynch's question and ask what the process was for writing Beam Me Up. I read a Michael Lewis article where he describes how a friend who specializes in this kind of thing spends a few days interviewing the subject with a tape machine. Then, once she gets his "voice," she extrapolates his remarks into a written manuscript. Was that your process too?

Peter,

I still wish your title for Doohan's autobiography would have made the cut - "Doohan Time" is perfect!
Of course, Paul Dini's suggestion was good too.

(Andy Ihnatko:)Lame...terrific!...this is a half-hour concept stretched to an hour...good...fantastic!...ugh, if this were any preachier, they'd be passing a collection plate in Act 3...keep this one...lame..."

As a matter of fact, when I watched the well-loved The Trouble With Tribbles on TVLand the other night, I realized that Gerrold killed an entire act with the bar fight and its aftermath, which is a nice character bit for Scotty but advances the story just about not.

A scene is only unnecessary if it feels unnecessary when you watch it. This is is a corollary of Ebert's very wise observation "No good movie is ever too long. No bad movie is ever short enough."

To my ear, many episodes of the original "Trek" are filled with far too many runs where the crew laboriously works its way step by linear step from point A to point Q, burning film minute by minute, when a single line of dialogue could have worked just as well.

And yet the best episodes of "Columbo" had plenty of scenes that didn't put the Lieutenant any closer to closing the case, but which were nonetheless indispensible. Columbo and the murderer are in a room together, they both know he's just moments away from laying out the evidence and making the inevitable arrest...when the power goes out.

So they sit in the dark for a few minutes and talk about their respective childhoods.

The scene could be cut right out without leaving any ragged edges, but it's one of the best scenes in the whole series...

"What ever happened to those classic impressionists? Is it because today's stars are so bereft of distinctive personalities that they can't be lampooned and most kids don't remember the stars of yesterday? You could walk up to me and do a dead on perfect Brad Pitt voice and I'd be none the wiser."

FYI...Frank Gorshin Passed away in May of 2005. He was also one of a team of impressionists on a 70's TV show called "The Copycats" which included Gorshin, Rich Little, Marylyn Michaels, Charlie Calas, and Fred Travelena...I think Joe E. Brown joined in later on in the series as well...

I just saw this hilarious Star Trek video on You Tube. It has clips of STar Trek to the Camelot interlude from the Holy Grail. See it at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QSaM5gQ9vo

Neil

A Space Cases reference! This is the opportunity I've been looking for. I recently found the Space Cases TV website and I was wondering if there was still a chance for the series to continue on in other formats? I saw the idea for making it a book series, but I'm not sure how old that is or even if the contact person is even still working for the company. So I figured--what with other 1990's television shows (such as Gargoyles or Beast Wars) being revived in this way, do you think Space Cases has a chance at living on as a comic book? I'd love to talk to you more about this as I was a huge Space Case back when the show was initially on the air.

--Tei

What does everyone think of the new Star Trek "Special Edition" episodes starting this week?

And Mr. David, scrolling up a bit, someone accosted you in a Dragon Con bathroom and wanted your autograph? And they gave you a CD?

At least my friend's band presented you with their CD in a nicer place, or so I'm told. You might remember them, Ookla The Mok, for their song where you're mentioned, "Arthur Curry"...

"I know that I'm no Brainiac, But I'm no fool.
I know not even Peter David can make me cool."
-Arthur Curry by Ookla The Mok

Posted by Dan Nakagawa at September 12, 2006 11:54 PM
...Frank Gorshin Passed away in May of 2005. He was also one of a team of impressionists on a 70's TV show called "The Copycats" which included Gorshin, Rich Little, Marylyn Michaels, Charlie Calas, and Fred Travelena...I think Joe E. Brown joined in later on in the series as well...

I believe it was British comedian Joe BAKER who joined the cast. The show was broadcast in the UK, so he was considered "local talent" at the time. I liked his Lou Costello and Sheldon Leonard impersonations.

Dan and David, you've forgotten George Kirby if I'm remembering his name correctly (this must be the early seventies, so we're talking three decades ago) but I'm pretty sure he was the black impressionist of the group. Again, my memory may be playing tricks on me, but I seem to recall Kirby playing an African-American version of Archie Bunker. Anybody out there with a longer/better memory than mine?

You're absolutely right, Joe.

George Kirby did a number of celebrity voices on that show. These are the ones that I can recall:

1. Sydney Greenstreet
2. Archie Bunker
3. Flip Wilson/Geraldine Jones
4. Jackie Gleason/Ralph Kramden
5. Count Basie
6. Billy Eckstein
7. Sarah Vaughn
8. Nat King Cole
9. Joe Louis
10.Mae West
11.Wallace Beery

I'm sure there were more, but those are the ones that currently jump out at me.

I was thinking in terms of the "regular" being named Joe who's last name was BAKER instead of BROWN.

Oh yeah! And Eddie "Rochester" Anderson from The Jack Benny Program!

So, did anybody actually get to watch the enhanced "Balance of Terror"? If so, what did y'all think? I only got to see the first part, since the previous show went long and my DVR didn't catch the whole thing.

All in all, I'd say they walked the line between making it prettier and staying true to the original fairly well. Of course, given the choice of episode to start with, that is a good and a bad thing. "Balance of Terror" is a prime example of how even the best TOS episodes tended to be fairly inconsistent. So, instead of retooling it so when they say "phasers," the exterior shot is of the ship actually firing the phasers, they are still acting like torpedoes, just like the "old" version.

Still, at least so far, they certainly haven't ruined anything in my estimation. I'm just interested to see what they're doing with some of the rubber monsters when "Devil in the Dark" airs next week.

-Rex Hondo-

PS- I just hope that when "The Corbomite Maneuver" airs, they haven't tweaked Balok so well that he's genuinely scary again and gives me ANOTHER ten or more years of nightmares. ;)