10 posts tagged “star trek”
We're getting rid of the VHS tapes.
Somehow, in the 1980s, we got the idea that home-taped episodes of Star Trek: the Next Generation and Spenser: for Hire would last forever. Boy, were we wrong. Way wrong.
I must have had a thing for TV series with colons in the titles.
But say farewell: most of these are destined for some recycling center -- assuming the EPA doesn't have some restriction on the PVC content of outdated magnetic tape.
Obi-Wan, perhaps it's time to cut back on the bantha-burgers.
Couldn't begin to guess what sci-fi series she came from, but the episode was entitled: "Maisie Discovers Her Sister's Corset Has Unexpected Buoyancy Properties."
Obligatory middle-age Star Trek geeks, trying to summon up the Klingon word for "Bad Hair Day."
Full disclosure: I own a $400 Captain Picard jacket. But Atlanta, in August, wearing suede leather? With no pockets? The jacket stayed home, and I wore a 10-year-old "Trouble With Tribbles" T-shirt. And no one wrote pithy captions about my attire, either.
Seen at Dragoncom in Atlanta, Ga., this recent weekend: people who make my casual preoccupation with Star Trek seem positively pointless:
I wasn't there the day they issued short-sleeve Star Trek uniforms. These guys -- who may still be searching for their starship -- ought to know by now, the old Klingon adage: "It is very cold ... in space." Bring a sweater, ensign.
Sighted in Atlanta: heroes from my youth and a few years thereafter:
The legendary Monkees lead singer, Micky Dolenz, posed for photos with your author and BK. This sort of proximity comes at a price. Don't ask. Micky told me the toughest part of his professional life -- concerts and geek festivals like Dragoncom -- is the travel. No big surprise.
Dominic Keating from Star Trek: Enterprise. You may know him as Malcolm. He was more chatty and charged less for an autograph than George Takei ("Sulu").
From Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Avery Brooks ("Capt. Sisko") at left and Michael Dorn ("Worf"). Two very classy actors. Cirroc Lofton ("Jake Sisko") was the third member of this panel.
You could spend a tremendous amount of cash collecting autographs from a few dozen actors from various science fiction programs at Dragoncom. The line for Nathan Whats-his-name from Firefly was four lanes deep. Adam West ("Batman") would sign anything for a few dollars, if Batman is your idea of science fiction.
But when you get down to it: I'm not an autograph hound. I enjoyed meeting these people, but I usually just tell them how much enjoyment their performances have brought me, and how well-acted or well-sung their music was. Besides, an autograph just proves you met the man or woman. I already know that and I needn't prove it to anyone.
It's been a rough few weeks for Star Trek fans. Alexander Courage died; he wrote that French-horn laden music for the original Star Trek series, the one that Shatner talks over at the beginning of every episode. Around the same time, Joseph Pevney died; he directed, among some 14 episodes, "The Trouble With Tribbles."
It's enough to depress a Vulcan.
Now, it's pretty easy to conjure up any number of cleverly edited Star Trek clips on YouTube. But this one -- with Carol Burnett as Capt. Kirk -- is funny and weird, all at the same time. (It may also be what helped turned Carol Burnett's show into the dreadful "Mama's Family.")
Now that I think of it, this is from the reprised Carol Burnett show, Carol & Company, not the original CBS series. This is the one with Richard Kind (of 'Spin City') that shows why the late Harvey Korman was soooo essential to Burnett's ensemble comedy approach.
Beam me up.
You can't escape who you are.
I am a Star Trek geek. No excuses. I have my authentic $400 Captain Picard jacket. And, somewhere in North America, there's a lovely woman who recently discovered the original Star Trek tribble I bought her in New York in 1976 is now about as valuable as a small diamond.
So, when I occasionally think of my "final frontier," I wonder: what would be the best "exit strategy" for a guy like me?
I found my answer -- where else? -- online:
Yes, the Star Trek Mark IV photon torpedo casing, adapted into a coffin. First seen in 1982's Star Trek: the Wrath of Khan, which gave us Admiral Kirk's first appearance in reading glasses -- as well as the Shatneresque "KHAAAANN!" howl.
This photon torpedo/coffin is perfect for my one final "beam me up" moment.
Here's a shooting model of the original tube that I think went in the big Christie's auction. Note the disparity between this one and the version at the Las Vegas Hilton, where the Star Trek Experience is a hot ticket. Doesn't look like a comfy ride, even if you're not a Vulcan science officer.
Or, to quote a Klingon proverb: "Perhaps today is a good day to die."
As we stepped onto the dance floor, she looked at my carved wooden lapel pin and said: "At least you don't wear Star Trek communicators as lapel pins anymore."
She was right, I guess. Fewer corporate events requiring business attire means no suitcoats. No lapels, no lapel pins.
But we fell in love watching reruns of the original Star Trek. Back when the Captain had hair, and before Spock turned into a Jewish mystic/art photographer. Those were the days.
Every so often, I'm reminded of the times when Star Trek gave you all life's answers. ("Don't put all your ranking officers in one shuttlecraft.") Paramount's endless recapitulations of the franchise ultimately killed it. (Scott Bakula as a starship captain? Puh-leeze.) And the countless fan-produced online videos that re-create the original Trek characters -- including one where an Elvis impersonator is doing Jim Kirk. My favorite is the group in Scotland that's done their own version; imagine a whole starship where everyone talks like Scotty.
Then the College Student runs across a German-techno dance video (above) that incorporates original Trek sound effects and music samples. Raumchiff means 'spaceship' in German. And I think: Boy, I'm sure glad I don't wear suit jackets anymore.
Of course, there's still that authentic $400 Captain Picard jacket hanging carefully in plastic in my closet. Maybe I'll save it for our next dance.
Exactly what it says. You have to admire someone with the tenacity (insanity?) to find a clip of music from a 20-year-old TV show. But you have to wonder about the guy who paid five figures for the prop flute used in the Star Trek episode. Even Patrick Stewart, who used the flute in "The Inner Light," admitted: it hasn't any holes. It's not a real flute. No matter how hard you try to "make it so..."
The fake Ressikan flute was auctioned in the "40 Years of Star Trek" auction at Christie's last year. It was expected to go around $1200. Final auction price: $48,000.
This makes my $300 Capt. Picard jacket -- purchased at retail in Chicago in the 1990s -- an incredible bargain!
And as you can obviously see, a man is known by the company he keeps.
We live in a household of amateur musicians and performers. We have a pretty broad appreciation of music. (The recent electric guitar search was for CDK, not myself.) It's reached the point where I successfully obtained a roll-up electronic piano, as first seen in "Lessons," a 1993 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Naturall, JK glommed onto this new gadget, even though it was purchased for his mom.
This is the same young music afficionado who insisted I track down the soundtrack and score for the TV series Stargate SG-1. Which he promptly learned to play on the piano. So we've established his enthusiasm for music, right?
So, a few weeks later, we go to the Eastman Theatre to see several friends perform in a holiday chorus with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. These are young men we know and admire. And, the very same JK who couldn't keep his fingers off that keyboard responded to this concert in the following fashion:
I guess some people only appreciate orchestral music when it's accompanied by starships, star gates, and lasers.
While exploring the oldest synagogue in Philadelphia, I found this rather unusual chair near the bimah, where the rabbi customarily leads the Shabbat worship service.
If that elaborate carving of spread-finger hands looks familiar, it's an orthodox Jewish benediction. Leonard Nimoy borrowed it for the familiar "Live Long and Prosper" Vulcan salute on Star Trek. I'm going to try to see if I can get the Hebrew inscription translated. Although I'm pretty certain it has nothing to do with beaming up -- even in the abstract sense.
As time's gone along, I've developed an appreciation for older synagogues. It's a backlash to my 1970s experience, when my family belonged to the North Shore Jewish Center on Long Island. Desperate to move from two rickety old wooden buildings in Setauket, they built a (then) futuristic-looking brick building in Port Jefferson Station. But they had little money left to decorate the new building. Thus, my lasting impression of the "new" NSJC was a semi-cool looking brick exterior with bare concrete floors and cinderblock walls.
In Philadelphia, about two blocks from Independence Hall, they've also got a modern building -- but the congregation has successfully preserved some of their traditional objects and decor. The tapestry above the entrance into the sanctuary (below) helps give an artistic view of the temple's chronology.
All synagogues, it seems, are dealing with declining membership. It seems as if Jews increasingly view the Jewish community center (in our town, it's mostly a Jewish health club and drama center) as a viable alternative to a temple. I know it works for some people, but I prefer my synagogue with a little more ritual and a little less shvitzing.
