Star Trek is probably the most successful entertainment franchise ever, and not just for science fiction. In addition to the original TV series, we have 5 spin-off series (1 animated), 10 movies (an 11th to be released next month), books, conventions, and at least one completely invented language (Klingon).
Wikipedia has a page on which the cumulative running times for all science fiction franchises are compared. Star Trek comes in first, at 22 days, 16 hours, and 56 minutes. (Second place belongs to Doctor Who, at something around 15 days. Nothing else comes close.)
Although I intended to write about the movies, I must issue a disclaimer: I haven't seen the last one (Nemesis.) I lost interest somewhere along the way, even though I loved the Next Generation series on TV. My memory of individual movies starts to get fuzzy at about number 7 (Generations).
My personal favorites among the first six movies - which starred the original cast - reflect popular opinion, with the second (Wrath of Khan) and the fourth (Voyage Home) being the top picks.
Wrath of Khan is standard melodrama, with Ricardo Montalban as the worthy adversary. What a lovely man, and may he rest in peace. I can still hear him as Khan, dying, the last words of Captain Ahab in his mouth:
To the last, I will grapple with thee… from Hell’s
heart, I stab at thee! For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at
thee!
The movie ends, of course, with the death of Spock. I have only one quibble with this movie. (OK, two quibbles. The first: the close-up shot of the icky beasties entering into an ear looks unusually fake for a major movie.) But my major quibble is with the ending. When Kirk stands on the bridge with his old girlfriend (whoever she was) in the last minutes, watching the birth of the new Genesis planet and happily saying something like - "I feel young." - all I could think was - What's wrong with you? YOUR BEST FRIEND JUST DIED.
I understand that they needed to do a set up for the third movie; and nobody was happier than me to see Spock back again. Still, the upbeat ending clashed with what had happened just minutes earlier; the moving and powerful scene where Kirk, separated from Spock by a glass (transparent aluminum?) wall, watches his friend die.
I'm aware that this death scene now plays as corny for all the angst-lovers out there. Gene Roddenberry first pitched Star Trek as a TV series in 1960. So this franchise is, in some ways, a child of the 1950s. Like me. Maybe we're just in tune.
I'll talk about the whales next time . . .
1 comment:
KHAAAAAANNNNNNNN!!!!!!!
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