Creator of the award-winning web series, Abnormal Fixation. One of the horror genre's "most widely read critics" (Rue Morgue # 68), "an accomplished film journalist" (Comic Buyer's Guide #1535), and the award-winning author of Horror Films of the 1980s (2007) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002), John Kenneth Muir, presents his blog on film, television and nostalgia, named one of the Top 100 Film Studies Blog on the Net.
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Movie Trailer: My Science Project (1985)
Labels:
1985,
movie trailer
award-winning creator of Enter The House Between and author of 32 books including Horror Films FAQ (2013), Horror Films of the 1990s (2011), Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), TV Year (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007), Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair (2006),, Best in Show: The Films of Christopher Guest and Company (2004), The Unseen Force: The Films of Sam Raimi (2004), An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith (2002), The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film & Television (2004), Exploring Space:1999 (1997), An Analytical Guide to TV's Battlestar Galactica (1998), Terror Television (2001), Space:1999 - The Forsaken (2003) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002).
Star Trek 50th Anniversary Blogging: "Space Seed" (February 16, 1967)
Stardate 3141.9
The
U.S.S. Enterprise encounters a derelict vessel adrift in space: the S.S. Botany
Bay.
This
primitive Earth ship -- launched in a time of global turmoil, the 1990s – is a
sleeper ship carrying 72 men and women from that time period.
The
leader of the group -- Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban) -- is awakened
from suspended animation, and almost immediately plots to take over the
Enterprise.
He
does this with the help of ship’s historian Marla McGivers (Madlyn Rhue), who possesses
a fascination -- even obsession -- with men of the past.
Even
as Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) identifies Khan as a brutal tyrant from the
Eugenic Wars, Khan makes his power play, awakening his fellow
genetically-engineered superman, and proceeding to hijack the Enterprise.
Now
Captain Kirk (William Shatner) must regain command of his ship, and find a
suitable punishment for the insurrectionists and their leader, a man who does
not belong in the 23rd century.
He settles on banishment, sending
Khan and his people to the harsh but tamable world, Ceti Alpha V.
In
response to his sentence, Khan quotes Paradise Lost.
There are no two ways about it. “Space Seed” is a virtually perfect episode of Star
Trek (1966-1969).
“Space
Seed” moves with purpose, energy, and suspense, and is grounded by the
charismatic central performance by Ricardo Montalban as Khan. The episode even
ends with a note of foreboding or anticipation, which is perfect considering
the franchise’s return to this story-line in 1982. The last moments of the episode find Spock
wondering what Khan’s planet, Ceti Alpha V, will give rise to in 100 years.
The
franchise would wait just fifteen years, series time, to reveal the answer. But the final episode of the moment is
chilling, and raises questions about Kirk’s decision. Will Khan build an Empire? A new kind of
human race? A city on a Hill, or will he “reign in Hell?”
Given
the prominent placement that Khan has been assigned in the modern Star
Trek mythos, it might be worthwhile to note here that before the Wrath
of Khan, “Space Seed” wasn’t judged by most Star Trek fans to be one
of the best or most memorable episodes of the series.
Many
modern fans and writers insist that Khan is to Captain Kirk as Joker is to
Batman, and that’s not quite true. Khan rose
to real prominence in the franchise in 1982, after Wrath of Khan proved such
a dramatic success at the box office.
Remember,
the original Star Trek is structured as a traditional TV series, meaning
that there are, essentially, 79 dramatic (or standalone) threats to Kirk and
Company, none necessarily graver than the others. Had Harve Bennett decided to
sequelize “Charlie X” or “Who Mourns for Adonais” or
“The Omega Glory,” we
would have had the Wrath of Charlie, The Wrath of Apollo or The Wrath of Ron
Tracey and those villains would have risen to “Joker’ status in the franchise
instead.
But
delightfully, Khan is a perfect selection to become the go-to “mythic” villain
in the Star Trek universe. This is so because Star Trek in shape and
form is a celebration of diversity,
of the Vulcan concept of IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite
Combinations). The crew succeeds in its
space missions based on the qualities of the team, which includes people of
different backgrounds and experiences. We’ve got Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty,
Uhura, Chekov, Sulu, Chapel and even Kyle.
They don’t all look the same or act the same, and they boast different
experiences and different expertise too.
And
yet this coalition of diverse personalities works together as a flawless team
to confront mysteries and crises.
That
team is faced, in “Space Seed,” with a genetically-engineered superman, an
autocratic “trait” leader. Khan, a
tyrant, leads because of his artificially-augmented traits. He has been
engineered to possess the physical strength of ten men, and the intellect of a
genius. He does not command via
consensus or team-building. He does not
value the rights or freedoms of the individual, or different experiences.
And
yet, in the end, the superman -- “a prince…with power over millions…” -- is
defeated by “regular” people working together in that diverse team.
Thus
“Space Seed” is a statement that affirms humanity’s capabilities and potential.
Man need not be a superhero to explore the stars, or improve the species. Instead, he must incorporate all colors,
cultures and beliefs, and shepherd those diverse experiences to achieve
meaningful goals.
Khan
represents a threat to that approach. He represents the idea -- as Spock
suggests – of tyranny; of the individual subjugated under the ‘whip’ of one charismatic
strongman.
Just
as the Borg represent a significant attack on Star Trek values (the
idea of drones, not individuals tending to a society), Khan does so too. He symbolizes both out-of-control science
(creating avaricious supermen) and the idea of those scientific monstrosities
lording it over the masses, eliminating the diversity exemplified by McCoy,
Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Sulu, Scotty and Chekov in favor of a fascist leader who
sees only followers, and worlds to conquer.
All the little people are under his thrall, under that proverbial
whip. Their experiences don’t matter.
They’re, well, merely cannon fodder.
By
Wrath
of Khan, Khan represents a slight variation on this theme. There, he is
a leader consumed with revenge, who refuses to listen to his crew. Kirk, by contrast, does listen to his crew,
and gleans the way to defeat Khan from his friendship with and trust in a
friend, Spock, who notes the villain’s “two-dimensional thinking.” Kirk’s
friendship is reciprocated to the degree that Spock sacrifices himself to
preserve his friends, the team. Khan may
be genetically superior, but he leads by dictate and fear. He bullies his team
members (like Judson Scott’s Joaquim) into submission. He sees no real value in
anything save his own perceived superiority
In
terms of Star Trek continuity, “Space Seed,” fills in some crucial
gaps. We learn from this episode that
mankind fought a third World War in the 1990s, one in which whole populations
were bombed out of existence. It was out of the rubble of this war that the “united”
future began to come about. In our
history, of course, none of this occurred in the 1990s, and later editions of Star
Trek, like Voyager (“Future’s End”) have backtracked some on the 1990s
being a time of devastating war and destruction.
“Space
Seed” also cements a rather unfortunate and now dated aspect to the classic
series: a female crew-member seduced by a charismatic man to take mutinous action
against her own crew. Here, Marla McGivers acquiesces to Khan, who -- let’s face it -- treats her abusively,
at least at first, and aids his efforts to take over the ship.
This
idea recurs in “Who Mourns for Adonais,” when Lt. Carolyn Palamis (Leslie
Parrish) becomes consort to Apollo, who wishes to subjugate the crew and crush
the Enterprise hull like an egg shell. To a lesser degree, we also saw this paradigm
with Dr. Dehner (Sally Kellerman) and Mitchell in “Where No Man Has Gone
Before.”
But
the bottom line is that we rarely, if ever, in Star Trek history
(original series) meet a male crew-member who gets seduced by a woman and takes
adopts her agenda, ignoring his duties, oath, and training for “love” (or lust,
anyway). Instead, it is only female
Starfleet officers, apparently, who do so.
I
suspect “Space Seed” gets away with this plot line to the degree it does for a
few reasons.
First,
Madlyn Rhue goes a long way towards suggesting that McGivers marches to the
beat of her own drummer.
The
character is depicted as an artist, and as a sensitive individual who is
genuinely overcome by her passion for history, for the storied past. When she
is taken with Khan, we can see her interest in him is a result of her character,
not merely a (stereotypical) weakness of the gender.
Similarly,
Montalban is extremely charismatic as Khan, not to mention forceful. Since
McGivers’ recovers her center in due time, and Khan comes to profess his love
for her, one can write off McGiver’s bad behavior as a temporary lapse. How often, after all, do we meet a man from “the
20th century coming alive?”
That could catch anyone off-guard, right?
Similarly,
the scenes in which Scotty and Kirk admit a “grudging” respect for Khan help us
realize that this genetically-engineered superman is quite magnetic, and casts
a spell on those around him.
Actually,
this aspect of the episode speaks to another human truth, about our species’
worship for strong-men, figures who lead -- not always fairly -- but by din of
personality, charisma, and promises of greatness, or returning to a time when
things were better.
Those
who offer the world “order” and link themselves to that order, represent, in
some way, a retreat to non-thinking safety and comfort. We trust in them, instead of facing the hard
questions ourselves.
But
still, we rarely see men in Star Trek experience such temporary
lapses over their proximity to a woman.
Kirk, for example, stays focused on his duties when encountering Mudd’s
Women, Odona, an even Elaan of Troyius.
Their charms are not enough to make him forget his responsibilities.
“Space
Seed” moves with such momentum and grace that it is easy to overlook these and
other little bumps in the road. For
instance, Kirk seems foolish to have let this “guest” have full access to the
ship’s library of technical manuals. But this reckoning only comes after
watching the episode multiple times.
In
terms of the genre, one might note how the premise of a person from the past
being revived from suspended animation in the future, became a trope after
“Space Seed.”
We
have seen it in episodes of The Starlost (“Lazarus from the Mist”),
Logan’s
Run (“Crypt”), Ark II (“The Cryogenic Man,”) and
even Star
Trek: The Next Generation (“The Neutral Zone.”) Yet, no man (or woman) from the past has
quite impacted the direction of a franchise the way Khan ultimately has in Star
Trek.
Sometimes
I lament the character’s influence. Since Wrath of Khan we have met too many
villains who are bent on revenge, or who get their hands on the latest weapon
of mass destruction (like Genesis). I
don’t blame Khan or Montablan.
Rather,
it’s a testament to the actor’s (and character’s) success that every filmmaker
wants to recreate the danger and charisma this villain offers.
But
for “Space Seed,” Khan gives Star Trek one of its most exciting
and thought-provoking hours.
It
asks: does humanity increase the species' influence in the universe by bringing
everyone along as part of the team? Or
by selecting a strong man to lead the way?
award-winning creator of Enter The House Between and author of 32 books including Horror Films FAQ (2013), Horror Films of the 1990s (2011), Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), TV Year (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007), Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair (2006),, Best in Show: The Films of Christopher Guest and Company (2004), The Unseen Force: The Films of Sam Raimi (2004), An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith (2002), The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film & Television (2004), Exploring Space:1999 (1997), An Analytical Guide to TV's Battlestar Galactica (1998), Terror Television (2001), Space:1999 - The Forsaken (2003) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002).
The Films of 1985: My Science Project
If
a movie-goer desires to seek out a perfect time capsule of the year 1985, he or she should
be immediately directed to Jonathan R. Betuel’s My Science Project (1985), a science
fiction film that very strongly reflects the age in which it was made...right down to a scene of high school typing class and electric typewriters.
Described broadly, My
Science Project is a “teens meet science fiction” action-adventure from
the same year that gave audiences Weird Science (1985) and Real
Genius (1985). All these films combine raucous teen humor and juvenile characters with sf imagery and concepts.
My
Science Project
is also, specifically, a teenager time
travel adventure that landed smack-dab in the age of Back to the Future
(1985) and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1988).
Again, young
characters are suddenly faced with scenarios out of H.G. Wells, and must contend not only with denizens of other times, but, often, temporal paradoxes as well. At the same time, they are concerned about flunking their classes.
Beyond
these touches, My Science Project is packed, wall-to-wall, frame-by-frame with
self-reflexive jokes about pop culture, evidencing a protean trend that would fully
come into its own in the 1990s, particularly in the horror genre.
In the mid-to-late eighties, however, some young filmmakers who had
grown up with television and film as constant background noise began utilizing allusions to those media as “touch
stones” for an aging generation. My Science Project is at the tip of that spear.
Finally,
My
Science Project even attempts -- in the Reagan Era, no less -- to grapple
with the divisive legacy of the 1960s and, among other issues, the Vietnam War
and the anti-war counter-culture.
Again,
this was precisely where the culture soon headed in films such as Platoon (1986) and Casualties
of War (1989).
With
all this happening during its 95 minute confines, My Science Project should be nothing less than wall-to-wall
excitement and invention. And though it’s true that the film’s pace is
generally frenetic, My Science Project -- a box office bomb -- never fully manages
to fully succeed on its own creative terms.
The
movie is loud, busy, and buoyed by occasionally effective imagery (especially for the 1980s),
but no single scene or set-piece really stands out, and none of the characters
are entirely memorable, either. Some scenes really fly, and other simply never take off.
But succeed or fail, this cult Betuel film will make you nostalgic for 1985.
“Do
something special…do something original…”
At
Kit Carson High School, grease monkey Michael Harlan (John Stockwell) meets
with an ultimatum from his science teacher, Bob Roberts (Dennis Hopper): If he
doesn’t submit an amazing final science project, he will fail the class.
While
out on a pseudo-date with nerdy school reporter Ellie (Danielle Von Zerneck),
Michael visits a Department of Defense Disposal Depot.
There, in a subterranean
storage facility, he discovers a strange unearthly "gizmo," an engine, or energy generator.
Unbeknownst to Harlan, the instrument hails from an alien flying saucer that President
Eisenhower ordered destroyed in 1957.
Michael,
his wise-cracking friend, Vince (Fisher Stevens) and Ellie return to the high
school with the device, which promptly absorbs energy from any technology nearby,
including flashlights and car batteries.
Mr. Roberts is fascinated by the device and hooks it up to a power
outlet in his science lab, an act which gives the extra-terrestrial machine access to almost
infinite power.
The
machine creates a vortex or warp over the school and sucks Mr. Roberts inside of it. Then,
epochs from the past appear inside the high school itself.
Michael and his friends soon encounter Neanderthals, Roman gladiators,
the Viet Cong, and even a hungry T-Rex (in the school gym) in their efforts to
shut down the alien generator.
“My
ears are ringing like The Gong Show.”
Perhaps
the biggest reason that My Science Project remains largely
obscure today involves the characters.
Not
one of them is particularly memorable, or played with a lot of color. Fisher
Steven’s quipping Vincent is the obvious candidate for break-out status here,
but his character quickly wears out his welcome with a constant stream of pop-culture allusions and wise cracks. He seems so determined to reference TV shows and movies that it is not clear he is ever a real "person."
John
Stockwell -- a fine actor (and now, director…) in films such as Christine
(1983) and Top Gun (1986) -- leads the cast ably, and does a good job, but
the script does him no favors. The
scenes between Michael and his father and new step-mother go nowhere and have
no emotional pay-off. They may be important thematically (as we'll see later in this review) but they are given no punctuation.
Worse, the “romantic” angle with Von Zerneck is never
compelling or convincing (see Joe Dante’s Explorers [1985] for an innocent teen-romance
that seems a bit more natural).
Additionally, the
frenetic nature of the story requires the actors to run back and forth a lot,
attempting to deal with surprises around every high school corridor. This
approach leaves little time for character-based humor, or even a sense of a
story arc. The overall feeling is of racing from one scene to the next, so that none carries any more weight than another.
The film also appears to have
been heavily tampered with in the editing stage. The great Richard Masur is introduced as a Texas detective
with great fanfare, and then has almost zero impact on the narrative.
Visually,
the film is hampered -- and made to look ugly at times -- by the near constant
use of fog machines and neon strobes.
Still,
some moments are genuinely impressive in terms of imagery. The visual effects involving the vortex
(and the dance of energy around Hopper’s character…) are really solid, and hold up nicely today.
And for a pre-CGI age film, the sequence with
the T-Rex in the gymnasium is particularly well-rendered.
In fact, it is well-rendered enough that it should be the highlight of
the whole movie, except for the fact that the teenagers gun it down with
Vietnam Era army rifles.
Sure, the
dinosaur is dangerous, but the scene has no sense of awe, no sense of majesty,
and doesn’t build to anything beyond a quick “high.”
The explicit fun of teen movies like Explorers or Back to the Future is
their comical interludes with danger, but somehow the presence of grenades and
machine guns here (used against -- let’s face it -- a confused dinosaur) isn’t fun in
the slightest.
A better outcome would
have been to see the T-Rex somehow trapped in the gym instead of gunned down. All sense of fun disappears, after all, when viewers are left to gape at a dinosaur's blown-up chest cavity for a sustained length of time.
This is a prime occasion when the movie needs a light touch, but settles for flashy pyrotechnics.
Certainly,
My
Science Project is ahead of its time in terms of its post-modern or
meta-approach to its story.
Vince is a constant font of pop-culture
information, referencing Mission: Impossible, Star Trek, The Gong
Show, The Twilight Zone and even McCloud.
It’s possible that these allusions were meant to welcome viewers
and let them know that the movie shares their language and cultural history. But the references don’t amount to much overall,
except perhaps for the clip of the Morlocks from The Time Machine
(1960).
That (great) film spearheaded time
travel adventures in the cinema, and warned of the downfall of man in the
distant future. Here, the preoccupied teenage kids learn about an impending (neon) apocalypse,
replete with mutants, and yet can’t be bothered to think about it, or try to
stop it, even.
The downfall of man has
begun in earnest, perhaps.
My
Science Project’s
negotiation of 1960s issues is worthy of examination too. Good laughs are drawn from Hopper’s
‘hippie’ teacher who drives off, at one point, to “an anti-war alumni meeting.”
He goes on the greatest trip of all,
thanks to the alien machine, reliving his days at Woodstock, and so forth. Hopper is a perfect casting choice, given his participation in Easy Rider (1969), not to mention The Last Movie (1971)
But implicit in these Hopper-based scenes is the sense of
closure: the professor is an old guy living, resolutely, in the past, looking
to relive past glories. He is not a
person of the present, or dealing with present concerns. The conflicts of the sixties are behind us, My Science Project suggests.
My
Science Project
puts the Vietnam Era -- and the deep-seated psychological fear it spawned of America military adventurism
overseas -- behind us by thoughtlessly arming its citizen protagonists, and having them gun-battle their
way through hordes of future mutants, as well as the aforementioned T-Rex.
The
under-the-surface message seems to be that it is okay for America to love guns and militarism again; that the diffidence that came with the Vietnam
Era is gone in the Age of Reagan. We all know how well this so-called "New Patriotism" eventually turned out (see: The Iraq War).
Writing
at Tor.com in 2010, critic Jacob Steingroot offers audiences another intriguing (and, I
think, valid) way of reading this Betuel film.
He suggests that Harlan’s unsettled life
(dealing with a break-up and a changing situation on the domestic front), is
paralleled by the energy generator’s time/hopping alterations of reality.
“Betuel depicts the nebulous feeling of being a
teen. Things that seem concrete one day change dramatically the next. Harlan’s
relationship with his girlfriend ends for reasons he can’t understand. He comes
home to find that his single dad has remarried and their house has been
refurnished with pink pillows and drapery. Vince, because of his parents’ divorce,
is forced to leave Brooklyn for New Mexico....The confusing uncertainty of
being a teen, the feeling that the world is out of control is echoed and
expanded through the notion of the space/time warp.”
I appreciate Steingroot’s explanation of the
film's leitmotif or modus operandi, here, and feel that it holds up well. Space/time does
seem to operate in strange ways when you’re a teenager. Life either moves too fast, or too slow,
right? Friendships change, perceptions change, and even bodies change, day-to-day. Steingroot's thesis makes a re-watch of My Science Project much richer and much more thought-provoking.
Hailing
from the age that brought us Back to the Future, Real Genius, and Explorers,
to name just a few, My Science Project doesn’t earn an automatic “A,” perhaps, despite such a worthwhile (and thoughtful) attempt to fully rehabilitate the picture.
Why? Well, for
much of its running time, My Science Project lacks the visual
and narrative classicism of a Spielberg or Dante film, missing that mark by
quite a margin.
But perhaps the movie deserves some extra credit all these years later for its
self-reflexive approach to culture, and its (not-always-successful) attempt to put the sixties squarely
in Harlan’s rear-view mirror.
And if we accept the time warp as a metaphor for turbulent adolescence, perhaps there’s even more to like and appreciate in My Science Project than meets
the eye.
Labels:
1985,
cult-movie review,
The Films of 1985
award-winning creator of Enter The House Between and author of 32 books including Horror Films FAQ (2013), Horror Films of the 1990s (2011), Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), TV Year (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007), Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair (2006),, Best in Show: The Films of Christopher Guest and Company (2004), The Unseen Force: The Films of Sam Raimi (2004), An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith (2002), The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film & Television (2004), Exploring Space:1999 (1997), An Analytical Guide to TV's Battlestar Galactica (1998), Terror Television (2001), Space:1999 - The Forsaken (2003) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002).
Monday, May 30, 2016
Memory Bank: Spy Hunter (Bally-Midway; 1983)
In the early-to-mid 1980s -- when I was in middle school and high school -- my best friends and I would sometimes walk down Benson Street in Glen Ridge to a diner on Broad Street in Bloomfield.
Now, if you don't know this area of New Jersey (namely Essex County), that diner is not far from Holsten's in Bloomfield, the ice cream shop that appears occasionally in The Sopranos (1999 - 2007).
We're going back more than thirty years now, so some of my memories are fuzzy,and I hope I have it right. I'm open to the fact that I may not.
But I believe the diner opened in 1981 and was called the Nevada Dinner.
We were kids, however, so we weren't going there to sit down and eat.
Instead, we were going to play the arcade game in the diner; Spy Hunter, by Bally-Midway. It was an arcade unit, but not the kind that was designed for sit-down play.
You had to stand, but at that age, we didn't care.
We would play the game for a good long while, assuming we had enough quarters.
Spy Hunter was designed by George Gomez, and originally intended to be a James Bond video game. When the 007 license couldn't be acquired, however, the game was modified, and became Spy Hunter.
But heck, you could still pretend to be James Bond while you played, even if the soundtrack song was not Monty Norman's, but Henry Mancini's theme from Peter Gunn (1958-1961).
The field of play in the game, as you may remember, is a bird-s eye view.
You are looking down at a snaking road, and a car speeding down (or rather, up...) that road.
Your car is the G-6155 Interceptor, and it has been modified with such 007-ish "extras" such as an oil slick, a missile launcher, and a smoke screen. These instruments prove useful as you engage with many bad guy cars.
While driving, you can also visit your mobile headquarters, a weapon's van, or convert your car to aqua/boat function, by pulling into a boat house. If memory serves, there are also, sometimes, icy conditions to navigate.
I remember all of us buddies standing in a small alcove, in front of that arcade screen, trying to see how far we could get in the adventure. I guess the joke was really on us.
Not only because the Peter Gunn song is addictive, and it won't leave your thoughts no matter how hard you try, but because the game had no ending.
It just kept on scrolling, forever.
Spy Hunter...the endless James Bond-ish adventure.
Soon enough, Spy Hunter was available in a home video game format. I had a game version for the Atari 800 home computer, I'm pretty certain.
But it wasn't the same, somehow, as the arcade version.
Somehow it was more fun hearing that music, driving that car, and playing that game with friends, after the walk to the restaurant.
It was more fun knowing that you had a pocket full of quarters, and once they were gone, you were done...whether you liked it or not.
Of course, it was also very, very expensive to play the addictive Spy Hunter in a arcade setting, so I guess some memories seem more attractive with age and distance.
Labels:
Memory Bank
award-winning creator of Enter The House Between and author of 32 books including Horror Films FAQ (2013), Horror Films of the 1990s (2011), Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), TV Year (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007), Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair (2006),, Best in Show: The Films of Christopher Guest and Company (2004), The Unseen Force: The Films of Sam Raimi (2004), An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith (2002), The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film & Television (2004), Exploring Space:1999 (1997), An Analytical Guide to TV's Battlestar Galactica (1998), Terror Television (2001), Space:1999 - The Forsaken (2003) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002).
Cult-TV Theme Watch: Sun Glasses
Sun glasses are eye glasses tinted to protect the eyes from bright objects, such as the sun, or from glare.
And don't we all look so much cooler in our sun-glasses? Even when we wear them at night?
Sun-glasses have proven the epitome of cool on cult-TV programming throughout history, but they have represented more than that definition suggests as well.
For example, on Star Trek's (1966-1969) "Operation: Annihilate," Kirk (William Shatner) and Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) had to don special eye goggles to protect them from a light that would mimic the intensity of Deneva's sun. Unfortunately, that light (temporarily) blinded Spock (Leonard Nimoy).
Similarly, the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century episode (1979-1981) called "Happy Birthday Buck" features an assassin named Traeger who -- after being incarcerated in a subterranean prison for many years -- must wear sun-glasses to shield his eyes from normal light levels.
And on V: The Series (1985), The alien visitors from Sirius always wore thick sun-glasses while stationed outside, on Earth. Their Reptilian eyes, apparently, couldn't handle the strength of Sol's light.
Sometimes, as I've noted, sun-glasses have frequently been equated to coolness or bad-assery.
A perfect example comes from Smallville (2001 - 2011). When Clark Kent (Tom Welling) wears a class-ring laced with Red Kryptonite, for example, he becomes a rule-breaking, motorcycle-driving rebel who wears...shades.
Over the years, many other cool kats have worn sun-glasses too, from Mulder (David Duchovny) on The X-Files (1993 - 2002) to Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) on The Vampire Diaries (2009 - ).
Labels:
Cult-TV Theme Watch
award-winning creator of Enter The House Between and author of 32 books including Horror Films FAQ (2013), Horror Films of the 1990s (2011), Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), TV Year (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007), Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair (2006),, Best in Show: The Films of Christopher Guest and Company (2004), The Unseen Force: The Films of Sam Raimi (2004), An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith (2002), The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film & Television (2004), Exploring Space:1999 (1997), An Analytical Guide to TV's Battlestar Galactica (1998), Terror Television (2001), Space:1999 - The Forsaken (2003) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002).
The Cult-TV Faces of: Sun Glasses
Identified by Hugh: Space:1999 "The Force of Life" Identified by Hugh: V |
Identified by Hugh: The Man from Atlantis:"Crystal Water, Sudden Death" |
Identified by Hugh: Twin Peaks. |
Identified by Hugh:The X-Files. |
Identified by Hugh: Buffy the Vampire Slayer |
Identified by Hugh: Smallville: "Red." |
Identified by Hugh: Veronica Mars |
Identified by Hugh: Superatural |
Identified by Hugh:Dexter |
Identified by Hugh: Fringe. |
Identified by Hugh: True Blood |
Identified by Hugh: The Vampire Diaries |
Identified by Hugh: Grimm |
Labels:
the Cult-TV Faces of
award-winning creator of Enter The House Between and author of 32 books including Horror Films FAQ (2013), Horror Films of the 1990s (2011), Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), TV Year (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007), Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair (2006),, Best in Show: The Films of Christopher Guest and Company (2004), The Unseen Force: The Films of Sam Raimi (2004), An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith (2002), The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film & Television (2004), Exploring Space:1999 (1997), An Analytical Guide to TV's Battlestar Galactica (1998), Terror Television (2001), Space:1999 - The Forsaken (2003) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002).
Sunday, May 29, 2016
Advert Art: Starship Troopers (Sega Edition)
Labels:
Advert Artwork,
Sega,
Starship Troopers
award-winning creator of Enter The House Between and author of 32 books including Horror Films FAQ (2013), Horror Films of the 1990s (2011), Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), TV Year (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007), Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair (2006),, Best in Show: The Films of Christopher Guest and Company (2004), The Unseen Force: The Films of Sam Raimi (2004), An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith (2002), The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film & Television (2004), Exploring Space:1999 (1997), An Analytical Guide to TV's Battlestar Galactica (1998), Terror Television (2001), Space:1999 - The Forsaken (2003) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002).
At Flashbak: The Green Machine
This
week at Flashbak, I remembered Marx Toy’s Green Machine.
Here’s
a snippet and the url (http://flashbak.com/hottest-ride-town-remembering-marxs-green-machine-60649/)
“In
the year 1977, if you were just too big for a “Big Wheel,” there was only one
alternative: Marx’s The Green Machine.
Selling
for just under twenty dollars, this pedal-operated hot rod had adjustable
bucket seats, “hug the road
tip-proof-design,” stick-shift controls and as per-size mag-style wheel
with a honeycomb design on it.
It
was the perfect ride, according to promotional materials, “for guys 8 9, 10 years old who really know
how to ride.”
Hopefully,
it was for gals who knew how to ride too.
Other
ads described the Green Machine as “mean,”
and the “ultimate in low-slung style and
performance” with a “low center of
gravity…”
Please
continue reading at Flashbak.
Labels:
At Flashbak
award-winning creator of Enter The House Between and author of 32 books including Horror Films FAQ (2013), Horror Films of the 1990s (2011), Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), TV Year (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007), Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair (2006),, Best in Show: The Films of Christopher Guest and Company (2004), The Unseen Force: The Films of Sam Raimi (2004), An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith (2002), The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film & Television (2004), Exploring Space:1999 (1997), An Analytical Guide to TV's Battlestar Galactica (1998), Terror Television (2001), Space:1999 - The Forsaken (2003) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002).
Saturday, May 28, 2016
Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Blackstar: "Spacewrecked" (October 17, 1981 )
In
“Spacewrecked,” John Blackstar’s lover, Katana follows his trajectory by
tracing the photon vapor trail from his ship.
It leads through the black hole, and on the other side of the phenomenon
she is reunited with him. They make plans to leave Sagar together. The Trobbits are heartbroken.
Their
joy is short-lived, however, because The Overlord wants to possess the
spaceship -- a “time ship capable of multi-verse travel” -- for his evil plans.
Overlord captures Katana and hypnotizes her into stealing the star-sword.
But
the Overlord hasn’t reckoned with the greatest power in the universe: “love.”
Filmation’s
Blackstar
focuses on Sagar, and the battle between the human astronaut and the
Overlord. But in the case of “Spacewrecked,” audiences get to see a bit more
detail about Blackstar’s personal life, as well as the hierarchy he operates
under.
The episode starts with Katana communicating via radio to her home base,
as she contemplates a trip through the black hole.
And
the episode ends with the promise that she will return to help Blackstar. She communicates again with Earth, and tells
mission control “I’ll need the entire
fleet for my mission. I’m going back there to help him.”
Unfortunately,
Blackstar was canceled after one season of just 13 episodes, and audiences
never saw Katana’s return. It’s
certainly possible, however, to imagine a final episode in which the cavalry from Earth comes over the hill (through the black hole...) so-to-speak and defeats the
Overlord once and for all. Indeed, that would have been a great note to go out
on, though the Trobbits would have been sad, in any regard, to see John
Blackstar leave Sagar.
“Spacewrecked”
is likely a candidate for “best episode” of the series primarily because it reveals
that Earth has not forgotten about John Blackstar, and reveals that its technology
is coveted by the Overlord as a great weapon, even though he typically relies
on magic.
Finally, we meet the love of
Blackstar’s life and thus can start to fill in some gaps about his background and
history.
Next
week: “Lightning City of the Clouds.”
award-winning creator of Enter The House Between and author of 32 books including Horror Films FAQ (2013), Horror Films of the 1990s (2011), Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), TV Year (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007), Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair (2006),, Best in Show: The Films of Christopher Guest and Company (2004), The Unseen Force: The Films of Sam Raimi (2004), An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith (2002), The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film & Television (2004), Exploring Space:1999 (1997), An Analytical Guide to TV's Battlestar Galactica (1998), Terror Television (2001), Space:1999 - The Forsaken (2003) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002).
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