So Star Trek will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary this coming September 8. I know people now refer to it as Star Trek: The Original Series, to differentiate it from the myriad shows that followed in the franchise…but I’ve never been one to follow the crowd. (I’m a loner, Dottie. A rebel.) I suppose if I gave it a good deal of thought it’s probably because outside of TOS, I was never a huge fan of the other entries in the Star Trek universe. Sure, I’ve watched episodes of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine…but they really weren’t my cup of Luzianne, as it were. They’re good television…but my personal preference is for the first series. And I say this as someone who’s sat down with all of the Star Trek films…the only exception being the latest one, Star Trek Beyond (2016).
To cash in on commemorate Trek’s semi centennial,
the Heroes & Icons channel has acquired all five series in the franchise: TOS,
The
Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager,
and Enterprise. They’re running them six days a week, and
though H&I’s promos said they would be “back-to-back,” this really only
applies to Sunday nights; Monday through Friday the block is interrupted by Xena:
Warrior Princess, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys,
and NYPD
Blue. H&I’s ads for the Star
Trek schedule addition also boasted that TOS would be shown
“uncut.”
Here’s why I’m a mite skeptical. I pulled out my first season Star
Trek set and watched the premiere episode, “The Man Trap”—and clocked
that sucka at fifty minutes. There is no
way on this once-green Earth that Heroes & Icons can squeeze all those
mesothelioma, catheter, and reverse mortgage commercials in the span of ten minutes. I suspect the only way the channel can
accomplish this is by subtly altering the running time of each episode by
speeding it up…and I say “subtly” with a large dose of sarcasm because while
they think they’re getting away with it they’re not. FETV does this frequently with their Lone
Ranger reruns, and the reason I know they’re speeding them up is that
when I hear Gerald Mohr say “He was a fabulous individual…” it’s in a much
higher register than the actor’s usual speaking voice.
Interestingly, my father has taken to Heroes & Icons’ Star
Trek acquisitions like a duck to water.
(Well, not the last three Trek series—they air past his
bedtime.) To be honest, I thought the
DISH austerity program here at Rancho Yesteryear would cause me to go
cuckoo-for-Cocoa-Puffs…but it seems to be affecting the ‘rents far more. I have to confess getting a kick out of
seeing my mother yell at the television set: “There is not one goddamn thing
on!”
As for me…well, I have been revisiting the show through the
magic of DVD. I’m not one of those
people who read too much into the show (“It’s an allegory on the human
condition”); I just enjoyed watching it as a kid (I thought Spock was one of
the coolest characters on TV…and the fact that all the female members of the
Enterprise wore shorty-short skirts as part of their uniform stoked my
adolescent fantasies). It still holds
up…even the sub-par episodes.
3 comments:
Me (in old coot voice): What the hell is "TOS"?
I'm a rebel too. I've been to hundreds of baseball games and never once participated in the wave. Edgy!
And no woman among the regular cast could have non-large breasts. It was hard to miss. Even if France Nuyen, even under all that makeup, was perhaps my favorite actress in TOS episodes (Nuyen and Shatner had co-starred in the Broadway production of THE WORLD OF SUZY WONG, during which Nuyen cheerfully told a reporter from LIFE magazine that Shatner could always use a shoulder massage before each performance, and Nuyen was reasonably happy to oblige.
You may draw your own conclusions. One can be happy that both could be asked about this, almost six decades later.
And, hey, where's the cartoon series?
Todd inquired:
And, hey, where's the cartoon series?
Heroes & Icons is adding it Sunday nights at 7pm EDT beginning September 4!
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