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The Six Million Dollar Man: Burning Bright (1974)
One of my favorites
This episode was one of the best of the show- one of the more cerebral ones.
William Shatner plays Astronaut Josh Lang that was affected by radiation on a flight. The effect expresses itself as enhanced brain activity which increases geometrically. In the end his abilities include telepathy, telekinesis, and apparently an ability to short out electrical activity in the body.
This was something of an unusual episode as there was really very little use of Steve Austin's bionic capabilities. In addition the lead actor was not really Lee Majors here but William Shatner who simply dominated the scene. Not that the acting was good- it was typical 1970's SF action series poor.
What I find intriguing was that although Shatner's character was the antagonist he turned out to be a very sympathetic character. He never fully understood what was happening to him and he was plagued by vague haunting childhood memories. The worst part was that he ended up killing someone very much against his will but couldn't stop himself. Even then it's difficult to think of him as an evil character- more of a tragic one.
Finally when his brain reaches it's maximum and then burns out we find what was driving him -a fatal childhood incident. The ending was quite sad with Steve Austin just brushing past the Police carrying his body. I like to think that Josh was joining his childhood friend.
Once you get past the 1970's bad scriptwriting you have a quite serviceable psychological story. In fact this was much better than the Star Trek episode where a similar event happened.
The Norseman (1978)
Brainless film but also mindless fun to watch
Believe it or not I actually like this really really bad movie. Why? They told a good yarn.
I found the basic plot believable -i.e a Viking crew gets captured and the Vikings send another crew out to find and rescue him. But that really is as far as the believability goes.
Lee Majors (Excuse me?) plays Thorvald- the Son of the Viking King who was captured by American Indians. For some bizarre reason he has his 12-yr old young brother Eric along (played by Chuck Pierce Jr.) Other notable members include a Hooded wizard with a Falcon played by Jack Elam (Yep the star of Spaghetti Westerns) his second in command Ragnar played by Cornel Wilde and a black Viking dude played by LA Rams Fearsome Foursome Defensive Lineman DeaconJones. Apparently once captured as a thrall he learned their respect by cutting out the tongue of Olaf-really the hero of the story who can only make grunting sounds. The other character of note is Susie Coehlo who plays a young Indian hottie who apparently made the Indian headman jealous when she looked to be getting overly friendly with then original Viking crew. He blinds them with firebrands and subsequently enslaves them.
The acting was really rather bad from beginning to end. As Winetta the young Indian hottie Coehlo has only a few lines of dialog and never in english. As portrayed she is also apparently pretty helpless in the forest and gets lost easily. The dialog is very stilted with some real groaners. In one scene when they first land a Vikings says that here are the sweetest grapes he has ever tasted. Thorvald declares the land will be called Vineland. Actually it's Florida but what's a navigation error of several thousand miles between friends?
In another line one Viking says there is no sign of Civilization. WTF? Can you imagine a Viking Berserker ever making that kind of observation?
So why did i like the movie?
To start with I really liked the musical score. I haven't been able to determine who composed it but I thought the theme appropriate for a story of exploration into the unknown.
I first saw this movie as teenage boy when it came out. From the beginning I could put myself in the story onboard the longboat and seeing North America for the first time. Then it just felt real to me the scenes of them rowing up the river with the backdrop of riverbanks going by. Even today forty year later I still have some vestige of that feeling. Stupid badly written inaccurate script and bad acting or not- if you audience can put themselves in the movie you have told a good yarn.
To me this movie is just pure escapist fantasy fun. Treat it as such and you can enjoy it.
And btw- Why do I consider the mute Olaf the real hero? Several times he just outperforms all the lead actors (not a difficult task in this movie)- in some cases just really hams it up. In one lake scene he is trapped by two Indians and he submerges himself, sneaks up on them , pulls their legs out from under them and holds them underwater until they drown. In the final chase scenes he gets tired of running away and stops to face their enemies. When ordered to retreat he grunts. Then when everyone is back on the ship he appears- badly wounded but single-handedly delayed the pursuit long enough for our heroes to reach the safety of the longboat. In the end he gets saved by Lee Majors and others who engage in some fisticuffs with the indians.
The Cold Equations (1996)
Uggh!
I'm going to go with those who think this is a bad movie.
In storytelling the first rule is to tel a good yarn. This wasn't which was too bad because It has always been one of my favorite stories. It's been done as a radio show in the 50's and as an episode (very well done) of the New Twilight Zone.
In the original story a plague breaks out among a group of explorers. There are special emergency dispatch ships carried on starships for just this type of emergency. The nearest starship drops out of hyperspace and launches one with the required meds. But- the frontier is so large and ships are too few to disrupt schedules and so limited in capability that they are given just enough fuel to reach their destination. There is simply no margin for error. (For a real life equivalent think of the number of people who died in wagon trains during the western US expansion.) Then there will always be people who stow away -either to escape the law or just to start a new life anywhere. The laws necessarily are harsh. Such people get thrown overboard immediately and don't bother with a spacesuit. But in this case the stowaway was a young woman en route to a new planet and just wanted to see her brother - no nefarious intent. When the pilot discovers her aboard he is stunned. He knows what will have to happen to this naive innocent girl. He contacts the mother ship to see if anything can be done- knowing there is no solution. And this is where the pathos that made this a great story comes in. When the Starship Captain finds out he is absolutely horrified. So is the bored ship's clerk who starts to take down the information. They delay the inevitable for as long as possible but in the end the pilot will have to go through with it. She is able to write a final letter and to talk to her brother- who is also horrified at what she had done. But in the end- guess what happens? She can ether die herself or take 7 others with her. And this is the key to the story. There is no solution here to making a bad mistake. Absolutely no one wants to do what everyone knows must happen. The pilot will always have nightmares over it. There are no villains here. And there are no heroes either. Everyone is trapped by the cold equations. "A physical law had decreed: h amount of fuel will power an EDS with a mass of m safely to its destination; and a second physical law had decreed: h amount of fuel will not power an EDS with a mass of m plus x safely to its destination. In this story you feel and sympathize with everyone involved.
And this is where the similarities with the movie end. To start with the stowaway is a despicable little B that deserves what is going to happen. In fact long before the end I was saying "just kill her already."
Then there is the idiotic bad corporation meme. What did that have to do with anything? Yeah- I know. Earth has degenerated into castes and the pilot is hoping for a promotion .Um -not going to happen. These EDS pilots have to wait for the next freighter or liner. Hardly the stuff of promotions as once he reaches the destination he is dead weight and will have to assume non-pilot duties.
If you have not seen the movie consider yourself fortunate. Instead go watch the version from the twilight zone. Very well done.
The Twilight Zone: The Cold Equations (1989)
Science Fiction done right.
I first read Tom Godwin's short story" The Cold Equations" in a High School Lit class.
The fundamental story is that a small spacecraft intended for emergency uses is launched to carry antibiotics to a planet where a small group of explorers have contracted a fatal disease. The spacecraft has very few amenities or resources and is generally only given what it needs to get to it's destination. After launch the pilot discovers a stowaway Regulations are clear and concise- jettison the stowaway and oh yes- no need to bother with a spacesuit. Stowaway objects? Kill him and dump the body overboard anyway. The reason for this drastic option is that the spacecraft margins are small and with the extra weight the spacecraft will never reach it's destination -killing the stowaway, the pilot, and the ten men awaiting the medication. Except- Said stowaway is a young woman just out of school who only wants to see her brother whom she hasn't seen for years. Total stunner for all involved. Pilot tries to buy time and calls the mother ship for help but there is none forthcoming. So he will have to kill her. They delay long enough that she is able to say goodbye to her brother and she voluntary walks into the airlock.
This is really good science fiction. First there are no last minute heroics (except for her voluntarily entering the airlock knowing what is about to happen). The fundamental premise here is that in marginal survival situations there are situations where there is either no solution or all solutions are fatal ones for someone (shall we kill just her or also the pilot and the ten men awaiting the meds?) The pilot was fully prepared to confront a stairway and order him into the airlock or just blaster and dump him. Like any normal human being would be -he is horrified when he discovers who the stowaway is and even more so when he finds out why she stowed away. He knows what is going to have to happen and hates it. I found the pathos and emotions believable when the girl finds out what is going to happen to her. All the interplay between her and the pilot makes us sympathetic to both. We can neither condemn Barton for killing her nor Marilyn for stowing aboard.
The fundamental theme of the original story was the small margins that exist on frontiers leave no room for errors. This episode stayed true to the story itself and the fundamentals of good drama. Even though we all know there is no solution to the dilemma we still find ourselves hoping for a miracle. The story ends with the pilot haunted by what he has had to do and will have nightmares about her for a long time. I have thought up a potentially even more horrible ending which Godwin fortunately either didn't think of or rejected. Knowing what will happen to her once the airlock is opened and she is blown into space -should he have killed her before she goes into the airlock to spare her the 30 sec or so of sheer terror before she loses consciousness? Gave me a nightmare the first time that thought crossed my mind.
Then original story has been criticized for the unrealistic safety protocols (or more accurately lack there-of on a parent starship) or the lack of a pre-flight check by the pilot. While there is some validity to those criticism they miss the point of the story- Frontier life is very unforgiving of errors.
In any case tell me a good yarn and I will willingly "suspend dis-belief". Tell me a bad one and I won't. This was a good one.
Strange New World (1975)
Strange New World? Nah
This was the third and weakest attempt to make something out of Roddenberry's Genesis II concept- this time with Gene not involved. Suffice to say it didn't work.
The fundamental premise is that a team in an Earth Orbiting Laboratory belonging to an organization called Pax is conducting hibernation research. While monitoring the experiment the MOCR discovers the eternal sci-fi cliche of the meteor swarm headed for Earth. The trajectory of the orbiting lab is changed from Earth orbit to Sun orbit due to return in 180 years and the hibernation period extended for the same amount of time. Just before the meteors hit Earth -devastating it and destroying civilization-volunteers enter hibernation chambers at Pax HQ. The astronauts mission on return is to seek out and revive them. The pilot has two main stories. In the first one they find and are imprisoned by a Physician from their time who has developed a form of immortality along with clones. The second story involves them coming across an old wildlife preserve where the descendants of the Wardens are in conflict with the locals who poach the animals. Strangely enough in the version I have the order of the two is reversed. Good thing too as if I had seen them in the proper order I would have stopped watching within a few minutes.
I'll start with the premise. Why are they doing the experiment at all? Hundreds of volunteers put themselves in hibernation on Earth. That scale of existing hibernation vaults suggests it is a well established procedure deemed safe enough for people to sleep for decades. Take that part away and I can accept the premise. Second- the Earth Lab is moved from Earth to solar orbit for 180 years. That takes a pretty good amount of rocket power especially as those rockets will have to be used again after 180 years to re-establish Earth Orbit. The 180 years is explained simply by orbital geometry. OK- I can accept that. Desperate situations call for desperate actions. The Space Lab itself is pretty cool and clearly shows the influence of shows like Earth II or 2001:A Space Odyssey spinning wheel artificial gravity. The Earth return vehicle however is a space shuttle. How do they expect to land it on runways that no longer exist without bad things happening? Hint- while not shown bad things happened while trying to land on runways that no longer exist. I liked it up to this point. Poor acting -but what the heck. This is 70's TV Sci-fi - not exactly noted for academy award performances. Incidentally- the concept of the Earth Impact that destroys civilization came just a few years before the scientific community accepted that just such a disaster offed the dinosaurs.
Then we get to the immortal colony. My interest instantly started to wane. The physician leader (played by James Olsen) is from their time and he has developed cloning and a way to keep himself alive using the clones' blood. Guess whose blood he intends to use now ? Even worse- the team physician (played by Keene Curtis) throws in with the doc to kill his friends. WTF? Good way to make one of your lead characters thoroughly un-likeble right off the bat. If I had not seen the Animaland scenes before this I would probably have turned it off and never watched the rest. One interesting concept was that there was no cure for senility- which James Olsen shows a lot of (he didn't have much acting to do here- the entire script reeks of senility) Keene Curtis has a last minute conversion back to reality and the bad doc is defeated. For some bizarre reason there is a force field surrounding the colony and everyone dies from the resulting infection instantly when the shield fails and normal air enters the compound. Pretty fast acting bugs. This was not in the least bit believable. When the actors read the script I have always wondered what they thought- probably something like "Not much we can do with this drivel. I'm just going to read my lines and get my paycheck"
Then we come to the second episode- which I saw first. This one almost made up for the first one. We see the crew in their All-Terrain RV. They have been back on the surface for some months and are running out of water. They are also lost. Not surprising given they have no way to determine their location. All they know is they are in the desert SW. They come across an old zoo preserve and find the pools and fountains are made with concrete. The navigator (the obligatory helpless female our virile heroes need to rescue) finds a trap and frees the animal., gets captured by the wardens and as a convicted poacher is going to be branded on her chest with a big letter "P" then is going to be thrown into a pit of vipers which our male heroes stop in the nick of time. How did they get there? They ran into the real poachers made a deal with their leader to raid the Warden's compound in exchange for the flare gun. Suffice to say the leader is a bad guy, manages to steal the flare gun , and sets up an attack to kill the wardens and take over the forest. Our heroes have made tranquilizer darts out of a 200 year old chemical vial and save the day by shooting the poacher leader with a handmade crossbow and a one of their darts. The Wardens take their advice and decide to re-write the CFR book . They all live happily ever after while our heroes ride off into the Sunset (a road through the mountains to the west).
In spite of my sarcasm and the poor acting I rather liked this segment. The plot- while somewhat contrived- is I feel realistic. The wardens are denying others the use of the forest and water in the classic bureaucrat tactic of enforcing regulations written for long ago conditions that no longer exist. The net result is that the poachers have no way to get food or water without raiding the forest. When the springs dry up in summer the old and young die. A least initially the sympathy is on the side of the poachers. They are desperate men driven to committing desperate acts. This is negated when we find the leader is a thorough scoundrel who wants to be king of the forest more than obtaining food and water for his tribe. Then we see the wardens confused as they discover the situation is not what they think. But the only thing they can think of is to look through the CFR. Finally the deputy warden realizes the necessity of change. He realizes a lot of the poaching activity is pure desperation. He realizes that if the poachers can be taught basic agriculture and foraging they may not be so dependent on killing and eating game. I think he recognize the basic injustice of the situation. Although I think he is naive to think the head poacher is going to be anything but a recurring enemy.
If the series had followed the second story it could well have been worth developing although the formula was too limited to last more than a season .Think of the contemporary series "Planet Of The Apes" and " Logan's Run" adventure of the week series. Neither lasted more than a season. This one would have met the same fate.
Trapped in Space (1994)
Trapped In Space
This is one of those adaptations that should never have been made. Some spoilers here-
The original story by Arthur C. Clarke concerned a freighter en route to Venus when a meteor strike left the vessel with only enough oxygen for one crewmember to survive the trip -a variation on the "Lifeboat" theme. Like all good such stories it centered around the psychological strains as they struggle with the up coming decision.
Here is where the movie breaks down. One of the endearing traits of a properly handled SF story such as this is that the authors treat physics seriously. There is no deux ex machina rescues. There are consequences to accidents in space and the better writers do not attempt to evade them. In fact -the basic thrust is that there may not be any solution (See "The Cold Equations" for an example.) The scriptwriters here violated every tenet of good SF writing. This particular spacecraft had a lifeboat- an utterly absurd concept on a spacecraft limited to Hohman Transfer orbits. Trust me on this- All the captain did in leaving on that lifeboat was to guarantee himself a slow agonizing death- I hope he had no children so we could give him a Darwin Award for "Too Dumb To Live." The actions of a crewman in bungling repairs was about as pointless as it gets. -i.e. yeah big deal he repaired the damage but where do we get the oxygen to replace that lost? Oh- he lost even more oxygen. He is a qualified astronaut- how? The interactions of the crew with each other was such that I really wanted them ALL to die.- and the little dog too. Not very good storytelling. And the ending with a hibernation chamber was the very epitome of a deux ex machina by a writer that doesn't want to actually follow a story to the proper ending. This film ranks as a big missed opportunity. Because Television has done some decent shows. The remake of the "Twilight Zone" did a very good job with the Tom Godwin story "The Cold Equations", William Lee's "A Message From Charity" and Arthur Clarke's "The Star." The key to doing these adaptations is to stay true to the story as written even though some things simply have to be changed for the nature of the TV medium. Contrast this one with "Gravity" -one I thoroughly enjoyed and willingly let them use their "artistic license" to violate some orbital physics for the sake of the story. Tell a good yarn and I will let you get away with a lot. Tell a bad one and I won't. This was a bad one.