Star Trek III The Search for Spock

September 28, 2017

Book Launch: The Next Generation

Forest of Illusions Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III The Search for Spock, Star Trek IV The Voyage Home, Star Trek Phase II, Star Trek The Motion Picture, Star Trek: The Next Generation 14

In honour of Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s 30th Anniversary today, Vaka Rangi Volume 2: Star Trek Phase II, Original Film Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 1) is now available for order from certain online retailers.

This volume covers the years 1977-1988 and aims to tell the story of Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s conception and birth over the course of that decade, starting from the fandom’s staunch resistance to letting Star Trek go in the late 70s leading to the abortive Star Trek Phase II project, which eventually morphed into the Star Trek film series. Every pitched Star Trek Phase II script is examined in detail, with particular emphasis on the ones that were eventually adapted into television episodes and movies: “In Thy Image” (Star Trek: The Motion Picture), “The Child”, “Devil’s Due” and “Kitumba”. Also covered during this section is the fanmade Star Trek Phase II web series and the famous and illustrious “Star Trek Trilogy”-Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

Moving beyond fandom history, the book explores the other, less-frequently acknowledged pop culture influences on and antecedents of Star Trek: The Next Generation as well, such as Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Cosmos, Miami Vice, Alien and Aliens. New to the book version is a section on the history of 80s anime and its relationship to the contemporary science fiction scene, and how Star Trek: The Next Generation staffers like Rick Sternbach and Mike Okuda were profoundly influenced by the work being done by Japanese genre fiction creators. This section’s brand-new essays are on Urusei Yatsura, Mobile Suit Gundam, Super Dimension Fortress Macross (and Macross: Do You Remember Love?) and two special revised essays on Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Dirty Pair.

Speaking of Dirty Pair, longtime fans will no doubt remember the somewhat infamous run of blog posts through the entire Classic Dirty Pair anime series that accompanied the original version of this project (and that can still be found in Eruditorum Press’ archives). Regrettably this is one of the sections I had to cut for space concerns (the final book is already pared down from what I initially wanted it to be, and as it is I just barely squeaked in under Createspace’s upper page count limit with the biggest possible trim size), but don’t think for a moment I’ve forgotten about Kei and Yuri: I’ve decided that they, alongside Nausicaä, really deserve a project unto themselves, so one of my future books will be a rumination on the themes of animist utopianism in 80s anime, building off of a spun-off, heavily revised and expanded version of that section of Vaka Rangi. I can tell you right now this is not my next blog project, but it is one I’ve been in the serious planning stages of for awhile, so please look forward to that in the future.…

May 18, 2014

“…through death and life together”: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Forest of Illusions Star Trek Film Series, Star Trek III The Search for Spock 8

Let’s be perfectly honest here. This movie exists for only one reason, and it’s obviously well aware of this itself as well.

So, right away we have a situation that’s manifestly different than last time. To the point where Star Trek III: The Search for Spock isn’t really even a film it’s possible to critique: It’s quite clearly not trying to be anything other than what it self-evidently is: Episode two of what’s become an unfolding serial. I’ll return to this theme a bit later, but first of all, there’s a curious observation I’d like to make here: If Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was a B-movie that didn’t want to admit it was a B-movie, this film, by contrast and inversely, is a B-movie that doesn’t actively try to punch above its weight class, but somehow succeeds in doing so anyway. Yes, against all odds, I’d have to say this is the best Star Trek movie we’ve looked at to date.

Part of this is that, unlike the previous two efforts, this movie actually feels like Star Trek. From Kirk’s opening Captain’s Log recap of the events of the last film’s climax and aftermath, there’s a heart to Star Trek III: The Search for Spock utterly absent in either of its predecessors. Kirk isn’t just blatantly stating emotions and themes like he’s reading from the SparkNotes version of the script, he actually seems like he’s experiencing those emotions and attempting to deal with them. Kirk, and everyone else in this movie, feels like an actual character this time instead of a mouthpiece spouting Big Important Themes. It helps that the dialogue is considerably more naturalistic this time around, but I think what really salvages the show here are the actors themselves, who seem visibly energized in a way I don’t really think I’ve ever seen this cast behave before. Sure, they’ve conveyed loyalty, friendship and camaraderie and all those Important Star Trek Buzzwords in the past, but this is the first time they seem to openly embody and embrace them (or at least the first time since Star Trek: The New Voyages) and this gets written back into their performances: There’s a genuine, heartfelt sense that they finally understand why what they’re doing is so important.

Which is only fitting considering this movie is ultimately about the fact Star Trek is a beloved thing important to many people. The reaction to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan supposedly was what convinced Leonard Nimoy to come out of retirement again, and request the directorial gig on this film to boot (Nimoy, by the way, is a thoroughly capable director, makes an utterly more visually interesting film than young Nicholas Meyer did and paves the way for future Star Trek actors to make the switch to behind-the-camera work too). This translates to a genuine sense of fun in front of the camera, with each of the principle characters getting plenty of moments to be funny or do something cool (Uhura’s scene in the transporter room is an absolute moment of triumph: Seriously, you want to just cheer for Nichelle Nichols).…

September 29, 2013

Sensor Scan: The Transformed Man

Forest of Illusions Sensor Scans, Star Trek III The Search for Spock, Star Trek IV The Voyage Home, The Transformed Man, William Shatner 10

William Shatner is one of those personalities who is so ubiquitous that their reputation precedes and obfuscates their actual contributions to art and pop culture. Shatner is so famous as Captain Kirk and the the king of unironic and self-evidently ridiculous camp that his iconic public persona dwarfs and overshadows his entire creative body of work. One of the reasons why I focus so heavily on Shatner in my overview of this period of Star Trek history (if not the primary one) is that his status as an omnipresent and immediately recognisable part of pop culture has ironically made it difficult to discern any reasonable erudition about the kind of actor he is, the style of performance he delivers and what the positionality he draws it all from really is. That’s not to say Leonard Nimoy, James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig aren’t equally as iconic and memorable in their roles, they are, but everyone knows they’re brilliant and, more to the point, everyone largely knows why they’re brilliant. That’s not really the case with with William Shatner.

All of which is to say that in 1968 William Shatner released an album of spoken-word poetry.

This is, it should probably go without saying, manifestly not the sort of thing anybody expected of William Shatner at the time, two thirds of the way through the original run of Star Trek. It is also probably fairly safe to say it is still not the sort of thing people expect of William Shatner today, because despite his subsequent musical performances becoming part of his camp reputation, the sort of bemused detachment this part of his oeuvre attracts from would-be fans and critics is rather telling. But the existence of The Transformed Man is in fact a very revealing look at not only the approach to Soda Pop Art in the late-1960s but also Shatner’s own worldview and how his presence helped re-shape what Star Trek came to represent. So with that said, what the heck even *is* The Transformed Man?

It may actually be beneficial to begin with an overview of what The Transformed Man *isn’t*, as this is the source of the overwhelming majority of confusion and bafflement this record attracts. In this regard it’s worth comparing it, if for no other reason then the comparison is unavoidable, with Leonard Nimoy’s musical catalog. In 1967, just as Star Trek was starting to gain a significant following, Dot Records released an album called Mr. Spock’s Songs from Space, which was pretty much exactly what it sounds like: A collection of fluffy novelty songs Nimoy recorded in full-on Spock-the-logician mode to abjectly hilarious results. Literally the only reason this album exists is because Spock was the show’s breakout character, and in the 1960s releasing an album of novelty music to tie in to a popular TV show was just sort of the thing you did, no matter how nonsensical it might sound if you think too hard about it (see also “Snoopy’s Christmas” by The Royal Guardians).…