Original Trek: The Creepy Frontier
*** If you don't like hearing me think about Star Trek, don't read this post. ***
One thing I never noticed about Star Trek is how creepy it is. Some days ago I watched Episode No. 7. "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" directed by James Goldstone, director of the second pilot (third episode to be broadcast), "Where No Man Has Gone Before". This is Goldstone's second and last directing gig for Star Trek and he's going out with a bang.
It's fun to just see his camera work. His idea seems to be, "Why cut when you can capture things in shallow focus and whip the camera around to where you want it to be?" The whole thing feels like you're constantly whipping your own head around. "Look over here!" " No! Over here!" "Hey, what's that over there!" Of course it doesn't help the Creepiness Factor that Steiner is writing more ominous background music and that the teleplay is written by Robert Bloch. No? How about I give you the name of his most famous novel ... Psycho. Yeah, he's that guy. No wonder the whole episode has a slight classic suspense/monster movie feel -- initial mysterious deaths, trapped in an underground lair, a mad scientist convinced of his righteous cause.
One of the many details I love in this episode is the decision to not do any foley work on android assassin Ruk's steps. When Kirk moves through the caverns (with their disturbingly phallic stalactites and stalagmites), we can hear his footfalls. But Ruk, our android with his grossly overdeveloped musculature, moves, in eery contrast, noiselessly. You can easily see him slipping up behind you in these corridors that he knows better than anyone else to provide a powerful and silent death.
This is the first really tight episode character-wise. No Scotty, Rand, Sulu, or even McCoy. Uhura gets some brief time at the beginning, and, truth be told, there's very little Spock. Mostly it's Kirk and Nurse Chapel (in her second episode -- played by Roddenberry's wife). My bet is that, at this point, they haven't even fully settled on the concept of a recurring cast other than Shatner and Nimoy. Either that or Roddenberry is fighting with some force about having this handful of people regularly on board.
By the way, Roddenberry's fear-filled bifurcation of the human condition continues as androids represent cold, efficient, logic which allows for clear decisive action at the expense of compassion and love and creative inspiration. These latter qualities are designated the things that make us "human." Too bad it's too late to get us some "Gene therapy".
Yeah, that was me. I did that.
One thing I never noticed about Star Trek is how creepy it is. Some days ago I watched Episode No. 7. "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" directed by James Goldstone, director of the second pilot (third episode to be broadcast), "Where No Man Has Gone Before". This is Goldstone's second and last directing gig for Star Trek and he's going out with a bang.
It's fun to just see his camera work. His idea seems to be, "Why cut when you can capture things in shallow focus and whip the camera around to where you want it to be?" The whole thing feels like you're constantly whipping your own head around. "Look over here!" " No! Over here!" "Hey, what's that over there!" Of course it doesn't help the Creepiness Factor that Steiner is writing more ominous background music and that the teleplay is written by Robert Bloch. No? How about I give you the name of his most famous novel ... Psycho. Yeah, he's that guy. No wonder the whole episode has a slight classic suspense/monster movie feel -- initial mysterious deaths, trapped in an underground lair, a mad scientist convinced of his righteous cause.
One of the many details I love in this episode is the decision to not do any foley work on android assassin Ruk's steps. When Kirk moves through the caverns (with their disturbingly phallic stalactites and stalagmites), we can hear his footfalls. But Ruk, our android with his grossly overdeveloped musculature, moves, in eery contrast, noiselessly. You can easily see him slipping up behind you in these corridors that he knows better than anyone else to provide a powerful and silent death.
This is the first really tight episode character-wise. No Scotty, Rand, Sulu, or even McCoy. Uhura gets some brief time at the beginning, and, truth be told, there's very little Spock. Mostly it's Kirk and Nurse Chapel (in her second episode -- played by Roddenberry's wife). My bet is that, at this point, they haven't even fully settled on the concept of a recurring cast other than Shatner and Nimoy. Either that or Roddenberry is fighting with some force about having this handful of people regularly on board.
By the way, Roddenberry's fear-filled bifurcation of the human condition continues as androids represent cold, efficient, logic which allows for clear decisive action at the expense of compassion and love and creative inspiration. These latter qualities are designated the things that make us "human." Too bad it's too late to get us some "Gene therapy".
Yeah, that was me. I did that.
posted by - caj at 11:05 PM
1 Comments:
I saw what you did there.
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