Monday, 11 June 2012

Star Trek voyage of the TV argosy

read star trek a brief guide by Brian J  Robb as an avid 40 year  trekkie  believed this book would tell me little did not already know despite most of my reading being technical  manuals and star fleet chronologies
useful read ( but as expected you can find the same info on wikis and fan sites ) spending equal time on all the franchise from early roddenberry pilots to next generation and the other ones  all the way to  a good chapter on unfilmed  episodes  and  plot ideas with less on the usual actor memoirs and   studio politics

lot of interesting info  ie  from  early next generation  casting of  Roy (The Invaders) Thinnes as Picard ,  pre  movie star Wesley snipes as Riker and Jenny Agutter  as Dr Crusher - useful to  wonder what first contact woud have been like with Tom Hanks in the role of zefrem cochrane   and that first contact was originally to be called   Star trek Renaissance with Picard and leonardo da vinci taking out the Borg
some excellent detail on what we did not see ie a 1970s planet of the Titans  (Star trek play on chariots of gods) Star Trek phase II new series of 1978  and   the planned   next generation  movies  "Star trek  Prime Directive " and "Star trek Stardust"

good chapters only went to prove that Deep space Nine started well  with  good plotlines tacking colonialism and gender stereotype but ended up in dominion war  Ray gun battles, that Voyager honestly did make it up as it went along  and that Star trek Enterprise  has some good story arcs  such as temporal cold war  and  founding of the federation but gave up on these early in the shows run  ended up  replaying old 1960s ideas  but at least that failure saved us from other series ideas such  star trek academy(cadets  lost in space) and star trek federation( the 30th century federation  treking in andromeda galaxy )
the book only went to prove that as I know from experience it is truly  possible to draft the story board for a complete two season  star trek series  on one side of A4 on  a wet sunday afternoon   yes I am looking at you   Star Trek Glory ( the aftermath of a  Galaxy wide Borg Dominion war ) and Star Trek  Resistance ( an alternative history where Earth lost the  pre federation Earth-Romulan  war)
Despite mention in the book of  Star trek 2012 (Star Trek Evolution? )  still waiting for this to be released it is now Star Trek 2013  latest rumour that Benedict Cumberbach is playing either  Khan wrathing again or  the lesser known TOS character Captain Garth  or  an English accent villain with PSI powers    "Montagu Fanshaw- Cholmondeley"   and it will be bigger and character led  rather  than bringing in Klingons this time instead of Romulans  but that is what they said about DS9  and voyager

 the best art you have never seen 101 hidden  treasures from around the world  by julian spalding    picture book guide on treasures in private collections , artists homes or in museum basements from  parts of buddhas to  painted over religious art  from art hidden by hate to art hidden by concepts  useful links at end to ever present websites  and  museums world wide


 the projection of britain  a history of the GPO film unit  a dry academic work a series of articles that given the small subject matter often tell the same story twice  but does its best  to make films about phones and mail boxes  interesting as did the original  film makers  on what is best understood by watching the films on you tube check out len lye and night mail   two examples of the best

a brief history of the grail  giles morgan   a compact detailed book  with less emphasis on new age glastonbury   and arthurian  victoriana  as usual in this subject  covering without comment  all the pre celtic legends to grail myths of dan brown  and the  quest films  of george lucas and peter jackson

 now the jubilee is over all we have is the twiiter comments of  a n even more regal person Fearne cotton  veteran kiddie TV  and trending pop show presenter   taking offence at  every criticism  of peoples opinion  her  poor TV presenting at the jubilee Events
you could tell all the tweets replying to complaints  were from Fearne Cotton as each was probably  prefaced  with "Do You Know Who I am! "
or I just judging


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