I sometimes fall into discussion with my Star Wars fan friends about the role of the hero in the overall story and who is more worthy and who is a better representative of this role. But, when I stop to think of it, the real hero of the entire 6 movie franchise was R2D2.
R2 not only linked the characters together but each movie as well. But he was more than just the little helper elf that ran messages. He's the glue that held it all together and all efforts would've failed without him.
He piloted the important vessels.
Took heavy damage repeatedly in order to further the cause of the good guys.
Always jumping at every command, doing all the hard work, being pivotal in saving nearly every character's life repeatedly..
All while baby sitting C3P0.
Most of my friends know I don't consider the seventh film to be a legitimate part of the franchise. Not my Star Wars, as it were. The Force Awakens had R2D2 dancing around for 5 seconds at the end which is one of a long laundry list of reasons why it "doesn't count" for me. Instead, TFA had BB8 and although he was adorable and certainly the only likeable part of the movie, he was just the map carrier and assisted with the small stuff. He wasn't a hero the way R2 was because it would've overshadowed Rey.
But you've also noticed that I liked Rogue One and have said that it definitely fits in with the other six movies. So why did that one work for me - there's no R2 in it after all? Are you sure?
It was towards the end of the movie, before I accepted the reality that all the characters would have to die when K2SO sacrificed himself. I'd come to really like this droid and he was my favorite character in this movie. I whispered to my husband, "It'll be okay... R2 can rebuild him." My husband said, "It was probably R2 that reprogrammed him to begin with - that's R2D2's attitude." And that's a valid point. If R2's beeps and squeaks could be translated into words, he would be very much the smart-ass like K2SO. Not quite as misanthropic perhaps... K2SO hadn't asked to be reprogrammed after all.
But how much of that rapid twittering and how many of those indignant blats and squelches seem to be present in the personality of the facetious battle droid who's loyalty to Cassian is as unwavering as R2's is to his comrades while he does a lot of the dirty work as well. K2SO wasn't R2D2 but he was the R2D2 element and it is an element that seems to be vital to me.
And that's why I say that R2D2 was the real hero of the Star Wars movies.
On a technical level this episode is an improvement. But I can't help but being offended and terribly uncomfortable with it.
Scientists are studying a Bronze Age civilization related to Vulcans. Their observation booth is hidden by a holographic blind in a rock. The research station is having technical problems and they need repairs which attracts the attention of one of the natives who sees what's going on and is injured by an explosion within.
Crusher decides not to let him die, but heal him and try to wipe his memory like they did with Sarjenka in the episode Pen Pals from the second season, but it doesn't work and he goes back to his people spreading the news about a "god" that brought him back to life.
This episode was a reworking of the episode Justice from the first season. In Justice, the civilization on the planet knows about space travel, yet worships an orbiting vessel as their god. It didn't make sense on that basis alone, but it didn't have to since the primary focus was attacking religious people as being stupid and irrational. The difference is that in this episode, the people are primitive and know nothing of space travel or science, so it's very likely that Liko would be freaked out enough to think that this science is the magic of a god or demon. No problem so far.
One of the scientists turns up missing in the explosions because the terrain is full of caves.... must have been Missouri... LOL! See, I have a sense of humor about it. They send Riker and Troi in under cover to find the missing man. Riker escapes with him but Troi falls behind and they capture her.
Meanwhile Picard takes one of the town members who is skeptical of Liko's story up to the Enterprise to try to explain the truth to her by logical reasoning. He shows her that his people can die too and that they are not all powerful and immortal. This is all fine. This is actually good stuff. A terrible accident screws up a scientific study of an early civilization. The Prime Directive has been violated on accident and some chaos would definitely ensue. It's a good solid plot.
Liko is about to sacrifice Troi to Picard and Picard comes down personally to try to explain things to him. The only proof he'll accept though is Picard's death which is only prevented because his daughter knocks his aim off. Still, the evidence of his injury is enough, so Liko comes to his senses. None of this is a problem. This is a feasible situation given the societal development of the people and the choice to be honest rather than make things worse by pretending that humans are immortal or even doing nothing at all.
In fact, all would've been fine if not for this scene. Faith is the dark ages. Faith cripples societies. And I'm not out of line in presuming that these bits of dialogue are leveled at Christians only since Christianity is the only religion under attack in America. Of course, as I pointed out in Pen Pals, Liberals have no problem with gods as longs as it is they who get to be the gods... in that episode they were speaking of allowing the civilization to die as they height of hubris and wondering if there was a cosmic plan in which they were meant to be the saviors of the planet. I suppose you could say that there's an improvement in this episode on the point that Picard doesn't want to play god - but only because he doesn't want to play their god. I'd call it hypocrisy. They stop caring about that kind of continuity in order
to get these attacks in though. They also stop caring whether or not they make sense - these people were supposed to be in a Bronze Age type of civilization.
Everything was superstition in this time period and, realistically, they wouldn't have "advanced" beyond
belief in the supernatural by this time in their history. But there's no need for practicalities like that when we're trying to propagate the fallacy that religions are the cause of all wars and tyranny.
And at the end the town is relieved to have been saved from religion and wish the humans could stick around and continue to study them because they're such nice people for showing them that there's no such thing as their Overseer god. Uh... no. Even if they'd been convinced that humans weren't immortal, they would've been hell bent on keeping them there - How could you just watch while we've had plagues without curing us? How can you watch us toil and suffer and not offer us new technology? Those would be the real concerns and demands after finding out that an advanced civilization has just been watching them for who knows how long. No, no... all that matters to them is that their lives are somehow better knowing once and for all that gods of any kind don't exist. So whether or not these strange aliens may have been watching them bathe in the rivers is of no interest to them... a return to a belief in the supernatural would've been the least of the damage done to this society. But, I guess if you're going to stop making sense you may as well go all out.
Obviously I can't give this episode a good rating. The technical merit is good. The sets are great. The base story is solid. But, it's just more thinly veiled slanders of faith in general, Christianity in particular. Two stars.
I would classify this as a "Roddenberry Classic" episode, but improved; thought provoking, but without the immaturity and over simplicity. Instead it's sad and sweet and unusual.
They answer a distress call and find the surface of the planet utterly decimated except for a small bit of acreage and a house with two people living in it.
This is one of those kinds of episodes that I don't get enthused over, but I don't have much against it either. And I gotta say again, the paintings and set designs are leaps and bounds better than the previous two seasons. This story was, at it's heart, a mystery which made it a pretty good one, and scenes like the one above really helped to set the mood.
The survivors are a nice, harmless old couple who are just grateful to be out of danger and want to be left alone. Of course, the Enterprise can't leave. The difference between this situation and most of the situations in the first two seasons is that in the first two season, much of the time, the crew was just being nosy. This time it's something they have to investigate and get an explanation for. It is genuinely incredible that these are the only survivors of a mass planetary destruction. The man, Kevin, (such an ordinary name) says that they survived because they chose not to fight in the resistance to the invading forces. Even the most ardent pacifist knows that this is unlikely, but there's nothing the crew can do to rebut their claim.
It all would've been wrapped up quickly if Troi hadn't been there. Kevin and Rishon have a music box. Once it starts playing it becomes permanently embedded in Troi's mind, blocking her empathic powers and everything else as well, driving her slowly insane. It's done purposefully because Troi would be able to sense the truth of the situation and it's a good plot device. It gives credibility to Troi's abilities since the need to "take her out" is absolutely necessary to the intentions of the antagonist. This is also the debut of the blue dress and tights which is her best apparel and probably the most comfortable for Sirtis. I didn't realize it was there as early as the 3rd season.
Then a mysterious ship appears and even though it's small it has the ability to attack the Enterprise and run it off. More mystery.
There's actually a lot of dialogue and little things to pay attention to in this episode so the audience can play along with solving the mystery which is why this review is fairly short. I don't typically go into that much detail, but this episode is made up of many details, as is the nature with mysteries. Later the ship returns and appears to destroy Kevin and Rishon as well, but Picard calls the bluff and beams the couple directly to the ship.
Kevin relates the sad story of his existence there. He's an immortal being. Like I said, Q wasn't the first and obviously not the last, but the presence of the Q eventually overshadowed all other attempts at immortal beings. This guy is like a Q with a conscience. He loved his wife and lived as a human with her and refrained from using his powers or fighting the invaders because of his advantage. He poisoned Troi's mind with the music and concocted the strange ship to run the Enterprise off so they wouldn't discover that when his wife was killed after she joined the resistance, he was heartbroken and decimated not only the planet but the entirety of the invading race, everywhere in the universe. Then he confined himself to this planet forever because he felt guilt over the mass genocide he committed. And although he couldn't bring his wife back to life, he just lives in this recreated world of the happy life he once had with her now.
He does the right thing by releasing Troi from the music in her mind and Picard decides to just leave him alone, feeling unqualified to judge the situation. It's the kind of solution that would have been present in the first two seasons, but the difference is that in this situation there really wasn't another option. And the circumstances really were beyond arbitration by the Federation whereas in previous episodes there was usually a better solution that was cast away in favor of making some ridiculous point about how inferior humans are. This is the kind of episode that's best watched with a friend. There's a lot of discussion topics regarding love, pain, and revenge and the story never turns too political. To me, this is the heart of what Star Trek became. I've always liked it and although it was an unusual mystery, it still fits that description and the mystery aspect was adequately written. The actor that played Kevin made it touching and believable. I don't really have any complaints. I like it enough to award it four stars.
There's more variety of Star Wars parodies out there. Or maybe it's just cuz I couldn't find the Star Trek parodies I was looking for last week. I really enjoyed looking up the Star Wars stuff though. A lot of them are sung to modern songs that I don't know or don't care for, so I just chose 4 that go to songs I know and they're all very funny.
The first one is sung to "Baby It's Cold Outside." It's just cute and silly.
This is excellent! I don't even mind the EU and TFA reference because it was so well written and thought out. Quite a little masterpiece.
But the final two go to the master of parodies - Weird Al. It's just so effortless for him and it's always so innocently funny.
This is still my favorite of the bunch even though that take off on We Didn't Star The Fire is also great. I actually don't like American Pie, but this version makes it great for me.
The music in the video is called No. 1 At The Blue Whale. It was the song you most often heard when the scene was taking place in the Collinsport bar - The Blue Whale. I don't know who put the video together, but they must have been a Julia Hoffman (Grayson Hall) fan.
She started while the show was still in black and white. She was quite a progressive character
To this day I'm not 100% sure that she was even supposed to be a "she". In the days leading up to her introduction, the main doctor of the Windcliff Sanitarium, Dr. Woodard, would refer to his colleague that he would soon be consulting with often as "he." He will know all about it. He will be coming soon. When I talk to Dr. Hoffman, I'll ask him. On one hand, the way he seemed to put undo emphasis on the male pronouns, it seems like an obvious feint. Like trying to lead the audience into thinking Dr. Hoffman is a man, but then surprise! On the other hand, this is pretty trend setting stuff for 1966.
She's a medical doctor in a time where the profession was dominated by men. She smokes on screen. Everybody smoked back then, but the pretty, good girls weren't often portrayed as doing so. She was also portrayed as drinking bourbon (a whiskey) instead of a milder, ladies drink like sherry. When one is free to be honest, you have to admit that she was not attractive and she had a 5-pack-a-day voice to match. Of course the aesthetics don't matter because Hall was a terrific actress, but most shows don't deliberately hire such an unlikely woman to fill a major role. My guess is that Dr. Julia Hoffman wasn't meant to be a major role at first.
The movie Night Of Dark Shadows plays out the Barnabas story as it was originally conceived for the most part. A few weeks of terror from a vampire before he's finally staked. I think Julia Hoffman was a casualty in that version... which is another reason why I suspect the television role was originally meant for some random man, not necessarily a woman. As it played out on television however, things changed. Julia kept herself safe from the wrath of the vampire by promising to cure him. This is one of the things that led to Barnabas' popularity. That tragic hope in his eyes, that he need not continue as a monster. It melted hearts everywhere and made Dr. Hoffman a permanent fixture. Of course, it moved slowly in the world of soap operas. First Barnabas is a bully and threatens her constantly and even makes her kill Dr. Woodard.
But, eventually when Barnabas changes into a complete good guy, she's right there by his side, following him into any time period, specializing in hypnosis and sedatives to help him battle the forces of evil and working tirelessly on his cure.
And speaking of time periods, although the names were changed for the characters that were in them, their personalities remained the same for the most part. Julia was one of the few that got to behave differently and have a little variety in the period characters she was assigned. In 1795 she was Josette's Aunt Natalie. She read tarot cards and was a bit of a gossip, but also a protective, motherly figure to Josette. Much different than the professional woman that Dr. Hoffman was.
In 1897 she was Magda Rakosi, a gypsy. They darkened her skin, gave her a long black wig and had her sport an vague Eastern European accent. She also read the cards, but she was Barnabas' willing servant since he was a nicer guy in this time and, at risk of sounding un-PC, they never wanted him to bite the "ugly chick." Magda was eventually killed so that Julia Hoffman could join Barnabas in this timeline and help to wrap things up with her skills as a doctor. When I first started watching Dark Shadows it was shortly after the 1897 story line had started so I saw Magda before Julia Hoffman and it was how I came to understand how they utilized the characters in these different time traveling stories.
Her most surprising change was in the story where Barnabas travels to an alternate 1970 timeline. In this parallel time, Julia Hoffman was not a doctor, but Angelique's devoted servant and she was evil. She helped to plot against the characters and was onto Barnabas' secret, ready to betray him to her mistress. It's kind of a shame that once a character was aligned a certain way on Dark Shadows that they never got a chance to be turned into an opposite alignment. This is as close as we come to a genuine "heel turn" for one of the characters. It doesn't last long, of course. The good and loyal Dr. Julia Hoffman finds a way to follow Barnabas into the parallel time, kill her counterpart and masquerade as "Miss Hoffman" for a while to help our hero.
It's also a shame that the unattractive actress was never given the prize of a love story. Julia Hoffman loved Barnabas, but his affections were always planted elsewhere with the more beautiful actresses of the show. After you watch any good and well preformed character long enough, you stop thinking of them as unattractive though. In my eyes, her features and manner softened and I think she should've had her chance in at least one alternate timeline. Even Joan Bennett, the show's matriarch would shift between playing a single mother to someone's wife, even if she was only pursued for her money. I suppose the fault lies not only in her lack of beauty but the time the show was made in as well. Things were different in the 60's. The sacrifice of a character that embodied a progressive, professional woman was that she could not have both the career and the love life. I won't elaborate on the issue... there have been valid points made on both sides. But one thing is for sure - the Barnabas and Dr. Hoffman partnership was one of the strongest on the show. I would say it was even stronger than the times when Barnabas and Quentin were paired together in the fight against the creatures of the night. Love Julia!
