I wrote a really long piece about Shatner’s and the fan’s behaviour regarding his involvement in the new Star Trek film, it made me really mad, made me not like Shatner, made me sick of hearing about him, so I deleted it and wrote an abridged version.
JJ Abrams had this very reasonable thing to say about Shatner’s involvement or lack of in the film:
“It was very tricky. We actually had written a scene with him in it that was a flashback kind of thing, but the truth is, it didn’t quite feel right. The bigger thing was that he was very vocal that he didn’t want to do a cameo. We tried desperately to put him in the movie, but he was making it very clear that he wanted the movie to focus on him significantly, which, frankly, he deserves. The truth is, the story that we were telling required a certain adherence to the ‘Trek’ canon and consistency of storytelling. It’s funny — a lot of the people who were proclaiming that he must be in this movie were the same people saying it must adhere to canon. Well, his character died on screen. Maybe a smarter group of filmmakers could have figured out how to resolve that.”
All very reasonable in my mind. Â This movie is not about a 77 year old Captain Kirk being brought back to life, it’s about a young Kirk and his crew. Â Shatner apparently is upset because no one offered him a part, well because they never officially had a part I suspect, I mean they tried to write one in but it didn’t work. Â You don’t offer someone a role when you don’t have it, besides which Shatner has been quite vocal in the past and I’m sure in private that he wouldn’t do a cameo. Â So this video makes me like Shatner quite a bit less than I was already starting to. Â I mean really, get a life.
With Battlestar Galactica going off the air until next year (for frak sake that is so frustrating considering the mid-season finale), Dr Who finishing up in a couple of episodes and Torchwood only having a limited run (?) there is a distinct lack of science fiction that I watch coming up.
Fortunately for me there are two shows coming that I am actually quite interested in. Â Ironically enough I only just found out about these a couple of weeks ago (I’m slipping in my old age!).
The first is Fringe from JJ Abrams and starring our man Pacey from Dawson’s Creek (I currently like supporting everyone from that show except for Katie/She-Tom - I mean sure be in love with the guy but please retain your own personality and stop using his). Â It’s kind of like X-Files apparently, but different at the same time (no one wants to just be a copy of another show). Â For me the trailer kind of has a Threshold feel to it, remember Threshold? Â A science fiction show that I got into and then it was cancelled *sigh
I’m hoping to check out a preview of it sometime soon so I’ll report back on its attention worthiness. Â I am still yet to watch Alias or Lost so I have no real comparison as far as Mr Abrams is concerned although I did watch a little of Felicity (I didn’t see it all but I hear good things - was that a line from Little Nicky?).
The other show is from someone who’s track record for me at least is pretty much perfect. Â Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse features Buffy and Angel regular Eliza Dushku and everyone’s favourite Angel scientist Amy Acker (arrrrg the pain is still there when I remember Fred’s death!).
I probably know a little bit more about the plot of this one than Fringe but I’m not as convinced. Â To be fair I have faith in Whedon and I’m sure the show will be really interesting but I’m not sure if the concept has legs to run as a series.
Both shows look as though they’re well made and seem to have likeable enough cast members but then so did a whole bunch of science fiction shows of late all of which have gone the way side (except for Sarah Connor who I’m not convinced deserved the reprieve). Â It reminds me that I bought Surface the other day (quite cheaply too I might add) which is a show that I didn’t mind but got cancelled (Invasion, Threshold and Aquaman didn’t even make it past a pilot).
So what do you all think, going to give these shows a go? Â Could care less? Â Excited about something else? Â (please don’t say Caprica!)
I watched about a third of the Lost season one and two, mainly because it was on TV at a funny time for us and we kept missing episodes. Â It looked compelling enough, seemed pretty clever and the discovery of the hatch was all very exciting. Â But by not seeing all of the episodes it made it near impossible to follow and rather than screw up the whole Lost experience we vowed to avoid the show at all costs and watch it on DVD, the same way we did it with Heroes (season three Heroes is coming - yay!). Â In the Heroes case it worked out extremely well.
Time has past and the dust has come to settle on the season one DVD set of Lost, the plastic remains unbroken and Tracey and I are no more knowledgable in the ways of ‘the others’ or who the chap down the hatch is and why he was down there. Â It has been a difficult twelve months for us and we honestly just haven’t gotten around to watching it yet.
No man is an island as they say and it has been hard, make that impossible to avoid all references or advertisements regarding the show. Â I will say one thing though, it certainly hasn’t actually given anything away as I still have no bloody idea what is going on in that show!
Which is a plus for us but I’m concerned that at some stage I’m going to invest a big slab of time to a show that may or may not be worth it in the long run. Â The snippets I’ve seen (trying hard not to look though!) have appeared a bit mad, weird stuff has gone on since I last visited the island and that guy doesn’t appear to have lost any weight!?
So my question is, is Lost worth it at this stage or has it already jumped the shark? Â Please no spoilers, obviously if it even halfway decent I don’t want it ruined. Â If you feel you can’t control yourself just vote in the poll in the sidebar!!
Speaking of the sidebar you’ll see that Quit Your Day Job has got itself a little advertising, hey I got to get my comic book money somewhere! Â Anyway if you don’t throw up in misery everytime you visit here think about clicking on one of the ads to give them a bit of value for their money or even throw a couple of cents this way and get some advertising yourself!
