Category: Watching

One of those nights when everything changed

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Sept. 8, 1966. The family gathers around the black-and-white television set to watch the debut of a new show about the crew of a ship that explores outer space. Over the opening credits, the ship’s captain explains that its mission is to “seek out new life and new civilizations” out there “where no man has gone before.”

We were a family that loved science fiction. Forbidden Planet was one of my mom’s favorite movies, and Dad buried himself in E.E. “Doc” Smith’s acclaimed Lensman series. The night after Star Trek premiered on NBC, we sat down to watch another science-fiction show debut over at ABC, The Time Tunnel. Those were heady days for sf fans.

My memory is that my brothers and I, all navigating our teenage years, were more impressed by the first episode of The Time Tunnel. That opinion changed over coming weeks as one series offered a range of thought-provoking adventures while the other quickly became repetitive and eventually sort of dumb.

For a long time I wondered why, with at least a half-dozen episodes already filmed, the producers decided to introduce Star Trek with “The Man Trap.” On the surface it’s little more than a horror story about a monster that disguises itself to lure victims and suck their blood. On the other hand, the story lures the audience into some degree of sympathy with the monster, and the creature’s defeat comes with a degree of sadness. This was a more nuanced tale than the man-versus-monster episodes of Lost in Space and other science-fiction offerings of the time.

In any case the characters and themes of Star Trek led to a great deal more than almost anyone could have imagined on the night of Sept. 8, 1966. Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock and their crewmates are now the stuff of popular legend, and that original series has spawned 11 more TV shows, more than a dozen movies and hundreds of stories.

It’s hard to believe that when Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a novel called A Study in Scarlet in 1887, he could have known that Sherlock Holmes and his friend Dr. Watson would still be familiar names almost 150 years later. Likewise, the producers of Star Trek probably knew they had created something special, but could they have imagined a gala 60th-anniversary celebration on this scale?

It has been a fun roller-coaster ride through 79 original episodes, cancellation, revival through syndication of reruns, a cartoon and a motion picture, and arguably the coup de grace that cemented the franchise’s future, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. 

Much has been said about this anniversary and how much this ambitious TV show has affected the world. I’m just thrilled to have been one of the millions of kids who was there, sitting in front of the TV set when Star Trek was broadcast for the first time. 

Another Players triumph

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I wish we had gone to see “Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash” a little earlier, so I could shout from the rooftops that you should see this show, because by the time this post appears there will only be two performances left, and at least one of them was already sold out when I bought our tickets for Thursday night’s performance. The good news is that means they didn’t need my help to spread the word about how excellent this show is.

I have always loved coming to Peninsula Players, the professional summer troupe that stages five shows every season along the shores of Green Bay just south of Fish Creek. I consider it the premier event in a county that is full of amazing productions every summer. This was the first time Mary and I went there together, and it just may be the best show I’ve ever seen at the Theatre in the Garden.

Five actor/musicians — Joe Casey, Aja Alcazar, Trevor Lindley Craft, James David Larson, and Paul Wyatt — tell the story of the Man in Black through his songs, seamlessly trading instruments and roles in a dazzling display of fivefold virtuosity. I wish I could see it again. In the future when we meet someone else who caught a performance, we will exchange a smile and a knowing glance that we experienced something special.

Highlights: In “Daddy Sang Bass” the performers took turns playing the instruments and singing parts, each showing their prowess on guitar, bass, mandolin and banjo without dropping a note anywhere.

I got goosebumps during “Delia’s Gone,” a solo performance with Larson alone in the spotlight wrenching every bit of pathos and humor from one of Cash’s creepiest songs, and with Alcazar’s mournful wail in “Sweet Bye and Bye,” the song that marked the death of Cash’s 14-year-old brother. As the only woman in the cast, she had to represent Cash’s mother, first wife, and second wife June Carter through the course of the evening, and she pulls it off admirably.

The players unveil “Moon Over Buffalo” on Wednesday, playing through Sept. 6, and then “Murder Girl” Sept. 9 through Oct. 18. Find the details at peninsulaplayers.com.

Shiny

I discovered Firefly at the perfect time — late 2004, two years after the Fox TV network mishandled the brilliant science-fiction series, canceling it after only 11 of its 14 wonderful episodes were aired.

The show gained a significant following after it was released on DVD, gaining enough of a fan base to convince Universal to greenlight a movie that answered some questions and tied up some loose ends. That was when I found the show — about four months before the film, Serenity, came out.

I had time to binge-watch those episodes several times after falling head over heels the first time through. As I recall, I watched three episodes the first night, three episodes the second night, and eight episodes the third night. I concluded it was the best TV show I’ve ever seen, and I haven’t changed that opinion in 22 years.

And so I watched with interest earlier this month as Nathan “Malcolm Reynolds” Fillion released a series of videos in which he approached the other seven living stars of the show with the message: “It’s time.” “We’re doing this.” “I can’t do this without you.”

And I was distracted from the worst snowstorm of my lifetime by Sunday’s announcement that the eight original cast members are lending their voices to an animated revival of Firefly, which apparently will be set in the time between the last TV episode and the movie, which is good because two main characters die in the film.

Animation makes sense because all of the actors have gone on to other projects, including ongoing TV series, and also because, well, they’re all 24 years older than they were back then. Their voices are the same, but their faces mo longer look like they did between the last TV episode and the movie.

Everything is lined up to launch the cartoon except a network or streaming service to carry it. Fillion is shopping it around, and there’s a lot of enthusiasm from the fans. The last few nights I’ve been rewatching some of my favorite episodes — “Out of Gas,” “Ariel,” “Objects in Space” — and confirming that it’s still my all-time favorite TV show.

There’s always a chance that they won’t recapture the magic and the new stories won’t ring as true as the old ones. Perhaps some of the magic came from the mystique of being canceled with so many stories left untold.

Still, it will be a treat to see these beloved characters interacting in that rickety old spaceship again. I was in a movie theater for the first showing of Serenity, and (Lord willing) I will be in front of the TV set when the Firefly animated series premieres.