Monthly Archives: February 2024

Ellison’s Cynicism & The City On The Edge of Forever

Paramount Studios/CBS Home Video

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The City on the Edge of Forever the 28th episode of season one from Star Trek (The Original Series) is a celebrated and award-winning episode of classic television collecting both the Hugo for short form Dramatic Presentation and the Writers Guild Of American award for Best Episodic Drama on Television.

After suffering a mishap while the Enterprise investigates disturbances in time from a long dead world, Doctor McCoy to hurled into the past where his presence changes history erasing the United Federation of Planets’ existence, forcing Kirk and Spock to follow McCoy to set right the course of the universe.

The original script was penned by famed and mercurial author Harlan Ellison but for production the screenplay had been rewritten, by uncredited story editor D.C. Fontana, at the producers request. The rewrite dissatisfied Ellison producing a rift between him and the producers that lasted decades. Ellison eventually would publish his own account of the production in book form that included his original script.

I have watched the original episodes many many times since the 1970s and I have read Ellison’s original script. Both are wonderfully written but Fontana’s is decidedly more in the tone of Star Trek.

Spoilers follow.

The crucial element of history that McCoy upset is saving the life of a pacifist, Edith Keeler, which delayed America’s entry into the Second World War allowing Germany to emerge victorious. Kirk, having fallen in love with Edith, is torn between his duty to preserve history and prevent a NAZI future and his emotional need to save the woman he has come to love.

In Ellison’s version, Spock, the inhuman, coldly logical alien holds both men. Kirk and McCoy, back, preventing them from saving her and reestablishing the proper shape of time.

In Fontana’s script Kirk seizes McCoy, stopping him from saving Edith, but is emotionally devastated by his course of action.

Dramatically speaking I have held and continue to hold that Fontana’s ending is simply better. It costs Spock nothing to do the right thing. Alien and detached from the pull of emotion, Spock’s action has no more dramatic weight that a piece of automated machinery performing a programmed function. Kirk, forced at great emotional pain and trauma, stopping McCoy is the sort of event that forever changes a character and change lives at the heart of drama.

None of this is new thinking on my part. It’s been my conclusion for nearly 30 years since I read the original script. That said thinking further upon the story and Ellison’s ending I do think that there is another aspect to this that is fascinating.

What is the thematic core of Ellison’s ending? Why was he drawn to that particular resolution?

It is possible that the answer is that Ellison held a very dark and cynical view of humanity.

While I have not read all of Ellison’s work, I have read a number of his well-crafted short stories and dark is common element. Rarely if ever did Ellison descend in joy over terror and crushing failure.

It’s possible, either by authorial intent or predilection, that Ellison’s ending reflects a deep sense that humanity, that people, are incapable of overcoming their selfish needs and desires for a greater good. That flawed and weak humanity will always fail to destroy the One Ring and choose themselves over others.

If that’s the reason Ellison went with his ending it makes even more clear that deep and unbridgeable divide between himself and Roddenberry. Roddenberry believed in humanity’s perfectibility. That a future without the irrational failings of racism and selfness was possible and Ellison’s ending reject all of that. It is an ending that asserts people will choose their own happiness even at the cost of uncounted millions.

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GOP, Look in the Mirror.

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At the end of the 1970s Conservatives criticized President Carter for his lackluster response to Russian aggression with the invasion of its neighbor, Afghanistan.

During the 1980s a common critique of the Democratic party by the GOP was that the liberal of the party were too favorably inclined to our geo-political rivals the Russians.

By the 1990s and the collapse of the Soviets GOP found new failing to launch at their political opponents. President Clinton they charged was a guilty of financial fraud, despite a massive investigation that yielded no proof of this, and a sexual predator, lacking the moral standing to be president. When Clinton foolishly committed perjury over his sexual dalliances the battle cry became ‘rule of law.’ Impeachment they insisted was required for a president that held the law in such contempt.

With the new century the GOP once again shifted in which traits made their political foes utterly unacceptable. President Obama, in addition to being a narcissist, was at times a ruthless Chicago politician and a naive neophyte easily manipulated by the forces around him. A fool easily manipulated by enemies of America when they stroked his over inflated ego.

And where is the GOP today? Slavishly devoted to a man that shows utter deference to the Russian regime, who praised the slaughter of people peacefully demonstrating for freedom as ‘strength.’ Who defrauds small businesses and individuals. A man so egotistical that everything must be about himself. A man who tried to overthrow a free, fair, and legitimate election in order to illegally retain power and who has been found accountable in court for sexual assault.

All the major criticisms the conservatives have hurled with disdain and hate at their opponents that have embraced in their strong man. Everything that said mattered was nothing more than a lie.

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Series Review: Monsieur Spade

AMC and Studio Canal

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Set some twenty-odd years after the events of The Maltese Falcon Monsieur Space follows famed private detective Sam Spade (Clive Owen) as a retired man of luxury in the South of France. Originally drawn to the small village of Bozouls fulfilling a task for a former flame Sam has settled into a comfortable life but dogged by loss. When brutal murders at as local orphanage, a missing child, and the teenage daughter of his former love becomes intertwined Sam is forced to once again practice his profession in a town bursting with secrets worth killing over.

Co-created by Scott Frank (The Queen’s Gambit) and Tom Fontana (Oz) this series has the writing pedigree to be peak television but sadly stumbles right at the finish line.

Clive Owen does a quite good job in his portrayal of Spade, a man who has suffered too much emotional trauma and wants nothing more than to swim in his pool, alone. The cast, a collection of French and British actors for the most part, are well suited for their roles and inhabit their diverse, complex, and secretive lives quite well. The problem with the series really lives in the final episode.

It is said that every story begins with a promise. A contract between the teller and audience about what sort of story is being shared and violating that contract loses the audience. Genre often cements the nature of that promise. With detective fiction an element of that promise is that the detective will by reason, logic, and pure skill, untangle to the web of lies revealing the truth. Holmes will explain it all to Watson and justice arrives with our satisfaction.

Monsieur Spade breaks this inherent promise of mystery stories. The final episode, seemingly in a mad rush to wrap up all story and plotline before the hour has ended, resolves by nearly a Deus ex machina sidelining the protagonist with Spade no more essential to the resolution that the police detectives lectured by the private detective. Frank and Fontana are talented writers with enormous gifts for character and story, so this collapse of basic writing seems far out of character. Television and film are complex mediums for telling stories and all sorts of events can intrude on a production forcing last minute changes that degrade the final product. Perhaps that is what happened here. Whatever the cause Monsieur Spade after flying true for several episodes untimely missed the target entirely.

Monsieur Spade streams on AMC+.

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Stay-Cation is Over

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I have been absent from most online activities because I took a week and a half off from my day job and just used the time to do mostly nothing. I wrote nothing. The past weekend was the Southern California Writers Conference here in San Diego and I did attend that for the first time since the damnable pandemic. Because I was and still to some degree was inflicted with a barking hacking cough, I did not stay late into the morning hours taking part in the rouge read-and-critique session, something I truly adore, but I still had a good time and enjoyed myself.

Thursday, amid threats of rain, my sweetie-wife took the day off to share with me and we did our usual Sunday Trip to the zoo on that morning. Then a second on Monday, President’s day. Both days saw pretty high attendance.

Feedback from my WIP, The Wolves of Wallace Point, have been trickling in and, so far, nothing is indicating that I should kill the book. Soon query letters will be heading out to prospective agents. My next project combined the structure of a 70s disaster movie with a story filled with ghosts. I actually started that one but now realized it’s on the wrong first foot and I need to rethink a bit.

I had hoped to go out and see a few films during the at home vacation, but the persistent cough made that a non-starter as I refuse to be that inconsiderate to my fellow cinephiles.

My vacation ended yesterday with a trip to the dentist for the next steps in the long procedure of getting some implants to replace a couple of teeth. I was in the chair for about 2 hours, and I am ever thankful for both the skill and consideration of the team as well as for the podcasts that kept me from losing my mind to boredom.

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The Multi-Factor Hypocrisy of the GOP

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Back in the 1980s I can clearly recall several of my conservative/libertarian friends asserting with utter confidence that the people who voted for liberal parties only did so out of self-interest. That the goodies distributed by the liberal essentially ‘bought’ the votes of their supporter while the conservative electorate were motivated by principals and devotion to constitutional order.

As Luke Skywalker has said, ‘Every word of that is wrong.’

The GOP has been exposed as hypocrites on every vector of their supposed principals.

As the party lines up behind a candidate that scoffs at the law and the constitution it is clear that the only thing that motivates them is the desire to get what they personally want. Principals are for suckers.

Tax cuts for the wealthy.

Deregulation of the industrialists.

Oppression of minorities for the authoritarians.

And guns for the enthusiasts.

All other considerations secondary. Constitution expendable.

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Ready For Beta Readers

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My first horror novel, tentatively titled The Wolves of Wallace Point is ready for beta readers.

Beta readers, for those who do not know, are the test audiences of the book world. People invited to read a manuscript, provide feedback about what they liked or did not like about the work and then the author may revise, edit, rewrite, or junk the entire project. I have certainly had novels that did not survive the beta read stage, where I hadn’t quite achieved what I wanted to, and it was easier and simpler to set the manuscript aside until I was more confident that I would tackle it properly.

This is an open call. If you are interested in reading this book and providing me with your honest opinion and feedback either use the contact me link on my blog or drop me a direct message in Facebook and I’ll put you on the list.

The novel is about 100,000 words, so that much like most SF books but a little thinner that most fantasy novels, and I would appreciate a turnaround time of about two weeks.

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Quick Review: Suitable Flesh

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Suitable Flesh is a 2023 adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s tale The Thing on the Doorstep of a body-swapping wizard and the pair of friends entangled in the madness.

Shudder Films

Scriptwriter Dennis Paoli has gender swapped the leads roles with Heather Graham playing Dr Elizabeth Derby, a psychiatrist who through a troubled patient, Asa Waite (Judah Lewis) comes to the wizard’s attentions and Barbara Crampton playing Elizbeth’s best friend and fellow psychiatrist Dr Daniella ‘Dani’ Upton. Directed by Joe Lynch in a manner to recall the bonkers insane cinema of Stuart Gordon Suitable Flesh ultimately fails both as a horror film in its own right and as a pastiche to Gordon’s movies of the 80’s.

The script’s greatest weakness, and it has more than one, is that the story is told from the wrong Point of View. Centered on Graham’s Dr Derby the story is flat because Elizabeth is a reactive character, responding to events around her and not driven the narrative forward. Dr. Upton would have been a far better choice for the film’s point of view as she would have had a mystery to solve, a fantastic truth to uncover, and a dear friend to save. The second largest mistake is telling the story though the device of a flashback. The framing of a film as a flashback can be a powerful tool see Double Indemnity as an example, but it required a skill beyond Paoli’s current talents, draining the movie of all tension and suspense.

In addition to the weakness of the script, and I did not list all the ways I thought the writing needed further works, the film is hampered by lackluster performances. With the exception of Barbara Crampton and Judah Lewis every actor feels as though they were simply sleepwalking through their parts, presently nothing that felt like real live-in characters. The flat performances ultimately undercut the attempt to pay homage to Stuart Gordon’s films such as Reanimator where the actor give grand expansive presentations of arch characters.

While I had looked forward to this movie arriving on streaming for months, Suitable Flesh, screening on Shudder proved to be a disappointment.

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More Series Impressions: Monsieur Spade

AMC Studios & Studio Canal

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It is the early 1960s and private detective Sam Spade (Clive Owen) is a rich retired gentleman living in comfort and ease on an estate in the south of France. Spade had come to France’s Mediterranean coast delivering a young girl to a family that denied her paternity and ended up in a place where he believed he might finally find peace. However, with the return of a renowned troublemaker Same is thrust into the middle of a grisly mass murder and once again must prove himself the master detective.

I have been a fan of The Maltese Falcon since I was exposed to its brilliance in a film class back in the early 80s. I own a copy on Blu-ray disc and of course I have read the novel. When I heard that Scott Frank, the creator and showrunner for The Queens Gambit, was creating a series about a retired Sam Spade my interest shot up like a rocket.

Monsieur Spade, much like The Queens Gambit, reveals its story by use of a fractured timeline, covering both Spade’s arrival in the small French town and his comfortable life a few years after. One does not need to have seen or closely remember The Maltese Falcon in order to enjoy this well-produced series, but having such information fresh or well-recalled will enhance your viewing experience as characters and locals from that classic film and novel are referenced. The events of the adventure may yet play a major role in the unfolding mystery but as of the 90-minute pilot episode they provide color for the character.

Owen makes a very credible Spade. That are moment when the costuming, hair, make-up, and framing recall Bogart’s interpretation of the character quite strongly. The episodes were produced in France and utilizes a number of that nation’s actors helping cement a realism about the time and place of the tale. The premier episode, while carrying the heavy load of establishing characters and their history, and there is a large number of characters with interlocking backstories to follow, manages to be compelling drama in its own right and has hooked me for the rest of the series.

Monsieur Spade streams on AMC and AMC+.

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