Yesterday I wrote about three terrific series that told the story of The Ultimates, Marvel Comics’ reinvention of their super-hero team, the Avengers.  In addition to those three phenomenal series that I discussed (The Ultimates, The Ultimates 2, and the Ultimate Galactus Trilogy), there have been a number of subsequent mini-series that have carried forward the stories of many of the characters from those series.  

Some have been excellent.  Others, not so much.

Let’s take a look!

Ultimate Vision, by Mike Carey & Brandon Peterson — Basically an epilogue to Warren Ellis’ Ultimate Galactus storyline, we follow Sam Wilson and the Vision (two characters that Ellis introduced to the Ultimate universe in his series) as they discover that one Galactus module has survived.  If they don’t destroy it, bad things will happen!  The story is really carried by Brandon Peterson’s magnificently detailed art, which I could look at all day long.

Ultimate Wolverine/Hulk, by Damon Lindeloff and Leinil Francis Yu — The promise of a Wolverine/Hulk battle authored by Lindeloff (one of the masterminds behind Lost) was very tempting, and the first two issues were a lot of fun.  Then the series ceased publication.  Last month, after more than 3 years, the third issue was finally released (with the assurance that the remaining 3 issues will be coming out monthly).  The jury is still out on this one.

Ultimate Power, by Brian Michael Bendis, J. Michael Straczynski, Jeph Loeb, and Greg Lang — This 9 issue crossover started with an intriguing premise: Reed Richards, desperately searching for a cure for his friend Ben Grimm (who was transformed into the Thing in the accident that gave the FF their powers), sends probes into alternate universes.  One of them gets contaminated and apparently winds up wreaking incredible devastation upon the Supreme Power universe (from the series Supreme Power, Straczynski’s reinvention of Marvel’s classic Squadron Supreme characters).  What followed was an extended super-hero slugfest.  Land’s art is beautiful, but the story was extremely choppy.  Instead of Bendis, Straczynski, and Loeb collaborating on all nine issues, each one of them scripted three issues.  I enjoyed the Bendis and Straczynksi issues, but Loeb didn’t stick the landing.  Characters suddenly seemed completely out of character, and in the end it all turned out to be a pretty stupid super-villain plot.  Lame.

Ultimate Iron Man, by Orson Scott Card and a variety of artists — I got very excited when it was announced that famed sci-fi novelist Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game) would be writing the origin story for Tony Stark, but sadly the execution left something to be desired.  Card’s story had a lot of layers, and it was filled with a ton of interesting sci-fi ideas, but the story was overly complicated and hard to follow.  (This was exacerbated by the long delays that plagued the series, and the constant rotation of artists.)  I also didn’t feel that the revelations about Tony Stark in this series jived with the depiction of Stark that Millar gave us in his Ultimates series.  (For example, that Tony didn’t seem like he could re-grown his limbs at will!!)

Ultimate Human, by Warren Ellis and Cary Nord — A welcome return to form for the Ultimate universe, as Tony Stark and Bruce Banner unite to try to solve Banner’s Hulk affliction.  Great Warren Ellis sci-fi ideas and snarky dialogue combined with Nord’s beautiful, lush art make this series a winner.  My only complaint: at only four issues, I wanted more!

The Ultimates 3, by Jeph Loeb and Joe Madueira — A complete disaster.  Loeb’s scripts lack all of the nuance of Millar’s, and his versions of the character seem totally different than the ones that Millar had established in his two Ultimates series.  Where Millar was… well, not subtle, but let’s say playful (for example, hinting at the incestuous relationship between Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch), Loeb comes out and makes dull, obvious jokes.  And the art — I have been a fan of Madueira since his work on the X-Men almost 15 years ago, but the digitally-painted look to his illustrations here is a total eye-sore.  Thank heaven this only lasted 5 issues.

Ultimate Origins, by Brian Michael Bendis and Butch Guice — Set mostly in the past, Bendis weaves together the back-stories of a variety of Ultimate universe characters (Captain America, Nick Fury, Wolverine, Professor X and Magneto) in a compelling story with several surprising revelations (such as the origin of all mutants) that sets the stage for the coming upheaval of the Ultimates universe: Ultimatum.  And I loved his version of the Ultimate Watcher!

Ultimatum, by Jeph Loeb and David Finch — Only three of the five issues have been released, but so far I am not loving this “universe-shattering” mini-series.  Jeph Loeb has written a lot of stuff that I have really enjoyed (Superman For All Seasons, Batman: The Long Halloween), but I am not at all digging his work in the Ultimate Universe.  This series is exhibiting the same problems as did Ultimates 3 and his final 3 issues of Ultimate Power — poor characterization, an over-wrought story, and a lot of dumb, on-the-nose dialogue.  The catastrophic events of Ultimatum are being felt in other Ultimate titles such as Bendis’ Ultimate Spider-Man, which I’ve been reading — and I have been FAR preferring Bendis’ take to Loeb’s.  We’ll see if the next two issues pick things up.

That’s all for me for today!  See you back here tomorrow!

Last month I wrote several posts about my favorite graphic novels.  One of the works that I mentioned (saying at the time that a more lengthy review would be coming) was Mark Millar & Bryan Hitch’s The Ultimates.

In the early 2000’s, Marvel Comics launched their Ultimate line, in which they took several popular, long-running Marvel characters and basically started them over from ground zero.  Spearheaded by some of Marvel’s top talent, the idea was to make the characters fresh and dynamic again, and remove the burden of 30-plus years of back-story and continuity.  The Ultimate line kicked off with Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley’s Ultimate Spider-Man.  This was an amazing, extraordinary piece of work, and it deserves a longer article of its own.  Suffice to say, I have never enjoyed a monthly Spider-Man comic as much, and I am still following the series every month.

Today I want to talk to you about Millar and Hitch’s reinvention of Marvel Comics’ premiere super-hero group, the Avengers, in their series The Ultimates that ran from 2002-2004.  (The series is available in two softcover collections or in one gorgeous hardcover.)

This is a magnificent, adult piece of work, and one hopes that it will be used as a template for the coming Avengers feature film.  The story begins at the end of World War II, as we witness the last mission of Captain America.  What might be a short 4-page flashback in another series is a lengthy (taking up almost the entirety of the series’ first issue) tale of gritty combat that sets the series’ tone of brutal intensity and incredible attention to detail.  

Then the story jumps forward to the 21st century.  It’s a brave new world filled with new wonders and new threats, both at home and abroad.  Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD, decides that the only way to protect America is to create a new team of American super-heroes.  Unfortunately, no one has been able to re-create the super soldier serum that turned scrawny Steve Rogers into the super-human Captain America.  But disparate events are about to come to a head that just might give Fury the elements he needs for his super-human task force: Scientist Bruce Banner injects himself with an experimental formula; brilliant industrialist and drunkard Tony Stark creates an extraordinary suit of armor; an anti-corporate hippie who claims to be Thor, the Norse God of Thunder, has begun to amass a legion of followers; and finally, the frozen body of Captain America is discovered, perfectly preserved in the Arctic.

Mark Millar’s writing is very contemporary — the story really runs with the conceit that all these events are happening in our “real” world, and so we see all the sorts of things that would probably happen if super-heroes started coming on to the scene: press conferences, PR people, and a lot of other interactions with real-life folk (celebrities, politicians, etc.).  Millar also doesn’t shy away from the violence and brutality that would come from super-powered conflicts, or from the emotional complexities that any human being would have, particularly someone with extraordinary abilities.  But Millar is able to balance those elements with his ability to tell a really ripping super-hero yarn.  There’s a lot of character development, but also a lot of extraordinary “wide-screen” action.

In both respects, Millar is aided by the hyper-detailed art of Bryan Hitch.  From the very first page of the very first issue, in which Hitch creates a gorgeous, incredibly detailed image of Allied planes flying over the North Atlantic in 1945, readers know they are in for something special.  Hitch has a talent for conveying the personalities and emotions of the characters that he illustrates.  He can make an extended “talking head” dialogue scene extraordinarily compelling — and not just because of the enormous details he pours into the backgrounds, whether the scene is set on SHIELD’s futuristic base, downtown Manhattan, or the Arizona desert.  And his action sequences are astounding.  I have never seen fight scenes in a comic book quite like these.  Issue five contains a massive battle with the Hulk in New York City, and the incredible detail that Hitch gives to every single panel of carnage is jaw-dropping.  

Millar and Hitch returned to these characters and stories in a second, 13-issue series, The Ultimates 2, published from 2004-2007.  In that follow-up series, Millar and Hitch continued to pose challenging questions about what would happen if such a team of super-heroes existed in our real world.  We witness Nick Fury’s growing temptation to use The Ultimates to pacify America’s enemies abroad, and of the devastating consequences of those actions.

I wasn’t sure if anything could top the first Ultimates series, and at first, I wasn’t sure The Ultimates 2 would.  The first six issues are fairly leisurely paced.  We witness a number of different vignettes, including the Ultimates’ deployment in Iraq, the efforts of the US’s international allies to create their own super-soldiers, the assembly of a group of wanna-be super-heroes who call themselves the Defenders, and the growing rifts between the members of the Ultimates themselves.  But it was unclear at first where all of this was going, and what sort of story was being told.  But things shifted into high gear in issues seven and eight, and then came the staggering issue nine.  In that chapter, titled “Grand Theft America,” in one horrific scene after another we witness the complete defeat of the Ultimates and the total conquest of America by a union of its enemies.  Millar and Hitch sure know how to go for their jugular — the shocking story is enhanced by their choices of imagery: devastation in New York city, the destruction of SHIELD headquarters, the capture of Washington DC, and the toppling of the Statue of Liberty.  To say that the remainder of the story (issues 10-13) is action-packed would be an extreme understatement, as the Ultimates and their allies attempt to regroup and fight back, and the situation escalates even further.  

Ultimates 2 might be a little more indulgent than the first volume (what with the digressions of its first half, and the ever-more-intense super-hero slugfests of its second half), but I love it just as much.  Each page that I turn brings to my eyes increasingly astounding imagery from the mind of Millar and the pencil of Hitch.  There really has never been a super-hero comic book quite like this.  

In my discussion of The Ultimates, I should also mention Warren Ellis’ Ultimate Galactus storyline.  This was originally released as three limited series (Ultimate Nightmare, Ultimate Secret, and Ultimate Extinction), and has subsequently been collected in one edition.

Something or someone has begun broadcasting all over the planet images of the brutal deaths of a variety of alien species.  Nick Fury sends his team of Ultimates to investigate.  Thinking that the source of the broadcasts is a mutant in distress, Professor Xavier sends a team of his X-Men.  The two groups converge in Tunguska, where they discover the relic of an advanced, extra-terrestrial mechanical being who came to Earth to warn us of the coming of the world devourer Gah lak tus.  The Fantastic Four, along with several other familiar Marvel characters, quickly become involved as Fury tries to figure out just what that entity is, and how mankind could possibly mount a defense against something that has already destroyed countless worlds.

When writing about his sci-fi comic book stories last month, I praised Warren Ellis for the way he incorporates a lot of real-world science and far-out ideas into his tales, and his reinvention of Galactus is no exception.  When Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced Galactus into the Marvel Universe in Fantastic Four #48-50 back in 1966, their depiction of Galactus as a huge guy in a purple outfit was dramatic and astounding.  Today, while the look of Galactus is a classic one, it is also undeniably hokey.  Ellis’ reinvention of Galactus for the Ultimate universe is a lot more complex, and a lot more creepy.  As Millar did in his two Ultimate series, I was quite impressed at the way Ellis was able to totally reinvent a classic Marvel concept into something entirely new and contemporary, while not losing any of the iconic imagery and ideas behind the original creation.  (I was also pleased to see Ellis introduce several other classic Marvel characters into the Ultimate universe, as well:  the Silver Surfer, Captain Mar-Vell, Moondragon, and even Misty Knight!)

Ellis’ story is also supported by some terrific art: Trevor Hairsine, Steve McNiven, Brandon Peterson, and others.  I do wish that there was more consistency to the art, with the same artist illustrating the entire tale.  But since almost all of the artists used are quite talented, I can’t complain too much.  In particular, Peterson has a great eye for illustrating sophisticated technology (both real and imagined), and his work brings a lot of weight and power to the series’ final chapters.  

Are these three series (The Ultimates, The Ultimates 2, and the Ultimate Galactus Trilogy) serious comic book works with a capital “S”?  No they are not!  But they are extraordinarily entertaining stories nonetheless, ones that are aimed squarely at adults.  They sit proudly on my bookshelf, and I have no doubt I will be re-reading them often in the future.

Yesterday I mentioned two terrific reviews of the recent Trek coverage and comics here at MotionPicturesComics.com.  I’m also excited to report that we’ve been mentioned on several other fun sites from around the web over the past two weeks:

Star Trek author Keith R.A. DeCandido (whose amazing recent novels and short-stories have been showered with praise by yours truly) was kind enough to mention MotionPicturesComics.com on his blog a few times recently (here and here).  Motion Pictures also got a nice mention on the blog of another talented Star Trek author, William Leisner.  (He liked my review of his recent Star Trek: Myriad Universe story, “A Gutted World.”  Well, I really liked that story!)

Galactica Sitrep is an indispensable site devoted to Battlestar Galactica (should we keep referring to the show as “the new” Battlestar Galactica, seeing as it is now over and done with??), and they were kind enough to post a link to my recent review of the Caprica pilot.

Finally, Motion Pictures also rated a nice (but brief) mention recently on Trekmovie.com, the best source of Trek news on-line these days.  They cover all aspects of the Trek universe (the new film, of course, but also books, comics, fan films, and lots more).  It’s a great site, and one that I check daily.  

Let’s hope that word about my little web-site continues to spread…

Have a great long weekend, everyone!

MotionPicturesComics.com has been getting a little bit of love from around the net lately!

Jill Rayburn at Roddenberry.com posted a RAVE review of the site and my recent Star Trek comics.  Jill writes a regular blog on that site called Artistic License that is well worth checking out.  In addition to her regular Star Trek coverage (which is thorough — I particularly enjoyed her recent look at Alan Dean Foster’s novelization of the new Trek film) she writes about comics, games, DVDs, and all sorts of other fun stuff.

We also got a GREAT write-up over at Axiom’s Edge, a terrific blog about all Sci-fi and fantasy movies, TV shows, etc.  Like this site, they’ve had a lot of Trek-related content up recently.  Lots of fun stuff to be found — like their in-depth coverage of the recent network announcements of their Fall TV schedules, lots of great comics reviews, and a whole heaping helping of fun Trek stuff.  It’s a fantastic site — take a look!

Hoo boy.

One of my first articles, when I started this blog, was about great franchises that have fallen on hard times.  I was writing about my once-beloved Alien and Predator series, but we can all now safely add the X-Men films to that list.  What in the world has happened to this series??  X-Men and X2 were so spectacular — but after X3 and now the rather verbosely titled X-Men Origins: Wolverine I am sad to report that the series is batting only two for four.

That’s not to say that Wolverine is a Fantastic Four caliber catastrophe.  Some talented actors appear on-screen, there’s some exciting action, some familiar X-Men characters pop up (one in particular really surprised me), and we finally get to hear Wolverine say on-screen, “I’m the best there is at what I do.  But what I do best isn’t very nice.”  But X-Men Origins: Wolverine a rentlessly dour and joyless affair, one that consistently reveals itself to be a truly B-Grade effort.  What do I mean by that?  Allow me to elaborate:

The film is filled with plot-holes, but more than that, it doesn’t hold together at all as any sort of coherent narrative.  I respect the filmmakers’ ambition in trying to capture a number of different periods in Wolverine’s life, from his birth in the late 1800’s, through his experiences in a variety of wars (captured really well, actually, in an exciting opening credits sequence), through his time with Silver Fox, his involvement in the Weapon X program, and beyond.  But none of the bits and pieces hang together.  Instead of merging together to form an expansive back-story, each jump in time left me with countless unanswered questions: Why would Logan, a Canadian, fight in so many of America’s wars?  Right from the first scene, he is established as a gentler soul than his mean brother Victor — so why would Logan hang around with Victor for so many years?  If Stryker and the team were so upset when Wolverine left them, how and why did the whole group disband soon after?  And why would Victor, of all people, be the one to remain in Stryker’s service?  I could go on.

The film makes a total hash of the X-Men comic continuity.  There was a lot of precedent for this, of course, as the previous three X-Men films also mixed and matched characters and story-lines from different periods of the comics with great abandon.  But there’s a souless “everything and the kitchen sink” approach to this film as it ties in a barrage of random Marvel Comics characters (Gambit!  Deadpool!  The Blob!) into Wolverine’s origin — and many of the changes to the established comic books’ back-stories really bugged me.  Sabretooth and Wolverine are siblings?  Logan entered the Weapon X program voluntarily?  Emma Frost is Silver Fox’s sister?  Whaaa??

The film isn’t even all that consistent with the previous three X-Men films.  I mean, I know that Logan gets shot with amnesia bullets at the end (I’m not kidding, by the way — do you think I could make that up??) so he wouldn’t remember meeting young Cyclops — but shouldn’t Cyke have remembered HIM when they meet up again in the first X-Men film?  

There are some moments of fun action and visual spectacle — the three-way fight atop a nuclear reactor at the movie’s end comes to mind — but some achingly bad special effects as well.  In the scene in a bathroom where Logan first pops his adamantium claws, the claws look ridiculously fake.  I mean, really astonishingly I-can’t-believe-that’s-the-finished-effects-shot fake.  

I feel sort of bad about picking on this movie, because Hugh Jackman seems like a terrific fellow — and he is so good at playing Wolverine that it is easy, now in his fourth go-round in the role, to take him for granted.  This is a character that, before the first X-Men film, I would have argued to the death would be completely impossible to play on film and not come off as totally ridiculous.  And yet, ever since that first shot that revealed him in the steel cage in the first X-Men movie, Jackman has inhabited the character in a magical way.  Even in this sub-par installment (or maybe I should say especially in this sub-par installment), he’s the best thing about the film.

It is clear that the stewards of the X-Men film franchise really have no idea where to take the series.  That is frustrating, because there is a GOLDMINE of amazing X-Men stories from the last 40 years of comic books that can be drawn from.  This should be the easiest franchise in the world to continue for movie after movie.  There are so many great stories that could be adapted.  Are actors like Patrick Stewart or Halle Berry getting too expensive?  Easy!  Just re-cast the roles or write those characters out of the series and bring in new ones.  The X-Men in the comics changed their roster constantly, and there are so many amazing new characters who could be brought to life on screen to replace a Storm or a Professor X or a Jean Grey.  

I could understand it if the film-makers wanted to, occasionally, take a break from the enormous multi-character X-Men epics to focus on a single character film.  The idea of making a gritty Wolverine solo movie is an appealing one!  But if that was the filmmakers’ intention, then why did they surround Logan in this film with a bevy of other mutant characters — X-Men lite, if you will?  If we’re going to see Logan fight the bad guys along with a team of people with super-powers, then why not just give us a fourth X-Men film, for heavens sake??   And dark and gritty, this film is not.  True, Logan spends much of the movie unhappy, and none of the characters around him are any fun.  But the film never brings and real intensity or violence to the fight scenes, and the emotional moments just aren’t that gripping.  (Compare the death of a female character in this film to the mid-movie death of a female character in The Dark Knight.  Night and day in terms of the emotional impact of those two moments.)

Furthermore, if one wanted to make a Wolverine solo film, I am stunned that the filmmakers decided to tell this patchwork origin story and ignored what would have been a magnificent template for a film: the 4-issue mini-series Wolverine, from 1987, by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller.  In Wolverine’s first major solo spin-off adventure, Logan travels to Japan, falls in love, fights ninjas, and travels an intense personal journey in which he struggles between the human and animal sides of his nature.  A spectacular story that holds up today, this would have make a kick-ass movie.

Instead, I got to watch Wolverine team up with some leftovers from Dutch’s team from Predator to hunt rocks, kill some people, then make goo-goo eyes at a cute babe, cut down some trees, meet Ma and Pa Kent, jump onto a helicopter, and engage in three versions of the exact same fight with his pissed-off brother Sabretooth.  Oh, and at long last we learned the origin of that cool jacket Logan was wearing in the first X-Men movie.

Pass me those amnesia bullets, would you please?

Big dumb summer movie trailer alert!  It’s the new trailer for Transformers 2, filled with lots of robot smashing action, and the new trailer for G.I. Joe, filled with Ninjas and, um, Eiffel Tower smashing action!  Sigh.  Hard to believe these two iconic and beloved cartoons of my youth are both now big-budget blockbuster movies coming out this summer.  Wouldn’t it be amazing if there were both really awesome?  Isn’t it sort of sad to know that they definitely won’t be?

For a peek at a movie that might actually be good, click here to check out District 9, the new sci-fi flick directed by Neill Blomkamp and executive produced by Peter Jackson (The Lord of The Rings).  Color me intrigued.

Keeping up with the trailers, here’s a glimpse at the new film from Francis Ford Coppola, Tetro.  I never saw his last film, the critically-demolished Youth Without Youth, but this looks really interesting.  It’s a new film from Francis Ford Coppola!  Of course it looks interesting!

Did you know that Robert Rodriguez is working on a new Predator film??  If it happens, it’ll be called Predators (in a clever nod to James Cameron’s sequel to Alien, entitled Aliens).  Check out the tantalizing details here.  I need to see this movie RIGHT NOW.

So it’s been ten years since The Phantom Menace, huh?  Here’s an interesting look back.  I agree with this fellow’s thoughts about the two Phantom Menace trailers (among the finest trailers ever crafted), but I certainly don’t think anywhere nearly as highly of that dreadful turd of a movie as he does.  (You can read my memories of first seeing Episode I in theatres here, and my thoughts on the movie looking back almost a decade later here.)

Did you not have enough Star Trek content here on the site for the past two weeks?  Then check out this great piece from the Onion A.V. Club: “Space Racism is Bad and 17 Other Not-So-Subtle Lessons Learned From Star Trek.”  If you’ve never seen it before, you MUST scroll down to the clip of William Shatner’s Kirk reading the Preamble to U.S. Constitution in selection #12, from the absurd Trek episode The Omega Glory.  ”WE… the… PEOPLE… not written for thekingsorthechiefsortherichorthepowerful but for ALLTHEPEOPLE!”  Classic Shatnerian magnificence. 

Since seeing J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek film, I’ve been enjoying reading all the different reactions on-line and in the press.  I always enjoy Alexandra DuPont’s film reviews when they appear (not often enough to suit me) on aintitcoolnews.com, and her take on the new film is well worth your time.  (I remember well — and agree with entirely — her spot-on evisceration of Star Trek: Nemesis, which she quotes at the start of her review.)  Star Trek author William Leisner (who wrote a terrific novella in Pocket Books’ recent Myriad Universes series, reviewed by yours truly here) has a terrific opposite take, giving a right-on-the-money account of all the problematic plot holes in the film.  Trek author Geoff Trowbridge (who also wrote an installment in Myriad Universes) has a similarly interesting take.  My own views (click here if you missed my full review) are somewhat in the middle.  I share a lot of Ms. DuPont’s love for the film, but my enjoyment was lessened by all the plot holes that Mr. Leisner and Mr. Trowbridge list.  

That’s all for today — See you back here tomorrow!

Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell) is a sex-addict who works at Colonial Dunsboro, an 18th-century re-enactment village.  He’s also a con-man whose routine is to pretend he is choking in a restaurant and then befriend the person who rescues him, ultimately hitting that unsuspecting “hero” up for a handout.  Oh yes, and after reading the diaries of his dying mother, he begins to suspect that he might be a clone of Jesus Christ.  Or, at least, a half-clone.

What a marvelously bizarre movie!!

At this point I’ve become convinced that I will watch Sam Rockwell in anything.  I first noticed him in Galaxy Quest, and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind has become one of my favorite movies.  He’s even great is smallish supporting roles, as he was in Frost/Nixon.  The energetic way in which Rockwell embodies Victor gives this film its life.  Adapted from a novel by Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club), the movie could very easily have become a dour, joyless affair.  But Rockwell’s Victor is just so entertaining to watch, even when he is being a total jackass, that he carries the viewer without any complaint through some of the movie’s rougher patches.  

The supporting cast is equally phenomenal.  Brad William Henke (currently wondering what lies in the shadow of the statue on Lost) is hysterical as Victor’s somewhat dim friend Denny.  Anjelica Houston’s performance here reminds me of the similarly mysterious and flawed mother figure that she played in The Darjeeling Limited the year before, but that’s not a criticism.  She’s especially compelling in the flashback scenes, where we see how her particular brand of craziness sent Victor down the road to becoming the screwed-up fellow he is when we meet him.  Gillian Jacobs breathes a lot of heart and soul into her small role as Beth/”Cherry Daquiri.”  She is also, I might add, stunningly beautiful.  Speaking of beautiful, I found myself completely smitten (as is Victor) by Kelly MacDonald (Gosford Park, No Country for Old Men) as Paige Marshall, who Victor meets at the private hospital where his mother is being treated.  I can really believe that she is the individual who can shake Victor out of the terrible rut that his life has become.  

Choke deals quite frankly with sex and a lot of sexual situations.  In some indie movies I find that frankness to be a bit uncomfortable, but here the subject matter is treated with just enough of a touch of humor that I went along quite eagerly for the ride.  There’s a lot of weirdness to be found in Choke, and Victor’s habit of imagining the people he’s interacting with naked is just one small part of this!  As with The Wackness (which I reviewed on Wednesday) this film has to strike a delicate balance between the humor and the drama, and between the realistic character arcs and the absurdity of some of the situations depicted.  And as with The Wackness, Choke succeeds admirably.  First-time writer/director Clark Gregg (so recognizable as a terrific actor in Sports Night, The West Wing, State and Main, Spartan, and most recently as an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Iron Man) does a wonderful job of bringing the story to life.  You’d never know this was the work of a first-time director.  Gregg is also hilarious in his small role as the Lord High Charlie, one of Victor’s co-workers at Colonial Dunsboro.

This movie is not for everyone.  All the sexual goings-on, not to mention all the other weirdness, might be too much for some, and I could certainly understand that.  But I found myself completely engaged by the story, totally carried away by the bizarre, unique world of Choke.

I saw this terrific movie on DVD last month, during the same week that I saw the lovely new film Adventureland (read my full review here), and although the settings are extremely different, I was struck by the similarities between the two films.  Both are “period pieces” set a few years back, and both tell coming-of-age stories, set over the course of a particularly transformative summer.

The Wackness takes place in New York City during the summer of 1994.  Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck) has just graduated high school and is spending the summer hanging around the city and making money selling pot.  When we first meet him he’s in the office of Dr. Jeffrey Squires (Ben Kingsley), who is Luke’s psychiatrist and also one of his best clients.  At a post-graduation party, Luke reconnects with Dr. Squires’ daughter Stephanie (Olivia Thirlby), one of his class-mates but someone with whom he has had little interaction (because, as Luke puts it later in the film, she is “mad out of [his] league”).  

The hip-hop music and lingo of 1994 are an enormous part of the film, something which writer/director Jonathan Levine has recreated with great care.  I can’t vouch for his accuracy, but the music and the unique, specific “street-talk” really give the film a vibrant pulse and a distinct feel.

Over the course of the summer, Lucas has to grow up in many ways — he is faced with the ups and downs of his first real relationship and his exposure to the failings and imperfections of the adults around him.  Dr. Squires goes through similar emotional turmoil.  He sees in Luke many of the opportunities that he feels he has missed in life, and he has to face up to the sad, empty shell that his marriage (to his wife Kristen, played quietly by Famke Janssen) has become.  That description of a troubled adult and a troubled youth learning from one another and changing for the better sounds terribly cliche (I’ve seen Good Will Hunting and a hundred similar movies, as I’m sure have you), but The Wackness manages to deftly steer clear of predictable developments and movie-happy “I’ve grown and learned a lesson” endings.  It is also surprisingly funny.

Credit goes not only to writer/director Levine but also to his terrific cast.  Josh Peck is quite compelling as Luke Shapiro.  He makes the role his own, bringing life to Luke and embodying him with specific quirks and characteristics that make him a pretty unique movie young-adult lead.  Sir Ben Kingsley, under a terrifically ridiculous mop of hair, is similarly magnificent as the bizarre Dr. Squires.  His friendship with Luke is the beating heart of the film, and the two actors sell it brilliantly.  I also found Olivia Thirlby (who really shone in her supporting role in Juno) to be fantastic as the alluring object of Luke’s affection.  The subtlety of her performance brings a lot of complexities to a role that could easily have been very one-dimensional.  The film also boasts terrific performances from the rest of the cast, including Method Man (Cheese from The Wire) as Luke’s Jamaican drug-connection, Percy; Jane Adams (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) as one of Luke’s clients, Eleanor; and (hard as this may be to believe) Mary-Kate Olsen, perfectly cast as a ditzy hippy who, in one of the film’s most eye-raising scenes, briefly gets it on with Kingsley’s Dr. Squires.  

The Wackness is a fascinating, funny, emotional film with a unique feel all its own.  Check it out.  I can’t wait to see it again.

It’s been a long road.  After walking disgustedly out of the opening weekend screening of the catastrophically terrible Star Trek: Nemesis back in December, 2002, I knew that Trek was at a low point.  It seemed uncertain what, if any, future the franchise had after the release of that bomb and the subsequent cancellation of the last Trek TV show, Enterprise.  Then, about 3 years ago, word came that a new Trek film was in the works.  Gradually news began to leak out, some very exciting, some rather worrying, and I soaked up every tidbit with great anticipation, some nervousness, and extremely high hopes that one day Star Trek could be great again.  A few hours ago, I watched the result of J.J. Abrams and his team’s efforts: the simply-titled Star Trek.

Abrams and his brain-trust — consisting of Damon Lindeloff (one of the top minds behind Lost) and screen-writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman — dared to do what no man has done before: to re-cast the iconic roles of the Original Series characters.  As everyone knows by now, instead of creating new characters and situations and moving the Star Trek universe forward beyond the adventures of Picard-Sisko-Janeway-etc., they decided to go back and tell an Original Series story, with new actors playing younger versions of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and all the other familiar characters.  This was an incredibly risky move.  While similiar “how it all began” prequels such as Batman Begins and Casino Royale worked well, audiences had already become accustomed to seeing lots of different actors take on the roles of Batman and James Bond.  But could someone other than William Shatner play Kirk?  Could someone other than Leonard Nimoy play Spock?

Although sadly this film fails in some powerfully annoying ways (more on that in a few moments), I am happy to report that, in this respect — that is, in regards to the viability of rebooting and recasting Star Trek — the film succeeds magnificently.  Bravo to the choice of talented actors selected to be the new command team of the Enterprise — there is not a weak link in the bunch.  None of the actors resorts to mimicry, and yet they all, somehow, truly manage to embody their characters!

Let’s start with Chris Pine as James Tiberius Kirk.  He’s got the swagger, he’s got the arrogance, and yet he’s able to also convey a tremendous likability.  You can see that this is a man that others will follow.  The film doesn’t shy away from the “lady-killer” aspects of Kirk’s persona, but Pine never crosses the line into camp or, on the other hand, into boorishness.  Rather, there’s terrific fun to had watching, for example, Kirk get easily distracted from getting needed medical help from McCoy by the sight of a pretty lady walking by in the other direction.  Zachary Quinto, on the other hand, doesn’t shy away from making his Spock quite unlikable at the start of the film, but that works for the Spock character here.  This Spock is still young, still conflicted about his warring Vulcan/Human sides, and still trying to find a place for himself.  That makes for some compelling stuff, and Quinto plays that internal drama well.  (Much better than many of the overly-emotional Vulcans we had to suffer through on the last Trek TV series, Enterprise.)  Plus, there’s a moment late in the film when he gets to give the great “my only reply to your human emotionality is a silent raise of one pointed eyebrow,” and man does he nail that moment.

Most reviewers are singing the praise of Karl Urban (Eomer from The Lord of the Rings) as Leonard McCoy, and allow me, please, to join in the chorus.  Of all the actors cast, he was the biggest “huh?” — as his prior work didn’t lead me to think that he had any resemblance whatsoever to DeForest Kelley.  And yet, somehow, of all the actors, he is the one who is most magically able to channel his predecessor.  Urban IS Bones.  There’s just no question.  He is able to express all the grumpy technophobia wrapped up in an enormous, kind heart that DeForest Kelley was always able to portray.  And the man says “dammit, Jim!” like nobody’s business.  (But, SPOILER ALERT, we didn’t get a single “he’s dead, Jim!”  Maybe next time.)  From the trailers and all the other promotional materials, I was afraid that McCoy’s friendship with Kirk was going to be completely ignored by this film in favor of an emphasis on the Kirk-Spock dynamic.  While the trailers took that approach, I am happy to say the final film did not.  McCoy is an absolutely central character here, and his close friendship with Kirk drives much of the story.

Zoe Saldana is beautiful and brings tremendous intelligence to the role of Uhura.  (And praise be to the Great Bird of the Galaxy that we finally get her first name — long ago revealed in “unofficial” novels, etc. — said out loud on-screen!)  Smart move making her a linguistics expert in addition to just the Communications Officer who says “hailing frequencies open.”  That change makes Uhura much more central to the plot.  (Allow me to interject here and also compliment the film on the way it makes ALL the characters in the ensemble important to the plot, not just Kirk-Spock-McCoy.)  John Cho dives into the role of Hikaru Sulu with gusto, and, like Uhura, he too gets some great stuff to do in the flick — specifically, he’s involved in a critical and exciting action sequence about halfway through the film (snippets of which have been in all the trailers).  Then there’s Anton Yelchin as Pavel Chekov.  I feel the film makes a bit too much of a meal out of his over-wrought Russian accent, but that’s just a minor objection.  I keep calling these actors likable, and let me say it again here — Yelchin brings such heart and good humor to the role that a few accent-related groaners didn’t hurt his performance for me at all.  I also like that he, too, is given some moments in the movie to show his character’s expertise — specifically, at using the transporter.  Finally, rounding out the classic team is Simon Pegg as Scotty.  Pegg is positively gleeful in the role, and I wish we didn’t have to wait so long in the movie before his character enters the picture!  Great balance with the accent — it’s clearly Scotty, but, again, not just an exercise in accent-imitation.

My compliments about casting also extend to the rest of the supporting cast.  I have a lot of love for the character of Christopher Pike (played by Jeffrey Hunter in the original Star Trek pilot over 40 years ago), and I was really happy to learn he’d be in the film.  Bruce Greenwood is absolutely spectacular in the role, and he has a lot of moments to shine.  One of my favorite scenes in the film is his “I dare you to do better” speech to Kirk (that was the centerpiece of the film’s advertising campaign), but he also has some great moments of gravitas and leadership on the Enterprise bridge.  Speaking of Starfleet Captains, Faran Tahir (one of the main villains in Iron Man) is terrific as the captain of the doomed U.S.S. Kelvin — I sort of wanted to watch a whole movie about that guy!  Eric Bana does solid work as the villainous Nero, although we really don’t get a lot of time to know his character (a real weakness of the film, I think).  His Romulan was surprisingly American-sounding to me, which was a little odd but not a major problem.  He certainly was a lot more gritty and “real,” to me, than a lot of past Trek movie villains.

After the casting, the other main aspect of J.J. Abrams’ Trek reinvention is, of course, the visual look of the film.  How can one honor the look and spirit of a made-on-the-cheap 40 year-old TV show and still provide exciting visual eye-candy for today’s viewers?  For the MOST part, I am happy to say that Abrams succeeds here as well as he did with the casting.  This is a beautiful film.  My goodness it is great to finally get to watch a Star Trek movie that doesn’t look like it was filmed on a shoe-string budget!  This is a magnificently epic film, one that is filled to the absolute brim with wonders that can’t possibly all be taken in and absorbed on a single viewing.  It’s also nice to watch a Trek film that really feels like it was helmed by a visionary director.  It’s really neat the to see the way Abrams approaches some familiar Trek staples (such as the fly-by of the Enterprise’s hull, or scenes around the Captain’s chair on the bridge, or a Vulcan mind-meld) from new and different ways.  This is not a director who just set up his camera in front of some pretty sets!  There’s a real vigor and intensity to the way the camera moves and the way scenes are staged that is a delight.

And the visual effects — holy cow.  The starships look magnificent, the space-battles are amazing, and all the different planetary environments seen in the film are beautifully realized.  Let me heap particular praise on the design of the planet Vulcan, which is extraordinarily faithful to the glimpses of Vulcan that we’ve seen before but realized on a scale way above prior efforts.  And if we’re talking about design, let me also single out the cockpit design of Spock’s little ship.  Did you notice that, when the triangular-shaped chair is straight in front of the circular cockpit window, it looks exactly like the famous Vulcan IDIC (”Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations”) pendant from the original series?  Cool!

For those of you who have been reading this review and have been waiting for an enormous “BUT…” well, here it is.  All of the above is awesome and terrific.  The cast works spectacularly well, the visuals are gorgeous, and the film is directed with a skill and intensity that has been sorely lacking in Trek films since Nicholas Meyer was involved (he directed the two best Trek films, II and VI).  BUT.  The script is the weak link.

There are way too many instances when characters do things not because it is the, ahem, logical thing to do, but because that is what the plot dictates.  After Kirk questions Spock’s command decisions, Spock has him jettisoned from the Enterprise in an escape pod and marooned on an ice planet??  Say WHAT now??  That is just insanity.  Put the boy in the brig, for heavens sake!  This happens in the story because the writers needed some reason to separate Kirk from the rest of the Enterprise crew for a while, so he could meet up with old-Spock.  But the device they came up with, of Kirk getting thrown off the ship in the middle of a galactic crisis, is ludicrous.

I also got fed up, very quickly, with the way that all of our young cadet characters quickly found themselves placed in positions of authority.  The Enterprise is damaged and some of the medical staff is killed — so suddenly cadet McCoy is the Chief Medical Officer?  Aren’t there ANY other doctors on board?  Kirk gets back to the Enterprise with Scotty — who, at this point, has NEVER served aboard a starship — and in two seconds Scotty is in charge of Engineering?  Where’s the Chief Engineer?  Where are ANY of the other members of the starship’s engineering staff??  And don’t get me started on cadet Kirk getting named Captain of the Enterprise.  Come.  On.  I love how this film emphasizes the enormous size of a starship like the Enterprise, and the army of people it takes to man her.  It is not unreasonable to me that a ship like the Enterprise would have some low-level cadets on board.  But where is the ship’s middle-management??  OK, the Captain and some of the senior staff get taken out — but what about the scores of lieutenants and lieutenant commanders who must be on-board who’d be able to take charge before cadet Kirk and his buddies would get tapped?

The film is filled with plot holes like that.  After a distress call is received from Vulcan, it takes the Enterprise about 3 minutes to warp from Earth to Vulcan.  Then Nero decides to take his ship from Vulcan to Earth, and it seems to take him the entire second half of the movie to get there.  Kirk gets stranded on Delta Vega, which just HAPPENS to be the planet where old Spock has also been stranded.  And, of the ENTIRE PLANET, Kirk’s pod just HAPPENS to land right where Spock is.  And, at the old almost-abandoned Starfleet posting on that frozen rock, one of the only two officers stationed there just HAPPENS to be Montogomery Scott.

I could go on.  Just what the heck has Nero been doing during the TWENTY-FIVE years between his arrival in the past, in the film’s exciting prologue, and the beginning of his revenge-plot against Vulcan?  Delta Vega is close enough to Vulcan for Spock to be able to look up in the sky and see what Nero is doing, and yet Delta Vega itself is not at all affected by what happens?  Young Kirk gets into a bar fight in Iowa, and Captain Pike just happens to be there?  (As opposed to being, oh, I don’t know, either OUT IN SPACE or at least at Starfleet Command in SAN FRANCISCO.)  And just where is the rest of Starfleet while all of the main action of the movie is going on?  It was always a silly aspect of the Trek shows how the Enterprise consistently seemed to be “the only ship in the quadrant” whenever something bad was going down, and that silliness is found in spades in this film.  Is there not a single other starship assigned to defend Earth??  Sheesh!

Notice that, so far, I have not raised one single complaint about mangled continuity in this film.  It is clear right from the opening scenes of the film that we are dealing with an alternate reality — one changed dramatically by Nero’s arrival in the past.  This was a wise choice on the part of the film-makers, as it frees them to deviate from established canon whenever they please.  It’s not necessarily a violation of canon that we don’t see Kirk’s best-friend Gary Mitchell with him in the academy, because this is an altered timeline, so it really wouldn’t be fair of me to complain about Mitchell’s absence.  And I don’t miss Gary Mitchell!  I don’t demand his character’s inclusion in the story just because of a reference in a Trek episode from over 40 years ago!  But what I do demand of this film — of ANY film — is that it plays by its own rules, and that the story being told makes sense and doesn’t contradict itself.  As you can see from some of my above complaints, that is not the case here.

I will also take this opportunity to be critical of one other major aspect of J.J.’s Trek reboot, and that is the positively dreadful redesign of the Enterprise.  I whined about the new look of the Enterprise exterior when the first image was released, and unfortunately I didn’t like it any better seeing it in action in the movie.  I just think the new Enterprise looks awkward and ugly, and the Big E’s gorgeous silhouette is really lost.  I didn’t think much more highly of the new Enterprise’s interiors.  I think they veered way too far from the look of the classic Enterprise bridge with the overly-busy Apple-store looking new design.  Meanwhile, the Engineering sets were ridiculously low-tech, looking like those scenes all took place in some 1950’s factory and not the Engineering section of a futuristic starship.  And just what the heck was up with the Willy Wonka-esque pipes that Scotty gets stuck in, Augustus Gloop-style??  Weird.

One final complaint: I really enjoyed the talented Michael Giacchino’s score — but where was the iconic Trek theme???  With the exception of one teensy tiny moment very late in the film, I had to wait until the closing credits to hear ANY familiar Trek music, and that was a real disappointment.  I’m happy that Giacchino crafted a unique score of his own, but how about a hint of some of the great, familiar Trek themes the first time we lay eyes on the Enterprise, or the first time Kirk sits in the big chair?  Missed opportunities.

OK, time to bring this long rant to a close.  As you can see, I am conflicted.  On the one hand, it is INCREDIBLY EXCITING to see Star Trek brought back to the big screen in such a BIG, ENERGETIC way.  I am really taken with the new cast, and with the tone and direction of J.J.’s re-launch.  This movie is a visual over-load in all of the best ways, and even though I am a little luke-warm on the finished product, this is a film that I eagerly look forward to revisiting so that I can continue to soak it all in.  I just wish the story being told had been a little more carefully crafted.  I really do believe that a little more time and attention could have addressed a lot of my above complaints.  But, OK, deep breath.  Let’s take a moment to thank J.J. Abrams and his team for giving us the best Trek that we’ve seen on the big screen in a LONG time.  I am eager to see where they go with the (hopefully coming soon) next installment!  Dare I hope for the U.S.S. Enterprise to encounter… the S.S. Botany Bay??

Star Trek fever continues here at MotionPicturesComics.com!  Did you miss my list of the Top Twenty Episodes of Star Trek?  Then check it out!  Previously this week I’ve written about Pocket Books’ excellent two-book Star Trek: Mirror Universe series, as well as their follow-up Mirror Universe collection “Shards and Shadows.”

Based, I presume, on the success of the two-book Mirror Universe series in 2007, this past summer Pocket Books released a similarly formatted two-book collection (each containing three novellas, just like the Mirror Universe volumes) entitled Star Trek: Myriad Universes.  While all six Mirror Universe novellas charted the future-history of that one particular parallel universe, Myriad Universes contains six stories that are each set in entirely different alternate universes.  These aren’t return visits to alternate pasts or futures that we saw in any of the Trek TV shows — these are all completely new creations of the authors involved.  As with the Mirror Universe stories, these tales are all fantastic fun.

Volume I: “Infinity’s Prism”

A Less Perfect Union, by William Leisner — In the final episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise, as Earth took its first tentative steps towards uniting with the nearby alien races it had once feared and hated (the Vulcans, the Andorians, the Tellarites) to form what would one-day become the United Federation of Planets, a xenophobic hate-group called Terra Prime began gaining influence and followers on Earth.  In this story, we are introduced to a United Earth where the followers of Terra Prime convinced Earth’s government to reject the nascent interstellar alliance and instead expel all aliens from the planet.  Nearly a hundred years later, Captain Christopher Pike, in command of the U.E.S.S. Enterprise, comes across a distress signal from an old Earth vessel that has apparently crash-landed on a distant planet called Talos.  Astute readers will immediately recognize the story of the original Star Trek pilot, The Cage.  Unfortunately, things go a little differently for the United Earth Starship in this reality than they did in our familiar version of the story.  Captain Pike, along with several members of Earth’s government, begins to realize that the time may finally have come for Earth to once again reach out to its neighbors in the galaxy… and the one surviving member of Jonathan Archer’s Enterprise might be the key.  From the brilliant first chapter, which tells a so-familiar yet so-different version of the famous opening scenes of The Cage, right up through the parallel version of the Babel Conference (originally told in the great Classic Trek episode “Journey to Babel”) which forms the bulk of this novella, this is a marvelous story.  It is emotional, intense and, at the same time, hopeful, as all the very best Star Trek stories are.  A terrific read.

Place of Exile, by Christopher L. Bennett — In his Mirror Universe story, A Mirror-Scaled Serpent, Keith R.A. DeCandido did the impossible and actually made me care about characters from Star Trek: Voyager.  Well, Mr. Bennett performs the same miracle here.  His story begins towards the end of Voyager’s third season cliff-hanger, “Scorpion,” in which the U.S.S. Voyager finds itself in the middle of an enormous inter-stellar war between the unstoppable Borg and a mysterious foe from another universe, Species 8472.  In the televised episode, Kathryn Janeway is able to guide Voyager safely through the conflict.  Here, though, Voyager is crippled in a vicious attack by Species 8472, and the stranded crew is forced to take refuge with a nearby race of aliens called the Vostigye.  The longest story in this collection, this novella chronicles the months and years that follow, as the crew of Voyager is forced to scatter and make the best of their new lives trapped in the Delta Quadrant.  But all the while the looming Borg/8472 war draws closer, threatening total annihilation… and a determined Captain Janeway stubbornly refuses to give up her dream of rebuilding Voyager and resuming their course for home.  Holy cow, what a great story.  Bennett does everything right that the writers of Voyager did wrong.  First of all, he creates a story in which the Voyager faces an enormous and yet realistic set-back (as opposed to the show, which always depicted the ship in perfect condition, never wanting for supplies or equipment).  Secondly, he allows the characters to really grow and develop as people, as each of them respond to their new circumstances in different ways.  (Again, this is in contrast to the actual show, in which there was little-to-no character development, Janeway never had to face any real challenges to her determination to maintain Starfleet discipline even 70,000 light-years from home, and, just to pick another random example, Harry Kim remained an Ensign for seven years.)  Finally, Mr, Bennett has crafted far more satisfying resolutions to many story-lines that the Voyager writers choose to abandon, most notably the wonderfully sweet ending he gives to the Kes-Neelix relationship.  Beautiful.  A thoroughly engrossing tale.

Seeds of Dissent, by James Swallow — It’s Space Seed in reverse: Almost 400 years after Khan and his genetically enhanced followers conquered Earth, the Terran Khanate rules their corner of the galaxy with an iron fist.  But things start to unravel when Princeps Julian Bashir and his starship Defiance discover a centuries-old sleeper-ship, the Botany Bay, carrying cryogenically preserved refugees from Khan’s conquest — almost a hundred un-enhanced “basic” Humans.  Swallow’s story is a lot less epic than the other two novellas in this collection, but it is every bit as engaging.  As the story opened, it seemed that Bashir would be the main character in the tale, but as things unfolded I found myself most interested in Ezri Dax, the Trill who has spent 300 years in servitude to the Khanate.  When presented with the Botany Bay survivors, and the inflammatory evidence they possess about the true story of Khan’s bloody rise to power, Dax must make a terrible choice.  

Volume II: “Echoes and Refractions”

The Chimes at Midnight, by Geoff Trowbridge — OK, now this is an obscure one.  In the Animated Star Trek episode “Yesteryear,” a mishap involving the Guardian of Forever results in an alternate universe in which Spock is killed as a young boy on Vulcan.  As a result, years later, it would be an Andorian named Thelin, not Spock, who would serve as First Officer on the USS Enterprise under Captain Kirk.  Of course, by the end of “Yesteryear,” history is corrected and young Spock is saved, but this novella explores a universe in which Spock was never saved and that alternate timeline continued.  After a brief prologue, the story opens on the bridge of the Enterprise, in which a desperate Kirk calls out, “Scotty!  I need warp speed in three minutes or we’re all dead!”  These are the climactic moments of Star Trek II, and the crippled Enterprise is trying to escape the detonation of the Genesis wave.  In the movie, we all know that Spock’s sacrifice saves the ship — but how will the Enterprise escape without Spock’s presence?  As this clever story progresses, we follow this alternate history through the years chronicled by the rest of the original Star Trek movies (II though VI).  It is great fun seeing those familiar stories play out slightly (or, in some cases, a lot MORE than slightly) differently.  I was particularly pleased to see the way in which, in this universe, Carol Marcus and her knowledge of Genesis are involved in the aftermath of the alien probe (from Star Trek IV)’s attack on Earth (thus correcting something that has always bugged me about the later Trek films: how everyone seemed to conveniently forget about the Genesis technology).  The character of the Andorian Thelin is well fleshed out, making him a compelling character with whom to travel through this story.  I was also very pleased by the attention given to David Marcus and Saavik, and I was really tickled by the ways in which their stories intertwined.  As a kid growing up, I was captivated by Vonda N. McIntyre’s novel adaptations of the early Star Trek movies.  She always wove a lot of additional character details into those novels — and one that I always loved was her invention of a much deeper relationship between David and Saavik.  I don’t know if Mr. Trowbridge was similarly inspired by Ms. McIntyre’s work, but either way, I loved this particular story development.  If I have any complaint, it is that the end of the novella felt rushed.  There is a very dramatic event involving the Klingons late in the story, which was followed by a five year jump.  Well, I really wanted to know more about the events of those five years, and I wanted to get some more build-up to the momentous decision that Thelin makes at the story’s end.  This story cries out for an additional 50-100 pages!

A Gutted World, by Keth R.A. DeCandido — This rivals Places of Exile as my favorite novella from this series.  It is a world where the Cardassians never withdrew from Bajor.  What I expected to be a relatively small-scale story about Bajorans and Cardassians quickly escalates into an enormous epic, as the events of the later seasons of Deep Space Nine play out dramatically differently without a Federation presence in the Bajoran sector.  This is a sprawling tale that interweaves the stories of an incredibly large number of familiar characters, taking place across numerous worlds throughout the Alpha Quadrant.  Two of the main protagonists are Kira Nerys, a Bajoran resistance fighter who is given staggering information by “plain, simple tailor” Elim Garak, and Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who, immediately after stopping a Borg plot to change history, must take the Enterprise E into Klingon space to help the Klingons fight an increasingly vicious war with the Romulans.  As in so many of Mr. DeCandido’s other works, this story is jam-packed with Trek details and minutae.  Almost every character, no matter how minor, has been drawn from an appearance in a Trek episode (Ro Laren!  Damar!  Gowron!  Shelby!  Sonja Gomez!  Koval!  Erika Benteen!  Jaresh-Inyo!  Scotty!) or one of the recent Trek novels (Edmund Atkinson!  Miranda Kadohota!  Gilaad ben Zoma!  David Gold!  Charivretha zh’Thane!), and this gives great weight to their small scenes.  In one chapter we meet Federation Ambassador Krajensky — DS9 fans who recognize that character (who only appeared in one episode) and know what became of him will be put on their toes immediately, and that adds tension to the story.  The myriad Trek references enables the reader to have a lot of fun extrapolating for ourselves how these familiar characters arrived at the place where we meet them in this alternate universe.  It is apparent that Mr. DeCandido has given very careful thought to the many ripple effects that the Cardassians never leaving Bajor would cause as the events that were chronicled in the seven seasons of DS9 unfolded in this universe.  These “ripples” include what seems like a throw-away reference to both of Klingon General Martok’s eyes (in DS9, Martok lost one eye in a Jem Hadar prison camp, which never happened here because Benjamin Sisko never discovered the wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant) or a mention of Admiral Leyton having commanded a fleet against the Borg (in DS9’s fourth season, Admiral Leyton was disgraced for allowing his paranoia about shapeshifter infiltration to prompt him to stage a coup against the Federation President; but in this universe without any Federation contact with the Gamma Quadrant, none of that happened, so Leyton would be free to take command of the fleet defending Earth against the Borg during the events chronicled in Star Trek: First Contact, which took place during DS9’s fifth season.)  The story isn’t weakened in any way if you don’t get these references.  But for a Trek fan who does, they add great depth and richness to this dramatic, action-packed story filled with heroism and sacrifice.  Absolutely phenomenal.

Brave New World, by Chris Roberson — Working on Omicron Theta, Dr. Noonien Soong perfected the creation of positronic androids.  Only a few decades later, Soong-type androids can be found throughout Starfleet and the Federation.  Even more ground-breaking: utilizing Ira Graves’ work in synaptic mapping (from the Next Gen episode, “The Schizoid Man”), Federation citizens now have the ability to transfer their consciousness into nearly indestructible android bodies, prolonging life indefinitely.  But a situation brewing in the Neutral Zone threatens to disrupt the Federation’s fragile peace with the Romulan Empire, and soon Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D are confronted by the return of someone they never expected to see again: the android Data, missing for 10 years.  Like Seed of Dissent, Brave New World is a much less epic story than most of the other novellas in this collection.  But, as a smaller, more self-contained story, it remains quite entertaining, and I enjoyed this exploration of ideas that Trek often played with but never really fleshed out: specifically, how the spread of synthetic life forms and android technology might effect life in the Federation (as well as their relationship with their allies).  There are some weaknesses: I found Data to be a surprisingly passive character, and would have preferred to see him more active in developing the crisis’ ultimate solution.  Also, coming after Mr. DeCandido’s novella, in which I felt that his alternate universe was very carefully mapped out (in terms of how the central change — the Cardassians never leaving Bajor — would have effected future events), there were a lot of things in this story that seemed different just for difference’s sake, and not as a result of a change caused by the spread of Soong-type androids or Data’s disappearance.  As an example, it is clear that the Enterprise never encountered the Iconian gateways (as depicted in the second season Next Gen episode, “Contagion”), although I have no idea why that event wouldn’t have occurred, Data or no Data.  But there’s still a lot of fun to be had in this novella.  And it has a great last line.

My long anticipation is almost over — at  7:00 tonight I will be seeing J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek on IMAX!  Come back tomorrow for my full review!!  I’ll see you then!

Yesterday I discussed the two terrific collections of Star Trek: Mirror Universe novellas, “Glass Empires” and “Obsidian Alliances.”  I commented that my only real complaint was that so many of the stories ended on cliffhangers that seemed to beg for further tales to be told.

I still sense that there’s a lot more to the Mirror Universe story that we have yet to see, but for now I have to be content with Pocket Books’ recent follow-up, “Shards and Shadows.”  Rather than a collection of novellas, “Shards and Shadows” contains twelve short stories written by a “who’s-who” of great Trek authors and spanning hundreds of years of Mirror Universe future-history.

Nobunaga, by Dave Stern — Continuing the story begun in the Enterprise two-parter “In a Mirror, Darkly” and the novella Age of the Empress, this story follows the sad final days of Charles “Trip” Tucker.  His body has been broken and his mind scrambled by too many years working in close proximity to the dangerous energies produced by starship warp engines.  But beyond the pain of dying, Trip is tortured by scattered memories of something he can’t quite recall.  Was he involved in a plan by Empress Sato to construct a second ship like the miraculous 23rd century Starship Defiant?  If he was, what happened, and why can’t he remember?  Dave Stern’s story is a great mind-bender of a fractured narrative.  It also hints at what happened to the character re-introduced in the final pages of Age of the Empress, but I am still left wanting to know more about that character’s full story!  Hopefully some-day soon…

Ill Winds, by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore — A story of the Mirror Universe Robert April (commander of the Enterprise before Christopher Pike and James T. Kirk).  April and his crew aboard the I.S.S. Constellation are sent to investigate the rumors of a new super-weapon being constructed by the Klingons, but which crew will prove to be the more ruthless?  A great, brutal ending fits right in with the Mirror Universe.

The Greater Good, by Margaret Wander Bonanno — It’s the tale of how James T. Kirk gains command of the Starship Enterprise, how he meets Marlena Moreau and how he gains possession of the powerful Tantalus Device (a key plot device in the very first Mirror Universe episode, Classic Trek’s “Mirror Mirror”).  It’s one of the most well-written stories in the collection, gripping and fast-paced.  At the same time, it’s a little disappointing in that it all seems a little too, well, easy.  Kirk just happens to find the Tantalus Device?  I’d have hoped for a more epic story about his acquisition of that amazing and mysterious machine, and perhaps more information on its origin.

The Black Flag, by James Swallow — This is a Mirror Universe story about one of Pocket Books’ recent new series of novels, Star Trek: Vanguard, the story of a Federation space station in The Tantalus Reach, a turbulent region of space near the Klingons and Tholians.  I haven’t read any of the novels in that series, so I wasn’t familiar with any of the characters (well, except one, the Vulcan T’Prynn, who was part of the back-story of Elias Vaughn, a character in Pocket Book’s DS9 re-launch series of novels), but Mr. Swallow’s pirate story was still engaging and fun.  

The Traitor, by Michael Jan Friedman — This is a Mirror Universe story about another of Pocket’s series of novels, Michael Jan Friedman’s Stargazer series that followed Jean Luc Picard’s adventures before becoming captain of the Enterprise.  This is an older series than Vanguard, but it’s also one that I haven’t really followed.  So again, this story might have lost a little of its impact as I wasn’t really familiar with the characters whose Mirror Universe versions were introduced here.  However, as with The Black Flag, this is an engaging story nonetheless, filled with some great twists and turns.  It also features, in a lead role, a character that I absolutely did not expect to see.  Although the first mention of the name of that character’s ship should have tipped me off!

The Sacred Chalice, by Rudy Josephs — A throughly twisted story in which we learn that, after the total destruction of Betazed, Lwaxana Troi gathered together whatever surviving members of her race that she could find in order to form, well, the galaxy’s best brothel.  Lwaxana and her people are able to use their telepathic powers (the existence of which is a tightly-kept secret known only to other Betazoids) in order to create the perfect fantasy situations for their guests.  Things get over-turned, though, when young Deanna Troi discovers the secret that her mother has been keeping from her about her sister Kestra, long believed dead… at the same time as two Klingon visitors, Lursa and B’Etor, arrive at Lwaxana’s establishment. 

Bitter Fruit, by Susan Wright — This story picks up the tale of the surviving Mirror Universe Voyager crew-members following the events of The Mirror-Scaled Serpent.  Tuvok is still keeping Kes hidden away, for fear of her telepathic abilities being discovered by the Alliance.  But a new threat in the form of the half-breed they thought they had killed, B’Elanna Torres, brings Tuvok and Kes out of hiding.  It’s another great story, but as with Nobunaga this wasn’t quite satisfying in terms of tying up loose ends left hanging by the previous Mirror Universe novellas.  This is a complaint but also a backwards compliment about the quality of the writing — I want to read more about what happens to these characters! 

Family Matters, by Keith R.A. DeCandido — Mr. DeCandido must have a thing about using letters to tell a story.  His most recent novel, A Singular Destiny, used correspondence to start each chapter, and this short story is told entirely through back-and-forth messages.  This is a Mirror Universe version of DeCandido’s series of Klingon novels (another series that I haven’t read much of — boy, I thought I read a lot of Trek novels, but the holes in my reading are showing!!), but it features so many familiar faces (Gul Dukat, Gul Macet, Worf’s brother Kurn, Martok’s son Dex, and Captain Klag) that I had no trouble jumping right in.  

Homecoming, by Peter David — This short story continues the Mirror Universe New Frontier story begun in the novella Cutting Ties.  Calhoun and his motley crew aboard the Excalibur have been gathering allies and fomenting rebellion along the edges of Alliance territory.  But when they discover a Romulan plot to develop a terrible weapon utilizing Thalaron radiation (a nice nod to Star Trek: Nemesis), their strategy changes and Captain Calhoun begins to consider a terrifying plan.  My only complaint with this story?  Peter David also continued his story-line of the Mirror Universe New Frontier characters in a terrific recent 5-issue comic book series published by IDW, and I was really hoping for this story to connect to that one somehow.  Oh well!

A Terrible Beauty, by Jim Johnson — Taking place very shortly after the devastating events of Saturn’s Children, this story follows “Smiley” O’Brien’s attempts to pick up the pieces of the rebellion against the Alliance.  Flashback stories fill in the background of the Mirror Universe Keiko Ishikawa,who was introduced in Saturn’s Children.  This story DID answer some big questions posed by that novella, although the story of the final fate of Smiley’s rebellion is yet to be told.  The most recent DS9 novel, Fearful Symmetry, ended with Smiley’s stronghold on Terok Nor under brutal attack.  Hopefully the next DS9 book, coming this summer, will bring resolution to some of these fascinating story-lines!

Empathy, by Christopher L. Bennett — A Mirror Universe story of the Pocket Books’ Starship Titan series.  (Yes!  One that I have read!  This on-going series of five-and-counting novels follows the post-Nemesis adventures of the Titan, commanded by William Riker.)  A band of rebels, including Captain Ian Troi, Tuvok, and the savage William Riker come across an Alliance experiment that could spell great trouble for the struggling rebellion.  Can Tuvok get through to the Bajoran scientist leading the Alliance team, and convince him to change his plans?  As expected, things don’t go smoothly.  A tough, twisty tale, this story also contains a number of fascinating scientific notions, something that I have found to be a mark of Mr. Bennett’s work.

For Want of a Nail, by David Mack — What started as a rescue mission by Rebel operatives K’Ehleyr and Reg Barclay turns into something much more desperate when then discover that Alynna Nechayev has decided to defect to the Alliance.  Nechayev carries the secret to Memory Alpha, a critical component to the long-dead Spock’s far-reaching plan (introduced in the novella The Sorrows of Empire) to one day defeat the Alliance.  The adventures of the Mirror Universe team of K’Ehleyr and Barclay (two characters I never expected to read about in the Mirror Universe) is a blast — their pairing is an inspired notion.  I have high hopes that, in stories that are hopefully soon to come, we will see the culmination of Spock’s grand plan!  Nechayev’s certainty that his plan cannot succeed is alarming.  I wonder if the x-factor that will tip things over the edge in their favor is the quest to find the Mirror Universe’s Emissary, a sub-plot that began in the last DS9 novel, Fearful Symmetry.  We’ll see…

I can’t wait for more stories!  Meanwhile, more Star Trek fun tomorrow!  (And I am seeing J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek film on Thursday night, so my full review will be posted on Friday!  Don’t miss it!)

One of the most delightful surprises about the last few years of Pocket Books’ Star Trek novels (about which I have waxed poetic here, here, and here) has been the way the writers and editors have fleshed out the Mirror Universe.

This concept was first introduced in the Classic Trek episode “Mirror Mirror,” written by Jerome Bixby.  A transporter accident throws Kirk, Bones, Scotty, and Uhura into an alternate universe where the beneficent United Federation of Planets has been replaced by a vicious, evil Terran empire populated by darker versions of all the familiar Trek characters.  Year later, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine explored the idea further through a series of episodes (”Crossover,” “Through the Looking Glass,” “Shattered Mirror,” “Resurrection,” and “The Emperor’s New Cloak”) in which we discovered that the Terran Empire had been conquered by an even more brutal alliance of Klingons and Cardassians.  Finally, the two-part Enterprise episode “In a Mirror, Darkly” gave viewers a look at the origins of the dark Terran Empire.

That’s quite a number of Mirror Universe episodes that I just listed, but the Star Trek authors and editors at Pocket Books clearly felt that there was a lot more that could be done to flesh out the Mirror Universe, and thank goodness for that!  The Mirror Universe has played a large role in the recent Deep Space Nine novels, but it was really pushed into the limelight with the two-part series Star Trek: Mirror Universe, each of which contained three novellas by some of Pocket Books’ best Trek authors.

Volume I: Glass Empires

Age of the Empress, by Mike Sussman with Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore — This story picks up moments after the end of Enterprise’s “In a Mirror, Darkly,” with the newly-crowned Empress Sato in command of the fearsome 23rd century Starship Defiant.  It’s not long, though, before her rule is threatened by enemies from without (a band of rebels with whom T’pol has gotten involved) and within (a coup organized by Sato’s consort, the Andorian Shran).  The tale is just as much of an action-packed romp as the two Enterprise episodes were, although it fails to answer my biggest question that was left hanging by those episodes, which is what happened, ultimately, to the Starship Defiant?

The Sorrows of Empire, by David Mack — The highlight of the series.  Spock’s exposure to “our” universe’s Captain Kirk (in the original Trek Mirror Universe episode) has convinced him that the Terran empire is illogical and must be replaced by a kinder, more just society.  Mack’s tale unfolds over the decades that follow, as we watch Spock’s eminently logical plan unfold, step by step.  In a fascinating twist, Mack casts Spock as a Trek version of Isaac Asimov’s Harry Seldon (from the magnificent Foundation novels).  Spock knows that his efforts to change the Terran Empire are ultimately doomed to failure, but he develops an enormously long-term plan-within-a-plan to ensure that a better society will one day rise from those ashes.  I have read that Mack is working on expanding this story into a full-length novel, and I for one cannot wait.  This novella is phenomenal.

The Worst of Both Worlds, by Greg Cox — Terran archaeologist Luc Picard has created a decent life for himself, hunting down the universe’s treasures for his master, the Cardassian Gul Madred.  (This is the fellow who tortured Picard in the famous “there are four lights” two-part episode of Next Gen, “Chain of Command.”)  But when the beautiful resistance fighter Vash convinces Luc to help her save the life of an elderly terran scientist, Noonien Soong, Picard’s life crashes down around him.  Soon he finds himself all alone against a threat even more monstrous than the Klingon/Cardassian Alliance: the Borg.

Volume II: Obsidian Alliances

The Mirror-Scaled Serpent, by Keith R.A. DeCandido — Terran rebels Chakotay, Tuvok, Annika Hansen, and Kate Janeway rescue a tiny ship from the Badlands.  Its occupant, an unusual alien named Neelix, has apparently been flung across the universe, 70,000 light-years from his home. DeCandido’s reverse version of the pilot episode of Star Trek: Voyager is a remarkably clever and engaging tale.  I was far more interested in the plights of the characters in this story than I ever was watching actual Voyager episodes!  And I absolutely loved the story’s connection to the Classic Trek episode, “The Cloudminders.”

Cutting Ties, by Peter David — A Mirror Universe version of David’s popular New Frontier series of novels, Cutting Ties follows the sad, harsh life of M’k'nzy of Calhoun, a young slave of the Romulans who is consigned to a miserable death in the mines of Remus.  Somehow he survives and many years later enters the service of a young Romulan woman named Soleta.  Many of David’s New Frontier characters make appearances over the course of the story (and several meet with rather grisly ends).  Cutting Ties is the only story in this series to feature any sort of a crossover with the “regular” Trek universe.  It’s only a brief moment, and critical to the story, but I rather liked the way all the other stories were exclusively set in the Mirror Universe without any reference to the regular time-line.  Other than that, though, this story is another winner from Peter David.

Saturn’s Children, by Sarah Shaw — This story picks up the plot threads left dangling at the end of the final Deep Space Nine Mirror Universe episode, “The Emperor’s New Cloak.”  The Terran rebels controlling DS9 and lead by “Smiley” O’Brien have scored an enormous victory against the Alliance, capturing the Regent Worf; and the once-proud Intendant Kira finds herself at the brutal mercies of her Klingon superiors.  But fortunes are about to change as Kira plots to regain her former station, and the overconfident rebels make a terrible miscalculation.

All six of the above novellas are enormously excellent.  They are fun and engaging, and together they flesh out various aspects of the Mirror Universe in some really interesting and well thought-out ways.  The only down-side is that almost every one of these stories ends on a pretty enormous cliffhanger (most especially the first and last novellas, Age of the Empress and Saturn’s Children).  This down-side will turn out not to be much of a down-side, of course, if it means that more Mirror Universe stories are coming!

In March, 1977, filmmaker Roman Polanski (Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown) was arrested and charged with raping a 13 year-old girl at the home of his friend, Jack Nicholson (who was out of town at the time).  Polanski eventually agreed to a plea bargain and pled guilty to one felony count of illegal sex with a 13 yea-old girl.  In early 1978, before a sentence could be imposed, Polanski fled the country, never to return.

The above three sentences about sums up what I knew about this famous case.  (In all honesty, I probably didn’t even know quite that much before watching this film!)  What is most fascinating about the recent documentary by Marina Zenovich, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, is that the issue the film focuses on isn’t the act that Polanski committed, but rather on what happened afterwards.  

What actually occurred at Jack Nicholson’s house isn’t the subject of much debate, apparently.  There is a little bit of a “he said, she said” back-and-forth at the start of the film, as Zenovich compares and contrasts Polanski’s version of the story with that of the girl (Samantha Geimer).  There are a few important details on which they differ.  But Polanski does not deny having sex with the girl, nor does she seem to suggest that he forced himself on her.  The film does not spend a lot of time trying to defend Mr. Polanski’s actions, and rightly so.  Whether the sex was consentual or not, Polanski’s actions in sleeping with a 13 year-old girl were abhorrent.  

No, the focus of the film is on the even more shocking events that transpired after Polanski was arrested.  Ms. Zenovich lays out, in great detail, the ways in which the escalating chaos of the media circus and the publicity-hungry judge assigned to the case waylaid any attempt at justice.  Through a lively mix of fascinating archival footage from a whole host of sources and a wonderful array of insightful new interviews that Ms. Zenovich conducted with almost every single key figure in the case, including Samantha Geimer herself, viewers are walked through the stunningly tortured legal process as the case unfolded.  

The most fascinating elements of the film are the new interviews with Polanski’s lawyer, Douglas Dalton, and the Assistant D.A. who lead the case for the prosecution, Roger Gunson.  Both men come across as remarkably intelligent, honest men, and both are very candid in their interviews.  One might expect a film like this to demonize one side or the other, falling back on easy caricatures such as a depiction of Polanski the sadist defended by his showboating lawyer… or the stiff-laced DA blinded by self-righteousness.  But Zenovich resists any such over-simplification, and the inherent decentness of both Mr. Dalton and Mr. Gunson is incredibly compelling.  In the end, when Mr. Gunson — who, remember, lead the PROSECUTION of Polanski — admits that he believes that Polanski’s flight from the U.S. was justified, it is a shocking moment.  Even Samantha Geimer (the victim) states that she believes that Polanski was not treated justly by the legal system.   

Just how things could have gone so wrong with the case that Mr. Gunson and Ms. Geimer could come to make those statements is the meat and potatoes of the film, and it is a fascinating tale.  Like Polanski or loathe him, this cogent analysis of how his case was handled (or mishandled) is a powerful, troubling story.  I highly recommend this film.

At last!  The conclusion to my list of the Twenty Greatest Episodes of Star Trek!  Click here for numbers 20-16, here for numbers 15-11, and here for numbers 10-6.

5.  Cause and Effect (ST:TNG season 5, episode 18) — The Enterprise blows up.  Over and over again.  What a great idea for an episode!  This is a classic Next Gen spatial anomaly mystery/mind-bender, as the Enterprise gets caught in a temporal loop in which the ship meets with terrible catastrophe over and over again.  I know some people find this episode to be boring (it basically depicts the same events, five times), but I absolutely adore the way subtle differences start to emerge with each repetition, as the crew slowly realizes what is happening to them and try to come up with some sort of way out.  From the intense opening tease (where the Enterprise is annihilated right in the middle of Picard’s desperate cry for all hands to abandon ship) right up through the end (with Kelsey Grammer — Frasier!! — guest starring as the unfortunate Captain Morgan Bateson), this is one of my very favorite hours of Trek.

4.  The Inner Light (ST:TNG season 5, episode 25) — Captain Picard is struck by a beam from an alien probe and awakens on an alien world.  As months and then years pass, Picard eventually gives up hope of escape or rescue and settles into a life with the friendly people of that planet.  Right away it is made clear to the viewer that all of this is happening only in Picard’s mind (as there are occasional cut-backs to the Enterprise crew, trying to awaken their Captain, in which we can see that only minutes are passing for them while years pass for Picard).  While there is a mystery aspect to the episode as the viewers wonder what exactly is going on, the real focus is on the wonderful, touching story of Picard finding for himself the peaceful family life that his devotion to Starfleet has always prevented him from having.  In the end, Picard comes to realize that the probe contains the records and memories of an alien culture that has long-since been wiped out by a terrible natural disaster.  The people who Picard (and we) have come to love — his friends, his wife, his children, and his grand-children — are all long-since dead.  It is a sad, haunting episode, and one that has colored the character of Picard ever since.  The mournful flute melody that Picard learns, and that plays over the final moments of the episode, is one of my favorite musical motifs of the show, and a not-to-be-overlooked key to this episode’s beauty and power.

3.  Duet (ST:DS9 season 1, episode 19) — Odo arrests a Cardassian who he recognizes as “The Butcher of Galitep,” a wanted war criminal.  There is a mystery about whether this Cardassian is in fact Gul Darheel, and if so, how and why he came to be on DS9, but that is secondary to the power-house confrontations between Darheel (played by the wonderful Harris Yulin, who I’ll always know primarily as the judge in Ghostbusters 2) and Kira Nerys.  The “Duet” of the episode’s title is the back-and-forth between the Cardassian and Kira, which takes place in a number of lengthy conversations that are the beating heart of this episode.  As Kira confronts Darheel with his war-crimes, he questions her: “How many Cardassians did you kill, Major?”  She answers angrily, “I regret a lot of what I had to do during the Occupation.”  ”How convenient for you,” is his reply.  There are a lot of Big Ideas on display here, questions about identity and about the necessity of violence, and they’re wrapped up in one of the sharpest and most compelling scripts of any Trek episode, beautifully performed by Yulin and Nana Visitor (Kira).

2.  Yesterday’s Enterprise (ST:TNG season 3, episode 15).  The Enterprise comes across an anomaly is space, some sort of rift out of which appears the Enterprise C, believed destroyed 22 years earlier.  As the Enterprise C passes through the rift, history changes — and suddenly we find ourselves on the darkened bridge of the Warship Enterprise, in a universe where Starfleet is embroiled in a losing war with the Klingons.  One of the first — and by far the best — of the modern Trek time travel/alternate universe stories, Yesterday’s Enterprise was a revelation when it first aired.  The dark, alternate version of our familiar characters on the Enterprise D was compelling, the visual effects were superb (though it looks quaint now, when it was made this was by far and away the most action-packed episode of the series), and the reappearance of Tasha Yar (still alive and serving as the Enterprise’s chief of security in this universe) was an enormous surprise.  And the Klingon attack at the end in which, well, pretty much everyone dies, was a jaw-dropper!  As is always the case in the best of Trek, great action and sci-fi ideas are combined with strong character story-lines.  Guinan’s friendship with Picard is tested as she struggles to figure out how to handle the changed time-line, Yar’s universe falls out from under her when she discovers that she’s “supposed to be dead,” and the Enterprise C’s helmsman, Richard Castillo (Christopher McDonald), must decide whether to set history right by taking the Enterprise C back through the rift, thus accepting certain death for himself and his crew. I can’t tell you how many times I have watched this episode — it is one of my absolute favorites.  ”Let history never forget the name… Enterprise.”

1.  The Best of Both Worlds, Part I (ST:TNG season 3, episode 26) — As the Enterprise investigates evidence of destroyed colonies that resemble those wiped out along the Romulan Neutral Zone two years earlier (in the first-season episode, The Neutral Zone), it becomes apparent that the day long-feared has arrived: the unstoppable Borg (introduced in the second-season episode, Q Who?) have arrived.  As the Enterprise crew braces for their impending battle with the fearsome enemy that they may not be able to defeat, Riker comes into conflict with the hot-headed, ambitious Lt. Shelby (guest-star Elizabeth Dennehy), causing him to question his decision to turn down a command of his own in order to remain first officer of the Enterprise.  In the episode’s shocking cliffhanger, Captain Picard is kidnapped by the Borg and assimilated into their collective, and Riker, now in command of the Enterprise, must give the order to abandon any attempt at rescue and try to destroy the Borg cube, which would kill Picard.  Next Gen — and Star Trek as a whole — was never better than in this intense, nail-biter of a season finale.  What a cliffhanger!  Crazy “to be continued” endings are, I feel, quite the norm these days for TV shows, but Trek had never done anything like this before.  I still remember that summer of questions and desperate anticipation for the show to return and the story to be resolved.  But there’s a lot more to this episode than just a great cliffhanger.  The sense of jeopardy is palpable right from the opening moments, helped along by a fantastic score by composer Ron Jones (which was eventually released as a sound-track CD).  The Next Gen crew is finally faced with a truly dangerous opponent, and there are great character moments for almost every member of the ensemble.  Dennehy’s Shelby is a great addition to the cast, causing sparks with almost everyone that added to the intensity of the story.  (I was really disappointed, after part II, that she didn’t become a regular member of the cast.)  This episode appeared  in TV Guide’s list of the 100 Most Memorable Moments in TV History, as well as their list of the 100 Greatest TV Episodes of All Time.  And with good reason.  Say it with me, now: “Resistance is futile.”