William Shatner and the villainous Leonard Nimoy

Aside from the overwhelming sense of how much William Shatner misses his friend, another takeaway from his biography Leonard is how long and hard Leonard Nimoy worked until he achieved success. Unlike William Shatner, whose leading man qualities allowed him to make a decent income fairly early on, Leonard Nimoy scrambled to make a living. His move to Los Angeles did help him pick up work in TV and film. Sadly, the parts he got were largely one-offs, and usually limited to just a couple lines of dialogue. 

Shatner paints a poignant description of Nimoy's work on projects filmed on location. The crew and cast of these poorly funded productions often literally had to pick up their equipment, and run from one location to another, just to film the next line or so of dialogue. Far from being concerned about continuity, or matching up backgrounds, all that mattered was getting enough natural light to complete the scene!

Even more surprising, Leonard Nimoy's looks largely relegated him to bad guy roles prior to Star Trek. Far from being cast as a wise intellectual like Mr. Spock, or the kind and compassionate man he was, all-too-often Nimoy was cast as a thug, a hired gun, or some other minor villain. So Nimoy struggled to find a way to make his bad guy roles more distinctive. As he was a smoker, he often suggested to the director that he could smoke in the scene. Surely the way he smoked a cigarette would distinguish him from his fellow bad guys, or say something about his villainous character?

"Sorry," the director or TV producer would always say. "We can't have a villain smoking cigarettes if the TV broadcasters pick up commercials from a particular cigarette brand. We don't want to send a message that only villains smoke cigarettes. Or worse still, that villains smoke the sponsors' brand!" In an age when the virtues of smoking marijuana seems to be celebrated by popular culture, and advertised in so many mediums, it's interesting to look back, and see how our perceptions change over time.

Leonard Nimoy would eventually find success through Star Trek, but that would take him fifteen-or-so years of solid acting. Nimoy continually took classes in acting, and any other skill he thought could contribute to making him a better actor. And eventually, his hard work paid off. Like Shatner, Gene Roddenberry invited Nimoy to his new TV show, and handed him the choice role of Mr. Spock on a plate. Someone had finally noticed Leonard Nimoy, and believed in him enough to give him a major part. Even more incredible, Roddenberry  fought to keep Nimoy on as Mr. Spock when the studio heads wanted to get rid of that pointy-eared Vulcan. 

Why would the studio heads dislike the character of Mr. Spock, you ask? Because he looked too evil, or villainous! That's why.

Dragon Dave

William Shatner Mourns

After awhile, you get to thinking you know everything you need to know about a given person or subject. Having grown up watching Star Trek, I studied all aspects of the program, and followed the actors. From innumerable magazine articles, to books like I Am Spock by Leonard Nimoy and Star Trek Memories by William Shatner, I felt as if I knew everything about my first beloved Sci-Fi TV series. And yet, there's always more to learn.

And, given the inconstancy of memory, there's always more to learn again. So when I saw Leonard by William Shatner on the sale rack, I said "Why not?"

All too often, books get purchased, stored away somewhere, and don't get read for months or years, if ever. I picked up Gene Roddenberry: The Last Conversation by Yvonne Fern several years ago, but didn't read it until recently. But something called to me about William Shatner's book, so I started reading it almost straight away. 

Despite differences in where they grew up, Shatner looks back on his friend and sees all the similarities, from the era of their births, to the economic and social situations in which they were raised. For example, both men were raised Jewish, and their families immigrated to the United States to seek better lives. Obviously, they both grew up with a love of acting, and took up smoking, a socially acceptable vice that, at the time, seemed fairly harmless to most people. When Star Trek finally came along, and offered them other opportunities, they both grabbed at them. So both became singers and released albums. Both took up writing, and performed one-man plays. Both championed causes, and gave back to their communities.

I realize I'm being vague here, but the details of their separate lives really aren't important. What's underlying Shatner's book is a yearning for his friend. He's looking back, and thinking about how much they had in common, and how it united them in life and friendship. Ironically, despite both actors' uneasy relationship with the science fiction conventions, and the ongoing role of Star Trek in their lives, neither man considered the other a friend until after the TV series ended, and they started attending conventions together. It was only then, when they weren't competing with each other in the high pressure environment of the TV studio, that they began to sense a commonality, and build a real relationship together. 

Shatner is strikingly, even brutally honest in this book. He describes himself as a man with many casual acquaintances, but few real friends. He also admits that he and Nimoy stopped talking with each other, toward the end. Friendships are hard, and Nimoy was a far more private man than Shatner. Nimoy was far less easygoing, and felt things more deeply. So Shatner grieves not only for his loss, but for whatever he said or did that made Nimoy turn away from him, and refuse to speak with him, or answer his letters.

It's hard to believe that five years have passed since Leonard Nimoy's death. For most of us, even the more fervent Star Trek fans, life goes on. But after reading William Shatner's book, I suspect that, for him, that time has passed far more slowly.

Dragon Dave

To England, the North Pole, Africa and Beyond

I've been busy with travel, writing, and just plain coping with life in January. But here's a rundown of the highlights of what I read in December.

1. Thirteen At Dinner by Agatha Christie. (Original title: Lord Edgware Dies). Hercule Poirot's friend Arthur Hastings returns to England in the novel The Big Four, and he returns to his new home in Argentina at the end of this novel. He narrates Poirot's investigation into Lord Edgware's death. The prime suspect seems to be his estranged wife, but not only does she have an alibi, she also seems to have no motive. Any time you can hang out with Arthur Hastings is a fun time.

2. Freddy Goes to the North Pole by Walter R Brooks. Freddy, a self-educated pig, is just one of many interesting characters who live together on a farm. As Freddy longs to travel, he sets up an agency, and he and the other animals conduct tours of nearby sites. Animals travel from nearby farms to enjoy these tours, and pay for them with food or work. Eventually he and his friends garner enough promises of work that they travel off to the North Pole. Along the way, they are rescued from an ice floe by a ship of whalers, who prove reluctant to let such an entertaining (and healthy) pig escape. So more animals on the farm must come to Freddy's rescue. They head off to the North Pole, have exciting adventures, and eventually catch up with Freddy. They also meet a very special person who has his own workshop at the North Pole. Can you guess who it is?

3. Captain's Glory by William Shatner. This novel was cowritten by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. William Shatner, of course, played Captain Kirk on the original series of Star Trek. The latter have cowritten other novels with Shatner, and produced and wrote stories for the series Star Trek: Enterprise. It's one of the most recent Star Trek novels I've read, and appears to be the last in a trilogy. After his death in the movie Star Trek Generations, Captain Kirk has somehow been returned to life. (You know, like Spock in the movie Star Trek III: The Search For Spock). He's married a woman of mixed ancestry, and has a young child who, due to accelerated growth, appears to be an adult. He captains a smaller ship, and his travels take him to Vulcan, where he is searching for Spock, whom everyone else seems to believe is dead. (Yes, again). Among his crew are an ancient-but-kicking Dr. McCoy, and engineer Scotty, who is little aged, due to having been trapped in a transporter for decades. There's a huge threat to the Federation, and Admiral Janeway, who served as captain of the Voyager in the series Star Trek Voyager, pulls together all her best people to investigate it. These include Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Enterprise (from the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation), and his former First Officer Will Riker, who now captains another ship. 

It's kind of amazing how the writers combined so many characters from different TV series. There's obviously a huge number of novels that I have not read which relate a lot of the history of all these people, and how they came to their present positions. At times I had difficulty believing in all these people from different series interacting together. But it was nice to think that the writers, and fans, loved these characters so much, that they wanted them to continue living, long after they should have passed on.

4. Ocean Of Storms by Christopher Mari and Jeremy K Brown. This story begins with a bang. Or, to be accurate, a massive Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) that blacks-out cities, and drops planes out of the sky. When scientists discover the EMP came from the moon, NASA kickstarts an Apollo-style mission. Yet, as in the movie The Martian, involvement with China proves essential to the program. So American and Chinese astronauts head off to the moon, where they discover a spaceship, and a mystery that will lead to a worldwide government coverup, and the subsequent investigation in Africa. 

Although the novel has the feel of a Science Fiction novel, it seemed better-suited to the Thriller genre. It was fast paced, and aspects of it were enjoyable. But I felt as if, had it been submitted to one of the established Science Fiction publishers, they would have rejected it for scientific and story reasons. Still, it was a free ebook-of-the-month from Amazon, and I felt like seeing what Amazon felt was noteworthy and worth reading. Having read so many older books recently, it was nice to read something that was published in the last few years.

5. A Rumpole Christmas by John Mortimer. Having watched the first two seasons of "Rumpole of the Bailey," I enjoyed returning to the character with this short collection. The stories mostly take place in and around the Temple area of London, where Rumpole works as a barrister representing the people who everyone believes guilty until proven innocent. But the story occasionally takes him farther afield, such as when his wife Hilda (or, as he refers to her, She Who Must Be Obeyed) takes him to a health spa to lose weight over the holidays, or spend Christmas with an old school friend. Rumpole's extraordinary character really makes these stories come to life. So, so much fun.

6. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. A young boy, whose father has remarried, lives with his sick mother in an English village so small it doesn't even have a McDonalds. (Note: There's more than a few of these in England). The teachers at school are tremendously kind to him, but some of the boys in his class bully him. While his mother's cancer treatments have always worked in the past, his mother never seems to get better. So his grandmother, who he doesn't know well and doesn't get along with, moves in. In his anger and isolation, he begins to notice a tree outside. His dreams of a tree-like creature meld into real-life, and bouts of mindless violence follow. But how much is real, and how much imagined? This novel won the prestigious Carnagie and Greenaway awards for the writing and illustration, and was recently made into a movie.

Reading-wise, December seems to have been a good month. I've had months in which I read more novels, and ones (such as last month) in which I've read less. Of course, this list doesn't refer to reference books, comics and graphic novels, and books-in-process. Nonetheless, the list is a substantive and varied, and a month of reading I can look back on fondly.

What books did you read in December? Any stories that stuck in your mind? Any reading experiences that you'd like to share with others?

Dragon Dave

William Shatner’s Superior Mind

Looking toward the future with hope
and Curiosity.

In some ways, watching the first season of The Six Million Dollar Man is like visiting old friends.  In the episode “Eyewitness to Murder,” Steve Austin must prevent the murder of Lorin Sandusky, an attorney who is presenting an important case for the government.  When Steve catches John Hopper, the assassin out to kill Sandusky, Hopper is released because he seems to have an iron clad alibi: he appeared on a TV program at the very time Steve saw him, on a rooftop, late at night, with his bionic eye.  William Schallert, the actor who plays Sandusky, previously portrayed Nilz Baris in the Star Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles.”  Gary Lockwood, who took on the role of John Hopper, is best known to Star Trek fans as Lieutenant Gary Mitchell from the episode “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” 

Another Trekky Treat (if I might coin the phrase) has been the episode “Burning Bright,” in which William Shatner plays Josh Lang, an astronaut whose mental capabilities seem remarkably improved upon his return from a mission in space.  Like Gary Mitchell, some cosmic force seems to have activated areas of Lang's brain that normally lie dormant.  Unlike Gary Mitchell, these superhuman powers fail to corrupt the astronaut.  He seeks to increase man’s understanding of the universe, not rule his fellow humans.  He feels remorse when his ability to knock people out with his brain’s electrical field goes out of control, and he accidentally kills someone. 

Lang's enhanced brain-function also reawakens a memory of an accident that resulted in the death of a childhood friend, and he grows overwhelmed by the guilt that repressed it.  Thus, through Shatner’s participation in both stories, we are left with a striking comparison.  In the Star Trek episode, Captain Kirk (played, of course, by Shatner) must kill his friend, as Mitchell's increased mental function has corrupted the Lieutenant's soul.  In The Six Million Dollar Man, Lang, experiencing delusions from his overworked brain, risks his life in a desperate attempt to save his childhood friend.  Steve  pursues his friend therefore not to kill him, but to rescue him.   

It’s interesting to watch these early episodes, filmed shortly after the cancellation of the Apollo program.  They intersperse actual NASA footage from space with close-ups of the spacesuit-clad actors in the studio.  More than that though: they represent the uncertainties of space travel along with the idealism and thirst for knowledge that prompts such efforts.  Some of the ideas suggested in “Burning Bright,” such as Mission Control’s reluctance to sideline Josh Lang, even after several instances of instability, are unrealistic.  Others, such as Lang’s proposal to send a dolphin up on the upcoming manned mission, remain as silly today as they were then.  Still, I cannot help but be inspired by stories from both Star Trek and The Six Million Dollar Man that make us yearn to wonder what we will learn, and how we will be changed by those discoveries, once we venture out into the great unknown.

As I write this post, I exist in the fear and anxiety of all who would travel into space.  In just a few hours, the rover Curiosity will begin a difficult descent into the Martian atmosphere.  By the time you read this, we may know if it has landed safely, or we may not.  If it does land successfully, we have no certainty over how long the rover will function, whether or not it will act as its makers have as anticipated, or what we may learn from the information it transmits back to Earth.  

Part of me argued that I should wait to write this post, until after Curiosity's descent, so I could discuss what was known, rather than what was not.  Yet, what struck me most powerfully, and why I wrote this today, was because space travel represents the ultimate uncertainty and anxiety.  We invest these programs with our fondest hopes, even though others may regard such efforts as unrealistic and silly.  Space Travel symbolizes life itself, and our own personal journeys.  When we are offered the possibility of accomplishing something truly remarkable, do we grasp it?  Or do we choose to play it safe, scorning uncertainty for the well-worn path that most view as dependable and sound?  The choice, of course, is ours…even if, unlike William Shatner's character Josh Lang, we don’t possess a superior mind.

Good luck, Curiosity!  I live not only in hope of your safe descent, but also in expectation of what you may tell us about our red neighbor.

Looking to the sky,

Dragon Dave

Related Dragon Cache entries

Getting Out There

Related Internet Links

Video: Stephen Colbert interviews Astronaut John Grunsfeld about Curiosity’s mission

A recent story on Curiosity (and some cool photos)

A Summary of “Burning Bright”