Star Trek: Discovery - New Klingons & Mudd

Star Trek: Discovery - New Klingons & Mudd

With the developments, recent and varied, it seemed time to stick my oar in once again and see how my anticipation is shaping up for this decade-plus awaited series, especially as the news has mainly been negatively skewed, from my perspective. First big deal was a leaked behind the scenes photo which appeared to show a group of Klingons (a herd? A stampede? A swarm? I was not aware twelve Klingons constitutes a swarm…), from an extra who was part of the production. It's not been confirmed or denied, as far as I know, simply ignored, but the key thing here was that they didn't even look much like Klingons! They had pointy ears, were completely bald, and looked more like Orcs than members of the great warrior race of Qo'noS. They were wearing some kind of spiky battle armour and while we don't know for certain they were actually what this person said they were, from the early months of production it had been stated, worryingly, that established Trek aliens were going to have a makeover to 'update' them. If this were a simple case of adding texture and detail (think the Kelvin Timeline uniform shirts with their Starfleet chevron pattern), then it would be an obvious development for the greater scrutiny of High Definition viewing. If that means altering the races so they only bear a passing resemblance to their namesakes it's something entirely different.

It's not like this hasn't happened before (obviously the whole Klingons gaining foreheads in 'The Motion Picture,' or Romulans the same in 'TNG'), with 'Enterprise' leading the way in terms of updating the look of much-loved races. That series did it right nine times out of ten: just think of the wonderful improvements made to the Andorians, the Tholians, and expanding the Orions to include the males, that showed just what a modern budget could achieve (I personally wasn't quite as keen on the Tellarites as I prefer the faces from 'TOS' where the eyes were so deeply sunken they couldn't be seen, and the fact they had trotters rather than fingers). These updates were adaptations of existing designs, smoothed out, given extra personality and generally improved without altering the overall formula, but if these aliens seen in the picture were indeed Klingons they've done far more than a simple brush up and paint job! If they came up with an in-universe explanation I could certainly get on board with the new look, and my hope is that if they do turn out to be genuine Klingons there will be some kind of a twist - they're from another time or have been awoken from hibernation. Or maybe a long-forgotten branch of Klingon DNA, perhaps a result of cross-pollination with the legendary Hur'q - that would be exciting!

If the warning sign of the potential diversion from canon that this represents was putting me on Yellow Alert, there was another, official announcement that took me up to Red: they proudly trotted out the news of the casting of a character from 'TOS' who will be making a comeback. I'm not talking about Sarek here, I already mentioned that he'd be a reasonable addition given the time frame and his ambassadorial duties. No, it was Harry Mudd, intergalactic conman of the space-lanes. Now, Roger C. Carmel did a great job of imbuing this vast rogue with personality and providing Kirk and crew with an adversary that tested their morals and patience in equal measure. But once again, to recast such a role that was entirely made up of Carmel's performance and was far from being a bland, forgettable character, is to say that any can be recast, lazily regurgitating old characters to take advantage of name recognition and branding. There are so many characters that could be brought back to great acclaim, and not just from the 'TOS' era: how about Wesley Crusher, who, as a Traveller, can appear in any time and space; or Q, for the same reason; or Guinan, since she was alive at that time? What about the Dax host of the time? My point is there is so much more to the Trek universe than the small corner of 'TOS,' and I get that they've chosen that niche as the place to launch a new series, but Harry Mudd isn't even one of the 'TOS' characters I'd first think about bringing back. Or even the second, third, fourth, etc.

I was in half a mind that it could be an April Fool, but the release date was a day earlier on the 31st March, so I don't know what to think! And it was the way they seemed so keen to get it out there as if to point to the series not being what you thought it was going to be: as in a serious attempt to bring Trek back, but going more for the parody style of the Kelvin Timeline films. A couple of other little oddities are that the main character, not the Captain, but First Officer, will be named Michael Burnham. Except it's a she, and Michael isn't a female name, so that's a bit weird unless it's short for Michaela! It's not that big a deal to have the main lead not be a Captain, as Commander Sisko proved on 'DS9' - he took three seasons to attain the rank we traditionally associate with the main role, so it gives them somewhere to go. I was actually expecting her to be an even lower rank than First Officer, but this reveal suggests we won't be getting a 'Lower Decks' style of storytelling which some wondered about, and hoped for. I'm in two minds, as you are limited in what you can show or do with exclusively lower-ranked officers, but at the same time that episode was a great one in a weaker season of 'TNG.' They've probably made the right decision there and with the various ranks, even up to Admiral and Ambassador that we're going to see, there could be a nice broad spectrum of command and experience on the series.

The other little thing was Michael Dorn mentioning he had been in talks to make an appearance, but that they didn't work out. This would have been brilliant, even if he wasn't playing Worf, as he already had a character in the 23rd Century (Colonel Worf, Worf's Grandfather who, as a lawyer, defended Kirk and McCoy at the Klingon trial in 'Star Trek VI'), and every Trek series has had a character from a previous series to kickstart the next, even the Kelvin Timeline films - and not just a character, but one played by the actor who originated the role. For 'Enterprise' they even pushed the boat out to get James Cromwell back as Zefram Cochrane, which was impressive, so I wait to see what a bigger modern budget could do for us… With all this stuff trundling out I was beginning to feel my anticipation wane, and was about to reduce my rating to **, but the truth is I'm still intrigued, there's still so much to be revealed and hope springs eternal that this series will genuinely continue the historical saga and add to the canon, not ignore or detract from it.

Anticipation Rating: ***

Dune

DOSBox, Dune (1992) game

'Dune II: The Battle For Arrakis' was, and remains, one of my favourite games of all time, up there along with 'The Settlers,' 'UFO: Enemy Unknown' and 'Age of Empires' I and II. The fact that it was a sequel naturally intrigued me, and for many years I was curious to play the original, knowing only that it was similar to the sequel, but with added RPG elements to, ahem, 'spice' up proceedings, shall we say? Of course the 'Dune' series wasn't merely a computer game, but originated with Frank Herbert's science fiction opus of the mid-20th Century, which itself had spawned a film version, but to me it will always be associated with Harvesters mining the orange spice Melange, and the various Houses battling for supremacy on the desert world of Arrakis. First thoughts were that the familiar style of 'Dune II' characters and locales was in evidence, if a little more stylised, but although I was impressed with the visuals of this early nineties game, I soon found myself dealing with the laborious game mechanics where everything had to be done in specific ways, clicking this or that, waiting for a troop to get here, there were no shortcuts, and no amount of beautiful pixellated renditions of people and places could disguise the fact that it was far less accessible than its lauded sequel.

Perhaps I wasn't taking into account that these games pretty much invented the Real-Time Strategy genre, so it should be expected the first attempt would be cumbersome and labour-intensive, with lots of things to get to grips with. In that respect it mirrored your character, Paul Atreides', own experiences, arriving to be confronted with prophecies and plans for him, then thrown right into it. Alright, so the graphical detail helped assuage the impression of hard work, especially when you start travelling around by good old Ornithopter, an item I well remembered from my 'Dune II' days, with the desert ground speeding beneath your wings in a three-dimensional representation that must have been rather impressive at the time. The well-animated screens would soon grow tiresome - seeing the Orni lift off or land lost its novelty quite quickly considering the number of times you had to do it. Fortunately the travel could be skipped so you arrive at your destination without trawling through the wasteland, though the Orni takeoff, or the later harnessing of Sandworms, could not - they must have spent some time on the excellent animation, however, so I didn't feel too irritated, and indeed, you need to sit back and accept a slower, more guided gaming experience than later generations of games would relax.

Except that, although it could be slow, you soon find yourself under pressure, having to fly around to be in a radius sufficient to communicate with your Fremen troops, and far from the experience being linear you're pretty much left to make your own mistakes. Fly too near the enemy Harkonnen space and you'll get shot down with the accompanying graphic death, fast-forwarding through your body's decomposing to dust and bone to rot on the planet's surface; lose too many troops; fail to send Emperor Shaddam IV his demanded shipment of spice and his Saudaukar warriors will finish you off. From one perspective this freedom only adds to the tension of the game and the reality of your position, reality hitting home even harder due to the allowance of a mere two save logs, meaning you can't save every few minutes and jump back to an earlier file if you get to a point of no return. Twice that was very close to forcing me to restart from the very beginning (an era where games were far less forgiving, and rewards had to be earned!). When Chani was captured during her stay with troops, curing them from a mystery illness, I had already taken out most of the Harkonnen Fortresses so was unable to use Espionage to track down which remaining one she was held within, nor could I hope to attack the remaining few since they were heavily armed and my men's motivation had dropped so much with her kidnap.

It was handy, then, that I had a log to go back a good few days, which enabled me to take alternative action, pulling back so an easier fort would be the one to hold her. But it was a close run thing. The same happened towards the very end as I didn't realise the goal was to capture all the Fortresses and I assumed there were many more I had yet to discover, but no way to find them with Espionage failing from all the furthest caves (sietches), I'd liberated or located and no other way to unearth more. The Globe screen with its results of both House Atreides and House Harkonnen didn't appear to have any bearing since its data indicated a massive enemy presence on the planet, spice mining going up, despite me only being able to locate a few final forts. I had enough spice for about one more good shipment to the Emperor (a requirement for the game to continue - he might give a day or so's grace, but eventually you'd die if you didn't fulfil his demands), when I just happened to take the last fort without realising it was such, and on returning to my home palace to find out how much longer I had until the next shipment was due, Duncan Idaho, my trusty business manager, said I had 255 days left! I thought it was a glitch, but I'd take it at this point! But no, the requirement had been met and the last assault was all that was needed for completion, to my relief. As you can see, to lose the ability to complete the game so close to the end would have been a sore trial.

It would have been useful to have been able to automate tasks so that I didn't personally have to sort out everything - after all, I'm supposed to have loyal servants and subjects! Idaho could have been instructed to send the Emperor what he asked for on demand, or 50% more, or whatever I chose, rather than having to make sure I could track back to the palace within the day it was due, to avoid the Emperor's wrath (not having read the book, I don't know if he was an established character or a contemporary addition: the Gulf War and Saddam were at the forefront of consciousness in the early nineties when this was released, and here we have an evil Emperor Shaddam on a desert planet…). But then that would defeat the object, which was to present a world in which to keep the tasks running to accomplishment, you had to be visible and make contact, juggling the various responsibilities entrusted to you. Plus, it would have stripped out a chunk of the game! 'Dune II' would be such a vast enhancement of the concepts in this game as to be virtually separate, but it was nice to see familiar terms from the later game appear: windfarms, Fremen, spice, the Saudaukar, not to mention the Houses or the Emperor, things that I spent so long with in the 1990s.

I was also pleased to see a proper ending, with a little time given over to a proper conclusion, rather than a 'The End' sign coming up when the Harkonnen palace had been stormed (unlike 'Armorines,' the game I played prior to this!), with all the main characters converging on the palace to have it out with Baron Harkonnen, the making of Paul as the new Emperor and faithful Chani, Empress, then showing each main character in all their beautiful artwork as a sendoff, like the end of an old film, taking you back to each person - I love it when a game puts that kind of detail in. They even had 'Dune II' planned since it ends with a message saying it was coming soon! Yes, the toiling between sietches, the slow improvement of Paul's powers (getting to ride a Sandworm, communicating across greater distances, rallying the Fremen, and eventually getting the ecology of the planet off to a good start), and the gradual advancement of troops and expansion of the map, all dragged the game out, and I was really going to be hard on the game when it came to review time, but as I went on I found I was enjoying it, having mastered the various tasks, finding improvements that eased the pain (the main one being the ability to contact troops anywhere on the planet), and the constant visual appeal, whether that were the map view, the 3D travel or the pearlescent visions which served as communication for Paul (why he couldn't contact Idaho in return, I don't know!).

The music was also good, and the characters were an interesting bunch. There was humour, such as the situation of two female characters becoming jealous over you, and the gradual additions to your forces were inspiring. The story element wasn't quite as big a deal as I thought, with the occasional quest or clue to be interpreted, usually as simple as taking someone somewhere - it was certainly no 'Monkey Island,' but it worked and as an old game it was certainly a good one. That they improved the mechanics and design so much with the sequel shows how far the concept could go. I've never played 'Dune 2000,' but I'd be interested to see where that went with that one, and whether further improvements were the order. One thing's for sure: it gave me the wish to delve deeper into the 'Dune' mythos: to revisit 'Dune II' again, even though I played it through to death, winning with all three Houses back in the day; to read the books; maybe even see the film again (which I wasn't keen on upon viewing it a few years ago). It certainly wasn't a waste of time as it first appeared, but a worthwhile exploration of the precursor to a gaming classic which held a satisfying challenge and an interesting history. There's even the replay value of trying to win the game in a shorter number of days (I took 137!), which could potentially draw me back in future.

***

The Return of The Archons

DVD, Star Trek S1 (The Return of The Archons)

The title conjures up images of legend and history since the word 'archon' originates as a title of the nine magistrates of Ancient Athens, so it is fitting that in this context it means the crew or people of the USS Archon, a ship that went missing one hundred years before the episode, dating it to 2167, only a few short years after the Enterprise NX-01 soared the skies of space - it would have been wonderful if we could have seen it in 'Enterprise,' except for the fact that it's a Federation starship, coming after the founding of that organisation, so NX-01 couldn't have met it other than through time travel, or unless the series had lasted at least ten seasons (or skipped a few years into the future), but it's always exciting to hear of the earliest days of starship exploration so it's disappointing that the episode never goes into detail on this lost ship - we don't know who captained her, what class of vessel she was or any other facts apart from the mysterious loss. Not that it proves detrimental to the episode, but it would have made it even better.

We have another one that begins 'hot' - we're right in the midst of the action, with Sulu and O'Neil on the run from we know not what: sinister hooded stalkers, coming for them. It's an introduction that creates tension and grabs you from the off and it's good to see Sulu in a different role from his standard Helm position, even if he fades into the background for the rest of the episode. One thing I couldn't help but realise was how much the story appears to be a judgement on Christianity in particular: generally, though 'TOS' was heavily science based, it didn't have the extreme humanism of 'TNG' and beyond, with attitudes that were more in keeping with a time of greater acceptance for Christian points of view - you only have to look at certain episodes of the series, such as 'Who Mourns For Adonais?' or 'Bread and Circuses' to name two of the more famous examples, to see that God was a part of Starfleet life (why else have a Chapel aboard, as seen in 'Balance of Terror'?). Gene Roddenberry may have had slightly different views at this time than he took on later, as evidenced by the impression he gave of Earth and humanity, even in this episode, compared with a far more idealised version in 'TNG' specifically, which shows his outlook altered over the years. He may even have been under pressure from the studio above not to be too judgemental of 'religious' views, and also the makeup of the audience would have been more attuned to those views back then than the majority now, I would suspect.

This episode proves that Roddenberry didn't completely hold back on his strong views against faith as there are too many specifically selected words and terminology to ignore the intent was to comment on faith, but the episode can be read in more than one way. Firstly, yes, we have 'the body,' the description of those in it as expressing vacant contentment as if their personality and ability to reason and think had been drained away, and Landru, this culture's representation of a man, made god through his philosophy of peace and tranquility for all. It's all rather chilling and paints a shocking picture of those 'caught up' in this lifestyle that has sucked all the life out of them so that Kirk calls their society soulless, without spirit, like a machine. The Borg have echoes of these sentiments, and it's a compelling fear that is expertly examined in much of Trek, the giving yourself over to something that 'absorbs' you totally, subsumes you into it. The Borg were equally as ripe a culture to explore the ultimate loss of individuality, merging 'into the unity of the good' as Landru's followers expressly call it here. But I would argue that what both the Borg and this episode are actually warning of, are cults, whether of personality or of organisation, and the creepiness of it all is as much the familiar phrases and the people who look just like ordinary humans, which means they look like us, and the horror is of seeing us portrayed as calm and vacant one moment and violent in the extreme, the next.

Cults often pick and mix which bits and pieces they choose to accept from Biblical text, so there's enough truth in what they say to ensnare the unwary and those looking for something more in life, and this is exactly what has happened to this culture. But far from being a man-made religion, making up its rules to reach God, rather than accepting God's free offer, their own pride of needing to achieve or accomplish in order to reach some 'thing' higher than themselves, this is, it could be said, even worse, as it's not even a human mind that has organised this society, but a machine. A computer is found to be behind it all (something that would become a running theme in primitive, idol-worshiping cultures of 'TOS' we'd see again and again), but not in some devious scheme to corrupt the populace or to ensure its own survival, but from a programmed sense of what is right and wrong, what is best for the people. The original Landru must have been a charismatic leader to bring the inhabitants of that planet away from the many wars they'd experienced, to a peaceful world. Hmm, what does that remind you of? The name Surak ring any bells? More on that later…

If we look on the plight of these people as being caught up in a cult it is much more palatable and seems less like a hard dig at Christianity, because a cult would make such things as 'the body' seem sinister rather than a group of people following God's Word. In the Bible the body was an analogy for the church to make it easier to understand that there are different parts of the whole and each have different roles and skills. In the Landru cult it merely means a frightening cloud that must be allowed to take over the mind to enable Landru's strict governance to be perpetuated. Spock describes it as a computer when the Lawgivers respond to Kirk's defiance to follow the will of Landru, and they basically can't compute this reaction. But, just like the Borg, they learn and adapt, and once they've had time to 'commune' with Landru, they return to threaten death if Kirk fails to comply, in the same way that a Phaser can take out one or two drones initially, but the Borg always adapt their shielding, the weapons eventually proving useless against them. It doesn't stop the use of terminology like 'blessed be the body' and 'communion,' or 'you heard the word and disobeyed' from gaining negative connotations in the context of the story, not to mention the scary Lawgivers wear robes to resemble monks, which doesn't help dispel the impression of attacking faith as a mindless loss of reason, and the empty words of joy and bland happiness, as if the affected are drugged up.

At the same time there is evidence for the right-thinking approach the Bible advocates, of testing and seeing, not just blindly following. Marplon (according to the credits, or Marphon according to the latest 'Star Trek Encyclopedia,' take your pick!), the good guy who saves Kirk and Spock from being absorbed (although it must have been a temporary condition since both McCoy and Sulu are back to normal by the end, probably because of Landru's destruction), is an excellent case for the positive image of faith: he has long believed in the return of the Archons, in other words that, as the prophecy said, more of the same kind will come to set them free, in the same way that other leaders and Jesus was prophesied to come to set free. It's also interesting that the resistance cells were arranged into threes, and Marplon describes himself as one of the triad, which could be a reflection on the Trinity. And whether Kirk and company like it or not, they do seem to be the fulfilment of prophecy. Admittedly, this side of the story isn't fully explored in much detail, just as the history of the USS Archon is left to our imaginations, but the subtext is there, and that's what makes the episode so fascinating to me: if they were genuinely presenting a case for faith as being a flaw, rather than faith in the wrong thing being flawed, they wouldn't have had Marplon talk of prophecy or maybe even have shown anyone objecting to the overruling flow of the people at the risk of their own lives.

If the message of the episode isn't fully obvious from the writing and execution, the same can be said for other aspects of the universe that was continuing to be created as there are several inconsistencies of both the large and small variety. In the small category we have Kirk call McCoy 'Doc,' which just sounds painfully out of step with the series as we know it. As far back as 'The Enemy Within' Kirk had addressed his Chief Medical Officer as Bones, but it hadn't become that regular as he tended to call him 'the Doctor' or 'McCoy' most of the time, which is why this flurry of 'Docs' is so strange to our ears. One thing's for sure: the writers had certainly not got all their Docs in a row yet… I also found it to be a little strange that Kirk keeps referring to all his officers as Mister. So we have Mr. Leslie, and Mr. O'Neil, Mr. Lindstrom and Mr. Galloway, rather than referring to them by rank. I also felt that one of them stood out much more than the others and was clearly a role designed to be more than a background redshirt - I can't remember which one it was, but he certainly seemed to come into the foreground whenever he was in a scene, as if he was a character that might recur in future. I expect William Shatner made a point of saying Mr. Leslie's name (the second episode in a row when he's woken the stunned Leslie), since he'd suggested the name as a tribute to his daughter!

There are a couple of big details that would later be ironed out or outright changed, and these are the attitude of Earth as paradise, and Spock as a spiritual being. I wouldn't be surprised if this story was the basis for the Vulcan history of Surak overcoming the Vulcans' warlike existence and setting them on a path to peace forevermore, except rather than building a computer to oversee his people and continue/enforce his ways, Surak, being Vulcan, continued on, his katra passed down through the generations so his knowledge and wisdom wouldn't be lost (unless you live in the Kelvin Timeline, in which case it looked like all the Vulcan relics and containers of katras were lost, though who knows, maybe Sarek and the other elders were able to 'download' some into their brains in time, but I'm pretty sure we'll never know what happened since those films don't go into detail and are about to become redundant thanks to 'Discovery' rediscovering the Prime Universe). Yet Spock displays lack of empathy with the people here, calling their Red Hour carousing and vandalising totally illogical! You'd think he'd see the parallels with his own culture and appreciate the need for constraint except for set times, after all, these people don't have Vulcan strength and discipline to restrain their violent emotions, and it could be said the Pon Farr is much like this, except more personal. Perhaps that was why Spock expressed such disapproval, since Pon Farr and other aspects of his heritage had yet to be revealed and they're a secretive race (something their brethren, the Romulans, also never relinquished).

The same could be said for his attitude to the soul, since he doesn't seem to like the idea of such things, preferring the provable, when later he would learn for himself the value and reality of spirit and soul. But he was still relatively young at this time, his brush with death happening decades later so perhaps at this time he was into pure science as his doctrine of choice and hadn't yet learned to be more flexible, either with his human side or his Vulcan beliefs. Another historical point to note is his and Kirk's discussion at the end of the episode about Earth never having got to a place of peace and security as this world was, to which Kirk jokes they were lucky. This apparently flies in the face of Roddenberry's philosophy of the perfection of humanity and the paradise of Earth, which in 'TNG' is prevalent and the driving force of his tenure in charge. Again, it's a question of time, both real world with Gene's ideas and ideals changing, and in the Trek universe: in another century things had evidently become much better. Not to say that Earth is a war-torn horror, since Kirk is clearly being lighthearted about it, and it's more about the sentiment that rough times provide growth, while settled, comfortable times are more prone to producing laziness and settling for less. So I'm sure Earth was a great place at that time, but it hadn't risen to the heights of the 24th Century (even if that century did have the spectre of attack surround it on several occasions, like the Borg or the Breen).

Spock's behaviour is another part of the episode which shows the full character still hadn't been hammered out yet: when the Lawgivers come, he and Kirk surprise them, but rather than perform a nerve pinch to knock out his target, Spock chooses to belt the guy in the chops in a most un-Vulcan-like way, especially odd considering Nimoy himself had suggested a more economical attack much earlier in the season, so why revert to physical violence? It's not like they did it without thinking either, as they have Kirk comment on it, saying something like 'isn't that a bit old-fashioned?' Maybe it was a story thread that was abandoned, because I could easily imagine some rationale being that Spock was reverting to the modes of his ancestors because of some signal that Landru was giving out, or this was an effect from the sonic pulse that knocked him and the others out. It's even more noticeable because later he actually does perform a nerve pinch! There's also the impression he conducted a mind meld on McCoy, as we enter a scene with him probing the Doctor's mind, his fingers on his face in classic mind meld style, but he can't do anything. He actually looks more Vulcan in this episode than any other, I would say, since the cloak he wears (if you ignore the trousers and shoes), is very much like the robe in 'The Motion Picture.'

There's something much more unsettling about the people of this planet because of their attire: they wear Victorian or 19th Century garb, and it looks likely this is another parallel Earth society, the buildings all look period architecture as do the manners and bearing. The difference is that they're more advanced than they seem, as evidenced by a hidden piece of technology, the lighting panel Reger has hidden away - I thought they did an excellent job of presenting this advanced piece of technology, a flat panel that simply provides light, something that in the sixties would have been amazing, but which is easily possible now with smaller lighting elements and better batteries. Technology plays a big part in the story, from the revelation of another Tricorder function (it has the capability to block scanning beams, although in this case they were too strong), to the seeming specificity of Phasers (we see Kirk order a wide beam stun to knock out the approaching zombielike townsfolk; it's a blue beam, where later, when he and Spock blast a chunk of the wall to reveal Landru's true form, the beams are red as if to signify a more powerful setting, which I really like!). I also found the use of the Transporter to create tension a great idea: Sulu requests emergency beam-out, but O'Neil runs away as the Lawgivers approach. Unfortunately, Sulu gets affected, whereas it would have been a better lesson to stand your ground and you'll be safe, instead of running and being absorbed as O'Neil did - come to think of it, Sulu's story never went anywhere, he could have been a danger on the ship, but it's not explored. It also showed they can't beam up a moving target.

The biggest technical triumph was in Kirk launching a thousand logic problems by talking a computer to death, and not for the last time! It would become his stock in trade whenever a culture was being hoodwinked by a machine with delusions of godhood. You'd think Spock would be the one to use logic to defeat a computerised foe, but then he might be a little too close to the subject matter, as Kirk says he'd make a very good computer at the end. The hole they blew through a wall to reveal Landru looked suspiciously like the Guardian of Forever, and I wonder if it was actually cut out and later used as that august creation as it seems more likely that a cash-strapped production would keep hold of every piece of set they could for reuse, rather than it being a huge coincidence when the episodes were only a few weeks apart. Mind you, that's not the only reuse, as much of the story's elements have similarities to 'What Are Little Girls Made Of?' You have the ancient machinery being used to keep a world in order (like that of the Old Ones that Korby uses to make his androids), tall hooded enemies that carry out their master's will (like Ruk), Kirk talking a machine around (as he did to Ruk), and underground rooms and chambers, and I was even waiting for him to place a strong thought in his mind as he was absorbed so that he was able to fight it (as he did with the android copy of himself), except he was saved from the device this time. The only thing missing is a love interest for the Captain, but he does get kissed - during the Red Hour a woman flings herself on his face!

As the former is probably my favourite episode, it's no surprise that I like this one, too. It has pretty much everything, including more of an ensemble feel (in a small way), with Sulu having his moment and Scotty getting to command the ship and sit in The Chair, even if he was powerless to prevent the heat beams from pulling the Enterprise down towards the planet - we're told that if the ship went to warp, or even impulse, the shields would fail, although I wasn't clear on whether this was because all available power was appropriated to keep shields up, or movement itself would have made the ship more vulnerable, but either way it's good to see Scotty on the Bridge and running the place, even if he's no substitute for Kirk, who is obviously one of a kind since no one from the Archon was able to defeat Landru, and Kirk's even the last to succumb to the debilitating sonic wave that incapacitates his Landing Party. We even get the Prime Directive discussed, with Spock bringing it up, though Kirk gets around it by saying it only refers to a living, growing culture, and does this one look like that? Yes, it was fast and loose, but it was the era of cowboy diplomacy, and it fit the mood, as did the somewhat Wild West clothing Kirk and crew wore as they moseyed down the streets. All they needed were six-shooters and cowboy hats and the picture would have been complete! Tamar, played by Jon Lormer, the guy who gets killed by hollow tube blast, had been in Trek before as the illusory main survivor in 'The Cage,' though he went uncredited in that one. And the colourful Hall of Audiences I think was used again in 'I, Mudd,' as it's quite distinctive.

At least this time they didn't disrupt an entire planet, then move on without any assistance for the populace, or the promise that a ship would drop by at some point as had been the case before: no, this time Lindstrom and a team of specialists stay behind to help sort out the mess. Kirk wasn't going to hang around for that, was he? It's not his forte, he's better at tearing down false gods and dictators, then on to the next one. His skill in 'the body' of Starfleet was clear. The ominous terminology and the shocking changes in the people we see help to make this a good episode - it really is horrifying to see them switch from genteel and tranquil to thugs, screaming and wild, a festival of abandon and terror. It's a concept that has been done in sci-fi a lot as we seem to have a fascination with letting loose and allowing our inner emotions to have full control, a whirlpool of rage, desire, hatred, euphoria and all the extremes, rather than the necessary curbing of those flesh-based impulses. Freedom, as some would call it, anarchy, but in reality slavery to themselves, unable to be in control to the detriment of themselves and those around them. One thing Kirk got very wrong was in his insistence that freedom is never a gift and has to be earned, which is certainly contradicting Biblical teaching, which is that God gives us freedom by grace, it can't be earned. The Captain needs to go back and check his scriptures…

***

Tomorrow Is Yesterday

DVD, Star Trek S1 (Tomorrow Is Yesterday)

The template for the atypical, and for the time travel, episodes of Trek. It could be credited with the template for comical, except for the facts we'd already had 'Shore Leave' and 'The Squire of Gothos.' Yet the stakes are much lower in the immediate sense than the mystery of the Amusement Park Planet, with the sinister turn, or the foppish, but deadly Squire Trelane, which added an edge to the farce of those. Here, the position is awkward, though not grim. They talk of being trapped in time, with nowhere, least of all the Earth to go - if they don't want to risk contaminating the timeline by allowing Captain Christopher (no, not Christopher Pike, Captain John Christopher), to return to his wife and children, even less can they afford four hundred and thirty crewmen to descend on an unsuspecting homeworld (couldn't they have gone to Vulcan?). It made me think of 'First Contact' where the Enterprise-E is evacuated with orders to find a quiet place and make new lives for themselves, except Picard is confident they won't alter the correct stream of events. The worst that can happen is that they live on in the 20th Century, but live they would, rather than being killed by rampaging Medieval Knights or a petulant alien child. So we can excuse a little of the levity with which this situation is greeted, Kirk in particular finding it a great wheeze to see the shocked expression of Christopher at being beamed aboard, seeing this large space-going vessel and hearing such a cock and bull story as future humans, time travel, and aliens.

He never believed in little green men (he must have been too young when Quark, Rom and Nog crashed at Roswell in 1947!), something agreed by Spock, and even Kirk mentions he's a 'little green man' when captured by base security. It's funny to think that only twenty years previous, Ferengi had visited, but as Kirk leaves open to interpretation (and gap-filling), aliens weren't known of in this time, or at least not publicly, leaving the door open for such things as the Roswell incident to be confirmed or denied depending on history. Not, I'm sure, that the writers thought much about the future believability of this series. They'd have had to be fools to think that this particular one would outlast the majority, and still, fifty years later, would be beloved by so many and watched even then. I expect they'd have wondered at the lack of development and speed of advancement in the world, since with the evidence at hand they would probably have assumed the space program would have advanced greatly, with citizens trips to the Moon, manned missions beyond it, and so on, which never happened. So to think we'd still be enjoying our space kicks by watching this old relic… well, they'd probably have been both delighted and dismayed had they not lived into future decades. They got one thing right, though: the contemporary military computers, bulky reel to reel models, would be museum fodder, not just by Kirk's time, but by our present day!

Kirk enjoys his sojourn into the past, even though it was only the second experience of time travel (after 'The Naked Time'), and the first to a specific period on Earth, the beginning of many more such adventures throughout Trek lore. One of the interesting choices (besides having them go to the contemporary time of the series' production, something that every series would do in one form or another), was to have a cold start with no cast from the series, completely set on Earth, with only the glimpse of the Enterprise sailing majestically through the clouds to give us the clue that this was, indeed, 'Star Trek.' We open with the sight of jets taxiing from an airfield in search of a 'UFO,' and it's quite a change from the usual opening (later inspiring such diverse fare as '11:59' from 'Voyager' and 'Carpenter Street' from 'Enterprise,' among others), which continues as we get a Captain's Log, post credits, that explains what's happened, and we see the aftermath of their interaction with a black star and its 'breakaway' that sent them hurtling through time. It's one of the least scientific aspects of Trek (the 'fi' much more ascendant than the 'sci' in this particular episode), but the slingshot effect is just one of those trademarks that we accept as being a genuine route to travelling through time so we can enjoy the speculative possibilities of such an adventure without worrying about how exactly that would work (in the same category as Superman spinning the globe in reverse to somehow turn back time, which was even more ridiculous!).

Kirk tends to go back and forth, at first enjoying the situation and the chance to show off his ship to an ancestor, but also understanding the gravity of the situation, the necessity of retrieving the photographs Christopher took of the Enterprise which could be in sufficient detail to alter the timeline, long before the tiresome notion of infinite timelines which split off with every decision, thus making one set timeline a falsity, but also destroying any sort of attraction to real historical events and cheapening all existence into the bargain - especially when we've seen Trek develop a detailed future history through five decades, taking it for granted that the one we see is The Timeline, which must be preserved or else changes will occur, much more dramatic than an 'anything goes' mentality of the kind comic books continuity embraces to its detriment. Spock isn't exactly playing by the temporal rulebook, himself, as both times when a past human sees him, he makes no attempt to hide himself, not backward in coming forward, boldly striding into the limelight as if proud to show off his alien nature! Naturally this creates amusement, but it's not what you'd expect from Starfleet officers taking the time stream seriously, especially a Vulcan! It's a bit like 'Who Watches The Watchers' where they tried to keep too much knowledge from an unfortunate visitor. 'The Neutral Zone' is another episode that may have taken inspiration from this, as we have 20th Century humans waking up and having to deal with this wondrous, impossible starship and crew that they could never have imagined (assuming they never watched Trek back in the day!).

It's played for laughs, especially the airman that finds Kirk and Sulu in the records room and gets beamed up for his trouble. Couldn't they have held him in the Transporter beam until they were ready to go, then it would have merely looked like he saw the intruders vanish before his eyes and he'd be unable to account for the extra hours he missed? The same could have been done to Christopher so they didn't need to have him come aboard at all, or they might even have beamed him directly from the wreckage of his fighter plane (the tractor beam must be rougher on ships than we thought if it rips apart this plane!), to the ground and he'd have been none the wiser, the timeline uncorrupted. It could be that Transporters of this era weren't as reliable, but the main reason against it is that it would have denied us the experience of guests on the Enterprise from another time, and you don't want to avoid drama, you want to bring it on and deal with it. Even if, in this case, they dealt with it in a supremely odd way. They travel further back in time because of their speed (or something), and beam both Christopher and the airman into their own bodies! Which somehow makes them forget because they're sent back to a time before they came aboard… I'm having a little trouble understanding that, or how you can beam someone into an earlier version of themselves, but I can't deny the effect looked good and was an elegant solution compared with what I thought was going to be McCoy wiping their short term memories.

One effect that wasn't looking so good was the Enterprise in the sky. Some shots were fine, with it sailing through the cloudscape, but one in particular where it bounces up and down from cloud to cloud on a horizontal plane (like the bikes in old Commodore 64 game, 'Kikstart,' or the original 'Excitebike' from Nintendo), looked appallingly laughable. It wasn't much better when we see the ship hanging there rocking up and down! It's sad to see the limits of their model work at this time because it could have been a perfect showcase for the ship, so rare was it to see it in anything other than the darkness of space. No doubt the Remastered version took full advantage, but that was the way things were at the time. Yet I can't help but think they could have done something slightly more in tune with the series and how we've seen the ship, easily the most embarrassing effects of the model so far. The crew inside were subjected to several bouts of being flung around - the first scenes aboard her even start with Uhura and Leslie lying on the deck and having to be helped up by the Captain and First Officer (anyone looking for some evidence of gentleness and care from Spock towards Uhura, to in some way support the Kelvin Timeline's insistence on their romantic attachment, would be surprised to see how roughly he pulls her up and pushes her around like a piece of meat!).

A notable addition to the crew lineup is Mr. Kyle, the Transporter Chief who was in a number of episodes and regarded well enough that they brought him back for 'Star Trek II.' The protocols for having unexpected visitors aboard ship either aren't followed or are very strange: the poor, shocked airman that finds himself in the Transporter Room confronted by a guy with a bowl cut, pointy ears and makeup above the eyes is left to stand stunned - we see him hanging around the Transporter Room later, with Kyle the only occupant. Being a genial sort he asks what food the guy would like and from the food slots in the rear of the room punches in an order for chicken soup. Shouldn't he be taken under guard to some quarters, or the brig? At least give the dazed fellow a chair to sit in after his shock! Mind you, Captain Christopher isn't treated much better with Spock openly declaring to all and sundry that he never made any relevant contribution to history so it doesn't matter if he never returns! Even Tuvok was more sensitive than that, and he was a full Vulcan - he didn't let on to the Romulan who was only a few decades in the past that he was going to die (in 'Eye of The Needle'), but Spock is completely uncaring for either the guy or the timeline! It turns around later when he gets the good news he's going to have a boy who'll be integral to the future space programme (something to do with Saturn, but he'd better hurry up as he must be getting on a bit by now!). Spock wasn't at his best - he really felt the need to call up Kirk while he was greeting Christopher in the Transporter Room, and ask if they should turn off the tractor beam now the jet's been dismantled by it? He's the First Officer! He does redeem himself somewhat when he sneaks round behind Christopher during the mission on the base, nerve-pinching him successfully.

I did like the fact they talk of a manned moon shot, since this was made in 1966, three years before such a thing actually happened, but it must have been in the air that NASA was approaching such an objective. There are also some great facts let loose over the course of the episode, such as the Enterprise being one of only twelve of its kind in the fleet (and they make contact with 'Starfleet Control' in the final scene). I can't remember how many starships were on the chart in 'Court Martial,' but even if there were more than twelve we can assume they weren't all Constitution-class (I don't think the class has even been mentioned yet). Kirk also claims his authority comes from the United Earth Space Probe Agency, something touched on in the last episodes of 'Enterprise' where it was obviously a pre-Federation organisation in the same way Starfleet was. The Communicator has a special emergency signal which can be interpreted as a request for beam out, and without Kirk's Communicator they can't beam him aboard or even locate him (presumably because he's among so many humans). We get to see the black belt upon which it rests, separately for the first time when Kirk and Sulu hand them over to the airman (they look so much better and more expensive than the previous brown ones). It also seems pretty clear the Enterprise has but one Transporter Room, since Kirk orders a guard posted outside of it in case Christopher tries to escape. And once again, Spock usurps Uhura's earpiece for his own use. Maybe everyone has one?

The humour isn't too silly, whether it's Kirk's slightly comical fight against three airmen that find him, but I like the relish with which he goes into it and the resolve on his face as he closes the door in a way that says no one's going through there, giving Sulu time to beam away. His lighthearted reaction to be being caught and interrogated doesn't go too far, he's never arrogant, knowing how important this situation is, but also knowing he has the power just out of range to escape. Though he must have been speaking generally when he responds to the officer's threat to lock him up for two hundred years, saying that that would be about right (if he was going to be living into the 22nd Century!). But things are a little bizarre when they throw in the computer talking in a kittenish female voice on the Enterprise, ostensibly altered by a race dominated by women that they'd stopped at for repairs, whom had replaced the monotone with personality. The episode was going for a lighter tone, but it was just so odd, especially as that could have been the idea for a whole episode in itself, and had the impression of being something from an earlier draft of the script that had been left in, but not developed. Once again we see a clip from a future episode: this time it's Spock being hit by the spores from 'This Side of Paradise,' but they were showing these things out of production order, so maybe that episode had already been seen?

***

The Eye

DVD, Stargate Atlantis S1 (The Eye)

As I suspected, Robert Davi was employed to take over from Colm Meaney, whose leader, Cowen, is only mentioned and doesn't even make one scene, sadly. Davi carried it off, whether threatening Weir and McKay's lives, putting up with relentless wind and rain effects (and very effective effects they were too), or commanding his unfortunate troops, and even having to put up with sudden insubordination when Sora's personal vendetta against Teyla stops her from following his order to withdraw. I suspect he's dead, after Sheppard's point perfect shooting that knocked him back through the Stargate at the end. But Sora… She never rang quite true for me, and I don't know whether it was the actress' ability I question or the way the character was written, but she never seemed to have the real fire in her eyes that you'd expect from someone driven by burning vengeance. Even her motivation wasn't that well effected, Father Tyrus dying in a bit of a needless way by the hand of a Wraith guard, rather than by Teyla's hand as Cowen had decreed. As a result it wasn't entirely satisfactory when she relents on her violent confrontation, and I didn't really buy that she'd fling down her gun to engage in a knife fight with her sworn enemy. There was no chance she was going to win in such an arena, and she must have realised that, so you'd think she'd simply gun down her foe mercilessly.

She did seem to have qualms about killing, though, so maybe it was true to the characterisation that we'd been presented with over these three episodes featuring the Genii. I was expecting some kind of change of heart that would bring her over to the Atlantis crew's side, with Weir getting through, or something happening, but it never did, except Teyla chose not to kill her. Was she grateful, or was she shamed into then helping her hated opponent carry Dr. Beckett back to the control centre? She was an uneven person, one minute following orders, albeit reluctantly, constantly standing up against unnecessary killing, but then wanting to have the visceral pleasure of killing Teyla slowly at close range! I would suspect an unstable personality… She's not the only one to attempt killings, with Major Sheppard proving his warrior soldier's cred as much as Teyla did in the blade contest (even if it was annoyingly shot in the half-dark, making it harder to appreciate the moves, it was still good to see Teyla finally get to do some fighting as I always suspected she would in the Teal'c role). He pulls no punches, or bullets to be precise, going round killing the enemy soldiers without compunction. In a way it's slightly unsettling, because usually it's just aliens and monsters, not humans like us. I noticed they didn't actually show the shooting of the three he cunningly hangs above - it seems they weren't going to show too much gun damage, whereas they were fine with the Ancient weapon that merely stuns.

I didn't understand why they wouldn't be stunning everyone, but I suppose the military mindset is that deadly force must be used to quell invasion. If Sheppard was aping John McLane last time, this week it's John Rambo (the music even becomes a little 'First Blood'), using guerilla warfare tactics to deal with the incursion. He shows no mercy, taking out the bad guys who will show no mercy to him, and when Ford arrives with a stun weapon he tells him to leave it behind. It's not pretty, it's a dirty job, but someone has to do it. The most shocking moment is when he gets the Stargate shield raised as Genii reinforcements come through, and it's quite sickening to think that every blat we hear is a Genii being squished like a bug on a windscreen. But he had to be uncompromising to deal with the likes of Kolya, who first lies that Weir is dead, before threatening to kill her again. I never thought she was going to be shot, at least not fatally, but it was a heroic moment, and an uncharacteristically unselfish move from McKay to stand in front of her - she was impressed he stood in front of a gun for her, and although it was ultimately self-serving (he wasn't lying when he vehemently exhorted Kolya as to the vital importance of both himself and Weir if they wanted to raise the shield), it was still brave - you just know there's a spark of decency in there waiting to flicker into flame when the chips are down!

Beckett, Teyla and Ford's side of the story, stuck in a Jumper until they can make it back, then arriving to give some support, was pretty much by the numbers, and none of them made a great deal of difference. It's sad, but Ford once again doesn't come across as much of a soldier, getting annoyed with Beckett, and they all wander down the corridors like a disorderly rabble, even once Sheppard's met up with them. I was just waiting for an opportunistic Genii to gun them all down, as they really weren't operating well in a military style. Similarly, the effects of the ultimate wave engulfing Atlantis as the shield protects it, wasn't quite what it should have been. I have to remind myself that these are effects on a TV budget so I shouldn't expect 'Interstellar' levels of realism, and for the most part the CG worked well. Particular praise must go to the production and behind the scenes staff that constructed a waterproof set and were able to blast fake rain at the actors (I bet that was their favourite day!), in a believable simulation of storm conditions that did make it feel like a feature film. The actors, too, should be complimented for bravely taking many scenes of drenching and shouting - it really added to the experience.

I'm glad this last part was more impressive than the buildup, I just would have liked Meaney to have been a part of it, but perhaps this isn't the last we'll see of the Genii. Unless they get wiped by The Wraith, in which case we won't. But Sora is held prisoner, and they don't have a good track record of keeping prisoners (or anyone), for long, so the groundwork has been laid for further animosity. I felt after three serialised episodes we could have had a more in-depth final scene, perhaps with the whole team sitting down to a meal or some sort of celebration for successfully surviving the storm and defeating the intruders, and as much as I liked Sheppard's joke about the next storm being in twenty years so how far in advance can they book leave, it deserved more for the characters' sake. They still haven't quite got a good handle on the ensemble, they do them fine in groups, but maybe that's because they're used to the four or five (with a couple of recurring characters), main cast interacting and aren't so capable with a larger group? A good episode for all that, Sheppard a proper tactician and Weir and McKay performing admirably together.

***

The Alternative Factor

DVD, Star Trek S1 (The Alternative Factor)

What of Lazarus? That's the open ended question Kirk poses as a final conundrum to leave us with. But my question would be, "What of Lazarus' beard?" It was never a thick, bushy, well-cultivated hair growth at the best of times, but it goes from straggly goatee and Fu Manchu moustache combo to a few hairs loosely struggling under the category of 'beard' in the space of a couple of scenes! Literally, Lazarus' beard growth diminishes from being on the ship one moment to beaming down with the Landing Party with a few faint follicles the next. Either the Transporter has that effect on certain people from antimatter universes, or something fishy was going on… It would be easily explained away if we'd had the anti-Lazarus replace our version, but we know it's the same guy because he's wearing the 'bandage' (as McCoy calls it, but it's more like a plaster - Kirk must think his Doctor incredibly inappropriate if he really was joking about the disappearing patch, perhaps to cheer him up, but in his defence he was under a lot of stress at the time, pressure from Starfleet Command, the ship's safety, and a perplexing mystery, so he wasn't thinking straight or he'd have paid more attention!). This isn't the only sign of an episode in a part of the season where there's a distinct impression that the budget, time and patience was being stretched. This was about the twentieth episode produced (give or take the original pilot), so I can imagine that no matter how well organised and machinelike the production had become, things must have been getting strained by this stage.

The other big factor (the alternative factor, you could even call it), in deducing this is the fact of the location shooting being replaced by stage scenes towards the end - once Kirk's travelled through the corridor between universes he appears in the other and you can see how dark the sky has become, a big arc light glaring at him to make it seem like day, but they can't hide the fact that it was late evening with fading light. Then the very next scene is Kirk walking towards Lazarus' spaceship on a set, when previously it had been lodged neatly in a natural landscape. They do a fine job of approximating the great outdoors of the planet, but it is noticeable. Kirk himself also comes across as quite tired and stressed, but that could be as much to do with the pressure put on him by his superiors (the first time an authority from Starfleet Command has appeared on the Viewscreen to give Kirk his mission directly). Even with these glaring production faults I can't help but be drawn to this episode and I always think well of it. It's something to do with the weight of such a huge mission, the atmosphere of doom and desperation, the weird Jekyll and Hyde flipping of Lazarus, seeing another part of Engineering (an alternative factor, you might say), where the Dilithium Crystals are housed, the thought of a hole in reality which has let something terrible in, and the eternal struggle set in motion by episode's end, giving it an intangible, bittersweet, almost melancholy regard for one being's sacrifice for the good of two entire universes that puts me somewhat in mind of the two Sybok's fighting each other at the end of 'Star Trek V.' What must be endured for the needs of the many.

I suspect that film found a few things from this episode to influence it, with its religious theme a clarion call: Lazarus outright declares his mission a holy cause, though we later learn he is the mad one of the pair, so whatever he says must be examined with scrutiny (he's like the anti-Van Gelder - that Doctor from 'Dagger of The Mind' seemed insane, but was actually fully rational, if not in control, whereas Lazarus, though driven, appears calm, with purposeful intent, and is actually bonkers). His mission to destroy a monster is actually to kill himself in another universe, whom the sane target suggests is because his mind was turned by the discovery of this parallel existence and couldn't cope with the idea of another version of himself. This isn't exactly the greatest rationalisation for someone going mad, but we can assume he was already possessed of an extreme personality, this only serving to further warp his mind to the extent he can only succeed through murdering his alternate. This isn't the case for pretty much any other parallel universe story we'd go on to see in Trek, with perhaps the Intendant of the Mirror Universe the only one to be as extreme as Lazarus (well, she, and full-bearded Riker screaming about the Borg taking over his universe in 'Parallels'), but even she was more enthused and intrigued by meeting her double than wanting to kill her.

Lazarus' language certainly ups the stakes and helps us believe in the vague story motivation of the 'winking out phenomenon' as it is scientifically monickered to account for the entire galaxy going out of phase, or, well, winking out for a second or two - the Commodore that calls up Kirk to give him his orders says the effect has occurred in every quadrant of the galaxy… and beyond! I like that, because it makes it sound like the galaxy as we would later come to know it: the pie-shaped oval cut into four slices, one for each quadrant, and if they can somehow detect things happening even outside our galaxy that's something else that hints at an even greater understanding of, and scope to, the event than we'd ever seen before. It also makes me think of the anomaly waves from the Delphic Expanse of 'Enterprise,' and while they didn't have the power to pull off warping the three-dimensional structure of the sets in those days of limited visual effects, they do a brilliant job with simple devices: a star field with some kind of galactic nebula appears interposed with what we see, as if space itself is leaking into the ship. And later, the marvellously realised corridor, lit up in neon blue with the negative image of whomever enters it, the turbulent camera view swirling, floating, weaving and tripping in nightmarish, hallucinogenic form, everything slowed down and sluggish. Even on the planet when Lazarus rushes towards his enemy and the image blurs, blasting winds kick up dust and bend plants, flashes fill the screen, and people are flung around, it's so full of indescribable weight of moment.

It would be easy to see the entire episode as a daft, eccentric and wacky B-story out of some fifties sci-fi serial, with bad makeup, indeterminate production values and pulpy, almost indecipherable ideas muddled together. Even Lazarus' little spaceship (a 'time chamber,' a 'time ship,' as Lazarus calls it), looks like some retro cool design from the fifties. The momentousness only adds to its feeling of unreality: if Kirk doesn't get to the bottom of this it could mean the end of all life, not just in our area of space, or even our galaxy, but our universe, and a parallel duplicate too! The stakes couldn't be much higher, yet the puzzle is abstract and uncertain. What should he do? He's trying to help Lazarus, but it's not until he meets the other one that he realises he's been working with the wrong one whom, if he'd succeeded in getting through to the antimatter universe, would have set off a catastrophic explosion. At least, I think that was the threat… It doesn't matter when Kirk goes through to that side, or, seemingly when the other Lazarus comes over here (so maybe it's only when both meet in the same universe?). There's much that doesn't make sense, its logic impenetrable for being so vast a concept of destruction on a magnitude we can't conceive of, because we can't conceive of Everything (or even Everything x2).

The Commodore's orders don't even make a lot sense: he mentions evacuating the surrounding areas of ships and colonies, and sending in the Enterprise to work it all out without any backup, but if this could spell the end of everything there'd be no point moving anyone anywhere and Starfleet Command would be better spent throwing all their resources at this problem! That may have been before they knew about the likelihood of annihilation, then just the possibility of an invasion (a Code Factor 1 message: invasion alert! Another one? - we only just explored that in 'Arena'!), but even so, the responsibility rests heavily on Captain Kirk, his ship the bait. The inconsistency in the production side of things, from Lazarus' beard to the move indoors from a previously open and expansive external environment are added to the inconsistency of the story. So what is there to like? The atmosphere of the piece, and it is this, combined with a strangeness that, when added together with the out of tune production and uneven storytelling, actually makes the whole thing more cohesive for being universally messy and confused. It's hard to pin down, but I suspect, had this been turned into one of the films (say, Harve Bennett took a shine to this one rather than 'Space Seed'), it would have fared as badly as 'Star Trek V.' And I would have liked it a lot. Because I like 'Star Trek V' a lot: sometimes ambition supersedes petty concerns over effects and story logic, sometimes it's enough to be presented with something baffling, so vast and incalculable that its charm is what makes it, and I think this has some of that kind of charm.

It can be a little boring when Kirk and Spock are discussing their outlandish speculations on the fate of the galaxy and what might be happening, and they're deep into discussing the technical issues and spouting the technobabble. But it's all done in earnest, with seriousness, which the Kelvin Timeline films could never do because they'd always be doing it with tongue in cheek, cocking a snook at the audience, winking… the winking out phenomenon would have taken on a whole new meaning; a demeaning meaning; the alternative factor, if you will… I'm starting to bleat and babble like Lazarus himself, but that's the sort of episode it was. It helps that, like Sybok, I like Lazarus. He seems as earnest as anyone else in the story, he has these great, serious, emotional pleas to be believed, and to explain, and to find and stop the terrible being he is sworn against. "He is death - anti-life," is his description, which fires the imagination, and you think that no shambling rubber monster suit is going to cut it this time, and indeed, nothing could live up to the imagination after such admonitions and warnings. So it was he, himself, that was his own nemesis (shades of 'Star Trek Nemesis' and many other duplicate doppelgänger stories), the calm, rational, cool version from the antimatter universe stark and strong contrast to his wild accusations and tales.

A lot of trouble could have been avoided if the crew of the Enterprise had lived up to their brave Captain, intelligent Science Officer and warm Doctor, most specifically the Redshirts. What of them? I'll tell you what: they do a terrible job! The guard assigned to Lazarus when he's on the Bridge should have stuck close to this unknown guest, but instead he doesn't follow him directly into the Turbolift when the man storms out. On the upside this does give us the chance to see a bit of the technology at work, but so subtly you wouldn't even think of it - Lazarus walks in, the doors close as the Redshirt waits calmly, then walks in when they reopen, and Lazarus walks out alone when he exits, so you can tell from that they're deliberately implying that the Turbolifts aren't in name only, they really move some! It was about a second between Lazarus entering, the door closing, then opening again to admit the Redshirt which tells you how fast they can go. It doesn't excuse the guy, of course, just as letting the Captain do all the work is no excuse for Redshirts on the Landing Party! They just stand there watching as Kirk struggles with the slippery Lazarus, and do nothing to help! Nor does Spock, who could have easily reached over and dropped the guy with a touch. It wasn't like Kirk ordered them to help, though, so maybe he prefers to do it his way and doesn't require interference? And I have to say, if it had been Scotty manning the Transporter Room instead of Mr. Redshirt Work Experience Student, Lazarus wouldn't have got off the ship!

Scotty is notable in his absence, as is Sulu, especially right after an episode where everyone was clearly involved. Uhura does her usual communications work, and there's an added frisson that these are priority messages from Command coming in, but apart from that… Oh, Mr. Leslie (or Mr. Lesley if you go by the end credits), gets his best episode so far: not only does he man the Helm, sit in the Captain's Chair (again), is given orders, the Captain addressing him by name, he even gets the odd line or two. So where's the Mr. Leslie action figure, and why no appearances in the motion picture series? He was robbed! But seriously, it is good to have the usually silent regular figure on the Bridge actually a part of the story a little bit, even though it's at the expense of Mr. Sulu. Sulu probably didn't mind being absent for that shift, considering a repeat of the old ship wobbles and people thrown around (which hasn't happened as much this season as I'd have expected). Their timbers were most definitely shivered this time. There's even a repeat of what happened in Phaser Control in 'Balance of Terror,' only this time the noxious gases fill up the Engineering 'B-side' and Spock doesn't have to rush down there to pull anyone out. And I must mention Kirk using the cool little mini computer again - this time it's in Sickbay, and it has a disk in it. Talking of which, Uhura drops one of those disks into the armrest on the Captain's Chair, which I had never seen before and didn't realise it had that capability - that must be one high-tech chair!

The lasting impression of the episode is one of mystery and awe, the impossible sacrifice of a man locked in eternal physical combat with his own image a potent symbolism for something. Maybe the episode isn't very well regarded because it doesn't make a lot of sense and it does come across as muddled and confused, but for me it retains a poignancy that I must have first felt in childhood (possibly the same reason 'Star Trek V' strikes a chord, too). There's no gathering on the Bridge at the end, everything isn't fine - yes, the ship's safe, but at great cost to one individual, no matter how freely he took on the responsibility. And I like the look of the episode, mainly featuring outdoor locations, seeing a bit more of the ship, and generally the atmosphere of portent. When they stated that if Lazarus' ship was destroyed in our universe it would be destroyed in the antimatter one also, I don't think it meant that if anything was killed or destroyed here it would destroy it there in parallel, it was just the ship that was the doorway at each end of the corridor between, and shutting off one would do the same to the other. It was fun to realise I watched this almost fifty years to the day of its original broadcast, but the only answer to the question 'what of Lazarus?' is that he'd still be fighting the good fight.

***

Armorines: Project S.W.A.R.M.

N64, Armorines: Project S.W.A.R.M. (1999) game

Initial impressions weren't particularly favourable, but as always, I gave it a chance and 'Armorines: Project SWARM' turned out to be a fun gaming experience well worth the £4 I paid for it on ebay. Back in the days of the N64 this was one of the first games that stuck in my mind from 'N64 Magazine' and their preview. Desert. Black bugs scuttling across it. What wasn't to like? But finding 'GoldenEye' and more serious shooters, I never got around to playing this more simple sub-genre, and had my fill with the first two 'Turok' games. At my current stage I'm interested in going back to the games on that console (which remains my favourite of all time), the ones I never played in particular, and this was one of the few that I was on the lookout for. But as I said, even taking into account how aged the N64 has become, I wasn't entirely sure I'd made a good buy and might be stuck toiling through a basic, boring shooter for a while. The controls were either too sensitive or not sensitive enough, I couldn't decide which, subsequently never allowing me the feeling of complete power over my character that I have felt in other games, and little irks stood out: the game wouldn't save the control preferences so you had to go through the options every time you switched it on, just to set things up as you wanted (for the record I had Friendly Fire On, Auto Aim Off, and Horizontal and Vertical Control set to the maximum of 15).

The opening Siberia levels weren't great looking, and spending half the time battling to bend down to the little bugs skittering across the snow was a great source of irritation. The front end was pretty scrappy and very old-fashioned with its ALL CAPS SCROLLING TEXT and basic look. There was also instant death from falling and I felt I'd gone back to an age even older than the N64. I love the Amiga, but some of that system's presentation could be a bit ugly, and that was the level here. But as I continued and became accustomed to the game on its own terms I was surprisingly impressed - I began to get into it and appreciate the graphics and style, especially for the fact that I was able to play it on S-Video instead of mere standard Composite. It used the Expansion Pak so it looked crisp and sharp, and despite the angular surfaces and flat textures of the N64, they did a good job on the level design, with varying environments of a good size, and excellent animation on the bugs. The multi-legged creatures scuttling after you were remarkably creepy, especially with the insect-like cries, and playing with earphones only heightened the creeping horror - the sound of beating legs and screeches coming for you when health is low, was most effective indeed!

Thanks to the Expansion Pak, lighting was used to very good effect in realtime, as seen in other games in the middle or late period of the console's life, such as 'Donkey Kong 64' and 'Perfect Dark' - sometimes you needed to use your gun in order to light pitch black tunnels or corners, which added a tactical edge to proceedings, and the night vision was also an essential piece of kit in certain areas, where you felt more vulnerable in complete darkness with restricted vision. I found the standard weapon to be the most useful, though I could have done with an auto-reload feature, although again, running out of bullets after twenty rounds (I played as Lewis with the lower charge rate), with the awful clicking sound of an empty chamber as the bugs swarm you is a further tactical element that needs to be considered. I definitely found it difficult reloading while also trying to escape the hordes and I had to press B several times sometimes to activate the reload. The standard gun isn't that powerful, but like Samus Aran's arm cannon in the 'Metroid' series it has infinite reloads so you can keep firing. Having that freedom is useful when you're trying to hit scuttling enemies that can be literally running up and down the walls to get to you. Once I'd got over the biggest flaw of imprecise control (and it did take some getting used to, may even have had something to do with my controller's old and less responsive handling), I found the game to be engaging and though the objectives weren't on the same level as 'GoldenEye,' they prevented the game from merely being a shoot-'em-up without any thought.

It brings to mind 'Body Harvest' for being a lone man blasting bugs, though that was skewed more to an RPG and vehicle-based exploration, whereas the vehicle sections in this were more limited and on-rails. These weren't my favourite moments, but you can't help but marvel when a game of this age sits you in the cockpit of a big, thumping cannon and flies you over a desert landscape where you have to pick off the bugs, then the next thing you know you're down on the ground and running around in that very landscape you'd seen from above. Like the old 'Turok' games, fogging was an issue, but it only added tension really, as you couldn't see too far ahead, and it was never close enough to be debilitating. Music was also from the 'Turok' stable (unsurprising I suppose, considering they both came from Acclaim), with the same kind of jungle drums. But the sense of scale worked well and the water effects impressed, as did the ability to affect the environment, shooting switches or standing on pads to alter the layout or set things in motion. It was missing the stats common in other shooting games of the time (yes, 'GoldenEye' and 'Perfect Dark' again), so there was no reason to try and beat scores or get more kills, complete levels in a record time or with greater accuracy, and neither could levels be accessed again once completed so I did appreciate the password option which allowed replaying any level of choice.

It was the Jungle levels that first made me realise this was a game I was enjoying rather than playing through out of a sense of duty or for completion's sake. It did require the momentum of regular play, however - I got stuck on one of the Volcano missions for about three weeks because I only had brief plays in that period, it was harder going back in having been away for a week. Also, the game sometimes required you to take leaps of faith and then react to whatever you were plunged into: an early level where you were supposed to jump off a ledge into a pool of water, with the only clues being the sound of a waterfall and your commanding officer sending a message about descending further. The Volcano level where you had to jump down into a cavern and were confronted by a fast-moving lava flow was also a sticky situation and took a number of tries before I worked out how to escape (find a wall with a climbable surface), but it could occasionally appear to be trial and error, especially as dying from falls into bottomless pits was a constant possibility and furthered the impression of an old-school mentality to proceedings! It wasn't as bad as the many precision-jumping moments in the first 'Turok,' I hasten to add…

Whether you were creeping through underground tunnels of the manufactured kind or the natural sort, or out in a more open environment, they were varied enough to keep the experience pleasurable, even if the last section, the Hive, was a victim of the usual last level syndrome: more chance to fall off edges, more enemies, etc. Getting bogged down in exterminating every bug was a necessity when a level was new, as you needed time and space to locate your bearings and understand the structure of a level, but once you knew what to do and where to go, you could often blast through, ignoring the creatures as much as possible, which is how I kept getting back to the final Queen battle which took a few attempts to complete. As with a lot of games of this era the end was a big letdown post-battle with the big nasty, which wasn't actually all that difficult to take out. You killed the Queen then you saw Lewis running away only to get caught in the resulting explosion, followed by the alien ship being blasted to smithereens. And roll credits. There was a crackle as if a final transmission or report was going to come through, but then it cut to credits as if skipping something, which was annoying, because there's no underlining that the mission is complete, you're just exploded! The addition of these little messages coming through during gameplay worked well and made things seem a little less linear, and indeed the game wasn't exactly linear, but ultimately was - you had a couple of routes through some levels, to choose at your leisure, but they all had to be explored eventually.

I didn't enjoy the game to the extent that I wanted to plunge right in as the second character, Lane, especially as it looked like she had the same route through the game, just with different weapons, but I could imagine myself playing it again one day. Though the Egypt level was how I had imagined the whole game being, with attractive sandy dunes and rocky outcrops, and bug hordes crawling out of the crevices, there was much more to it than that. The animation on the creatures was very good indeed, very creepy, with some signs of intelligence, especially in the way they would often attack from side to side instead of making directly for you. It was also a different experience to have enemies that could come from any plane: the sides, the ceiling, or creeping out of the ground, and with improved AI this could have been incredible! So there were control issues (other options were available, but I couldn't get on any better than with the standard), in case I failed to draw attention to that, it got a bit buggy, the puzzles didn't always seem to work every time, there was slowdown, and for the last Hive levels the sound would go, but even with all these problems, and taking into account its age, it was a remarkably entertaining, atmospheric and enjoyable FPS, that was a challenge without being ridiculous, and rarely dragged. A recommended experience from me.

***