#i know the artist was (probably) just making fun of shatner here

[kinetic-elaboration]

July 9: Star Trek 1x05 The Enemy Within

Today’s ep: The Enemy Within. Overall this is a good ep, but I don’t know that I entirely agree with its thesis, and some parts of it are so uncomfortable that they mess with my general enjoyment.

Kirk, being encouraging of his crew: “That will make a good specimen.” I like how it’s just one line but there’s such confidence about him. They have to remind you of his normal self fast because he’s split for 99% of the episode.

Sulu: “That’s nippy.” I love Sulu.

So they just find an alien dog on the planet and decide to steal it? Lol your fav is problematic Enterprise crew.

(Like how they just never explained why they sent the dog up by itself later lol.)

I forgot that it was the ore that messed with the transporter. That’s a cool idea; makes sense. Alien ore gets in your system now weird stuff happens.

Evil Kirk appears and no one sees him--that’s why you don’t leave the transporter room unattended like Kirk said!!

Honestly imagine how wild seeing this when it first aired and not knowing much about Star Trek would be. Weird new sci fi show’s been on for a month and suddenly there are two Captains!! What!?!?

Even the way Evil!Kirk touches the ship is lascivious.

Bones is a good doctor. He really does have a good bedside manner; I don’t feel like people remember this about him enough.

He also keeps brandy in sickbay lol.

This scene with gratuitously shirtless Kirk and distracted Spock... it doesn’t look anything less like a porno in context honestly. I know Spock is supposed to be distracted because he’s hearing information that doesn’t make sense but Kirk is just so obviously turning on the flirt face (aka his usual face with Spock) and he’s shirtless so... the distraction is real and multi-faceted.

Ooh, Janice is an artist! I love her little rotating mirror thing.

This scene is so terrible. Really upsets me. Surely they could have found some way to portray ‘pure selfish id’ without going immediately to sexual assault.

Evil!Kirk wears so much eye makeup.

It’s interesting to me that Good!Kirk is so obviously not the real Kirk either, right from the moment he steps off the transporter. (Not to be that person again but Shatner is a better actor than people give him credit for being.)

Spock will save the day! I know that Rand calls for him because he’s First Officer but it’s still interesting that she goes for that name over, like, security.

Evil!Kirk is also where Kirk keeps all his dramatic tendencies.

I feel so bad for Janice in this scene. “What was I supposed to do? He’s the Captain.” Anyway this is why this is still a problem.

That dog omg.

“Set phasers to stun.”

“The search party is to capture you.” Yeah, that’s hard to explain. “Hey, crew, we’re going to play a little game of hide and seek. I’ll hide first.”

Man this conversation between Kirk and Spock. Leadership is one of my favorite themes in ST and Kirk is probably my favorite fictional leader of all time okay so this means a lot to me. “You don’t have the right to be vulnerable in the eyes of the crew.”

Spock is honestly just so on Kirk’s side, at every single moment. He believes him, trusts him, knows who he is, is loyal to him, is honest with him, knows how to handle him, how to care for him.

Spock likes the dog. He likes animals, in general.

The phaser vocab is so different this early on. “Base cycle.”

Good thing Kirk has makeup readily available to cover up his scratches.

My mom suggested transporting some blankets to the planet. But what if they split into evil blankets!! (Interesting that inanimate objects DO split too though.)

I feel like Kirk tried to do a Vulcan nerve pinch there lol.

“If I’m to be the Captain, I’ve got to act like one.” Immediately goes to a shot of his evil self climbing on equipment.

Spock: I always have a point.”

Spock listing out Kirk’s good qualities: his intellect, compassion, love, tenderness. Telling, lol. A lot of synonyms for how much he loves and admires Kirk. Kirk appreciation hour.

“If I seem insensitive to what you’re going through, Captain, understand: it’s the way I am.” I love this line, it’s perfect, because it has two meanings: how I am is unemotional, which causes me to seem insensitive; but also: I go through what you’re going through all the time, it’s how I am.

“Lower us down a pot of hot coffee or some rice wine.”

Poor Kirk, so many struggles, not enough snuggles.

There’s no way people could live through those temperatures in those clothes and not die. Sulu calling for room service. I love him. (Why did they drop his sense of humor in the movies???)

“A thoughtless, brutal animal... yet it’s me.”

I have a lot of mixed feelings about the main thesis of this ep. But. I do love that Kirk’s courage is in his good side.

And so much compassion....”Don’t hurt him. Don’t hurt my evil side.”

Poor animal. Goes through such a confusing experience. Then dies.

Second Officer Spock. I’ve seen people make a big deal out of this but it’s pretty obvious to me this is supposed to mean “Second in command.” As in Kirk is the “First Officer” as the Captain and Spock is second. He behaves in all ways as the second in command, right down to making that log entry at all.

The AOS verse should have rebooted this ep instead of Space Seed (I say every single episode). I mean, STID had as a theme “Kirk learning what it means to command.” That could be tied in! Also can you imagine, two CPines? Two??

Half alien Spock.

Jim’s compassion is paralyzing him.

Aaaand we’re back on the creepy train with Evil!Kirk.

Evil!Kirk doesn’t care about the crew at all. He can make decisions fast because he only cares about himself, so there’s always an easy answer.

Of course he and everyone else looks to Spock as the authority on Kirks.

Evil!Kirk knows he’s not the dominant one here, that re-combining with Good!Kirk means a certain ‘death’ or at least... being sent back to the depths.

Spock at the transporter as if this were even his department lol.

“I’ve seen a part of myself no man should ever see.”

That flirty face he gives Spock though oml. Get a room.

Ugh Spock’s last comment was so ragingly inappropriate. Hate it. But also, read it as an expression of his own extreme jealousy because he’s definitely a jealous person. Just put through the ‘sexist 60s man’ dialogue-writer translator.

So again, I like the idea of this ep and a lot of the details but the details I don’t like are......hard to ignore.

I liked that the bad side was dramatic, selfish, confused, entitled, and it made sense that he was violent and even lustful. And I liked that Kirk had such a hard time seeing that part of himself and acknowledging it. And I do think it's a good lesson/message that we need to understand our own worst impulses and that those impulses are part of us and maybe even tied to parts of us that we need. But the implication that everyone's a little rapey and that the events of this episode necessarily mean Janice has to work for someone she knows is inappropriately lustful toward her just... are really hard for me to entirely get over.

Honestly her reaction just really makes me so sad. And it annoys me that no one stands up for her, no one says that the Captain was wrong and she didn’t deserve that treatment, “imposter” or no. I guess that's what bothers me more than that Evil!Kirk went immediately to assault, b/c the idea IS that he is lustful, violent, and completely selfish. He cares about himself, his survival, his ship, what he owns, what he deserves. Maybe it is natural he would let the power go to his head and seek out someone who he knows he could manipulate easily into giving him something he wants. Maybe it's no different in a way from stranding the crew on the planet. But no one says "hey, that's wrong what he did. You're entitled to respect from the Captain." And I wish someone had.

I recognize this was made in 1966 and I do generally give ST credit within the context within which it was made, but I am a 2020 viewer and the ep certainly hits home given, you know, everything, so... just some thoughts.

Anyway, another thing I was thinking about during the ep was that I feel like I forget that Spock has two "warring halves" b/c he's half human. Because before he put it that way, I was thinking about how the war in him is between his natural Vulcan emotions and his Vulcan teachings. But now I wonder if the whole "Vulcans are super emotional" thing might actually be quite late in the canon, and initially they were intended to be naturally "emotionless.” But basically I don’t actually know how I headcanon the human and Vulcan halves of him interacting... You’d think I would lol but my take in haicg was really... pretty focused on the Vulcanness of him. I guess I thought of the human half as more of a cultural thing because physically, emotionally, psychologically, and physiologically he appears to be primarily Vulcan.

Talking about this more with my mom, it’s making more sense to me... it is cultural and it’s about expectations. He wants to “honor his father’s teachings” and be Vulcan. But he has a whole half, a whole side of his family, with different teachings and beliefs--what to do with them? When he’s around Vulcans, they are obsessed with his human side. When he’s around humans, they see him as fully Vulcan--which is much easier for him and why he seeks them out imo--but it also is a constant ignoring of part of him he feels guilty for ignoring. When McCoy tells him to be more emotional, does a part of him wonder if he should? For his mom? But then... Vulcans don’t choose to be logical for fun. It’s for safety, it’s for survival. So how can he do anything else but follow his father? Who he also doesn’t speak to for 20 years and has a super complicated relationship with! So it’s difficult.

Anyway. That was an emotionally intense experience for this human person. The next ep is Mudd’s Women, one of the weaker S1 offerings, but still a classic as per usual.

[kidchameleon92]

“life story” 1

i’m not going to edit this at all going along. typos, bad grammar, mistakes. doesn’t matter. this is spontaneous thought.

disclaimer: i changed the word to “spontaneous” from “spurious” which means something completely different, so the first paragraph is already a lie.

anyway, it’s been a really weird and sort of bad couple months for me. mostly in my state of mind. i feel very stuck and very immobile when it comes to my art and career. and that is having a very negative effect on my brain. even though i’m putting out my favorite songs i’ve ever written. i’ve been meaning to write for awhile. i used to post when i lived in los angeles several years ago, just journaling my day to day life. but i haven’t for awhile. i guess i also used to write in a notebook while on different tours. but i think i’ve since thrown that away or hidden it somewhere.

point is: i just want to write to get things off my mind. and hopefully, maybe, it’ll help you (if you care to) get to know me a little more and on a more personal level. even if we haven’t met. and maybe it’ll make what i make (if you care about it) mean more to you. either way, mostly, i just want to rant a bit. so, this is my life’s story. i guess.

chapter 1: kid

i was born in a suburb of the twin cities in minnesota. my parents both grew up in minnesota and lived there their whole lives (until my mom recently moved to tennessee). my mom was a mortician, and my dad was an accountant. also an alcoholic. he cheated on her and left her and i when i was one year old. i remember growing up going to stay with him on weekends, except it was with him and his girlfriend at the time. except he was drunk a lot. and would drive drunk with me (a baby) in the car. so, that’s cool. anyway, my mom was really depressed, and that was not a good time (or so i’ve heard, because i was a baby, so idk).

i stayed with my grandparents a lot, because my mom worked full time. my maternal grandparents lived on a ton of land. my grandpa and i would ride motorcycles and four wheelers and sleep in a treehouse and all that. my other grandparents lived in the same town but in a small house. i used to go up to their cabin during the summer and go fishing and swimming and boating and all that. different g-parent vibes, but loved both a lot.

anyway, when i was three, my mom married my step-dad. he is from india and has had a lot of unique and challenging experiences, so that certainly brought a lot of particular lessons and outlooks into my life. i went there once when i was about 14. it was wild. but so, yeah. that kinda solidified my family unit. my dad got remarried later on as well. but the older i got, i saw him less and less.

so ... i loved video games. i played them all the time. a big part of my childhood. mostly nintendo. explains a lot. as a kid in school (4 years public, 3 years private, 1 year home, 3 years private, 1 year PSEO [look it up]), i was never popular whatsoever. i always wanted to gain some sort of acclaim or attention from my classmates, but was pretty much always looked down on for one reason or another. i remember in elementary school, i was the kid who was literally terrified of storms. probably because i had been in a tornado when i was six. but the moment it would thunder, all the kids would look at me to see if i was gonna cry. usually, i did. and the school nurse would take me outside and we’d walk around as a sort of therapy. i guess it helped sorta. i still get nervous in storms. but i don’t cry.

i also remember a time specifically that i got made fun of for wearing a denver broncos t-shirt. this kid just railed on me because it wasn’t a minnesota vikings shirt. so, one: i don’t even give a fuck about sports. but two: it stuck with me for some reason that someone would be a massive jerk over a t-shirt of a sports team. i guess that’s just because we as humans are messed up things.

anyway, in middle school, i started becoming semi-interested in music. i listened to the radio every night, listening to the top 10 countdown of big songs from that week. kanye, weezer, the click five, black eyes peas, green day. those were some anyway. besides that, i was just listening to like kelly clarkson and relient k or something. my mom had a steven curtis chapman cd in her van i thought went hard. but i started getting into popular music around then. i also started to write my own music. i used to take piano lessons from when i was like six or seven until i was 14 or so. but after i started writing my own songs, i hated practicing assigned pieces. i didn’t care. i wanted to play my own. so, the teacher said if i quit, i couldn’t be her student again. so i did. that’s fine. she said i was her most talented student. but i didn’t work that hard. so, that goes to show that natural talent and hard work have different roles, i suppose. 

chapter 2: girls and high school and such

in high school, i started LiKiNg gIrLs and stuff. i also was still not very popular. i also had started a band (with jack). i wasn’t very good, but i was just as obsessed with it as i am now. anyway, i liked this one girl from my church, and we talked all the time. but because we grew up in a pretty fundamental church culture, we weren’t allowed to date. which honestly, i fine, because looking back, no one knows what they are doing at 16 really. i definitely didn’t. i still don’t know what i’m doing. anyway ...

so, this girl and i half-dated for a couple years, and i was really clingy and annoying. but that’s just how i be. and i thought i was gonna marry her and stuff, because in a fundamental church context, you over spiritualize everything.

[[disclaimer: i am a christian, and i still go to church, but my theology and ideology on a lot of things has just evolved and changed a lot since i was young and since leaving the ultra-americanized/ultra-fundamental “christian” realm. main point being: we all are effed up bro and need saving. i’m an idiot always!]]

but now we’re back. girl “dumped” me and started dating another guy named “patrick” right after, even though she technically wasn’t allowed to date until she was 18. but apparently, she just wasn’t allowed to date me. so, that was cool. anyway, i was angsty, but then i got over it. because i was 17, so life big time goes on.

then i met another girl from canada while i was finishing school and going hard at my band stuff. we hit it off, and i started visiting her up there. and she visited me and all that. it was cool. and then all of a sudden, she really started hating me. and to be fair, i was weird and clingy and sort of a lot to deal with. but we kept dating. all the while, i was sort of leaving behind music to try to get into nursing school. yep, nursing school. but i got rejected, which is great. and so, i decided to go to audio engineering school in canada. and she was gonna go to college in the same city. this is great! so i thought. she dumped me (well, i sort of broke up with myself for her) about a month after we were living in the same city. wack. but it made me buckle down and work my ass off in school. i was top of my class one semester. yeah, i’m not that dumb. sometimes.

towards the spring of the next year, i happened to meet a girl who was at my church with one of my friends. she seemed chill. just talked a little. nothing crazy. happened to hit her up on twitter just to say hi. no intention. we talked a bit. nothing after that. then all of a sudden, a couple months later, i was tweeting about reading harry potter for the first time (note: fundamental upbringing). she happened to tweet me back about it. and long story short, we went out on a date. a sort-of-date. and what was supposed to be a lunch turned into an all day and half the night date. anyway, we got married a year later. after a lot of immigration paperwork and expenses. that’s a whole other post. that sucked. it’s a lot. and it’s why i feel bad for people who have nothing who are trying to come here to flee danger in their own countries. again, another post.

chapter 3: married, and other hard things

so, i forgot to say that before we got married, i lived in los angeles for a year after school. i was doing more sound for film work. on set stuff, post-production. got to do work with like ... james franco, matt damon, emma roberts, william shatner. some cool stuff. but jack’s old band came through on tour, and i saw two shows. and i was like ... bruh. i gotta do music, what am i doing? so, i literally moved back to minnesota within like two weeks, worked as a nursing assistant for a little bit and got married. then moved to nashville like two weeks later. i guess i could’ve stayed in los angeles. but nashville felt like the move at the time. everything happens with a purpose.

so, we moved here, and she couldn’t work for three months because of immigration stuff. so, i was like, well, guess i need a job. so, i got a job managing a home for a couple people with intellectual disabilities. it was super hard. mostly because the company was really, really bad. so, i got another job working as a staffing coordinator in an office for a home health care agency. that was a little better. still tough. but less overwhelming. a couple months after i got that job, i got an offer to go on a country tour playing bass for someone. and i was like ... well, this is why i moved here. so, i quit and went on tour. and shawna actually took my old job. interesting.

i was gone for three weeks, and it sucked and the pay was bad, but at least i was doing what i wanted. but then i got an offer from my friend to do some tech work on a much bigger country gig. i hadn’t done it before, but it was better pay and a better position. and on a bus and nice things and all that. so, i went for it. i pissed the other girl i was playing for off. but that’s show biz, baby. but like, i found a replacement for myself and paid to fly him out to her shows and stuff. so, really she won.

anyway, i toured with this other artist for four years. and i learned a lot. it was very, very challenging, both mentally and physically. and some people are just hard to work with. but i still gained so much valuable experience and insight into touring from that. i also started playing guitar for another artist who was small at the time, but has now had a couple number one hits. but his label fired me because i didn’t look country enough. we’re still homies though, so it’s literally fine. because i do indeed not look country enough.

at the same time, i was doing my own solo music and also producing and writing with and for other people. i’ve had the opportunity to write and produce for everything from independent artists to major label to billboard charting albums to whatever. songs on major television networks. i’m still very un-rich though, if that tells you anything. 

but really, i just wanted to do my own music. and i literally couldn’t get it to go anywhere. i had no idea what the “secret” was. what was i missing? money? connection? power? actually probably all of that, to be honest. this industry is wacko. i was pretty close to giving up.

chapter 4: milkk

i read a satirical article on vice.com about “how to start a trendy band” or something. i thought it was funny. so, i called jack. he had just been kicked out of his old band for no reason. i was like, “bruh, let’s do this article.” and he was like, ok. so, we sort of did. and i’m not gonna go into all the early details, because i’ve done a million press interviews about how our band started. and i don’t wanna say it again. google it.

this was the first time that i actually saw people care about my music. it was a high. it was like a dream. and we hadn’t even had any big song or anything. just the fact that people were listening and engaging was mind blowing to me. but just like with anything, the more things went, the less i found satisfying. the more “likes” or “follows” on socials didn’t feel like enough anymore. the streams didn’t seem good enough. the chart positions on the debut album didn’t seem that great. the hype wore off a little after the debut album hype. and that made me insane. probably because we as humans are not built to be satisfied by the things in our life. “Vanity of vanities!” it’s in ecclesiastes. like the bible one.

chapter 5: now

anyway, that’s bad. i had (and have) let my mind convince me that i have to achieve something in order to be happy or fulfilled, when i know that that stuff will never fulfill me. i could play the biggest stadium and have the biggest song in history, but after a burst of dopamine and excitement, it would be empty. and i know that nothing here will do that. at least, that’s what i believe. my hope is outside of myself.

but that’s hard to internalize when you are so passionate about something, and have been for so long, and all you want to do is create things for other people that they can appreciate and be influenced by. but it’s probably also selfish. like i openly admit i like the idea of fame and presence. and it probably ties all the way back to wanting acknowledgement and attention as a kid, from being unpopular and ridiculed and, honestly, left by my dad. maybe i just therapied myself.

but regardless, i know i can’t put my identity in all this stuff. it’s hard, and it’s harder when you create stuff. because it’s so deeply tied to you. but it’s still not “who i am.” i know who i am and what i believe, but i’m still a mess, so i can’t enact that in my brain perfectly. in fact, far from it.

anyway. it’s late, and i’m going to post this and attempt to not worry about how it does on social media. stupid!!! i just want this out in the world for you to read. hopefully it’s helpful for you in some way. but mostly, it was just cool to write this out, for my own sake.

i’ve been blessed in some amazing ways. my family. oh, yeah i forgot that i have two kids. i love them a lot. i don’t talk about them on social media much. but they are very special to me. and we’ve always been taken care of, even when times were tight or i didn’t know when the next paycheck was coming in or i thought my wife was about to die or whatever. the Lord provided for us every time. and i am grateful to have what career i have. it may be “small” and nothing to look at by the big industry standards, but i believe in what i make so much, and i’m just grateful that anyone cares about it at all. and i will continue to do so until the day i die. because i have to. 

it’s what i was born to do, for better or worse. and no one can tell me otherwise.

[peanutdracolich]

Peanut Dracolich Watches: Doctor Terror’s House of Horrors (1965)

So this film is different. It’s an anthology of shorter tales, all with a Twilight Zone feel, or perhaps more Tales from the Crypt but I never watched much of the latter so my mind goes to Twilight Zone. Of course the 60s Twilight Zone (I haven’t seen the newer take save an episode or two) was a wonderful series and comparing something to it is not a bad thing. It is just worth noting that in many ways this changes the pacing and effect.

I also had horrible interruptions, so much that I stopped the film halfway and rewatched it the next morning. So the purity of effect was thus diluted. This hit hardest for the 3rd of the 5 tales, for it was both the low point of the film (I believe), and where I got to before I finally had to stop due to interruptions. As such I may be judging it unfairly, as it did not have the proper build up since on rewatching the intensity of the first two segments was reduced.

This is a film I would heavily suggest watching before reading the play by play, in part because the film was all around enjoyable. It was not a grotesque death filled slasher, it was not tense psychological horror, but it was a fun series of horror stories, which simultaneously made use of the advantages of cinematic presentation (sound, images, and acting) but kept the charm of a horror story that is so often lacking in a horror film; of course this is a warning as well, I typically watch horror films for a very different experience than a horror story and while this managed to combine the advantages of film with the nature of a classic horror story (well anthology) it is not the same sort of intensity and danger rush as a horror film. Whether this is good or bad is a matter of taste and the moment. I would say that it might be the film I enjoyed the most of the ones I have watched thus far, but that Vampyre with its nightmare shadow play is the better horror film, and for those normal experiences I desire from horror films I would turn to Prince of Darkness or Alien Covenant instead (or well Alien but that one I only partially watched this year).

The good, the bad, and the ugly and the play by play below the cut.

The Good:

The Acting: Although Peter Cushing really shines, the acting in all 5 of the anthology stories is good. Donald Sutherland gets a special mention, and Christopher Lee is a perennial favorite of mine. Still all the roles ranged from charming with minor mannerisms that added to Peter Cushing.

The Makeup on Peter Cushing: I would not have actually recognized the Grand Moff, time traveling Doctor Who, vampire slayer; he did a good job with an accent and affected personality, and a good job at the make up as well. All in all it was excellently done.

The First and Last Stories: Despite not having Christopher Lee, these two were probably the best tales. Little touches of foreshadowing, classic horror creatures done well, two excellent, short little horror stories and well worth watching on their own though the framing narrative does improve it, and all the stories would be worthwhile episodes of an anthology show.

The Overall Structure: They knew what they were doing with the ordering of tales, starting and ending strong, with a weaker middle which can be supported by the surrounding tales. Placing Lee in the 4th story both made wonderful use of his noble bearing (in the overarching narrative and story itself) and helped prop up what might have otherwise been a fairly average tale.

The Bad:

Predictability: Even on the first watching the stories are fairly predictable, everything foreshadowed well in advanced and the twists (when there are twists) while still quite enjoyable and satisfactory will not actually surprise. This is the worst thing about the film and still not that bad (if I were to rank the films of this month I’d currently place this one 2nd).

The Third Story: I’d say this was the weakest story in the bunch. Still worth watching on its own in a sort of horror story anthology show, but not as strong as the others. I think I’d have enjoyed it a fair bit more with a proper uninterrupted viewing experience, but more than the other 4 stories it relies upon the grip of terror from the other tales and in many ways its upbeat music (throughout most of it) squanders that grip.

The Ugly:

The Bat: Let it be known that the 60s could not make a convincing bat. It will shock and draw you out of the spell somewhat, and require the conscious decision to ignore the badly done bat.

The Plant Special Effects: Not as bad, but there’s a few scenes where it’s pretty bad. It’s the 60s so it’s to be expected and I can’t really hold it against the film, but it is to be mentioned.

The God-Forsaken Interruptions: This was just my personal viewing experience which forced me to rewatch the first two segments due to the sheer number of interruptions and internet failures I suffered.

And now for the Play by Play If you’re interested in watching the film, watch it first while it is highly predictable and nothing will surprise you by the time it happens, it does use twists that are more enjoyable seeing firsthand first (Why I don’t give this warning more... Because most of the films are better known, so that general cultural osmosis has already ruined the twists, or I found bad enough not to care, or I simply omit the Play by Play due to not wanting to give things away, here it is included because of my irritation at interruptions which might be enjoyable to someone)

We've got Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. I do not expect a masterpiece, but I feel it will most likely be an enjoyable film.

Music in opening credits is suitably creepy, and we have a train station, and a train as well. Several men are getting on the train. One of them has immediate presence. Well actually several of them do. One of them I immediately note because Christopher Lee is a man with Presence with a capital p, but he's not the only one with stage presence that does not require a single word. Just the only one whose name I know and who makes me go Oooh Yay!

Still we've got 'man who plays with children's doll', 'man who makes me think of Shatner in his early Twilight Zone roles', 'man who whistles' (and tried to close the door on Christopher Lee), 'man with the death glare that scares the aforementioned' (Christopher Lee), and 'Man with the Winning Smile'. Lee still stands head and shoulders above them, but Winning Smile is likeable. The music changes and someone is given additional focus, the final member of our party; the Doctor... Terror that is.

And somehow this film makes me feel like I'm missing things if I take my eye off the screen for a moment. Even if it is just how people react to be gazed at by the Doctor. It makes them uncomfortable, even Christopher Lee raised an eyebrow though he was otherwise stoic. It was an expressive eyebrow.

We get a few establishing moments with Lee and the Doctor, using the rest of the cast as support to do so. The Doctor is a doctor of metaphysics, a field Lee calls nonsense; when he dropped his bag asleep everyone else immediately began to help pick it up, Lee did nothing; Lee recognizes the tarot, but seems to scorn it, the Doctor on the other hand is a devotee. It really actually establishes more than that, but pictures are worth a thousand words, and ephemeral impressions are hard to put into words.

The Doctor about how man's destiny is made of two parts natural and supernatural; his tarot deck can forewarn of the supernatural they are to experience in their life. It is his house of horrors. He explains how a reading works (4 cards to tell the future, 1 to tell how to change it if it is possible). Lee then calls it nonsense.

We then get to tarot reading, of man who made me think of Shatner. The Chariot. The High Priestess. The Moon. The Enchantress (though the card says La Force and its number is Strength). And we go to a story with !Shatner (he doesn't actually remind me that much of Shatner it was a brief momentary thing). He's an architect, and as I don't know his name he is now Mr. Brady. He sold his old house to someone who wants to alter the house and the rich widow wants his help altering it. We see some of the servants of the house, one of whom was a young girl when he left and is now quite the beauty and Mr Brady is attracted to.

We learn that the house was his family home.

Having been interrupted for long enough I decide just to restart the film and I must note that the make up artists and Cushing's voice work is good; I'd not recognize Grand Moff Van Who not knowing it was him (I'm not the best with actors in general, but he's one I've seen a lot), and even rewatching the scene it holds me just from the charm and the charisma of the actors.

Of course letting myself fall into the spell of the Doctor I find that when the story about the widow and the island begins it is a little lacking. It's not that the rest of the cast is bad. They've all shown a good bit of charm, it's just that they are not Christopher Lee... or really Peter Cushing (who does hold the scene with his charisma).

Also not being interrupted I must note that Valda (the girl who Mr Brady, actually Mr Dawson, thinks is pretty) gives Mr. Dawson a rather cold look that unsettles him.

But yes this is his family home which was in the family for centuries before he had to sell it. And with a well aged widow, he of course must flirt. We learn that she is in semi-seclusion in the Hebrides because of a breakdown at her husband's funeral, and intends to turn a portion of the house into a ballroom not for dancing, but to make a museum to display her husbands collections. There is a sound like a wolf's howl and Mr. Dawson goes to look into it, but sees nothing out of the windows and finds a locked cellar door. Valda makes a creepy appearance.

The next day the cellar key is missing, hidden by Valda it would appear. Though he gets the key from her grandfather, and Valda... creepily watches. And my fear of old cellars (I blame Evil Dead) rears its head when he enters the creepy old cellar and Valda watches. He immediately finds out someone has been reading too much Poe, for he finds a hollow wall and behind it a coffin, the cellar of a legendary werewolf who claimed the house was stolen from him by Dawson's ancestors. And the plaster is new.

Valda, who had been ominously watching moves away from the top of the stairs and Dawson and the old servant pull the coffin free and try to open it. Failing they go for tools and the werewolf opens it from within. And you know what I'm just gonna pull a foot up. Still the legendary werewolf is free and the men know it.

We get some nice scenes with the widow, and a letter from Valda telling Mr. Dawson she needs to see him. She's immediately found dead (or unconscious and bleeding) outside. There's a trail of (very fake) blood leading into the cellar; and like Kirk Dawson is half shirtless. Still while I mock the barechestedness of our hero, and the effects, the scene isn't bad. One must be willing to let their imagination play along with the 52 year old effects but it's well done.

While I was sidetracked thus, Dawson opened the coffin, found a wizened old corpse, gets his hand bloodied (though he soon seems to forget this), and decides that curse it all he'll melt the silver cross made from the silver sword that killed the werewolf into silver bullets. He takes vantage over the coffin, and finds that when it opens it is empty. The werewolf is attacking the widow. He rushes to save her... and I won't tell you the end.

It was a good, gripping story, a well done, short tale of terror which hit well and was all around well done. Putting me in mind of a Twilight Zone of Horror.

We see a bit more of ... I'm lagging behind the film too much, I'm stopping this because it's too intense to pause. Or at most I'm going to be vague at best.

The next story is set somewhere sunny; suburbia or the equivalent, and a story of a plant. A plant that screams in pain when attacked and resists cutting.

It has advantage of the fear, still extent, from the story before, that well done quick paced thing that packed more punch in 30 minutes than many have packed in their entirety and more per minute than most finales. At the same time it's got a high bar to overcome.

The family dog is investigating the plant and I'm scared. The family dog is dead and I'm sad.

The film defines bacteria as plants were they considered plants in the 60s? Fungus also is mentioned and lichen, before we get into your actual plants. Moss. Ferns. Flowering plants (no mention of conifers). And finally insectivorous plants. There's some really shoddy understanding of evolution here, but it's... I will buy in. An intelligent plant that defends itself and knows its enemies. A plant like that could take over the world. It sounds a bit silly but the film sells it well for the concept.

The plant has brain tissue in its leaves. And my wifi crashes stopping me from streaming. 15 or so minutes later I'm back but that means I have lost much of the build up and effect pulling back to the end of the first story. Still Christopher Lee helps blow the embers but it's definitely a dimmed effect.

Oh and here I get to say his cards: Fool, Magician, Hanged Man, and the Sun. The movie is doing its work to pull me in, but I no longer feel that clench at my heart, and my feet can be lowered once more.

Oh yes since it's not that sort of victim-killer film, I haven't talked about making people likeable so that you fear for them, but the film is good at it. Bill, the man with the doll, jokes with his wife, has a daughter, doesn't do anything asinine. Reacts to weird vine that is acting supernaturally, by contacting botanists (though it seems like he knows them). And the dog dies and with the foreknowledge and reduced grip it's less impactful. Also the brain tissue doesn't look the most brain-like.

That said I'm back where I was. The plant reaching for the botanist. The little girl not wanting to play outside without her faithful dog since it's just not fun without rusty. The plant grabs the man and begins to choke. His struggle could be more intense, it is rather minimalistic, but it works well enough. They call the head botanist for the plant has killed man.

This plant is murderously aware, almost psychic. It cuts the phone line to prevent calling for help. It attacks the man and suddenly has covered the house. It is something else. With the spell broken by RL circumstance it lacks effect, the silliness coming through more. The ordering was important, a strong foot first before a weaker second story, but even this story is a worthwhile episode of something like Tales of the Crypt. Then they realize it fears fire for "There's one thing that every sentient species is afraid of: fire. If something ever develops that isn't it could be the end of the world." Ironically man doesn't fear fire much. Still the botanist escapes. The story ends.

The effect of the story isn't enough on its own, and the ruined tempo hurts. And as I say that I am called and forced to interrupt again.

Still the Doctor presses the whistling man (a musician) to get his fortune told. Judgement, the World, the Tower, and the Devil. He makes a joke, but is told not to jest at the image of a god. For it is a powerful and malign god of voodoo.

Cut to an all white jazz band.

And I'm just gonna start fresh tomorrow and hope for less interruptions; the spell was too good to waste the film with this many souring it.

So I begin again with Dr. Terror's House of Horrors. Opening music is by now a familiar little bit of a chill. It is a nice little opening score, though not really horror except that you expect horror knowing it is. The opening is more Twilight Zone than anything horrific, though again that might just be Mr. Dawson's right side of his face reminding me of Shatner for some reason. The first true horror element is Christopher Lee's appearance, because he counts as horror on his own. I jest of course, while he has an intimidating presence, and uses it here, it's not in and of itself horror. Instead the first is the music that plays as Dr. Terror himself arrives, the way he wipes the fog from the door, the music as he looks about the men. It's not ill done, though it's some masterpiece. Still it is not jarringly hamfisted; this is just me watching the scene for the 4th time in 16 hours.

Pter Cushing has charisma here, a little touch of the classic story teller. It is enjoyable to watch. Lee's stuck up and stick up his krampus persona forms a good foil to Cushing's story teller.

Since he's explaining the tarot, I find it worth noting that for the first two stories (and I suspect the others) the 5th card is Death and he refuses to actually reveal it because it means the future cannot be changed; they will die. Yet Death is a card of change.

With the first story the symbolism of most of the cards is fairly clear. The High Priestess is the Widow, the Moon equates to the Werewolf, the Enchantress is indicative of that she is a witch, but also the battle with the beast. The Chariot... Well I forget its true meaning and its meaning in the story is more obscure than the rest. Maybe just that he'll arrive via a carriage upon the island.

And it leaves me wanting to know more about Valda's situation. We don't get to see how she is bewitched, though that is my suspicion. I am not saying this is a bad thing. The story as presented makes sense, the acting implies and foreshadows that she's a false lead. It's all well done, albeit a little predictable and on the rewatch it does suffer but that's rewatching something the next day it will suffer. Though the less predictable bits (while you can guess the widow is bad, it's harder to guess there's a werewolf tomb) are beautifully foreshadowed as well, the actress playing the widow doing quite a good job.

Still I would like to see Valda's story. Not here, but as a supplemental material. It could be an interesting tale.

Still on a rewatch the effect and horror is substantially subdued and plot holes become more apparent. I'm not going to point out things that only bother me because it's a rewatch, that's not fair to the film as they don't really tear apart the story. And even on a rewatch it works better than some films I've watched this month. Still it lacks the grip upon the heart, the chest squeezing grasp of terror. At the same time it's a child friendly fear. Something that you could watch with a kid and they'd enjoy and yet it'd not create the nightmare causing effects of something like Evil Dead or Phantasm.

Still we are to the beginning of the second story. The Fool is a journeyer, it represents his vacation, and the dog in the picture is his dog. The Magician is the botanist, the hanged man is the vine's method of killing, and the sun is what makes plants grow. For just picking Major Arcana it's a good choice of cards.

The second part is better for coming after the first, but with the reduced effect of a rewatch much of that is lost. It's just not enough to keep it up, but a breather is often needed (90 minutes of tension is too much after all).

Also I like scientists in stories like this. Where it is not a SCIENTIST HAS GONE MAD WITH POWER but science will protect us from the horrors that nature may spawn. And on the rewatch while his struggle is stiff and unmoving (like could be a fake person entirely), his hands are at least in place to try and prevent being choked, ad the vines have his arms. Still in a modern film he'd be futilely kicking. Also I like how the plant is smart enough to cut the phone lines. It's as if it has grown telepathic, able to sense ill-intent towards it and act upon such plans. Still the scientists boss from the ministry escaped, and learned its weakness. While the family may be doomed (as the Death card implies) the plant will be napalmed.

No it's the musician, and I note that as he taps he snaps his fingers creating a beat. It's a nice touch and gives the Doctor a way to know he's a musician, just like the doll told him the man had a daughter.

Still I wonder how much of these stories the people see. This is the one that feels the slowest start. The band practicing as they're told they're going to the West Indies, the music light and upbeat... growing even cheerful when they go to the West Indies and there's a song about how everybody's got love. I feel a lack that wouldn't have been there if I hadn't been interrupted the first time, the tension having bee lower so draining off much quicker.

The musician called Dambala a monster and the club goes quiet, death gazes all towards him. We get stories of the Voodoo dances, the wild half-naked dancing in the woods; and he's told not to go since it's a religious ceremony not a place to ogle chicks. He goes to secretly watch from the bushes, like a peeping tom staring at the.. women in ankle length skirts, and shirts that show some of their stomachs. Oh no, he's not watching the girls. He's stealing the notes of the song, like some musical Prometheus performing a sacrilege against their god by trying to turn his sacred music into a cheap musical trinket for the English.

He doesn't notice the men silently coming up behind him, standing there, watching him, until they carry him within. The priest is pissed at him having written down the sacred music, and is more pissed when the musician suggests going 50-50. Still these Voodoo worshipers are reasonable sorts. He warns that if he steals from Dambala, then Dambala will be avenged upon him. Don't piss off a vengeful god you foolish Brit.

He still intends to steal it when they get back to London, and as he mocks the god's ability to harm him, he topples backwards as the railing falls out from behind him.

The story is not too scary, the grip and intensity is weak, the music is upbeat, the end result is obvious. Still the musician is a charming thief, likeable even as he does things that are foolish and selfish, and the story is enjoyable. It is a shame the spell was broken last night.

Still the film makes a simple door with a loose hinge swinging back and forth creepy. Everyone ignores it, but the winds begin to pick up more and more as they play, and soon papers and flying. Before too long tables are threatening to rise, and lost in the music the musicians still play, no reaction from them. Trumpet wild and it ends and... the musician doesn't belief anything. You were in door when a windstorm struck; Biff what are you thinking.

Of course when he's alone, at night, and the wind is still stirring, he grows uneasy. When he bumps into a large black man he grows scared. When he trips over a trashcan and sees a poster with a monstrous face he grows lost in his own dread. When he almost gets hit by a car stepping out straight in front of it, he is panicked. It's so so.

Still it has gone quiet except for the occasional wind. The wind that is closing windows. Slamming doors. The lights going out at his apartment. It's a good, tense bit. And when he manages to get a light on, there is a voodoo practitioner in full make-up coming for him, an avatar perhaps of the god. He reaches for Biff as if to choke and the musician faints. Still vengeful or not Dambala is not an evil god, he merely takes the music and leaves; if Biff is dead then it was sheer terror. After all the fifth card is Death, and this time they catch out Dr. Terror's attempt to hide it.

He finally gets Christopher Lee to agree and there is no tapping. We begin with Lee mocking some modern art as an atrocity.

We get two ideals of art. 'Art is supposed to have meaning.' And 'Art is supposed to create a reaction from within'. Still Lee praises a chimp's painting, leading him to mockery.It was not just a chimp's painting but a fairly sorry painting in general.

The artist he had been mocking begins to haunt him, mocking him with the fact, driving the art critic deeper and deeper into a corner, till at last he decides to act. He runs the artist down with his car, hitting him, and cutting his arm off with a wheel. An act of mad vengeance... but the artist survives.

Still the guilt, or more fear of being caught out, eats at Lee's character, even as the loss of what made him who he was drives the artist to suicide. Shooting himself through the head. A final act we see from his point of view before the hand that was lost comes for Lee, crawling in his car towards him as he drives. He throws it from the car, shocked and horrified. And that grip that has been lacking is growing once more, my feet and ankles tingle, my chest seizes just a bit.

There comes a rapping upon Lee's chamber door a rapping that will not answer. Frightful he begins to open the door only to find no one there, shuddering afterwards at the terror he had felt. He's jumping at shadows, not realizing the hand is crawling towards him. It grasps his foot and he seizes up with terror for a moment before tossing it into the fire.

Still the event haunts and worries him. And charred but not destroyed the hand returns. The hand can bleed, but it is now out for his life. Still he throws it into a lake in a box to swim with the fishes.

His fear is not gone, but he feels the weight lifted. We do not and upon a... Well let's just say the end is satisfying. And the poetic justice is sweet. While I think the first story was best thus far, it was a good one.

And we get the fifth tail, the blonde, blue eyed man's, the man with the winning smile. The Empress, the Hermit, the Star, and the Lovers.

He's an American, a New Englander. He's marrying a French woman. It's a happy little scene, his new wife moving into the house, but the grip of fear like the artist's hand about the throat, still hangs about. Is he using a screwdriver as a can opener? I know it’s been done but that just seems to be a way to get.. He cuts himself in the process and her reaction to blood is strangely sensual, almost aroused or certainly hungry. After all she cleans his wound with kisses. If it hadn't been sunny I'd be fearing a vampire. That she turns into a bat at night and flies away does little to reassure me she is not one.

We see the morning where we learn that our protagonist of the tale is a doctor, along with one other doctor in town (Blake). His wife doesn't like Blake.

Apparently lacking blood is not anemia now. I'm pretty sure that's a top of anemia, a specific type, but still 'it's not anemia the quality isn't wrong it's the quantity' is dumb to me; though I am not expert on anemia. Still the boy has a vampire bite upon his throat, and Dr. Blake says if it were medieval times.

We get a nice, tense scene of Blake and the vampiress playing a bit of cat and mouse in the lab building, but the bat effect almost ruins it; it's a pretty average bat effect for the 60s but those were always bad.

Another day and the child's blood is drained a bit more, and Blake decides to sit by his window with a pistol, slamming it shut before the vampire and shooting the bat. She comes home with a bloody hands. Blake sharpens his stake, our good 'protagonist' (he's really not the protagonist but) says that Nicolle is his wife. He is wooden, tears in his eyes. He doesn't want this, he's near to breaking down.

Teary eyed he tells her that he loves her after she returns and goes to sleep, kisses her sleeping lips, and stakes her. The cops come and he claims Dr. Blake will confirm it. And then...

We do not see what doom is there for Dr. Terror, but we see his fifth card: Death. They conclude the train is going to crash, they pass through darkness and Dr. Terror vanishes. They slow down, having reached the end early, only to emerge from the train into a dark station in an other worldly realm. The train has crashed, they rode with the Grim Reaper, and now all five are dead.

[comparativegeeks]

I’ve wondered the same thing, hypothetical question-asker! Fortunately you’re in luck, because the original Star Trek is a cultural artifact of huge importance. Anything that big gets revisited over and over again, and I’ll read, watch, or listen to anything that makes an effort. There’s a huge variety to suit any taste, but for this post I have one major recommendation and I challenge you all to guess what it is by the end.

In the realm of “real” stuff, as canon as Trek gets, you can always watch Star Trek: The Next Generation and revisit old plotlines and characters. You’ve got the original cast movies, which are in some ways “the same” but almost different versions of the same characters. You’ve got Star Trek: The Animated Series, which used original actors for voices and was better than it sounds. And there’s the series of reboot movies, particularly Star Trek Beyond which most closely approximates something like the original.

Jaylah, Kirk, and Spock in Star Trek Beyond

Novels are a great option too, and there are roughly a gigglety-jillion. If you’re looking for something really specific, to revisit a guest character or something like that, you may only find one or two but you’ll probably find something. I’ve mentioned some wacky ones here but there are plenty closer to the original series in tone — some off the top of my head are The Eugenics Wars by Greg Cox, Timetrap by David Dvorkin, Invasion: First Strike by Diane Carey, and Tears of the Singers by Melinda Snodgrass. Plus it’s not exactly, er, normal, but you’re missing out if you don’t read William Shatner’s Shatnerverse books.

A step further and you’ve got fanfic or other fanworks. Quality varies from bizarre paragraph-long vignettes about Spock as a dentist to multi-novel sagas with better characterization than some episodes from season 3, but as with the published novels, there’s something for everyone. Whatever you’ve wondered about, someone’s written it (with of course the glaring exception of the one thing I really want to read, a take-off on “Balance of Terror” where it turns out Spock really is a Romulan spy. Rec me if you know of one). I won’t do much reccing because it very much depends on what events you want to see, but there are episode addenda, episode retellings, episode followups, new episodes, a detailed episode-by-episode analysis of why Kirk/Spock was a real thing, anything you want.

But let’s take a step back toward the novels and talk about comics. Even fans who like fanfic sometimes think they won’t like comics because they’re associated with being confusing or difficult to access, and I get that, but I promise it’s not as confusing as superhero comics. With the resurgence of interest after the reboot movies, it’s easier than ever to get collected editions of comic series, so you don’t have to figure out issue numbering, just think of them the same as novel series. You can get stories about Khan and aliens and whatever, just like the novels. You can also get reprints of the original Gold Key comics from the 60s and 70s, which are hilarious, or the newer Star Trek: Ongoing series that retold original-series plots using reboot-movie characters. But most importantly, you can get Star Trek: New Visions by John Byrne. It’s a comic series that uses collages of original episode stills to create new episodes.

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  It sounds silly — and kinda looks silly at first glance — but hear me out! John Byrne isn’t just some guy, he’s been a major comic author and artist since the 70s, and clearly knows his Star Trek. The New Visions series ran for two years and four volumes, with each (long) issue as a new episode of original Trek. It captures the rhythm of an original Trek episode, the style, the story functions of each character. (And while it’s a bit limited as far as diversity based on original images, he also pastes together a few new characters and does a much better job including women than Star Trek: Ongoing. Much better).

It doesn’t have the same variety of tones — original Trek could be serious, fun, goofy, self-important, intense, but these mostly fall into a “weighty” category, a feeling of pondering the mysteries of the universe. The “Where No Man Has Gone Before” sort of tone. I don’t mind that, it’s as authentic as anything. Most plots revisit original episodes, extending concepts to see how they might play out, but always in character. Some plots are new, but in the same spirit, the same general classifications of episodes and the same concerns. Even the sciencey sci-fi bits don’t make sense in the same way that original episodes didn’t make sense! Once you get used to the slight choppiness of the images, it’s really truly like watching new episodes of Star Trek. I’ve even seen each episode enough times to recognize the pictures, but I still forgot they were reused most of the time.

I honestly never expected New Visions to be good, but it’s great. It may be more like the original series than anything else I’ve seen. But I’m always looking for more recommendations, so feel free to leave them in the comments!

“I Loved Star Trek: The Original Series, Where Can I Get More Episodes?�� I've wondered the same thing, hypothetical question-asker! Fortunately you're in luck, because the original Star Trek