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weerd1 · 7 years ago

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Star Trek TOS Rewatch Log, Stardate 1712.04: Missions reviewed, "I, Mudd," and "Metamorphosis."

"I, Mudd" begins when a new crewmember turns out to be an android who steals the Enterprise and brings ship and crew to a distant world. There they find Mr. Harcourt Fenton Mudd, who has settled in as "Mudd the First" and created a rather fetching group of Androids to serve his every whim (and one of his shrewish wife Stella, whom he can now tell to shut up anytime he wants). Despite living in a paradise only a douchebag could love, Mudd also knows he's trapped, so he has offered the Enterprise crew to the androids in exchange for his freedom. Turns out he's been played when he realizes the androids, all that's left of a distant and ancient civilization, plan to leave the crew AND him there, and go set themselves up "serving" the rest of the Galaxy by imposing order. It's now that Kirk and the gang use the power of improvisational comedy theater to thwart the too logical minds of the androids and free the crew. Their final gag though is to leave Mudd behind on the world to avoid a prison sentence...with 500 copies of his dear Stella. It's a bit of a non-sequitor that Norman could get off the planet and infiltrate the Enterprise crew in order to steal a starship to get off the planet. Like "Mudd's Women" before it, there's a lot of comedy and sixties style misogyny/"that's-what-guys-do" action going on, but it was 1967 and all things in context. The writer Stephen Kandel, having written both of these live action adventures would go on and write "Mudd's Passion" for the animated series. Mudd would appear again in the book "Mudd's Angels" by JA Lawrence, the wife of author James Blish who had novelized all but a few episodes of the original series before he died. Lawrence finished the 12th volume ("Star Trek 12") and adapted the two live Mudd episodes and an original novella for the Mudd character in "Angels." Of course we also get a Mudd name drop in "Star Trek Into Darkness," and two pretty entertaining appearances of the character as played by Rainn Wilson of "The Office" on "Star Trek Discovery." Oddly, when Stella appears on DSC, her personality is the same, but they decided to cast a much younger and very attractive actress to play her in contrast to the more matronly, version in "I, Mudd." It's only supposed to be about about 12-13 years later, so kind of an unnecessary choice.

"Metamorphosis" gives us a bit of Star Trek history that will later be..."massaged" in subsequent stories. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are transporting via shuttle an ailing Federation commissioner where she can be treated on the Enterprise. Nancy Hedford is not happy about this delay in her mission to negotiate peace on a war-torn world. She is less happy when an amorphous energy field pulls them off course, stranding them on a small planetoid where they find one human male who claims to be marooned. Turns out that's true, but this man is Zephram Cochrane (actor Glenn Corbett), the inventor of the "space warp" who disappeared 150 years before at age 87. He is now a healthy man in his 30s where he has been protected by the alien entity who has now brought the shuttle to the planet to provide him company. Turns out the cloud is "feminine" and in love with Cochrane. With Hedford about to die, the Cloud gives up it's non-corporeal existence to enter Hedford and live as human. Cochrane, knowing they will now grow old together, stays, asking Kirk to keep his existence a secret still from the Galaxy. We of course see a bit of a different Cochrane, as played by James Cromwell in "Star Trek: First Contact" where he is on Earth, as opposed to this episode which refers to him as "Zephram Cochrane of Alpha Centauri. The series "Enterprise" will easily retcon that by mentioning Cochrane moving to AC later in life. Some book sources relate the idea he left Earth because of some countries resistance to forming a United Earth, and he refused to live on a planet that might have another World War like the one he had lived through in the 2040s and 50s. Two interesting things to note: Zephram Cochrane will be born in about 13 years in Montana (around 2030) and that would make him 33 at the time he launches the first human warp ship in 2063. Cromwell the actor was 56 when the film was released. Post nuclear Montana must have been a rough environment!

NEXT VOYAGE: Diplomats from all over the Federation meet on the Enterprise for transportation to a conference. When one of them is murdered, Spock's father is the primary suspect on the "Journey to Babel"!

The original Bantam Books cover to “Mudd’s Angels.”

#Star Trek #Mudd #I Mudd #metamorphisis #TOS Rewatch #zephram cochrane

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amateurfan227 · 8 years ago

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Shitlist Reviews - Aliens - 1986

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m Amateur Fan 2.27 and welcome to the Shitlist, where bad movies (eventually) burn, seeing the arrival of Alien Covenant is literally around the corner, I thought it was about time to review the rest of the series which leads to the following sequel from the first film in 1979.

So today’s review I’ll be looking over the 1986 sequel directed by Terminator creator, James Cameron (yes I will be diving into Terminator 2 soon) Aliens, though this was probably set more on Action-Horror like Predator than it was Science-Horror such as its original film, it still holds itself as a pretty decent film at that with more Xenomorphs as well as more expansion towards the Alien franchise.

As usual we’ll dive into the production history first as which will be a lot more interesting towards both the franchise’s direction as well as the fan-base as well as direction of James Cameron’s career as a director.

David Giler declared that Brandywine Productions were immediately making a sequel to the 1979 success with full support from 20th Century Fox’s president Alan Ladd Jr though problems rose as Ladd left due to new owners Marc Rich and Marvin Davis stating that they had no interest in the sequel, claiming it would be too costly to make.

Though through a lawsuit for Alien Profits towards Fox, Giler won with ideas from executives to cross between movies like Walter Hill’s Southern Comfort and The Magnificent Seven; Whilst producer and development executive Larry Wilson looked for a writer for Alien II, Wilson came across James Cameron’s screenplay for The Terminator and passed it towards Giler feeling that Cameron was acceptable for the job.

As a fan of the first movie Cameron accepted the position and created a 45 page screen play though the movie was in hiatus as well as people disliking the pitch as it felt that the original movie didn’t have the budget to warrant a sequel.

Scheduling conflicts arose towards Arnold Schwarzenegger caused the Terminator to be delayed in 9 months which other issues arose towards that but that’s for another time, though during his time on the Terminator, Cameron wrote a 90 page script for Aliens though it wasn’t finished but Fox’s new president was heavily impressed with the Terminator being a success stating that Cameron would direct the sequel to Aliens.

Following the success of the Terminator, Cameron and producing partner Gale Anne Herd, were given approval to direct and produce the sequel with a 1986 release with Cameron having the opportunity of creating a new world which wasn’t to follow the same formula as the first movie; but it had the chance of bringing a combat style movie focusing on the terror and less more on the horror.

Sigourney Weaver (who portrayed Ripley) had major doubts in reprising her character after meeting Cameron after learning that her payment would be worth less than she originally had in the first movie, though through some negotiations with Fox, Fox signed a contract stating that Weaver would get $1 million for the role, which they agreed with.

Cameron drew inspiration for the story from the Vietnam War which had a similar situation using a technologically advanced force in a hostile environment, the attitude also works for the Space Marines as well which they were portrayed as cocky and confident towards their victories, another inspiration was Starship Troopers which involved the drop and the bug hunt.

Aliens was filmed in over 10 months on a $18 million budget at Pinewood Studios in England, Cameron (bound on a low budget and a deadline) found it difficult to work alongside the English staff whom work feature tea breaks causing production to a complete halt. Aside from being admirers of Ridley Scott, the crew mocked Cameron for his youth and his experience to direct as well as Gale Anne Hurd for her marriage to Cameron at the time.

Cameron often clashed with director of photography, Dick Bush when the schedule couldn’t be met or lighting on sets leading Bush to be fired along with the crew, fortunately replacements were found in Adrian Biddle, Some of the Alien nest scenes were shot at the abandoned Acton Lane Power Station in Acton London, leading it to be the perfect place to film for its grilled walkways as well as corridors.

The release was heavily given due to fans of the successful predecessor, Aliens was released in July 18th of 1986 in the U.S.A. and August 29th in the UK, though it opened in 1,437 theatres with an average gross of $6,995 but after a few short weeks in the box office, it reached an astonishing $183 million dollars back.

Criticism on the movie was heavily promoting the film stating that it was better than the original giving a more approaching look towards the mythology of the franchise as well as how the Alien operates towards hostiles towards their home-world.

Now seeing that this movie is set a few years after the first movie (through movie time at least), I’ve re-watched the first movie to get into the knowledge of what’s happening through the side stories when it comes to Wayland-Yutani Corporation. The things I do for you guys.

This is one movie that I’m looking forward to watching especially as it’s one of the most successful movies of 1986. So without a doubt, let’s dive into the movie and see if it’s worth hating or loving.

This is Aliens.

The movie begins in Space as we see the space ship released from the Nostromo has been captured by Wayland-Yutani scientists to recover the damage that was given prior the first movie, but with a turn of events, the passenger inside (Ellen Ripley) has been placed into a deep hyper-sleep through the years of being stranded in space with the Nostromo’s cat Jonesy.

After being awoken by in a hospital bed on the nearby space ship known as Gateway Station by Wayland Yutani Corporation, Ripley is greeted by the cat from the first movie as well as Executive Carter Burke (Paul Reiser) whom seems friendly at first though Ripley has questions over her Hyper-sleep, only to find out that she’s been in sleeping for over 50 years.

This causes her to panic and have a heart attack of sorts only to reveal that she is in fact infected with a xenomorph which prepares to jump out of her stomach, this turns out to be one of her reoccurring nightmares however. Good starting point but a bit of a useless effect to spook the audience if you ask me.

A few days later as Carter prepares for a hearing that Wayland-Yutani have organised to talk about the incident over USCSS Nostromo, but Ripley has other ideas concerning her Daughter in the moment leading him to inform her that she is has died 2 years before her awakening, which surprisingly looks like Sigourney Weaver now... no offence Ms Weaver.

At the hearing, the Chairmen confirm that some of the incidents at the Nostromo were officially confirmed such as landing at the planet LV-426 for unknown reasons aside from leaving on the right course as well as being set on self-destruct by Ripley though Ripley intervenes that it was the life-form which they refuse to believe.

This raises a bunch of questions such as looking at the mother-drive that was loosely connected to the main ship from Nostromo which would give a lot more detail into why they landed, or maybe referencing a distress beacon given off at the same location or more possibly looking over the programming that was in Ash’s Circuits... just pointing that out is all.

One of the chairmen request whether there was life found on LV-426 leading to a female member to state that is was just a rock leading to no indigenous life, which raises the question of a HUGE FREAKING SHIP IN ONE OF THE MOUNTAINS... or possibly is that they probably didn’t have the attention on looking to begin which.

This raises another question that if they did manage to find the spacecraft then surely they would look under the origins of the space-craft or the xenomorph to begin with... ah that’s when Prometheus comes to play... smart move there Ridley.... smart move.

Ripley refuses to believe that they will close the case over her mental health leading them to remove her flying licence as well as giving her psychological health evaluations. Ripley then requests on searching the planetoid again in search for the eggs though is put down when the main Chairmen Van Leuwen states that human has started living there for 20 years only to find nothing aside from terraforming the planet to a breathable atmosphere.

This is gonna bite you back in the ass if something major happens at that Colony (which is known as Hadley’s Hope) isn’t is Van... and guess what happens, a family at LV426 arrive at the spaceship from the first movie, only to be attacked by the face-huggers leading to a single surviving child.... told you about them not looking hard enough...

At Gateway Station however Ripley is met by Burke only for him to give her valuable information on the Colony having trouble with communications, leading him to request her for advice, they also state that they will send marines to search the Colony for survivors in case something major comes around.

Though Ripley refuses to give them advice but through some persuasion Carter manages to get her licence reinstated, let me just inform you that she only defeated the first Xenomorph through LUCK that doesn’t make her a freaking expert on killing them. After some nightmares, Ripley reluctantly agrees with Burke’s idea only for her idea to destroy them and not to research them.

This attention is given to the Marines Spaceship known as the USS Sulaco where we first meet the Colonial Marines, Corporal Dwayne Hicks (played by Terminator star Michael Biehn), Private Hudson (played by the late great Bill Paxton) Private Vasquez (played by Jenette Goldstein), Sergeant Apone (played by Al Matthews), Executive Officer Bishop (played by legendary Lance Henriksen).

Commanding Officer Lieutenant Gorman (played by William Hope), Privates Drake, Frost, Spunkmeyer, Crowe and Wierzbowski (played by Mark Rolston, Ricco Ross, Daniel Kash, Tip Tipping and Trevor Steedman), Corporals Ferro and Dietrich (played by Colette Hiller and Cynthia Dale Scott... Christ that’s a lotta people.

After being introduced to the Marines, Bishop is heavily requested by the marines to play five finger fillet with a knife by Hudson leading him to place his hands on Hudson to do the task... I’d like to mention that that was not relating to the script or the movie, it was just placed in the movie via a skill that was incredibly well done.

Anyway this reveals Bishop to be a synthetic also known as an Android to you Alien fans out there, leading to Ripley’s instant distrust when he states that Ash was an older model due to the glitches in his system. Shortly after breakfast, the team are briefed about what the threat is leading to some iconic scenes from the movie especially the ‘chicken shit outfit line’.

We also get a chance to see the outlook of the space dock as well as the infamous cargo-loader as the Marines prepare for their descent into LV-426.I have to admit one thing, they look freaking awesome with the pulse rifles as well as the looks of the armour, very science fiction looking.

They arrive at the Colony only to find that no-one is around, but the power is still online, as they enter the main complex of the building the interior design has clearly been destroyed with wires hanging from the corridor ceilings, I have to admit, this is a pretty good atmosphere for an Alien movie.

They set their motion sensors only to find nothing aside from structural damage from the inside, though with Hudson a life form is seen moving, only to find out that is was in fact a gerbil, the building looks mainly secure as the Marines have searched through the majority of the complex leading Ripley, Burke, Bishop and Gorman to gain entry to search the CPU units to find information.

They search through a med-lab and manage to come across Facehuggers trapped in vials only to find that 2 are still left alive, though they manage to find some information on the Facehuggers, movement is found nearby only to be revealed to be a survivor, a young girl named Newt; whom quickly runs from them only for Ripley to use her mother’s intuition to calm her down.

Fortunately Newt manages to talk as Bishop does some research on the dead Facehuggers leading to Hudson to find the colonists through the main CPU, good news is that he’s found all of them but the bad news is that they are all together; the marines manage to track them down leading to a cooling tunnel of the main colony.

They enter the cooling tunnels only for interference to hit their cameras leading them to enter the Alien Hive which is looks pretty awesome with the setting and all... kudos to the set designers, Ripley finds a problem stating that if their weaponry is involving explosives, they would cause a rupture in the cooling system leading the station to be a fusion reactor.

On the Brightside they manage to find the remaining colonists, the bad news they are all dead from the Xenomorphs, to make matters worse, movements are still detected on the motion trackers leading them to come closer and closer to the Marines, this causes the Xenomorphs to attack leading to a bloodbath.

This leads Ripley to drive the military tank to the Marines location causing damage to the Hive causing what’s left of the soldiers to fall in, and to leave the facility. As they pull up in the wastelands of LV-426 they have a talk on what’s going to happen leading options whether to leave the planet or to return to exterminate them.

Burke on the other hand has other ideas on using them for funding as well as stating that he hasn’t got the authority to perform extinction on the Xenomorphs, the survivors, Hicks, Hudson and Vasquez are in shock of what’s to happen and even though the task is under MILITARY JURISIDICTION, Hicks is placed to the task on returning to the ship and nuking the planet from orbit.

This leads to another surprises as the Xenomorphs have entered the space-ship that sent them only for them to be attacked causing the ship to crash...err plot twist? Anyway with no escape from the planet, they rejoin Bishop in the main complex leading for them to prepare to defend themselves, but another problem arises however as it would take nearly 3 weeks for rescue to find them.

They manage to prepare themselves for one night after going blueprints of the main complex, during their preparation, Hicks gives Ripley a locator in-case she gets into trouble or lost, I can see the positives in that but I can see more negatives, such as what happens if it doesn’t work? Ripley takes Newt into bed to make sure she’s secure and also gives her the locator that Hicks gave her for safety.

Shortly after discussing over how the Xenomorphs operate, they discuss on how they were originally produced believing that they are in fact formed from eggs believing that there might be a larger Xenomorph or an Alien Queen, this raises a bunch of questions on how the Queen can perform on a hive mind level but that’s gonna raise a bunch more questions on Nature itself and as Jurassic Park has told all of us, Nature finds a way...

Though something comes up when Bishop refuses Ripley’s request to destroy the Facehuggers as Burke wants them alive, Burke wants to use them for profit (as all corporations do, here’s looking at you Umbrella) which raises the most ridiculous question I’ve heard when Ripley mentions to getting it past quarantine, How are they going to Impound it if they don’t know about it?.... Ladies and gentlemen please slap your forehead with the palm your hand in confusion on how stupid that question is.

Hell I’m not even going to answer that bloody question due to his incompetence, the best thing about it is that Ripley has way more dirt on him as he does on her as She looked into the history of the colony and discovering that all the colony missions towards the space ship were organised by Burke himself.

After a brief argument, the Xenomorphs begin their attack leading the sentry turrets in the tunnels to begin their thing leading multiple dead monsters by their doorstep, another problem arises as the crash from the cooling tunnels as damaged the ventilation system which could lead to a nuclear bomb on their hands.

Though a solution is at hand though as the colony transmitters for communications can be repaired manually which Bishop volunteers for, the team however manage to return to see the Turrets returning fire against them leading to the Aliens to run in defeat. Hudson and Vasquez are given the perimeter walk as Hicks trains Ripley with the Pulse Rifle; I have to admit this is the turning point towards her character making her the first female action hero.

In the meantime, Bishop manages to fix the transmitter for the Colony and requested an immediate ship for support as Gorman awakens from a concussion, leading Ripley to leave him for some sleep in the Med-Lab only to discover that Burke has locked her in with the living Facehuggers, as well as sabotaging the camera in the Med-lab.

Ripley does manage to get their attention by setting the fire alarm causing Hicks, and the marines to intervene killing them instantly causing the whole team (aside from Bishop obviously) to interrogate him, via the interrogation the Aliens cut the power and prepare to attack in full force via the ceiling vents.

Burke manages to slip away through the fight only to get himself killed in the process, this also leads to Hudson’s death as well which is more harsh than I can think of, during the fight, Ripley and the remaining escape through the vents which leads to Vasquez and Gorman to pass as well, Newt gets Separated from leading to one of the Xenomorphs to grab her in a sewage system.

Now both alone, Hicks and Ripley escape the facility with some casualties leading for the secondary Drop-ship to pick them up thanks to Bishop’s help, they enter the drop-ship and Ripley prepares for a suicide mission to fly back into the fusion reactor in hope to find Newt, she arms herself with a pulse rifle as well as a flame-thrower, she manages to enter the Alien Hive, torching the place as she looks for Newt, only to save her before a Facehugger performs the procedure.

Though something big stands in her way as Ripley looks for an exit, The Alien Queen, I have to admit the designers for her made a very good job especially making her way bigger than all the others, Ripley decides it’s a bright idea to start setting the eggs on fire as well killing the Xenomorphs that stand in her way, pissing of the Queen.

Ripley does escape with the Queen in hot pursuit following her in the elevator which raises how the Queen has human intellect but that’s for another day leading Ripley to await for Bishop to fly them out of the Fusion Reactor before it destroys the Colony, believing that they have fled the queen along with it.

At the Sulaco, they dock the ship believing the nightmare is officially over only for it to return as the Queen somehow managed to stay with them by holding onto the Ships landing gear. Leading to Bishop’s demise, Christ Henriksen, first the Terminator now this? What next becoming a demon in the form of a pumpkin? Well technically Bishop is still active aside from being literally torn in half.

Ripley orders Newt to hide so she can prepare for one final battle, she uses one of the Cargo Loaders and says the classic line ‘get away from her, you bitch’ and prepares a fight, she forces it towards the Airlock and traps it with the Cargo Holder (or as I call it the Loader Bot (sorry Borderlands) leading her to force it out into space, killing the Queen once and for all.

Ripley places the rest of the surviving crew into the Hyper-sleep chambers and prepares for another long sleep knowing that the Nightmare is officially over.... that’s until I review Alien 3 at least.

And that was Aliens

Possibly still one of the best Action movies by far relating to a horror franchise, granted it had more iconic scenes from the first movie but the story is still there when it comes to action/horror, especially with corny one-liners as well as signature scenes that no-one will forget.

The acting though is something I need to address first, the main villainous route is just bizarre as well when it comes over to Carter Burke, I mean come on everyone knew he was going to be the obvious bad guy towards it, you could practically smell the smugness of him.

Though the character development in Ripley was something I was fond of, especially as she grew more of a survivor as well as an Alien Killer, I have to admit one thing that James Cameron can do is making weak characters to stronger personalities such as Sarah Connor in the Terminator series (not Lena Headey nor Emilia Clarke for that matter as they are non cannon).

The movie though is something I must address first, mainly towards the logic in following the previous movie towards this one, I admire the ideas towards changing the setting to a more open area but there wasn’t enough moments of science fiction which was relating towards the action, after all the movie is set in the future.

The logic towards Wayland-Yutani’s plans for the Xenomorphs make no sense as well, such as if they have managed to find the ship were the Alien came from or possibly knew of the Aliens existing then why don’t they do something simple such as send some scientists to discover it rather than a mining colony.

Granted the terraforming idea was cool but that was only mentioned which raises more questions than answers on how exactly did they make the atmosphere breathable in the span of 57 years or how did they manage to find natural energy to supply them with food rations or water or another question how did they manage to find energy to create the Fusion Reactor?

Aside from the logic the movie is possibly a step down its direction from the points I made out during the review, the main problem I can think of is the consistency between the characters as the Marines are supposed to be hardened bad-asses only to find out that they are cowards (Hudson for example).

Aside from the negatives the positives easily overpower it, such as the design for the sets which were exceeding the original designs, as well as the Alien Queen included, though there were some things I would change about the Queen’s official design on reveal, it’s still an impressive idea nevertheless.

The score is mostly forgettable as I was more focused on the action as well as the visionary direction Cameron took on, which he’s known for (well done Cameron).

The official rating for this movie would be Hitlist due to the set design and the action sequences, though if it wasn’t for the action then I would have serious doubts on my final judgement, this movie is possibly one of the best all round, I highly recommend it.

I’m Amateur Fan 2.27 and join me next time as I dive into the sequel to well... the sequel.... I’ll see you guys later.

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