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Tag: William Shatner

Shatner’s Duality Kirk Splits in Classic Trek

On the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, in honor of William Shatner’s return to the Star Trek Original Series Set Tour in Ticonderoga, NY, this weekend, Roy made the command decision that we will discuss the original series episode “The Enemy Within” (1966). This is the one in which a transporter malfunction causes Captain Kirk to be split into two people, one “good,” but indecisive and ineffectual, and the other “evil,” impulsive and irrational. Obviously, it was Evil Roy who handed down this unilateral decision.

I’m just kidding, of course. I love this stuff, and it is classic “Trek.” Like the character of divided Kirk, its qualities are many-faceted: at the same time ludicrous, thought-provoking, engaging, and fun.

Shatner is at his histrionic best, underlit and heavy on the eyeliner when evil, and managing to overplay “underplay” when good. But where he really displays his chops is in keeping a straight face while acting alongside a dog in a hairy caterpillar/unicorn onesie.

Famed horror and sci-fi scribe Richard Matheson (“The Incredible Shrinking Man,” “The Legend of Hell House,” “I am Legend”) mines the old doppelganger theme for this exploration of man’s duality. It also happens to be the first episode, thanks to Leonard Nimoy, in which Spock delivers his signature Vulcan nerve pinch.

Join us as my will weakens in the presence of forceful Roy. Saurian brandy will be served in the comments section, as it’s revealed that Roy and I are two sides of the same coin, when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., THIS WEEK AT A SPECIAL TIME, THURSDAY EVENING AT 7:00 EST!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

November 15, 2023
Shatner’s Secret Trilogy People Spiders Rain?

Is “The People” (1972) actually the first part of an unofficial trilogy of William Shatner movies that also encompasses “Kingdom of the Spiders” and “The Devil’s Rain?” Just a theory of mine.

Plenty of ruminative digressions during last night’s discussion of “The People,” the Francis Ford Coppola-produced TV movie that aired just two months before “The Godfather” cemented his reputation as one of the leading filmmakers of the 1970s. A strange progression, to be sure.

Here Shatner somehow winds up playing second banana to Kim Darby. The circumstances were reversed when they worked together on a “Star Trek” episode, “Miri,” only a few years earlier. Darby would soon be lending trauma to our childhoods with the TV movie “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark.” That’s the one where she’s attacked in the shower by little carrot goblins. Note to self for this Halloween!

Of course, you’ll be able to hear our reflections on all this and more in our chat about “The People,” now archived here:

Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner may be on hiatus next week, but that all hinges on whether or not somebody can find his passport. I’m guessing we’ll be back to livestream on Facebook next Friday evening at 7:00 EDT!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

July 16, 2022
The People Obscure 70s TV Movie Review

In 1972, Francis Ford Coppola gave us “The Godfather,” widely regarded as one of the greatest American movies ever made. The same year, he produced this television movie, starring Kim Darby and William Shatner. Join us in our incredulity, as we discuss “The People.”

Darby plays a young teacher, looking to sort out her life, who’s been summoned to an isolated farming community to instruct the strange children of severe elders. Shatner is the local doctor, who spends most of his time treating animals. Interestingly, the film, introduced as an ABC Movie of the Week, was a reunion of sorts for the two leads, who appeared together in the “Star Trek” original series episode “Miri.”

If you thought “Witness” was wacky, wait until you get a load of this. We’ll do our best to look plain, on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. The comments will all be simple when we livestream on Facebook. It will be time for milking, this Friday evening at 7:30 EDT.

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July 14, 2022
Shatner’s Kingdom of Spiders with a Spider Expert

Nothing brightens an eight-legged apocalypse like a visit from a good friend. Especially one who knows how to make you laugh.

Yesterday, when I posted about tonight’s episode of “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner,” on which Roy and I will observe the 91st birthday of William Shatner with a discussion of his magnum opus, “Kingdom of the Spiders” (1977), I was remiss in not mentioning that our very special guest this evening will be my lifelong friend, Matt Anthony. Matt and I were basically inseparable from the 7th grade up through college. (I could tell you bloodcurdling tales.)

In the meantime, he’s become quite the arachnologist. So Matt will be on-hand to tell us all we need to know about the scientific accuracy of the movie, to show us around his own little kingdom of the spiders (which he now raises), to play us a number or two on the ukulele (he also busks), and to cook us up a burger from William Shatner’s own special recipe. My mom introduced us to this 40 years ago, after she found it in a magazine in the early ‘80s.

All in all, it’s shaping up to be a Shat-tacular evening. It will be a Matt Matt Matt Matt world, on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Observe it slack-jawed in the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:00 EDT!

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PHOTO: Flanked by Matt (in stylish Sasquatch t-shirt) and Roy in October

March 25, 2022
Kingdom of the Spiders Shatner’s 70s Horror

In the “Kingdom of the Spiders” (1977), the man with one idea is king.

Too bad that one idea is transparently lifted from “Jaws.”

William Shatner stars as a Southwestern veterinarian who teams up with an arachnologist from Flagstaff to grapple with a natural threat, even as the mayor (predictably) is determined to keep the town open for the county fair.

The film also plays into the whole ‘70s environmental horror sub-genre (cf. “Frogs,” “Night of the Lepus,” “Orca,” “Prophecy,” etc.), by positing that it’s man’s rapaciousness and stupidity that’s at the true root of his own peril. This of course has its antecedents in the atomic horror movies of the 1950s. If only those idiots hadn’t been spraying DDT.

It takes a mighty suspension of disbelief to accept notoriously shy, solitary tarantulas working together to turn a county fair into a buffet. “Land of the Daddy Long-legs” would be about as threatening.

And poor Woody Strode. A longtime favorite of John Ford, who got to fight Kirk Douglas under Stanley Kubrick’s direction in “Spartacus,” and he’s reduced to this.

At any rate, Roy and I will be discussing it as a belated birthday tribute to Mr. Shatner, who turned 91 on Tuesday. So burn your offerings at the altar of Shat in the comments section. We’ll be dancing the tarantella to emolliate the effects of spider-bite, on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, when we livestream on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:00 EDT!

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March 24, 2022

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