You wait ages for a redshirt to die... (Review: 'Star Trek' 1.7, "What Are Little Girls Made Of?")

And then two die at once! Two guys called Matthews and Rayburn get killed by a big hulk of an android and thus play a small part in the history of Star Trek.

****
The seventh episode of this show sees Kirk and Nurse Christine Chapel beam down to the planet Exo III, home to a long dead civilisation and the latter's missing fiancé, galaxy-renowned scientist Dr. Roger Corby. Who unfortunately has gone rather mad and likes androids...

Very much a Kirk vehicle (he makes some frankly brilliant moves in this one), this is also a discussion of artificial intelligence and the dangers within, with themes that would crop up in many another work after this. There are also a couple of twists that I really should have seen coming, but still feel fresh and dramatic.

This marks the debut of dead redshirts and most notably Nurse Chapel. The latter is played by Majel Barrett, who would later marry Gene Roddenberry and become known as "The First Lady of Star Trek" - contributing all the way up to the first Abrams movie, dying of leukaemia before it was released. She's definitely got a very 'floaty' voice, although I admit to not being over-struck by her performance here.

What many people, especially those of the woman-loving persuasion, is 'Andrea', whose two crossed strips of material for a top outfit is William Theiss' most famous creation by a good parsec or two. I wonder how many takes it took for the actors to deliver their lines dealing with that in their eyeline.

Equally striking is the very big android, Ruk (played by Ted Cassidy, best known as Lurch in The Addams Family) whose outfit, below, is only beaten to this episode's Most Unintentionally Hilarious Thing by Kirk trying to hit him with a very phallic looking rock.



Last but not least, there's a scene involving android creation that wouldn't look out of place in a music video and if it hasn't inspired one, I'd be very surprised.

[A small note here. While I am trying not to read up on future episodes, ancillary research into actors etc. on Memory Alpha may result my getting slightly spoiled. I do not yet know when the Klingons turn up and want that to remain a surprise]


Conclusion

A strong episode that still stands the test of time; although I'm not inclined to call it excellent.

The campaign begins, fully

So, Parliament has sat for its final session ahead of the dissolution on Monday, after which there will be no MPs, only candidates vying for re-election.

A lot is going to be riding on Ed Miliband's shoulders in the next few weeks, especially in his television appearances. He has to convince the undecided and wavering voters that he is not the caricature that the right-wing press portray him as. If he does that, he will go a long way to winning this election.

For there is more to 'winning' than just getting most seats; Labour must win the popular vote to have any chance of legitimacy in a minority government. With the polling averages showing things neck and neck between the two biggest parties, every vote for Labour will matter.

Thoughts on the SNP

It's looking increasingly likely that Labour will have to do some form of deal with the Scottish Nationalists after the election.

Do you know what? I'm not too upset at the idea. We agree on a lot with them and having to rely on them for key bills might prove to be a useful left-wing restraint. I would favour "supply and consent" over full coalition, mind you.

As for Trident? Just get it through with Tory votes.

The big red boring light is flashing (Review: 'Star Trek' 1.6, "Mudd's Women")

Most US "hour long" shows ran to about 42 minutes today. Back in the 1960s, it was around 50... and to be honest, the increase in commercial time for American does have some advantages...

This episode begins with a space chase that showcases a big red light on the helmsman's console that flashes when the Enterprise overloads its engines to save the ship that it is pursuing from a killer asteroid field. It should have frankly been flashing up for writers when they made this dragged out mess of an episode.

The ship is destroyed, but the crew manage to rescue the 'captain' of the vessel and his 'cargo', three women dressed like they're going to a party at a Bond villain's mansion. The late William Theiss (who, I've discovered, actually died of AIDS, a truly horrible way to go) is well known for his half-way-to-a-Janet-Jackson designs for female guest characters on Star Trek, but he also gives us this Space Oddity.

The captain is a con artist (something we learn via a hilarious scene with a computer lie detector that reminded me of a scene in The Simpsons) by the name of Harry Mudd. He looks like he's going to a 70s disco night on a cruise ship... my own ancillary research confirms the term 'disco' was already in the English language by this time.

The women turn out to have a strangely hypnotic effect on nearly the entire male crew of the ship (the good old lack of focus trick appearing again), bar Mr Spock and it's clear from the get-go something is dodgy.

The recovery of the crew has resulted in the ship wrecking its "lithium crystals" (something that will later get a retcon to the fictional 'dilithium') and needing to go to a mining colony to get some more. Unfortunately we then proceed to get some dragged out scenes involving some very boring miners (no pun intended) and some bad orbital physics... unless the transporter can't work very high above a planet's surface.

I'm going to devote my last comment to the Captain's Log. A great tool for exposition, but sometimes it seems that there's no conceivable way Kirk would have time to make the entries.

Conclusion

There's a well-worn plot here that's for sure, but it's packed with more padding than my Warhammer 40,000 miniatures. There's not a great deal good in this episode and I was bored by the end of it.

4/10

Sir Terry Pratchett 1948-2015

The massively renowned fantasy author has died aged 66.

I first encountered the brilliant Discworld series at school - initially via Guards! Guards! Since then, I have read nearly all of that series and a few of his other works. A superb and highly influential writer for many, including myself, the world of literature is much poorer for his passing.

Rest in Peace.

Daughter of International Conspiracy (Review: 'The Blacklist' 2.9/2.10, "Luther Braxton")

Ah Silent, a pleasure to meet you at last. I understand that you're a fan of my little escapades with Agent Keen. I recently had a rather thrilling adventure in the Bering Sea with her and would really like to know what you think. Now be nice... but also be honest. Your life may depend on it.

It is said that demons run when a good man goes to war. They also run when Raymond Reddington is in town.

For those of you not familiar with the show (which this two-parter allows for) let me give the general gist of it:

For over 20 years, one of the FBI's most wanted men is one former US naval officer by the name of Raymond "Red" Reddington (James Spader). Known as the "Concierge of Crime", he is a master criminal with a fine line in fedoras, snappy suits and dark humour. One day, for some unknown reason, he suddenly walks into FBI headquarters and surrenders himself. He then proposes the immunity deal to end all immunity deals: he will give them information on a 'blacklist' of criminals that they don't even know about and help bring them to justice. There's one condition: he will only talk to rookie profiler Elizabeth "Liz" Keen (Megan Boone), who he seems to have some mysterious connection with. A special task force is set up to work with Reddington, who as each of the Blacklisters rears their (in some cases seriously messed-up e.g. The Stewmaker) head in some form, assists them in stopping them; a move that more often than not results in said crook ending up dead. As Liz Keen heads into the darkness (and gains several levels in combat skills in the process), other questions emerge:

• Is Raymond her dad?
• What is going on with her husband?
• What's Raymond's real agenda?
• Whose idea was that, now mercifully consigned to whichever foetid hole it came from, wig?

Jeremy Clarkson

I am a fan of Top Gear. While I'm no car expert, I enjoy the challenges, the humorous banter and of course, the Stig.

However, it is entirely right that a person accused of what is a sackable offence should be suspended (with pay) until an investigation can establish the facts. If Clarkson attacked a producer, he needs to be sacked - he was in the Last Chance Saloon as is. He may be the BBC's equivalent of J Edgar Hoover i.e. someone you want in the tent rather than outside it, but an example needs to be made.

The show is bigger than him - if he goes (and it's a question of when, rather than if, considering his big mouth), he can and should be replaced.

TV Debates

They're dominating the news again.

I don't think that the DUP really have much of an argument to take part in the debates - they're a very small party unlikely to even win a majority of seats in Northern Ireland. Inviting them means that you have to invite the other four parties in NI with seats.

Personally, if we're going to have the debates, let's limit it to those polling more than 5% nationally - Labour, the Conservatives, the Lib Dems, UKIP and the Greens.

Also I think Cameron is running scared - every incumbent PM except for Brown has frustrated debates as they'd had too much to lose.

Danger at the sign of the One-Horned Dog (Review: 'Star Trek' 1.5, "The Enemy Within")

Between watching the first part of this episode and watching the rest of it, the world lost Leonard Nimoy. He definitely lived long and prospered; his contribution to sci-fi in general through his role as Spock cannot be underestimated.

This watch-through will be tinged with a lot more sadness as a result.

Rest in Peace.

****
When watching the original series, I frequently encounter sights so ridiculous looking by modern standards that it causes me to actually burst into laughter. In this case, it's the little puppy with the horn.

He's both adorable and ridiculous. Shame he's not in Star Trek Online.

"The Enemy Within" sees a freak transporter accident split Kirk into "good" and "evil" versions - and as a result, Sulu and the rest of the away party are stranded on a planet where the temperature is rapidly plummeting.

Good and evil versions of a character are a much mined sci-fi plot and Star Trek provides another classic example of it; but with a good twist not done by most of those that have followed - they can't kill the evil version. Also, the lack of a 'darker' part in the good version slowly saps Kirk of the decisiveness a commander needs to function. Both elements remind me of Red Dwarf episodes - also, those are very clean engineering decks. We also get to see some more Shatner ham as his moodily lit bad version gets to sweat and yell a lot.

McCoy says "He's dead, Jim", one of the classic Trek lines, for the first time and Spock gets some very good stuff; acting as the 'logical' counterpoint to Kirk's very emotional side. This is also the debut of the Vulcan nerve pinch, much imitiated in playgrounds, I'd imagine.


The final confrontation between Kirks on the bridge is definitely in line with the plot; but there's some bad editing with the "evil" Kirk getting his image reversed. In a time where the "final cut" literally involved scissors, it's understandable, but still...


Something that needs particular attention is "evil" Kirk attempting to rape Janice Rand. It's a shocking scene by any standards, but what surprises me most (and it probably shouldn't do) is the way it's handled. Rand is interviewed about her attack by three male officers (including "good Kirk" and not provided with any support for what must have been a highly traumatic incident. In fact, Spock later makes a rather distasteful joke about it.

Conclusion

Another good episode, but docked down a point for some bad editing and some dodgy attitudes to sexual assault.

7/10 

The pay of MPs

I personally think that MPs should be paid more for the important work they do. However, it is a full-time role that they should not be engaged in other paid employment while doing so.

It just opens them up to charges of corruption and being influenced by cash.

Ukraine 'ceasefire'

The continued violence despite a so-called ceasefire agreement in Ukraine suggests one of two things:
1. The Russians are unwilling to rein their proxies
2. The Russians can't rein in their proxies.

I'm not sure which of the two is more alarming.

Did someone order an Apple of Discord? (Star Trek 1.4, "The Naked Time")

It's a common plot device in sci-fi and fantasy television shows for at least one episode to feature the crew getting hit by some strange virus/magical object that causes them to undergo a major temporary personality change. This will generally involve a considerable amount of overacting and general ham, as at least one cast member ending up in their undies. Watching this I was very much reminded of "And the Apple of Discord" from The Librarians (where Lindy Booth got her dress off), an episode of Stargate SG-1 that I can't remember the title of (where Amanda Tapping got her shirt off) and on a similar tangent, "Nightmare in Silver" from Doctor Who (where Matt Smith... kept his shirt on).

Indeed, every show in the Trek franchise has at least one like this and this is the drunken Irish daddy of them all. I'll get to O'Reilly later.

Scotty and another member of the crew beam down to a dying planet (dressed in the most ridiculous red hazmat suits I've ever seen) where the science crew present have frozen to death - the opening shot of this episode is rather arresting. The other member of the crew (who I think was O'Reilly, but I don't recall) breaks the cardinal rule of dealing with a strange death situation - don't take your gloves off!

As a result, nearly the entire crew end up basically getting three sheets to the wind. George Takei gets his shirt off, Spock gets emotional, the nurse with the silver hair (was that in fashion back in the 1960s?) gets romantic... and we get to see the first chase of Shatner well and truly chomping the scenery. Oh and Scotty says that he can't change the laws of physics.

Oh yes, O'Reilly. The resident Irish officer (Ensign? Lieutenant? not sure) does nothing for the popular perception of Irish people when he does the sci-fi equivalent of drinking an entire cask of Guiness - I tried it once, didn't like it - and ends almost destroying the ship in the process.

I doubt that's something he'd want on his permanent record.

Conclusion

Not overly struck by this one; it may be an early example of the type of plot, I have seen it done much better elsewhere.

6/10

Five things that the next administration, of whatever hue, needs to do

1. Renovate the Houses of Parliament. It is unacceptable for this nation's laws to be determined in a building that is falling apart.
2. Make some serious steps into reigning in the bad behaviour of MPs in the Commons. It is supposed to be a debating chamber, not a shouting chamber.
3. Look into some serious devolution to the English regions; we cannot have a continuing inequality of powers in this matter.
4. Do a council tax re-banding and re-valuation. It's long overdue.
5. Make a decision, one way or the other, on Trident renewal.

Election prediction for May

I'm currently working on a seat by seat prediction, but this is how I think things will broadly go:

Labour will get around 33-34% of the vote and end up short of a majority by about 20; it will have to do some form of deal with the SNP and/or Lib Dems if it wants to get anything done.

Sadly UKIP are now just too strong - and I doubt there is another leader of Blair quality in the party at least this side of 2025.

70 years since the Liberation of Auschwitz

Auschwitz; a name synonymous with the worst of humanity. The site where over a million people were murdered by practitioners of a warped ideology that is sadly still with us.

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Red Army liberating that camp and the 7,500 prisoners who had managed to stay alive in there after the Nazis left them to die as they were too sick; many of the others died on the death march westwards.

The actions of Hitler and his cronies can only be described using one word: evil. As the last survivors pass on, it is our duty to make sure that they are never forgotten.

To all who perished in the camps or at their hands: Rest in Peace. I hope and pray that we never have another event like that.

Syriza takes power in Greece

For the first time in a good number of years, we have a far-left government in the EU. Syriza capitalised on hostility against the austerity imposed on Greece; but the question is now how well they (and their very unlikely coalition partners) do in office.

If they succeed, other left-wing parties may head down the same track. If not, it will be a big blow for everyone who is unhappy about the impacts these bailouts have had.

Scotty and Sulu in the house! ('Star Trek' 1.3, "Where No Man Has Gone Before")

I'll begin at the end, with the end credits sequence. In most shows, this is just a bunch of boring black screens or a scrolling text. Not in Trek, that's for sure. We have a whole bunch of images designed (and quite successfully I might add) to whet our appetite for upcoming episodes; some of these, which vary from week to week, are rightly considered iconic.

In this episode, the crew come across a communications pod from a long-lost vessel (my first thought - "it's a garbage pod!") and upon entering a pink swirly thing in space, one of their crew, an old Academy colleague of gets funny eyes and strange powers.

(I decided to look up the two guest stars after seeing that Gary Lockwood's name sounds familiar. I've not really heard of him, but Sally Kellerman is best known for her role in MASH, where she played "Hot Lips")

We get to see Kirk having to face the difficult decision of basically killing a long-term friend of his and the climax sees not only him get his top ripped (this episode, oddly does not feature Uhura or the mini-dresses), but also chew the scenery. Parodies of Kirk usually focus on this last part, but Kirk is a complex and multi-layered character.

It also marks the debut appearance of two other staples of the franchise - Scotty and Sulu. I will say that I have problems understanding Scotty - and I used to watch Taggart.




Conclusion

Another highly entertaining episode, but it does drag a bit nearer the end.

8/10

'War and Peace'

I'm almost three-quarters of the way through Tolstoy's classic unit of measure for book longevity and plan to do a review once I've finished. While I'm having difficulty keeping track of all of the characters, I'm finding the description of the Napoleonic Wars very illuminating. In this age of instant access to information, we tend to forget that it wasn't always like that and a conflict could be concluded by the time the message saying it had started reached a capital city... and you could wait for months for a reply to your letter.

Life was a slower pace back then, I guess. I wonder if people got as bored as they do now.

How much for a 3D chess set? (Star Trek 1.2, "Charlie X")

Over three hundred quid it seems!

We go into another classic plot here, namely "major alien power ends up in the hands of someone who doesn't really know how to use it". The "seen it before" aspect is mitigated considerably by the fact that this is one of the shows that created said plot; I suspect I'm going to see some more of this as I make my way through Trek.

One particular character that is particularly standing out for me is Yeoman Rand. It's not the hairdo that could serve as a crash helmet, nor the ridiculous pink dress she sports in this one... but her uncanny resemblance to one Chloe O'Brian. It turns out that I'm not the only one to have thought that...

(It also seems that Grace Lee Whitney was rather shoddily treated back then. The 60s were definitely not a brilliant place to be female in television)

This is another enjoyable episode, but to be honest, I'm waiting for Sulu, Scotty and Chekov to turn up. The crew isn't complete yet.

8/10

A good book featuring a good man (Book Review: 'Doctor Who: Ghosts of India')

And thus my series of Doctor Who reviews concludes with a novel featuring what is still my favourite Doctor.

Where we're at

Set during Season 30/Series 4, this features the Tenth Doctor and Donna.

The plot

The Doctor and Donna head for Calcutta in 1937... and end up arriving ten years later, at a turbulent time in India's history (i.e. just before independence). People are going missing and strange white 'half-made' men are appearing. Teaming up with Gandhi, the time travellers investigate.

What works

• Gandhi is a bit of an unusual choice for a 'celebrity historical', but it works here. I get the impression of what was a very good man, whose untimely death arguably made things worse for South Asia in the longer term. His goodness actually plays a key role in the plot.
  
• The two regulars are portrayed very well; the Tenth Doctor in particular.
• Some good gadgets feature in this and the sonic screwdriver also gets some nice usage here, although some stuff about how it works is contradicted by later TV episodes.
  

What doesn't

• The big twist is good... but looking at other reviews, I'm inclined to agree it's a bit humdrum and it would have been better with a double twist.
• I'd have personally liked to come out of this book with a bit further knowledge of the real events that took place around Indian and Pakistani independence.
  

Conclusion

A good novel, but not one of my personal favourites.

8/10