Friday, April 21, 2006
Lookee Who That Is
Over the past week, I've been watching Star Trek III and IV. I picked them up at Fred Meyer on my way down to Mount Hermon, seven bucks each. (Star Trek V was also available, but $7 was a bit pricey for that outing.)
Trek-III has a special place in my heart; not because it's a great movie (as an odd numbered movie, it can't be), but because I won tickets to the premiere on a radio call-in show. Only time that's happened for me. Question had to do with where the James Bond movie Dr. No was set. As this was 1984, years before imdb.com could give you the answer in a couple clicks, my method for arriving at the correct answer was as follows: 1) Grab soundtrack album off shelf. 2) Note one of the tracks from Dr. No is "Kingston Calypso." 3) Grab the "K" volume of the Junior Encyclopaedia Britannica and look up "Kingston." (We also had an "official" set of the EB, but the Junior edition was quicker.) 4) Call the radio station. 5) Repeat #4 until you get through. 6) Answer the question: Jamaica.
Now, however, I like Trek-III because of a couple bit roles, or rather, who was chosen to fill those bit roles. Like dicovering Dan Ackroyd has a bit part in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, or Maury Chaykin was in WarGames and My Cousin Vinny, I was thrilled to discover that underneath his rubberized Klingon make-up, Maltz was played by John Larroquette. Miguel Ferrer played the First Officer on board the USS Excelsior and was a heck of a lot easier to recognize.
No surprise appearances in Trek-IV (John Schuck made the opening credits), though I was amused that the Michael Okuda trivia track included mention of a film-crew member's finger playing a crucial role when Sulu flips on the windshield wipers of his helicopter. The trivia tracks on both movies (all the Trek movies, really) were a lot of fun. Oh, look, you can see all the way from the SF Bay to Maui when the humpback whales are released.
Come across a surprise special guest star recently that tops the ones listed above? Leave me a snarky remark.
Trek-III has a special place in my heart; not because it's a great movie (as an odd numbered movie, it can't be), but because I won tickets to the premiere on a radio call-in show. Only time that's happened for me. Question had to do with where the James Bond movie Dr. No was set. As this was 1984, years before imdb.com could give you the answer in a couple clicks, my method for arriving at the correct answer was as follows: 1) Grab soundtrack album off shelf. 2) Note one of the tracks from Dr. No is "Kingston Calypso." 3) Grab the "K" volume of the Junior Encyclopaedia Britannica and look up "Kingston." (We also had an "official" set of the EB, but the Junior edition was quicker.) 4) Call the radio station. 5) Repeat #4 until you get through. 6) Answer the question: Jamaica.
Now, however, I like Trek-III because of a couple bit roles, or rather, who was chosen to fill those bit roles. Like dicovering Dan Ackroyd has a bit part in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, or Maury Chaykin was in WarGames and My Cousin Vinny, I was thrilled to discover that underneath his rubberized Klingon make-up, Maltz was played by John Larroquette. Miguel Ferrer played the First Officer on board the USS Excelsior and was a heck of a lot easier to recognize.
No surprise appearances in Trek-IV (John Schuck made the opening credits), though I was amused that the Michael Okuda trivia track included mention of a film-crew member's finger playing a crucial role when Sulu flips on the windshield wipers of his helicopter. The trivia tracks on both movies (all the Trek movies, really) were a lot of fun. Oh, look, you can see all the way from the SF Bay to Maui when the humpback whales are released.
Come across a surprise special guest star recently that tops the ones listed above? Leave me a snarky remark.
Mikesell
