Character Insight No. 199: "Movie Insight" film review of Star Trek Beyond

Fair warning, this has spoilers below the break!

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp199


Star Trek Beyond added a new writing team and a new director Justin Lin after Into Darkness came off as a little stale for the new crew, and these changes proved to be well worth it. There are great visuals without the crutch of lens flares, most notably the incredible scenes on the Yorktown station, and the soundtrack is once again fantastic, just like with the previous two movies. The slower character scenes, particularly those with Spock and Bones together, and those with Scotty and Jaylah, were outstanding as well, albeit with the same high amount of callback lines, references and cheesy humor as before.

Ironically, this may be a better homage to The Wrath of Khan than the plagiarized version presented in Into Darkness was. The villain turns evil and against the Federation based both on his nature as a soldier and as a result of being stranded without rescue, which sounds a lot like Khan's original story arc! But it's a believable villain, and while the clues are there throughout the movie, it's not written as obviously as things like the "Magic Blood" in the previous movie. Plus Idris Elba continued the trend of great villain actor performances set by Cumberbatch 3 years ago, particularly when he got to finally act outside the rubber suit of the Krull character.

The movie is not without some minor faults. The story is painfully slow at the beginning, which may turn some non-Trekkies off after the fast action of the last two movies. The hand and gun fight scenes fall very flat compared to the space battle scenes. The Enterprise is abused to death once again as a cheap way to build tension, but perhaps this is a fitting homage to the original third Star Trek movie, where Kirk flirted with being an admiral and the Enterprise-A was born.

My only other complaint is that the story felt a little generic in some spots, with evil powerful villain trying to obtain a Tesseract-like object and then use it to destroy the world, forcing our heroes to go pursue that Tesseract...I'm picking Guardians of the Galaxy terms for a reason. It's enjoyable as a different story for a Star Trek movie, but it's somewhat stale as a modern science fiction or superhero movie plot.

Where Beyond moves to the next level, however, is the "big philosophical and life questions" which the crew tackles around all the action scenes. This was Roddenberry-style science fiction at its finest, making you think as much as be in awe. By moving the crew three years ahead into a deep space mission, this story was able to stand alone with its own big questions about unity and motivations/purpose in life, while moving away from the crutch of Earth or other known worlds.

Plus, the tributes to Nimoy, Yelchin, and the original crew from the 25th anniversary milestone were outstanding. Hits you right in the feels.

I think this movie is and will remain a top 5 Trek movie, maybe Top 3 based on your preferences.

I count myself incredibly blessed to be able to enjoy well made Star Trek and Star Wars in the theater with my 7 year old daughter, as those franchises didn't put out much great movie content during my own childhood. Seeing the magic through her eyes and making the next generation of Trek fans is an outstanding way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of this IP.

Character Insight No. 198: Lojur

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, with all the hub-bub about the upcoming movie and the character of Sulu, we will profile another recurring character from a previous movie who showed up on Sulu's Excelsior in the prime timeline. This character is the helmsman Lojur.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp198



Lojur is one of the handful of characters we have covered on this segment which became recurring characters thanks to Voyager revisiting the Excelsior and Sulu's command in the Tuvok-focused episode Flashback. Although Lojur is not one of the main characters in either this episode or the movie The Undiscovered Country, he does provide consistency between these two, lending authenticity to this part of the backstory created for Tuvok's character in the Voyager show.

Lojur is a Lieutenant Commander who appears to have Eastern European descent, but the novelization of The Undiscovered Country established this character as a Halkan. He appears again in the novelization of the next movie Generations, but his appearance description in the books as a Halkan is more consistent with how that race appeared in Journey to Babel rather than his appearances on screen. It's what happens when the canon and the non-canon collide on smaller characters.

Knowing that Sulu probably insisted on the highest-quality helmsmen in view of his own background, one would figure that Lojur's assignment to the Excelsior went well . The Lieutenant Commander certainly plays a significant role in the battle with General Chang at the end of the movie appearance, and it was a good excuse to trot out those awesome movie uniforms again.

Speaking of inconsistencies in character, the same actor Boris Lee Krutonog plays Lojur in both appearances, but his accent is much more pronounced in the second Voyager appearance as shown here:

Sulu: Helm, set a course for the Klingon homeworld. Take us through the nebula.
Lojur: Aye sir.
---
Lojur: She is not answering the helm
Sulu: Use thrusters! Turn her into the wave!
Lojur: Aye Sir.

Krutonog is best known for another appearance as a helmsman on a ship around this time, specifically the helmsman on the Russian ship in the 1990 movie The Hunt for Red October. Another Star Trek actor crossover from that movie was Gates McFadden, AKA Dr. Crusher. He's also appeared more recently in the TV shows 24 and Dog The Bounty Hunter, the latter of which he was an executive producer on.

It will be interesting to see if the trope of one-off characters from movies appearing in TV shows continues at any point for the newer Abrams movies. I think it would be fun to see more on a character like Carol Marcus as played by Alice Eve, but it seems unlikely for the roads to cross again thanks to the movies becoming more action-oriented than character-oriented. As for those movies, stay tuned next week for episode 199, which will be this segment's second-ever movie review!

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Feedback can be sent to me with future segment suggestions on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy.

Character Insight No. 197: Koloth

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we profile Koloth, a Klingon recurring character who spans episodes in The Original Series, TAS, and Deep Space Nine.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp197

Koloth was a legendary warrior and military leader of the Klingon Empire who serves over many decades, which allows him to appear in multiple Star Trek series. His first appearance was as Captain of the battle cruiser IKS Gr'oth in the TOS episode The Trouble with Tribbles. Koloth demands an apology for the brawl that breaks out between his crew and the the Enterprise crew, but all he ends up with in the end is a ship full of Tribbles.

Ironically, this first appearance of a Klingon foil to Captain Kirk and played by William Campbell was supposed to happen much sooner according to the producer of the first two seasons Gene Coon. However, Campbell's work as Trelane in season 1 was so memorable it pushed his debut off until the Tribbles episode. The rest of this plan was dashed when the production staff changed for season three and had different plans.

Koloth also shows up in Trials and Tribble-ations, the DS9 homage to the original tribbles episode. His most notable episodes are those in Deep Space Nine which deal with the blood oath Koloth made with fellow warriors Kor and Kang. A band of depredators left by the Albino are stopped by this trio of warriors, and the Albino escapes while vowing to exact revenge on the three Klingons. The Albino does just that, infecting three children with a genetic virus that kills them.

Along with Curzon Dax, these three warriors make a blood oath to hunt down the Albino and avenge their sons' deaths. Despite having to wait years and needing to work with Jadzia Dax instead of Curzon, these Klingons overcome traps set for them and Kang kills the Albino after a long duel. Although Kang and Koloth die in this effort, at least their deaths are honorable in completing the Blood Oath.

Odo: How did you get in here?
Koloth: I am Koloth.
Odo: That doesn't answer my question.
Koloth: Yes, it does....what are the charges against this man?
Odo: There are no charges, he's today's guest of honor.
Koloth: You must be a brave man to attempt humor...

Although Koloth did not get to return as a regular foil for Captain Kirk after all, he does re-appear in TAS to battle with the Enterprise in another tribble-related episode. William Campbell did not voice the character in this appearance though, as James Doohan once again lent his voices for this project. Campbell's work did make this a great recurring villain, despite not getting to see the vision of 10 or 13 episodes in TOS like the original plan for this character.

Who knows, perhaps this character will return in an Abramsverse movie. That would make for an interesting call back, if they choose to do it. When not playing Koloth, William Campbell had roles in many 50s and 60s movies like Cannonball and Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte. His final acting days came in 1996 but he did not pass away until a few years ago at age 87 in 2011.

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Feedback can be sent to me with future segment suggestions on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy.

Character Insight No. 195: Kiaphet Amman'sor

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we profile Kiaphet Amman'sor, one of the Xindi Council members seen multiple times on Enterprise.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp195

One of the interesting things about seeing the Xindi Council in Season 3 of Enterprise was the diversity of species leading this civilization. Amman'sor is one of the Xindi-Aquatics, which means the character is full CGI and is often seen in a fishtank. Instead of being silly, it adds a unique and interesting touch to the principle villains of this series.

Amman'sor serves on the Council as a representative and member of the wealthy Ibix Dynasty, and she serves as the primary voice for peace on the Council. For example, she initially opposes building any weapon against Earth, and she also encourages the Xindi to ignore the Enterprise when the ship first enters the Delphic Expanse. After finally agreeing to some form of weapon to defend her home world, she still leads opposition to development of a bio-weapon.

Yet eventually even this strong proponent of peace and non-involvement joins the rest of the Council in supporting action against the humans. If not for Captain Archer's arguments and willingness to share information in a biometric hologram to the Council, Amman'sor may never have played the critical role she does by delaying launch of the super weapon.

That of course leads to the Reptilians and Insectoids stealing the weapon, and a temporary alliance of convenience between the Aquatic Xindi and Captain Archer's crew. In the end, Kiaphet Amman'sor becomes one of the biggest reasons that the humans survive long enough to found the Federation. Even with only six total appearances, this character's importance cannot be ignored.

Kiaphet - "indistinguishable screeching"
Hoshi (translating) - "Irrelevant. We are here to discuss the human's claims."

No official credit is given for the voicing of this computer-generated character, as best we can tell.

The Xindi-Aquatics presented a lot of challenges and puzzles for the show runners on how to present such characters, but they figured it out nicely. The appearance is based loosely on Earth's aquatic creatures with some logical changes like hands in order to indicate they evolved to the next level of intelligence. Not only was this a chance to show off what the team could do in CGI, it was also an interesting take on what could be the future of a planet like Earth, if multiple types of species all become intelligent. Just the type of science fiction high-level concepts that we love in Star Trek.

If CGI is used to make characters in the new series, there's a lot of positives that hopefully will be repeated from Xindi Aquatics like Kiaphet Amman'sor. It would be interesting to see if an aquatic or similar unique character could be pulled off well at some point in that new series.

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Feedback can be sent to me with future segment suggestions on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy.

Character Insight No. 196: Best of Anton Yelchin (Abramsverse Chekov), in memoriam

[[NOTE - This segment is numbered out of order of appearance on the TWIT show because it was inserted before the Kiaphet Ammansor segment 195 thanks to the untimely death of this actor]]
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Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we honor the memory of Anton Yelchin, who tragically died this week at the age of 27, by looking at some of his best work as Chekov in the Abramsverse as well as his other acting work.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp196

Anton Viktorovich Yelchin was born in 1989 in Leningrad, USSR. His parents were successful professional figure skaters and his grandfather played professional soccer, but he found his passion at a young age in acting after his family emigrated to the U.S.  This earned him a first appearance at age 10 as a guest actor on the TV show ER, followed closely by one of his best roles as Bobby Garfield, the 11-year old child who centers in the movie Hearts of Atlantis alongside Anthony Hopkins. Here's one clip from his award-winning performance as a child actor:

Yelchin - There's got to me more to it than that.
Hopkins - Yeah there is.
Yelchin - So what's the real job then?
Hopkins - Look out...for low men.

After a few years of mostly television roles, Yelchin got his next and probably biggest break by winning the role of Chekov in the Star Trek reboot of 2009.  Less than 20 years old at the time, his youth and exuberance stood out in multiple places despite being just one of a large ensemble cast:

Leonard 'Bones' McCoy: Wait a minute, kid. How old are you?
Pavel Chekov: Seventeen, sir.
Leonard 'Bones' McCoy: Oh... oh, good, he's seventeen.
Spock: Doctor...Mr. Chekov is correct.

Aside from Star Trek, the most critical acclaim for Yelchin likely came in 2011 when he starred alongside Felicity Jones as the romantic leads in the movie Like Crazy.  This Sundance Film Festival favorite also saw Yelchin be tempted by another character played by Jennifer Lawrence before she started her rise to super stardom in X-Men and The Hunger Games, but he ends up back with Jones's character in the end.

Yelchin - Yeah I'll see you in half an hour.
Jones - Yeah I'll see you in half an hour.
Yelchin - I'll see you in a couple days. I'll get there for you.

Since 2011, Yelchin has appeared in other roles such as the title character of Odd Thomas, a movie based on a good Dean Koontz book series; as Chekov in Star Trek Into Darkness and the upcoming Star Trek Beyond, as well as some animated features. Although I have a soft spot for his portrayal of Odd Thomas, here's another favorite quote from Into Darkness in the role we all were becoming most accustomed to for Yechin:

Kirk: Mr. Chekov, you've been shadowing Mr. Scott, you are familiar with the engineering systems of this ship?
Chekov: Affirmative, sir.
Kirk: Good. You're my new Chief. Go put on a red shirt.
Chekov: Aye sir.

His remaining works other than Beyond include movies titled Rememory, We Don't Belong Here, Porto, and Thoroughbred. Unlike many of the current ensemble crew, Yelchin came into this Chekov role as largely unknown as an adult actor. However, he stood out and made the role his own, and he will be sorely missed if this crew continues on after this third Abramsverse movie.

In a year where so many stars are passing away, it just figures Star Trek would lose one. What's most unfortunate is that it's one of the youngest stars, who leaves us before his prime and even before the original Chekov actor Walter Koenig, despite being more than 50 years younger than Koenig. In mourning this loss, Koenig says it best when he gives condolences to the parents, as he also lost a son in a tragic accident years ago.

Rest in peace Anton Yelchin. And grim reaper, please take a vacation for the rest of the year.

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Feedback can be sent to me with future segment suggestions on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy.

Character Insight No. 194: Crewman Garvey

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we profile Crewman Garvey, a prolific background character who served as a security and tactical officer on The Next Generation.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp194

Ironically for a character who shows up on nearly 70 episodes over five years, Garvey's first appearance is in the season 3 episode Yesterday's Enterprise in the alternate timeline shown in that episode. However, Garvey does appear in two roles which he becomes regular at in the real timeline: manning the tactical station at the bridge and being a security guard.

In that after capacity, Garvey is a quiet face in the crowd on many important away missions. For example, he witnesses the killing and resurrection of Lieutenant Worf in the episode Transfigurations. He also helped contribute to the mission that saved Commander Riker, Dr. Crusher, and Data from Melona IV following the destruction of the planet by the Crystalline Entity. In other words, he faces down some big events and threats while serving aboard Picard's Enterprise. 

His only speaking line came in the episode The Game, where he is ordered by Captain Picard to go find Wesley Crusher:

Garvey - "On our way."

Background actor Joe Bauman, who played Garvey, wasn't even who delivered that line as it was some other uncredited voice actor! Go figure! He doesn't actually find Wesley either, just a phaser on deck 6. 

In his other major security role, he guards quarters of people confined to quarters like the Ferengi Par Lenor and Qom as well as the Borg Hugh, and others who are arrested or detained at times like Data and Walter Pierce in Season 7. Around this same time, he also appears just as frequently at the tactical station or other aft stations of the bridge, especially with Worf not always available to man the post.

Garvey's final appearance was likely a reward for his long service on the TV show, as his character re-appears on the first TNG movie Generations. This was another regular face in the crowd, which is necessary when making seven seasons on a single ship like these series, even if it doesn't add much to the show or its characters. 

The character was named in the show scripts after the baseball player Steve Garvey, who played for the LA Dodgers. Joe Bauman does not appear to have many other notable acting credits. His daughter Ryan is following in his footsteps as an actress, and his mother was a famous stage actress based in Cincinnati Ohio a few decades ago, ironically the home now of yours truly. From one Cincinnati guy to another, cheers Joe Bauman for your contributions to Trek.

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Feedback can be sent to me with future segment suggestions on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy.

Character Insight No. 193: Gul Evek

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we profile Gul Evek, a Cardassian leader who shows up in all three TV series set in the 24th Century.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp193

Evek is a character who shows up a couple of times in Deep Space Nine and The Next Generation. His appearances range from those where he is the usual imperious and hostile Cardassian to others where he has moments of understanding with the Federation.

Speaking of those moments of gray, Evek has more of those when dealing with Captain Picard and the Enterprise crew. In the episode Journey's End, Evek shows up early to try and expedite the transfer of a Federation colony to Cardassian control in the Demilitarized Zone, and that causes a skirmish. However, he decides to withdraw troops rather than escalate the situation, and he reveals his reasoning to Picard in a moment of true honesty:

Evek - "I lost two of three sons in the war, Captain. I don't want to lose the last one."

However, every Cardassian leader has to eventually become a thorn in the side, whether it's for Picard or Commander Sisko. When the Maquis become more aggressive in their attacks, Evek blames Captain Picard and Starlet for not doing enough to control the Maquis and slow the number of skirmishes in the DMZ. He also eventually goes so far as to plant photon torpedoes on a runabout and arrest Miles O'Brien as part of a plot to discredit the Federation efforts in the region.

In another less serious scene between O'Brien and Evek in the episode Playing God, the Gul describes how to solve a vole infestation aboard the Deep Space Nine station. Unfortunately, his help is basically a recommendation to withdraw from Bajor and the region. So helpful!

Evek - "You've got the station, you've got the voles. By the way, their mating season begins in about six weeks."

O'Brien - "Thanks for your help"

Evek does hold an interesting distinction by appearing in the Voyager pilot Caretaker: he's one of only four total characters to appear in these three different series. The others are Q, Morn, and Quark. Much like Admiral Nechayev, the role of Evek was redone in multiple episodes across multiple shows because it served the purpose of establishing continuity with the Maquis storylines while also rewarding the actor Richard Poe who took really well to the part. 

Speaking of Poe, he enjoyed the variations and depth in approach the Cardassian would take to reach his goals of defending his people. He enjoyed the balance between being a strict constructionist of rules and also having some humanity in him, and that showed in the complexities of character he added in these few appearances. Evek continued to show up as a central character in several Maquis related novels and comics.

Richard Poe has also done some voice acting work for video games as well as many other TV shows including different iterations of Law and Order, and most recently, on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

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Feedback can be sent to me with future segment suggestions on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy.