Old SFX blog posts

I Believed A Man Could Fly – (written about 2009)

You know I didn’t really realise until very recently how much of an influence Superman The Movie has been on me and my geek girl status. I have an overriding affection for this film and it is in the forefront of my mind at the moment after I appeared on The Eclectic Podcast recently and argued my case for it be The Greatest Comic Book Movie Ever Made. I’m pretty sure I won that argument ahem! I also talked about it on my guest spot on the Comic Rocks Podcast then I realised I’d written about it in my application email to blog for SFX.  So it’s a much more important film to me than even I recognised.

Why the love? You may well ask, the film does have a lot of flaws, it looks quite dated these days and some parts of it are desperately cheesy (the “can you read my mind” section springs immediately to mind!). I think the answer is in the main two actors, Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder. Kidder’s Lois Lane is wonderful, she’s smart, sassy incredibly confident yet very loveable. She is an inspirational lady.  Christopher Reeve’s portrayal of Superman is really good and believable, but Superman isn’t the interesting character and it’s Reeve’s performance as Clark Kent that sets this movie so far apart from everything else for me. 

There is a moment, a tiny moment mere seconds in the movie when Clark is in Lois’ apartment waiting for her and he obviously (nothing is said!) decides he is going to reveal his secret identity to her, he talks off his glasses, he unfurls to his full height and he ceases to be Clark Kent and it is clear to anyone that it is Superman in a black suit standing there. He suddenly changes his mind, his glasses are back on, he loses height and his speaking voice changes and there is no trace of that superman there at all. It is pitch perfect, it is an astounding piece of character acting, those 30 odd seconds are what take this movie from good to great. That moment can easily reduce me to tears. The affection that Superman or maybe Christopher Reeve himself has for Clark is also very apparent within his performance, he obviously is having enormous fun with the character and that joy is infectious. These characters are whole and real to me. I know Lois likes her hamburgers with everything on and her orange juice with no bits in it. I know about her passion for her job and her love for Superman. I know that Clark loves Lois and that Superman can be more human than some people can and he is certainly not an emotionless man.  

I do know that my passion doesn’t come from the comics; I have to admit I have never read a Superman comic and really wouldn’t know where to start if I did.

Nostalgia  has a part to play, I can’t remember how old I was when I first saw this film (which I am only a year older than) but I was very small, and I have seen it countless times, I’ve watched it so many times that I can talk along with the dialogue and it never, ever gets old. So it does have long term affection tied into it. And there is the fact that the opening bars of the awesome theme music can give me goose bumps.

I won’t give you my Superman Returns rant, that *does* get old and I won’t start in on my almost as deep love for the second Superman film as I will be here all day!  The fact is I love Superman the Movie and I always will!

Yesterday’s Enterprise (written about 2009)

I know I’ve written blogs about older shows before, like Robin of Sherwood and 10th Kingdom, forgive me, I’m in my mid thirties now and I get nostalgic. Which is why I want to talk today about Star Trek The Next Generation.

I used to watch this programme with my whole family, it was unmissable television for all of us, and I have very fond memories of sitting in the dark (that’s how my parents like to watch television) glued to the screen. ST:TNG is my Star Trek, the way Peter Davidson will always deep down be my doctor and though rewatching episodes now – as I have been thanks to one of the Sky channels showing reruns – sometimes shows it up a little or dates it quite a lot or is somewhat embarrassing in its OTT and technobabbly ways there is so much still to love and be in awe of. And while the Borg episodes are up there with innovation and terror and the final episodes can still reduce me to a weeping mass on the floor. This episode; Yesterday’s Enterprise is a shining pinnacle of what Next Gen could achieve.  It probably doesn’t need yet another brilliant review 21 years after its release date, and I am aware that I am not alone in my reverence of this episode so please humour me and wallow in the nostalgia too!

The premise of the episode is that our Enterprise (the Enterprise D) comes across a time rift in space from which a ship emerges and instantaneously everything changes.  The Federation have now been involved in a long and bloody war with the Klingons and the ship itself changes, the Bridge is completely different, darker, busier and most shocking of all, Worf is gone and in his place is Tasha Yar his dead predecessor! Guinan is the only one who notices the change and understands the only way to correct the timeline is to send the new ship back. The new ship is the Enterprise C, a ship which was destroyed 20 years earlier defending a Klingon outpost from a Romulan attack. This ship is run by Captain Garrett, when she is apprised of the circumstances she tells Captain Picard they will stay and fight, he explains to her how bad the situation is and that the Federation is only months away from defeat, but that if her ship went back – on a recognised suicide mission – it could save them all. The decision is made, but while preparations are made Klingon Warbirds attack, killing Captain Garrett and Tasha having been told of her previous fate by Guinan asks for and receives a transfer to the Enterprise C. The ship returns to its proper timeline and normality instantly resumes.

Everything about this episode is sublime and perfect. The changes in the Enterprise D are many and appropriate; the darkness, the busyness, the lack of Troi – who needs a counsellor in time of war? The slight differences in character are subtle and beautifully portrayed – gone is Picard the diplomat, the assessor, the man who will take ideas and leads from his staff, instead here is Picard the general who is completely in charge, gone is his easy relationship with Riker – and his portrayal is far less confident than the Riker we know. 10 Forward has a more canteen like look where rations are served, replicators take up too much weapon power, and uniforms are different and darker too. The whole effect gives us a very good insight into this awful timeline.  It’s lovely also to see the red uniforms from the movies used for the Enterprise C staff and the adding to the brilliance of this episode are the characters Captain Garrett, a strong female captain I wish I could see more of and Lt Richard Castillo, who helps Yar provide exposition in a nice way and goes on to save the day.

So, the sets are great, the actors are great but above all it’s a perfect premise, I like very much that no explanation is forthcoming to the nature of the anomaly – it’s beside the point and would have spoiled something for me. The simple fact is history has been altered; its ramifications are enormous so history and therefore present time are restored. That simple premise gives scope for some brilliant emotional storytelling and most of all a noble and better death for Tasha Yar, a character who was initially bumped off in a less than dignified manner. It gives nice resolution for her and a very satisfying watch for the viewer. This episode is also somewhat of a stripped down episode – there’s not much technobabble – something the series was in the habit of doing – there is nothing extraneous, everything that needs to be there is there and nothing more and that helps so much with the believability of the second timeline and this episode is one of the shining jewels over the entire Star Trek franchise as far as I am concerned – we will not speak of any Romulan Yar descendants as that may well give me physical pain!