TTV Read

Specter of Fun

From: Marc Thomas

Here's a the print version of my eMail, if you want to start your letters section on the website. I really like that idea. Also, I wanted you to know that I painted the Trek TV banner on a black T-shirt and wore it to a local Star Trek event and lotza folks liked the design, believe me, it wasn't my rendering of it. Just thought you'd like to know. It's a very nice image, and I don't think I've ever mentioned that. There's a picture link on my twitter if you haven't seen it yet. I had the opportunity to explain how Trek TV was the best Trek Podcast to several people so maybe it will bump your numbers here in the U.S. Northwest, or maybe the insane man with a corn dog scared them away for ever, one never knows. Here's a YouTube link which is relevant to this episode http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3hKGezANH4l it's kinda awesome Howdy Trek TV Amigos Well, I'd reckon that Ol' Specter of the Gun gon be jest about the darn tootin'ist peck o' trek ever. Fact is ever trek subsequentin' had a slop at that troff and so did that Buffy dude's FireFly plus as much others as not…to the good or ill? Hell, I don't know, I liked westerns a lot when I was a lil' cub but by and by, I came to prefer Sci Fi cuz it's more smarter and what. And you betcher green horned britches I gon be spittin' out this eMail entire in my fake cowboy se habla, I am sorry, but it has to done. And 'sides it a'in't fake as much as exaduaded, fact is, I have a goat, which is perty much the same thing as a cow, so perty, much Im a cowboy! Ok fine, I sold my goat back in 1960 somethin' or another but Hell, I still got the fifteen bux I sold that her for...Yeah, Yeah whatever so I ain't got 15 beaux anymore, least ways I ain't still no goddamn cowboy , I'z a big city intellectual nowzwhat.... all high techin' with this here ol audio commentatin' electronic pony expression! But now I'd best reign in this digressi-fyin' and mosey on over to the main point o' what I was 'sposed to be goin' on about. Peculiar indeed is the plain contradiction that while, the 1960's are remembered and rightly, for all that long haired and goddamned rock n roll and themz all Beatles and mary j wana, this time was also the heydday of the TV bull opera. Its the plain received wisdom that that ol' Gene Roddenbelly pitched his warp core's worth of tall tales as "Wagon Train to the Stars" Now, I've only set eyes on one lonely 'sode of Wagon Train but I burned my eyeballs raw on photon after photon of the competition. Why… If a boy had a mind to idiotbox'n'... there sure weren't much choice. It was cowboys or Captain Kangaroo. I recently felt a yearnin' nostalgia for those simple days and so did procure a cheap boxed set of public domain Bonanza. Thats the old time oater starring Lorne Green from Battlestar Galactica, the stupid, enjoyable one from the disco era, not the grim helping of somewhat more modern Von Daniken-ica, Speakin' of disco, I do believe I perceive the onset of a new dryer, less V-05'd style in the hombres hair here, just look at the fluffiness of Ol' Guillermo's head mop! And the ladies are getting a little less 52 and more Toni Tonnille and Farrah Fauwcet like. Anyway, back to my Bonanza-fy-ing... I decided to play a game called find the TOS bunk house doggie. Well plain as day I tell ya' this, first 'sode I saw was called The Ape. Its 'bout Hoss takin' kindly to a lummox while little Joe makes eyes over sassperella at the town whore, anywhat, before I could even remember how to count past 5 seconds, that Ol' Leonard Nimoy was on the screen, playing a clearly, unscrupulous drifter. Every melodrama on that thar DVD wouldn't hold y'up past ten minutes 'fore a trek alumni or pre-lumni, main cast or guest star, made their countenance explicit. "This games to easy" I sighed, and y' sure don't wanna watch any o' these pony tales whole cuz they all end in tears. Suffice to say, everyone involved in Specter of the Gun knew how to quick draw and ride outta town. De Forest Kelly was even in a movie about The O.K. Coral, all about this same shootout called Shoot Out at The Ok Corral (actually Gunfight at the O.K. Coral ) Yup, season three pushes thru the bat-winged double hinged getcha-ins with a gunslinger tell-ya-what for a reason. They got no money, and wild west whatcha-wants are lying all over Hollywoodand it were easy to round up a posse of drovers who knew how to Do-Si-Doe. But sometimes economi-fiying hones the artistry.I enjoy the surrealism of the set design, the Malcosian's psychedelic Holo-Deck bein' a mite shy on details. This ain't just more Hodgekins parallel bull-pucky! And before it all gets to crunchy, Old Scratch yanks 'em outta this head trip by equatin' reality with physical as the law in this town! A nice anti-woo message to end such a bizarre and arty episode. Interestin' too, gettin' to know Jimbos mind and…how taken he is with his own kins history of settlin' The Wild West…Wooh tharr, partner! I heard yer from Iowa, sorry son, that's only The Wild Mid-West. But this was the whole point of the American Western, Conceived within the first centenary of our nationhood, this was The United States' concerted effort to form its own mythology apart and separate from its European backstory. and it were sure those Gilded Age lilies back Atlantic-Wise, that bought all those dime novels. Was I talking about star trek? Hell yeah..and I still am! There is stray triflin' problemo with this here camp-fire ballad though,that being that our own side's the bandito here. It might'a been a site un-cordial for those Malcosians not to offer our federali protaganistas a bit of hospitality when they rode on up to their homestead but land sakes Kirk ol boy, you sure don't press the issue if'n y'ain't invited proper! You cant force a bulbous-headed little green man to like ya . amigo-ship can't be compulsory, Heres some cast trivia for y'all, That saloon girl? the only thing real for Chekov? She was played by Bonnie Beecher who is now married to iconic hippy wavy gravy who was always hangin' out on Haight Street back in mean old 'Frisco. Speaking of Chekov, he really let me down here, why didn't he claim the Wild West for Mother Russia? Yer slippin' comrade. One more thing, this being the first episode of season three its worth denotin' that it exists only... by the grace of television fan devotion which was unprecedented back in them ol' days. A letter writing campaign to keep Star Trek in the saddle assaulted NBC in response to the news of its cancelation after two years, resulting in this, a third. This tactic is not unheard of now, the two I'm familiar with are the cancelation of Farscape and the perviously name-checked Firefly which unsuccessful in preserving either series, in each case a movie was supplied to lasso up loose ends. I won't go into the merits of either, but there y'go Yee Haw! (gun fire and ricochet) Well, thats about that for the TOS homage to quick drama, I'd surmise that if'n them Malosiian some-offa-guns ever checked there email they'da found one from them ol' Metrons what-who set Kirk to wranglin' against that rattlesnake headed Gorn malo de la pelicula. Then they sure woulda caught wind o' Kirks gentle mercy and forgivin' nature and saved themselves this whole mess o' trouble. But I gotta feelin' they like to watch, so it all gon be the same no matter what figure? yeah, me too. Well I gotta thank you all thar a powerfull-some For indulgin' me through this whole earful. Next week I promise to work on my Pro-Nunciation and if'n any of you Trek TV podcastinaters out there are curious to know what I just a'throughed jawin' over, I'll be happy to provode a transcript or typed or some such (Thus) Vaya Con Carne for now and audi-osmosis to all a you thar cabarillos (that means goat cheese, in Spanish but Cowboy Dan thinks it means vaquero) Marc Thomas p.s. ….well that were more fun than a canoe full of cats