Tag: William Shatner
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Star Trek: Lower Decks Is Looking To Up Its Body Count In Season 4
For many years, death in “Star Trek” was a permanent event. To cite a notable example: when Captain Kirk’s brother Sam (William Shatner) was killed in the episode “Operation — Annihilate!”, he was dead forever. There wasn’t a storyline later in the series wherein Sam was cloned or resurrected somehow. In 2023, the tune on death…
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Futurama Season 11 Just Inverted The Plot Of A Classic Episode
This new “Futurama” season has been anything but shy about satirizing hot topics in 2020s culture. The latest one? “Cancelation,” or powerful people being ostracized/held accountable for misuses of authority. The episode’s title is the blunt: “Zapp Gets Canceled.”Zapp Brannigan (Billy West) is a starship captain in the Democratic Order of Planets (Doop). Befitting the…
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Futurama Season 11 Smuggles Some Its Best Satire Yet Inside A Stilted Critique Of Cancel Culture
Of all the rude, crass, self-absorbed, ridiculous, inappropriate criminals on “Futurama” — that is to say, most of the characters on the show — none is more worthy of censure than Captain Zapp Brannigan (Billy West). Zapp works for Doop, an organization similar to the Federation from “Star Trek,” but far more trigger-happy and willing to…
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Every Halloween Movie Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Ranked
As one of the godfathers of the slasher genre, Halloween has left an unkillable legacy across both horror and cinema in general. While the image of Michael Myers in his faded William Shatner mask is iconic, the legendary franchise owes just as much of its enduring popularity to Jamie Lee Curtis. Playing Laurie Strode, the…
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“Each Episode is Like Its Own Movie”: Dp Benji Bakshi on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
In December of 1964, principal photography finished on the pilot of Star Trek, featuring captain Christopher Pike (played by The Searchers’ Jeffrey Hunter) as the commander of the Enterprise. When the show’s first episode finally aired almost two years later, Pike was nowhere to be found. The initial pilot had been scrapped and re-shot, with…
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The Spacesuits In Star Trek: Enterprise Put A Brutal Strain On The Series’ Stars
The uniforms on the original “Star Trek” might be some of the most casual, comfy military kits ever seen. Captain Kirk (William Shatner) essentially wore a lightweight, tight-fitting long-sleeve t-shirt, a pair of black slacks, and some versatile patent leather shoes. Apart from his department color — the gold hue indicated his status as a…
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Why One Star Trek Writer Initially Considered Sisko A ‘Tragic Mistake’ For DS9
First introduced in 1993, Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) was a very different type of character than Trekkies had previously seen. Unlike the affable Captain Kirk (William Shatner) or the professorial Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart), Sisko was a bitter commanding officer. He had lost his wife in a Borg attack, and approached the world with…
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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Is T’Pring’s ‘Redemption Arc’
Classic “Star Trek” episode “The Amok Time” delved the most into Vulcan culture of any of the series’ 79 installments. In the episode, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) had to return home to wed T’Pring (Arlene Martel), his betrothed since they were both age seven.T’Pring isn’t an especially sympathetic character in “The Amok Time.” The implication is…
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The Best Throwaway Joke In The Strange New Worlds/Lower Decks Crossover Makes A Big Fan Theory Canon
This post contains spoilers for the latest episode of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.”One of the more amusing aspects of “Star Trek” is that when a Starfleet captain meets an all-powerful deity, in some cases literal gods, they roll their eyes. “Star Trek” takes place in a post-religious world wherein old faiths have given way…
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This ’90s John Carpenter Horror Gave Us One of Mark Hamill’s Best Roles
While he became a household name thanks to his role as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars franchise and his sensational role as the definitive version of the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, Mark Hamill might still have held the record as the world’s most valuable geek. Between voicing animated characters for various DC…