TOS ACTRESS SHERRY JACKSON STARTED OPPOSITE JOHN FREAKIN' WAYNE. WHO KNEW?

So the other day I'm watching yet another old movie on AMC, this time a little-known John Wayne movie from 1953 called "Trouble Along The Way". It's a movie I've seen several times before and always enjoy. It features The Duke in an unusual kind of movie: a RomCom. That's right, America's hero, John Wayne, in a romantic comedy with Donna Reed, the great Charles Coburn and, as The Duke's daughter, a young girl named Sherry Jackson.

Wait, what? Sherry Jackson? Sherry Jackson?!? 

In the countless times I'd seen the movie, I had never noticed the actress' name before. And I recognized it instantly. An actress with that name played the character of Andrea on the classic Star Trek TOS Season 1 episode "What Are Little Girls Made Of?". And here was a girl who was 10 years old in 1953 with the same name. Could it be?

I grabbed my iphone and opened my IMDB Ap (hey, I'm a classic movie nerd, what can I say?), typed in the film and there it was – it was the same actress! Here she was in beautiful black and white  as the precocious daughter of John Wayne's football coach character. And she wasn't just in the movie – she was one of the main characters! I had always enjoyed her performance but now it took on a new aspect. I watched with a new-born interest. She was great!

 

 Here's Sherry with her daddy, The Duke himself, John Wayne!

And here's Sherry as the android Andrea in "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"

Between "Trouble" and Star Trek, Sherry did a lot of growing and in all the right places! Her performance in Star Trek was very reined in and rather wooden. But it had to be – she was an android, after all. But her performance in "Trouble" really showed off her acting abilities. She holds her own with an all-star cast of Hollywood greats. And "Trouble" wasn't her first film. She began four years earlier at the age of six!

Sherry Jackson is one of those actresses that connects us to Hollywood's golden age actors like Wayne, Reed and Coburn. Though no longer acting, Ms. Jackson is alive and well, and I for one am grateful for her great turns in both Star Trek and "Trouble Along The Way".

LLAP

Don

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CLAPPER OF THE WEEK: 1967 "I MUDD"

This week's clapper features the return of one of Star Trek's most beloved rogues, Harry Mudd, played by the great character actor Roger C. Carmel. No other guest character ever made more than one appearance in TOS, so his return was a real milestone. The scene takes place on Harry's android-filled world and everyone seems in good spirits. Of course, that can't last for our heroes.

Scene 61A / Take 1
8/17/67

LLAP

Don

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NOW THAT IS MOTIVATION!

One of my favorite "faux-tivational" posters:

LLAP!

Don

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CAPTAIN AMERICA SOARS: WHAT PARAMOUNT COULD LEARN FROM MARVEL

I make no bones about the fact that I hate JJ Trek. If you like it, good for you. I wish I was in your shoes, because I'd love to have a Trek movie that delights me. These don't. I consider them lousy movies, period.

That said, this past weekend, I joined millions of other moviegoers and saw "Captain America: The Winter Soldier", the latest comic book-based film from Marvel Studios and parent company Disney. It was a thoroughly enjoyable movie in that it was what it needed to be – a comic book brought to life on film. The story was solid, the acting excellent and the effects were cool without being overwhelming (overwhelming as defined by "Transformers", for instance). It was wryly funny and deadly serious, both as needed. I loved it.

As I did with Star Trek, I grew up with comics. Captain America was one of those constant superheroes that I'd occasionally buy but that I also saw in "The Avengers" and other Marvel titles. The Cap got around. Unlike Star Trek, however, Cap needed to wait until very recently to become translated faithfully to the big screen. Yes, attempts were made in the past, but they were so awful that I won't even waste my time on them. To me, they simply don't exist.

Comic book movies needed CGI in order to fully realize their true potential. Whether you're talking about Spidey swinging down Fifth Avenue, or Cap fighting the Red Skull in a huge bomber heading for New York, CGI enable us as moviegoers to be fully – and realistically – become immersed in the fictional worlds of out heroes. When comic book movie makers remember that at their core, a CB movie must be about interesting characters doing remarkable things, great things happen like "The Avengers" and "Winter Soldier". When they forget that and rely on the CGI to hold the audience in thrall, we get "Green Lantern". While I don't think GL is as awful as a lot of people, it ain't great, that's for sure. Oh, and when you don't care at all, you get "Catwoman".

So far, beginning with 2008's Iron Man, Marvel has done an outstanding job of delivering good (or great!) CB films, all of which build on the previous ones in a very synergistic way. The "Marvel Universe" is literally being transferred to the screen, one film at a time.

So what's this got to do with Star Trek? Everything. Marvel films are made by people who understand comics. They know who Cap is and what makes him tick. They understand why he is a character that has endured for 75 years, and they bring all that knowledge and understanding with them into the big-screen incarnation.

On the flip side, Star Trek is now being made by someone who says "it always felt too philosophical to me". Too philosophical. Too thought-provoking. Too intelligent. Well, Mr. Abrams, you've certainly taken care of that. No one would ever accuse your movies of being too smart.

Note to producers: if your director says Indiana Jones movies are "too action-packed" or James Bond films are "too British", maybe you shouldn't hire them for those franchises because they obviously don't understand them.

Star Trek has never been a franchise with its heart in the action movie genre. It is adventure – a very different thing. Yes, there are actions scenes in every Star Trek episode and movie. Action is an important element of adventure, after all. But Star Trek – the BEST Star Trek – is first and foremost a morality play. "Wrath of Khan" featured Khan as Ahab, who would not rest until he pulled down his Moby Dick in the form of James T. Kirk. "City on the Edge of Forever", one of (if not the) greatest Trek episodes ever, is about lost love and responsibility. Friendship is a recurring Star Trek theme, as is duty and the desire to know the unknown. None of these themes gets anything but lip service in JJ Trek. It's all about the loud, stupid, over-done, all-consuming, illogical, unneeded ACTION. And nothing else. There are no emotional connections with the audience, because explosions don't care.

All the great screen writers I've read about all said the same thing – they write a movie they'd like to see. So apparently JJ Abrams and pals don't want to see a smart Star Trek film. They don't want to see Star Trek that doesn't tread on old tropes. They FIRMLY want to go EXACTLY where every Trek has gone before – in a cliche and silly way – without injecting a single original idea along the way.

"Captain America: The Winter Soldier" works because it is true to its comic book roots. It understands how best to tell the story of the man out of time.

2009's "Star Trek" and last year's "Star Trek: Into Darkness" fail because they ignore the soul of Star Trek – a great story about ideas told by characters who care about each other.

So to Paramount I say this: you don't have to reinvent the wheel to be successful with Star Trek. But you sure need to know that a wheel is round. Marvel gets it. Maybe you could, too.

I'm putting you on notice, Paramount. You've used up the last of my good will (and that of millions of other Trek fans, I think) with the abortion of STID. I won't be suckered in again. For any future Trek movies I will wait until I hear something from trusted sources. If it is positive, only then will I give it a go. You've fooled me twice. I won't be had again.

LLAP

Don

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GIVING MONEY TO THE BANKRUPT – STAR TREK: AXANAR CREATOR LIKES USING OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY. YOURS!

It seems like everyone is doing a Star Trek fan-based production these days. I think it began with Star Trek: New Voyages (now Phase II) a few years back but now there's more than ten different productions out there, all led by Star Trek fans who want to create their own adventures. Some are a bit on the crude side, while others are incredibly well done. The acting quality is all over the place but, hey – they are amateur fan productions so that's understandable. Think Community Theater doing Star Trek.

The one thing they all have in common, though, is that the makers are passionate about Star Trek. Their love of the various shows can be seen in every frame of their creations. The time, effort, manpower and money are evident.

Now along comes a new project titled Star Trek: Axanar produced by Alec Peters, a person of my acquaintance. Peters' main claims to fame in the world of Star Trek is as a collector of props and costumes and through his now-defunct company Propworx, an auction company that did boutique-style auctions for various properties. And it's the "defunct" part that I want to hit upon.

In its short time of existence (2008-2012), Propworx executed several auctions while amassing lots of debt. Propworx filed for bankruptcy in August of 2012 (http://speedydeletion.wikia.com/wiki/Propworx), leaving creditors holding the bag for its debts to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. On one forum, Mr. Peters laughed at the thought of being concerned about owing money to MGM, a company that was undergoing its own bankruptcy.

That laugh should tell you everything you need to know about Alec Peters. He's willing to use – and squander – other people's money and then feel no remorse over it whatsoever.

And now he wants more money. Specifically, he wants YOUR money. For what? Is he curing cancer? Feeding the poor? Clothing the homeless? Alas, no. He wants your money to fund his own personal vanity project, the aforementioned Axanar project. According to Peters, "We can't sell DVDs, but we can give them away if you make a donation." And who is the star of this production? Alec Peters himself, naturally.

It should be noted here that Mr. Peters at one time had a Star Trek prop and costume collection worth at least $100,000. He may well still have it and more. But he has not sold his collection to either pay back his creditors or finance this new project. His creditors were given the opportunity to pay for his past lifestyle, and now you, Star trek fans, are being given the opportunity to pay for his current one.

So here's my basic question: is Mr. Peters, the person who laughed at the notion of debt, your idea of a good custodian of donated funds? Is his character of the sort that you want to be turning money over to him? He drove a for-profit company into bankruptcy. What skill set did he learn from that experience that qualifies him to handle YOUR money on HIS vanity project?

Instead of throwing your hard-earned money at something like this, perhaps it can better be used elsewhere. In this time of need by so many, Mr. Peters is not worthy of MY money. Here's some who are:

Habitat For Humanity

American Red Cross

ASPCA

LLAP

Don

EVERYTHING WRONG WITH "STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS" IN SEVEN MINUTES

A friend of mine pointed me to this amazing video that I think speaks for itself. It doesn't address the key problem with the film, ie: Khan is suddenly a pasty white guy. But it has fun with a ton of other stuff:

ORANGE IS THE NEW "WHATEVER WE NEED THIS WEEK": TOS JUMPSUIT FEVER

Back in the day when I was a kid growing up on Star Trek TOS reruns, the art of film-making was, of course, alien to me. The fact that everything I saw each week had to actually be created by someone never crossed my mind. But when I became a collector of screen-used Trek stuff, I came to understand some of the more basic tenants that ruled the production of original Star Trek episodes. And perhaps the most fundamental rule was "waste not, want not".

The production budgets on TOS, though among the highest of the day, were notoriously tight when it came to producing an expensive show like Star Trek. So whenever something could be reused – costumes, for instance – they didn't hesitate to do so. But as I was recently reviewing a number of episodes for some research I was doing, I found a whole new definition of "frugality".

One of the cornerstones of Star Trek costuming was the jumpsuit. Costumer William Ware Theiss used them significantly throughout the run of the show. They were utilitarian, nondescript, and easy to make and modify as needed. So it came as no surprise to me as I watched some scenes from Season 1's "Devil in the Dark" that I saw a lot of jumpsuits. And I mean a LOT of jumpsuits. The miners on Janus VI used jumpsuits as their basic work clothes, with most wearing orange while the managers wore differentiating colors. I had seen the episode dozens of times over the years making them so familiar that they barely registered with me.  I moved on with my research.

"Devil in the Dark"'s Jumpsuit Party

Then, just a couple of episodes later, I suddenly recognized some of those same jumpsuits from "Devil" with different belts, this time in "Operation: Annihilate!" (truly one of the worst titles in all of Star Trek). Again, I was not surprised, but it had never really registered with me before. But then I started catching on.

By the time I got to Season 2's "Metamorphosis", I instantly recognized Zefram Cochrane's clothing – a modified version of the orange jumpsuits from "Devil in the Dark". Oh, it had a different collar cut and added details, but the stitching of the torso was a perfect match as was the fabric itself – it was another reuse. A couple of episodes later, I hit "The Deadly Years" where the aging leader of the colony was dressed in a now-familiar way.

Same color, same cut, same everything. They were definitely getting their money's worth! Soon after came the famous "Trouble With Tribbles" where the station commander, played by character actor Whit Bissell (what a name!), is decked out in orange. You can actually still see where the collar communicator had been attached in "Devil in the Dark".

Next up came "Journey To Babel" where I thought I spied a version of the yellow jumpsuit, though the actor is always in the background so it's hard to tell for sure. But it's certainly the right color.

The next sighting was a certainty, though. "By Any Other Name" featured two aliens wearing the now-familiar orange and the vivid purple, again both first seen in "Devil".

Along came Season 3 with "And The Children Shall Lead", where the dead colonists are sporting the various colors and the one surviving adult is once again in the purple.

How fitting, then, that when I got the last episode ever filmed, "Turnabout Intruder", I found one last usage.

The orange versions became the most widely seen which makes sense since "Devil In The Dark" shows more of them than anything else. And it's worth noting that there were other reused jumpsuits – most notably the olive green versions first seen in "This Side of Paradise". Seeing how well made these are, combined with the number of pieces leads me to wonder if these weren't bought off the shelf and modified as needed for production. They might have been available through some type of working man's clothing supplier, though it's worth noting that most working guys in the mid 60's would not have been caught dead in a purple jumpsuit! So maybe Theiss made them. Or maybe the orange were bought and others made to match. We'll never know, unfortunately.

By the way, I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were uses that I missed – these are simply the ones that stood out to me. There might be even more! Reuse like this is a common thing in TV and film. But since most productions use everyday, off-the-shelf clothing for wardrobe, it seldom sticks out. But reuse would be a theme with all Star trek productions, and not just with costumes but props, models – even film in some cases! All were reused as the needs demanded in order to keep costs down.

So let this be a lesson to you. In the twenty-third century, all the best-dressed scientists will be wearing brightly colored, one-piece gabardine jumpsuits! Oo-la-la!

LLAP

Don

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