Revisiting Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan

There was this one time when I was little that Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan aired on network television. I stumbled on it during the interrogation scene and was frightened out of my mind as the eel squirmed across Chekov's face and into his ear. I remember changing the channel.

Many years later, I had my parents rush home immediately after a Parent-Teacher night so I could catch Wrath of Khan. I missed the very beginning but started taping just as the Enterprise disaster was revealed to be an Academy simulation.

And this time, I stared intently into the screen daring the eels to scare me again. Then I continued to stare right through to the end.

I have a special place in me for Reliant. It's the first evidence that Star Fleet had multiple ship designs. To me, that opens up a world of possibilities. It's agressive to the Enterpise's elegance. And we also saw the first extensive space-battle in Star Trek! It dictated fans' collective imagination of ship combat for years until the debut of Deep Space Nine when a similar ship was shown maneuvering around a Borg cube reminding us that ship speeds are relative.

I kept this movie on the same 6 hour cassette as Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I kept it right through to college when I showed it to my friends at a club we formed (no charter, but we booked communal rooms for screenings in its name).

Like the first film, I revisited Wrath of Khan when it was available on VHS for cheap. I was happy to finally see the openning credits, plus the recycled TMP footage of the Klingon ships. This didn't bother me anywhere near as much as it probably should have.

And finally, I got it on DVD, which was kind of a non-event. The double-disc release was billed as an extended cut but I honestly couldn't tell you what was added.

In fact, the most memorable thing about this movie isn't even something that happened in the film. Mad Magazine reprinted a spoof in their Star Trek special years later. In it, McCoy warns Spock not to enter the engine compartment or be exposed to a gazillion units of radiation. To which Spock responds, "don't worry, I've got gloves!" I guess, if anything, now we know the reactor core is hot enough to require oven-mitts...

Avengers and more...

So I went to Avengers last night and it was freaking awesome.

...this video is not that movie...

Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline

Just a rundown on the events that have shaped the "universe" so to speak...

***
965 A.D.:
- Jotunhiem and Asgard forces do battle in Tonsburg, Norway. The Asgardians take the Frost Giants' "Casket of Ancient Winters." Odin saves Laufey's son, Loki, and adopts him as his own.

1940s
- Howard Stark invents "repulsor" technology but does not have a proper power source.
- Nazi Germany invades Norway. Hydra agents recover the Tesseract in Tonsberg.
- Arnim Zola and the Red Skull use the Tesseract to power their hi-tech weapons.
- Super-soldier serum works but Dr.Erskine is killed making Steve Rogers the only successful subject. Operation Rebirth is abandoned and all samples of the serum are put in stasis.
- Captain America lost somewhere in the arctic and Red Skull "disappears." The damaged Tesseract is recovered by Howard Stark from the ocean floor.

1970s
- Howard Stark holds the Stark Expo '74. Films a message to his son.
- Howard Stark and Anton Vanko invent the arc-reactor.
- Some time later the Strategic Scientific Reserve becomes Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, Logistics Division.

About "5 years ago"
- Bruce Banner works on "biotech force enhancement" unaware his work is intended for the military.
- Banner becomes Hulk. Eventually winds up in Brazil while being pursued by General Ross. Both parties are observed by SHIELD.

Present Day ("6 months ago"):
- Tony Stark becomes Iron Man. He goes public after the Iron Monger incident.
- Anton Vanko dies, passing on his prototype arc-reactor blueprints to his son, Ivan Vanko.
- Nick Fury, director of SHIELD personally meets Tony Stark.
- Emil Blonsky undergoes "Weapon Plus" unaware that the process is incomplete without the "vita-ray" treatment.

Present Day (summer of 2010 and on).
- SHIELD recovers Captain America.
- Nick Fury reveals Stark's secretary was Agent Romanov a.k.a. The Black Widow.
- Iron Man Mk.2 is stolen and weaponized. James Rhodes becomes War Machine.
- Loki manipulates events in Asgard to have Thor banished to Earth. He discovers his true parentage.
- Agent Coulson and Agent Barton (a.k.a. Hawkeye) dispatched to New Mexico (Coulson discovers Mjolnir).
- Coulson has a "funny thing" happen to him on the way to New Mexico.
- Ivan Vanko becomes Whiplash during Stark Expo 2010.
- Hulk appears at Culver university campus. Stark Industries weapons are ineffective against Hulk.
- Fury hires Stark as a consultant.
- Blonsky becomes Abomination (Hulk escapes but is blamed for "The Brooklyn Incident"). Banner goes into hiding again and begins learning to control Hulk.
- A few weeks later, Nick Fury presents World Security Council with Avengers Initiative but they request Blonsky to join.
- Coulson sends SHIELD's new consultant to embarrass General Ross into keeping Blonsky out of the Avengers team.
- Coulson makes contact with Thor. Thor returns to Asgard and saves Jotenheim by destroying the Rainbow Bridge between realms. Loki disappears.
- Fury recruits Dr Selvig to work on the Tesseract. Loki revealed to be on Earth.
***

Now we are ready for the The Avengers...

Revisiting Star Trek: The Motion Picture

In 1979 I was 4 years old. I vaguely remember being aware that there was a new Star Trek out because I had seen the evidence: in a local grocer's novelty capsule machine, I had "won" a sticker set featuring Kirk and Spock. But they weren't the Kirk and Spock I knew from the show I watched with Grandma every Sunday morning. They looked a little different. And so did the Enterprise miniature I received from Grandpa that year - it was surely the Enterprise, but it was... different. And I remember seeing that bald chick on a poster somewhere.

Indeed, I was too young and too shy to ask to see Star Trek: The Motion Picture. But I kind of knew it existed.

I finally sat down to watch the movie many years later. I had caught part of it when it aired on television before, but the next time, I was old enough to have a modest collection of blank VHS tapes that I was allowed to play with. Thus armed with my dad's VCR, I sat down to record the CBS airing - which, by the way, like Aliens turned out to be a longer cut... and as an aside to this aside, I should mention that unlike Aliens, the longer cut didn't help matters. But again, I was too young to be complaining about much.

I had reached that age when I realized that Star Trek was actually a very old show and I had grown up on the reruns. So I was just pleased to be able to "revisit old friends." Being critical of this long-winded film was still many years in the future. I kept that VHS cassette all that time (it was such a proud accomplishment to have been able to cut all the commercial breaks with such precision, I remember I had a hand-drawn label with the logo applied to the tape).

The next time I revisited the film was just a bit weird. It was shorter than I remembered it. That's because shortly before DVDs became common, I was still buying cheap VHS tapes. At the time Star Trek had released a set of cassettes - and you'll remember these as the set hat featured the Enterprise across the box spines when you had all 5 films. The thing is, this was the theatrical cut of the movie. I think it had the "overture" at the start of the film, but did not have the unfinished footage (i.e.: extra crap) added by CBS. It didn't bother me as much as I thought it should. Perhaps by this time, I was old enough to notice that this beloved movie was kind of... not-so-great.

Finally, I revisited the film on DVD when the Director's Cut came out. I think this is the first and last time I have ever encountered a Director's Cut which was actually shorter than the theatrical film. Robert Wise has gone on record many a time before and after to express his regret for sending an unfinished film in. I have such a history with this movie, I wish I had the patience to listen to the entire directory commentary track. But as I discovered, Robert Wise has this unbearably raspy voice that I have a hard time hearing and thus I haven't ever taken the time to go back.

Despite this, the final cut was indeed better - the pacing is sped up and a lot of redundant dialog is gone. Some of the updated effects work is a welcome sight too. I remember when I was little, I couldn't quite grasp why they kept referring to V'Ger as a "cloud" when all they kept showing us was a vague pattern with no discernible context. In the new version, we finally see that the "cloud" is indeed a "massive cloud" as the mechanical beast within emerges at the climax of the film.

It's just funny to look back at such an important film - it spawned 10 successful sequels (some less successful than others), a new 7-year show with 2 very successful spin-offs plus another not-quite successful one which managed to stay upright for 3 years. And I practically missed it.

Hercules: Dr Crank

TFC released the 4th figure in their Hercules line back in December. At the time they were running at full steam after a very successful release of Structor.

Dr Crank is a mobile crane paying homage to the character Hook. In vehicle mode Dr Crank features a crane arm that will extend nearly 3 times the original length. He also curiously features a space for placing a counter-weight and a series of pulleys including a crank handle which locks down the pulley system... if only there were length of string tying it all together. That's right - this toy could have an actual working crane if you take the time to customize it. All the parts are provided to make it happen except for string.

Other than the crane arm, the vehicle mode is quite a brick with not much to get wrong. If there is only one weakness to point out is that he doesn't roll very well due to his small wheels and the tendency for the rear wheels to wobble a bit (these wheels are meant to swivel aside on his shoulders in robot mode.) His crane does have an additional swivel to allow it to offset itself for a variety of purposes (like getting out of the way of Hercules' head in combined mode).

In robot mode, The first thing you see is that he's got a large crane arm sticking out of his back. This does help him stand up however the large block behind his head obscures the light-piping effect. His eyes will only "glow" if you turn his head slightly.

The robot is well articulated with all the usual joints freely moving. The hip is ratcheting and it seems TFC learned their lesson and gave this a very forgiving ratchet. The legs have real "knees" this time along with hidden lower joints like Structor. The knees themselves are clever folding "doors" leaving a near-seamless look for the vehicle mode's from windows.

Optionally if you remove the his crane arm, then you have additional ports to "shoulder" his guns (this is how he came packaged originally). To help him stand, Dr Crane also has additional stabilizers in his legs. These flaps are way too tight on this sample and a hook tool is needed to pull them out.

Changing into Hercules's upper torso and head also requires a tool. There is very little leverage available to pull out the connector pegs from their folded positions. Dr Crank has another yet-unresolved mystery - he boasts 7 connectors ever though only 4 are required. Some fans have used the extra pegs in vehicle mode as "outrigger" bits while the crane is extended, but TFC have not explicitly issued a statement about this.

Hercules's has a silver painted face with lots of light-piping for his eyes an several ports. TFC also released an optional "visor" which was packaged with their following figure. The visor is removable, but can remain installed while Dr Crank changes between modes.

Lastly, as mentioned elsewhere, Dr Crank's Hercules connectors appear to be made of an extremely solid ABS plastic. It is very unforgiving and is not at all like the connectors on Heavy Labor (on my Heavy Labor, those leg connector pegs are showing signs of wear). This means: never swamp arms and legs on Hercules! Once you've pegged the arms into place, those sockets have been conditioned for the Dr Crank pegs and will not fit Heavy Labor's. Likewise, the legs sockets are smaller because they've been conditioned to fit the slight wear with Heavy Labor and would be too tight to fit on Dr Crank. You have been warned!