Trek Review: “Mudd’s Women”

Ah, that intergalactic pimp and no good swindler, Hartcourt Fenton Mudd, deftly portrayed by Roger C. Carmel.  Mudd has always been one of my favorite Trek characters.  As the story goes, he’s trying to take three women and marry them to lonely husbands, and of course, profit form it.  Even though that isn’t specified in the script, you’d be a fool not to assume that’s what he’s after.

This was one of the stories that was being considered to be the second Trek pilot.  With the raciness and sometimes raunchiness (by 1966 standards) of this story, I am fairly confident that this was never actually going to be made as the second pilot.  Nor would it be considered an appropriate series premiere or an early series episode.  I think airing it 6th is a good decision by all involved.  At this point, you’re familiar with the characters, who they are, what they do, and a plot like this is just the different kind of story that all Trek series would come to be known for over the years.

In other words, play out your more typical stories first and then go for the “way out there” stories.

So, what would I have thought then?  I honestly would have thought the story was a bit hokey, but overall it’s passable because of the character interaction that is going on.  The guest cast certainly drives this show, especially Maggie Thrett as Eve.  She deserves major props for playing the most outspoken of the three women in this story.  It should be put on the record that a story like this was very much of it’s time and would never fly as-is on today’s shows.

As you probably know, this isn’t the first appearance of Hartcourt Fenton Mudd, we’ll catch up with him again real soon.  Even in 1966, you had a feeling that it might be a recurring character.

Next Week, androids appear for the first time!

Bachelor Status

As I am about to officially leave the status of being a bachelor behind, I find that I haven’t been much of a bachelor. (BTW, in case you didn’t know, I am finally getting married next month.) I’ve been in my current relationship for a decade. That is a really long time.

But why get married? Is it any different than how I am now? Well, it means a lot more than that. People should and sometimes do get married because they do truly love one another. At least I hope that it still happens.

I heard a co-worker say something the other day that I have heard before about the issue of gay marriage, “Everyone should be allowed to marry and be just as miserable as the rest of us.” Not all marriages are miserable. My only regret is that I wish I would have married my guy a long time ago, because those are years that we weren’t married that could have been more symbolic.

But, that doesn’t make it less satisfying, don’t get me wrong. It’s been a great 10 years. And I hope for many, many more.

Road to a Teleplay- Episode #23789772

So I’m sitting outside of a McDonalds in the shade, and picked up a Wi-Fi on my laptop. Sweetness.

Working on episode one of a new drama serial. It’s tough. Having to map out the plot, write scenes and make sure that there is plenty of expository all at the same time.

I’m shooting for five or six shows out of this to be done live to tape in the studio next year. I hope I’m not asking for too much, because TV executives these days would just balk at this idea. They’d say “it’s too dated”.

Reason #1 why drama serials (mainly soaps) suck on TV today: Meddling Executives. They think they know what works. I can say with a resounding tone that THEY DO NOT. Just watch any soap for ten minutes, and you’ll barf.

Must… get… over… writer’s… block.

A question…

A thread on a message board got me to thinking about what I’ve been thinking about for a while, abandoning the news game and going into production, which I know I’ve always wanted to do. I would think that people have done this before, so I am fairly confident that I can do so. The problem is, I don’t want to do it right now, but I don’t want to continue being an intern coming up on a critical time in my education… the final three semesters.

Does everyone think a year worth of internship experience is about right, combined with my college projects (which I will share with you guys soon)?

The plan right now is to work until Mid-July, call it a year, and go back out to LA for a couple of weeks in late July/early August. I plan to go back to Price, even if there is a new host there (and CBS had better choose wisely). Also, plan on seeing a lot of other TV-related stuff while out there… mainly going back to Jeopardy and/or Wheel, other audiences, etc.

More to come on that.

Ciao for now…

Spring 2007 Semester in Review

Well, this is the last week of the spring semester. Looking back, it’s hard to believe how much crap that I managed to get done.

Radio/TV Lab- Clue Me In… 3 episodes, coming back in the fall

Adv. Radio Production- Aircheck, Did a show all semester on Wed. night, Rockumentary of 1977

Adv. TV Production- Directed an acting scene for the Broadcast Performance class, Marketing Video for Good Samaritan Ministries, one episode of Appalachian Diary on Southwest Virginia Economy.

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Greg and I are looking ahead to working on our next series idea this summer… all I can say is two words: live drama. What’s that, are we crazy? We may be, but we love to do challenging stuff that has never been done.

More on that in the months to come.

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BTW, if you missed “How I Met Your Mother” earlier tonight, it was hilarious! Neil Patrick Harris’ character, Barney, went to The Price is Right. I hear it’ll be up on innertube on cbs.com tomorrow, so I won’t spoil it if you haven’t seen it.

Not much more to say, looking forward to some relaxation after this week is over.

OMG- An Update!?

Well, not much to talk about lately in this old life.

Work has been the usual stress, I really am growing weary of news photography, all the more clinching that I would rather be in the production side of things… but there aren’t any positions open over on that side so, oh well.

I guess I’m just stuck with the destiny of doing what I don’t want to do in life.

“Clue Me In” is churning, we got one show on tape last weekend and I was under so much rush and stress that I committed mistakes. There’s that damn job causing problems again, having to come straight over from working a 9-4:30 to do “Clue Me In”, it is almost too much… maybe it is too much… but I don’t want to just up and leave my job. I am however planning on leaving the news internship anyway in July. California calls again.

And, btw, be sure to watch Price is Right next Wednesday, front row baby! 🙂

Crew

So, tomorrow I get to meet the crew for “Clue Me In”… I hope they have some good suggestions for prizes. Why am I afraid to go in local business soliciting them for prizes to give away? I guess I’m always a sucker for fear of rejection I guess.

I am still very enthusiastic about this show however. Major props to Greg for figuring out the gameboard problem. It may not look sophisticated, but it’ll do it’s job.

Tentative plan is for rehearsals to start on February 3rd and taping to start February 17th. I never thought I’d ever say that on this blog, hehe, but it’s happening.

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You know, just reflecting for a moment, but I never ever thought that I’d have the opportunity to produce a real show that I helped to create in any medium, college, network, or otherwise. It’s a very different feeling, and I know that I will produce a good show that is as good as a game show should be (i.e., not dark, dank and way too over the top), but a show that we used to like to watch years ago. Like a Password or such. I don’t think that’s too impossible, no?

We shall see.

New Toy!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the first entry from my newest foray into the computing world. I finally have a laptop, a Compaq Presario V6015NR V6105NR to be exact. There was a good price on it at Best Buy, only $699.99, so I figured, what do I have to lose. It seems to be doing good so far. It’s not the top of the line one, but the salesman did tell me that all the laptops preloaded with XP are disappearing because Windows Vista is getting ready to come out. Greg tells me that this new Vista is getting rid of the start button and doing something else with it.

If Microsoft is reading this, I have a few words for you:

If it ain’t broke… don’t fix it.

Couldn’t have said it better myself, I do agree.

It’s good to have portability and some capability now. I’ll get around to posting the specs at a later time and the reason why I got this, but it’s 6:10 AM, have to get some sleep before class.

Ciao.