It was back in the 1960’s that we first encountered the Gorn in the Arena episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. Who can forget William Shatner as James T. Kirk grappling with a hulking rubbery-suited reptilian creature intent upon killing him? Great stuff then, and a comic delight now!
The Gorn also appeared to fight with Captain Archer in the under-rated series Enterprise; he shot one multiple times, presumably to ensure that it was dead. Guess who won’t be joining The Federation any time soon? So it’s good to see the mean keen green guys revised, revamped, and updated for modern times, for the Gorn are classic Trek“ heavies…”
Unlike Kirk, the young Spock that we see in Strange New Worlds did not spare the life of an offending Gorn, but in all fairness it was either the Gorn or Spock and company who were going to be offed. Yes, the Spock of Strange New Worlds can go medieval when the situation calls for it…whoever would have thought?!
The Gorn have been reimagined, too, into a faster, far morenimble and ambulatory species reminiscent of thealiens which plagued Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley. They even implant human hosts! Captain Pike, he of the uplifting hair, considers them “monsters.”
With the season cliffhanger ending with intelligent, space-faring reptilians descending on an outnumbered Enterprise, Captain Pike will have to pull something out of his hair to defeat the lizard horde.- – What a pity we have to wait to see Part 2!
I was shocked and deeply saddened by the recent death of actor and comedian Paul Reubens, not knowing that he was battling cancer. Best known for his Pee-Wee Herman character in his red bow tie, white shoes, and several sizes too small gray suit, Pee-Wee’s Playhouse ruled 1980’s Saturday morning kid’s television, presenting us with a twisted world that appealed to children and secretly adults alike…
I grew up watching wild and crazy children’s TV hosts like Soupy Sales and Sandy Becker, and Pee-Wee Herman was just the logical extension of the demented kiddie show host, a perpetual 10-year-old boy trapped awkwardly in a man’s body. I’m a man-child too, ‘ya see, the 10-year-old in me still secretly loving Godzilla movies…
Paul Reubens recognized the enduring power of childhood. A few other comedians have too, as did the late great Andy Kaufman when he memorably lip-synched the theme to Mighty Mouse, complete to a vintage recording with earnest expressions and dramatic gestures…
Pee-Wee Herman in his Playhouse created an entire twisted world for us, a microcosm of madness complete with a cowboy, a sea captain, dinosaurs, anthropomorphic furniture and devices, a robot, and even a genie in a box! It was a world of enchantment far preferable to reality, and we felt that we belonged there! Paul Reuben’s “Playhouse” world was a fully fleshed out alternative reality drawn from bits and pieces of our childhoods, the better parts, really…
Pee-Wee Herman expressed the inner child in all of us, and represented the way that we wished we could respond to inflexible humorless adults if we were not ourselves expected to be respectable grown-ups. Pee-Wee was Peter Pan with a sarcastic sense of humor…
Paul Reubens was more than just Pee-Wee Herman, too. He had movie and TV roles in which he was virtually unrecognizable, such as The Spleen in the under-rated film Mystery Men, was a vampire in the Buffy series, and played the father of Batman villain The Penguin…
But it is as Pee-Wee Herman that Paul Reubens will best be remembered, and while not everyone’s cup of tea, it’s certain that he’s left many of us smiling….and just remember that if you hear the Secret Word, scream real loud! Adults hate it when you do that…
Like Discovery, Star Trek’s Strange New Worlds is set slightly prior to the time of The Original Series, but for my money is a more emotionally cogent and relatable series than Discovery. Money is what I’m paying to see it, too, since it airs only on Paramount+.
Now Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) is helming the Enterprise in this series, and we do get to know Captain Pike quiet well, and he’s partway between Kirk and Picard, an older captain with his own charms. Number One (Rebecca Romijn) is also there as Pike’s first officer, and a younger Spock (Ethan Peck) is engaging and well-played as a science officer still learning the ropes of Starfleet.
Despair not…you’ll get to meet a younger James T. Kirk, also working his way up the ranks, quite engaging with an edge of being brash and cocky.You can believe this guy evolving to be William Shatner’s Kirk, so adept is Paul Wesley at conveying Kirk’s mannerisms and style…
Strange New Worlds also gives some previously minor characters an upgrade, and a chance to shine. Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush) is young, blonde, and hot, a versatile and dynamic character who would like to do more than just mind meld with Spock…
Uhura too (Celia Rose Gooding) is finally given given the more major role that her earlier character begged for but never fully achieved in the original series and films…
So catch Strange New Worlds if you possibly can. It has all of the right stuff to be a worthy addition to the Star Trek franchise, with better linkage to the characters, spirit, and content of the original series…
S Worlds if you can, a promising and solid-looking show with a better linkage to the characters and spirit of the original series than we’ve seen before..
Set in the monochrome hell of a bleak, dystopian future where artificial intelligence has driven civilization into the ground and all but eradicated humanity, three scavengers enter a warehouse in search of needed supplies to help an injured companion. They extract a box which looks promising, but hidden behind the box is a robotic guard dog…
The Robo-dog, like the creations of Skynet, is an efficient killing machine. It sprays the three humans with tracking shrapnel, and kills one swiftly with a firearm integrated into a limb. The two survivors flee to their vehicles with the Robo-dog in pursuit; this mech is relentless and merciless, and it gallops after them, smashing into one vehicle and killing the driver…
That leaves only the one woman, Bella, alive to battle the robotic horror. Fortunately she’s cut from the same cloth as Linda Hamilton and Sigourney Weaver, crashing her vehicle in an attempt to crush the metalhead but only damaging one of its limbs. That damage renders the robotic dog incapable of climbing a tree, and loss of battery power forces it to power down until it can do a solar recharge. It does so, however, and the pursuit continues…
The Robo-dog selects a knife as an alternative weapon, but the survivalist woman blinds it’s visual sensors with paint. It continues to come after her using auditory sensors, and it takes two shotgun blasts to put it down. Before being destroyed, however, the killer Robo again sprays the woman with tracking shrapnel, one of which lodges hopelessly beyond removal in her jugular.
The tales of Netflix’s “Black Mirror” seldom have happy endings, however, and more robo-dogs are on the way, far more than could be out-battled. The dark tale does, however, end with a twist, leaving the viewer dazed and dazzled…what a rush!
I have to admit that I was wrong in my earlier negative opinion of the rebooted Lost In Space series on Netflix that had been based solely on the initial episode that I was able to view at that time for free. I couldn’t connect with the redefined series characters at that time, and felt that the whole reboot was a pointless exercise. Since that time armed with a Netflix subscription and so able to get further into the series, I can say that the series does get appreciably better after the first episode, when they spent entirely too much time trying to get daughter Judy out of a frozen lake…
Now what really makes the series perk?
This guy! Not the “Robot” from the original series who looked like he was made from a vacuum cleaner and several kitchen appliances, but this sexy alien construction who looks like he was designed by H.R. Giger. There’s not a flat surface on him, nor facial features but rather a faceplate within which swirl colored lights, red if he’s going into “attack mode,” and blue if he’s becoming reflective and empathetic. There’s a bit of the T-800 Terminator in this robot as he does have a dark past, but has bonded with the ever-so-familiar Will Robinson, through whom he’s being schooled in such concepts as restraint and friendship. The Robot’s potential for destruction is channeled into defensiveness and protection as he incorporates human emotion. Heck, he even does primitive cave wall paintings! This Robot can knock down trees, but can also be calm and cool even if a tad unpredictable. He’s a work in progress…
The Robinsons are really much better off with the Robot, who is largely controllable through Will Robinson. Portrayed as a highly intelligent 12-year-old boy, Will is nowhere as annoying as say, Wesley Crusher. Father John Robinson, re-envisioned as a former Navy Seal, is a stalwart and dedicated family man and almost indestructible, capable of surviving in a drill pit after being impaled on a rebar stake, then returning to work almost immediately afterwards. Mother Maureen Robinson has had her IQ bolstered several dozen IQ points from the original character, and is an endlessly resourceful modern take-charge woman who can fix something with almost nothing, saving their backsides multiple times in the process. Major Don West is now a resourceful space smuggler and rogue, a bit like the early Han Solo, who will make the right decisions when the Robinsons are in jeopardy, which is often. Judy Robinson is an adopted daughter portrayed as 18-years-old, and although trained as a medic she can apparently perform almost any life-saving procedure. Middle-child Penny is highly intelligent, intuitive, and creative.
Aww! Isn’t this nice! The Robot at dinner with the Robinsons! This illustrates how while masquerading as science fiction, Lost In Space is essentially a sappy family drama. In almost every episode, there are invariably hostile planetary monsters, killer robots, or a disintegrating planet in environmental upheaval.You know that they will all survive, however, and that there will invariably also be, at the end, a whole lotta hugging going on!
I have to admit, though, that I’m really more interested in the killer robots depicted in the series. I’ve always loved robots, you see, and am willing to put up with the gratuitous hugging of family members if it gets me to one…
Being kidnapped by a giant rabbit is probably not one of the fears or phobias that you have, but after viewing this commercial, it may become one! These aggressive pursuit-rabbits are physically waylaying people in a variety of settings, carrying or dragging them to the Tubi streaming service rabbit hole, and casting them into it! Think that you’re safe in your car? Think again…the bunnies mob a group of vehicles stopped in traffic, extracting their occupants. They’ll kick your chair out from under you, and drag you by your heels! It’s a curious mix of cuteness meets the unexpectedly terrifying. Yes, there’s a Donnie Darko vibe here, and the rabbits are not especially gentle…
As they are flung down the enormous rabbit-hole (one is kicked) , the victims do not suffer cardiac arrest, but seemingly have expressions of surprised delight on their faces from the many Tubi offerings that they behold during their descent. So much for fear of falling…this may be the last thing that you see…
Not the best known streaming service, Tubi’s intent during their 2023 Super Bowl ads seems to be to make people aware of their existence through a novel device. “Find rabbit holes you didn’t know you were looking for?” You may never see rabbits the same way again… 🙀
I hope that you’ll indulge me one more time if I expand my previous post to elaborate a bit on Wednesday Addams’ catsuit as she memorably wore it in team competition during the Netflix series. The catsuit is leather-like, pieced-together, and evocative of that worn by Edward Scissorhands in the Tim Burton movie of the same name. Wednesday wears it well, Murrr! Sorry, she’s bringing out the feral in me…
Copies of the outfit are presently selling briskly! Actress Jenna Ortega had to request that the outfit be modified to allow for…err, bodily functions, as originally there was no provision for that in the suit’s design. Once you were in the catsuit, you were in it for the day’s filming…
And in addition to gravedigging, performing autopsies, and staring uncomfortably, Wednesday enjoys dancing, performing this memorable turn in the series as seen below. I’ve heard the dance compared to an elaborate mating dance by a Bird of Paradise. Notice the claw-like hand movements, and the “broken neck” pose at one point in the video. Wednesday gives us all freedom to be weird, and I appreciate her for that, even if she is a bit dead inside. I guess I’ve always had a “thing” for bad girls like Catwoman, Cheetah, and Wednesday. Yeah, I know that good girls go to heaven, but bad ones go everywhere, and Wednesday will make her own way… 😸
(Now if Wednesday was an anthropomorphic fox performing her dance, you might have something like this…) 🦊
For a company that boasts of “no talking animals or irritating jingles,” the NJM insurance company has given us some great ones. And what’s wrong with talking animals, I want to know? Sirs, I am one! 🦊
One of the first great talking animals that NJM has given us was this full-suited narwhal. Now it’s not everyday that you run across someone in a narwhal fursuit, and this fellow has the best intentions…he just wants to audition to be the NJM mascot, and gets zero tolerance. The poor fellow seems to have a flaccid horn…don’t they have a drug now that you can take for that? No wait, that’s the infamous “bent carrot” commercials for Peyronie’s Disease, thanks to which we’ll never see misshaped carrots the same way again…aargh! 😾
Anyways, the NJM receptionist sics laid-back security guard Carl on the poor would-be narwhal mascot to usher him from the building. Wearing a full-body narwhal costume isn’t all peaches and crèam; it’s easy to fall on stairs, for example…
Now Carl the Security Guard played by Scott Watson ordinarily has a boring and uneventful job, except when blue narwhals show up. He is unflappable, and plays the role to deadpan perfection, even in this surreal circumstance. He is the perfect foil to the irrepressible narwhal, ebulliently played by Jared M. Smith.
The narwhal is not easily discouraged or defeated, and in subsequent commercials tries to re-enter the premises, including by vehicle again to be thwarted by Carl. “I’m outta here!,” blusters the narwhal, only to find that his flippers make poor appendages for operating a car…
So catch the delightful rivalry of Narwhal vs. Carl, which to me is vaguely reminiscent of Charlie the Tuna trying to get Starkist to take him in those old commercials. This might be a great live action cartoon…
And now for the first time ever, we bring you the fox-narwhal hybrid. Yes, I think I could get into that character! Please note that my horn isn’t floppy or bent. Everyone sing now: “Fox-narwhals, fox-narwhals, swimming in the ocean, and causing a commotion, because they are so awesome…“
If you’ve ever been to a Chuck E. Cheese place or visited the Orlando, Florida area in times past, you’ve probably had contact with those animatronic animal robot bandsthat may have been high tech at one time, but now are more cornball and laughable than anything else. Liberty Mutual recreates the look and feel of those vintage robot animal bands in their recent commercial, “Catchy Tune.” You see, if a catchy tune can be implanted as an ear worm in your head, perhaps you’ll be more likely to think of the company or product it promotes should you want to buy something as mundane and unexciting as insurance.
What’s more, it appears that this animatronic Squirrel Squad band exists on a miniature stage neatly squirreled away (pun intended) right inside a wall of your very own house, ready to be summoned forth at any time! That would get old in what…a minute or two? You might even say that this Squirrel Squad would drive you nuts! What would be more appropriate, actually?But I kinda like the drummer…and hey, these guys work for peanuts! I demand pizza or some Chinese noms…. 🦊
The world of anthropomorphic singing fruits and vegetables is one that I usually don’t visit, being that it’s too “trippy” for me if not outright nightmare fuel. One wonders exactly what spices small business owner “Linda” is adding to her stewpot, but I’ll leave that to the authorities to determine…
Anyways, as singing carrots, onions, and other ingredients tunefully offer themselves and others of their kind to Linda’s blade for slicing and dicing, we are wondering if we’re witnessing renegade Muppets, a rejected episode of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, or perhaps some kind of off-beat horror movie. An assistant then advises Linda that their delivery van has been sideswiped, and she must inspect the loss of mirror there suffered, and then call Progressive, through which she has small business insurance…
It’s not long thereafter that Linda can return to “living the dream,” unless you are one of her ingredients, I suppose, who must then be living a nightmare… 🦊
FOXSYLVANIA 
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