Kick-Ass Women: Lt. Uhura

I can't remember a time when I didn't watch Star Trek. My first memory of television was an episode (and no, I've no idea which one). One of my favorite characters was Lt. Uhura. And why wouldn't she be? Granted, she technically was the telephone operator, but otherwise, she was the epitome of the kind of woman I aspired to be. She was beautiful, good at her job, and had a full life.  She was an accomplished singer and seemed to love life. Even more importantly, unlike those two blond women, she didn't pine after any of the men on the show (I have decided that the William Shatner-directed Star Trek V in which Uhura announced to Scotty she had always loved him doesn't really exist). She was a woman who had a career and a life, and stood on her own two feet. She didn't need a man to define her. Which, if you think about it, is what we all. 

And for years, the real reason I wore hoop earrings is because I wanted to be as much like Uhura as I could. 

Uhura was the only woman on Star Trek I admired. The show was produced in the 1960s, and despite its creator's progressive attitudes (Star Trek had one of the most diverse casts at the time) women were mostly seen through the prism of the men around them, caring and loving them, sex objects, and almost always scantily clad. Gene Roddenberry recognized the plight of women, however, as evidenced by the last episode ever, the horrible Turnabout Intruder.  Even in Roddenberry's utopia, women were prohibited from captaining starships. Janice Lester was a classmate of Kirk's, and just as talented, but the Federation's refusal to promote her drove her insane. The only way she could become captain was to use advanced technology to change bodies with Kirk.  But because of her gender or impaired mental health (or her lack of experience, to be fair), she was clearly incapable of leading. Spock eventually figured it out, bodies were switched, and everyone felt sorry for the poor woman whose ambitions were frustrated by her gender. It was a terrible end to a great show. 

This series comes as a result of my discovery of Starbuck on the Battlestar Galactica reboot. As I loudly pronounced at the time, Starbuck was easily one of my favorite characters ever. The fact that she was female was perhaps the best part - otherwise Starbuck would have been just another cliche. As I bought about Starbuck, I thought about all the other kick-ass female characters I've loved through the years. I decided to start with the original. 

Who are your favorite kick-ass women?

Anna Torv Channels Mr. Spock

I've written before about the negative reaction Anna Torv's performance as Olivia Dunham received in Fringe's first season. A lot of people complained that the show was great except for her flat, boring existence. I disagreed. I thought Torv was playing flat because of the tragedies her character suffered at that time, not least the death of her fiance, who, it turned out, might or might not have been a traitor. I thought it was a nice, quiet, understated performance.

In the second season, we learned that Dunham had been the subject of Walter's experiments. Others who had been experimented upon had similarly isolated lives with similarly dark wardrobes. So, Torv's quiet, flat Dunham made even more sense to me.

But this season has given Torv the opportunity to play not one, not two, but three characters, all various versions of the one. Besides Olivia, there's Fauxlivia, a woman rather like Olivia, but one with a lighter heart (at least, until she feel in love with Peter Bishop), a fuller life, an easier smile. It turns out that Fauxlivia is less certain of herself than ours, and less able to think creatively. But she has more friends, and seems to have easier relationships with others. Until her trip to our universe, her life was pretty sweet - she even had a fiance.

Then, in Stowaway, the most recent episode of Fringe, Olivia was mostly absent from the episode, all because she drank some tea when she visited William Bell in the other universe. Apparently, Bell had served the tea with his soul magnets, and when a particular bell was rung, Bell's soul was drawn into Olivia like, well, a magnet to steel. Or whatever magnets are attracted to. Olivia was pushed to the side, and Bell had taken over.

I'm not really clear on why Bell did this. Perhaps he genuinely believes that his presence is important to help the floundering Walter Bishop find his self-confidence. Perhaps he believes only he has the knowledge necessary to prevent the two universes from destroying each other. Perhaps he's like so many of us, unwilling to die.

He acknowledges that he cannot stay in Olivia's body for long, and after at first hedging how long he can stay, agrees to vacate after finding a suitable substitute. While the computer program attempts to find an adequate host, he agrees to help solve the mystery of the week.

In the meantime, we are treated to quite a performance. It is, I am sure, no surprise that I am a lifelong fan of Star Trek. I have spent the years studying the various characters and actors, of which, Mr. Spock and Leonard Nimoy are favorites. I've watched Nimoy's career through the years, and thoroughly enjoyed his turn as William Bell on Fringe. I wasn't surprised when Bell died last year, given Nimoy's announced retirement from acting (Nimoy's retirement may be as short lived as the Who's - he may be returning to Fringe later this season). Normally, I'd think such a "return" as this a cheap gimmick, but Torv's performance was so spot on, that I actually forgot who she was.

What did I see in Torv's performance? Well, first, she walked differently, slower, less gracefully. Much like an old man would walk. Her hair was blander, and her make up even less prominent than normal. She had a sly grin as she talked (Olivia never grins), and looked at everyone differently, less upfront, more from the side.

As many of us know, Nimoy had an excellent ability to use a raised eyebrow as communication, and Torv adopted it as well as she could. Some people can raise an eyebrow, and some people can't. However, Bell possessing Olivia's body would only have been able to do what Olivia could do, so even that felt right.

The only thing that didn't feel right was the tremor in her voice. As Nimoy has aged, his voice has developed a tremor, and it was a definite part of William Bell. Torv has adopted the tremor, under the presumption that if Bell had it, he would have it in Olivia as well. However, just as Bell wouldn't be able to raise an eyebrow if Olivia couldn't, he would have the voice that she had, which was remarkable in its lack of tremor. However, you could argue that Bell was so used to speaking with a tremor that he forces it in his conversations in Olivia's body. An unconvincing argument, but an argument all the same.

It was fun watching Bell interact with those who know Olivia so well. Walter, as expected, was delighted, and the two scientists quickly reverted to their old relationship as old friends who had worked together for years. They smoked pot together, joked about inserting Bell's consciousness in the cow, and solved a math problem.

Peter was justifiably horrified to find Bell in Olivia, especially considering how Bell slipped the soul-magnet mickey in her tea. Only Peter seemed outraged by Bell's casual dismissal of any moral issues in taking over Olivia's body. However, since no one else seemed all that upset, Peter accepted the situation, if only because he had to.

I'm fairly sure that Astrid is not a fan, after being sexually objectified and harassed by the scientist. I personally understood when she buttoned the top button her blouse. It turns out that William Bell was a pig.

I found Stowaway to be a thoroughly enjoyable episode of Fringe, and am sorry I don't have more time to discuss other aspects of the story, including the mystery of the week centering around the woman who can't die and Lincoln Lee on our side of the universe.

Deadwood fan alert - Paula Malcomson, Trixie on Deadwood, played a woman who learned that being struck by lightning twice prevented her from dying.

Cowboys in Space

Why didn't I watch Firefly when it aired? I loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, and I was confident that anything Joss Whedon did would be interesting and entertaining. And I'm a huge fan of serial television in general. What happened?

Well, life happened. I had no DVR at that time, and I was working a second job on Friday nights from 7 PM to 7 AM. But I think what really interfered was that I was involved in a new love affair at the time. We all know how that ended.

I wasn't the only television fan who wasn't watching. Low ratings led to the show being canceled. Why did Fox air the show on Friday nights? Why did they insist a new pilot be created? Why did they air the episodes out of order? It seemed at the time that Fox was doing everything it could to cancel the very show they were airing.

I finally got a chance to watch all the episodes of Firefly this past January, as Ovation aired them, in order, starting with the real pilot, and even airing the three episodes Fox never did. If I ever had a column called "Gone Too Soon," this show would top the list.

I called this series "Cowboys in Space," and the show certainly felt like it took place in the wild west, only with spaceships. The crew used guns, and frontier law ruled the worlds the ship, Serenity, visited. The worlds were dusty, filled with sometimes desperate people trying to survive. Even the language that the crew used made me think of Westerns.

As I watched, I couldn't help thinking of the original Star Trek, which, as you may recall, was touted at the time as a Wagon Train in space. The show had some similarities: a charismatic captain, a spaceship, and a doctor. But really, to me, they didn't have a whole lot in common. Captain Kirk was a member of the Federation, a governmental entity that commissioned the Enterprise to space exploration. Mal Reynolds, on the other hand, was a refugee from a losing civil war to the Alliance, a centralized federal government. The Enterprise was a slickly clean, efficiently run operation, while Serenity forever seemed in need of a good housekeeper and was kept together by glue. Kirk's crew was intensely loyal, while Reynolds' crew felt free to question every decision and poke fun at him. Worse, he never knew when one of his henchmen, Jayne Cobb, might betray him.

Each show was truly a show of it's time. The Sixties were a time of optimism, and a belief that man can solve any social ill. Think of the War on Poverty and the belief that governmental programs could actually cure poverty. Such was Roddenberry's Federation, which had somehow succeeded in ending poverty (but not the common cold, oddly enough) and created a just world. By the early 2000s, however, we'd become suspicious of government, believing it to be a malicious force in society. The Alliance, indeed, mistrusted by Serenity's crew, fought against by several members, was to be avoided when possible, exploited if necessary. Its motives were always suspect.

But let's face it. What appeals to me most about Firefly is, of course, the characters. Each character was relatively well developed (the series ended far too soon to flesh out some of the characters, sadly) and the relationships that developed among the crew and passengers was realistic. Mal and his second-in-command Zoe. Zoe and her husband, Wash, the pilot, who respected but also resented Mal. Jayne Cobb who sold his services to the highest bidder, and whose relationship to his guns was stronger than any relationship to a person. Kaylee, the naive engineer with no formal training, protected and loved by all. Then the passengers. Inara was a Companion (think high-class prostitute) who rented a shuttle from Serenity. Sparks flew between her and Mal, but his insistence on calling her a whore perhaps interfered with an easy relationship. Book, the Shepherd, who knew far more about criminal enterprises then you'd think a good pastor would know. Lastly, the brother and sister Tam: Simon, the doctor, who rescued from the Alliance, his sister River, the psychic, who'd been in training to be an assassin.

Only fifteen hours of show was produced (a two-hour pilot and thirteen episodes), but Whedon was given the opportunity to produce a movie, where he was able to flesh out some of the storyline more. I saw the movie, Serenity, long before I saw all the episodes. I'll need to see it again.

Sadly, we'll never know what this show could have been. But I'll definitely add it to my list of "Favorites". If you're into science fiction, compelling characters, and great stories, I highly recommend you give this show a shot. Surely Ovation will air it again?

One thing that Firefly did was put several actors on the map. Who had heard of Nathan Fillion before Firefly?

Buffyverse fan alert. Joss Whedon was loyal to his actors. Nathan Fillion appeared on Buffy as the homicidal cleric Caleb (I almost never forgave Fillion for gouging out Xander's eye). Gina Torres was the goddess Jasmine who tried to impose peace on Earth on Angel. Adam Baldwin guested as Marcus Hamilton, a guardian of the Senior Partners, also on Angel. Summer Glau made her professional acting debut as a prima ballerina cursed to dance the same ballet for two centuries on Angel.

Dollhouse fan alert: Alan Tudyk played the criminally insane doll, Alpha. Summer Glau played scientist Bennet Halverson.

Chuck fan alert: Adam Baldwin plays a character similar to Jayne Cobb in Chuck. His John Casey is often the best part of Chuck.

V fan alert: Morena Baccarin, Inara on Firefly, plays Anna.

And of course: Barney Miller fan alert: Ron Glass played Book the Shepherd. But I'll always remember and love him best for playing Detective Ron Harris, author of Blood on the Badge.

Harlan Ellison is a Very Patient Man

I just had to attach this today, because I find it incredibly funny.

Harlan Ellison bests CBS Paramount over 42 year-old Star Trek episode

Ellison has complained for decades about how the Star Trek producers changed his script, thereby weakening it. The City on the Edge of Forever is a fan favorite, and a lot of fun to watch. I never read the original script so I can't verify whether it would have been better in the original form or altered. Either way, he got a little payback now.