‘Star Trek’ sequel is a noble Enterprise
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Brian Barber/Daily Nebraskan
By Chris McCubbin
Staff Reporter
This country seems to need “Star
Trek.” Massive, myriad doses of
“Star Trek.” Reruns, noveliza
tions, novels, cartoons, movies, games and
comic books of “Star Trek.”
It’s been more than 20 years since the first
“Star Trek” episode aired. The original
show featured one spaceship and less then a
dozen recurring characters. It’s easy, there
fore, to see how the various forms of new
“Star Ta'k” adventures have long since
descended into minutiae.
TV Review
The comprehensive “Trekkic” now
know s the name of Spock’s childhood pet,
w here Dr. McCoy’s parents were at the time
of his conception, w ho built the Enterprise,
and w here and what we did to get the Khn
gons so licked off.
The crew of the starship Enterprise and
its five-year mission are, in short, drained.
But "Star Trek" creator Gene Rodden
berry has come to the rescue of those of us
who feared that all “Star Trek” held for the
future was a descending spiral of biographi
cal, historical and technical trivia.
For Roddenberry has given us “Star Trek:
The Next Generation,” an hour-long,
weekly, syndicated, all-new, live-action
Star Trek that airs at 6 p.m. Saturdays on
KPTM, channel 42.
“Star Trek: The Next Generation” takes
place more than 80 years after the original
adventures. It’s set in an all-new Enterprise
that’s eight times the size of its predecessor.
The old Enterprise was a large warship,
but the new one is more of a mobile military
base. Officers can bring their wives and
children along on the ship. The old Enter
prise may have had a bowling alley and a
movie theater, but the new one has an on
board shopping mall.
So it’s not surprising the new- scries has a
larger cast than the original. There are nine
regulars in ihe"NcxtGencraiion’cnsemblc.
Sensibly, the scripts focus on only one or two
characters an episode, in rotation.
Patrick Stewart, a wonaenui snaxo
spearean actor, is Capt. Jcan-Luc Picard.
Picard is older than Kirk and less of a
swashbuckler, but like Kirk he has a gift for
thinking and bluffing his way out of impos
sible situations.
Jonathon Frakes is Ryker, the
Enterprise’s executive officer. It’s Ryker,
not Picard, who leads dangerous off-ship
missions, a leap in realism over the first
scries. Ryker and Picard are developing a
rapport almost as engaging as Kirk and
Spock’s.
Michael Dorn is Worf, the second offi
cer. Worf is a Klingon — they’re on our side
now, the bad guys are loathsome little rat
men called the Fercngi. Worf’s militaristic
“death before dishonor” philosophy pro
vides a necessary counterpoint to the rest of
the crew’s humanistic pacifism.
The rest of the recurring characters all
have unique backgrounds, skills and traits.
For the most part the performances are
excellent
But there are a few disturbing things
about “The Next Generation.” For one
thing, there’s a tendency to play up ship
board romances and sexual tensions. This
detracts from the air of sexless professional
camaraderie that was so attractive in the first
series — no man ever ogled Uhura’s mini
skirt unless he was possessed by some weird
space-drug. I’d hate to see “Star Trek” turn
into “Dynasty on the Space Love Boat.”
More disturbing is the new show’s ten
dency to lift plots from the old. The two-hour
pilot, for instance, featured the familiar tale
about a pesky alien with super-mental
powers who decides to judge humanity
based on the performance of the crew of the
Enterprise in a crisis.
It also featured a very funny cameo by
DcForcst Kelley as a 115-year-old Dr.
McCoy.
Although direct references to the first
series, like the cameo, arc minimal, you’d
think that in 80 years some new plots would
have been discovered in the infinite reaches
of the last frontier.
But ihc final word on “Star Trek: the Next
Generation” has to be simply that it’s a lot of
fun. We fans who’ve yearned for more, but
refused to settle for recyclings and trivia, no
longer have to now.
Film 'Less Than Zero'indeed
ZERO from Page 13
muse, is completely ignored in Harley
Peyton s screenplay. Peyton and director
Marek Kamevska decided to turn the film
into a turgid, unwalchablc melodrama about
drug abuse that is never convincing and a
chore to sit through. The fast lane never
seemed this slow.
Andrew McCarthy plays Clay, a wealthy
college kid attending school back East who
flics to L.A. for Christmas break and discov
ers that his two best friends from high school
arc addicted to cocaine.
Jami Gertz, the preppy snob from the ill
fated “Square Pegs” sitcom, plays Clay’s
girlfriend Blair, a coke-snorting model who
just stands around in high-fashion outfits
and looks pensive most of the time.
That’s about all that happens in “Zero”:
Bored, strung-out patricians stand around,
snort snow and ponder the essence of the
“fast lane” while the camera zooms in on
their sleek sports cars, designer clothes and
immaculate houses.
Robert Downey Jr. plays Julian, a hope
less, haggard coke addict who has to resort
to homosexual prostitution to keep the
powder up his nose.
The plot, if one wishes to call it that, relics
on every hackneyed cliche about the “beau
tiful people.” The trouble with “Zero” is that
it doesn’t even attempt to explain why these
people are so unhappy.
Unlike all the half-baked, name-drop
ping novels and films before it, like Jac
queline Susann’s “Valley of the Dolls” and
everything by Harold Robbins, “Zero”
barely tries to unveil the depraved scenes of
the jet set. We sec a few lavish parties, a
sampling of the L.A. after-hours nightclub
society and an elegant Palm Springs snort
and-sex wallow. But such scenes arc never
explored with much depth or detail.
“La Dolce Vita,” if you remember, spent
three hours delving into the warped, surreal
istic exploits of the rich looking for excite
ment. Fellini showed aristocratic bimbos
getting covered with feathers and honey at 4
a.m., old men paying money to watch trans
vestites in cat costumes strip in cabarets, and
stylish alcoholics searching for ghosts at
sunrise.
But in “Zero,” we see only trendies with
six-figure allowances grooving lo remakes
ol Kiss songs and Julian posing elegantly on
a beach \uth his sunglasses and beer
Oh yeah, Clay and Blair hit a coyote with
their ‘Vctte. “Oh, no, we’ve hit a coyote'”
screams Blair tearfully. That's the most
excitement in the film.
One would think that in a movie where
nothing happens, the characters and their
backgrounds would at least be examined.
All we hear about the three friends is that
they went to high school together.
Clay wants Blair to go East with him and
attend college. He’s so upset about her
superficial modeling career that he has a
dream in black and white, and the two
seriously discuss why she should dump
modeling and become a game-show hostess.
Clay also wants Julian to go to college. “Do
1 look like I’m ready for homework?” Julian
whines defensively.
As in all tragedies, the kids have prob
lems with their parents, but again we only
gel to sec a tenuous glimpse of it. Blair goes
home to give Daddy his Christmas present,
but he’s too busy bopping his girlfriend and
tells her lo just leave it on the kitchen table.
Blair pouts, looks glamorous and leaves for
a party so she can dust her sorrows in snow.
Julian’s Beverly Hills daddy disowns
him, and when the coked-up little degener
ate tries to go home and sleep after one of h is
nightly snortfests, Daddy tells him to get
out, and his little brother beats him up. Oh,
such is life without love.
Julian owes his dealer-pimp Rip (Janies
Spader) $50,(KM), and since the little dead
beat isn’t doing enough gay hooking to pay
his bills, the cold-hearted thug threatens his
life.
Clay tries to borrow the money from his
father, but Daddy refuses. Clay's family is
a ejean, upstanding one — they spend
Chrisunas day singing songs by the piano
while he and Blair make it in his bedroom
with enough leather and artsy lighting to fill
umpteen Calvin Klein ads.
Then the climax occurs. Julian goes
through withdrawal, and Clay and Blair
touchingly help him through it by placing a
silver champagne bucket under his mouth
every time he needs to puke.
See ZERO on 15
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