Star Trek: Tin Man

Episode: "Tin Man"

Series: Star Trek: The Next Generation

Season 3, Episode 20

Original Air Date: April 23, 1990

via Memory Alpha

The Enterprise welcomes the Betazoid Tam Elbrum (Harry Groener) aboard.  Elbrum is highly telepathic, even by Betazoid standards.  Together, our friends investigate a bio ship life form currently hanging out near a star about to go supernova.  Complicating matters further, the Romulans get involved.

"Tin Man" isn't in the top tier for Season 3 but it has strong moments, enough to warrant an Emmy nomination for Visual Effects.  Groener is good: highly annoying from the get go, though undoubtedly intentionally.  We gain greater sympathy for him over time.  The ending is surprisingly touching, including some meaningful new awareness for Data.  Plus, of course, I'm a sucker for any and all Wizard of Oz allusions.

Acting Notes

via Wikipedia

Groener was born September 10, 1951 in Augsburg, Germany, both of his parents accomplished musicians.  His family emigrated to the United States when he was two years old.  He apprenticed with the San Francisco Ballet as a teenager then studied drama at the University of Washington.

His musical theater credentials are impressive, including three Tony nominations for Oklahoma!, Cats (he was the original Munkustrap, the narrator) and Crazy for You.  His best known television role was Mayor Wilkins in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  He was also a regular on Dear John and made two appearances as the Secretary of Agriculture on The West Wing.  This is his first of four Trek appearances.

Bitters of the Month: Plum

The label on Fee Brothers' Plum Bitters indicates the flavor is meant to mimic British plum pudding.  This explains the cinnamon scent that hit me upon opening the bottle.  Considering our success with peach bitters, I'd have been happy with another simple stone fruit hint but the spices on offer suggest other possibilities...

Stay tuned.

On the Coffee Table: Clemency Burton-Hill

Title: Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Every Day

Author: Clemency Burton-Hill

via Amazon

Year of Wonder is an ambitious project.  Writer, radio/television presenter and professional violinist Clemency Burton-Hill selected a classical piece to share each day of the calendar year, including Leap Year Day along with historical notes and a brief explanation for each choice.  The intention was to introduce the genre to newcomers with varied and easily digestible tidbits and also exhibit enjoyable works beyond the canon for those more knowledgeable.  I read along for the entire year and also managed to find a not quite complete Spotify playlist so I could listen, too.

It's made for a most enjoyable year, at least as far as listening to quality music is concerned.  Burton-Hill includes a wonderful variety by era, instrumentation, nation, etc.  In particular, she included the work of numerous female composers, a most welcome consideration at our house.  I've always enjoyed learning about composers anyway.  I first learned the stories of the big names - Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, etc. - from flim strips (remember those?) shown by my elementary school music teacher.  To me, they were like characters in a book.  As such, learning lots of new names was fun.  Not surprisingly, quite a lot of composers have lived, shall we say, colorful lives.

There are flaws, including a predictable northern hemisphere bias where seasons are concerned (the author is British).  Also, Burton-Hill takes the Mozart Effect at face value and one most definitely should not.  But overall, the strengths far outweigh the few nit-picky flaws.  I would love to see similar books for jazz and rock.  Might I have to write those myself?

Marvel Immersion Project: Thor #339-344

via Wikipedia

Walter Simonson, lead writer and artist for this run of Thor, was born September 2, 1946 in Knoxville, Tennessee, though he grew up in suburban Maryland.  He got a degree in geology from Amherst and then went to grad school at the Rhode Island School of Design.  He started working for DC Comics in 1972, then Marvel in 1977.  He has worked on major titles for both companies, though Thor is probably his best known work.  He has won numerous industry awards.

via Wikipedia

My Recent Reads

Thor #339

Originally Published January 10, 1984

Writer and Artist: Walter Simonson

• Beta Ray Bill has, by rights, won the hammer Mjolnir.  But this won't do as the hammer is meant to be only for Thor and Bill's too honorable to claim it outright.  So...
• Odin gets the dwarfs to forge a new hammer for Bill, naming it Strombreaker.

Eitri via Marvel Database

• In return for this favor, the dwarf king Eitri asks that a female warrior - he was hoping for Sif and he got her - be called to defeat Throgg, a giant dwarf (oxymoron?) who has been tormenting them.  She succeeds.
• Bill, Thor and Sif all run off together to confront the demons attacking Bill's people.
• Featured:

via Mythology Wiki

• Nidhogg, a green dragon based on Níðhǫggr of Norse mythology

via Wikipedia

• Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder, based on Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóster, the goats who pull Thor's chariot.

Thor #340

February 10, 1984

Walter Simonson

• While Sif fends off the demons from Bill's people's fleet - and chats with his apparently sentient ship, Skuttlebutt, Thor and Bill combine the powers of their two hammers to destroy the portal from which the demons are emerging, effectively destroying all of them.
• Skuttlebutt tells Sif the story of how Bill achieved his current form, powerful yet repulsive to his own people.  Sif then relays the story to Odin.
• As a reward to Bill, Odin transfers to him Thor's power of transformation back and forth with an alias.  Bill can now revert to his previous, more attractive form, only summoning the superpowers when he needs them.
• Just like that, Donald Blake, Thor's Earth-bound alias, is no more.
• Bill is sent back to Skuttlebutt in order to help his people find a new homeworld.  Sif, evidently in love, goes with him.

Thor #341

March 10, 1984

Walter Simonson

• Now that Thor no longer has an alias, he has to go for more subtle disguising, including eyeglasses - a poke at Superman, complete with cameo appearances by Clark Kent and Lois Lane.
• His new alias is named Sigrud Jarlson.
• Jarlson takes a job at a construction site where he is attacked by the dragon Fafnir, who in turn was goaded by Lorelei, also now on Earth and out to get Thor.
• In the end, Thor/Jarlson rescues Lorelei who seems amnesiac... or is that all part of her plan?

via Marvel Database

• Meanwhile, back in Asgard, Balder is wandering in the wilderness.  Unbeknownst to him, he is being observed from afar by Karnilla, Queen of Nornheim.

Thor #342

April 10, 1984

Walter Simonson

• Lorelei recovers just fine and is still determined to seduce Thor.
• Thor has been hearing a mysterious voice calling to him.  He follows the voice to Antarctica, where he discovers a mostly abandoned Viking village in a volcano crater.
• Thor finds the village's last survivor, Eilif the lost.  
• Eilif desires a warrior's death but Thor won't grant him one.
• Thor declares that Eilif's life now belongs to him.

Thor #343

May 10, 1984

Walter Simonson

• Thor convinces Eilif to join him in the fight against Fafnir and grants him temporary rejuvenation courtesty of Mjolnir.  
• They defeat Fafnir and Eilif dies a hero in the battle.  Thor gives him a Viking funeral.

via Marvel Database

• Featured: the Valkyrior
• Lorelei, alias Melodi, arrives at the apartment of Thor, alias Jarlson, to thank him for saving her life... wink, wink, nudge, nudge...

Thor #344

June 10, 1984

Walter Simonson

• More a Balder story than a Thor story.
• Odin sends Balder with a message to Loki.  Asgard needs Loki's help.

via Wikipedia

• Featured: Frigga, Odin's wife and Thor's mother
• Balder accepts the mission but tells Odin he has sworn off killing, even for Asgard.
• On his way to Loki's, Balder is captured by fire demons and brought before Loki.

via Marvel Database

• Loki introduces Balder (and us) to Malekith, the dark elf.  
• Malekith sets the demons upon Balder.  
• Balder is forced to kill them all (and Malekith, sort of) in order to deliver the message.
• Loki casts the message aside, telling Balder he's already decided to side with the giants instead.
• Balder broke his vow of non-violence for nothing.
• Loki's such an asshole!
• Meanwhile, on Earth, Lorelei/Melodi does her best to seduce Thor/Jarlson but the poor guy falls asleep.

Star Trek: Captain's Holiday

Episode: "Captain's Holiday"

Series: Star Trek: The Next Generation

Season 3, Episode 19

Original Air Date: April 2, 1990

via Memory Alpha

Happy New Year!

The Captain is stressed out and his senior officers urge him to take a vacation.  At Riker's urging, Picard heads to the resort planet Risa where, the First Officer strongly suggests, our hero is likely to get laid.  Turns out, Jean-Luc isn't very good at relaxing poolside with a book and spurns all attention, female or otherwise.  However, adventure catches up with him in the form of Vash, a beautiful architect in search of a legendary artifact.  To complicate matters, she's being tailed by the Ferengi Savok (Max Grodénchik, the future Rom on DS9) and two Vorgons from the 27th century have taken an interest in the proceedings as well.

It's not the greatest episode but there are fun elements.  The dialogue is occasionally humorous.  Vash is intriguing: morally ambiguous in a way Next Gen female characters rarely are.  In the end, it turns out to be quite a rewarding holiday for the Captain and not at all what he expected.  Some need a whimsical adventure more than sex and sun (though he did manage a little of both), something his friends might have considered of a man with a love for hard-boiled detective novels.

Acting Notes

via Memory Alpha

Jennifer Hetrick (Vash) was born May 12, 1958 in Westerville, Ohio.  This was the first of three appearances for her as Vash.  Beyond Star Trek, she is best known for a recurring role on L.A. Law as Arnie's ex-wife and an earlier series of Oil of Olay commercials.  Recent big screen appearances include The Poor Kid's Guide to Success, He's Such a Girl and 500 Days of Summer.

Squid Mixes: Crusta

A crusta combines Cognac, triple sec, maraschino liqueur, lemon juice and bitters - peach in our case.  Some sugar the rim, though I did not.  I got my recipe from Cocktail Party.  The crusta is one of the oldest cocktail templates: the earliest sour and an ancestor to the sidecar, one of our house favorites.

The flavor is wonderfully layered.  The cherry hit me first but it was the peach for my wife.  I accidentally used too much lemon juice - noticeable but it certainly didn't ruin the drink.

On the Coffee Table: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Title: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Author: J.K. Rowling

via Amazon

It's Harry Potter's 5th year at Hogwarts.  Lord Voldemort is on the rise.  Harry dueled him at the end of last school year and lived to tell the tale.  His friend Cedric Diggory wasn't so lucky.  Unfortunately, apart from Dumbledore and a few loyal friends, no one believes Harry.  In fact, the Ministry of Magic is actively working to discredit both Harry and Dumbledore.  Meanwhile, Harry's having horrible dreams, from Voldemort's perspective.

Worst of all, it is the year of Dolores Umbridge.  She is the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher and also the Ministry-appointed High Inquisitor at Hogwarts.  She's an authoritarian nightmare.  A student of mine is also reading the series and she reports that everyone in her fandom chat group hates Umbridge more than Voldemort.  In the years since the first time I read the book, I've worked for people like Dolores Umbridge.  It isn't fun.

Important developments in Year 5:

• Order of the Phoenix brings Harry deeper into the adult wizarding world.  Over the summer he learns, while staying with Sirius, of the Order, the underground group of Dumbledore's supporters.  His parents were members of the original group.  The new band includes the Weasleys, Sirius, Lupin, Moody, Hagrid, Snape, McGonagall and a few new faces, including Kingsley Shacklebolt and Nymphadora Tonks.  
• Luna Lovegood, a delightfully loopy Ravenclaw student, is introduced.
• Ron has a couple of unexpected glory moments: becoming a prefect and, eventually, a reasonably capable keeper for the Gryffindor quidditch team.  Being happy for his friend becomes part of Harry's growth, too.
• In Hogsmeade, we get to visit a teashop, Madam Puddifoot's, and a sleazy pub, The Hog's Head.
• Harry's still a terrible date.
• At Hermione's urging, Harry teaches several of his schoolmates Defence Against the Dark Arts, picking up the slack from Umbridge's worthless lessons.  The study group call themselves Dumbledore's Army.
• The Weasley twins drop out of Hogwarts in spectacular fashion and open a highly lucrative joke shop with Harry's financial backing.
• We learn why Snape is resentful of James, Harry's father.  And he's not wrong to feel that way.  It's not fair for him to torment Harry in retaliation but he's not wrong to hate James.
• Neville Longbottom gets some excellent development.  We learn more about what happened to his parents and we see just how devoted he is to the cause of fighting the Dark Lord.
• As noted previously, Ginny is my favorite character in the series.  Odd choice, right?  After all, she never gets much material, at least not until The Cursed Child.  Here's why I love Ginny: she's the student least inclined to put up with Harry's shit.  Even Hermione and Ron tend to tiptoe around him.  Not Ginny.  Not anymore.  There are some nice Ginny moments in Phoenix.  The first shot across the bow: she's the one who calls Harry out for being an idiot when he won't talk to anyone about his fears of being possessed by Voldemort.  Ginny points out that she's the only one he knows who actually has been possessed by You-Know-Who and knows how it feels - stops Harry in his tracks.  She also replaces Harry as seeker when young Potter gets kicked off the quidditch team.

Harry gets the summer off but overall, the story is definitely on a rising crescendo.

Before I go, I offer a few treats from our Harry Potter LEGO advent calendar.  We had Star Wars LEGO and Nightmare Before Christmas Funko calendars, too.  Harry Potter was the best of the three as it adhered to a specific story, the Yule Ball from Goblet of Fire.  Star Wars was more of a hodgepodge and Nightmare didn't include a particularly wide range of characters.  By my count, there were seven different Jack Skellington figures.

Left to right: Harry, Hermione, Ron, Cho Chang, Padma Patil, Parvati Patil

Beauxbatons' Carriage and the Durmstrang Ship

Luke, Harry and Rey discussing the burdens of the Chosen One narrative - note Golden Egg next to Harry on the couch.

Sally commiserating with the Patil twins over their lousy dates.

Ron complimenting Poe on his sweet new ride.  Poe thanks him for the Weasley sweater.