Friday, October 15, 2021

Star Trek: Unification II

Episode: "Unification II"
Series: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Season 5, Episode 8
Original Air Date: November 11, 1991

via Memory Alpha

Continued from last week...

Spock reveals why he is on Romulus: the movement to reunite Romulus and Vulcan, long a taboo subject, seems to be gaining political support and he wants to help.  Unfortunately, it's all a set up.  Sela (Denise Crosby) is back and she has plans to take advantage of Spock's presence to launch a Romunlan invasion of Vulcan.  

It's a decent episode, mostly for the meaningful one-on-one scences for Spock and Data and, later, Spock and Picard.  Seeing Sela is fun, though I would argue Crosby is a bit wooden in this appearance.  Worf sings Klingon opera for the first (and only?) time.  


Acting Notes

via Wikipedia

Stephen Root played the role of K'Vada, captain of the Klingon Bird-of-Prey that took Picard and Data to Romulus.  Root was born November 17, 1951 in Sarasota, Florida.  He studied acting at the University of Florida.  He made his Broadway debut in So Long on Lonely Street, then hit the big screen in 1988's Crocodile Dundee II.  

I believe Root is one of the finest character actors of his generation though in 1991, he was still a relative unknown.  He'd land the role of Jimmy James on NewsRadio in 1995.  His most memorable role came in 1999: Milton Waddams, he of the red stapler, in Office Space.  Overall, the credits are impressive.  On film: Dodgeball, Leatherheads and several Coen Brothers' films including O Brother, Where Art Thou?  On television, he made appearances on seemingly every quality show for years: Night Court, Seinfeld, Frasier, The West Wing, Pushing DaisiesBoardwalk Empire, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and on and on.  The voice over credits are considerable, too: King of the Hill, Ice Age and Finding Nemo among many others.

13 comments:

  1. And on Justified! And Barry! And, well, so many shows.
    I love Root. He has a tremendous range. I wouldn't be sad if he were in... everything. He needs to be a Marvel character!

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    1. He really kind of has been in everything...

      Unfortunately, even in his voice work, he seems to favor the DC line over Marvel. Of course, that could change. He's only 69.

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    2. I haven't kept up with the DC animated stuff. I'm not sure why, though; it's so much better than the live action offerings.

      Response left on my blog to your comment.

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  2. Well, the idea of the Soviet Union falling was the Klingon drama of Undiscovered Country. Vulcans and Romulans reuniting has no real counterpart in the real world, unless you consider the Irelands, the Koreas, India/Pakistan, which aren’t any closer to happening today than they were thirty years ago. Hence why Discovery pegs it for the far future.

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    1. Yes, I stand corrected on the Soviet Union thing.

      But you're kidding about the no real-world parallels, right? I mean you just named three and there are loads more. Nationalism was the driving geo-political force of the 20th century. Communism is, after all, its obvious counter-force. Most of what we think of as nations are, in fact, complete contrivances. Borders are essentially arbitrary, rarely respecting any true cultural divide. There are as many ideological arguments for holding those nations together as driving them apart. Indeed, though I concede your point, the dissolution of the USSR and, even more painfully, Yugoslovia inspired considerable violence along these same lines.

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    2. My overall point was that you were initially very wrong. But that there were obvious better examples of the point you were trying to make.

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    3. Okay, that's fair.

      I suppose I should edit the post...

      Delete