Return of the Frontier

posted by Tygrrius @ 12:07 AM

Welcome to the first edition of Proverbial Galaxies, which will be an ongoing column of the Film Frontier. Proverbial Galaxies will feature my opinions and random thoughts on just about anything, but usually related to science fiction & fantasy adventures.

This raises a couple of questions. For starters, who am I? And why should you care about my opinions?

Who I Am

I'm just a fan of entertaining movies, probably not unlike you since you've found your way here. I'm in my early 30's (when did that happen?), which means I grew up in the late 70's and the 80's.

And as any American male from that time can tell you, this meant Star Wars was everywhere. Like everyone else, I played with the action figures, read the storybooks, listened to the records, and begged and pleaded to see the movies whenever they came out.

I was only two-years old, but I remember asking for the 1977 Star Wars action figure set for Christmas that year. That is, until my brother told me that it would just be an empty box. Not seeing the value of an empty box, I chose something else over what would eventually become one of the most sought-after Star Wars collectibles. I finally got my first Star Wars figures about three years later, for The Empire Strikes Back.

I also recall watching the 1978 Star Wars Christmas TV special. In fact, this special was the first Star Wars production I ever saw. Though I was "action figure-aware," I had not yet seen the actual movie. Since I was probably close to the target age-range of the special, I suppose it must've made a good impression in that I am still a Star Wars fan nearly thirty years later.

The first movie I ever saw at the theater was a re-release of The Jungle Book, but the second was Superman. By this time, I was already familiar with Superman from cartoons and reruns of The Adventures of Superman starring George Reeves.

I remember not being able to see a whole lot because the people sitting in front of me were much taller than I was. Who am I kidding, pretty much everyone in the world was much taller than I was back then. Thinking back on Superman is a reminder of how frustrating it could be to see movies in the theater as a little kid. Luckily for me, my brother held me up a few times so that I could see over their heads. One of those times was during Jor-El and Lara's scene on Krypton, which is actually my most vivid memory of seeing the movie that afternoon. After seeing Christopher Reeve's Superman, he became my favorite super hero.

While Superman and, eventually, Star Wars dominated my early movie-going experiences, one of the highlights of TV when I was young was watching reruns of Star Trek. As far as the Trek movies went, though, I actually missed seeing the first two in the theater. Didn't my family realize they were depriving me of research and anecdotes for my future website?

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock was the first Trek movie I saw in the theater. In addition to the larger scale of the story compared to the episodes, I was awed by how incredible the Enterprise looked. By that time, I had managed to see at least Star Trek: The Motion Picture on TV and most likely Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan as well. There was no comparison between seeing the refit Enterprise on a small TV screen versus a gigantic movie screen.

However, it was the debut of the Enterprise-A in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home a couple of years later that solidified my status as a huge fan of the Star Trek movies.

For each of these movies, I read all the material I could get my hands on. Initially, I accomplished this through borrowing books and magazines from the library. Later, I slowly grew a collection of my own. No single volume told the whole story of each movie's production, but I realized that bits and pieces from each one could be woven together to form a more complete tapestry.

The First Frontier

In 1997, I opened the first version of this website, which was then called "Star Trek: The Film Frontier." I spent that entire summer compiling information and quotes from dozens of sources and assembling them together for each of the first eight Trek movies.

Though this site now looks completely different than it did back then, many of those same Production Notes are still in use. You may even run into them on other sites as well, but they were here first.

A New Frontier

After a hiatus, I decided to bring the site back earlier this year. This new version is a bit different from previous incarnations. Rather than focus exclusively on Star Trek, I am expanding it to include Superman and Star Wars—those other classics of my childhood. To reflect the change, the site is now known simply as "The Film Frontier."

Putting Superman aside, how can Star Trek and Star Wars coexist on the same fan site? Don't Star Trek fans hate Star Wars, and vice-versa?

Through this site and this column, I'll show that it doesn't have to be that way. Why limit yourself to only one universe when there's plenty of fun to be had in each of them?

While news coverage has begun for all three topics, only the Star Trek movie section is currently online. You can expect the beginnings of the Star Wars and Superman movie sections to arrive later this year.

Questions and Answers

What a year of news it has already been for Superman, Star Wars, and Star Trek.

For Superman, the biggest question of the year has already been answered: Will Superman Returns be any good?

We are only weeks away from answering the Star Wars question of the year as well: Will the Star Wars: Unaltered DVDs be worth buying? Elsewhere, you've probably read vehement complaints about them having poor picture quality and being non-anamorphic. As far as I'm concerned, though, the jury is still out until the DVDs arrive.

As we approach the 40th anniversary of the debut of Star Trek, 2006 is turning out to be a very important year for a movie series many thought dead. With Paramount's announcement that J.J. Abrams is writing and producing the next movie, the biggest Trek question is: What kind of movie will Abrams make? As tightlipped as he and others on the project are being, that may very well be the Trek question for next year as well. I have a feeling Abrams will make some kind of announcement by the end of this year, though.

This is an exciting time to be a fan of these franchises. I'm looking forward to covering these and many other stories for you in the months and years to come.

So, there you have it. That's who I am, or part of me anyway.

But wait, I still haven't told you why you should care about my opinion on anything.

Why You Should Care

In the end, I'm just one voice among many competing for your attention. The blessing and the curse of the web are that it's full of opinions. Anyone with access to a computer can pound some keys to form words and publish them within seconds. The sometimes hateful rantings of "fans" on many Star Trek and Star Wars sites seemingly rival some of the most heated political rhetoric.

With the Film Frontier, my goal is to always keep everything within a certain perspective, that perspective being that I have a genuine affection for these movies. Even the "bad" ones. That's not to say I'll sugarcoat reality or avoid being critical. I'll continue to call them as I see them, but you won't see "George Lucas ruined my childhood!" or similar muck here. My childhood memories are safe and secure.

I hope that you'll find something of value here. Maybe you'll be reminded of yourself, or you'll see new ways to look at seemingly old things. Perhaps something on this site will make you think. But don't think too hard. These are just kids movies, after all. And the whole point of these movies and, ultimately, this site, is to have fun.

Thanks for joining me in my little hobby. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.