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Lost and losses
Dec. 19th, 2008 06:33 amConsidering The Sarah Connor Chronicles won't be back until February (American season breaks are so frustrating), it's good to know another of my shows will be back early in January. I just woke up to find a new Lost season 5 trailer:
I also woke up to hear Majel Barrett Roddenberry died, which causes that odd sense of mourning for a complete stranger you get if said stranger has been part of your fannish life for such a long time. You know, when I watched Star Trek as a child, I never realized that Nurse Chapel and the female first officer from The Menagerie were played by the same actress, and of course I didn't watch ST undubbed and in the English original until I was an adult, so the fact she voiced the computer escaped me until then, too. But she definitely made an impact on me as Lwaxana Troi in TNG and DS9 (this was around the time when I switched to watching tv shows I liked very much in their original language, too), and I was delighted by her guest stint on Babylon 5 where she played Emperor Turhan's widow (btw, you can't tell me JMS was above a casting in-joke there). Looking back, I can see where the criticism about Lwaxana's character as a sexist cliché (middle-aged woman obsessed with marrying off her daughter and/or finding a new man herself) came from, but the thing is, the execution rose about the concept. Lwaxana was such a force of nature on screen, Menage a Troi remains one of my favourite TNG comedy episodes, and when they gave her serious stuff to do - as in the story with the sick ambassador, or with the revelation about the death of her first daughter as a child - Majel Barrett showed the depth of Lwaxana, too. The most unexpected and welcome twist was her relationship with Odo on DS9. The scene in which Odo, who needs to regenerate (in the not Doctor Who sense) at certain intervals, is barely holding it together because he's embarassed and ashamed of his natural form, and Lwaxana, to help him and makes things equal, takes off her wig and shows him what she looks like without artifice, and his reaction is just touching and beautiful, and still among my favourites in my favourite Trek incarnation. The impact Lwaxana had on me was such that when two years ago I got a story prompt that said "William Adama in a Star Trek incarnation, any show", the idea that immediately came to my mind, and which I executed, wasn't "Adama on the Enterprise/ on DS9/ on Voyager" but "Adama meets Lwaxana Troi". What can I say? I was, and am, a fan.
So thank you, Majel. And farewell.
I also woke up to hear Majel Barrett Roddenberry died, which causes that odd sense of mourning for a complete stranger you get if said stranger has been part of your fannish life for such a long time. You know, when I watched Star Trek as a child, I never realized that Nurse Chapel and the female first officer from The Menagerie were played by the same actress, and of course I didn't watch ST undubbed and in the English original until I was an adult, so the fact she voiced the computer escaped me until then, too. But she definitely made an impact on me as Lwaxana Troi in TNG and DS9 (this was around the time when I switched to watching tv shows I liked very much in their original language, too), and I was delighted by her guest stint on Babylon 5 where she played Emperor Turhan's widow (btw, you can't tell me JMS was above a casting in-joke there). Looking back, I can see where the criticism about Lwaxana's character as a sexist cliché (middle-aged woman obsessed with marrying off her daughter and/or finding a new man herself) came from, but the thing is, the execution rose about the concept. Lwaxana was such a force of nature on screen, Menage a Troi remains one of my favourite TNG comedy episodes, and when they gave her serious stuff to do - as in the story with the sick ambassador, or with the revelation about the death of her first daughter as a child - Majel Barrett showed the depth of Lwaxana, too. The most unexpected and welcome twist was her relationship with Odo on DS9. The scene in which Odo, who needs to regenerate (in the not Doctor Who sense) at certain intervals, is barely holding it together because he's embarassed and ashamed of his natural form, and Lwaxana, to help him and makes things equal, takes off her wig and shows him what she looks like without artifice, and his reaction is just touching and beautiful, and still among my favourites in my favourite Trek incarnation. The impact Lwaxana had on me was such that when two years ago I got a story prompt that said "William Adama in a Star Trek incarnation, any show", the idea that immediately came to my mind, and which I executed, wasn't "Adama on the Enterprise/ on DS9/ on Voyager" but "Adama meets Lwaxana Troi". What can I say? I was, and am, a fan.
So thank you, Majel. And farewell.
