Addendum to No. 2 of the Top Ten Star Trek Episodes, TOS

Following up on no. 2 of the top Star Trek episodes, The Trouble with Tribbles, I want to talk about a delightful homage from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine called, "Trials and Tribble-ations." Part of the thirtieth year anniversary of Star Trek, this show details the efforts of the Deep Space Nine crew to stop a particular Klingon from killing Kirk in the past. The rub is that crew is transported to the past to where the Enterprise has docked with the space station of Tribbles fame.

Using state of the art special effects, this episode of Deep Space Nine lovelingly recreates the ships and the space station of Trouble with Tribbles. Interiors of the Enterprise look like they did back in the sixties. And the mixture of the original show's episode footage with present day actors is seamless. If you don't want to buy the whole Deep Space Nine series to watch this on DVD, get the Star Trek: Time Travel Fan Collective which gathers classic time travel episodes from multiple Star Trek series.

Top Ten Star Trek Episodes, the Original Series, No. 2

The Trouble with Tribbles shows that Star Trek could do comedy. This season two show about furballs called tribbles that overrun a space station and the Enterprise expanded the humor that the show often demonstrated into a full episode. You can't forget the scene where Kirk is inundated with tribbles. It's one hilarious show.

Here is no. 2, "The Trouble with Tribbles."

The Men Who Stare at Goats Film Review

The Men Who Stare at Goats is a wild dark comedy about the excesses of military paranoia. The title comes from an exercise in which psychic soldiers stare at goats and attempt to kill them by stopping their hearts. The film is from a book of the same name by Jon Ronson which purports to be based on real events.

The film starts out with Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) interviewing what seems to be a crazy man (Stephen Root) who claims there was an army unit in the eighties designed to use paranormal powers. He claims the unit featured a powerful psychic named Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) who now runs a dance studio! Wilton dismisses the story until he runs off to Kuwait after a failed marriage during the 2003 Iraq war. While there he fortuitously runs into Cassady.

Cassady is there on a "secret" mission. After seeing a doodle that Wilton has drawn, Cassady believes that it is destiny for the two to come together. Cassady allows Wilton to accompany him into Iraq. While driving through the country, Cassady tells the story of the psychic army unit. It was formed after the Soviets started a similar unit when they thought the U.S. was trying to communicate with a submarine by paranormal means. The submarine story was false but the U.S. Army fearing to be left behind decided to start its own unit. Yes, that's right. The unit was formed from a bogus idea.

During the journey through Iraq, Cassady tells his story and through flashbacks we see the first commander of the psychic unit, Bill Django. (Jeff Bridges) The soldiers in the unit were part of the First Earth Battalion and called themselves Jedi Warriors. Django is seen as exploring all kinds of crazy New Age ideas to form a paranormal fighting force. These ideas include everything from dancing to yes, staring at goats to stop their hearts. Cassady reflects on his greatest feat. Using remote viewing, a way to psychically project yourself to another area of the universe, he finds the location of a kidnap victim. Unfortunately, another soldier, Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey), in the unit becomes jealous and disagreeing with Django's views helps to dismantle the unit. But the journey through Iraq is the present part of the film. We find out that Cassady was directed into Iraq by remote viewing his mission. That mission is the goal of the story.

Written by Peter Straughan, the screenplay preserves the absurd ideas that Army was willing to waste time and money on. These goofy ideas, of course, make good jokes. You got to love the irony of Clooney's character talking about "Jedi Warriors" to Ewan McGregor's Bob when he played Obi Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars movies. Grant Heslov's direction is crisp and he doesn't let some of the wild paranormal ideas take over the movie.

The Men Who Stare at Goats is an enjoyable and funny movie. It loses its way towards the end but it's still smart satire. The grade is B.

Bengals Pound Ravens

Today the Bengals pummeled the Ravens and won 17-7. The first half featured the offense running over the Ravens and getting a seventeen point lead. The offensive line blocked well and allowed lanes for running back Cedric Benson to run through.

What can I say about the defense. There was excellent pressure from the middle of the defensive line. Ravens QB Joe Flaccid, I mean Joe Flacco was running for his life many times. Bengals defensive cornerbacks Leon Hall and Jonathan Joseph each had an interception. They shut down the Ravens receivers all day. The Bengals may not have blown out the Ravens but they pounded the Ravens, the way you have to in the AFC North. See you later, flying rats. Here are the highlights.

Jon Stewart Goes Glenn Beck

Fox News' Glenn Beck recently had his appendix removed. Jon Stewart uses the news to develop a crazy conspiracy theory like Glenn Beck usually does. He does it in Glenn Beck's mental furball style. Stewart even uses the blackboard just like Beck. Brilliantly funny. Here's his take on Hulu.

The Bonds of Brotherhood

I was just watching Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. What a wonderful message at the end. The Fellowship which was to take the Ring to Mordor is breaking up. One member, Boromir, is dead. Merry and Pippin have been kidnapped. Frodo decides to take the Ring himself because the temptation to take the Ring is too great for the others. However, Sam, his friend refuses to leave his side. They travel without the others to Mordor. It's bleak. There's an air of defeat. Gimli tells Legolas and Aragorn, the Fellowship has failed. Aragorn disagrees, "Not if we hold true to each other." He tells them they will not abandon Merry and Pippin. He leads them on the journey to rescue them. This message of brotherhood formed in the face of adversity is relevant today. Groups of men may forsake each other when confronted with trouble but the right thing to do is to stay together and face the adversity together. That is honor. That is love.

Top Ten Star Trek Episodes, the Original Series, No. 3

We're down to the top three episodes of Star Trek, the Original Series. At no. 3 is the second season show, "Journey to Babel." The Enterprise must transport delegates to Babel for a conference on the admission of the Coridan system to the Federation. During the trip, the ship is pursued by a hostile vessel and murder occurs on board.

This is the episode that we meet Spock's parents, Sarek and Amanda. (Mark Lenard, Jane Wyatt of Father Knows Best depicted) We learn about Spock's childhood, his pet sehlat, and the taunting he suffered from bullies who hated his half blood race. The bullying was well depicted in Star Trek, the 2009 film. Unfortunately, in J.J. Abrams' movie, he kills off Amanda in the altnernate timeline. Also, the movie destroys Vulcan, which leaves the pig like Tellarites also depicted in this TV show, as one of the main surviving races of the Federation. Yikes. These pig guys are going to protect us against the Romulans and the Klingons? But I digress. "Journey to Babel" is a great show that details Spock's early life, and his relationship with his parents which would later be fleshed out in the films, Star Trek III and IV. Plus, Dr. McCoy gets the best last line ever.

Here is no. 3, "Journey to Babel."