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George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.
Chuck Todd interviews me about alternate histories
Heroes returned for Season 4 last night, with a two-hour premiere that was less apocalyptic than usual, and therefore I actually found more enjoyable. For the first time I can recall with Heroes, I was able to sit down and relax with it. In part this was because of the story lines, in part this was because the heroes are almost becoming old friends that we haven't seen in a few months, and it was good to see again.
Among the highlights, Sylar killed Nathan at the end of Season 3 and shape shifted into Nathan, but Angela got Matt Parkman to make Sylar in Nathan's body think he (Sylar) is really Nathan. But Parkman learns he has a price to pay - Sylar's persona is now inhabiting part of Parkman's head, and he comes out to advise and needle Parkman and otherwise make life difficult for him. We've of course seen this set-up before with Baltar and Six on Battlestar Galactica, and even with House and Amber, but Zachary Quinto did a good job of it anyway as Parkman's internal nemesis.
Over in Tokyo, we do get some bad news - Hiro is dying - but, as always, nothing is necessarily permanent with time travel. I've got to admit that I'm always in the mood for a time travel story, and Heroes has done well with such threads over the years. Hiro at first vows he'll never again try to change the past - he realizes, in prime metaphysician form, that it's too dangerous (and he's right) - but he goes back more than a decade into the past anyway, and does a good deed for Ando's love life. He accidentally stops Ando from spilling a slushy all on Kimiko (Hiro's sister), which open the door to their falling in love. The takeaway for Hiro: he now knows he can change the past for the better, and he'll use his powers to correct his own mistakes in the past, the punishing metaphysics of time travel notwithstanding.
Apropos such high falutin' terminology like metaphysics, Claire's a freshman in college now, and so is Gretchen (new to Heroes, played by Madeline Zima from Californication, which will also be back on Showtime this Sunday). HRG's turning into about as good a guy we've so far seen, and he's creating an alliance with Tracy.
At the other side of the spectrum from university life, there are a new group of possible villains led by Samuel, centered around a carnival. Too soon to tell yet what they're really up to, but like most else in this premiere they were refreshing to see.
I'll keep you letting you know how it all works out.
Star Trek, since its birth in our popular culture in 1966 on NBC television, has led a remarkable life. Canceled after three seasons due to an insufficiently large audience - of which my wife (then my girlfriend) and I were devotedly among - Star Trek went on to break the hold of network television, with a series of series beginning with Star Trek: The Next Generation that went directly into successful syndication. As I pointed out in How Star Trek Liberated Television, this in retrospect was the beginning of television entertainment on cable and the Internet which is still burgeoning today. Along the way, Star Trek had some of best time travel stories (City on the Edge of Forever in the original series, Yesterday's Enterprise in The Next Generation) - keep that in mind - as well as some of the best humans meet alien stories ever told. I truly believe that when we eventually get beyond our solar system with faster-than-light travel in centuries to come - who knows, maybe decades - we will still be inspired by Star Trek as we navigate our way through the cosmos.
Star Trek also inspired other works in popular culture, including a whole bunch of movies, most of which were not as good, not even close, to best of Star Trek television. This is the challenge that J. J. Abrams and his colleagues took up when they set out to make a new Star Trek movie.
They decided to make a movie about the original crew and characters - Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, Chekov - before and during their first meeting up on the Enterprise. A movie about Star Trek Academy, detailing some of these budding relationships, had been talked about for decades. Abrams could have made such a movie, and it would no doubt have been excellent, a real delight for the fans, and everyone.
Instead, J. J. Abrams decided to something better. The reason, I'm sure, is that he didn't want to be locked into telling the same stories we already saw on television all those years ago, once again, now, on the big screen, if this movie succeeded. Nor did he want to be confined to filling in the gaps of what we already know about Kirk, Spock, et al....
So .... Abrams did something very different indeed. And here the story of the new Star Trek begins....
[[[SPOILERS BELOW HERE]]]
Kirk's father dies at the hands of Romulans, as Kirk's mother, pregnant with James T., escapes in a shuttle. The father has been Captain for all of 12 minutes. Some 25 years later, James Tiberius Kirk and Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy do meet up at Starfleet Academy. Uhura, whom Kirk has unsuccessfully flirted with, is there, too. And, of course, so is Spock, who is ahead of Kirk, and puts him to a famous test-
But the Romulans attack again - this time, Planet Vulcan. Star Fleet sends out a whole bunch of ships - including the Enterprise with Captain Pike in command, and Spock the science officer. By the time they get to Vulcan, Pike is in Romulan hands, and despite the best heroic efforts of Kirk and Sulu, and Spock, now in command, Planet Vulcan is destroyed, and along with it, Spock's mother-
Wait a minute! Vulcan destroyed? But didn't we see the planet, numerous times, in various episodes of various series of Star Trek? And Spock's mother, too?
Yes, of course we did! So, what's going on?
J. J. Abrams, in the sharp script written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (all three of current Fringe fame), are giving us a splendid time travel story (shades of Lost). We get this spelled out to us in detail when young Kirk meets old Spock - played by Leonard Nimoy - who explains that Romulans killed Kirk's father after being whipped back in time from a future in which old Spock failed to save the Romulan home world.... And old Spock has been pulled back through time, too.
Now, if I were a sufficiently versed fan, I would have noticed at the beginning that this was another Star Trek universe - not quite the one we have seen on television and in theaters all of these years. Because no one ever said in a word in those about Kirk's father dying a few seconds after he was born. But Vulcan destroyed was more than enough to wake even me up that we were seeing something very different and daring here in which ...
Everything is new, to some lesser or greater extent, except old Spock, who has seen everything that we have on the screens over the years. Young Spock, smartly played by Heroes' Zachary Quinto, is also a new Spock - who has lost his mother and his planet, just as the new Kirk, perfectly played by Chris Pine, has lost his father. And young Spock (call him Spock 2) now lives in the same version of reality (call it Universe 2) as does old Spock (call him Spock 1). Old Spock's story along side of young Spock's story makes this Star Trek a sequel as well as a prequel.
There are other nice differences in this new reality. Spock 2 has a romantic relation with - Uhura, who's given a winning, sassy, refreshing performance by Zoe Saldana. But McCoy, wonderfully played by Karl Urban, is just and sarcastically funny as he should. And Simon Pegg's Scotty, John Cho's Sulu, and Anton Yelchin's Chekov are also fine and satisfyingly in character and ambiance - though poor Chekov, only 17 in the movie, and on the Enterprise earlier than he was in the original television series, is still stuck with that laughable Russian accent.
But Abrams has done the seemingly impossible, and done it with style and savvy - he has given us a genuinely new Star Trek, from the very beginning, with a genuinely new story - and even given us a witness to the original that we all grew up with, in the person of the original, older Spock. The story will live long and prosper indeed.
Heroes wrapped up Season 3 with a compelling, powerful episode, which tied up some loose ends and opened up some excellent possibilities, all about good but nonetheless dangerous deceptions.
To cut to the chase: Sylar kills Nathan, Peter (shape shifting as the President) knocks out Sylar (shape shifting as Nathan), Angela convinces Matt to implant in Sylar's mind that he really is Nathan. HRG sees and approves this.
So Season 3 ends with some hope, but on shifting sands. HRG and Angela will have to lie to Claire and Peter - a satisfying plot turn, since they were lied to for most of the first season. Matt will have to lie, too, if he's brought into this again.
And will Sylar's conversion to Nathan really hold? In the brief beginning we see of Season 4, Nathan is beginning to take an interest in the workings of clocks...
The other big question mark at the end of Season 3 is what will happen to Hiro and his powers? They're beginning to make his body sick. Mohinder tells Hiro he better not be stopping time any more .... But, of course, Hiro does, at least once, and you know he will be sorely tempted to do it again.
This was an interesting, transitional season for Heroes. It still has not regained the sheer sense of wonder of the first season, but it is pulling itself up, slowly, thoughtfully, not easily, to an older, more contemplative kind of show.
Zachary Quinto may not have as big a role as Sylar looking like Sylar next season. That might well be to the good, since I expect the new Star Trek movie to be an enormous success, which will make Quinto more evocative of Spock than Sylar. And Ali Larter will be back in some sort of role next season, which is all to the good, too.
