Hello World!

My entertainment for the week so far:

The Manchurian Candidate - the original, not the well-meaning but just-not-the-same remake which, like Patrick Stewart's remake of The Lion In Winter, makes me ask, "Why would you remake something that was perfect in the first place?" Angela Lansbury is absolutely terrifying in an understated, creepy way, Frank Sinatra gives one of his finest screen performances, and the plot of the Cold War original ironically seems more relevant now than it did when I first saw it during its much-delayed release.

Smallville, a show that makes a virtue out of its flaws. The material is cheesy, so they milk it for as much sex and violence value as they can find, and the subtext is therefore hilarious - Clark looks like he's mooning over Lex instead of Lana, Lionel suggests with a straight face that his son has incest fantasies about his dead mother. It's my happiest hour of television every week, even though it's gone from bad to campily awful.

Divorcing Jack, which I was compelled watch again last night after having had a bad day; no matter what you think your problems are, they aren't as bad as those of the characters in this film, which may be the darkest black comedy ever made, or perhaps the funniest ultra-violent Irish terrorist film ever made. The acting (David Thewlis, Jason Isaacs, Rachel Griffiths, Laura Fraser, Robert Lindsay, Richard Gant) is universally superb, the dialogue is incredibly sharp, and the glimpse into life in Ulster, though satiric, is quite moving.

And tonight, I get to go to Vulcan.

Trek BBS Today

Below are some of the topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-Blalock really slammed Berman!

-Kes vs. Seven of Nine!

-Old or new Galactica - which is better?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS!

Trek Two Years Ago

These were some of the major news items from November 2002:

• Combs Returns In 'Cease Fire'
  Preparing for his third appearance as Shran, Jeffrey Combs declared that it was now official that viewers would see more of the Andorians on Enterprise."

• Baird Wants Fans & Public To Enjoy 'Nemesis'
  Director Stuart Baird said that his greatest wish was for fans to love Star Trek Nemesis and want to see it again and again, but since he was not a Trekkie himself, he also hoped it would "open the door for other people who may not be interested in a Star Trek movie. I hope they say, 'Well, this sounds like a good movie. Let's go see it and enjoy it as a movie in it's own right!'"

• 'Enterprise' Ratings Drop Continues
  "The Communicator" averaged a 4.5 rating / 7 share in the overnights, below the previous season two low of 4.7/7 by "The Seventh". The show did manage to beat Dawson's Creek for the 8 p.m. hour.

More news can be found in the archives.

Poll Results

Below are the results of the most recent TrekToday poll:

How would you rate 'The Augments'? 9-10 59.9% - (1058 Votes) 7-8 23.2% - (410 Votes) Wasn't able to see it 7.7% - (136 Votes) 5-6 4.6% - (83 Votes) Didn't want to see it 2.6% - (47 Votes) 3-4 1.2% - (22 Votes) 1-2 0.5% - (10 Votes) Total Votes: 1766

Please vote in our new poll after you have seen "The Forge" and rate tonight's new episode!

Happy Birthday!

Today is the birthday of both Terry Farrell, who played Jadzia Dax on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Robert Beltran, who played Chakotay on Star Trek: Voyager. Sunday is the birthday of Farrell's co-star Alexander Siddig, who played Dr. Bashir.

Today's Television Listings

Tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, UPN will broadcast the new Star Trek: Enterprise episode "The Forge". Here's the official synopsis:

Earth's embassy on Vulcan is bombed, and the ensuing investigation puts Archer and T'Pol on the trail of a Vulcan religious faction hiding in a treacherous desert.

Discuss this news item at Trek BBS!
 Add TrekToday RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a CSI: Crime Scene Investigation fan? Then visit CSIFiles.com!