That'll Do, Pig

Life is good. Not only did I have an outstanding bike ride on Saturday morning, but I actually had a chance to sit down and watch television for a bit.

Next weekend is the Triple Bypass. In a moment of mental instability, I agreed to participate in this high-altitude 120-mile cycling event. Fortunately, my buddy Kim possesses plenty of infectious enthusiasm, and continues to talk me into long training rides to get in shape for it. This time, we went up Highgrade Road, and then rode through Conifer and Evergreen and finally back to Turkey Creek, for a total of over 50 miles. I was toast by the end of the ride, but am reasonably confident that I'll be able to finish the trek from Evergreen to Avon on Saturday. It should be fun!

You're probably wondering what the heck long bike rides have to do with Morgan Woodward, the actor pictured above. Well, I suppose I could argue that this talented gentleman usually played a crazy guy, and you'd have to be crazy to ride 120 miles in one day. Or that the Fourth of July is a good time to ponder the meaning of the "E Plebnista". But in this case, it's just about the fact that I allowed myself the luxury of watching some TV for a bit. It was a good way to mellow out after a good workout.

But I did find this interesting: The two photos above are of the same actor, playing two completely different roles on the same TV show. The one I watched on Saturday is the one on the right, where he plays a respected scientist driven insane by a dentist chair with a rotating dome light. In the other show, he goes nuts because he hangs out with Communists (which needs no further explanation).

The original Star Trek series pulled this trick several times. In one show, an actor might be an omnipotent alien, and in another he'd play a junior Klingon officer. When you slap on a different costume (or better yet, a mustache), this thespian reuse usually isn't noticeable.

But they did annoy me with one particular casting choice. In this case, they used two different actors to play the same role. It wasn't a Darren Stevens kind of thing, where the two fellows each did the best they could to baffle audiences as to why a hot chick like Samantha would ever hook up with a knuckle-dragging pinhead troglodyte. Instead it was a case where the roles were completely redefined. It was as if Han Solo was suddenly portrayed by Marty Feldman instead of Harrison Ford.



I'm talking, of course, about the portrayal of Zephram Cochrane, the fellow who invented Warp Drive. In TOS (The Original Series), he was played by Glenn Corbett, a handsome, articulate, and well groomed young fellow. In a movie that supposedly took place centuries earlier, he's played as a gnarly old drunken hippie by the somewhat craggy James Cromwell. I have nothing against Cromwell, but it was really hard to believe that his disheveled Cochrane would later grow into the dapper character brought to life by Corbett. And it's all about suspension of disbelief, isn't it?

I wonder who made that casting decision, and what favors were called in during the process. Surely they knew that their audiences were full of geeks who would ask these questions, right? And if you look at how consistent with TOS their casting choices were in the most recent movie (with the possible exception of Scotty), you know that somebody in the crew was capable of creating consistency between the old and the new. With the Cromwell/Corbett selection, though, they just blew it.

And yes, I know that very few of my readers care to immerse themselves in Star Trek debates to this nitpicky level, and that's OK. Most folks probably clicked away from this post as soon as they saw the phaser in Capt. Tracy's hand. I expect that. But I also expect to return to discussions of broader appeal over the next few weeks, as I comment upon such topics as cycling, summer, and the psychological havoc wreaked by ultra-long commutes in the blind pursuit of continued paychecks.

In the meantime, stay cool in the hot weather, courteously share the road with two-wheeled travelers, and have a great day!