TODAY'S NUGGET: Star Trek The Motion Picture (1979) - What Happens When Your Transporter Fails?

[Quick Summary: When a destructive alien entity approaches Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk resumes control of the Enterprise to intercept it.] 

Q: What do you think about the "dilution of Star Trek since Gene Roddenberry"?
A: I'd heard about it, but it occurred to me that I'd never actually read any of his actual writing.  Hence,

Q: What is science fiction anyway?
A: It is defined as:

(n.) fiction dealing principally with the impact of actual or imagined science on society or individuals or having a scientific factor as an essential orienting component.

Q: What did you think about this script?
A:  It may not be the strongest story in the canon, but I really appreciated how Roddenberry DOES try to grapple with the effect of SCIENCE.  

Q: How is it different than more modern sci-fi film/tv shows?
A: I feel more recent approaches are lazier and less exploratory because they put metaphor and allegory above the hard work of grappling with the effect of science.

For example, in the scene below:
- This scene is about equipment malfunction and sabotage.
- Decker and Scott just discovered a sensor that was deliberately inactivated.
- Kirk has just relieved Decker of his captain's duties.
- It is also about the consequences when science fails us. How do we cope when we rely heavily on equipment?
- As an action scene, it is very brisk, in large part because the motive (rescue) and stakes (crew members) are clear.

INT. ENGINEERING SECTION

...Decker EXITS. Kirk waits, collecting his composure as he watches him go. Then Kirk turns to glare at Scott. Interrupted by a flare as something shorts out at the mechanism where Scott and Decker had been working. Technician (Cleary) reacts, hits an intercom button fast:

TECHNICIAN (CLEARY): Transporter room, come in! Urgent! (to Scott) Redline on the transporters, Mister Scott!

Scott whirls to a console fast, speaks urgently!

SCOTT: Transporter room, do not engage! Do not...

TECHNICIAN (CLEARY) (reacting to a reading; interruption): Too late; they're beaming now!

 Kirk is exiting on a run, followed by Scott.

INT. TRANSPORTER ROOM - INCLUDING TRANSPORTER CHAMBER

An unusually defective-looking TRANSPORTER EFFECT in progress, alternately flashing and glowing -- even the Transporter SOUND seems wrong, as if struggling to overcome some problem. At the console, CHIEF RAND and ASSISTANT are reacting in surprised, near-horror as they attempt vainly to save the situation.

RAND (into intercom): Starfleet, override us! OVERRIDE...! Yank them back!

Suddenly, from Rand's console, a VIOLENT GLARE -- a PROTESTING SOUND from the circuitry. And on the console a red-warning light now begins flashing.

STARFLEET VOICE: Unable to retrieve their pattern, Enterprise...!

KIRK (into intercom):                               SCOTT:
Starfleet, boost your matter               We're losing the pattern...!
gain: we need more signal!                Oh, no! They're forming!

CLOSER ON THE TRANSPORTER CHAMBER

with the human forms FLUTTERING INTO FULLER AND FULLER MATERIALIZATION, FRIGHTENINGLY, HORRIBLY MISSHAPEN. We RECOGNIZE one form as the Vulcan, Sonak -- the other a human WOMAN. They MATERIALIZE; we HEAR A MOAN form from the Vulcan - -- the Woman's SCREAM OF PAIN. Then, all at once, the half-materialized bodies are gone; the transporter chamber is empty.

KIRK: Oh, my God...!

KIRK, SCOTT AND RAND

gazing, horrified, at the empty chamber.

KIRK (into intercom): Starfleet, do you have them?

A moment of utter, vacant silence -- and Kirk and Scott look at each other again, their pained faces presaging the answer they already know:

STARFLEET VOICE (shaken): Enterprise...what we got back didn't live long. Fortunately.

Another moment of stunned silence, and then Kirk hits the transmission button -- fighting to control his voice as:

KIRK: Starfleet...Kirk. Please express my condolences to their families. Commander Sonak's can be reached through the Vulcan Embassy (sees Rand's stricken expression) There was nothing you could have done, Rand. It wasn't your fault.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: Don't lose that edge that grappling with the effects of science brings to sci-fi.  It's one of the things that makes it so universal.

Star Trek The Motion Picture (1979)(7/19/78 shooting script)
by Gene Roddenberry & Harold Livingston
Story by Alan Dean Foster and Gene Roddenberry

TODAY'S NUGGET: The Grass Harp (1995) - Avoiding The Trite & Cliche in Sisterly Forgiveness

[Quick Summary: Orphaned Collin has a grand adventure living in a tree house with his ephemeral Aunt Dolly, after a serious argument with rich Aunt Verena.]

This is the last film of writer Stirling Siliphant, who had a long string of film and tv credits, including In the Heat of the Night and The Poseidon Adventure.  

I sensed his practiced hand particularly in the characters. I really appreciated they are full fleshed out and distinct. No one acts or speaks the same. 

ex. Aunt Verena doesn't trust easily and relies on facts and cash to relate to people. Aunt Dolly is the opposite: open, fun, and trusting.

So when Verena wants to mass produce Dolly's medicinal recipe, it's the last straw. I believed Dolly would take her maid and nephew to live in a tree house.

I thought the reconciliation scene below was particularly fine because it's so emotionally true.

NOTE:
- Judge Charlie proposed to Dolly during their adventures.
- My heart bled for Charlie, who probably didn't understand sisterly bond, but accepted it.
- I think it avoids the trite and cliche because it does not duck hard truths. Verena would have never admitted these things at the beginning (aging, loneliness, etc.)

EXT. PORCH -- NIGHT

Rain floods down. Dolly shivers under the eaves. Verena approaches behind her. The judge watches from the threshold.

...VERENA (beat): I walk through the house, nothing is mine. Your pink room, your kitchen, the house is yours - and Catherine's too, I think. Only don't leave me. Let me live with you. I'm feeling old. I want my sister.

Her voice cracks. Dolly stretches out a tentative hand.

DOLLY: Forgive me, Charlie. I want my sister, too.

The judge cannot reach her: not with his arms, not with his heart. [This line really moved me. It captures the longing, disappointment, and reality.] Verena's claim is too final. The sisters embrace in reconciliation. Dolly strokes Verena's hair. The judge looks on sadly, silently from the doorway. The storm rages on....

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: This scene made me feel the longing and loss that I'd rather not feel, yet I felt good because it's an "I see you" moment.

Also, I liked there was no "message," no false importance to the moment.  

The Grass Harp (1995)(9/6/94, revised)
by Stirling Silliphant and Kirk Ellis
Based on the novel by Truman Capote