In 1970 everyone in Hollywood thought sci-fi films were dead—except Gene Roddenberry, the prolific creator of the newly cancelled Star Trek series; by 1975 he’d finally gotten the green light to bring Trek to the big screen, but script troubles plagued the proposed Planet of the Titans. Three years later, the retooled story was brought to life by director Robert Wise, and while critics had mixed emotions about seeing Kirk, Spock, Uhura, et al, again—audiences went orgasmic. Though sluggish at times (or contemplative, depending on your ADHD), this cinematic debut is smart, stylish, introduces cool template characters later revisited in TV incarnations, and, most importantly, contains the most popular sci-fi plot device of using man’s past actions to explain his future peril (done most cleverly here using the 1970’s Voyager probe program). All we can say is Prometheus shmometheus!
Wed., July 11, 7:30 p.m., 2012
