Mary Watson from the Cumberbatch Sherlock. Or alternatively John Watson once she arrived.
She was so obviously better qualified for a life of adventurous second fiddle to the great genius that the writers were reduced to lampshading John’s uselessness by having Sherlock literally replace him with a balloon on which he’d drawn a smiley face.
So then they killed her off by having her be unbelievably stupid in exactly the kind of situation she’d demonstrated she was completely competent in.
Sophie on 2 Broke Girls. I’m having a great time until she shoves her potato face onscreen. Listening to her horrendous Eastern European accent is like having a cheesegrater rubbed on my body.
I’m fairly certain the writers of TNG, at least in the early seasons, had a mandate to shit on the 20th century whenever feasible.
Except for the tine time they had them both, and they disagreed. I think it was “Bitch” with Lucy Arnez. One testified for the prosecution, one for the defense.
Not to mention the immense historical value those three had.
“Why should we bring them back, they’re dead.”
You know, the Federations weird-ass definition of ‘death’ goes a long ways in explaining the dilemma over Tuvix. “Tuvok and Neelix are dead!!”…are they??
Fucking Data has more moral sense then 1/2 of Starfleet.
That may be the earliest televised example of ‘lowering the ocean’ rather then ‘raise all boats’.
Agreed. It’s the same Jennifer Coolidge who just won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress for The White Lotus, where she was pretty good. Certainly a change from her days as Sophie or Stifler’s mom or even the masseuse on Seinfeld.
Out of curiosity, was that William Decker the son of Commodore Decker from “The Doomsday Machine” like he was in the movie? I don’t think it was mentioned in the movie proper, but was in the novelization.
On TOS was the transporter chief an officer? It was never clear. As for why, O’Brien not being an officer showed the cracks in StarFleet in the post Roddenberry series.
Never mentioned in the movie, but other sources, including StarTrek.com, have indicated that Will is Matt’s son. As described on the Memory Alpha wiki:
The character of Kyle (first name never established) was a “transporter chief” on a number of episodes of TOS, and was a lieutenant.
Ninja’d.
According to StarTrek.com, he was. That’s probably as authoritative as is possible. It likely would have become a story element had it gone to series. Memory-Alpha goes into more detail.
As Matthew Decker’s son
Despite Will Decker having the same surname as Commodore Matt Decker, there is no on-screen evidence indicating any familial relationship between them.
Early indications of Decker’s heritage appeared in the reference guide Star Trek Phase II: The Lost Series, which stated that Will Decker descends from numerous other Starfleet officers, some of whom are of flag rank.
The question of a potential relationship between the two Deckers was addressed in the “Star Trek Report” by Susan Sackett in the July 1979 issue of Starlog (#24, p. 31), which featured a few fan questions. Sackett’s printed response was “There is no mention of Commander Decker’s parentage anywhere in our script; however, Gene did have this in mind when he created the character, and I believe you will see certain father-son similarities of character and integrity.” She repeated this information as a footnote in the reference book, The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, where she identifies Will Decker’s father as “Commodore Matthew Decker of the Star Trek television episode ‘The Doomsday Machine’.” It was again reiterated in the April 1988 issue of Starlog (#129, p. 24).
StarTrek.com, the official Star Trek website, also supports this idea, as it clearly states that Captain Decker is the son of Commodore Matthew Decker. [2] For the entry about Will Decker in the Star Trek Encyclopedia (4th ed., vol. 1, p. 191), he is identified as the son of Matthew Decker. In a background note for this entry, the authors state that Paramount publicity materials for the first movie suggested the existence of this relationship.
Phase II also had a new character, Lt Xon, who was supposed to be a full-blooded Vulcan protege of Spock. But then in TMP they turned him into Vulcan Science officer Sonak, and they they turned him inside out in the transporter, and that was that. And the return to the status quo of the original series was nearly complete.
I could do without Jay Drury (Ralph Manza) on Banacek. You’d think an obscenely rich, successful, brilliant, suave insurance investigator could find a chauffeur who wasn’t an incompetent idiot, but apparently not.
Just watched one yesterday that mercifully didn’t use him to his full comic glory. He just annoyed a little. As opposed to, say, Fly Me If You Can Find me, where he a full 90 minutes of STFU Jay, and put some pants on.
Banacek needs Jay so he (and the audience) think Banacek is smart. What Banacek really needed if he wanted a chauffeur was a competent body guard, because people keep trying to kill him. (perhaps a shorter silent Chinese dude with mad martial arts skills?) But then what kind of image would the swave and deboner Polish Prince project if it looked like he needed help?
My 50 years-on opinion of Banacek is that he grew up very poor so he acquired all the trappings of wealth but doesn’t really understand why anyone wants them. So he has a limo with a chauffeur (because that’s what rich people have) and a mostly useless Packard land boat and a house with art and fine crystal and expensive booze because that’s what a rich person would have. He’d have been better served ditching the limo and keeping the Pantera Jay rented in Los Angeles.
“The Two Million Clams of Cap’n Jack”?
You’re probably right that Jay’s purpose was to make Banacek look that much smarter in comparison. Still not a necessary character to me, but TV was simpler back then.
I don’t know that I agree about the rest of your analysis of Banacek. There are a few hints over the course of the series about his background and tastes. He mentions his father’s occupation at some point; can’t remember if it was blue collar or white collar. He served in the Marines. He explains his fondness for antiques by saying that there are hundreds of years of old stuff, and comparatively little new stuff.
I found the location of Mulholland’s Rare Books and Prints a while ago. It’s a house just a few blocks from the State House. I wonder if the people who live there know about their place in TV history.
IIRC, the idea was that his dad worked for the insurance company in question until he got replaced by a computer (for explanatory elegance equal to the opening to Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade).
We just binged the whole Banacek run last week (only 17 episodes including the pilot movie) and Jay is definitely a pill. Query: why wouldn’t Banacek hire a chauffeur who was a huge bouncer type and let him get punched and shot at?
There’s an old Polish proverb that goes: Early to bed and early to rise and you can get your own damn breakfast.
My computer blew past your post re: Banacek “body guard.” Didn’t want you to feel left out by my above post.
It bugs me that there was supposed to be a third season of Banacek, but Peppard refused to sign on because he was busy divorcing Elizabeth Ashley and didn’t want pay her any additional settlement money. I mean really!
Yeah, it was something like that. He kept his dad’s retirement watch as a memento. In any case, it doesn’t sound like he grew up poor.
Unlike Columbo, Banacek didn’t give away how the crime was committed. I wish there were more episodes so I could figure them out before the reveal.
Oddly, there was one that I didn’t have to. I discovered the show a couple years ago. I may have vaguely been aware of it from 50 years ago, but nothing more than that. Except for the episode where the football player disappears during a game. I saw that when I was a kid, and the explanation stuck with me. Had a definite “a ha” moment when I saw that again.
Some of the crimes are impossible, of course. The one where the railroad car disappears from a moving train, or example.