Cult-TV Theme Watch: Mummies

A mummy is the preserved corpse of an animal or person.  The preservation may be due to use of chemicals, or unintentional, caused by freak environmental factors.  The mummy remains one of the most famous monsters in the horror movie pantheon, and as such has appeared on cult-television throughout the decades.

On classic Doctor Who (1963-1989) mummies made an unusual appearance in the beloved 1975 serial “Pyramids of Mars.”  There, an alien god, Sutekh the Destroyer, used mummy servants -- robots -- as his hands on Earth.  His plan was to escape entrapment on Mars.

The legend of the mummy was re-cast in a humorous light for Steven Spielberg’s 1985 anthology series, Amazing Stories (1985 – 1987).  “Mummy, Daddy,” by Earl Pomerantz aired on October 27, 1985, and featured a movie actor dressed as a mummy in bandages.  The actor learned that his wife was going into labor, and had to cross the countryside to reach her at the hospital.  In the process, the actor was mistaken for a real mummy, and pursued by torch-wielding villagers right out of James Whale’s Frankenstein.

In Tales from the Crypt’s (1989 – 1996), “Lower Berth,” written by Fred Dekker and directed by Kevin Yagher, the Crypt Keeper revealed his twisted origin story this tale of a circus freak who found love with the mummified corpse of a long-dead princess.  The episode aired on HBO for the first time in July of 1990.

One of the best episodes of She-Wolf of London (1990), “The Bogman of Leitchmour Heath,” written by Anthony Adams and directed by Roger Cheveley, aired in syndication in October of 1990.  The episode concerned a mummy found in a small, rural farm town in England  Under the auspices of black magic, the bog-man (Atticus) was being used to kill the enemies of a local necromancer when Randi (Kate Hodge) and Professor Matheson (Neil Dickson) investigated.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer(1997 – 2003) featured a mummy in its second season entry, “Inca Mummy Girl (October 6, 1997), which involved Xander (Nicholas Brendan) falling in love with an exchange student who was actually a Peruvian mummy.  The mummy, Ampata (Ara Celi) could maintain her appearance as a teenager only by absorbing the life-force of other Sunnydale students. 

On the original Ben 10 (2006 – 2008), one of Ben’s enemies is called “BenMummy.”  Two of the hero’s other enemies are BenVictor (The Frankenstein monster) and BenWolf, a werewolf.  All of these Universal-ish Monsters ulatimately find their way into Tennyson’s omnitrix.

Cult-TV Theme Watch: Romans and Rome

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your eyes, for today I report to you the tales of Rome and Romans in cult-television history.

The Roman Empire endured for some five hundred years, from roughly 27 BC to 47 AD, and came to include a vast swath of Europe and the Mediterranean.  At its zenith, the Empire boasted a population of sixty-million people and stretched as far as England.   The Empire was renowned for its draconian sense of order and discipline, but also its amazing technological accomplishments.  These include the miracle of aqueducts, construction cranes, and last but not least…indoor plumbing.

Given the importance and size of the Roman Empire, historically, perhaps it is no surprise that so many television series have utilized it as the destination of choice for intrepid travelers.

Foremost among these visitors is the traveler known as The Doctor.  In Doctor Who’s (1963 – 1989) William Hartnell era serial, “The Romans,” the Doctor and his companions (Ian, Barbara, and Vicki) arrive in Rome in 64 AD and become enmeshed with the mad Nero and his attempt to burn down Rome.   In fact, the Doctor may just have given Nero the idea to start a fire to begin his grand-plan of re-building the city…

Decades later, the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) returned to the Roman Empire with his companion, Donna Noble (Catherine Tate).  Specifically, he landed in Pompeii on “Volcano Day,” in 79 AD, the day that Mount Vesuvius was destined to erupt and kill thousands. 

In the contemporary Matt Smith era of Doctor Who, Roman centurions were also seen in the episode set at Stonehenge (and Underhenge…), “The Pandorica Opens.”

Another pop culture franchise, Star Trek (1966 – 1969) took a strange alternative route to exploring the values and ideas of the Roman Empire.  In the second season episode “Bread and Circuses,” the Enterprise traveled to a distant world in which Rome never fell, and which endured well into the 20^th century. 

This development meant that gladiatorial games were now televised and Christianity had not yet fully risen.  Slavery was still a fact of life, but this strange Roman Empire had also managed to avoid the destruction and death of Earth’s three world wars…

When Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1989 – 1999) migrated to the Sci-Fi Channel in 1997, the host segments and skits became serialized.  Mike (Mike Nelson), Crow and Servo traveled through time (from Earth in the time of the Planet of the Apes), all the way back to the Roman Empire.  There, Pearl Forrester (Mary Jo Pehl) Professor Bobo (Kevin Murphy) and Brian Guy (Bill Corbett) were held captive for a time in the dungeon of the matron Flavia (Bridget Jones Nelson) for having pretended to be Gods.

Viewers have also seen at least two historical dramas/soap-operas concerning Rome.  Rome (2005 – 2007) aired on HBO for two seasons, and was unique for its portrayal of Roman “everymen” Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson) and Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) as well as Senators, consuls and the like.

Similarly,Spartacus (2010 – 2013), a Starz original series features story-lines involving the famous slave uprising in the Roman Republic from 73 – 71 BC.

Cult-TV Theme Watch: Asteroids

An asteroid is a rocky or metallic space body, generally smaller than a planet and sometimes referred to as a planetoid.  In cult-television history, the asteroid has been depicted as a wandering threat which, through collision, can imperil inhabited and civilized worlds.  In other cases, an asteroid has been seen as the ideal location for an advanced outer space base or headquarters.

The original Star Trek (1966 – 1969) featured asteroids of both varieties during its third and final season.  In “The Paradise Syndrome,” Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and the crew of the Enterprise had to stop a sizable asteroid from colliding with a planet of Native American innocents.  Unbeknownst to the crew, the Indians were already protected (courtesy of a race called The Preservers) by the presence of an asteroid deflector on the planet surface.

In “For The World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky,” the Enterprise encountered a sealed-off society, Yonada, inside another giant asteroid.  The asteroid actually housed a generation ship, one ruled by computer. Once again, the crew had to set right the collision course, and help the people of Yonada (descendants of the Fabrini) develop a more stable and free culture.

In Gerry Anderson’s Space: 1999 (1975 – 1977) asteroids were also depicted regularly, and also often threatened collision, as was the case in “Collision Course.”  

In the episode “End of Eternity,” however, the Alphans found that a drifting asteroid was actually the prison for an alien called Balor (Peter Bowles).  In this case, Balor -- named for the ancient God Baal -- was a kind of devil or Satan figure (“cast our” from his evolved world of Progron), and so the asteroid represented, in some fashion, a kind of underworld or Tartarus from which he was released.  A second season story of the series, “Mark of Archanon,” saw Maya (Catherine Schell) and Commander Koenig (Martin Landau) navigating a dangerous asteroid field in an Eagle.  Yet another second story featured a jeweled asteroid called "Kalthon."

The live-action Filmation Saturday morning science-fiction series Space Academy (1977) and follow-up Jason of Star Command (1978 – 1977) also utilized a single asteroid as their main setting.  Here, a complex architectural structure was built upon the asteroid’s rocky surface, and the asteroid even boasted engines which could transport the base through space at warp speeds.  Even today, the miniature looks rather impressive.

Asteroids have frequented other space-based programming as well.  Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century(1979 – 1981) featured a segment called “The Return of the Fighting 69^th” in which notorious gun-runners hid inside an asteroid belt, on a secret base there.  In the second season story, “The Golden Man,” the Searcher ran aground on an asteroid (!).

In Doctor Who (1963 – 1989), a fifty-first century structure, Titan Base, was built upon an asteroid in the 1978 serial “The Invisible Enemy.”  And in the 1975 story “Revenge of the Cybermen,” the asteroid/planetoid of Voga wandered into Earth’s solar system and became the target of the Cybermen.

On Star Trek: The Next Generation, (1987 - 1994) the third season episode "Booby Trap" saw NCC-1701-D trapped inside an asteroid belt, the last "victim" of an ancient, interstellar war.  In a nerve-wracking finale, Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) had to pilot the Enterprise out of the belt using only thrusters...lest his ship be trapped forever.

Cult-TV Theme Watch: The Trial/Court Room

A court room of the 23rd Century.

It's strange to consider, but Perry Mason (1957-1966) -- a golden age TV series involving a 20th century defense attorney played by Raymond Burr -- has proven one of the biggest and long-lasting influences on science fiction TV series.

Specifically, just about every cult TV series in history has, at one time or another, put its heroic lead character on trial. 

Through almost universally wrongly accused some of these unfortunate souls have even negotiated -- perhaps in honor of Kafka -- alien and draconian brands of justice and punishment.

Seeing so many episodes featuring sci-fi heroes standing trial, decade-after-decade, franchise after franchise, you might wonder about the "why."   Is it just the fact that court-room drama is intertwined with mystery...and who doesn't love a good mystery?

Or has the sci-fi court room drama become a staple of the genre because we all wonder about the shape of justice in our future, a future of new breakthroughs, no doubt.  Since sci-fi deals with technology and  shifting senses of morality, the sci-fi "crime and punishment" episodes from various programs really get to the heart of human nature and the human quest for justice. 

In the first season of the original Star Trek (1966 - 1969), in an episode titled "Court Martial" Captain Kirk (William Shatner) is tried by Starfleet Command.   The charge is criminal negligence in the death of a crewman named Ben Finney (Richard Webb).  The ensuing trial is prosecuted by Kirk's old girlfriend, Areel Shaw (Joan Marshall), though certainly she should have recused herself, given the nature of the relationship with the defendant. 

During the course of the trial, Shaw presents incontrovertible computer evidence against the good captain.  Kirk choked at a crucial moment, according to the computer testimony, and ejected Finney's pod before a true emergency existed...thus killing Finney. The cost of this error: Kirk's command.

But the beleaguered Captain Kirk retains a delightful, book-loving defense attorney named Cogley (Elisha Cook) -- think of a "cog" in a wheel -- who dynamically makes the case about Kirk's primary accuser, an inhuman, unfeeling computer.  He puts a stop to the steam-roller of injustice by throwing himself into the proceedingsL

"The Bible, The Code of Hammurabi, and of Justinian, Magna Carta, The Constitution of the United States, Fundamental Declarations of the Martian Colonies, The Statutes of Alpha III. Gentlemen, these documents all speak of rights," Cogley asserts in a dramatic presentation.  "Rights of the accused to a trial by his peers, to be represented by counsel, the right of cross-examination. But most importantly, the right to be confronted by the witnesses against him; a right to which my client has been denied.

Furthermore, Cogley states: "I speak of rights! A machine has none. A man must. My client has the right to face his accuser, and if you do not grant him that right, you have brought us down to the level of the machine! Indeed, you have elevated that machine above us! I ask that my motion be granted. And more than that, gentlemen. In the name of Humanity, fading in the shadow of the machine, I demand it. I demand it!"

"Humanity fading in the shadow of the machine," that's what this futuristic tale of the legal system is really all about; the notion that our technology -- even in the happy Starfleet of the 23d century -- is on the verge of diminishing us; diminishing the human race. 

Though later Star Treks have by and large abandoned this conceit in favor of "Technology Unchained", the Original Series of the 1960s frequently involved planetary cultures "controlled" by computers, and the resulting enslavement of the human populations at those locales ("Return of the Archons," "The Apple," "For The World is Hollow and I have Touched the Sky.") 

On occasions such as "Court Martial," and later "The Ultimate Computer," Kirk's position as starship captain is explicitly threatened by technology, by "the machine."  The specific question of "Court Martial" is one that it is not hard to imagine in our near-future.  Who programs the computers that might be used to give testimony against us?   What are their agendas, and do the computers reflect those agendas?  Computers can be manipulated -- if there's a will, there's a way -- so who is to say they can bear impartial witness?  Just because a machine lacks emotions and subjective, "human" attachments, that does not mean it can detect the truth; or prove itself objective.  Does it?

Star Trek returned to the milieu of the legal trial for the two-parter "The Menagerie," which saw Mr. Spock threatened with the last death penalty still on Starfleet books.  There was another trial too, in "Turnabout Intruder," during which Spock was tried for mutiny when a usurper, Janet Lester, appropriated Kirk's body.  Even Scotty (James Doohan) himself was accused of murder, and required defense, in the second season episode of the series, "Wolf in the Fold."

In these cases, the court-room milieu was largely utilized as a means to leading viewers through a dramatic mystery.  Why would an advanced society still have the death penalty on the books?  Encoded in the answer we learn what Starfleet and the Federation deeply fears, and where it expects to experience that fear, Talos IV. 

In the case of "Wolf in the Fold," Mr. Scott is held in custody and Kirk must prove his innocence, but again, it's a mean to an end, a "whodunit."  In this case, the culprit is actually Jack the Ripper and -- surprise -- he gets inside the Enterprise's main computer...where he can really do damage. Once more, technology proves the focal point for conflict; whether threatening Kirk's command or housing the Eternal Spirit of Evil.

Solon (Brock Peters) vs. Boomer (Herb Jefferson, Jr.)

Glen Larson's Battlestar Galactica (1978 - 1979) postulated alien "brothers of Man" from a distant galaxy.  These humans hailed from a system of Twelve Colonies, and considered Earth to be the lost Thirteenth Colony.  In other words, as expressed by the series, the Colonials and the Terrans share a common, root culture. 

This conceit or leitmotif is played throughout the series with names of people, places and technology that suggest a shared mythology or history.  Characters are named Adama ("First Man"), Apollo (after the Greek God), etc.  Villains are named Lucifer, Iblis, and Baltar (after Baal).

In "Murder on the Rising Star," which first aired on ABC on February 18, 1979, the Colonial legal system is displayed for the first and only time on the space opera series.  In particular, Lt. Starbuck (Dirk Benedict) is accused of murdering Wing Sergeant Ortega (Frank Ashmore) after a game of triad, and prosecuted by the most experienced "Opposer" in the fleet, Solon (Brock Peters).  Apollo (Richard Hatch) and Boomer (Herb Jefferson Jr.) act as Starbuck's defense team ("Defenders") while Commander Adama (Lorne Greene) acts as the judge in the case.

What's most interesting in this "mystery" about who really killed Ortega is, again, how that conceit of connecting Earth mythology to our "Brothers" in space is applied.  For instance, Solon is a famous name from Greek history.  The archon Solon, who lived cira 600 BC was known as one of the Seven Wise Men of Ancient Greece, remembered for ending enslavement as a means of paying debt, and for splitting the Athenian population into four classes based on wealth.   Importantly, Solon was also a lawmaker presiding over Athens in a time of perceived moral bankruptcy or decline.

In "Murder on the Rising Star," this Solon has taken on the task of punishing the guilty, those who have transgressed against the moral code of the Colonies.  Unfortunately, he targets the wrong man. The idea here is of Solon as perhaps too zealous a crusader against moral bankruptcy.

Also, as I pointed out in my book, An Analytical Guide to Battlestar Galactica, the solution to the mystery in "Murder of the Rising Star" involves landing Starback between two criminals: Baltar and a man named Charybdis, another name from Greek myth.  In myth, Charybdis was a treacherous whirlpool which devoured any and all unsuspecting sea vessels that happened by.  In this case, Charybdis is just as destructive a personal force: a man who hatches a scheme for murder and nearly takes down the innocent Starbuck with him.

Finally, this episode of Battlestar Galactica today plays as cliched.  For instance, Commander Adama. sitting as a judge, even gets to say that Starbuck's defense (as managed by Apollo) is "highly irregular" that wonderfully cliched line of all TV and movie judges, through the last hundred years of cinema and television.

Buck Rogers' memories are used against him in a court of the future.

An episode of the second season of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979-1981) reveals that due process, and specifically the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution don't survive beyond the Holocaust in the year 1987. 

The Fifth Amendment declares, in part, that  no person "shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself," and that's the portion I shall refer to here.

In "Testimony of a Traitor," a twentieth century videotape found in the ruins of Anarchia incriminates Buck Rogers (Gil Gerard), suggesting that he was actually part of a cabal of nuclear hawks in the 1980s and therefore played a critical and specific role in starting World War III. 

Aboard the Searcher, no one believes that Buck could be responsible for genocide, but the videotape seems convincing.  To clear his name, Buck uses Dr. Goodfellow's (Wilfrid Hyde-White)  "memory probes" to determine what happened to him, and his own memories are used as evidence against him on trial -- actually played on the screen as if a live video feed  This is a clear violation of the principle of the Fifth Amendment, but I guess Buck didn't have many options open to him.

In the end, Buck's memories reveal that he was actually a double-agent, infiltrating the cabal at the behest of the U.S. president, and all charges against Buck were subsequently dropped.  But still, he bears witness against himself, appearing guilty, until the trial "reaches" the memories that prove exculpatory.



Even in the 24th century, truth is a matter of perspective.

One of best the most influential Japanese films of the twentieth century is Rashomon (1950), directed by the legendary Akira Kurosawa.

The film tells the tale of two terrible, criminal acts: the rape and murder of a woman, and the ensuing death of her samurai husband.  During the course of the film, the events of the rape and possible murder are recounted four times, from  four different perspectives.

The first time the story is depicted, we see it as the bandit (Toshiro Mifune) -- the accused -- remembers the events. 

The next time,  the rape victim, the samurai's wife, recounts the story as she remembers it. 

Then, oddly, the story is recounted a third time by a supernatural medium who claims to be channeling the Samurai's spirit.  Finally, a kindly woodcutter -- a legitimate eyewitness -- tells the story, in the least biased presentation of the bunch.

One of the great and enduring qualities of Rashomon is that it artfully suggests that there is no such thing as objective truth.  Eyewitnesses may be more or less impartial, but in the final analysis, everyone is a prisoner to his or her own sense of perspective.  We all view the world through our own eyes, and we cannot escape that limited viewpoint, no matter how hard we try.  The stories depicted in the film are personal accounts that may be lies, but may also, simply, be how the percipients remembered them.  Those memories may be self-serving, but aren't all memories, at least to some degree, self serving?

In its third season, Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987 - 1994)  unexpectedly adapted Rashomon to its format as an epiosde titled "A Matter of Perspective."  Here, jovial Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) is accused of murder after a visit to Botanica Four, a research space station over Tanuga Four.  The victim is Dr. Apgar, who dies in an explosion right after Riker departs the facility.

Captain Picard takes up Riker's defense, and the story of Riker's visit to the station -- and his alleged entanglement with Apgar's wife, Manua -- is recreated several times using that wonder of Star Trek technology, the holodeck. 

In this case, we get the testimony of Cmdr. Riker, Dr. Apgar, and his female assistant.  But disappointingly, and rather determinedly unlike the cinematic source material, the mystery on TNG is resolved without real questions of viewpoint or world view. We learn that one man. the victim (Apgar), was duplicitous and corrupt,  and that he brought on his unfortunate death himself. 

Accordingly, the "lesson" of Rashomon is lost here and easy, spoon-fed answers substituted for human truth.  But at the very least, "A Matter of Perspective" suggests an interesting new technology to be used in court rooms: virtual reality re-creations, like those seen on the Enterprise holodeck.  In this manner -- with the right data input (though it could be suspect, as "Court Martial" suggests) -- a crime scene and indeed a crime itself could be re-created for juries and judges.

Other series over the years have also seen heroes entangled in difficult, alien-seeming court-room systems.  In the mid-1980s, Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor was tried by the Gallifreyans -- his own Time Lord people -- in the season-long Dr. Who serial "The Trial of a Time Lord."  There, he was prosecuted by a twisted future incarnation of himself, "The Valeyard" (Michael Jayston).  It turns out, the Doctor is actually being framed for a crime committed by his people, and his old enemy the Master, proves to have some knowledge of that in a later episode.  Interestingly, and in keeping with his Time Lord nature, the Doctor presents as exculpatory evidence an adventure from the future; one that has not yet occurred ("Terror of the Vervoids.")

Green Lantern, John Stewart, was similarly famed for a crime he did not commit -- the destruction of a planet -- in the November 19, 2001 Justice League episode "In Blackest Night."  As is often the case in these court-room stories, one of the accused's most staunch allies plays the critical role of attorney/defender.  We have seen Captain Apollo, Captain Picard and other heroes take this particular assignment, and in this superhero episode, it is The Flash who serves as John's attorney and tries save his friend from a frame-up and conspiracy.

In 1994, Star Trek Deep Space Nine also featured an episode about a court-room trial, "Tribunal."  There, Chief O'Brien (Colm Meaney) ran afoul of the Cardassian legal system, a Kafka-esque labyrinth in which the edict "guilty until proven innocent" thrives. 

Again, a heroic Starfleet officer, Commander Sisko (Avery Brooks) stepped in to prevent a miscarriage of justice and defend his friend.  And -- as in the case of Starbuck and Green Lantern -- it was learned that O'Brien had been framed. 

Just once, wouldn't it be cool to find out that a Starfleet Officer or other white knight really was guilty of the crime he had been accused of?

Perhaps one of the best uses of the trial, court-room format came in the year 2002 as Chris Carter triumphantly ended his long-running series, The X-Files.  There, in the final episode, "The Truth," Carter used the milieu of the court room (and Fox Mulder's trial) to link together almost ten years of clues, events, and characters from the program's intricate conspiracy. 

Cult-TV Theme Watch: Automobiles

Marshall McLuhan once said that “the car has become an article of dress without which we feel uncertain, unclad, and incomplete in the urban compound.” 

The same is very much true of the automobile in cult-tv history.  

The automobile is indeed a hero’s article of dress in modern times, and often an image we associate, perhaps unconsciously, with a particular protagonist.  The car is to the modern TV superhero, perhaps, as the white horse Silver was to the Lone Ranger in a generation previous.

The most famous cult-tv car in history is undoubtedly the Batmobile created by George Barris for the Adam West TV series in 1966.  Although every Batman movie from 1989 through 2012 has featured alternate Batmobiles, it is this decades-old converted Lincoln Futura that remains, for many fans, the gold standard in terms of the Caped Crusader’s car. 

Although not quite iconic as the Barris Batmobile, another superhero TV series of the same era (and from the same producers as Batman) showcased another protagonist’s incredible ride.  The Green Hornet (1966 – 1967) featured the Black Beauty, a gorgeous Imperial Crown customized by Dean Jeffries.

In the 1970s, cult-tv cars were a staple of sci-fi TV.

The third incarnation of the Time Lord called the Doctor (played by Jon Pertwee), was seen often to drive in a vehicle named Bessie, a roadster with the license “WHO 1,” at least during his years of exile on Earth.  The car was eventually put into mothballs by UNIT’s Brigadier, but appeared again one more time during the Sylvester McCoy era in the late 1980s.

And movie studio executive/alien-destroyer Ed Straker (Ed Bishop) drove a stylish futuristic sports car (made from the frame of a Ford Zephyr) in the far-flung year of 1980 in Gerry Anderson’s live-action UFO.   This car is seen during the opening credits of every episode, and is a sort of visual trademark of the program

In the 1980s, a talking car called KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand) -- a 1982 Pontiac Trans am -- became the most popular character on the TV program Knight Rider (1982 – 1986), which also starred David Hasselhoff.  Some of the most enjoyable episodes of the series feature KITT facing off against his evil twin, KARR.

On and on through cult-tv series history, one can see how many popular programs are associated with automobiles.  There’s the General Lee on The Dukes of Hazzard, the Mystery Machine Van on Scooby Doo, the Mach 5 on Speed Racer, Lady Penelope’s FAB-1 Rolls Royce on Thunderbirds, and even Mr Bean’s “Mini.” 

In one instance, there was even a sitcom called My Mother The Car (1965 – 1966).  There, a woman’s soul migrated into an antique 1928 Porter touring car, much to the chagrin of her adult son, played by Jerry Van Dyke.  Mom was voiced by Ann Sothern.

One series that faced very fanciful automobiles was the 1965 series, The Wacky Race, from Hanna Barbera.  This cartoon involved a group of dedicated racers competing against one another in vehicles such as Dick Dastardly’s “The Mean Machine,” Penelope Pitstop’s Compact Pussycat 5, and the Buzzwagon 10.

Cult-TV Theme Watch: Yeti and Snowmen

It’s an all-too brisk thirty-five degrees here in Charlotte, North Carolina as I write this post…a perfect temperature and time of the year for a cult-tv theme watch about snowmen and Yeti. 

A Yeti, in particular is a legendary ape-like creature of substantial height, believed by some to exist in the Himalayas. 

So Yetis -- or “abominable snowmen” as they are sometimes known -- are essentially snow-bound versions of Big Foot (or Sasquatch).

Yeti and abominable snowmen have made quite an impact on cult television history.  Perhaps the most famous example comes from the era of the second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) on Doctor Who (1963 – 1989). 

At this juncture in the series long-history, the producers were searching for new villains to match the popularity of Terry Nation’s Daleks.  They came up with furry yeti robots controlled by a malevolent entity known as “The Great Intelligence.”    The yeti appeared in the serials titled “The Abominable Snowman” (1967), “The Web of Fear” (1968) and later in The Five Doctors (1983).  

In 2012, the Great Intelligence returned to Doctor Who and commanded a different brand of deadly snow man.

The Sid and Marty Krofft live-action Saturday morning series Land of the Lost also featured the Abominable Snowman in two third season installments.  In “The Abominable Snowman,” a unicorn wandered into the Altrusian valley, and a Snowman, considering it prey, followed.

In a follow-up episode “Ancient Guardian,” the yeti returned one more time.  In both instances, the Yeti was depicted in a very unconvincing, puffy fur costume.

The Yeti (or Yeti-like creatures) have also been seen as villains on animated series such as Johnny Quest, Ben 10 and Scooby Doo, but on the current The Regular Show, a yeti named Skips is one of the good guys.

An attacking abominable snowman was also the main antagonist in the 1977 TV movie Snowbeast starring Bo Svenson, Yvette Mimieux and Clint Walker.  In this tale, a murderous big-foot type creature wandered into the vicinity of the Rill Ski Lodge, and began killing skiers. 

This amusing horror made-for-TV film is brimming with menacing first person subjective shots and at each commercial break, the film fades to blood red for macabre effect. Every now and then, a furry arm or gnarled paw breaks into the frame to enliven the proceedings and there’s a great monster attack set in a barn. I especially like that this TV-movie repeatedly makes the point that most Big Foot creatures are reputedly peaceful (as does Land of the Lost’s “Abominable Snowman” installment…), yet this Yeti is entirely malevolent. It decapitates victims on a whim and stores the corpses in a barn for the long cold winter. 

When good Yetis go bad...

Cult-TV Theme Watch: Shrinks/Psychologists

Sometimes known by the slang term “shrink,” a psychologist is a professional or academic individual who tends primarily to the issue of mental health.

I should know, because I’m happily married to a psychologist.  It’s an arrangement I wholeheartedly recommend to all aspiring writers.

In cult-television history, we’ve met many psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, and social workers, all tending -- in various ways, obviously -- to the mental health of beloved characters.

During its original run on NBC, Star Trek (1966 – 1969) seemed to boast a love-hate, but mostly “hate” relationship with mental health professionals. 

In its pilot episode, “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” Sally Kellerman played Dr. Elizabeth Dehner.  Dr. Dehner -- uncharitably termed a “walking freezer unit” -- protected the dangerous Gary Mitchell (Gary Lockwood) for a long time, deliberately overlooking his expanded ESP abilities…because she was attracted to him.  Fortunately, Kirk (William Shanter) was able to reel Dehner back in by appealing to her nature as a psychiatrist, and she gave her life to stop Mitchell on Delta Vega.

Only a few episodes later, in the first season entry “Dagger of the Mind,” another psychologist, Dr. Tristan Adams (James Gregory) overstepped his professional boundaries.  At the Tantalus rehabilitation facility, Dr. Adams began to substitute his own cruel will for the will of his patients, using an experimental device called a neural neutralizer.  Captain Kirk was able to help defeat Adams with the help of the Enterprise’s staff psychologist, Dr. Helen Noel (Marianna Hill).

At this point, I must reflect that Dr. Helen Noel may just be the hottest psychologist in all of television history.  I suspect that the character had an unhealthy impact on me as a young man, because I married a psychologist named Kathryn Noel in my mid-twenties. 

Seriously. I’m not kidding about that.

Another evil, manipulative psychologist like Dr. Adams was seen on The Starlost (1973 - 1974), in one of its worst episodes, "And Only Man is Vile."  There, Dr. Asgard (Simon Oakland) hoped to prove his hypothesis that human nature was evil, and he would stop at nothing to assure his conclusion.

In the 1980s, Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) was a regular character on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987 – 1994).  She was the Enterprise psychologist, and first became an interesting (and beloved) character, in my opinion, when the writers focused less on her Betazoid empathic powers and more on her professional nature as a psychologist.   

The empathic angle was hokey and trite, and almost instantly in the series run Troi was reduced to a cliché stating ridiculously generic lines like “he’s hiding something.”  But once Troi got an office -- and office hours -- she grew as a character tremendously, and her intelligence and professionalism were established.

On Deep Space Nine, another counselor was seen in the seventh season, Ezri Dax (Nicole De Boer).  Did I mention that one of my cats is named Ezri?  Clearly, I like female psychologists. 

And I haven’t failed to notice that many have showed up of late on Dexter, Teen Wolf, and Ringer, among other series.  Let’s see, there was also one on Lost(2004 – 2011), and Frank Black’s caring wife, Catherine (Megan Gallagher) was also a mental health professional on Millennium.

If I were to stand back and analyze all this, I would suspect that so many attractive female psychologists appear on television because no one likes to receive bad news about one’s own behavior, and/or psyche. 

But the blow is softened, somewhat, I suspect if the person delivering that news happens to be gorgeous.

Of course, some beautiful female therapists are also extremely dangerous, and manipulative, at least if we are to believe cult-television.  Sarah-Jane Redmond, who achieved cult-status for her role as demonic Lucy Butler on Millennium (1996 – 1999), also portrayed the “shrink” named Karin Matthews in a fifth season episode of The X-Files, titled “Schizogeny.”

And come to think of it, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) himself was an Oxford-educated psychologist, if memory serves.    

Another prominent male psychologist in genre television of late is the pumped-up Dr. Ben Harmon (Dylan McDermott).  He's a liar and serial cheater too.  But my wife told me that if I'm writing about sexy TV psychologists, I should include him too.

So this image is for your mental health, Dr. Kathryn:

Cult-TV Theme Watch: Castles

A castle is a “fortified structure,” usually the residence of a noble or lord.  We tend to associate castles with fairy tales, or with medieval action of some type.

Not surprisingly, castles have proven a mainstay of cult-television history and have appeared as settings in fantasy programming -- live and animated -- throughout the decades.  Castles have also shown up in horror and science fictions programming many times too.

Two of the most memorable castles in cult-television history appeared in 1980s animated programs. 

The first is Castle Grayskull on Eternia, the refuge of He-Man and the Sorceress in the early 1980s Filmation effort, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe(1982).  More than one episode of that series involves Skeletor’s attempts to take possession of the ancient structure.

The second is the Castle of Lions on Voltron (1984), on the planet Arus.  There, members of the Galaxy Alliance had to locate the five keys of Voltron and assemble all the giant robot’s parts…

In terms of live-action storytelling, both the original Star Trek (1966 – 1969) and original Battlestar Galactica (1978 – 1979) featured tales involving castles.  In “Errand of Mercy,” the Organian Council met inside a mountaintop castle, one later taken over by Kor (John Colicos) and the Klingons.  This castle was represented by stock footage.

And in Battlestar Galactica’s “The Young Lords” Lt. Starbuck (Dirk Benedict) ends up on a world where a royal human family had been banished from its castle so the structure can house a Cylon garrison.

Intriguingly, both these programs involve fascinating visual counterpoints.  The highly advanced (and indeed non-corporeal…) Organians dwell in an ancient castle from a time long past.  Similarly, the sight of chrome, robotic Cylons patrolling the perimeter of an old, stone castle brings up the powerful idea of colliding realities or timelines.

Other cult-television programs have featured castles associated with famous literary or mythical characters.  The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (1977 – 1979) took its main characters to Count Dracula’s castle in Transylvania in “Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew meet Dracula (September 18, 1978), and Star Trek: the Next Generation’s Captain Picard had to rescue Maid Marian/Vash from Q’s (John De Lancie) castle in a Robin Hood-styled fantasy in “Q-Pid.”

The recent renaissance in fantasy television has also brought us the Land of Storybook castle in Once Upon a Time (2011 - ) and several more castles in Game of Thrones (2011 - ).  These fantasy programs have had considerably more success than the 1980s effort Wizards and Warriors (1983)…which also featured a memorable castle or two...