Rod Taylor: RIP

 

It has made the rounds that Rod Taylor has passed away at 84. The stories ran in EW and out of Australia here. And of course other numerous outlets. He starred in films like The Birds and of course the film that impacted me The Time Machine.

 

This is more about my experience with The Time Machine and Rod Taylor as the lead in that awesome film rather than Rod Taylor the actor. To eulogize the man here is to only repeat what his family and other fans have said about him and his body of work over the years. Better that I focus on how he was to me in The Time Machine.

The Time Machine was a novel by H.G Wells, published in 1895. This is now the well-known tale of human hubris, the horror of mutually assured destruction, and strong social commentary. All wrapped in an epic adventure that helped set the tone not only for the sci-fi tales that would come, but time-travel as a sub-genre all its own.

The 1960 film that stared Rod Taylor was this and more. This film also introduced me, subconsciously, to the Renaissance Man as a pulp hero. This was not the Over The Top Man of Bronze, but a thinking man’s hero all the same. A match for his adventure intellectually as well as physically.

Rod Taylor, playing H. George Wells an inventor (the novel only called the narrator The Time Traveler), invites his friends to dinner at the turn of the 20^th century and appears quite dramatically with an amazing story.

The film sees Wells witness the First and Second World Wars and then witness the destruction of his world through nuclear destruction. He is entombed for millennia, to find himself in the year 802,721, where he becomes embroiled in the gruesome relationship between the elfin, surface dwelling Eloi and the trollish subterranean Morlocks.

The movie ends with Wells in his own time with his cautionary tale, but then returning to the far future to the waiting Weena.

This was the best of all the films and adaptions of Well’s story as far as I am concerned. The time lapse filming, the sphinx, the sets and of course the glowing eyes of the Morlocks made this movie all kinds of awesome to me.

Taylor looked like an adventurer, of course he had the leading man good looks, but his physical presence spoke of his ability to handle the hardships ahead. He also carried himself with intelligence and insight. When he is among the Eloi he seeks the knowledge that was lost, he asks after books and finds them to be little more than book-shaped piles of dust. He rails against the loss of knowledge and the degeneration of the human race, himself holding intellect and science that truest, greatest pursuits of man. Yet, this hero takes to the Morlocks with thundering fists. He practically weeps at the folly of man that led to its near total destruction, in the end, he abandons man to his fate to return to the far future to help them start again.

When he departs his friend David Filby (Alan Young) sees books are gone. When Well’s house keeper asks after them, Filby replies: “Which would you take?” Of course what books would you take to restart civilization?  

The hero Rod Taylor portrayed is an icon of boyish adventure. He stands with Guy Williams’ Zorro, Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood, and James Mason’s Captain Nemo in my Saturday Matinee reality. I appreciate that late actor for creating that celluloid hero for me to emulate in my back-yard play as a boy.

Thank you, Sir.

 

 

 

Terra Nova: A Great Show No One is Watching

Terra Nova, a new show on Fox from Steven Spielberg and Brannon Braga that launched this season, starring Jason O’Mara (Jim Shannon) and Stephen Lang (Commander Nathaniel Taylor). The blurb from the Fox website dedicated to the show is as follows:


TERRA NOVA follows an ordinary family on an incredible journey back in time to prehistoric Earth as a small part of a daring experiment to save the human race. In the year 2149, the world is dying. The planet is overdeveloped and overcrowded, with the majority of plant and animal life extinct. The future of mankind is in jeopardy, and its only hope for survival is in the distant past.
When scientists unexpectedly discovered a fracture in time that made it possible to construct a portal into primeval history, the bold notion was born to resettle humanity in the past – a second chance to rebuild civilization and get it right this time.

Okay: what follows is a great adventure and suspense story, with family values. Yeah: family values and dinosaurs. This is not Land of the Lost nor Swiss Family Robinson, but a whole new creature.

When I watched the first episode I was actually turned off to the show. The set up and writing were trite and fell back on expected tropes. Examples within the pilot you have the angry eldest son who is so much like his father that he tries to go opposite of the man. The brainy and awkward middle child (daughter) and then the cute and oh so adorable youngest. Then there is the heavy handed social issues rammed down the throats of viewers on the environment and, oddly enough, population control. The hook is set immediately with a splinter group called Sixers (they came on the 6th pilgrimage) trying to usurp Terra Nova and Commander Taylor’s son is involved. Taylor himself seems to know what is going on but keeps it close to the vest.

Fortunately I kept watching. Despite Brannon Braga (The guy who I hold responsible for watering down Star Trek to a thin gruel) being involved, and the family oriented view point this show is good! (Not that there is anything wrong with a family oriented story, I just like my pulp a little harder than that.)

After the shaky start, the writing and plots have improved exponentially. The dinosaur effects and the fact there are dinos actually falls to the background, because the story and the characters do pull you in. The setting is the back drop to the larger drama. The scaly predators enhance what is all ready there.

The real star of the show to me is Stephen Lang, despite the films Avatar and Conan the Barbarian, this guy is awesome! This actor has some serious chops, and is not given enough credit for the solid, and believable performances he is capable of. Not only that, he is THE Bad Ass of Terra Nova. The man will go toe to toe with a T-Rex with a pocket knife! He will also do anything to insure the survival of Terra Nova and the people under his protection. (Totally unrelated note: This guy would have my vote to be Travis Morgan, The Warlord, in DC comics hollow world setting Skartaris.)

The interaction with the family unit at times strains the sweetness factor and too often hit’s the awwww factor. But that is my personal issue with it. The meaty exchanges are between Jim Shannon and Commander Taylor. As the only cop in Terra Nova Shannon has become Taylor’s head of security, and quasi-right hand. Their relationship is true bromance stuff. Shannon is willing to back Taylor’s plays, trusting the man to do the right thing. As an example in a recent episode Taylor tells Shannon: “You are the only one I trust 100% right now.” I hope to see even stronger exchanges between them, those things that strain friendships and build the strength of their trust further.

No one in this show just phones in a performance. The interactions, motivations, and dialogue are top notch. From Dr. Elizabeth Shannon’s ( Jim’s wife) relationship with an old college boyfriend to the villains and spies that all have strong personal motivations.

The show is not doing as well as it should in the ratings and I fear it will not see a second season. The budget was astronomical in the production and that is seen in the thirty-five minutes of run time vs. twenty-five in advertising. The value is apparent on the screen: the sets, the creatures, the tech, all are top notch. I think it is the lack of dinos in ever episode that seems to be a detractor for folks, but it falls to the background for me, because the story has evolved to something that good!

So check it out on Hulu, or other media, give it three episodes or even less. If you like Jurassic tension with a side of home town goodness thrown in, and a dash of pulp bad-assery this show has what you need.

Prince of Persia: The Trouble with Time Travel

Recently I caught Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and it has just hit video. The movie stars Jake Gyllenhall in the title role Gemma Arterton as the love interest, and Ben Kingsley as the villain. I guess now is the time for the warning that this will be a spoiler heavy post. So those of you that have not seen this film stop reading now………

Prince of Persia is set in a fantasy version of said empire, nothing historical need be noted. Frankly, I am just fine with this, I wanted to see a pulpy, swash and buckle adventure and I got one, with Arabian Nights trappings and plenty of pulpy goodness.

The basic plot is that the Persian king has three sons. Two are his natural children, the eldest destined for the throne, the second, captain of the cavalry, and the third, adopted from the streets is a rogue. The hero of the film and leader of the king’s special forces.

The vizier, played by Kingsley, convinces the brothers that they should attack a holy city that is seemingly running weapons for Persia’s enemies. The hero prince, through high flying swashbuckler daring, takes the gates and lets his brothers rush in to take the city. During the fighting he takes down an escaping warrior and obtains a glass hilted dagger that is a potent magical weapon, because within the glass are the Sands of Time. The sands allow the wielder to step back in time by a minute to correct a mistake, or avoid a killing strike.

Kingsly’s character manipulated the attack to gain possession the dagger and, the actual source of the power, to place himself on the throne.

Despite the sheer predictability of the story, which is actually the focus of this post, I just want to say that I really enjoyed it just the same. The adventure itself was a fun ride, the characters well done, the villains even more so. The use of, and look of the Hashishins (assassins) was very pulp sword a sorcery, and very cool. Of course the special effects were what is expected from Hollywood now. Despite any nit picky complaints, it is a fun movie that I will add to my collection.

In Prince of Persia, the hero is able to step back a minute and correct his mistakes, or change the course of events. The films follows the course where everyone dies, the brothers, the father, the love interest, and even helpful sidekicks all the way through are dying off. These characters dying, their sacrifices, created tension for the hero, but not for me, because the whole time I knew that the hero would turn back the clock to a certain point and none of it would have happened.

The actual idea of this post is the nature of time travel in movies and fiction in general. It always sounds so cool, but is nearly impossible to execute because of the paradoxes and the idea of “do overs”.

This is the biggest flaw in trying to create a time travel adventure. The hero can always fix his mistakes. As a matter of course it is actually the main thrust of such adventures from Back to the Future to Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. The tension and story come from the hero trying to correct those mistakes or set things right, but in the end we know they will. Outside of failing in the middle of the adventure, which no writer if it be screen plays, scripts, or fiction, would do.

Some films have pulled off the time travel adventure by stepping out of the norm for such stories, and a very few have actually pulled off some surprises. The two above used humor to tell the time travel story, Bill and Ted was over the top with the guys taking mental notes on going back in time to set up events to help them in the present, which of course worked….mostly. The first of Michael J. Fox’s movies did this well with the “my own grandpa” kind of shtick. Few actually seem to hold many surprises though.

The Terminator series took a slightly different tack, thank you Harlan Ellison. The first did well with the time travel elements of Reese being Conner’s father, because even the viewer knew he was going to die, the tension in the film actually came from that knowledge. The rest fell into a cycle of sending the next new and improved model after Conner. I imagined Sky Net sitting in Mordor (oops) saying “Did it change yet? Damn! Send another one!” Again, I imagine: why not send Arnold back with a dirty nuke in his guts and BOOM! Sky Net wins!

So what is the purpose of this post? Not much other than pointing out the pit falls of the time travel genre. I will turn off my logic engine and put in Time Rider followed by Time Line and if I have time, another viewing of the sword and sorcery fantasy Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. I will follow the axiom on the subject from South Park: The rules for time travel are just silly.