[ Post a Response | EVEN DeepER Blurting! ]
Posted by Kenneth Morgan
on 3/15/2009, 10:33 pm, in reply to "Also the best actor in ST's "Plato's Stepchildren""
--Previous Message--
: "CT: Frankenstein's Castle of
: Freaks"
:
: Oh, this was a really bad movie; low budget
: and pretty smarmy. It also has barely a
: nodding acquaintance with the source
: material. It's sad to see Michael Dunn (the
: real Dr. Loveless) reduced to playing the
: standard deviant dwarf in this flick.
:
What a shame to waste the talents of such a
fine actor that Michael Dunn once was.
Everybody makes such a big deal of Shatner
and Nicoles' kissing scene, in Star Trek's
"Plato's Stepchildren". But what
always stood out in my memory was Dunn's
Alexander role. He really made you believe
he was being manipulated by the others'
mental powers. And that, as their slave,
Alexander loathed the idea of becoming as
corrupt with power as they. It's a shame
there never was a follow up episode starring
his character in a new situation. But then
Star Trek barely had three seasons. And
practically never did any follow ups, except
with Harry Mudd, the con artist. Of all the
characters to repeat, eh?
Yes, Michael Dunn was also my favorite evil
dude on The Wild Wild West series. And he
sang better than any of the other evil dudes
they had. And that one song he did, on a
phonograph record, as James West's coffin
sank into the sea ("What Shall We Do
With A Drunken Sailor"). Is permanently
etched into my memory. Strange huh?
I agree that Dunn is pretty much the best part of that TOS episode. I don't watch that one very often, though. The villains are such a bunch of snobby, sadistic jerks that I end up wanting Kirk to Vader them with his new powers ("Apology accepted, Parmen."), rather than just mildly tell them off and leave. And Dunn was great as the cultured yet demented Loveless, though I more remember him in "Night of the Murderous Spring", when he drugs Jim West with hallucinagens (sp?). The lamentable movie did a real disservice to such a great character.
Actually, CT restricted themselves to just one TOS and two WWW riffs, and none from "Ship of Fools". Well, they already had enough material to work with.
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