Capt. Kirk wants Seven of Nine
May. 17th, 2006 04:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
barondave"Shirley, "says William Shatner's character to Candice Bergen's, "this is the sweeps episode..." and demands a kiss.
Murphy Brown replies, "You always present the most ethically challenged what-iffers..."
Okay, it's woefully unfair. These are actors, and their sf roles are waaaaay in the past and didn't intersect in Real Life (tm). Tough. Boston Legal is fanfic done right... fanfic with a budget.
Both halves of the season finale of Boston Legal were on last night, 5/16. I appreciate that all by itself. The fun started in the opening credits with the title of the second hour, BL: Los Angeles and the amazing array of guests. Boston Legal already has two Star Trek alumni, William Shatner and Rene Auberjonois. Shatner is the only actor I can think of who has has starred in four multi-year successful tv shows. Auberjonois has been a major character in three. Boston Legal is an over-the-top law soap opera, more than LA LAW and sometimes more than another David E. Kelley show Ally McBeal. At first, I wasn't entirely sure of Shatner et al: Too broadly played, even for him. But the show works, anchored by Auberjonois and Bergen who play serious (ie believable) lawyers. Shatner is a self-indulgent, self-absorbed, ultra-conservative, very rich and very successful lawyer who wins every case and chases women at every turn. How much of a stretch this is for Bill I cannot say. Still, when it works, it works spectacularly well.
The finale has Shatner falling for and ultimately defending Jeri Ryan. Yes, Captain Kirk gets to ogle the breasts of Seven of Nine. And so do we.
The guests had plum if thankless roles, but it's still fun to contemplate the crossover fiction of three different iterations of Star Trek colliding head on with It Takes A Thief/Max HeadroomWKRP in Cincinnati/Crossing Jordon and Back To The Future.
Oh yeah, there's other stuff on the show too, including sex and drugs and cat fights and the occasional law thingie. But who cares.
"Maybe that's what bothers me," says James Spader's lawyer to Shatner's at the end of the show, "Hollywood has sunk to the level of Congress."
Murphy Brown replies, "You always present the most ethically challenged what-iffers..."
Okay, it's woefully unfair. These are actors, and their sf roles are waaaaay in the past and didn't intersect in Real Life (tm). Tough. Boston Legal is fanfic done right... fanfic with a budget.
Both halves of the season finale of Boston Legal were on last night, 5/16. I appreciate that all by itself. The fun started in the opening credits with the title of the second hour, BL: Los Angeles and the amazing array of guests. Boston Legal already has two Star Trek alumni, William Shatner and Rene Auberjonois. Shatner is the only actor I can think of who has has starred in four multi-year successful tv shows. Auberjonois has been a major character in three. Boston Legal is an over-the-top law soap opera, more than LA LAW and sometimes more than another David E. Kelley show Ally McBeal. At first, I wasn't entirely sure of Shatner et al: Too broadly played, even for him. But the show works, anchored by Auberjonois and Bergen who play serious (ie believable) lawyers. Shatner is a self-indulgent, self-absorbed, ultra-conservative, very rich and very successful lawyer who wins every case and chases women at every turn. How much of a stretch this is for Bill I cannot say. Still, when it works, it works spectacularly well.
The finale has Shatner falling for and ultimately defending Jeri Ryan. Yes, Captain Kirk gets to ogle the breasts of Seven of Nine. And so do we.
The guests had plum if thankless roles, but it's still fun to contemplate the crossover fiction of three different iterations of Star Trek colliding head on with It Takes A Thief/Max HeadroomWKRP in Cincinnati/Crossing Jordon and Back To The Future.
Oh yeah, there's other stuff on the show too, including sex and drugs and cat fights and the occasional law thingie. But who cares.
"Maybe that's what bothers me," says James Spader's lawyer to Shatner's at the end of the show, "Hollywood has sunk to the level of Congress."
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-18 12:17 am (UTC)You may have omitted a "< /i >" tag there somewhere.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-18 12:35 am (UTC)And yes, other shows have had former lead actors in various roles (Susay Dey!), but Kelley really outdid himself for this one.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-18 03:09 am (UTC)So I rounded up a bunch of close friends, and we made a day of it, ending up at the MarvelMania restaurant (which has since closed). While we waited (endlessly) in the bar, in walked Jeri Ryan, with her then-husband and their young son. She was wearing a dasrk blue silk top and white denim jeans. I have rarely seen such a beautiful woman in my life.
One such occasion was a few years earlier, in the reception area of the CPA firm where I then worked. I was chatting with the receptionist when the door opened, and in walked a stunning dark-haired woman with pale eyes and a captivating smile. Just then the office manager entered from the other door and, seeing how my jaw had just dropped, introduced me to our client ... Terry Farrell. This was at least a year before she was cast in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." Let me tell you, the camera simply did not do her justice. And I'm not referring to the leopard-spot makeup, either.