The STAR TREK Connection

[Ruthyone]

I like the way the new Star Trek has been redone - just wonder whether having two Spocks will spoil things but will wait and see. Wonder if anymore of the 'Sherlock' team will be in future Star Trek films?           

[Carol the Dabbler]

Alex and I have recently gotten hooked on Leverage (2008 - 2012, now being re-broadcast on ION Television stations)-- which is about a team of con artists who help people who've been cheated, by bilking the bilker (and bilking him/her real good, so there's a bit of spare change left over to fund their future projects).  Yeah, you've seen it done before.  But it's delightfully done here.

 

Anyhow.  In one episode, the team's driver has to create a distraction by sacrificing his trusty old van.  As the van rolls off to its doom, he says solemnly, "I have been and always shall be your friend."  No footnote or anything.  We're apparently just supposed to recognize that line (though no harm done if we don't).  Star Trek really has become an integral part of our popular culture.

 

That's no surprise to us original-series fans -- but tremendously gratifying all the same.  (We told them so!)

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

Did he try to imitate Spock's voice? Because I can hear it in my head as I read that line.

[Arcadia]

Alex and I have recently gotten hooked on Leverage (2008 - 2012, now being re-broadcast on ION Television stations)-- which is about a team of con artists who help people who've been cheated, by bilking the bilker (and bilking him/her real good, so there's a bit of spare change left over to fund their future projects).  Yeah, you've seen it done before.  But it's delightfully done here.

Is that the one with Napoleon Solo, whose real name escapes me at the moment?

[Carol the Dabbler]

Napoleon Solo (played by Robert Vaughn) is a character from The Man from UNCLE, a spy series from the 60's (though for all I know, somebody's redone it).  Leverage was made less than ten years ago, and is more along the lines of Mission: Impossible, The A-Team, and Remington Steele -- the main characters are freelance con artists, not government agents.

 

No, I don't recall that he did an actual Spock imitation, though he did utter the line very seriously.

 

[Arcadia]

No, no, I meant ... is Leverage the show that Robert Vaughn is in? I just couldn't think of his name! But I've seen him in some show that sounds like that.

 

I thought the MI team was government? Isn't that who was disavowing any knowledge of their actions?

[Carol the Dabbler]

I was never completely clear whose side the M:I team was on (the CIA?).  I was just comparing the general shenanigans of Leverage to that show (though the tone is entirely different).

 

No, Vaughn isn't a regular in Leverage -- after consulting Google, I believe you're thinking of The Protectors, which sounds similar.  The senior member of the Leverage team is played by Timothy Hutton, who also played Archie Goodwin in the Nero Wolfe mystery series.

 

[Arcadia]

No, not the Protectors, that's almost as old as UNCLE! (We are showing our age, here......)

 

However, as the fates would have it, the show I was thinking of was just on one of our PBS stations -- Hustle. Too flashy for my taste but similar premise to what you're describing. Hmmmm, I wonder where they got the idea from.....

[Carol the Dabbler]

Yeah, it's possible that Leverage got the idea from Hustle -- but that type of TV show goes back a l-o-o-o-n-g way -- Colonel Flack and The Rogues, just for starters.

 

[Arcadia]

Is Mycroft unto Sherlock as Sarek is to Spock?

[Carol the Dabbler]

Well, I believe somebody said something like that somewhere around here sometime recently:

 

It just occurred to me that I've seen something very similar to the relationship between the Holmes brothers before -- namely, the relationship between Sarek and Spock on Star Trek (specifically the original series and its movies).  In Sherlock, we once again we have the totally-repressed father figure (Mycroft) frustrated by the younger man's [relatively] cavalier attitude, even though the younger man himself seems repressed by normal human standards.

 

But she could've been just imagining things.  How do you see it?

 

[Boton]

Well, I believe somebody said something like that somewhere around here sometime recently:

 

It just occurred to me that I've seen something very similar to the relationship between the Holmes brothers before -- namely, the relationship between Sarek and Spock on Star Trek (specifically the original series and its movies).  In Sherlock, we once again we have the totally-repressed father figure (Mycroft) frustrated by the younger man's [relatively] cavalier attitude, even though the younger man himself seems repressed by normal human standards.

 

But she could've been just imagining things.  How do you see it?

 

I think it's an apt parallel, Carol.  I always thought that Sarek had the sort of quiet confidence of someone who never really doubted his belonging in the Vulcan world and his ability to control his emotions.  Sarek was never going to be anything but Vulcan, and an incredibly good Vulcan at that.  Spock, on the other hand, had to fight with his half-human background and the perceptions people had of that, plus the fact that he went to Starfleet Academy to be with even more humans.  He was walking the line of being a tremendous embarrassment, even if we as the viewers were pretty impressed with him being ExO on a Starship.

 

Likewise, Mycroft is confident in his intelligence and in his position in the British government.  There is no one more British and more controlled than Mycroft, which lends itself to a confidence bordering on snobbery.  Sherlock, on the other hand, could embarrass himself at any turn:  not only is he fighting emotion, but he dabbles with unacceptable things like drugs and crime and goldfish, and he's self-employed.  Regardless of us perceiving him as Sherlock Holmes, the consulting detective, Mycroft sees him as little brother Sherlock. 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

And as Sarek was never happy with Spock's choice of career, neither is Mycroft happy with Sherlock's. Always telling him that they are more alike then Sherlock wants to admit and they should be working together, an idea that Sherlock fights tooth and nail.

[Arcadia]

Sherlock, on the other hand, could embarrass himself at any turn:... he's self-employed....

ohhhh, my sides hurt....

[Boton]

 

Sherlock, on the other hand, could embarrass himself at any turn:... he's self-employed....

ohhhh, my sides hurt....

 

 

I can pick on him....I'm self-employed too.  

[Arcadia]

 

 

Sherlock, on the other hand, could embarrass himself at any turn:... he's self-employed....

ohhhh, my sides hurt....

 

 

I can pick on him....I'm self-employed too.  

 

So am I, that's why it's so funny to me! Love it.

[Carol the Dabbler]

"Self-employed" is a euphemism, right? 

 

[Pamela]

"Self-employed" is a euphemism, right? 

If it is, I don't get it.

[Arcadia]

"Self-employed" is a euphemism, right? 

Er, no? Not in my case, at any rate. Can't speak for Boton!

[Carol the Dabbler]

Oh, sorry.  A number of people are genuinely self-employed, of course.

 

Unfortunately the term is also used as a filler on résumés -- if you were out of work for a while, you say that you were self-employed during that time.  I don't think it fools anybody, plus it may be giving the legitimate concept a bad name.

 

[Arcadia]

Oh, great. Well, since I plan to remain self-employed for the foreseeable future, I guess I don't care....

[Boton]

Yeah, I actually am self-employed, but I can chuckle at it's other connotation as a euphemism for "between jobs." That's why a lot of times I say I own a company, which is equally true but sounds more responsible.

[Arcadia]

Good lord. I didn't realize "self-employed" implied irresponsible, either. I always thought it implied industrious, inventive and self-starting. Or is that only if you make so much money at it that you can farm out the actual work to someone else? If you're doing the work yourself, you're just a day laborer who's too lazy to become an MBA?

 

Sorry, that struck a nerve. I didn't realize the term "self-employed" had become so denigrated. Yeeeesh.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Oh dear, sorry about the wisecrack!  No, I don't think it's gotten that bad.  And as you say, as long as you remain self-employed, there's no possibility of confusion.  If you ever do apply for a job working for other people, you might want to avoid using the term "self-employed," and just be fairly specific about what you've been doing.

 

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Being self-employed as well, I give myself a title (or actually 2 titles) that fit what I do.  I'm the President and Chief Artistic Officer of Yeshayahu Art.  I'm in charge of everything including creating the art work.