Because of other happenings in my life, Lost in Translation will not appear this week.  I should be able to give proper attention to the review on tap when Lost in Translation returns.

In the meantime, Lost in Translation can now be found on Facebook.

Remakes of popular films have it rough; the production staff needs to balance the expectations of existing fans while still working to get new viewers in.  With cult films, the balancing act needs to account for what made the original enduring.  Remaking The Rocky Horror Picture Show is daunting enough; the movie was one of the 70s top grossing movies and still plays to packed theatres, especially around Hallowe’en, and has audience participation.  To say there are built-in expectations is to scratch the surface.  Fox, however, added another level of difficulty – The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again was made for TV.

Broadcast* television is heavily regulated as a public resource.  In the US, the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission – has issued community standards of broadcast setting down what is and what is not allowed.  Since the “wardrobe malfunction” of 2004, the FCC’s enforcement has become more strict, at least before the watershed hour of 10pm.  The Rocky Horror Picture Show covers themes that dance over the line of what is allowed.  However, since Rocky Horror‘s release in 1975, attitudes have changed.  What could only be hinted at forty years ago, such as homosexuality, can be stated outright today, though having gay characters kiss, even chastely, will still generate complaints.

Shot-for-shot remakes just lead to viewers wondering why they just didn’t watch the original.  Deviating too far from the original, especially one where there’s audience participation, will leave viewers also wanting the original.  There’s a fine line to tread, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again makes the effort to find it.  Let’s Do the Time Warp Again frames the movie as a movie, with audiences, both television viewer and in-film, being brought into the Castle Theatre during the opening number, “Science Fiction/Double Feature” sung by Ivy Levan.  The in-film audience brings in the audience participation that movie-goers would get and is one of the draws of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

The plot of the movie follows the original script created by Richard O’Brien for the stage play, The Rocky Horror Show.  Between the movie and the various performances of the stage musical, there’s no getting away from it; audiences are expecting that story.  However, it’s not the plot that is key; it’s the performances.  Tim Curry as Dr. Frank-N-Furter is iconic; Frank-N-Furter is a sexual omnivore casually seducing everyone around, including the theatre audience.  Curry is a tough act to follow, and his presence in Let’s Do the Time Warp Again as the Criminologist** serves as a reminder of his previous role.  Laverne Cox is up to the challenge as the new Frank-N-Furter.  While Cox doesn’t quite channel Curry, she does exude raw sexuality, predatory and assertive, in the role.  Meanwhile, Victoria Justice as Janet Weiss and Ryan McCartan as Brad Majors protray the young highschool sweethearts going through sexual liberation, Janet willingly and Brad reluctantly.  Rounding out the cast, Reeve Carney does channel Richard O’Brien as Riff-Raff, sounding much like the original.  Frank-N-Furter’s castle is played by Toronto’s Casa Loma, and looms menacingly in the stormy night.

The remake includes a few shout outs to the original movie, including Columbia saying, “I hope it’s not Meatloaf again,” during the dinner scene.  Considering all the challenges faced, the remake stepped up and delivered.  Even the cheesy CGI near the end can be forgiven; no one in Toronto would appreciate the destruction of Casa Loma after all the time and money put into renovating the building.  The biggest drawback Let’s Do the Time Warp Again had was the commercial breaks, disrupting the flow at times.  The drawback will be corrected with the DVD release, allowing viewers to watch the movie through without interruption.

Let’s Do the Time Warp Again won’t replace The Rocky Horror Picture Show, nor does it try to.  The framing of the remake goes a long way to set up how to view the movie and brings in the audience participation, the biggest draw of the original movie.  The forty years between the original release and the remake’s airing gives Let’s Do the Time Warp Again the room needed to address the theme of sexual liberation, with the Unconventional Conventionlists and the Transsexual Transylvanians being a goal, not an oddity.  Given enough time, Let’s Do the Time Warp Again should reach cult status, much like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and join the original movie on the repertory circuit.

* Over-the-air, though even that description is getting less and less accurate as online streaming becomes more and more popular.
** Portrayed in the original movie by Charles Gray, who also played Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever.

Peanuts has appeared before in Lost in Translation.  The comic strip first debuted October 2, 1950 and ended February 13, 2000 after the retirement and passing away of creator Charles M. Schulz.  It was his and his family’s wishes that the strip end with his retirement, but the strip is still going with repeats, with older strips gaining new readers who weren’t born when first published.  Peanuts grew beyond the newspaper comics page, leading to a series of televised specials starting in December of 1965 and leading to the 2015’s The Peanuts Movie.

Released sixty-five years after the strip’s debut, The Peanuts Movie was the first to present the classic characters using computer animation.  Schulz’s son, Craig, and grandson, Bryan, were involved in the writing and production of the movie.  The movie follows the full cast, headed by Charlie Brown and Snoopy, over the course of winter and spring, as a new family movies into the neighbourhood.  The new family includes a new classmate, the Little Red-haired Girl.  Charlie Brown is smitten by the newcomer.  He spends the rest of the movie trying to work up the courage to talk to her, stepping up to write a book report when she has to leave town and isn’t able to co-write the assignment, and learning to dance to impress her.

Snoopy and Woodstock work together to write about the World War I Flying Ace and his fight against his nemesis, the Red Baron.  The Ace meets a French beagle who gets taken prisoner by the Red Baron, necessitating a raid deep behind German lines to find her.  The Ace’s efforts mirror Charlie Brown’s; both struggle in their quests, but both persevere, overcoming obstacles.

The story is familiar, coming from Schulz’s works, including the comic strip and the TV specials.  The take on the story line is fresh, not just through the animation but the writing.  Every character who appeared in Peanuts gets a chance to shine, even briefly, on screen.  Classic bits appear, including Snoopy as Joe Cool, Charlie Brown versus the kite-eating tree, and even, as an Easter Egg during the end credits, Charlie Brown trying to kick a football held by Lucy.  The movie also re-animates some classic scenes from the specials, including skating on the pond and dancing from A Charlie Brown Christmas and the dogfight between Snoopy and the Red Baron from It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  The musical score is a mix of old and new, bringing in Vince Guaraldi’s “Linus and Lucy” alongside Meaghan Trainor’s “Better When I’m Dancin’“.  The movie even uses recordings of Bill Meléndez, who passed away in 2008, of Snoopy and Woodstock to keep the feel.  The one adult, teach Ms Othmar, is played by a trombone.  The CG animation doesn’t detract from the characters.  The facial expressions are straight from the strip, and the characters themselves are accurate in appearance.  There is a visible effort to keep the movie true to the comic, to keep the simplicity of Schulz’s work.

The Peanuts Movie is very much a Peanuts movie.  Schulz’s son and grandson took great pains to make sure that the film followed naturally from the decades of work already beloved by millions.  It would have been easy to create a movie that paid just lip-service, but they went above and beyond, recreating the feel of Peanuts with a newer animation style without losing what made the comic popular.

The 80s aren’t just fodder for big screen remakes this fall.  Alongside MacGuyver and the announcement of a Magnum, P.I. sequel, the silver screen is being mined for new TV series.  Among the offerings is Lethal Weapon.

The original Lethal Weapon, released in 1987, starred Mel Gibson as Martin Riggs and Danny Glover as Roger Murtaugh, detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department.  They were an odd couple, except instead of one being a neat-freak and the other an utter slob, Murtaugh was a dedicated family man counting the years until retirement and Riggs was so deep in mourning his dead wife and child that he had a death wish.  Combined, they solved a difficult case, albeit with extensive and expensive collateral damage in their wake.  Lethal Weapon spawned three sequels and introduced Joe Pesci as Leo Getz, providing a break-out role for the actor.  As the movies progressed, Riggs found a reason to keep living but still was reckless.  Murtaugh loosened up a bit.  Together, they fought crime and got the blame for the more expensive happenings in L.A.

This TV season, Lethal Weapon returned as a TV series.  Its biggest challenge is to recapture the onscreen chemistry between Riggs and Murtaugh without shying away from the problems each of them have.  Gibson and Glover as Riggs and Murtaugh took the buddy cop genre and turned it on its ear.  They are a tough act to follow.  The new Riggs and Murtaugh, Clayne Crawford and Damon Wayans, are up to the challenge.

One benefit television has over movies is that there is more time to explore a character.  The first episode shows how Riggs’ life is shattered and shows Murtaugh as a family man, contrasting them before they even meet.  The contrast between them sets up the series.  That the pilot takes its plot from the original movies isn’t a problem; adaptations bring a set of expectations and the Lethal Weapon movie series did change buddy cop films*.  The pilot keeps the tone of the movies, not altogether serious but also not a comedy.  Crawford portrays the loss and pain of Riggs, especially when he’s alone.  Wayans fills in Glover’s shoes well, being the family man who has to worry about not just himself but his family if something should happen to him.

The Lethal Weapon TV series hit the mark running, capturing the feel of the movies and taking advantage of the change in format to delve deeper into the character’s lives without changing what made Riggs and Murtaugh an audience draw.

* Arguably, so did 1984’s Beverly Hills Cop with Eddie Murphy, but Murphy’s Axel Foley was just visiting when he was paired with Judge Reinhold’s Billy Rosewood and John Ashton’s John Taggert, who were already a more conventional set of partners.

In the tabletop role-playing game industry, Dungeons & Dragons is the 800 pound gorilla, the game that the general population knows by name.  The game has had a cinematic adaptation that didn’t work as either a movie or an adaptation.  However, the movie wasn’t the first adaptation of the game.  In 1985, an animated series based on the game began airing on CBS.  The series would last two seasons, with animation by Toei.

The 80s were an odd time for the game.  Dungeons & Dragons had managed to break away from specialty game stores to appear in toy stores and book shops.  At the same time, parent groups appeared to counter the game’s popularity, accusing the game and its publisher, TSR, of being satanic.  One group, Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons headed by Patricia Pulling, managed to make some headway with law enforcement despite dubious research and math and even appeared on 60 Minutes in 1985.  The D&D cartoon thus had some extra restrictions on it beyond the usual Saturday morning ones.

The opening credits of the cartoon told how the characters got involved.  A ride at an amusement park deposits a group of friends into a fantasy world, where they’re immediately set upon by two villains, Venger and Tiamat.  However, with the intervention of Dungeon Master, the group gains magic items that helps them escape.  Each of the main characters represented a different character class.  Hank became a Ranger, receiving a magical bow.  Sheila, with her cloak of invisibility, became a Thief.  Presto received a magic hat to become a Magic-User, the term used for wizards in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons‘ first edition.  With the Unearthed Arcana also being released in 1985, character classes from that supplement were also used.  Sheila’s younger brother Bobby became a Barbarian with a magic club.  Diana received a magical staff, letting her become a Thief-Acrobat.  And, finally, Eric became a Cavalier upon receiving a magic shield.  After arriving in the world, Bobby befriended a young unicorn colt, Uni.  Making a noticeable absence is the Cleric, but given the Satanic Panic around the game, leaving the class out meant feidling fewer calls from angry special interest groups.

Over the course of the series, the group of young intrepid adventurers sought to find a way back to their home.  Dungeon Master would appear to provide guidance in the form of riddles, leading the adventurers into situations where they would use their abilities to help others in need.  Meanwhile, Venger would appear to try to get the group’s magic items or Tiamat, former Babylonian goddess turned five-headed ruler of the evil dragons, would appear to menace.  Dungeon Master was well-meaning but capricious, dangling hope in front of the adventurers, much like some actual DMs.  Each of the main characters showed elements of their representative classes, from Sheila’s sneaking to Presto’s magic, though not exactly to the rules.  Eric, on the other hand, didn’t show the Cavalier’s valour, though that was a decision made thanks to executive meddling.  The rule at the time was to have teamwork, and anyone who went against the group was thought to be in the wrong.  Eric was designated the one to be in the wrong, even if his idea, typically running away, was a viable choice.

The mechanics of AD&D were hidden, meant to be more the physics of the fantasy world than anything else.  Monsters that did appear did come from the game.  No one rolled a die to determine hit or miss, but such a scene would break immersion.  Instead, the setting came from the rules, though not specifically Greyhawk, Gary Gygax’s home campaign.  The adventures were aimed at a younger audience, the extreme low end of the “For ages 12 and up” range.  However, some of the episodes wouldn’t be odd to have as an evening’s play session, even with D&D‘s fifth edition.  Having Dungeon Master be a character in the series was an odd choice, but the role worked and showed potential players how to be a DM and still allow the players to have fun while working through a challenge.

The D&D cartoon was an odd duck in a decade that was defined by odd ducks.  Few popular media ever faced a strong challenge by special interest groups as /D&D/ did, and, yet, the game remained popular.  The cartoon followed in the game’s footsteps, creating its own niche and presenting a setting usable with the game without getting too bogged down in details.

ABC announced that it is working on a sequel to the 80s detective series, Magnum, P.I., with John Rogers and Eva Longoria as the showrunners.  Longoria’s studio, UnbeliEVAble Entertainment, has access to Universal TV’s catalog.  The new Magnum will focus on the detective’s daughter, Lily.

The original Magnum starred Tom Selleck in the title role and ran eight seasons.  Set in Hawaii, Magnum ran a detective agency while working as security for the unseen Robin Masters.  Magnum had access to some of Masters’ possessions, including a Ferrari, but only under the watchful eye of Higgins, played by Jonathan Hillerman.  Helping Magnum were his friends, bar owner Rick, played by Larry Manetti, and helicopter pilot TC, played by Roger E. Mosley; all three had served together during the Vietnam War.  While the series had a light touch throughout its run, it did delve into the effect the war had on Magnum and his friends, and would go dark when needed.  Later in the series, Rick’s gangster friend Icepick, played by Elisha Cooke, joined the cast.

The new Magnum, is a sequel, as mentioned.  John Rogers has said that Tom Selleck is too iconic as Magnum to replace.  A sequel leaves Selleck as the original Magnum and leave room for him to make guest appearances.  The new Magnum, Lily, did appear in the original series, including the series finale.  The character isn’t coming out of nowhere.  The new Magnum isn’t just a gender-flipped version; she is part of the continuity.

The difficulty the Magnum sequel will have is getting the tone right out of the gate.  It has to match the tone of the original series, not just season by season but also overall.  The original Magnum‘s tone evolved as the series progressed over its eight seasons, starting light but getting deeper into Magnum’s history and relationships as the show aired.  However, expectations of the new series may require mix the feel of both early and later seasons.  It’ll be tough.

What the new Magnum has going for it is show runner John Rogers.  Rogers has experience in television with series that can run the gamut between light and dark with the same season and even the same episode.  His series Leverage, which can be described as a heist movie in under an hour, has fully-fleshed characters who have camaraderie that isn’t forced.  Indeed, the characters don’t always get along, despite being on a team.  Rogers has a good grasp on inter-character dynamics, something that the original Magnum also demonstrated.

With adaptations reaching saturation levels, getting buy-in from the audience will be critical for the new Magnun, P.I., but the sequel has several advantages that should help it keep people watching past the first episode.  It’ll be a balancing act until the show finds its own way, but it should succeed.

Movies aren’t the only medium that adapts.  Television will adapt, remake, and reboot, too, to varying degrees of success.  Genres abound on TV, from soap operas – daytime and nighttime – to police procedurals, from sitcoms to action-adventure, adding to the feeling of familiarity.  The nature of television has changed over the past few decades.  Where once viewers had a choice of three or four stations, there are several hundred options, with channels for every niche.  This change means that programming for the lowest common denominator means that’s the only denomination that is watching.  Still, with the sheer amount of competition for eyes, not helped by the infinite channels available on the Internet, studios and networks are looking for anything that will let them sell ad time.  Remakes of memorable shows is one way to get viewers, at least for the first episode.

This season, the 2016-2017 season, is seeing a number of adaptions, including at least two shows based on movies – Rush Hour and Lethal Weapon.  Also premiering is a remake of the Richard Dean Anderson series, MacGuyver.  The original series ran for seven seasons, featuring Anderson as the title character, capable of creating solutions out of anything on hand, to the point where creative solutions are known as MacGuyvering.  Anderson’s MacGuyver prefered the more peaceful solution over easy violence.  MacGuyver used guns a total of two times over the seven season run; once was a rifle set to shoot into the ground, with each bounce due to recoil resulting in another trigger pull, and once to use a heavy revolver as a wrench.

Mac worked for the Phoenix Foundation, run by Pete Thornton, played by Dana Elcar.  Pete was nominally Mac’s boss, but the relationship was more friendship than anything else.  Mac’s pilot friend Jack Dalton, played by Bruce McGill, wasn’t part of the Foundation, but appeared often.  Jack was more likely to get Mac involved in existing trouble, often triggering Mac’s acrophobia.  Other recurring characters include budding actress Penny Parker, played by Teri Hatcher, and Mac’s nemesis Murdoc, played by Michael Des Barres.  A typical epsiode of MacGuyver dropped Mac into a situation, usually an investigation, with several opportunities to jury-rig a solution with whatever is on hand.  The show was light entertainment, with the added draw of viewers trying to figure out what Mac would do with the materials on hand, with Anderson narrating the action.  In the first season, the pre-credits teaser, called the opening gambit, was often written by Dalek creator Terry Nation.

The new MacGuyver debuted September 23 and is a remake of the original instead of a continuation.  However, Lee David Zlotoff, creator of the original MacGuyver, is on board as an executive producer, with Henry Winkler returning as another.  The new Mac, played by Lucas Till, still works for Thornton, Patricia Thornton, played by Sandrine Holt.  The pilot begins with Thornton as the head of the Department of External Services, one of the myriad intelligence agencies in the US.  Mac is part of a team with Jack Dalton, now played by George Eads, and Nikki Carpenter, played by Tracy Spiridakos.  Over the course of the episode, Nikki is replaced by the new character, hacker Riley Davis, played by Tristin Mays, and the DXS becomes the Phoenix Foundation.

With just one episode, it’s too soon to do a proper analysis of the series.  It takes time for a show to find its legs as actors figure out their roles.  However, first impressions do happen.  Casting is tough; Richard Dean Anderson’s Mac is iconic; Lucas Till has big shoes to fill.  Helping, though, is that he can pass as a young MacGuyver, even taking into account the difference in hairstyles between 1985 and 2016.  The new Mac still prefers a peaceful solution, eschewing guns, and still creates jury-rigged solutions on the fly.  With the advances in electronics and computers over the past thirty years, there are new ways to MacGuyver a solution to a tough problem.  The big change is in the approach.  Mac now has a team instead of working solo, and Jack is now part of that team.  Jack is also is the heavy on the team, as likely to pull out a gun and shoot as the opposition is, in contrast to Mac.  Patricia Thornton is less buddy-buddy with Mac than Pete Thornton was but is still sympathetic.

The new MacGuyver still needs a few episodes to get comfortable in its own skin.  There is a lot of baggage from the original that just can’t be hidden, such as Mac’s first name.  Once a secret kept until near the end of the series, the name is known well enough by the potential audience that keeping it hidden would just be awkward.  However, the show has potential once it settles in.  Lucas Till isn’t Richard Dean Anderson, nor should he try to be him.  The new Mac needs to be his own person, informed by the original but not a carbon copy, especially given the thirty year difference between the two series.  The pilot of the new MacGuyver did feel like a first season episode of the original, and has potential.  The new show needs to balance the legacy of the original while still being its own series.

Over the weekend of September 9-11, I was at Can-ConSF, a literary science-fiction and fantasy convention in Ottawa, Ontario.  The con is small but brings both readers and writers together to discuss various topics.  One of the panels was called “Adapting Literary Works to Television and Movies”, so, naturally, I had to go.

There were five panelists, representing different views of being adapted.  Tanya Huff, one of the author guests of honour, had her Blood books* adapted as a TV series that can still appear on Canadian cable stations thanks to Canadian content requirements.  Ian Rogers is a horror writer who has had stories optioned by Roy Lee, but nothing is going to pilot yet.  Jay Odjick is the creator of Kagagi the Raven, a comic that he adapted as a cartoon that airs on APTN.  Sam Morgan is a literary agent with the JABberwocky Literary Agency, and provided the insider view.  Moderating was Violette Malan, a fantasy novelist.

While there are some writers who either don’t want their works adapted or have had bad experiences and won’t go down that path again, for most, getting optioned is like winning the lottery, except the lottery has better odds.  The money from being optioned isn’t that much, but if the adaptation is picked up, it can be comfortable.  Tanya was able to pay off her mortgage thanks to Blood Ties going to air and still sees royalties coming in from the series.**  But, while the money from adaptations may not be much, there is a boost in sales of the original work that comes immediately afterwards.  Tanya saw a thirty percent increase in the sales of her Blood books right after the first episode aired.  This boost, though, doesn’t necessarily carry over with comics.  Jay didn’t see an increase and believes that movies may be too different from the comic to entice new readers.

Writers have little control over how a work gets adapted.  Some writers may have more leverage; JK Rowling, thanks to the success of Harry Potter, managed to ensure that the movies remained as faithful as possible, but most writers don’t have that luxury.  Stephen King treats adaptations of his works as entities separate from the originals.  Changes will be made and the writer is low on the totem pole when it comes to decision making.  The best thing to do in that case is to treat the adaptation like a grandchild; don’t complain about how they’re raised or you won’t see another grandchild ever.  Tanya treats adaptations as fanfic that she’s getting paid for.  She even wrote an episode of Blood Ties, so she wrote fanfic of her own work.***

Kagagi the Raven is a little different.  Jay tried shopping the adaptation around, looking for someone to pick it up.  He and his partner wound up producing the series themselves.  As a result, he had more initial control once APTN licensed the series from him.  However, APTN doesn’t pay for the show until it’s done.  Jay had to find a distributor to sell the show internationally.  As a result, Jay is now beholden to network distributors and advertisers.  However, Jay now has a producer credit and can now make pitches far more easily than when he was shopping Kagagi.

Each of the panelists had works optioned in different ways.  Jay, as mentioned above, became a producer to turn his comic into a cartoon.  With Tanya’s Blood Ties, the series had been optioned since the third book, with Kaleidoscope being the studio to take the adaptation to pilot and then to series.  Kaleidoscope had read the books and loved them but, being Canadian, couldn’t pay as well as an American studio.  To make up for that, they let Tanya be involved with the show.  With Ian, Roy Lee, who had adapted a number of Japanese horror movies including The Ring, had one of Ian’s stories recommended to him.  Lee contacted Ian out of the blue to option the story, and took a number of other ones that were related.  Ian now has credit as a consulting producer even though the series hasn’t gone to pilot.  Sam, the literary agent, often gets called to find out if the rights to a book are available.  With True Blood, Alan Ball had bought the book prior to a dentist appointment, then read it afterwards while recovering, and the rest is history.  Sam also mentioned that production companies have people, book-to-film agents whose job it is to find works that could be adapted.

The big takeaway, at least from the writer’s view, is to know when to take credit.  If the movie or series is a hit, take the credit as the creator.  If the movie or series is a flop, blame Hollywood.  “Eh, you know how it is in Hollywood.”  This goes back to treating an adaptation as a grandchild; changes will be made.  Knowing that changes happen and accepting that it’s beyond a writer’s control means sleeping easier, especially with option and royalty money coming in.

* Not to be confused with the Books of Blood by Clive Barker.
** Tanya recently received a $600 cheque thanks to Blood Ties being in the top ten shows in Pakistan.
*** Tanya also reports that most final drafts of scripts keep no more than five lines from the first.  Her episode of Blood Ties managed to keep in six thanks to some actor improvisation that matched her early draft.

The original Star Trek recently celebrated its 50th anniversary of the air date of its first episode, “The Man Trap”.  Since then, the series has had a number of adaptations, including feature films, continuation TV series, games, comics, books, and even a cartoon.  However, when the last first-run episode, “Turnabout Intruder” aired, fans had to resign themselves to watching the series in syndication, despite the efforts put into letter writing campaigns.

The dearth of new Star Trek episodes came to an end in 1973, when Gene Roddenberry worked with Filmation to create an animated series.  Now known as Star Trek: The Animated Series, to distinguish it from other Trek entries, the cartoon brought back the crew of the USS Enterprise for two more seasons, this time on Saturday mornings.  Filmation is best known for series such as He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, its spin-off series She-Ra: Princess of Power, and Ghostbusters*, and animation techniques that were budget friendly, including long establishing shots and animation reuse.  During the series’ two seasons, twenty-two episodes aired.

Budget-friendly animation helped ST:TAS, allowing the series to bring back most of the cast to reprise their roles for the cartoon.  With the reuse of animation, artists could ensure that the characters looked like their actors.  Also because of animation, aliens were no longer limited to looking like humans in rubber masks.  Two new crewmembers were introduced, Lieutenant M’ress, a cat-like communications officer, and Lieutenant Arex, a tripedal navigation officer.  Both additions allowed Star Fleet and the Federation to feel larger and inclusive.  Thanks to being animated, alien worlds could look alien with no more effort it took to paint a corridor of the Enterprise.

ST:TAS brought in science-fiction writers as much as the original series did.  Larry Niven wrote “The Slaver Weapon”, bringing in his Kzinti from his short story, “The Soft Weapon”.  David Gerrold, who wrote the original series episode, “The Trouble With Tribbles”, revisited the furry ecological menaces with “More Troubles, More Tribbles”.  DC Fontana, who both wrote and was a story editor for the original series, contributed “Yesteryear”, a look at Spock as a young boy.  The limitations of the format, a 22-minute long cartoon, was worked around and, in many cases, used to great effect.

For a while, the animated series was considered non-canonical, except for the cases where it was.  Kirk’s middle name, Tiberius, was given to him by Gerrold in “More Trouble, More Tribbles”, and stuck.  Fontana’s “Yesteryear” provided such a rich look at both Spock’s early life and Vulcan culture that it was more-or-less accepted as is.  “Yesteryear” is part of Spock’s story arc, as he evolves from having his Human and Vulcan sides at odds to him accepting that he is part of both worlds, as seen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek IV: The Voyager Home.  Canonicity has returned in bits and pieces, with ST:TAS being mined for background for different characters.

The series continued to delve into social issues and showcased characters that didn’t get spotlight time in the original series.  Of note, “The Lorelei Signal”, by Margaret Armen, placed Uhura in command of the Enterprise after the male crewmembers fell under the effect of space sirens.  Beings that appeared to be dangerous turned out to be misunderstood.  The dangers of introducing an invasive species were explored.  The show worked to keep to the spirit of the original series.  While there were episodes that fell flat, the same happened with the original series.  However, the animated series took what it had and expanded the Trek universe, entertaining fans who were starved for new episodes without disappointing them.

Star Trek: The Animated Series transcended the Saturday morning cartoon format, bringing back the crew of the Enterprise to boldly go, once again, where no man has gone before.

* Not to be confused with The Real Ghostbusters, the animated adaptation of the Ghostbusters movie.

Sid and Marty Krofft were prolific creators of children’s programming in the 70s, though often adding a twist of the bizarre into the mix.  Electra Woman and Dyna Girl was no different.  The show was, essentially, a gender-flipped 70s-era version of the 1966 Adam West Batman series by the creators of H.R. Pufnstuf.  Electra Woman and Dyna Girl was part of The Krofft Supershow, airing in 12 minute segments for a total of 16 episodes, each pair forming a full story.  The end of the odd-numbered episodes was a cliffhanger with the main characters facing danger.  The segment lasted for just one season, being dropped from The Krofft Supershow when it went to its second season.

Deidre Hall, best known for her work on the daytime soap Days of Our Lives, played intrepid reporter Lori, who became the superheroine Electra Woman.  Judy Strangis played Judy, who became the teen sidekick Dyna Girl, even though Strangis was only two years younger than Hall.  Their powers came from the ElectraComs, devices on their wrists that projected energy that could be used to thwart the machinations of their villainous opponents.  The ElectraComs received their power from the ElectraBase, where scientist Frank Heflin, played by Norman Alden.  Heflin operated the CrimeScope, a computer designed to track crimes and acts of villainy.  To get around, the ElectraDuo used the ElectraCar, a three-wheeled vehicle.

While the heroines depended on gadgets for powers, the villains weren’t so limited.  The Sorceror and Miss Dazzle relied on magic, including a magic mirror that allowed them to travel in time.  Glitter Rock and his sidekick, Side Man, used sonic gadgets.  The Empress of Evil and Lucretia used magic.  The Pharoah and Cleopatra used magic and alchemy.  Ali Baba and the Genie also used magic.  The Spider-Lady and her sidekicks, Leggs and Spinner, kept to a spider-theme with nets and misdirection.  The sources of the various powers were never expanded upon.

Indeed, given the time limitations, the episodes jumped right to the action.  Lori and Judy were reporters more to give them a way into some of their mysteries more than anything else.  Electra Woman was a superhero fighting evil while Dyna Girl was the spunky teen sidekick, a much more colourful and happier Batman and Robin.  The focus of the episodes was split between the heroines and the villains, showing the nefarious plot to avoid the slower parts of investigation.

The 2016 reboot movie started as an idea from Grace Helbig and Hannah Hart.  They wanted to do a superhero series to mock life in Hollywood.  As they developed the idea, Sid & Marty Krofft Pictures approached them with the idea of using Electra Woman and Dyna Girl.  The result was first released as a series of webisodes before being released on DVD.  Electra Woman (Helbig) and Dyna Girl (Hart) returned.

The reboot begins in Ohio, with Electra Woman and Dyna Girl at home after a gruelling day of heroing, still in costumes that resembled those worn by Hall and Strangis.  On TV is a commercial featuring Major Vaunt, a superhero who has landed a contract with a Hollywood agent and, as Judy put it, “sells out.”  Their day continues on its low course when the Bernice, the bratty teen-aged neighbour, pops in to mock them and their uselessness.  After all, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl don’t even have powers, just Dyna Girl’s Dyna Suction Gun.  Lori and Judy shoo Bernice off, then head out to get a snack.  At the convenience store, while the heroic duo are in the back hunting down slushies, two masked robbers enter.  One is armed with a pistol, the other with a smartphone, recording the crime.  To add to their general lack of smarts, neither robber notices or even looks for anyone in bright spandex.  Despite their lack of powers, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl show the robbers the error of their ways, disarming the gunman with ease in a very literal fashion and uploading their failure to their own YouTube channel.

The video becomes an overnight sensation, leading to Electra Woman getting an invite out to Los Angeles by CMM, the Creative Masked Marketing agency, run by Dan Dixon, superagent to superheroes.  After travelling from Ohio to LA in the ElectraCar, a sixteen year old hatchback with a fading psychedelic paint job, Lori and Judy are given the grand tour of CMM.  Dixon isn’t one to take no for an answer, so the tour includes the lab of Frank Heflin, genius inventor with almost no social skills, the ElectraComs, which are a mix of smartphone and weapon, and the reveal of new costumes.  Judy is hesitant, but Lori jumps at the chance to be a proper superhero and answers for both of them.

During an interview on a morning show, the ElectraDuo stop an armoured car robbery, using the ElectraComs and natural talent.  The footage shoots them from stardom to superstardom, but cracks in the partnership start forming.  The media and CMM treat Dyna Girl as a sidekick instead of a partner, driving a wedge between Lori and Judy.  Meanwhile, a supervillain appears, the first since the end of the Shadow War, the final battle between superheroes and supervillains that ended with the heroes triumphant.  The villain calls herself the Empress of Evil, wielding what looks like magical powers to stymie the LAPD.  The collected heroes of LA can only watch as the Empress toys with the police until Major Vaunt teleports to the scene to fight her.  However, he’s too busy playing to the cameras to be effective and is killed by the Empress.

The rift between Lori and Judy grows afterwards.  Lori has fully embraced the Hollywood star lifestyle, focusing on media appearances, while Judy wants to use Frank’s CrimeScope to locate the Empress.  The two split up, going their separate ways.  Outside where a commercial is being filmed, fans recognize Judy as Dyna Girl and get selfies with her.  One other person recognizes her, and Judy knows who it is just before she’s taken away.

Learning that Judy has been kidnapped by the Empress, Lori realizes what and who is important in her life, even if Judy can be a wet blanket at times.  She talks to Frank, who locates Judy’s ElectraComs at CMM’s headquarters.  Lori races, with some false starts, to the agency and finds Judy in the basement, tied by cables to support pillars.  The Empress reveals herself and taunts the two before leaving to cause more mayhem.  Lori apologizes for the way she behaved, and Judy accepts that Lori has come to her senses.  They’re discovered by Frank who is on a soup run.

Lori and Judy try to figure out a way to stop the Empress.  Frank reveals to them the new ElectraCar and the pair rush off.  They confront the Empress of Evil with the new ElectraCar, a sleek sports car with a massive ElectraCannon extending out over it.  The ElectraCar lasts not even five minutes before the Empress uses her powers to fling it away.  Electra Woman takes matters in hand and pummels the villain, but the Empress’ powers have made her body impervious to damage.  Lori, though, knowing the villain, knows her one weakness and uses it to defeat her.

The reboot has several advantages, the big one being that special effects cost far less, relatively speaking, now than in 1976.  The lack of details in the original Electra Woman and Dyna Girl means that expanding on their backgrounds and personalities won’t contradict anything previously done and allows for greater depth of the characters.  The reboot is a comedy at heart, and the webisode approach allows for humour that wouldn’t be allowed on Saturday morning television.  Helbig and Hart make the characters their own while still acknowledging the original work.  At the same time, they have commentary about life in LA for actors and the nature of superhero movies.  While the rift between Lori and Judy was an obvious conflict, Judy herself makes fun of that storyline while foreshadowing it.  The reveal of the Empress of Evil’s identity is also foreshadowed, with hints given along the way.

Helbig and Hart’s Electra Woman and Dyna Girl updates the TV series.  The new costumes are practical, with spandex replaced by padded outfits that both protect and give further range of motion.  The new ElectraComs have similar abilities as the originals with the extra communication capabilities as smartphones.  The situations are also updated, with modern problems plaguing the ElectraDuo, from life in LA to trying to find the right Uber car.

The new Electra Woman and Dyna Girl is very much a product of now, much as the original was a product of the 70s.  Dyna Girl is no longer a sidekick, despite the attempts by both CMM and the media to paint her as such.  Instead, she’s Electra Woman’s partner, an equal.  The focus is on the ElectraDuo; the only time the audience learns anything about the Empress of Evil and her plot is when Electra Woman and Dyna Girl are there, only because the villain takes the time to gloat.  The Empress herself does change from the original; instead of being a construct created by Lucretia, the new villain has motivation and a tie to the ElectraDuo, one that is set up even before she appears as the supervillain.

With the original Electra Woman and Dyna Girl having almost no depth because of its format, the reboot has a free reign to create details as needed, playing around with the concept for the sake of the story.  The new version is slightly more adult than the original and is far more genre savvy.  The result is a movie that exceeds the original in scope while still remaining about the title duo.