The Night Needs a Hero

A movement of shadows. A rush of adrenaline under the midnight storm. No longer were the criminals safe. His name is a legend. Like the urban legends.

The Batman.

Even the city like Gotham couldn’t be devoid of crimes. The night seems a haven for those criminals. They cheat, steal and kill--their cruel faces flood the Gotham scene.

The Batman tries to keep the peace on the streets. His answers are violent. He holds an iron fist over the troubled city.

Created by Bob Kane during the 1930s, on the hindsight of the popular Superman comics, he was set on doing something different. A darker version of the legendary boy scout hero. The stories would be placed at night. The hero would be a tragic one. His parents were taken from him by a common criminal.

So he declares war on the everlasting night. For the sake of his parents. And for the sake of his own sanity. Just barely.

The Batman comes in many different versions. Comics, TV shows and movies. He also comes in another artistic variety: animation.

Two DVD sets came out last Tuesday March 21 as further spotlight on the dark knight: “Justice League” and “Batman Beyond.” They are currently in retail stores.

The cartoon show style, and its direction, follow on the wake of a much darker knight, hovering over the unlit city, reflecting the stories of Alan Moore and especially Frank Miller during the mid-eighties. It owes some to the 1989 Tim Burton film.

This Batman is far more dangerous. On the brink of darkness. He lives in a psychological nightmare.

The 1990s cartoons began with the Batman on his own. They remained faithful to the old comics. Yet the shows have their own distinctive style. Some of it can be contributed to the voice of Kevin Conroy…

a sound like crushed glass, very low, flooded with numbed anger his voice of Batman remains familiar for well over seven seasons.

Throughout the 1990s there is further cartoon development for the Batman character.
His character is carried over in “Justice League” where he teams up with six other superheroes such as Superman and Wonder Woman. However Batman is the only one who doesn’t have powers. So he relies on his detective skills and physical prowess. The episode “The Injustice League” deals with Batman’s reality of having no powers.

Another favorite is “The Enemy Below” with some excellent cartoon drawings. This time the superhero team, along with Batman, stops a coup from an assassination attempt.

Because of being one-hour shows, more time is focused on all major characters. So that none would steal the spotlight. Batman seems to hide more in the background, coming out when they need him most. He is like a dark guardian.

It’s good, solid entertainment. Best of all: the consistent use of Kevin Conroy’s voice remains a cornerstone of animation.

Another version is “Batman Beyond.” It gives the character an added dimension. The Batman is much older. He is no longer living in youthful eternity. He is mortal. He is eighty years old. Age has caught up with him and he is trapped in his elderly years.

So bitter he is that he gives up the cape and cowl for good. Until a much younger man picks up the suit.

The original Batman has a more limited role here. He sits in the background as he plays mentor. Kevin Conroy again reprises his voice for the older, wiser Batman. His grainy, angry voice continues to enthrall.

In many ways, Kevin Conroy is the Batman.

Now find out the enormous contributions this voice actor has made to both cartoon series. It is one of the best continuity histories of any cartoons: the long use of his voice so identified with the Batman character. And beware that the night is defended.

V for a Verdict

My verdict? It’s a decent retelling of the classic comic-book “V for Vendetta.”

For those not aware of the original 1987 comic book, envisioned by writer Alan Moore and artist David Lloyd, "V for Vendetta" is the pinnacle of its art form--a solid story about a man’s idea against a world that has become a militarilistic society.

Just think 1984. No homosexuals allowed in this world. Neither do the popular arts have a place in this same world.

Despite being surrounded by a fascist state, the character of V targets several superiors. The terrorist renegade is nothing more than an enigma, an everyman behind the smiling mask. Constantly taunting. Turning the tables. Always moving outside of shadows.

Not surprisingly, Alan Moore didn’t want his name associated with the film after getting a bad taste from the recent crapola into celluloid. Most notably, the putrid “League of Extraordinary Men.” Moore felt like someone took a dump on him.

Though I don’t see why Moore should be ashamed of "V for Vendetta." It’s quite good. I got to see it on the Saturday matinee.

The film, written by the Wachowski brothers (the Matrix trilogy team) is a political statement.

Civil liberties are slowly drained away. Life is no longer a sacred thing. People are merely numbers in a prison world. The country of England is turned inside out after a devastating war.
A new vision heralds a stronger government. Sadly, people were longer a matter. The masses are controlled. Like pests in a cage. They soon learn there is no longer an outside world.

In the film, V said he's just an idea. But an idea can be a powerful thing. John F. Kennedy was a man of many ideas. So was Martin Luther King. Their visions live on.

V becomes a wake-up call to the people. Anarchy settles in. Finally they’re aware of their surroundings. Casting down their shells.

V finds a young woman Evey who he takes under his wing. He passes his knowledge to her. So she becomes a replacement. His idea is passed on.

The only problem I have with the film is that it seems too comtemporary. When I read the original comic book, I didn’t know when the hell it was set in. It could’ve been in the mid-1980s. Or the near future. Which makes the book feel more compelling.

Kudos to the film which takes a serviceable amount of the original material and place them on the big screen with certain style. And without overdoing it. Hugo Weaving deserves credit for acting in a role where is face is always covered. Most actors prefer to be recognized. Not Weaving. His booming voice leaves much for our imagination. It trails into darkness like a threat.

I’m glad they kept pivotal scenes from the comic book: the mask-wearing crowds threading through London, the hero's escape from room numbered roman numeral V, and the story of Valerie.

Natalie Portman deserves similar praises. She's especially good when she breaks down, crying, after her journey through the heart of darkness. Learning that there were things outside her world that bears little semblance to the old world where love blooms.

John Hurt is great as the fascist leader. He tears into the scene with menace… his hatred for everything oozes with heart-wrenching monstrosity. He’s a big bully on a playground that’s too big for him to play in.

I found the last third of the film to really take off. It pounds into action with the feeling of the old Errol Flynn films. Especially V’s last stand against several gunmen. The knife-throwing scenes makes for a highlight.

Despite a disappointing box office opening, with less than the estimated 30 million, the film makes for an alternative movie-going choice. A thinking film about politics. An action film about heroes.

Doctor Who comes to Sci-Fi Channel

You could call it perfect timing.

After many years of being mysteriously sucked into some space-time vortex, Doctor Who returns to American audiences with a new facelift. It’s about time.

Time, literally, is the keyword here.

The time-traveler once again grace the television screens after well-earned rest. Nine years since. It’s good to see the Sci-Fi Channel pick up the series. I'm surprised it's taken this long.

The series debuts this Friday on March 17 at 8 p.m. Not just one hour. It's a two hour event with the following shows "Rose" and "The End of the World."

Seeing the Doctor bring his own sense of style and mischief to TV is a much needed remedy. He’ll be bringing along his own prescription for the Sci-Fi Channel addicts.

There’s a bigger budget this time around. New stories. Plus new actors in the spotlight. The dialogue in the new series remains a sparkling example of good writing. Brought to you courtesy of Russell T. Davies.

You’ll get to see manikins come to life, earth becoming a ball of flames five billion years into the future, a meet-up with Charles Dickens and ghostly aliens looking to inhabit corpses in Victorian England. All in a good day’s work.

My favorite episodes are too many to list: “The End of the World,” “The Unquiet Dead” and “Father’s Day.” There’s a polished feel to the writing. It’s always good.

The nice thing is that they don’t chuck away the old series. They build on it. The stories continue from the long-running BBC stuff which starred the ever popular Tom Baker. It remains the foundation for what you’re about to see in the new series.

Doctor Who is a good drama series. You’ll see there are story arcs instilled in the general run of stories. Which brings about enormous complexities. One major arc deals with the Doctor surviving the Time-War--leaving him the last of his own people. He’s filled with doubt. He becomes more cynical, more detached from everyone else. The Doctor is more of an outsider than ever before. He carries psychological scars.

Played to the hilt by Christopher Eccleston, the Doctor is more abrasive. He’s fitted into modern times.

Yet he’s brought back from the oblivion of life by one person: Rose Tyler.

Interestingly, Rose is an important counterpart to the series. She’s pushed into the forefront. Many of the episodes such as “Father’s Day” centers around her character. In fact, we, as an audience, get to see what kind of background a companion comes from: we get to see Rose’s mother and her boyfriend. We go back to this familiar territory from time to time.

Rose becomes very much an intergral part of the plot. Her character drives forward the another story arc which wraps the series to an end.

Sure, Billie Piper is eye candy for the hormone-toting adolescent imagination. Yes, she’s pretty. But she’s talented. She can act.

So the cosmic wanderer makes some house calls during the thirteen-part series which will be filling for Battlestar Galactica during the summer season. If it does well enough, and I do certainly hope so, the series may see a return for next year. It is a triumphant revival of a series long thought dead in empty space. Nobody has seen a revival like this.

Now Americans can discover for themselves the fantastic adventures set in and outside of the time-traveling machine still disguised as an old British police box. You’re in for a few surprises.

The show's an enigma. No boundaries hold back the stories. You can go anywhere you want or any time. And there’s no way you can run out of stories in a universe so big.

The Doctor has checked in. Take a number.

Living Legend

Few authors trend on great territory of literature. Richard Matheson is one of those few.

Even New England horror-meister Stephen King owes much debt to this particular writer. It’s a kind of acknowledgement that doesn’t come cheap.

Of course, I’m long overdue in turning a phrase or two about this guy in one of my blogs for the Oshkosh Northwestern.

You’ve seen his name before. But you don’t remember it. I think it’s high time you should start memorizing it.

While you’re at it, I suggest you take a pen and notepad and start writing all this down. I don’t say this too lightly. You’ll find that lots of other authors would say the same thing. I don’t exaggerate. You see? Stop pulling my typewriter away. I’m not that nuts yet.

Matheson is an American fantasist and screenplay writer who’s done tons of books and stories, many of them recognizable titles. You’ll kick yourself after seeing this.

He’s done a very influential book called “I am Legend” which gives a nice twist to several genres. About the last human who lives in a world populated by vampires. It’s no less than brilliant.

It’s been made into two different movies. One of them starred Vincent Price. The other Charleston Heston.

Another familiar work is called “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” in the Twilight Zone series. Y’know? The one with William Shatner. The days when he could at least act way out of a paper bag. Sounds familiar now? You may start kicking yourself repeatedly.

By the 1970s, Matheson has already made himself a name for both readers and fellow writers. His craft is neatly sharpened by now. He knows how to build suspense in his works. If you doubt my word, read on. Don’t forget to kick yourself after you’re done reading.

He’s written the first two TV movies of The Night Stalker starring the recently deceased Darren McGavin. He’s done the screenplay for Duel with another great actor Dennis Weaver who has joined RIP fame.

Many of his stories take an ordinary person who must fight against some pretty terrific odds. If getting out to stop a plane-wrecking gremlin at twenty-thousand feet isn’t pulse-pounding stuff, I don’t know what the hell is.

Other classic novels-turned-films include What Dreams May Come, Stir of Echoes, and Hell House. All the films written by good ol’ Matheson himself. He’s like the king of fantasy and horror. His language is very crisp and short… one of the very few short-story masters. He can write anything, anywhere. He makes me wish I’ve writen some of this stuff. I think any author shares this envy.

Richard Matheson strikes up a mind-boggling list that stems from the 1950s to this very day. He’s probably invented the very word prolific. Right now, he is like Zeus sitting cross-legged on top of a Mount Olympus of literary books.

He’s seems to write with such ease. His words ride into a furious storm, yet beautiful, haunting beauty.

Some folks have made several tantalizing homage to the old foggie. If you’ve ever seen a photo of him, he looks like a cross between Father Christmas and the Wizard of Oz. During the second season of X-Files, Chris Carter created a fictional senator in Washington D.C. named “Richard Matheson” in the episode “Little Green Men.”

So why does no one know his name? Poor lack of distribution in his books? Any author can tell you the same story. Matheson keeps a low profile and yet comes up with larger-than-life stuff.

I’m sure you’ve heard of him now. Go to the nearest bookstore and try to dig out a book of his. You won’t regret it.

You may stop kicking yourself after you’re done.

Still angry after all these years.

Books never grow old. They get more endearing.

A friend Jon bought me a birthday present when I turned eighteen. It was simply entitled “Angry Candy.” Strange cover. The foreword sounded like it was written by an angry guy.

Harlan Ellison. It was probably the best gift ever given to me. It opened doors to a world of fantasy I've never known. I was mesmerized.

The writing’s always crisp. With bursts of energy. Ellison’s like an adult writing with a child’s eye. Ellison takes a hold of your hand and won’t let you go. Each story is a wonder. The language is twisted into a mystery of beauty.

I’m glad to be introduced to this author. He’s one of the stalwarts of science-fiction and he's been around for ages. There’s no real way to classify him. Yet there's always a youthfulness about him.

I still have that book. It’s sitting on my bookshelf with a dozen other titles by the same author. Ellison’s in a class by himself.

You’ve seen his work before even if you don’t know him by name. He’s best known for the story called “City on the Edge of Forever” which ran on Star Trek series during the 60s. The one with Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Scotty. You know who I'm talking about.

His writing remains refreshing. As always. You can’t help to see the charm in the scene where, in the middle of depression-era New York, Kirk tries to explain to a cop about his friend Spock’s pointed ears.

“He got his head caught in a rice picker…” Kirk said to the baffled cop.

It’s an episode keeps a warmth for story-telling in science-fiction. Ellison knows about the human spirit. The conflict in the human soul. He knows this. The conflict here: Kirk must let his loved one, a woman, perish in a car accident to put history back on its proper course.

Ellison raised a big stinky over how his original story was re-written for the Star Trek format. He got mad at the show’s creator Roddenberry. He got mad at the people who made the show. He's still got a chip on his shoulder with Star Trek to this very day. Some people don’t change.

Yet “The City on the Edge of Forever” remains a fan favorite for many years. Ellison shouldn’t be too upset.

He has made other science-fiction efforts. His name is one to watch out for. He’s written a couple shows for The Outer Limits including “Demon with the Glass Hand.” Which starred Robert Culp. A great actor. A great writer.

Ellison does return to television a few times. He’s more crotchety. He’s like the old man who lives next door that you can’t stand. But he’s clever. He’s like a walking encyclopedia for science-fiction. So fellow writer Michael Stransynski asked him to hop on board for a very special series called Babylon-5.

Network officials said a five-year novel set in space couldn’t be done. But the Babylon crew proved them wrong. They did it. All five years of it. And Ellison was with them all the way as a creative consultant. He makes sure everything sounds plausible. Like there shouldn’t be sounds ripping through space.

"Deathbird Stories." I almost forgot. That's a good read. It's essential for anyone interested in the darker side of science-fiction. Suddenly I don't feel like I'm in Kansas anymore after reading that.

The collection of 19 stories talk about angry spirits and gods in a mechanical society running amok. "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs" describes a sad story about a woman raped in a city that no longer cares. Some evocative stuff here.

Ellison has done countless stories for the science-fiction realm. He’s primarily known as a short story writer. His sense of humanity is unmatched. Even if he is a curmudgeon himself. You don’t have to like the guy. But you can like his work.

That book is still collecting dust. Maybe I should take it out and read it again.

McGavin. Kochack. RIP.

Darren McGavin, best known for the 1970s Night Stalker series, is dead at age 83.

McGavin’s one of my favorites. He’s massive as top-notch, irascible reporter Carl Kochack who traced his footsteps through the dark corners of the supernatural. He wore a sepulchral face, drawn-out, as if the tired years clinged to him. He’s trapped inside the same seersucker suit. The straw hat that nestled on top of his head. And he’s forever cast in that part.

It's been a bad week for actors. Don Knotts. Dennis Weaver. McGavin. Insterestingly, all in a two years' age range.

Hearing the news of his death on Saturday, Feb. 25, reminds me of my, and everyone else’s, mortality. I forget that he’s just a person like anyone else. Even though his Kochack seemed larger-than-life. A stalwart, towering titan in the horror hall-of-fame. Thanks to his great acting instinct. The man was born to play the part.

Perhaps it’s because he played a curmudgeon who sassed back at his bosses. He’s a bellyache nobody wanted. The headache that employers complained about. The cops couldn't stand him. So he told them off. Darren McGavin did it in style.

Maybe that’s how people identity with him. We see a little bit of ourselves in McGavin. The everyday man. The reluctant hero.

If nobody would believe him, he’ll prove he's right at his own admission. Even if that means stalking the night to get his answers. Even if it meant risking his neck. There dwells the charm in his character.

There’s a great moment in one of the early Night Stalker TV movies. He finally made his way into the underground city beneath Seattle, buried like a tomb, where the past remained a stagnant thing. He’s on his own. Like always. It’s a tour though the ghostly remains of a forgotten world. Kochack’s at his wits’ end. But he believed that he could do some good by finding the monster. Is he staking the supernatural killer? Or is he being stalked himself?

Nobody else could pull this part off. But when McGavin did it, it’s a gem. He’s very believable in the part. He may be a nobody like the rest of us. He might just be an average bloke. But he remained steadfast in his pursuits for truth. He’ll put up a good fight. And that’s like so many of us. We’re wiling to give it our best.

Just watch him in the original Night Stalker series. He played it to perfection. He wrapped humor with charm, tension with suspense. And he’s done it years before the X-Files came out.

They tried recreating the part of Kochack for new audiences earlier in 2005. It didn’t work. There were too many comparisons to McGavin’s infinitely superior charm. So the new Night Stalker set off to limbo. And we’re left with another cancelled series.

But McGavin imparted us with a small gift. He played the part of Kochack in a couple of TV movies and a handful of episodes in the following series. The shows finally made a recent DVD cut to keep his memory in our hearts. Find them. Cherish them. Sure, he’ll be remembered for playing the crotchety father in “The Christmas Story” for years to come.

But I like to think of McGavin as the old spook who braved his way into the most dangerous places. Testing the creaking step on the scary stairs towards the cellar. Finding the last nail to pound into the coffin.