Feb 21, 2011 4
To glean the differences between a regular episode of Community and “Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking,” it’s first necessary to discuss how a mockumentary actually works. While the format takes its style from documentaries, it actually very rarely mimics real life — the mockumentary is fundamentally a genre of outsized performances and ridiculous developments.
Jan 16, 2009 0
We have ample grounds to consider whether the first Star Trek, rather than any of its derivatives, is actually the worst. The original series is a reliable if eccentric workhorse of cultural critique. But it’s also filled with incredible awkwardness: the redshirt phenomenon; the repetitive “The shields are failing!” battle scenes; Shatner’s incessant prettyboy preening; the indiscriminate one-dimensionality of everyone who isn’t Kirk, Spock, or McCoy. One could argue that such unrealistic silliness is just a result of the primitive nature of science-fiction in general and television in particular in the sixties. But most of these awkward characteristics, though looked back on with nostalgia, are forgivable to the extent that they showed future science-fiction TV, including future Star Trek series, what not to do.
