“The Practical Joker.” By Chuck Menville. Perf. William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Nichelle Nichols, James Doohan, and George Takei. Dir. Hal Sutherland. Star Trek: The Animated Series. Season 2, episode 3. NBC. 21 September 1974. DVD. Paramount, 2008. Star Trek: The Animated Series offers a quote from King Lear late in its run. Earlier, it provided two near quotations.
The first is based on a speech from 1 Henry IV. Falstaff says, "The better pat of valor is discretion, in the which better part I have sav'd my life" (V.iv.119-21). Kirk's version is the usual paraphrase: "Discretion is the better part of valour."
Kirk also modifies Polonius' "Though this be madness, yet there is method in't" (II.ii.205-06), giving us "There is a method to this madness” in place of the more cumbersome phrase:
And the idea that The Enterprise is seeking revenge makes the entire episode into a Hamlet derivative!
Well . . . not really. But you can see how easy it is to get carried away.
For more connections between Star Trek and Shakespeare, head to Shakespeare and Star Trek Complete.
Click below to purchase the DVDs from amazon.com
(and to support Bardfilm as you do so).
No comments:
Post a Comment