Thursday, November 20, 2008

Trekking of a Shrew: Star Trek's version of The Taming of the Shrew

“Elaan of Troyius.” By John Meredyth Lucas. Perf. William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Nichelle Nichols, James Doohan, George Takei, Walter Koenig, and France Nguyen Van-Nga. Dir. John Meredyth Lucas. Star Trek. Season 3, episode 13. NBC. 20 December 1968. DVD. Paramount, 2008.
The old saying goes, "First Season, Hamlet, Second Season, Romeo and Juliet, Third Season, Taming."

Actually, I don't know of an old saying that says that, but perhaps we can start that here (although my attempt to make the phrase "It wouldn't be a cliché if it weren't true" into a cliché never caught on). The old / new saying is at least true of ST: TOS.

In this episode, the Enterprise must transport a shrew who needs, at the very least, civilizing, if not actual taming. Or that's what the opening sequence suggests.

The "Elaan of Troius" episode is frequently cited as a Taming spin-off. But, honestly? It seems to have throwing dishes and not wanting to be married in common with the Elizabeth Taylor film version, but not too much else. On the other hand, that's enough! Enjoy!
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Bardfilm is normally written as one word, though it can also be found under a search for "Bard Film Blog." Bardfilm is a Shakespeare blog (admittedly, one of many Shakespeare blogs), and it is dedicated to commentary on films (Shakespeare movies, The Shakespeare Movie, Shakespeare on television, Shakespeare at the cinema), plays, and other matter related to Shakespeare (allusions to Shakespeare in pop culture, quotes from Shakespeare in popular culture, quotations that come from Shakespeare, et cetera).

Unless otherwise indicated, quotations from Shakespeare's works are from the following edition:
Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Gen. ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
All material original to this blog is copyrighted: Copyright 2008-2039 (and into perpetuity thereafter) by Keith Jones.

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