How Trek Tackled Mental Illness in Star Trek Enterprise’s Twilight S03E08

By Owen Quinn author

Star Trek Enterprise goes 40 First Dates as Captain Archer suffers a debilitating mental condition in which he wakes every day with no memory since her was hit by an anomaly while saving T’Pol. T’pol tells him what has happened in the twelve years since the accident every day without fail. But the Xindi are still a threat, having virtually wiped out humanity. Will Doctor Phlox’s cure work in time to save what is left of humanity or is this the day humans are exterminated completely from the universe?

All photos copyright Paramount Pictures

I am rather partial to alternate timelines and ‘what if’ scenarios in sci-fi. It has been done many times in Star Trek history but Star Trek Enterprise did it best in the third season episode Twilight. It skillfully explores the impact of a rehabilitating mental illness on a person and those surrounding him.

The third season of Enterprise dealt with the mission to the Expanse from which a species called the Xindi have launched a devastating attack on Earth killing millions including Trip Tucker’s sister (Connor Trinneer). Scott Bakula’s Captain Archer must lead a desperate mission to an unexplored area of space filled with strange anomalies and distortions that can destroy ships. Their mission is to contact the Xindi, whom they discover are actually a conglomerate of different species, and negotiate a peace before the Xindi launch their superweapon to destroy the Earth completely. The initial attack was a suicide run. The Xindi are being by extradimensional beings intent on changing the Expanse into their new homeground resulting in the eradication of the unsuspecting Xindi. They have been fed a story about how humans will wipe out the Xindi which keeps them focused and unaware of the disaster the dimensional beings are planning behind the scenes.

We have already seen Earth attacked but the constant threat of the superweapon is always there in every episode so we finally get to see what would happen if the Xindi succeeded in destroying the Earth.

As the episode hook opens, Archer wakes up to the ship shaking. He stumbles on to the bridge where there is a battle taking place. T’Pol is dressed in a captain’s uniform while barking orders. But the scenario they have all feared plays out before them as the Xindi weapon fires at the Earth. It boils and breaks apart before exploding. Their mission has failed and why is T’Pol telling guards to remove Archer from the bridge? In the next scene, Archer wakes up in unfamiliar surroundings and with grey hair. He leaves his room and meets T’Pol making breakfast in a kitchen. She is not wearing her uniform and has long hair. She says that today is an important day and she has much to tell him. Over the first half of the story, she takes him through what happened to them.

Archer and T’Pol are caught in an anomaly which traps the Vulcan science officer under a door in the anomaly’s path. Refusing to leave her, Archer saves her but is hit by the force wave. When he awakes he discovers that it has been three days since he was hurt and the last thing he remembers is saving T’Pol. The anomaly has left an unknown parasite in his brain that causes him to forget everything after the anomaly in hours. Soon the mission suffers. Archer believes he is adding great ideas to the mission but he has forgotten they have all been given before.

Without Archer, the mission fails and Earth is destroyed. The Xindi flood the galaxy and exterminate nearly all of humanity. The Enterprise becomes a Battlestar Galactica of sorts as it leads a rag tag fleet of human survivors to the Ceti Alpha system where ships were deconstructed to form houses for those remaining. Less than 6,000 humans remain. Trip is now captain of the Enterprise and Malcom Reed (Dominic Keating) is about to become a captain too. He will command the Intrepid. All they can do is patrol and ensure the Xindi do not discover their location. Now they live in isolation, hunted by the Xindi whose presence is ever present.

Our greatest fear is to lose our minds to some mental illness and when we see someone as strong as Archer fall to such an illness, it is saddening to say the least. We all know someone who has dementia, Alzheimer’s or another mental illness and the effects are heartbreaking. We get top see Archer’s frustration then slow acceptance that he is no longer fit to command. The sad thing is this is a daily thing for him as every day for him is a new one where he is learning all of this for the first time. This also means that when he learns of the Earth’s destruction and how many people are left, the pain is as intense as the first day he learned of it. All he can really do on a day to day basis is walk his dog Porthos and tell the school children about his past adventures. In Archer’s words, all he can do is stay out of the way of the Xindi mission. Illness robs you of dignity at the best of times and routine keeps us going so when this is taken away then it has a severe detrimental effect. Archer was tasked to stop the Xindi threat and this has brought him down from a beacon of hope to a nuisance. How many times do we see that in life? Were someone that was once active and full of life is reduced to an armchair now reliant on others, both medical and loved ones for daily help.

And on the flipside, we look at the impact of caring for someone with a mental illness actually has on someone’s life. T’Pol gives up everything to be Archer’s carer. She even refuses an offer from Ambassador Soval to return to Vulcan and bring Archer with her so the experts on Vulcan can help him. She owes him her life as it could so easily have been her in Archer’s position. She has a care of duty for him that goes way beyond her sphere of command. Soval and Phlox both acknowledge her feelings for Archer which clouds her logic. But since she became part of the crew, she has learned how wrong her superiors were about the capability of humanity.

Imagine the great patience she must possess to endure this pain. While it is bad for Archer, it is equally hard on her. Being the bearer of bad news is a difficult position to be in so imagine being that for twelve years. She must be the one that tells Archer every day of the disaster and watch helplessly as he is plagued with pain and guilt over the failure of their mission. Remember there was no hope or inkling of a cure or treatment for Archer’s parasites so this would be a lifetime commitment. Or perhaps the word vocation would fit better. There are millions of people in the position of unpaid carers all across the world who must struggle with this every day. It is stressful and frustrating at times with only the death of the afflicted person their way out. So it is nice to see this acknowledged in a sci-fi show of all things.

The two handed scenes focus the attention on Archer and T’Pol almost like a stage play. In many ways, the relationship between carers and those with the illness is a two handed scenario which unfortunately does not have the trappings of sci-fi to make it alive and interesting. You hope each and every day that some cure will be found. People spent so much time searching the internet for a possible cure, some test trial or the discovery that some animal holds the key to cure Alzheimer’s. And all the while, all we can really do is stand and watch those we love fade away to a mere shadow of those former selves and shed silent tears at your own helplessness and the failings of the medical world. When a parent no longer recognises their own child, it can destroy you. But when they, for a god given instant, do recognise you, it is equally heartbreaking and joyous at the same time.

In all the doom and gloom, there is always the hope for a cure and Twilight certainly brings it. In an alternate timeline, you can do anything you want including kill everybody. Dr Phlox has finally found a cure to destroy the parasites but it requires the energy produced by the warp engines. The crew are reunited and T’Pol discovers that the first set of parasites Phlox has nuetralised have disappeared from all the scans ever taken, including the very first one twelve years ago. It seems the parasites exist in both spatial and temporal bodies of existence. So what happens to them now, will happen in the past. It means that this history will never happen and they still have a chance to save Earth.

For one last time, Archer is the man he was. The Xindi locate the colony and board Enterprise. The bridge explodes killing everyone there. As Archer overloads the ship to self destruct, the resulting explosion will vaporise him and the parasites just as Phlox’s colleagues suggested. Phlox is killed leaving just T’Pol and Archer to destroy the Enterprise. It goes out in a blaze of glory resulting in history being restored.

In their final moments, it comes down to the afflicted and his carer to save the day. Twilight does a great job on exploring, actually exploring the impact of mental illness for both the patient and their carers. It delivers a great story packed with emotion and action that is relatable to the viewer as well as rewatchable. It also touched on themes of surviving disaster and how the individual copes with it as well as mass genocide form a foe that will not listen to reason.

This is a great episode you should really catch.

Exclusive Signing Announcement at Forbidden Planet Belfast

By Owen Quinn author

This Friday sees an exclusive signing event for this weekend’s Eastercon. Eastercon is being held at the Hilton Hotel at Lanyon Place. Named Reconnect it will take place from Friday 18th April to Monday 21st April.

Some of those in attendance at the convention will be Belfast’s Ian McDonald, Derek Landy, Lauren Beukes, Rebecca Roanhorse and Will Simpson.

The signing takes place at Forbidden Planet in Ann Street Belfast between 4pm and 6pm this Friday 18th April. Magazine creator and contributor, Trevor Kennedy with Ramsey Campbell and Owen Quinn will be in attendance with special guests dropping in over the two hours to sign copies of the Eastercon 2025 souvenir issue. Come along and meet the team.

RIP Legendary Actress Jean Marsh

By Owen Quinn author

photos copyright BBC

Just as we get new Doctor Who on screen, the show has lost a former companion. Jean Marsh whose career has spanned decades from the classic Upstairs, Downstairs to movies like The Eagle Has Landed and The Changeling. She was also a power behind the camera as co-creator of the House of Eliott. She is an Emmy award winner and in demand both here and in America. She appeared in The Twilight Zone, Return to Oz, Willow and so much more.

But for Doctor Who fans, she is one of ours and started with William Hartnell when she played Lady Joanna in The Crusade . She would later earn companion status when she joined the Doctor, William Hartnell, in the Daleks’ Masterplan as Space Security Service agent Sara Kingdom. She joined the Doctor and Steven, Peter Purves, in the battle to save the universe. While we take kickass companions for granted these days, Sara was the original and the best. Like an Avengers girl, she brought girl power to the Tardis like never before. She was tough, sassy and totally loyal to the Doctor and Steven. This loyalty was twisted by the evil Mavic Chen who allied himself with the Daleks. He persuaded her to murder her own brother under false pretences which she did before joining the Doctor. That brother was Bret Vyon played by future Brigadier actor Nicholas Courtney.

Sara would be the second companion to die when she sacrificed herself to save the universe. She grabs the Time Destructor and is aged to death right before Steven’s eyes before the Doctor can deactivate it. Thanks to Sara, Chen and the Daleks were defeated but with two companions dead, Trojan handmaiden, Katarina and Sara, at a terrible cost.

Jean was married to the third Doctor, Jon Pertwee for five years before they divorced but she would make another appearance in Doctor Who and this time she was an enemy of the seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy.

In Season 26, the legend of Merlin crosses dimensions as Jean as the magically powerful witch Morgaine and her troops including mad son, Mordred. She says the seventh Doctor is Merlin and this will be their last battlefield. Beautifully weaving the Arthur mythology into the story, Jean was not a one dimensional villain. She was a real badass, capable of summoning the Satan like Destroyer in a classic cliffhanger when she attempts to entice Ace, Sophie Aldred and Shou Yuing, Ling Tai into giving her the Excalibur to ensure her victory. Using her powers, she uses racism to break the girls apart but fails.

Battlefield was a special story because it marked the final appearance of both Jean in the show but also the Brigadier. For fans, it was lovely to see Bret Vyon and his sister reunited on screen once more. The scene where she meets the Brigadier and honours the fact he is a soldier was nicely done, again giving another level to the character. She may be a mad witch but she has honour and her defeat is brought about because her heart is broken when she discovers her true love, Arthur, is dead. She is devastated and ends up in a prison owned by UNIT. To this day, that is where she still remains.

Jean would appear in a photo in The Day of the Doctor when Clara found photos of all the Doctor’s former companions in the Back Archive. In the photo, she is with Mike Yates, fallen UNIT soldier from the Pertwee era leading to fans trying to piece how Sara and Mike Yates crossed paths.

Jean Marsh was pure quality in everything she has done and her contribution to the lore of Doctor Who cannot be overstated enough. Rest easy.

I’ll leave you with one final quote I’ve taken from Battlefield. which reflects today.

“Jean Marsh, who burned like starfire and was as beautiful. Rest in peace.”

TW Reviews Doctor Who The Robot Revolution S02E01 Spoilers

By Owen Quinn author

Photos copyright BBC

So the Tardis is back with Ncuti Gatwa at the helm once again after a woke filled and terrible first season (saved only by Steven Moffat, Gatwa, Dot and Bubble and Bonnie Langford) with a climax that can only be labelled as shit.

Ruby is gone after the events of Empire of Death and a new companion comes to fill her place; a companion with a face the Doctor has seen before. Actors that have appeared in Doctor Who before becoming companions has been going on since the sixties in the William Hartnell era but it is only the new era that has decided to connect these things, sometimes unnecessarily, e.g.: the reason the 12th Doctor looks like Caecilius from the David Tennant episode ‘Fires of Pompeii’, the 6th Doctor taking his face from Commander Maxil , a Gallifreyan guard who tried to execute the Doctor in ‘Arc of Infinity’.

You all know the story so I won’t go into detail. Nurse Belinda Chandra is taken by robots in the middle of the night to claim her rightful place as the Queen of planet Miss Belinda Chandra and all thanks to an old boyfriend buying her a star for her birthday seventeen years ago. Now she must take the throne and marry the great AI generator to bring about peace between the humans and the robots.

Got it so far? Good. Stay with me. So was it good? Was it an introduction worthy of yet another plucky woman to take her place by the side of the Doctor? After hearing other reviews say it was a shaky start and the new companion, played by Varada Sethu, was good and brought a new energy, I wasn’t sure what I was walking into and let me reiterate, I have been a fan since Pertwee and stayed during the wilderness years while the masses pissed off elsewhere. So this show is in my heart literally and when I hear others cry about its death knells, it annoys me. There is still plenty of mileage in this show with the right people in place and with no agendas to take you out of the story. After watching The Robot Revolution, I have hope. Hope dammit! HOPE! Let’s just hope that hope is not short lived.

I really liked this episode. It felt the way Capaldi’s era felt invigorated with the introduction of Bill (Pearl Mackie). She deserved more than a season. This was a great set up for the rest of the season.

It opens with a mystery and ends with yet another powerful mystery that I loved. Do you remember the wonderful one season show Odyssey 5 starring Peter Weller? That’s what the end reminded me of. But let’s break it down and address things.

When Mrs Flood breaks the fourth wall and tells the viewer not to say they saw her something in the back of my head but can’t recall what from the show’s past. I’ve heard the rumour and if it is, it’ll be a Sutekh sized anticlimax. So why is she hiding from the Doctor? Why did she say goodbye to Belinda? What does she know or is she setting it all up going as far back as Ruby?

I loved the robots but were reminiscent of those from the Sarah Jane Adventures episode ‘The Empty Earth’. I loved the wee cleaning robot with his “polish, polish”. Gatwa is simply the Doctor. He has it nailed on so many levels you would like to think the powers that be won’t screw this up and lose the show with him at the helm. I adored the every ninth word scene. Very clever.

The whole storyline of the time fracture stranding him six months on Miss Belinda Chandra and teaming up with the rebels to fight the robots was cool. As he said, timey-wimey and it was woven perfectly into the story structure.

It made sense that the Doctor would have yet another costume change and while he was crying within 17 minutes of the episode (something his incarnation has been criticised for) it was justified. You could see the bond he had created with Sacha 55 so her death when she was on the verge of travelling in the Tardis with him hit home. It proved a stark contrast to Belinda who takes no prisoners but in a real way this time. Her instinct is to help the sick and wounded, not follow the Doctor round like an impressed puppy. She doesn’t want this life and has no desire to travel with him because of actions. The carefree Doctor who bounces with the very joy of life and mystery. She takes him to task for just taking her DNA without permission just to prove his theory about Mundy in Boom. She reminds him that he made the same promise of adventure to Sacha and she died. He is passionately dangerous and it is this passion that gets others killed. He is in danger of seeing her, not as a person, but an adventure to be solved. He did this with Ruby, Donna and Clara and see how they ended.

Tegan and Turlough also wanted to go home as did Ian and Barbara but they soon changed their tune. Now the fact the Doctor cannot get to earth on the day of Belinda’s kidnapping is intriguing. Also notice the Doctor’s reaction; he is laughing at first until he realises something is wrong. When he looks out the Tardis door, how did he not see what we saw? That ominous rumble of the destroyed Earth was spooky and effective. It was a great shot and a wonderful way to keep us hooked. Whatever is coming now, whatever Ruby is referring to when she tells them to stay at home and lock their doors is powerful to say the least. The only race to ever mess earth up on this scale was the Time Lords themselves in ‘Trial of a Time Lord’ when they shifted it across space and renamed it to hide their crimes. Could it be?

I do have to raise the constant cry that he is the last of the Time Lords. He isn’t. He hasn’t forgotten about his other self because he asked Rose in ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’ how her uncle was; the name they gave the 14th Doctor. So is the Master as we saw when someone took the Toymaker’s gold tooth in ‘The Giggle’. And I’ve never bought the idea that all the Time Lords were on Gallifrey when the Master murdered everyone. Not a chance. Plus part Time Lord Jenny is loose too.

But like the ‘Joy To The World’ Christmas episode, this is not as simple a story as it seems and is expertly shown at the beginning so deftly, many will have missed it.

The great AI Generators that Belinda must join with is in fact her old boyfriend, Alan from the opening of the episode. This is why he has a duplicate of the certificate of the star named after Belinda, not just a duplicate but the exact same certificate somehow gotten from the future. In the opening, she rips off the wrapping, he mutters if she had unfolded it, the paper could be used again later. Such an off the cuff remark, we associate with Data from Star Trek The Next Generation where he did unfold the paper from a present only to be told to rip it off.

‘The Robot Revolution’ is in fact a commentary on abusive and controlling boyfriends. The whole thing has been staged by Alan to get the girl he asked to marry him ten years before. Belinda refused and he moved away to what she thought was Margate, In fact, it was stargate.

We see how Belinda will be joined in marriage to him when she is mechanised very similar to the character of Vera is turned into a cyborg by the super computer. Alan started the war but Belinda caused his kidnapping by the robots when, during the time fracture, she told them to go get him. It isn’t until the AI generator asks her if she is married, does Belinda catch on who he is; Alan has been fully and very willingly transformed into a nightmare.

He is like a steampunk Locutus of Borg and really is the stuff of nightmares. This is the true face of the man that Belinda could have married; the devil behind the blond haired nerd that bought her a star. He started the war and only by merging with Belinda will the war end. We then see that when he wanted her to marry him, he wanted her to wear looser fitting cloth, no more texting after eight o’clock. He wants to absorb Belinda’s mind and is so deranged he wants to control everything. This war will never end. The fact that Belinda never caught it on is so real because many women and men in that position realise when it’s too late or in some cases just live with it. Russell T Davies should have just called this abuse rather than calling it coercive control. This is abuse on a planetary scale from a weak-minded fool who finds his power in the control others making them subversive under the label of love.

Tell it for what it is, not some fancy term. If they had, people would click on straight away but I suppose it keeps the children from asking.

Overall, this was far from a shaky start but a solid opener that delivered the central mystery only to add more intrigue. I have to admit, I did slow the faces sequence down when Belinda touched her certificate’s to Alan’s. I was betting that there were some hidden clues in there for what’s going to come but I couldn’t see anything or did I? In an episode that is all about the power of words, cause and effect , timey-wimey and a powerful new mystery, we are off to a great start. Now where do I buy a “polish , polish” robot?

Forgotten Villains: Buffy’s Vampire Willow

By Owen Quinn author

Photo copyright Mutant Enemy

I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.

With every shop there is a constant thread that our heroes may die or nearly die or survive to the end with some scars but essentially human or Klingon or Gallifreyan whatever nothing terminal happens to them. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer we always had the threat of our heroes being turned into vampires. Being a friend of the Slayer or simply living in Sunnydale made you a prime target for a bloodsucker upgrade. Sometimes they came close but it never happened.

However in the third season episode The Wish, a hurt Cordelia wishes that Buffy had never moved to Sunnydale. She discovered that her boyfriend Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon) cheated on her with Willow Rosenburg (Alyson Hannigan). While they had always been close friends, Willow had a crush on Xander and they finally acted upon it.

Cordelia took a risk becoming involved with Xander due to her status as most popular girl in school and him being a nerd. But when Cordelia made that wish she didn’t realise her new friend Anya was a vengeance demon. Vengeance demons grant wishes for women betrayed by men and she creates a new timeline where Buffy never came. Sunnydale is now overrun with vampires led by the Master. With no Buffy there was no one to stop him from rising at the end of season one. Now it is a hellhole where the Bronze nightclub is openly vamp where they keep in cages unfortunate victims.

Cordelia is confused at first until she meets Willow and Xander dressed strangely and soon realises they are vampires and lovers. Becoming a vamp frees all your inhibitions and they act upon their attraction which only winds up Cordelia even more. She is only saved from them by the town’s only defence the White Hats consisting of Giles (Anthony Head), Oz (Seth Green), Larry Blaisdell and Nancy.

Willow along with Xander is now part of the Master’s elite guard, the Order of Aurelius, his right hand persons so to speak. She is everything that our Willow isn’t; sensual, sexual, unafraid to speak her mind and fights like a demon. Like all vamps she is sadistic and uncaring about her victims. This Willow likes it when her victims die fighting and screaming. There is nothing human about her anymore and is a prime example of how becoming a vampire makes a person so far removed from the one you knew. Without a soul, good kind Willow is gone forever. It is a far cry from the guilt ridden one we saw earlier in the episode trying to apologise to Oz only to be rejected.

Willow’s outfit is Moulin Rouge in appearance announcing her lack of inhibitions In fear of being killed by the Master she and Xander murder Cordelia something Willow finishes with a little wave. Here Willow gets bored easily so passes her time being sadistic which she calls playing; her puppy is Angel, chained in a cell and Willow’s plaything. So good is she at torture that Xander likes to watch.

When Buffy does arrive, all hell breaks loose and there is a huge fight. Willow launches herself into it and her and Buffy battle. However ironically it is her spurned lover from this reality that kills her along with Larry by impaling her. As heroes fall, Giles stops Anya by smashing her amulet and reverses the wish.

But as we know death isn’t always permanent in this genre. In Doppelgangland, Willow and Anya try a spell to bring back Anya’s amulet. Alternate Giles destroyed the vengeance demon’s amulet to restore reality leaving Anya human in our world. She isn’t happy and desperately wants to be a demon again. Willow has begun practicing magic but is still a learner. Instead her spell creates a temporal fold that brings vampire Willow into our world.

Her world has a curfew, people do not go out once darkness falls and everyone wears dull clothes to avoid attracting vamps. Vampire Willow cannot believe humans walk the streets at night so freely and wear the most up to date fashion. She meets Buffy and Xander. She is horrified that her lover is a human and tells Buffy she hates her. When Buffy goes to stop her leaving, Willow shows her vamp face. They believe their friend has been turned only to meet her in the library as her normal self.

Vamp Willow is attacked by vampires thinking she is our Willow but she slaps them down. She then organises them to storm the Bronze where she intends to turn everyone into vampires. She kills a girl on the spot to prove her intentions. Oz is trapped there as is Anya and Angel escapes to get Buffy. Anya explains what is really going on to her telling her about her alternate self that brought her here.

Vampire Willow finds our Willow and at first wants to be sent back to her reality but comes round to the idea of a universe with two Willows. She licks her neck and our Willow is creeped out. It is the first indication that Willow is actually gay which will later come to fruition. She manages to hit her with a tranquiliser dart and lock her in a cage. Our Willow then has to impersonate her other self while swapping outfits. Camp Willow is horrified at being dressed as “fuzzy” and tricks Cordelia into letting her out but not before Cordelia nearly bores her to death with her wittering about stealing boyfriends.

After an unsuccessful attempt to kill Cordelia only to be stopped by Wesley, vamp Willow enters the Bronze as there is a free for all fight. She tries to kill our Willow by strangulation. Buffy leaps to stake her but our Willow stops her. They have to send her back to her world but still arrives at the point where she is killed by Oz.

Alyson Hannigan does a great job making the two Willows individuals and not verge into the camp exaggerated territory. It is always great to see a good guy go to the dark side but when it’s done so well as it was with these two episodes, it stands out from the crowd. Add to that the story is not just a stunt but has ripples that will echo until the end of the series.

Stephen Carey & Owen Quinn Talk Final Destination 2

Photo copyright New Line Cinema (Warner Bros Entertainment)

This time we follow up last week’s date with death in the first Final Destination to see what happens next. Is it a worthy sequel or just an attempt to squeeze more money out of the fans? Sure, it’s all good craic! Give us a like and help support independent authors.

Stephen Carey & Owen Quinn Talk Final Destination:The Original and Best?

Photo copyright New Line Cinema (Warner Bros Entertainment)

and Check out the latest movie look back when Stephen and I try to cheat death in Final Destination. Sure, it’s all good craic! Give us a like and help support independent authors.

RIP Val Kilmer; ‘I’m Your Huckleberry’

By Owen Quinn author

There will be a lot of tributes today about the passing of Val Kilmer but how many will have that personal touch. Most will be bios of his career and quotes from fellow celebrities but I was a huge fan of the man and this one hurt hard for me.

For me, Kilmer has always been one of those actors who has always been there. Others have come and gone but there is something magnetic about Kilmer that has kept him in the industry this long. While he was a good looking man, he dominated the screen when he was on it. He had the most magnetic eyes and strong jawline giving him the classic leading man look, reminding us of the leading men from the golden days of Hollywood.

Everyone will rightly talk about Top Gun, Tombstone, The Doors and Batman and he did so many other things. As Batman, he had that chameleon quality similar to Keaton. In a way, he was the perfect Batman because with his good looks, nobody would ever think he would be a superhero. The rich playboy label to throw people off Bruce Wayne’s night time activities has never fitted so well under Kilmer’s reign.

He was a great leading man; his Jim Morrison was so good that the surviving members of The Doors said they couldn’t tell the difference between the singing voice of Kilmer and the real Jim Morrison. He was also a great hero, best exemplified in Willow. Willow gave Kilmer the chance to play the hero without the limits of the Batman character and he was fun, exuberant and multilayered as Madmartigan. In some aspects, he was an even more fun version of Han Solo. People also forget that he was the voice of the super car KITT in the short-lived Knight Rider reboot. Remember Deja Vu?

No tribute can ever be complete without acknowledging his return to Top Gun despite being ill with throat cancer. And there can be no more touching tribute to a person than the quality of the things his friends say about him in their passing. Tom Cruise did him proud when talking about his return to Top Gun Maverick while his friend Josh Brolin is heartbroken. Kurt Russell formed a special bond with Kilmer on the set of Tombstone (has there ever been a better version of Doc Holliday). And when you think about it, that’s what we all want when we go. We only see the performance but his friends see the real man. But in Val’s case, we all got to see the dignity he displayed in his health issues.

Pause and think for a moment because the world really has lost a legend. They are few and far between and there won’t be a movie buff’s household today that will not be watching something featuring Val Kilmer and reminding us that his legacy will live on through his performances.

Stephen Carey Stories Discuss Knock At the Cabin

Join Stephen Carey and Owen Quinn for another episode as they breakdown movies to find the gem within. This week under the spotlight is M Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin starring Dave Bautista. check it out and give us a like. You know you want to because the craic is always good!