It is awarded within five years of the athlete's retirement.

(meta data) TITLE: Murray and Bond win 2018 Thomas Keller Medal - worldrowing.com

(meta data) PUBLISHED DATETIME: 2019-08-11 08:45:00Z

# Murray and Bond win 2018 Thomas Keller Medal

Eric Murray (b), Hamish Bond (s), New Zealand, Men's Pair, Heat 1, 2016 World Rowing Cup II, Lucerne, Switzerland

The 2018 Thomas Keller Medal, rowing's most prestigious award, has been awarded to two recipients, Eric Murray and Hamish Bond of the 'Kiwi Pair'.

The award recognises an Outstanding Career in Rowing with Murray and Bond of New Zealand winning over a list of highly accomplished nominees.

Murray and Bond made up the most successful men's pair ever seen in rowing.

They came together in the pair in 2009 and began an incredible run of 69 unbeaten races that included two Olympic gold medals until retirement after the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

The duo first found success in the men's four, becoming World Champions in 2007.

A disappointing seventh-place finish at the Beijing 2008 Olympics left Murray and Bond dissatisfied.

This may have acted as motivation for Bond to contact Murray and suggest rowing the pair.

Despite rather different personalities, both rowers had a common belief of always striving to develop and improve their technique, treating every training session as another chance to win and having the utmost respect for their competition.

As Bond described their rivalry with Great Britain's top men's pair, Pete Reed and Andrew T Hodge; "We drove them to become better athletes and they drove us to become better.

Their training workload was huge with Bond and Murray doing enough so that even on a 'bad' day they could still win an Olympic title.

This helped them set the World Best Time in the pair during the heats at the London Olympics.

They also set the World Best Time in the men's coxed pair after deciding to 'spice up' their training and racing by entering two events at the 2014 World Rowing Championships.

They raced in the pair and coxed pair, winning both.

Since retiring from rowing Murray has stayed involved in the sport while Bond has moved to cycling and has already proved himself internationally by winning a medal at the recent Commonwealth Games.

The Thomas Keller Medal presentation will take place on Saturday 14 July 2018 during the World Rowing Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Murray and Bond will receive the medal from Dominik Keller, son of FISA's former President, the late Thomas Keller.

To arrange interviews with either Murray or Bond please contact Rowing New Zealand's communications manager, Anna Williams: anna@rowingnz.kiwi, +64 27 403 9326

To view the list of previous Thomas Keller Medal winners, click here.

The Thomas Keller Medal is the highest distinction in the sport of rowing.

It recognises an exceptional international rowing career as well as exemplary sportsmanship and a legendary aspect.

The award was named after the late President of FISA, Thomas Keller (Thomi).

Born in 1924, Keller was elected President of FISA in 1958, at the age of 34 and was then the youngest-ever president of an international sports federation.

Following the 1988 Olympics, Thomi Keller spontaneously awarded the FISA Medal of Honour to Peter-Michael Kolbe and Pertti Karppinen to commemorate one of the greatest rivalries in the history of the sport and recognising their exceptional talent and sportsmanship.

This shaped the idea of the Thomas Keller Medal which was initiated by the Keller family following Thomi's passing in 1989.

It was first awarded to the great Norwegian oarsman Alf Hansen in 1990.

In 2017 the award went to Olympic Champion Katherine Grainger of Great Britain.

Coastal beach sprint qualifier makes waves in Canada

Record number of countries to compete at 2019 World Rowing Championships

Chile tops the rowing at Pan American Games

How the Sea Forest Waterway became the Tokyo 2020 Olympic regatta course

Tokyo's Sea Forest Waterway passes test and Germany cleans up at World Rowing Junior Championships

On 17 January 2012 Murray raced five-time men's single scull world champion Mahé Drysdale in the single scull event at the North Island Club Championships and won by less than half a second. Drysdale and Murray were the only two scullers in the event due to inconsistent crosswinds.
 At the 2012 London Olympic Games Murray and teammate Hamish Bond took six seconds off the world record to 6:08.5 in their heat for the men's coxless pair. In the Olympic final Murray and Bond surged into the lead after the 500 meter mark to win the gold medal in 6:16.65 by open water. France edged Great Britain for the silver in 6:21.11 v. Great Britain's time of 6:21.77. The victory capped an undefeated streak that began when Murray and Bond began racing the pair internationally in 2009. After the Olympics, Murray underwent minor knee surgery and announced that he would not be available for international competitions in 2017, whilst Bond announced in November 2016 that he would take a break from rowing.
 In the 2013 New Year Honours, Murray was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to rowing. In 2018 the International Rowing Federation awarded Murray and Bond the Thomas Keller Medal for their outstanding international rowing career. It is the sport's highest honor.


It acknowledges an exceptional rowing career.

(meta data) TITLE: Murray and Bond win 2018 Thomas Keller Medal - worldrowing.com

(meta data) PUBLISHED DATETIME: 2019-08-11 08:45:00Z

# Murray and Bond win 2018 Thomas Keller Medal

Eric Murray (b), Hamish Bond (s), New Zealand, Men's Pair, Heat 1, 2016 World Rowing Cup II, Lucerne, Switzerland

The 2018 Thomas Keller Medal, rowing's most prestigious award, has been awarded to two recipients, Eric Murray and Hamish Bond of the 'Kiwi Pair'.

The award recognises an Outstanding Career in Rowing with Murray and Bond of New Zealand winning over a list of highly accomplished nominees.

Murray and Bond made up the most successful men's pair ever seen in rowing.

They came together in the pair in 2009 and began an incredible run of 69 unbeaten races that included two Olympic gold medals until retirement after the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

The duo first found success in the men's four, becoming World Champions in 2007.

A disappointing seventh-place finish at the Beijing 2008 Olympics left Murray and Bond dissatisfied.

This may have acted as motivation for Bond to contact Murray and suggest rowing the pair.

Despite rather different personalities, both rowers had a common belief of always striving to develop and improve their technique, treating every training session as another chance to win and having the utmost respect for their competition.

As Bond described their rivalry with Great Britain's top men's pair, Pete Reed and Andrew T Hodge; "We drove them to become better athletes and they drove us to become better.

Their training workload was huge with Bond and Murray doing enough so that even on a 'bad' day they could still win an Olympic title.

This helped them set the World Best Time in the pair during the heats at the London Olympics.

They also set the World Best Time in the men's coxed pair after deciding to 'spice up' their training and racing by entering two events at the 2014 World Rowing Championships.

They raced in the pair and coxed pair, winning both.

Since retiring from rowing Murray has stayed involved in the sport while Bond has moved to cycling and has already proved himself internationally by winning a medal at the recent Commonwealth Games.

The Thomas Keller Medal presentation will take place on Saturday 14 July 2018 during the World Rowing Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Murray and Bond will receive the medal from Dominik Keller, son of FISA's former President, the late Thomas Keller.

To arrange interviews with either Murray or Bond please contact Rowing New Zealand's communications manager, Anna Williams: anna@rowingnz.kiwi, +64 27 403 9326

To view the list of previous Thomas Keller Medal winners, click here.

The Thomas Keller Medal is the highest distinction in the sport of rowing.

It recognises an exceptional international rowing career as well as exemplary sportsmanship and a legendary aspect.

The award was named after the late President of FISA, Thomas Keller (Thomi).

Born in 1924, Keller was elected President of FISA in 1958, at the age of 34 and was then the youngest-ever president of an international sports federation.

Following the 1988 Olympics, Thomi Keller spontaneously awarded the FISA Medal of Honour to Peter-Michael Kolbe and Pertti Karppinen to commemorate one of the greatest rivalries in the history of the sport and recognising their exceptional talent and sportsmanship.

This shaped the idea of the Thomas Keller Medal which was initiated by the Keller family following Thomi's passing in 1989.

It was first awarded to the great Norwegian oarsman Alf Hansen in 1990.

In 2017 the award went to Olympic Champion Katherine Grainger of Great Britain.

Coastal beach sprint qualifier makes waves in Canada

Record number of countries to compete at 2019 World Rowing Championships

Chile tops the rowing at Pan American Games

How the Sea Forest Waterway became the Tokyo 2020 Olympic regatta course

Tokyo's Sea Forest Waterway passes test and Germany cleans up at World Rowing Junior Championships

On 17 January 2012 Murray raced five-time men's single scull world champion Mahé Drysdale in the single scull event at the North Island Club Championships and won by less than half a second. Drysdale and Murray were the only two scullers in the event due to inconsistent crosswinds.
 At the 2012 London Olympic Games Murray and teammate Hamish Bond took six seconds off the world record to 6:08.5 in their heat for the men's coxless pair. In the Olympic final Murray and Bond surged into the lead after the 500 meter mark to win the gold medal in 6:16.65 by open water. France edged Great Britain for the silver in 6:21.11 v. Great Britain's time of 6:21.77. The victory capped an undefeated streak that began when Murray and Bond began racing the pair internationally in 2009. After the Olympics, Murray underwent minor knee surgery and announced that he would not be available for international competitions in 2017, whilst Bond announced in November 2016 that he would take a break from rowing.
 In the 2013 New Year Honours, Murray was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to rowing. In 2018 the International Rowing Federation awarded Murray and Bond the Thomas Keller Medal for their outstanding international rowing career. It is the sport's highest honor. It is awarded within five years of the athlete's retirement.


It acknowledges exemplary sportsmanship.

(meta data) TITLE: Murray and Bond win 2018 Thomas Keller Medal - worldrowing.com

(meta data) PUBLISHED DATETIME: 2019-08-11 08:45:00Z

# Murray and Bond win 2018 Thomas Keller Medal

Eric Murray (b), Hamish Bond (s), New Zealand, Men's Pair, Heat 1, 2016 World Rowing Cup II, Lucerne, Switzerland

The 2018 Thomas Keller Medal, rowing's most prestigious award, has been awarded to two recipients, Eric Murray and Hamish Bond of the 'Kiwi Pair'.

The award recognises an Outstanding Career in Rowing with Murray and Bond of New Zealand winning over a list of highly accomplished nominees.

Murray and Bond made up the most successful men's pair ever seen in rowing.

They came together in the pair in 2009 and began an incredible run of 69 unbeaten races that included two Olympic gold medals until retirement after the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

The duo first found success in the men's four, becoming World Champions in 2007.

A disappointing seventh-place finish at the Beijing 2008 Olympics left Murray and Bond dissatisfied.

This may have acted as motivation for Bond to contact Murray and suggest rowing the pair.

Despite rather different personalities, both rowers had a common belief of always striving to develop and improve their technique, treating every training session as another chance to win and having the utmost respect for their competition.

As Bond described their rivalry with Great Britain's top men's pair, Pete Reed and Andrew T Hodge; "We drove them to become better athletes and they drove us to become better.

Their training workload was huge with Bond and Murray doing enough so that even on a 'bad' day they could still win an Olympic title.

This helped them set the World Best Time in the pair during the heats at the London Olympics.

They also set the World Best Time in the men's coxed pair after deciding to 'spice up' their training and racing by entering two events at the 2014 World Rowing Championships.

They raced in the pair and coxed pair, winning both.

Since retiring from rowing Murray has stayed involved in the sport while Bond has moved to cycling and has already proved himself internationally by winning a medal at the recent Commonwealth Games.

The Thomas Keller Medal presentation will take place on Saturday 14 July 2018 during the World Rowing Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Murray and Bond will receive the medal from Dominik Keller, son of FISA's former President, the late Thomas Keller.

To arrange interviews with either Murray or Bond please contact Rowing New Zealand's communications manager, Anna Williams: anna@rowingnz.kiwi, +64 27 403 9326

To view the list of previous Thomas Keller Medal winners, click here.

The Thomas Keller Medal is the highest distinction in the sport of rowing.

It recognises an exceptional international rowing career as well as exemplary sportsmanship and a legendary aspect.

The award was named after the late President of FISA, Thomas Keller (Thomi).

Born in 1924, Keller was elected President of FISA in 1958, at the age of 34 and was then the youngest-ever president of an international sports federation.

Following the 1988 Olympics, Thomi Keller spontaneously awarded the FISA Medal of Honour to Peter-Michael Kolbe and Pertti Karppinen to commemorate one of the greatest rivalries in the history of the sport and recognising their exceptional talent and sportsmanship.

This shaped the idea of the Thomas Keller Medal which was initiated by the Keller family following Thomi's passing in 1989.

It was first awarded to the great Norwegian oarsman Alf Hansen in 1990.

In 2017 the award went to Olympic Champion Katherine Grainger of Great Britain.

Coastal beach sprint qualifier makes waves in Canada

Record number of countries to compete at 2019 World Rowing Championships

Chile tops the rowing at Pan American Games

How the Sea Forest Waterway became the Tokyo 2020 Olympic regatta course

Tokyo's Sea Forest Waterway passes test and Germany cleans up at World Rowing Junior Championships

On 17 January 2012 Murray raced five-time men's single scull world champion Mahé Drysdale in the single scull event at the North Island Club Championships and won by less than half a second. Drysdale and Murray were the only two scullers in the event due to inconsistent crosswinds.
 At the 2012 London Olympic Games Murray and teammate Hamish Bond took six seconds off the world record to 6:08.5 in their heat for the men's coxless pair. In the Olympic final Murray and Bond surged into the lead after the 500 meter mark to win the gold medal in 6:16.65 by open water. France edged Great Britain for the silver in 6:21.11 v. Great Britain's time of 6:21.77. The victory capped an undefeated streak that began when Murray and Bond began racing the pair internationally in 2009. After the Olympics, Murray underwent minor knee surgery and announced that he would not be available for international competitions in 2017, whilst Bond announced in November 2016 that he would take a break from rowing.
 In the 2013 New Year Honours, Murray was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to rowing. In 2018 the International Rowing Federation awarded Murray and Bond the Thomas Keller Medal for their outstanding international rowing career. It is the sport's highest honor. It is awarded within five years of the athlete's retirement. It acknowledges an exceptional rowing career.


(meta data) TITLE: Rebecca Blumenstein - NYU Journalism

Deputy Managing Editor, The New York Times

Rebecca Blumenstein is Deputy Managing Editor of The New York Times, a position she assumed in February 2017.

Previously, she had been Deputy Editor in Chief of The Wall Street Journal since January 2013, and the highest-ranking woman to lead the paper's news organization to date.

Previously, she was the Page One Editor, appointed in September 2011, and a deputy managing editor and international editor since December 2009.

Ms. Blumenstein has also served as managing editor of The Wall Street Journal Online and as the China bureau chief, overseeing China coverage for the Journal.

Prior to moving to China in the summer of 2005, Ms. Blumenstein served as chief of the Journal's New York Technology Group, which covered the historic mergers and changes in technology that recast the telecommunications industry.

Before that, she was the group's deputy chief and a reporter covering AT&T Corp. and WorldCom Inc.

Ms. Blumenstein joined the Journal in 1995 as a reporter in the Detroit bureau, where she covered General Motors.

She began her journalism career at the Tampa Tribune, and then later moved to Gannett Newspapers and Newsday, where she covered breaking news and the New York State legislature.

She received a 1993 New York Newswomen's Award for best deadline writing for her coverage of the aftermath of the Long Island Railroad shootings.

In 2003, she was part of a team that won the Gerald Loeb Award for deadline writing for coverage of WorldCom.

She oversaw the China team that won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 2007.

She was named to the Aspen Institute's Henry Crown Fellowship for 2009.

Ms. Blumenstein holds a bachelor's degree in economics and social science from the University of Michigan, where she was editor in chief of the Michigan Daily.


Rebecca Blumenstein is a newspaper editor.


Zach Handlen praised it for giving McCoy better lines.

(meta data) TITLE: Star Trek: "Friday's Child" / "The Deadly Years"

# Star Trek: "Friday's Child" / "The Deadly Years"

Zack Handlen6/18/09 9:00amFiled to: TVFiled to: TVTVStar TrekRecap123SaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteToggle Conversation toolsChange in-article videoGo to permalinkTV ReviewsAll of our TV reviews in one convenient place.

# "Friday's Child" / "The Deadly Years" / "Friday's Child" / "The Deadly Years"

I've talked a lot about the virtues of James Kirk and his stellar first officer, but I've been overlooking the third member of science fiction's most delightful of holy trinities: Leonard "Bones" McCoy, a simple country doctor who spends all the time when he's not healing people either wanting a drink or arguing.

(Actually, he probably wants a drink all the time, so scratch the "or.")

McCoy has never been a favorite of mine.

Age mellowed him by the time the movies hit, but on the original series, he's too often pissy for no real reason, and his "good old boy" attitude can be embarrassingly anachronistic.

As much as the casual sexism and mini-skirts, he dates the show.

DeForest Kelly is a likable professional, and by about the fifteenth time he aw-shucks his way through some medical mystery, it's easier to just give in and go with it.

McCoy's passion for his job and his patients is obvious and helps to smooth over the spikier edges of his personality—like, for instance, his fair bit of bigotry when it comes to aliens.

He's a good man at heart, and makes for a solid Id to Spock's Ego; and in a way, the off-putting aspects of his character are kind of refreshing.

Movies and TV shows have long told us the importance of following our hearts, and it's nice, whether intentional or not, to have someone who exposes how ineffective a philosophy that can be.

McCoy is never anything less than an excellent physician, but as an advice-giver, his record is spotty at best.

He does occasionally get a chance to shine, though, and "Friday's Child" is pretty much his.

The Federation is interested in negotiating for mining rights on a new planet, and to that end, McCoy has spent some time hanging out with the natives, a warlike tribe called Capellans.

Why the doctor is sent instead of, say, a sociologist is anybody's guess; it could be that the Capellans' culture would only permit someone as neutral as a medic to visit them without causing problems.

(Hell, a minute after Kirk and Spock beam down, they've already got a corpse on their hands.)

Whatever the reason, McCoy gives a briefing on the Capellans before the negotiations get underway.

They're big dudes, supposedly over seven feet tall (although that tends to vary a lot), and to them "fighting is more pleasurable than love."

Also, they seem to be wearing costumes swiped from a forgotten Dr. Seuss movie.

Really, it's just a sci-fi gloss put over some classic Indian stereotypes from Westerns of the time, but there's enough cohesion to the culture that it works okay.

And hey, there's also a lot of barbarian in there too, and who doesn't like Indian barbarians from Whoville?

The rub lies in the fact that the Klingons also want mining rights on the planet, and when Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and a doomed redshirt arrive on the scene, a Klingon is already there, filling one of the locals' (an ambitious dude named Maab) ears with all sorts of anti-Starfleet rhetoric.

The redshirt gets a knife to the gut—well, it's more like a toy glaive, but just focus on the fact that it's stabby—when he goes for his phaser, and things get sort of awkward for a while.

The current head of the tribe, Akaar, is a decent enough guy, but when you're dealing with a race that values combat over all other things, how easy is it going to be to settle the issue with plain speaking?

Maab throws a coup, killing Akaar, and putting Kirk and the others in an even worse position; although they're a little better off than Akaar's very pregnant wife Eleen, who's life is forfeit because she's carrying a potential competitor for Maab in her womb.

(This really is more medieval than Native American, isn't it.)

Our heroes escape from camp with Eleen in tow, but that isn't the end of their problems.

Their communicators are gone, the Enterprise is off chasing phantom distress signals, and they've got a whole mess of pissed off semi-giants who've spent their entire lives learning combat to deal with.

Plus, Eleen isn't exactly thrilled to be included in the escape.

Given the choice between death at the hands of her people, or bowing to the will of a group of strange aliens… well, it's not really much of a choice, is it.

"Child" is a collection of cliches, but it works well for all of that.

Ridiculous costumes aside, the Cappellans are a credible threat; the Klingon's presence naturally increases the difficulties of the situation; and McCoy's relationship with Eleen, who grows to trust him only after he smacks her upside the head (she smacked him first, of course), is well-handled.

The series often ends up as The Kirk And Spock Power Hour, so seeing McCoy play a major role is neat, and he gets in some great lines.

("Look, I'm a doctor, not an escalator!")

It's also worth noting that, despite their growing bond, Eleen still knocks the doc out and escapes soon after giving birth to her kid (having grown up on sitcoms that waste whole episodes on deliveries-in-awkward-places, I was charmed by the fact that Eleen's delivery takes place off-screen, in about two minutes).

She does try and save McCoy and the others when she meets up with Maab's group, but it's refreshing that she doesn't completely lose her own values and personality after being "saved."

The subplot that has the Enterprise distracted by a fake call for help is necessary to explain why they don't just beam down to the planet to see what's keeping the captain, but it makes Scotty look awfully dumb for taking so long to figure things out.

(He makes up for it with a metal moment later on when the Klingon ship tries to block the Enterprise's path.

Although it can't be that easy to block someone's path in three dimensional space.)

Having the Klingons show up as a rival makes for solid continuity, but they seem awfully passive for what we've seen of the species.

There's only one of them on the planet with the Capellans, and the Klingon ship that threatens the Enterprise mostly just hangs around.

For all their fighting prowess, the Capellans couldn't put up much of a fight against,say, phaser bombardment.

The whole subterfuge thing doesn't seem very Klingon, either.

As for the Capellans themselves, how is it that a race that prides itself on its talent for combat could get its ass handed to it with such monotonous regularity by James T. Kirk?

Still, props to the ep for having the Capellans take down the Klingon themselves at the end, through a sacrifice play that actually holds consistent to their major philosophy.

Maab puts the needs of the many ahead of his life, and after his death, Eleen's infant son is put in charge, with Eleen acting as his regent; it's a safe bet that the Federation will get all those "rocks" they've been clamoring for.

You gotta wonder just how the prime directive works when Starfleet starts sending equipment and ships to a pre-tech planet (they haven't even invented bows yet—most likely because they're big on hand-to-hand).

In arguing for the Federation over the Klingon Empire, Kirk promises that the Capellans will never lose the right to rule their home, and I think we can take him at his word.

Even with that promise, though, it's a forced change.

Maybe the whole Indian thing wasn't that far off after all.

If "Friday's Child" is McCoy's change to shine, then "The Deadly Years"… isn't.

But then, nobody shines that brightly in an episode that tries for pathos and largely manages to achieve only dull discomfort.

The high concept for this outing: a strange effect causes Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and one poor crew-woman to age rapidly.

Apparently old age is still hell even in the future, as our heroes struggle with memory loss, increased physical sensitivity, bad tempers, and some surprisingly credible make-up jobs.

It's an unexciting concept that hasn't been thought out very well, and the resulting episode, a few quirky moments aside, is a let down.

The Enterprise is visiting to Gamma Hydra IV to check in on a science expedition lead by Robert Johnson.

All they find are some very old corpses, plus Johnson and his wife.

According to Spock, no one in the expedition was elderly, but the corpses all died of old age, and Mr. and Mrs. Johnson themselves appear to be edging past the outskirts of the Matlock demographic, despite Johnson's assertion that he's just 28 years old.

But instead of quarantining the facility on the planet and trying to figure things out, everybody beams back aboard the Enterprise.

Since the cause of the rapid aging could very well be biological and contagious, and given that this crew has already dealt with its fair share of bad bugs (like in "Miri," where Kirk was smart enough to keep anyone potentially infected off ship until they could find a cure), you'd think our crew wouldn't be quite so blase about the problem.

Sure, Kirk starts up a blue ribbon panel of experts—including a Commodore Stocker, who offers us some variation in Starfleet administrative personnel by being passively dickish, and Dr. Jan Wallace, a former flame of Kirk's, along with the standard peanut gallery—but it doesn't never occurs to anybody that the people who beamed down to the surface could be in danger.

It isn't long before Kirk, McCoy, and the rest start visibly aging (like I said, the make-up isn't bad, and it's surprisingly subtle, too; the changes start even before our attention is drawn to them), and with both of the Johnsons now expired, finding a cure suddenly became very, very important.

Even worse, the Johnsons were crazy senile before they died, which means that in addition to no longer being quite as pretty, Kirk and the others have to deal with the knowledge that the longer they stay sick, the more their faculties will suffer.

Not good for a doctor, or a science officer, or a chief engineer, but catastrophic for a star-ship captain.

There's potential here; it's not hard to empathize with a terror of growing old, especially before one's time, and while "Years" does exaggerate the effects of aging on the mind, it still stays generally within recognizable limits.

Kirk forgets things, repeats himself, and whenever anyone points out his mistakes, he gets angry—as anyone who's ever dealt with a senile grandparent can tell you, that's not far off the mark.

There are smaller touches as well, like Spock's increased sensitivity to cold, which makes a nice call-back to the heat of Vulcan mentioned in "Amok Time."

And there's no attempt to mollify the harshness of the experience, either.

Nobody learns a valuable lesson about how getting old is just a natural part of life.

Yet the episode never really feels all that personal.

There are a few good bits—my favorite comes when Jan starts putting the moves on slightly older Kirk, and he realizes she's doing it because she has a thing for older men.

("What are you offering me, Jan? Love—or a going away present?")

It's such a quirky, surprising scene, the wish fulfillment aspect being immediately undercut by the oddness of the lady's fetish.

Jan never raises the issue again, and seems just as much interested in the young Kirk, post-cure, but you can't help wondering if their original relationship failed because Kirk still had all his hair.

Good bits aside, there's not much effort being put in outside of the make-up.

What really kills things is the competency hearing that eats up a good chunk of the running time.

Jack-disease strikes fairly quickly, and since we can't find a cure for it until the last act, we've got to fill the other acts somehow.

"Years" chooses to fill them by having Commodore Stacker question Kirk's ability to captain the ship, forcing Spock to put his friend on trial and humiliate him in front of his peers.

There's precious little drama in the sequence, aside from the occasional cringe, as we spend the whole thing having characters describe scenes to us that we've already watched.

It's not a criticism of his leadership abilities to say that being struck with a rare illness that makes him liable to forget stuff means he can't do his job properly; in fact, the only negative mark on his character here is his refusal to see the truth, no matter how many of his mistakes are pointed out.

Then there's Stacker, who starts off acting like a reasonable guy, and then turns into a moron as the script dictates.

Once again, we've got an administrator who's on a schedule, so we hear the standard litany of complaints when Kirk refuses to leave Gamma Hydra's orbit.

Stacker's polite about it at first, and when he talks to Spock about getting Kirk to relinquish command, it's hard not to see his point.

But then he ruins everything by taking over the ship and ordering Sulu to set a course through the Neutral Zone.

Are Commodores not taught basic space travel etiquette?

You think they'd be even more concerned about maintaining proper diplomatic relations with an enemy than Kirk, and since we're never given any reason as to why Stacker's so desperate to get to Star Base 10 (I see we used up all our clever naming skills when we geniused up "Gamma Hydra IV"), he comes off as a tool, and a poorly written one at that.

The only reason the Neutral Zone even comes up is to give us some suspense at the climax.

Oh no, the Commodore has no idea what the fuck he's doing!

We need Kirk on the bridge, but he's just so damn old.

Wouldn't you know it, though, McCoy and Spock have just discovered the source of the problem (GH passed through a comet's tail, and I guess they had a choice between zombies or rapid degeneration and decided on the one that didn't require cannibalism), and, seeing as how Chekov was the only person to go down to the planet and be unaffected by the radiation, they determine that adrenaline—Chekov freaked when he saw the first dead body—can stop the radiation.

Never mind that this is more than a little ridiculous (was Chekov terrified the entire time he was down there?), or that the physical effects of all that oldness should take more than few minutes to throw off, we have our cure!

And Kirk demands he get it first, in the middle of a battle that the ship is losing, because he's the only one who can save everybody.

The treatment works, Kirk rescues the weak-ass Commodore and the Enterprise from the nasty Romulans (in a clever moment, he re-uses a mistake his elderly self made earlier to trick the bad guys with an out-of-date code frequency), and Stacker learns a valuable lesson as to just how awesome Kirk is.

A lesson that doesn't seem to have been needed, really; while he made some stupid calls, getting Kirk out of the captain's chair long enough to get cured isn't one of them.

The quarantine problem just becomes more egregious as the episode continues, since once the landing party starts getting sick, the risk that the illness is contagious would seem to increase tenfold, but nobody gives a damn.

We get a lot of aging cliches, and while it's fun watching everybody ham it up as elderly versions of themselves (hey, is that Shatner's actual hair?), that's not enough to make the whole fifty minutes compelling.

A more honest connection to the central problem, and less manufactured dilemmas, and, well… I'm not sure you could get a great episode out of this premise, but you sure as hell could have gotten a better one.

McCoy's baby-talk leaves something to be desired, but Spock's reaction is worth the silliness.

Hey, we finally have an alien race that our heroes don't teach a valuable lesson to.

Although McCoy does convince Eleen to care for her baby, and that means that the baby becomes head of the tribe, so… nuts.

Poor Lieutenant Galway isn't given much to do beyond get worried, get old, and get dead, but she does get one good line in: "That's a stupid place to hang a mirror."

Tune in next week for "Obsession" and "Wolf in the fold."

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Zack Handlen8/04/19 10:00pmKinja is in read-only mode.

Friday's Child (Star Trek: The Original Series)

Writer D.C. Fontana said she wanted a story about a strong woman who didn't necessarily want children. Her original idea was used largely unchanged, with the major exception being the addition of the Klingons. Zach Handlen is from "The A.V. Club". Zach Handlen gave the episode a "B+". Zach Handlen praised it for giving McCoy a stronger presence.


(meta data) TITLE: Star Trek: "Friday's Child" / "The Deadly Years"

# Star Trek: "Friday's Child" / "The Deadly Years"

Zack Handlen6/18/09 9:00amFiled to: TVFiled to: TVTVStar TrekRecap123SaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteToggle Conversation toolsChange in-article videoGo to permalinkTV ReviewsAll of our TV reviews in one convenient place.

# "Friday's Child" / "The Deadly Years" / "Friday's Child" / "The Deadly Years"

I've talked a lot about the virtues of James Kirk and his stellar first officer, but I've been overlooking the third member of science fiction's most delightful of holy trinities: Leonard "Bones" McCoy, a simple country doctor who spends all the time when he's not healing people either wanting a drink or arguing.

(Actually, he probably wants a drink all the time, so scratch the "or.")

McCoy has never been a favorite of mine.

Age mellowed him by the time the movies hit, but on the original series, he's too often pissy for no real reason, and his "good old boy" attitude can be embarrassingly anachronistic.

As much as the casual sexism and mini-skirts, he dates the show.

DeForest Kelly is a likable professional, and by about the fifteenth time he aw-shucks his way through some medical mystery, it's easier to just give in and go with it.

McCoy's passion for his job and his patients is obvious and helps to smooth over the spikier edges of his personality—like, for instance, his fair bit of bigotry when it comes to aliens.

He's a good man at heart, and makes for a solid Id to Spock's Ego; and in a way, the off-putting aspects of his character are kind of refreshing.

Movies and TV shows have long told us the importance of following our hearts, and it's nice, whether intentional or not, to have someone who exposes how ineffective a philosophy that can be.

McCoy is never anything less than an excellent physician, but as an advice-giver, his record is spotty at best.

He does occasionally get a chance to shine, though, and "Friday's Child" is pretty much his.

The Federation is interested in negotiating for mining rights on a new planet, and to that end, McCoy has spent some time hanging out with the natives, a warlike tribe called Capellans.

Why the doctor is sent instead of, say, a sociologist is anybody's guess; it could be that the Capellans' culture would only permit someone as neutral as a medic to visit them without causing problems.

(Hell, a minute after Kirk and Spock beam down, they've already got a corpse on their hands.)

Whatever the reason, McCoy gives a briefing on the Capellans before the negotiations get underway.

They're big dudes, supposedly over seven feet tall (although that tends to vary a lot), and to them "fighting is more pleasurable than love."

Also, they seem to be wearing costumes swiped from a forgotten Dr. Seuss movie.

Really, it's just a sci-fi gloss put over some classic Indian stereotypes from Westerns of the time, but there's enough cohesion to the culture that it works okay.

And hey, there's also a lot of barbarian in there too, and who doesn't like Indian barbarians from Whoville?

The rub lies in the fact that the Klingons also want mining rights on the planet, and when Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and a doomed redshirt arrive on the scene, a Klingon is already there, filling one of the locals' (an ambitious dude named Maab) ears with all sorts of anti-Starfleet rhetoric.

The redshirt gets a knife to the gut—well, it's more like a toy glaive, but just focus on the fact that it's stabby—when he goes for his phaser, and things get sort of awkward for a while.

The current head of the tribe, Akaar, is a decent enough guy, but when you're dealing with a race that values combat over all other things, how easy is it going to be to settle the issue with plain speaking?

Maab throws a coup, killing Akaar, and putting Kirk and the others in an even worse position; although they're a little better off than Akaar's very pregnant wife Eleen, who's life is forfeit because she's carrying a potential competitor for Maab in her womb.

(This really is more medieval than Native American, isn't it.)

Our heroes escape from camp with Eleen in tow, but that isn't the end of their problems.

Their communicators are gone, the Enterprise is off chasing phantom distress signals, and they've got a whole mess of pissed off semi-giants who've spent their entire lives learning combat to deal with.

Plus, Eleen isn't exactly thrilled to be included in the escape.

Given the choice between death at the hands of her people, or bowing to the will of a group of strange aliens… well, it's not really much of a choice, is it.

"Child" is a collection of cliches, but it works well for all of that.

Ridiculous costumes aside, the Cappellans are a credible threat; the Klingon's presence naturally increases the difficulties of the situation; and McCoy's relationship with Eleen, who grows to trust him only after he smacks her upside the head (she smacked him first, of course), is well-handled.

The series often ends up as The Kirk And Spock Power Hour, so seeing McCoy play a major role is neat, and he gets in some great lines.

("Look, I'm a doctor, not an escalator!")

It's also worth noting that, despite their growing bond, Eleen still knocks the doc out and escapes soon after giving birth to her kid (having grown up on sitcoms that waste whole episodes on deliveries-in-awkward-places, I was charmed by the fact that Eleen's delivery takes place off-screen, in about two minutes).

She does try and save McCoy and the others when she meets up with Maab's group, but it's refreshing that she doesn't completely lose her own values and personality after being "saved."

The subplot that has the Enterprise distracted by a fake call for help is necessary to explain why they don't just beam down to the planet to see what's keeping the captain, but it makes Scotty look awfully dumb for taking so long to figure things out.

(He makes up for it with a metal moment later on when the Klingon ship tries to block the Enterprise's path.

Although it can't be that easy to block someone's path in three dimensional space.)

Having the Klingons show up as a rival makes for solid continuity, but they seem awfully passive for what we've seen of the species.

There's only one of them on the planet with the Capellans, and the Klingon ship that threatens the Enterprise mostly just hangs around.

For all their fighting prowess, the Capellans couldn't put up much of a fight against,say, phaser bombardment.

The whole subterfuge thing doesn't seem very Klingon, either.

As for the Capellans themselves, how is it that a race that prides itself on its talent for combat could get its ass handed to it with such monotonous regularity by James T. Kirk?

Still, props to the ep for having the Capellans take down the Klingon themselves at the end, through a sacrifice play that actually holds consistent to their major philosophy.

Maab puts the needs of the many ahead of his life, and after his death, Eleen's infant son is put in charge, with Eleen acting as his regent; it's a safe bet that the Federation will get all those "rocks" they've been clamoring for.

You gotta wonder just how the prime directive works when Starfleet starts sending equipment and ships to a pre-tech planet (they haven't even invented bows yet—most likely because they're big on hand-to-hand).

In arguing for the Federation over the Klingon Empire, Kirk promises that the Capellans will never lose the right to rule their home, and I think we can take him at his word.

Even with that promise, though, it's a forced change.

Maybe the whole Indian thing wasn't that far off after all.

If "Friday's Child" is McCoy's change to shine, then "The Deadly Years"… isn't.

But then, nobody shines that brightly in an episode that tries for pathos and largely manages to achieve only dull discomfort.

The high concept for this outing: a strange effect causes Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and one poor crew-woman to age rapidly.

Apparently old age is still hell even in the future, as our heroes struggle with memory loss, increased physical sensitivity, bad tempers, and some surprisingly credible make-up jobs.

It's an unexciting concept that hasn't been thought out very well, and the resulting episode, a few quirky moments aside, is a let down.

The Enterprise is visiting to Gamma Hydra IV to check in on a science expedition lead by Robert Johnson.

All they find are some very old corpses, plus Johnson and his wife.

According to Spock, no one in the expedition was elderly, but the corpses all died of old age, and Mr. and Mrs. Johnson themselves appear to be edging past the outskirts of the Matlock demographic, despite Johnson's assertion that he's just 28 years old.

But instead of quarantining the facility on the planet and trying to figure things out, everybody beams back aboard the Enterprise.

Since the cause of the rapid aging could very well be biological and contagious, and given that this crew has already dealt with its fair share of bad bugs (like in "Miri," where Kirk was smart enough to keep anyone potentially infected off ship until they could find a cure), you'd think our crew wouldn't be quite so blase about the problem.

Sure, Kirk starts up a blue ribbon panel of experts—including a Commodore Stocker, who offers us some variation in Starfleet administrative personnel by being passively dickish, and Dr. Jan Wallace, a former flame of Kirk's, along with the standard peanut gallery—but it doesn't never occurs to anybody that the people who beamed down to the surface could be in danger.

It isn't long before Kirk, McCoy, and the rest start visibly aging (like I said, the make-up isn't bad, and it's surprisingly subtle, too; the changes start even before our attention is drawn to them), and with both of the Johnsons now expired, finding a cure suddenly became very, very important.

Even worse, the Johnsons were crazy senile before they died, which means that in addition to no longer being quite as pretty, Kirk and the others have to deal with the knowledge that the longer they stay sick, the more their faculties will suffer.

Not good for a doctor, or a science officer, or a chief engineer, but catastrophic for a star-ship captain.

There's potential here; it's not hard to empathize with a terror of growing old, especially before one's time, and while "Years" does exaggerate the effects of aging on the mind, it still stays generally within recognizable limits.

Kirk forgets things, repeats himself, and whenever anyone points out his mistakes, he gets angry—as anyone who's ever dealt with a senile grandparent can tell you, that's not far off the mark.

There are smaller touches as well, like Spock's increased sensitivity to cold, which makes a nice call-back to the heat of Vulcan mentioned in "Amok Time."

And there's no attempt to mollify the harshness of the experience, either.

Nobody learns a valuable lesson about how getting old is just a natural part of life.

Yet the episode never really feels all that personal.

There are a few good bits—my favorite comes when Jan starts putting the moves on slightly older Kirk, and he realizes she's doing it because she has a thing for older men.

("What are you offering me, Jan? Love—or a going away present?")

It's such a quirky, surprising scene, the wish fulfillment aspect being immediately undercut by the oddness of the lady's fetish.

Jan never raises the issue again, and seems just as much interested in the young Kirk, post-cure, but you can't help wondering if their original relationship failed because Kirk still had all his hair.

Good bits aside, there's not much effort being put in outside of the make-up.

What really kills things is the competency hearing that eats up a good chunk of the running time.

Jack-disease strikes fairly quickly, and since we can't find a cure for it until the last act, we've got to fill the other acts somehow.

"Years" chooses to fill them by having Commodore Stacker question Kirk's ability to captain the ship, forcing Spock to put his friend on trial and humiliate him in front of his peers.

There's precious little drama in the sequence, aside from the occasional cringe, as we spend the whole thing having characters describe scenes to us that we've already watched.

It's not a criticism of his leadership abilities to say that being struck with a rare illness that makes him liable to forget stuff means he can't do his job properly; in fact, the only negative mark on his character here is his refusal to see the truth, no matter how many of his mistakes are pointed out.

Then there's Stacker, who starts off acting like a reasonable guy, and then turns into a moron as the script dictates.

Once again, we've got an administrator who's on a schedule, so we hear the standard litany of complaints when Kirk refuses to leave Gamma Hydra's orbit.

Stacker's polite about it at first, and when he talks to Spock about getting Kirk to relinquish command, it's hard not to see his point.

But then he ruins everything by taking over the ship and ordering Sulu to set a course through the Neutral Zone.

Are Commodores not taught basic space travel etiquette?

You think they'd be even more concerned about maintaining proper diplomatic relations with an enemy than Kirk, and since we're never given any reason as to why Stacker's so desperate to get to Star Base 10 (I see we used up all our clever naming skills when we geniused up "Gamma Hydra IV"), he comes off as a tool, and a poorly written one at that.

The only reason the Neutral Zone even comes up is to give us some suspense at the climax.

Oh no, the Commodore has no idea what the fuck he's doing!

We need Kirk on the bridge, but he's just so damn old.

Wouldn't you know it, though, McCoy and Spock have just discovered the source of the problem (GH passed through a comet's tail, and I guess they had a choice between zombies or rapid degeneration and decided on the one that didn't require cannibalism), and, seeing as how Chekov was the only person to go down to the planet and be unaffected by the radiation, they determine that adrenaline—Chekov freaked when he saw the first dead body—can stop the radiation.

Never mind that this is more than a little ridiculous (was Chekov terrified the entire time he was down there?), or that the physical effects of all that oldness should take more than few minutes to throw off, we have our cure!

And Kirk demands he get it first, in the middle of a battle that the ship is losing, because he's the only one who can save everybody.

The treatment works, Kirk rescues the weak-ass Commodore and the Enterprise from the nasty Romulans (in a clever moment, he re-uses a mistake his elderly self made earlier to trick the bad guys with an out-of-date code frequency), and Stacker learns a valuable lesson as to just how awesome Kirk is.

A lesson that doesn't seem to have been needed, really; while he made some stupid calls, getting Kirk out of the captain's chair long enough to get cured isn't one of them.

The quarantine problem just becomes more egregious as the episode continues, since once the landing party starts getting sick, the risk that the illness is contagious would seem to increase tenfold, but nobody gives a damn.

We get a lot of aging cliches, and while it's fun watching everybody ham it up as elderly versions of themselves (hey, is that Shatner's actual hair?), that's not enough to make the whole fifty minutes compelling.

A more honest connection to the central problem, and less manufactured dilemmas, and, well… I'm not sure you could get a great episode out of this premise, but you sure as hell could have gotten a better one.

McCoy's baby-talk leaves something to be desired, but Spock's reaction is worth the silliness.

Hey, we finally have an alien race that our heroes don't teach a valuable lesson to.

Although McCoy does convince Eleen to care for her baby, and that means that the baby becomes head of the tribe, so… nuts.

Poor Lieutenant Galway isn't given much to do beyond get worried, get old, and get dead, but she does get one good line in: "That's a stupid place to hang a mirror."

Tune in next week for "Obsession" and "Wolf in the fold."

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Zack Handlen8/04/19 10:00pmKinja is in read-only mode.

Writer D.C. Fontana said she wanted a story about a strong woman who didn't necessarily want children. Her original idea was used largely unchanged, with the major exception being the addition of the Klingons.


(meta data) TITLE: Star Trek: "Friday's Child" / "The Deadly Years"

# Star Trek: "Friday's Child" / "The Deadly Years"

Zack Handlen6/18/09 9:00amFiled to: TVFiled to: TVTVStar TrekRecap123SaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteToggle Conversation toolsChange in-article videoGo to permalinkTV ReviewsAll of our TV reviews in one convenient place.

# "Friday's Child" / "The Deadly Years" / "Friday's Child" / "The Deadly Years"

I've talked a lot about the virtues of James Kirk and his stellar first officer, but I've been overlooking the third member of science fiction's most delightful of holy trinities: Leonard "Bones" McCoy, a simple country doctor who spends all the time when he's not healing people either wanting a drink or arguing.

(Actually, he probably wants a drink all the time, so scratch the "or.")

McCoy has never been a favorite of mine.

Age mellowed him by the time the movies hit, but on the original series, he's too often pissy for no real reason, and his "good old boy" attitude can be embarrassingly anachronistic.

As much as the casual sexism and mini-skirts, he dates the show.

DeForest Kelly is a likable professional, and by about the fifteenth time he aw-shucks his way through some medical mystery, it's easier to just give in and go with it.

McCoy's passion for his job and his patients is obvious and helps to smooth over the spikier edges of his personality—like, for instance, his fair bit of bigotry when it comes to aliens.

He's a good man at heart, and makes for a solid Id to Spock's Ego; and in a way, the off-putting aspects of his character are kind of refreshing.

Movies and TV shows have long told us the importance of following our hearts, and it's nice, whether intentional or not, to have someone who exposes how ineffective a philosophy that can be.

McCoy is never anything less than an excellent physician, but as an advice-giver, his record is spotty at best.

He does occasionally get a chance to shine, though, and "Friday's Child" is pretty much his.

The Federation is interested in negotiating for mining rights on a new planet, and to that end, McCoy has spent some time hanging out with the natives, a warlike tribe called Capellans.

Why the doctor is sent instead of, say, a sociologist is anybody's guess; it could be that the Capellans' culture would only permit someone as neutral as a medic to visit them without causing problems.

(Hell, a minute after Kirk and Spock beam down, they've already got a corpse on their hands.)

Whatever the reason, McCoy gives a briefing on the Capellans before the negotiations get underway.

They're big dudes, supposedly over seven feet tall (although that tends to vary a lot), and to them "fighting is more pleasurable than love."

Also, they seem to be wearing costumes swiped from a forgotten Dr. Seuss movie.

Really, it's just a sci-fi gloss put over some classic Indian stereotypes from Westerns of the time, but there's enough cohesion to the culture that it works okay.

And hey, there's also a lot of barbarian in there too, and who doesn't like Indian barbarians from Whoville?

The rub lies in the fact that the Klingons also want mining rights on the planet, and when Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and a doomed redshirt arrive on the scene, a Klingon is already there, filling one of the locals' (an ambitious dude named Maab) ears with all sorts of anti-Starfleet rhetoric.

The redshirt gets a knife to the gut—well, it's more like a toy glaive, but just focus on the fact that it's stabby—when he goes for his phaser, and things get sort of awkward for a while.

The current head of the tribe, Akaar, is a decent enough guy, but when you're dealing with a race that values combat over all other things, how easy is it going to be to settle the issue with plain speaking?

Maab throws a coup, killing Akaar, and putting Kirk and the others in an even worse position; although they're a little better off than Akaar's very pregnant wife Eleen, who's life is forfeit because she's carrying a potential competitor for Maab in her womb.

(This really is more medieval than Native American, isn't it.)

Our heroes escape from camp with Eleen in tow, but that isn't the end of their problems.

Their communicators are gone, the Enterprise is off chasing phantom distress signals, and they've got a whole mess of pissed off semi-giants who've spent their entire lives learning combat to deal with.

Plus, Eleen isn't exactly thrilled to be included in the escape.

Given the choice between death at the hands of her people, or bowing to the will of a group of strange aliens… well, it's not really much of a choice, is it.

"Child" is a collection of cliches, but it works well for all of that.

Ridiculous costumes aside, the Cappellans are a credible threat; the Klingon's presence naturally increases the difficulties of the situation; and McCoy's relationship with Eleen, who grows to trust him only after he smacks her upside the head (she smacked him first, of course), is well-handled.

The series often ends up as The Kirk And Spock Power Hour, so seeing McCoy play a major role is neat, and he gets in some great lines.

("Look, I'm a doctor, not an escalator!")

It's also worth noting that, despite their growing bond, Eleen still knocks the doc out and escapes soon after giving birth to her kid (having grown up on sitcoms that waste whole episodes on deliveries-in-awkward-places, I was charmed by the fact that Eleen's delivery takes place off-screen, in about two minutes).

She does try and save McCoy and the others when she meets up with Maab's group, but it's refreshing that she doesn't completely lose her own values and personality after being "saved."

The subplot that has the Enterprise distracted by a fake call for help is necessary to explain why they don't just beam down to the planet to see what's keeping the captain, but it makes Scotty look awfully dumb for taking so long to figure things out.

(He makes up for it with a metal moment later on when the Klingon ship tries to block the Enterprise's path.

Although it can't be that easy to block someone's path in three dimensional space.)

Having the Klingons show up as a rival makes for solid continuity, but they seem awfully passive for what we've seen of the species.

There's only one of them on the planet with the Capellans, and the Klingon ship that threatens the Enterprise mostly just hangs around.

For all their fighting prowess, the Capellans couldn't put up much of a fight against,say, phaser bombardment.

The whole subterfuge thing doesn't seem very Klingon, either.

As for the Capellans themselves, how is it that a race that prides itself on its talent for combat could get its ass handed to it with such monotonous regularity by James T. Kirk?

Still, props to the ep for having the Capellans take down the Klingon themselves at the end, through a sacrifice play that actually holds consistent to their major philosophy.

Maab puts the needs of the many ahead of his life, and after his death, Eleen's infant son is put in charge, with Eleen acting as his regent; it's a safe bet that the Federation will get all those "rocks" they've been clamoring for.

You gotta wonder just how the prime directive works when Starfleet starts sending equipment and ships to a pre-tech planet (they haven't even invented bows yet—most likely because they're big on hand-to-hand).

In arguing for the Federation over the Klingon Empire, Kirk promises that the Capellans will never lose the right to rule their home, and I think we can take him at his word.

Even with that promise, though, it's a forced change.

Maybe the whole Indian thing wasn't that far off after all.

If "Friday's Child" is McCoy's change to shine, then "The Deadly Years"… isn't.

But then, nobody shines that brightly in an episode that tries for pathos and largely manages to achieve only dull discomfort.

The high concept for this outing: a strange effect causes Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and one poor crew-woman to age rapidly.

Apparently old age is still hell even in the future, as our heroes struggle with memory loss, increased physical sensitivity, bad tempers, and some surprisingly credible make-up jobs.

It's an unexciting concept that hasn't been thought out very well, and the resulting episode, a few quirky moments aside, is a let down.

The Enterprise is visiting to Gamma Hydra IV to check in on a science expedition lead by Robert Johnson.

All they find are some very old corpses, plus Johnson and his wife.

According to Spock, no one in the expedition was elderly, but the corpses all died of old age, and Mr. and Mrs. Johnson themselves appear to be edging past the outskirts of the Matlock demographic, despite Johnson's assertion that he's just 28 years old.

But instead of quarantining the facility on the planet and trying to figure things out, everybody beams back aboard the Enterprise.

Since the cause of the rapid aging could very well be biological and contagious, and given that this crew has already dealt with its fair share of bad bugs (like in "Miri," where Kirk was smart enough to keep anyone potentially infected off ship until they could find a cure), you'd think our crew wouldn't be quite so blase about the problem.

Sure, Kirk starts up a blue ribbon panel of experts—including a Commodore Stocker, who offers us some variation in Starfleet administrative personnel by being passively dickish, and Dr. Jan Wallace, a former flame of Kirk's, along with the standard peanut gallery—but it doesn't never occurs to anybody that the people who beamed down to the surface could be in danger.

It isn't long before Kirk, McCoy, and the rest start visibly aging (like I said, the make-up isn't bad, and it's surprisingly subtle, too; the changes start even before our attention is drawn to them), and with both of the Johnsons now expired, finding a cure suddenly became very, very important.

Even worse, the Johnsons were crazy senile before they died, which means that in addition to no longer being quite as pretty, Kirk and the others have to deal with the knowledge that the longer they stay sick, the more their faculties will suffer.

Not good for a doctor, or a science officer, or a chief engineer, but catastrophic for a star-ship captain.

There's potential here; it's not hard to empathize with a terror of growing old, especially before one's time, and while "Years" does exaggerate the effects of aging on the mind, it still stays generally within recognizable limits.

Kirk forgets things, repeats himself, and whenever anyone points out his mistakes, he gets angry—as anyone who's ever dealt with a senile grandparent can tell you, that's not far off the mark.

There are smaller touches as well, like Spock's increased sensitivity to cold, which makes a nice call-back to the heat of Vulcan mentioned in "Amok Time."

And there's no attempt to mollify the harshness of the experience, either.

Nobody learns a valuable lesson about how getting old is just a natural part of life.

Yet the episode never really feels all that personal.

There are a few good bits—my favorite comes when Jan starts putting the moves on slightly older Kirk, and he realizes she's doing it because she has a thing for older men.

("What are you offering me, Jan? Love—or a going away present?")

It's such a quirky, surprising scene, the wish fulfillment aspect being immediately undercut by the oddness of the lady's fetish.

Jan never raises the issue again, and seems just as much interested in the young Kirk, post-cure, but you can't help wondering if their original relationship failed because Kirk still had all his hair.

Good bits aside, there's not much effort being put in outside of the make-up.

What really kills things is the competency hearing that eats up a good chunk of the running time.

Jack-disease strikes fairly quickly, and since we can't find a cure for it until the last act, we've got to fill the other acts somehow.

"Years" chooses to fill them by having Commodore Stacker question Kirk's ability to captain the ship, forcing Spock to put his friend on trial and humiliate him in front of his peers.

There's precious little drama in the sequence, aside from the occasional cringe, as we spend the whole thing having characters describe scenes to us that we've already watched.

It's not a criticism of his leadership abilities to say that being struck with a rare illness that makes him liable to forget stuff means he can't do his job properly; in fact, the only negative mark on his character here is his refusal to see the truth, no matter how many of his mistakes are pointed out.

Then there's Stacker, who starts off acting like a reasonable guy, and then turns into a moron as the script dictates.

Once again, we've got an administrator who's on a schedule, so we hear the standard litany of complaints when Kirk refuses to leave Gamma Hydra's orbit.

Stacker's polite about it at first, and when he talks to Spock about getting Kirk to relinquish command, it's hard not to see his point.

But then he ruins everything by taking over the ship and ordering Sulu to set a course through the Neutral Zone.

Are Commodores not taught basic space travel etiquette?

You think they'd be even more concerned about maintaining proper diplomatic relations with an enemy than Kirk, and since we're never given any reason as to why Stacker's so desperate to get to Star Base 10 (I see we used up all our clever naming skills when we geniused up "Gamma Hydra IV"), he comes off as a tool, and a poorly written one at that.

The only reason the Neutral Zone even comes up is to give us some suspense at the climax.

Oh no, the Commodore has no idea what the fuck he's doing!

We need Kirk on the bridge, but he's just so damn old.

Wouldn't you know it, though, McCoy and Spock have just discovered the source of the problem (GH passed through a comet's tail, and I guess they had a choice between zombies or rapid degeneration and decided on the one that didn't require cannibalism), and, seeing as how Chekov was the only person to go down to the planet and be unaffected by the radiation, they determine that adrenaline—Chekov freaked when he saw the first dead body—can stop the radiation.

Never mind that this is more than a little ridiculous (was Chekov terrified the entire time he was down there?), or that the physical effects of all that oldness should take more than few minutes to throw off, we have our cure!

And Kirk demands he get it first, in the middle of a battle that the ship is losing, because he's the only one who can save everybody.

The treatment works, Kirk rescues the weak-ass Commodore and the Enterprise from the nasty Romulans (in a clever moment, he re-uses a mistake his elderly self made earlier to trick the bad guys with an out-of-date code frequency), and Stacker learns a valuable lesson as to just how awesome Kirk is.

A lesson that doesn't seem to have been needed, really; while he made some stupid calls, getting Kirk out of the captain's chair long enough to get cured isn't one of them.

The quarantine problem just becomes more egregious as the episode continues, since once the landing party starts getting sick, the risk that the illness is contagious would seem to increase tenfold, but nobody gives a damn.

We get a lot of aging cliches, and while it's fun watching everybody ham it up as elderly versions of themselves (hey, is that Shatner's actual hair?), that's not enough to make the whole fifty minutes compelling.

A more honest connection to the central problem, and less manufactured dilemmas, and, well… I'm not sure you could get a great episode out of this premise, but you sure as hell could have gotten a better one.

McCoy's baby-talk leaves something to be desired, but Spock's reaction is worth the silliness.

Hey, we finally have an alien race that our heroes don't teach a valuable lesson to.

Although McCoy does convince Eleen to care for her baby, and that means that the baby becomes head of the tribe, so… nuts.

Poor Lieutenant Galway isn't given much to do beyond get worried, get old, and get dead, but she does get one good line in: "That's a stupid place to hang a mirror."

Tune in next week for "Obsession" and "Wolf in the fold."

#### Samurai Slices A 100 Mph Baseball in Half

Brian Ashcraft8/07/19 6:15amThe A.V. Club | News

#### This floating tent offers you a cool new way to die while camping

Gabe WorgaftikYesterday 1:26pmGizmodo | io9

#### We Think We Found Nova in These Avengers: Endgame Stills

#### Nothing much makes sense on Preacher, but at least there's gore

#### A pointless Preacher wallows in flashbacks

#### Preacher returns with a vision of the end

Zack Handlen8/04/19 10:00pmKinja is in read-only mode.

Writer D.C. Fontana said she wanted a story about a strong woman who didn't necessarily want children. Her original idea was used largely unchanged, with the major exception being the addition of the Klingons. Zach Handlen is from "The A.V. Club".


Zach Handlen praised it for giving McCoy a stronger presence.

(meta data) TITLE: Star Trek: "Friday's Child" / "The Deadly Years"

# Star Trek: "Friday's Child" / "The Deadly Years"

Zack Handlen6/18/09 9:00amFiled to: TVFiled to: TVTVStar TrekRecap123SaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteToggle Conversation toolsChange in-article videoGo to permalinkTV ReviewsAll of our TV reviews in one convenient place.

# "Friday's Child" / "The Deadly Years" / "Friday's Child" / "The Deadly Years"

I've talked a lot about the virtues of James Kirk and his stellar first officer, but I've been overlooking the third member of science fiction's most delightful of holy trinities: Leonard "Bones" McCoy, a simple country doctor who spends all the time when he's not healing people either wanting a drink or arguing.

(Actually, he probably wants a drink all the time, so scratch the "or.")

McCoy has never been a favorite of mine.

Age mellowed him by the time the movies hit, but on the original series, he's too often pissy for no real reason, and his "good old boy" attitude can be embarrassingly anachronistic.

As much as the casual sexism and mini-skirts, he dates the show.

DeForest Kelly is a likable professional, and by about the fifteenth time he aw-shucks his way through some medical mystery, it's easier to just give in and go with it.

McCoy's passion for his job and his patients is obvious and helps to smooth over the spikier edges of his personality—like, for instance, his fair bit of bigotry when it comes to aliens.

He's a good man at heart, and makes for a solid Id to Spock's Ego; and in a way, the off-putting aspects of his character are kind of refreshing.

Movies and TV shows have long told us the importance of following our hearts, and it's nice, whether intentional or not, to have someone who exposes how ineffective a philosophy that can be.

McCoy is never anything less than an excellent physician, but as an advice-giver, his record is spotty at best.

He does occasionally get a chance to shine, though, and "Friday's Child" is pretty much his.

The Federation is interested in negotiating for mining rights on a new planet, and to that end, McCoy has spent some time hanging out with the natives, a warlike tribe called Capellans.

Why the doctor is sent instead of, say, a sociologist is anybody's guess; it could be that the Capellans' culture would only permit someone as neutral as a medic to visit them without causing problems.

(Hell, a minute after Kirk and Spock beam down, they've already got a corpse on their hands.)

Whatever the reason, McCoy gives a briefing on the Capellans before the negotiations get underway.

They're big dudes, supposedly over seven feet tall (although that tends to vary a lot), and to them "fighting is more pleasurable than love."

Also, they seem to be wearing costumes swiped from a forgotten Dr. Seuss movie.

Really, it's just a sci-fi gloss put over some classic Indian stereotypes from Westerns of the time, but there's enough cohesion to the culture that it works okay.

And hey, there's also a lot of barbarian in there too, and who doesn't like Indian barbarians from Whoville?

The rub lies in the fact that the Klingons also want mining rights on the planet, and when Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and a doomed redshirt arrive on the scene, a Klingon is already there, filling one of the locals' (an ambitious dude named Maab) ears with all sorts of anti-Starfleet rhetoric.

The redshirt gets a knife to the gut—well, it's more like a toy glaive, but just focus on the fact that it's stabby—when he goes for his phaser, and things get sort of awkward for a while.

The current head of the tribe, Akaar, is a decent enough guy, but when you're dealing with a race that values combat over all other things, how easy is it going to be to settle the issue with plain speaking?

Maab throws a coup, killing Akaar, and putting Kirk and the others in an even worse position; although they're a little better off than Akaar's very pregnant wife Eleen, who's life is forfeit because she's carrying a potential competitor for Maab in her womb.

(This really is more medieval than Native American, isn't it.)

Our heroes escape from camp with Eleen in tow, but that isn't the end of their problems.

Their communicators are gone, the Enterprise is off chasing phantom distress signals, and they've got a whole mess of pissed off semi-giants who've spent their entire lives learning combat to deal with.

Plus, Eleen isn't exactly thrilled to be included in the escape.

Given the choice between death at the hands of her people, or bowing to the will of a group of strange aliens… well, it's not really much of a choice, is it.

"Child" is a collection of cliches, but it works well for all of that.

Ridiculous costumes aside, the Cappellans are a credible threat; the Klingon's presence naturally increases the difficulties of the situation; and McCoy's relationship with Eleen, who grows to trust him only after he smacks her upside the head (she smacked him first, of course), is well-handled.

The series often ends up as The Kirk And Spock Power Hour, so seeing McCoy play a major role is neat, and he gets in some great lines.

("Look, I'm a doctor, not an escalator!")

It's also worth noting that, despite their growing bond, Eleen still knocks the doc out and escapes soon after giving birth to her kid (having grown up on sitcoms that waste whole episodes on deliveries-in-awkward-places, I was charmed by the fact that Eleen's delivery takes place off-screen, in about two minutes).

She does try and save McCoy and the others when she meets up with Maab's group, but it's refreshing that she doesn't completely lose her own values and personality after being "saved."

The subplot that has the Enterprise distracted by a fake call for help is necessary to explain why they don't just beam down to the planet to see what's keeping the captain, but it makes Scotty look awfully dumb for taking so long to figure things out.

(He makes up for it with a metal moment later on when the Klingon ship tries to block the Enterprise's path.

Although it can't be that easy to block someone's path in three dimensional space.)

Having the Klingons show up as a rival makes for solid continuity, but they seem awfully passive for what we've seen of the species.

There's only one of them on the planet with the Capellans, and the Klingon ship that threatens the Enterprise mostly just hangs around.

For all their fighting prowess, the Capellans couldn't put up much of a fight against,say, phaser bombardment.

The whole subterfuge thing doesn't seem very Klingon, either.

As for the Capellans themselves, how is it that a race that prides itself on its talent for combat could get its ass handed to it with such monotonous regularity by James T. Kirk?

Still, props to the ep for having the Capellans take down the Klingon themselves at the end, through a sacrifice play that actually holds consistent to their major philosophy.

Maab puts the needs of the many ahead of his life, and after his death, Eleen's infant son is put in charge, with Eleen acting as his regent; it's a safe bet that the Federation will get all those "rocks" they've been clamoring for.

You gotta wonder just how the prime directive works when Starfleet starts sending equipment and ships to a pre-tech planet (they haven't even invented bows yet—most likely because they're big on hand-to-hand).

In arguing for the Federation over the Klingon Empire, Kirk promises that the Capellans will never lose the right to rule their home, and I think we can take him at his word.

Even with that promise, though, it's a forced change.

Maybe the whole Indian thing wasn't that far off after all.

If "Friday's Child" is McCoy's change to shine, then "The Deadly Years"… isn't.

But then, nobody shines that brightly in an episode that tries for pathos and largely manages to achieve only dull discomfort.

The high concept for this outing: a strange effect causes Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and one poor crew-woman to age rapidly.

Apparently old age is still hell even in the future, as our heroes struggle with memory loss, increased physical sensitivity, bad tempers, and some surprisingly credible make-up jobs.

It's an unexciting concept that hasn't been thought out very well, and the resulting episode, a few quirky moments aside, is a let down.

The Enterprise is visiting to Gamma Hydra IV to check in on a science expedition lead by Robert Johnson.

All they find are some very old corpses, plus Johnson and his wife.

According to Spock, no one in the expedition was elderly, but the corpses all died of old age, and Mr. and Mrs. Johnson themselves appear to be edging past the outskirts of the Matlock demographic, despite Johnson's assertion that he's just 28 years old.

But instead of quarantining the facility on the planet and trying to figure things out, everybody beams back aboard the Enterprise.

Since the cause of the rapid aging could very well be biological and contagious, and given that this crew has already dealt with its fair share of bad bugs (like in "Miri," where Kirk was smart enough to keep anyone potentially infected off ship until they could find a cure), you'd think our crew wouldn't be quite so blase about the problem.

Sure, Kirk starts up a blue ribbon panel of experts—including a Commodore Stocker, who offers us some variation in Starfleet administrative personnel by being passively dickish, and Dr. Jan Wallace, a former flame of Kirk's, along with the standard peanut gallery—but it doesn't never occurs to anybody that the people who beamed down to the surface could be in danger.

It isn't long before Kirk, McCoy, and the rest start visibly aging (like I said, the make-up isn't bad, and it's surprisingly subtle, too; the changes start even before our attention is drawn to them), and with both of the Johnsons now expired, finding a cure suddenly became very, very important.

Even worse, the Johnsons were crazy senile before they died, which means that in addition to no longer being quite as pretty, Kirk and the others have to deal with the knowledge that the longer they stay sick, the more their faculties will suffer.

Not good for a doctor, or a science officer, or a chief engineer, but catastrophic for a star-ship captain.

There's potential here; it's not hard to empathize with a terror of growing old, especially before one's time, and while "Years" does exaggerate the effects of aging on the mind, it still stays generally within recognizable limits.

Kirk forgets things, repeats himself, and whenever anyone points out his mistakes, he gets angry—as anyone who's ever dealt with a senile grandparent can tell you, that's not far off the mark.

There are smaller touches as well, like Spock's increased sensitivity to cold, which makes a nice call-back to the heat of Vulcan mentioned in "Amok Time."

And there's no attempt to mollify the harshness of the experience, either.

Nobody learns a valuable lesson about how getting old is just a natural part of life.

Yet the episode never really feels all that personal.

There are a few good bits—my favorite comes when Jan starts putting the moves on slightly older Kirk, and he realizes she's doing it because she has a thing for older men.

("What are you offering me, Jan? Love—or a going away present?")

It's such a quirky, surprising scene, the wish fulfillment aspect being immediately undercut by the oddness of the lady's fetish.

Jan never raises the issue again, and seems just as much interested in the young Kirk, post-cure, but you can't help wondering if their original relationship failed because Kirk still had all his hair.

Good bits aside, there's not much effort being put in outside of the make-up.

What really kills things is the competency hearing that eats up a good chunk of the running time.

Jack-disease strikes fairly quickly, and since we can't find a cure for it until the last act, we've got to fill the other acts somehow.

"Years" chooses to fill them by having Commodore Stacker question Kirk's ability to captain the ship, forcing Spock to put his friend on trial and humiliate him in front of his peers.

There's precious little drama in the sequence, aside from the occasional cringe, as we spend the whole thing having characters describe scenes to us that we've already watched.

It's not a criticism of his leadership abilities to say that being struck with a rare illness that makes him liable to forget stuff means he can't do his job properly; in fact, the only negative mark on his character here is his refusal to see the truth, no matter how many of his mistakes are pointed out.

Then there's Stacker, who starts off acting like a reasonable guy, and then turns into a moron as the script dictates.

Once again, we've got an administrator who's on a schedule, so we hear the standard litany of complaints when Kirk refuses to leave Gamma Hydra's orbit.

Stacker's polite about it at first, and when he talks to Spock about getting Kirk to relinquish command, it's hard not to see his point.

But then he ruins everything by taking over the ship and ordering Sulu to set a course through the Neutral Zone.

Are Commodores not taught basic space travel etiquette?

You think they'd be even more concerned about maintaining proper diplomatic relations with an enemy than Kirk, and since we're never given any reason as to why Stacker's so desperate to get to Star Base 10 (I see we used up all our clever naming skills when we geniused up "Gamma Hydra IV"), he comes off as a tool, and a poorly written one at that.

The only reason the Neutral Zone even comes up is to give us some suspense at the climax.

Oh no, the Commodore has no idea what the fuck he's doing!

We need Kirk on the bridge, but he's just so damn old.

Wouldn't you know it, though, McCoy and Spock have just discovered the source of the problem (GH passed through a comet's tail, and I guess they had a choice between zombies or rapid degeneration and decided on the one that didn't require cannibalism), and, seeing as how Chekov was the only person to go down to the planet and be unaffected by the radiation, they determine that adrenaline—Chekov freaked when he saw the first dead body—can stop the radiation.

Never mind that this is more than a little ridiculous (was Chekov terrified the entire time he was down there?), or that the physical effects of all that oldness should take more than few minutes to throw off, we have our cure!

And Kirk demands he get it first, in the middle of a battle that the ship is losing, because he's the only one who can save everybody.

The treatment works, Kirk rescues the weak-ass Commodore and the Enterprise from the nasty Romulans (in a clever moment, he re-uses a mistake his elderly self made earlier to trick the bad guys with an out-of-date code frequency), and Stacker learns a valuable lesson as to just how awesome Kirk is.

A lesson that doesn't seem to have been needed, really; while he made some stupid calls, getting Kirk out of the captain's chair long enough to get cured isn't one of them.

The quarantine problem just becomes more egregious as the episode continues, since once the landing party starts getting sick, the risk that the illness is contagious would seem to increase tenfold, but nobody gives a damn.

We get a lot of aging cliches, and while it's fun watching everybody ham it up as elderly versions of themselves (hey, is that Shatner's actual hair?), that's not enough to make the whole fifty minutes compelling.

A more honest connection to the central problem, and less manufactured dilemmas, and, well… I'm not sure you could get a great episode out of this premise, but you sure as hell could have gotten a better one.

McCoy's baby-talk leaves something to be desired, but Spock's reaction is worth the silliness.

Hey, we finally have an alien race that our heroes don't teach a valuable lesson to.

Although McCoy does convince Eleen to care for her baby, and that means that the baby becomes head of the tribe, so… nuts.

Poor Lieutenant Galway isn't given much to do beyond get worried, get old, and get dead, but she does get one good line in: "That's a stupid place to hang a mirror."

Tune in next week for "Obsession" and "Wolf in the fold."

#### Samurai Slices A 100 Mph Baseball in Half

Brian Ashcraft8/07/19 6:15amThe A.V. Club | News

#### This floating tent offers you a cool new way to die while camping

Gabe WorgaftikYesterday 1:26pmGizmodo | io9

#### We Think We Found Nova in These Avengers: Endgame Stills

#### Nothing much makes sense on Preacher, but at least there's gore

#### A pointless Preacher wallows in flashbacks

#### Preacher returns with a vision of the end

Zack Handlen8/04/19 10:00pmKinja is in read-only mode.

Writer D.C. Fontana said she wanted a story about a strong woman who didn't necessarily want children. Her original idea was used largely unchanged, with the major exception being the addition of the Klingons. Zach Handlen is from "The A.V. Club". Zach Handlen gave the episode a "B+".


She played a leading role in season one of the FOX horror comedy series.

(meta data) TITLE: Skyler Samuels Joins Lea Michele & Joe Manganiello In Fox's 'Scream Queens' – Variety

(meta data) AUTHOR: Elizabeth Wagmeister

Read Next: Stephan James, Hong Chau Returning for 'Homecoming' Season 2, Kyle Patrick Alvarez to Direct

# 'Scream Queens': Skyler Samuels Cast as Series Regular

"Scream Queens" has added actress Skyler Samuels to its ensemble cast as a series regular, Variety has learned.

Samuels joins previously announced stars Lea Michele, Joe Manganiello, Abigail Breslin and Keke Palmer.

Nick Jonas and Ariana Grande are set for guest roles.

Samuels had a recurring role on Ryan Murphy's "American Horror Story: Freak Show," playing Bonnie, and she starred as the title character in ABC Family's "The Nine Lives of Chloe King."

She'll also appear in the upcoming film "The Duff."

The Fox comedy-horror anthology series hails from 20th Century Fox TV and Ryan Murphy Television.

Murphy will exec produce with "Glee's" Brad Falchuk, Ian Brennan and Dante Di Loreto.

Samuels is repped by UTA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Hansen Jacobson.

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Samuels held a recurring role as Gertrude "Gigi" Hollingsworth in "Wizards of Waverly Place" on Disney Channel. She also played the child celebrity Ashley Blake on the Drake and Josh episode "Little Diva". She then appeared in the films "The Stepfather" (2009) and "Furry Vengeance" (2010). She also starred in two series cancelled in their first season: the ABC series "The Gates" as Andie Bates and the ABC Family series "The Nine Lives of Chloe King", in which she played Chloe.
 Samuels next appeared in the recurring role of Bonnie Lipton in the fourth season of the FX horror series "American Horror Story". She co-starred with Mae Whitman and Bella Thorne in the high school comedy film "The DUFF" (2015).


(meta data) TITLE: Skyler Samuels Joins Lea Michele & Joe Manganiello In Fox's 'Scream Queens' – Variety

(meta data) AUTHOR: Elizabeth Wagmeister

Read Next: Stephan James, Hong Chau Returning for 'Homecoming' Season 2, Kyle Patrick Alvarez to Direct

# 'Scream Queens': Skyler Samuels Cast as Series Regular

"Scream Queens" has added actress Skyler Samuels to its ensemble cast as a series regular, Variety has learned.

Samuels joins previously announced stars Lea Michele, Joe Manganiello, Abigail Breslin and Keke Palmer.

Nick Jonas and Ariana Grande are set for guest roles.

Samuels had a recurring role on Ryan Murphy's "American Horror Story: Freak Show," playing Bonnie, and she starred as the title character in ABC Family's "The Nine Lives of Chloe King."

She'll also appear in the upcoming film "The Duff."

The Fox comedy-horror anthology series hails from 20th Century Fox TV and Ryan Murphy Television.

Murphy will exec produce with "Glee's" Brad Falchuk, Ian Brennan and Dante Di Loreto.

Samuels is repped by UTA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Hansen Jacobson.

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### Sign Up for Daily Insider Newsletter

Please fill out this field with valid email address.

### ABC News Sets Moderators, Rules for Third Democratic Debate

ABC News has announced the moderators for the third Democratic debate, as well as the qualification rules.

The debate will be held on Thursday, Sept. 12, and will spill over to Friday, Sept. 13 if more than 10 candidates qualify.

The moderating team will consist of chief anchor George Stephanopoulos, "World News Tonight" anchor and [...]

### James Corden Got a Little Help From Paul McCartney on His Drive to the Emmys

Saying "Baby, I could drive your car" has proven to be a very good strategy for James Corden — never more so than when he put Paul McCartney into the highly sought passenger seat.

The primetime special "Carpool Karaoke: When Corden Met McCartney, Live From Liverpool" is a contender in five Emmy categories this year, [

### Stephan James, Hong Chau Returning for 'Homecoming' Season 2, Kyle Patrick Alvarez to Direct

Stephan James and Hong Chau are coming back for more, as far as "Homecoming" is concerned.

James, who earned a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in season 1 opposite Julia Roberts, will reprise the role of Walter Cruz, while Chau will return to play Audrey Temple for the Amazon series' sophomore outing.

### Starz Orders Horror Comedy Pilot 'Shining Vale'

Starz has put out a pilot order for "Shining Vale," a horror comedy which hails from "Divorce" creator Sharon Horgan and "Trial & Error" co-creator Jeff Astrof.

The prospective series is about a dysfunctional family that moves from the city to a small town into a house in which terrible atrocities have taken place.

Bethenny Frankel is stepping away from the "Real Housewives" franchise.

Variety has learned exclusively that Frankel is poised to exit Bravo's "The Real Housewives of New York" ahead of its upcoming twelfth season.

Frankel first joined the acclaimed reality series back when it premiered back in 2008 before exiting the series in 2010 during the [...]

### BBC Commissions Dolly Parton Feature Documentary

The BBC has commissioned a feature length documentary about country music legend Dolly Parton, it announced Wednesday.

The documentary, tentatively titled "Dolly's Country" will air on BBC Two this fall as part of a season of programs dedicated to country music.

The broadcaster announced earlier in the day that it had acquired Ken Burns' upcoming [...]

### UCP to Develop Ann Shen's 'Bad Girls Throughout History' as Anthology Series

Universal Content Productions (UCP) is developing an anthology series based on Ann Shen's book "Bad Girls Throughout History: 100 Remarkable Women Who Changed the World."

The project will be titled "Bad Girls," with each episode featuring a different influential woman throughout history, including famous figures like Ada Lovelace, Rosa Parks, Mata Hari, and Ruth Bader [

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Samuels held a recurring role as Gertrude "Gigi" Hollingsworth in "Wizards of Waverly Place" on Disney Channel. She also played the child celebrity Ashley Blake on the Drake and Josh episode "Little Diva". She then appeared in the films "The Stepfather" (2009) and "Furry Vengeance" (2010). She also starred in two series cancelled in their first season: the ABC series "The Gates" as Andie Bates and the ABC Family series "The Nine Lives of Chloe King", in which she played Chloe.
 Samuels next appeared in the recurring role of Bonnie Lipton in the fourth season of the FX horror series "American Horror Story". She co-starred with Mae Whitman and Bella Thorne in the high school comedy film "The DUFF" (2015). She played a leading role in season one of the FOX horror comedy series.