Fred Frieberger should be SHOT...

[Gamergirl]

....and then hanged. From the highest tree. And then lynched. After he's been burned in effigy then tied to the stake and burned for real.

And in the immortal words of Greg House, MD, then "stabbed in the eye."

Most of you who are familiar with his name will no doubt believe I'm only now getting around to lambasting him to what he did to Season 3 of Star Trek - TOS (The ONLY Series, offered without sarcasm for the sake of my readers who may be acrostically challenged). Not true. Although I have been watching ST through all the intervening years between now and when I was introduced to it in my childhood, I was always aware of how some episodes were better than others- in some cases, a LOT better- including the fact that almost all the early ones were great, and, even though I wasn't aware of the existence of "seasons" then (before dvd, or even videotape became affordably priced, the term 'season' was fairly irrelevant to the average viewer, shows didn't evolve nearly so radically then the way they do now; TV viewing was far less a serious thing, back then). I was always more than vaguely aware that the earlier shows (detectable by a slight difference in uniform- namely, more black- and an Enterprise with far more rooms visible on camera, as well as a palpable acrimony between Kirk and McCoy) tended to be more better more often than the later ones (Cheaper uniforms, black undershirt got tossed, Kirk's kickass Captains-only green wraparound suddenly vanished, and the engine room changed from a vast room full of heavy equipment with a huge number of operators to a single-room affair... my point is, even an 8-10-year old little girl was able to discern the difference in 'later' (Lamer) Trek and 'earlier' (Best) Trek, despite the irrelevance of seasons as they applied to STTOS at that time (if you want to know what I'm talking about, here, look up the STTOS Episode guide wiki. (No, there's no link. Yore fingers ain't broke, look it up yourself).

Well, while it's true that even an 10-year old kid such as myself was aware of the fallacy of statements like "That's in the southernmost part of the galaxy" and even I, diehard fan that I am, winced at the transparency of (pun intended !!) that financially expeditious "invisible" Charonian spaceship and the "Intelligence reports Romulans now use Klingon design!" Season 3 STILL had some pretty damned awesome episodes, and wasn't a total wash, not by a longshot (which episodes, you ask? Try The Tholian Web (one of my top 6 faves), Day of the Dove. BTW, let me digress here to say that I've heard some complaints by The Ignorant about this episode. They are of course wrong. Not only are their fallacious rantings utterly disproven by the fact that it is in my top 7 alltimefaves, but their empty blather is only further silenced by the fact that this episode is the template from which all later Klingon society is drawn from- it gave more info about the Klingons and their way of life than any other (admittedly contradicting some earlier episodes like 'Friday's Child' when they were shown as cowardly, but this only puts FC in a Bad Light, not DOTD)- as well as firmly established them as a viking-like, valkyrie-worshipping "Warrior People," a pattern which was to be picked up later in Star Trek III (another Trek resounding success that The Ignorant fail to recognize- to their own detriment), which became the source for STTNG-BSOK (Star Trek: The Not as Good- But Still OKay) drew upon for their depiction of Klingons (and from which, even I admit, History Was Made).

But I digress. I'm here to discuss the suckiness of Fred Frieberger. FF seems to be The Man to Hire in the 60s and 70s for the networks to hire when they had a show back then that the Suits wanted to get rid of, but didn't want to face the potential outrage of millions of fans who loved the show after only a season or two. The guy was a television series Hitman. Maybe that wasn't the intent in his mind- but that only serves to lower my opinion of him (HA- as if it could GET any lower) because that would make him a dupe of the Suits, which seems likely, given that every episode of every show he so roundly destroyed that he was involved in-generally speaking- proudly displays his name at least 3 times- during the initial credits (when the episode title is shown) and then again at the episodes conclusion- and a final time as the end title is played.

Those of you on this board who are familiar with me and my acerbic wit may well wonder why I haven't brought this up before during some of the knock-down-drag-outs we've had on this board about STTOS and the franchise in general (a word, by the way, which I despise when applied to what should be art, but I can think of no better term to describe what it's become). Truth is, I thought the guy may have been inexperienced or something, and placed there in S3 of STTOS to make a serious attempt to make a good final season, rather than to torpedo it, which was what he did.

What changed? Well, recently, I received a complete set of all the episodes of one of my other favorite SF shows (when I was in the third to fifth grade, I mean) as a gift, a rarely-seen-much-in-the-US (except at odd hours like at 2 in the afternoon on Sunday when football and basketball season were over and double features at 1 and 2 in the morning on CBS' paranormal/sci-fi late feature presentation, I forget what it was, that showed not only some cool old horror/sci-fi flicks but SF TV shows as well, like Night Stalker) ITC program known as Space: 1999.

I watched the first season, and was impressed with how well the show had held up over the years. Yes, there's the preposterous notion that the moon could get thrown out of orbit by a vast nuclear blast (not quite so preposterous) and travel at relativistic speeds (now we're beginning to get preposterous, especially since the word 'relativistic' was ever mentioned on the show, and I SERIOUSLY doubt that the creators even knew what it meant) and the fact that, even at such speeds, it would take MANY MANY MANY...etc. years from the viewpoint of the accelerated time frame- and that number times a billion from any other viewpoint- for the Accelerated to reach even the nearest Star System (Alpha Centauri in our world, but the nearest star system- called 'planet' on that show- was called Meta there), and literally days later they are coming upon an inhabited alien star system. Then there's little "Southernmost part..."-esque snafus like the fact that the planets in Victor Bergman's star charts have the names of the worlds by which the inhabitants [i]themselves[i] refer to their world (a scientific snafu STTOS at its WORST only made once (incidentally, made during the infamous 'Southernmost' episode, and in that case, is arguably not a glitch at all being that Starfleet's charts arguably contained integrated knowledge - up to and probably including rumors- of alien species that may have had contact with said inhabitants; but I digress).

Anyway, my point is, you get past/ignore these few, albeit glaring, snafus in the first season, Space 1999 is a pretty damn good show. Its got this scary, gothic-horror-like motif, this dark view of the universe, and a survival theme that would make a KICK- A %! BSG-esque (Modern BSG, I mean) -style show even today (if done right and the moon's travels were accounted for with another dramatic mechanism other than simple acceleration through normal space).

That's how I felt after I completed season 1. I was pleased, and eager to begin season two. I hurried home from work, ready to get down to a night of junk food, candy, and Space 1999-ing, popped that season 2 disc 1 in, and ...

well, those of you who've seen it don't need to be told. You already know.

Yeah, I had seen some S2 in my childhood, so I was prepared for the mysterious, unexplained disappearance of Dr. Bergman. For those who haven't seen it, it would have been precisely analagous to if STTOS had started its third season with NO Leonard Nimoy and with no explanation. No, even worse, far worse, actually, because Spock could easily conceivably have transferred to another ship off-camera. In this case, we have the moon alone, hurtling through space. And here we have Commander Koenig's best friend and confidant vanish utterly, not only with no explanation, but also, HE IS NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN !!! Further, the XO, Paul, was gone as well, and had been replaced by an admittedly sexy but nowhere NEAR as believable and realistic XO Tony.

But like I said, I was prepared for that, and for the cheesy FX of Maia's (who isn't so bad) transformation. What my personal memory banks did NOT contain was the GOOFY way the show had degraded to some cheesy, 1960s sitcom-like moments, and the utterly linear, childlike predictable plots.

I'm running out of space, so I won't go into how bad it was. In short, everything I was afraid of about the show when I put the first Season 1 DVD in the player- all the fond memories I was terrified of destroying- but had been relieved of by Season 1's excellence- all those fears materialized as true in Season 2, those and much more. And they were made worse by the uplifting exoneration of S1 !

Anyway, that's when I saw That Name- I will never forgive him, my old friend. That name. Fred Frieberger.

I will chase him 'round the moons of Nibia, round the Antares Maelstrom, and to Perdition's flames before I give him up !

FFFFFFFRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEDDDDDDDDDD!!!

<Cut to: Exterior shot, dead, empty television set orbiting around a lifeless moon>

GG

[smurf]

Isn't this a case of when you were young things were cool, and then you got old looked at it again and thought... actually it was crap. Space 1999 is funny and Gerry Anderson cannot really write.

Mind you, being from the Star Wars Generation, I actually hate the films now, they are terrible and I think George Lucas should be a bad word and maybe should be censored by profanity filters!

[Pragmatic]

Wiki says he's kind of dead...

[Qoltar]

Gamergirl!,

Welcome back!!

Yeas I very much agree with your opinion - Frieberger did ruin most shows that he got involved with.

Very recently I now own the classic STAR TREK series on the enhanced effects DVDs. The difference in the third season quality is VERY noticeable.


- Ed Charlton

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by Qoltar

Yeas I very much agree with your opinion - Frieberger did ruin most shows that he got involved with.

To be fair, he didn't do too badly with Wild Wild West, although he was only involved in that show's first season.

(Trivia: James West's middle initial is T. He had it first.)

On the flip side, there's also his work in the last season of The Six Million Dollar Man and the last season of Josie and the Pussycats...

[stefanj]

I took TV very seriously as a kid. I expected consistency and logic and explanations.

Space: 1999 was one of the shows that made me realize that this was futile.

I found the first season infuriating. It was pretentious crap. It took itself really seriously and tried to be thoughtful but was based on bad science and a screenwriter's idea of philosophical depth. I watched every episode over and over, though, because it was one of the few SF shows on TV and the special effects were pretty dark cool.

The second season was almost a relief because they kind of gave up on the portentious stuff, and consistency. Like, the costumes changed. And as Gamergirl pointed out, an important character just up and disappeared. (And . . . did the sets change?) They tried to make the show funny, or at least have the characters loosen up a bit. This was disconcerting and surreal and made me realize that it all crap.

I started reading a lot more after that. Guys like Larry Niven and Poul Anderson made whole sectors worth of worlds that made sense, with histories and technology all laid out.

So . . . THANK YOU Fred Frieberger!

[Flyndaran]

SPACE 1999 had Barbara Bain, one of the worst actors to ever live. Even as a small child, I noticed her negative talent.

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by stefanj

(And . . . did the sets change?)

Yes. For one thing, the Commander's Office With The Big Sliding Wall That Opened Onto Main Mission became the Commander's Desk At The Back Of Main Mission. (Major loss of cool points there, folks...)

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

SPACE 1999 had Barbara Bain, one of the worst actors to ever live. Even as a small child, I noticed her negative talent.

I wouldn't go that far myself -- I always enjoyed her on Mission: Impossible. But to each their own tastes.

[Captain-Captain]

Originally Posted by Gamergirl

Well, while it's true that even an 10-year old kid such as myself was aware of the fallacy of statements like "That's in the southernmost part of the galaxy"

GG

Don't hold back GG tell us how you really feel. ;)

You have perhaps heard of a real life astromical direction called Galactic North? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_coordinate_system

Kind of deines a Galactic South as well.

To be honest though I will be astounded if the writer who wrote that line KNEW about Galactic North. It would have been child's play to have reworded the sentence into something completely accurate and readily understood by the audience. Simultaneously being an example of Trek having SOME scientific accuracy.