Tuesday, April 18, 2006
My Favorite Cardassian
So today I sat down with Vintage Baby to try to calm him down and feed him. Usually for the 2:00 feeding (which is usually around 1:30; to keep everything easy when we talk to the endocrinologists, the hematologists, the feeding clinic, and the surgeons, we refer to it as the 2:00 feeding) we watch Deep Space Nine on Spike, but today SciFi was running an Incredible Hulk marathon. In a neat little coincidence, the episode that was on today starred Gul Dukat from DS9, Marc Alaimo. And there was only one shot in which I might have even guessed who he was, despite the fact that he was playing a crooked prison guard--basically the 70s-prison-camp version of Gul Dukat.
Just hearing the theme for The Incredible Hulk sent me back in time. Nearly every Friday night in 7th grade I had a ritual: Hulk, The Dukes of Hazzard, and the 9-to-11 session at Skate World with my friend Valerie (arriving fashionably late by leaving while the credits were still rolling on the Dukes). Friday nights that we didn't go skating, it was Hulk, Dukes, facial.
We were both in love with Bill Bixby. After school, I watched reruns of My Favorite Martian and sometimes The Courtship of Eddie's Father (Valerie probably didn't because she actually did things like homework and practicing the violin). We even watched his magic show.
But really, I think what I loved wasn't Bill Bixby (although I still have a certain fondness for My Favorite Martian)--it was the David Banner character. I loved the idea of this guy who wandered from place to place, never settling down, never being able to let his guard down, pursued by a relentless reporter (ooh! scary!), burdened with this terrible secret identity that he couldn't control, haunted by the memory of his late wife.
Sure, the episode I saw today was really cheesy. The prison camp looked like the prop guys had staged a raid on the Hogan's Heroes set and stolen bits and pieces of Stalag 13. Somehow David Banner doesn't get mad enough to Hulk out when Gul Dukat/Captain Holt perpetrates all kinds of offenses against not only him, but also a bunch of other wrongly accused prisoners, but when David himself provokes an unlikely-looking rattlesnake into biting him--something he should have been able to predict before, oh, I don't know, POKING IT WITH A STICK--he goes all green and tosses the poor snake--which was only doing what snakes do, after all--a mile or so into the air. But the music and the Ted Cassidy voiceover are still... well... incredible.
[For the record, my favorite Cardassian is actually Gul Damar, not Gul Dukat]
Just hearing the theme for The Incredible Hulk sent me back in time. Nearly every Friday night in 7th grade I had a ritual: Hulk, The Dukes of Hazzard, and the 9-to-11 session at Skate World with my friend Valerie (arriving fashionably late by leaving while the credits were still rolling on the Dukes). Friday nights that we didn't go skating, it was Hulk, Dukes, facial.
We were both in love with Bill Bixby. After school, I watched reruns of My Favorite Martian and sometimes The Courtship of Eddie's Father (Valerie probably didn't because she actually did things like homework and practicing the violin). We even watched his magic show.
But really, I think what I loved wasn't Bill Bixby (although I still have a certain fondness for My Favorite Martian)--it was the David Banner character. I loved the idea of this guy who wandered from place to place, never settling down, never being able to let his guard down, pursued by a relentless reporter (ooh! scary!), burdened with this terrible secret identity that he couldn't control, haunted by the memory of his late wife.
Sure, the episode I saw today was really cheesy. The prison camp looked like the prop guys had staged a raid on the Hogan's Heroes set and stolen bits and pieces of Stalag 13. Somehow David Banner doesn't get mad enough to Hulk out when Gul Dukat/Captain Holt perpetrates all kinds of offenses against not only him, but also a bunch of other wrongly accused prisoners, but when David himself provokes an unlikely-looking rattlesnake into biting him--something he should have been able to predict before, oh, I don't know, POKING IT WITH A STICK--he goes all green and tosses the poor snake--which was only doing what snakes do, after all--a mile or so into the air. But the music and the Ted Cassidy voiceover are still... well... incredible.
[For the record, my favorite Cardassian is actually Gul Damar, not Gul Dukat]
permalink posted by The Vintage Reader @ 9:33 PM 
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As much as I love my comics, the Hulk TV show always bored my action-wanting child-brain to tears. In the comics, the green goliath fought monsters, men with giant foreheads, shiny robots, and tanks. He tore entire buildings apart with his hands, created seismic shocks by stomping his foot on the ground, and jumped miles at a time.
On the TV show, the Hulk fought mean people by wrapping them in pipes. A lot. Once, there was a bear.
Great ending theme, though!
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On the TV show, the Hulk fought mean people by wrapping them in pipes. A lot. Once, there was a bear.
Great ending theme, though!
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