44 | NOVEMBER 4 • 2021
MOVIE NEWS
THE TREK STORY,
HANKS’ ‘HUMAN’
ROBOT, COURIC’S NOT
NEW “REVEAL
”
On Nov. 5, The History
Channel will premiere a
10-part docuseries called
The Center Seat: 55 Years
of Star Trek. It’s directed by
Brian Volk-Weiss, 45, the
director/producer of The
Movies That Made Us, a
hit Netflix series. Each epi-
sode focuses on different
“chapters” of the Trek fran-
chise: live-action TV series,
animated series and films.
Many people associated
with Trek were interviewed
for the docuseries, including
actor Walter Koenig, 85
(‘Chekov’ in the original Trek
series), actor Brent Spiner,
72 (‘Data’ on Star Trek: The
Next Generation), Nicholas
Meyer, 75 (He directed Star
Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
and co-wrote Star Trek IV:
The Voyage Home), and
Rick Berman, 75, the head
producer of five Trek TV
series — beginning with Next
Gen and ending with Star
Trek Enterprise.
It’s always seemed a ‘mir-
acle’ to me that three of the
seven main cast stars in the
“original” Trek were Jewish
(Koenig; the late Leonard
Nimoy as Mr. Spock; and
William Shatner, now 90, as
Capt. Kirk). I hope the docu-
series, as it covers the first
“failed” Trek pilot and the
“retooled” successful pilot,
provides some support for
my (following) explanation of
this “miracle.”
Trek creator Gene
Roddenberry wanted good
actors, but he had a small
budget. He managed to
get a “name actor,” Jeffrey
Hunter, for the failed pilot.
But Hunter walked away
from Trek after NBC opted
to not turn that pilot into a
show. Roddenberry then
followed the example of
Rod Serling, the creator of
The Twilight Zone, and hired
low-salary but very talented
character actors and cast
them in lead roles. For a vari-
ety of reasons, Jewish actors
were/are much more likely to
be first-class character actors
than leads.
Shatner didn’t have much
of a track record as a leading
man. But he did guest star
on two memorable Twilight
Zone episodes. Nimoy was a
guest actor on other shows
Roddenberry had worked on,
and he knew Nimoy was tal-
ented. As for Koenig — well,
he could do a really good
Russian accent because
his parents were Russian-
speaking Jewish immigrants.
Post-Script: Of course, we
all know that Shatner recent-
ly went into space. Here are
answers to two questions I
always get asked about him:
(1) Yes, he is very open about
being Jewish (see his two
volumes of memoirs) and he
has done some Jewish char-
itable events and (2) His first
wife was Jewish, and she is
the mother of his children
(three daughters). Shatner
often celebrates Jewish holi-
days with his daughters.
‘HUMAN ROBOT’
Finch is a new film that
was set to be in theaters
in 2020, but the pandemic
intervened, and it will now
premiere on Apple+ on
Nov. 5. The premise is that
the Earth was turned into a
wasteland by a solar event.
Tom Hanks plays Finch, a
robotics engineer and one
of the few survivors. His
companion is a beloved
dog. Things get dicey when
Finch learns he is dying. He
creates a robot and trains
it to be “so human” that it
will be able to take over the
care of his dog. The director
is Miguel Sapochnik, 47, a
British Jew whose parents
were Argentine immigrants.
Sapochnik is best known as
the Emmy-winning director
of the spectacular, big-battle
Game of Thrones episodes
(Battle of the Bastards and
others).
You might have read a
recent JTA piece about a
new autobiography by Katie
Couric, the former NBC
anchor. The headline said
that Couric “revealed” that
her late mother was Jewish.
Well, Detroit Jewish News
readers found this out in
2004 when I reported that
Couric had just told a Fox
reporter that her mother was
Jewish. Couric added she
was raised in her father’s
Protestant faith. Then, in
2007, I told News readers
about a new full-scale biog-
raphy of Couric. It reported
that Couric’s Jewish-born
mother had converted to
Christianity after marrying
her father. This import-
ant detail isn’t in the JTA
piece. In 2015, I reported
that Couric wed her current
husband, a Jewish banker.
The fourth season of
the Paramount Network’s
modern Western
Yellowstone, starring Kevin
Costner, begins on Nov. 7.
Yellowstone is one of the
bigger hits in the land of
basic cable. I thought it was
time to clue you into what
I know of the Jewish back-
ground of Cole Hauser, 46,
one of the show’s stars. His
father wasn’t Jewish. He
was raised by his Jewish
mother, Cass Warner, 73,
the granddaughter of Harry
Warner, one of the founders
of Warner Brothers. I regret
to say that I’ve never been
able to find out if Hauser has
any “Jewish ties” other than
being the son of a Jewish
mother.
CELEBRITY NEWS
NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST
ARTS&LIFE
BY GAGE SKIDMORE VIA WIKIPEDIA
Brent Spiner
BY SUPER FESTIVALS VIA WIKIMEDIA
Walter Koenig
BY GAGE SKIDMORE VIA WIKIMEDIA
Miguel Sapochnik