Kiseki (2011)

Kiseki: Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda. With Masami Nagasawa, Hiroshi Abe, Kirin Kiki, Joe Odagiri. Twelve-year-old Koichi, who has been separated from his brother Ryunosuke due to his parents’ divorce, hears a rumor that the new bullet trains will precipitate a wish-granting miracle when they pass each other at top speed.

“Does anyone need an introduction anymore to this great series? In the beginning Desilu said yes to the budget and schedule of Roddenberry only because there were many space stories being pitched and picked up in the mid-sixties, and this was going to be theirs. NBC used Star Trek to compete with Lost in Space, which was already on CBS the year before.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNBC being the all color network made the series very high key in lighting and primary-colored in the uniforms and the instrument displays, to better sell color TV at the time.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThere were so many innovations shown on the screen from Dr.McCoyu0026#39;s diagnostic helpers to the auto door movements to hand communicators, transporters, phased light weapons, all of which impressed viewers. Added to that, they all seemed like they really worked!u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePeople have said that Star Trek was the first to show an alien working harmoniously on a space crew and this is not fully true. You might laugh now, but in 1950 there was a very popular, well written, well acted radio and TV series called u0026quot;Tom Corbett, Space Cadetu0026quot; that had that very element working for it. Nothing much was very ground breaking on that show except that the acting was a cut above other shows. Roddenberry did go a few steps farther with Star Trek, adding a multi-racial crew and women having real authority as crew members or aliens.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePrior to Star Trek, the u0026quot;alienu0026quot; or u0026quot;otheru0026quot; was a concept meant to inspire fear and justify violence. However it seemed that the series delighted in reversing this. Repeatedly the aliens are shown to be less dangerous than thought: the Talosians want the best for Capt. Pike, Balok isnu0026#39;t so bad, the Salt Creature is meant to be pitied, and so on. However if the villain was inanimate or a Frankenstein composed of manu0026#39;s ignorance, say NOMAD or the Planet Killer, then all violence the Federation can muster could be justified.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFor my money Roddenberry, who appeared to be a casting couch throwback producer from an u0026quot;Ed Woodu0026quot; era, accomplished nothing so amazingly wonderful prior to Star Trek, and certainly nothing afterward that ever surpassed this singular achievement. He fought to keep Mr. Spock in the show and oversaw all the writing for a stable consistency,(Iu0026#39;m not a Harlan Ellison fan), so from this perspective, you could say he was born to create Star Trek then step off the stage. His whole life after Trek seemed warped by the showu0026#39;s gravity, and often he was pulled back into it for the 1987 follow on series and the first round of feature films.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSome audience members may prefer TNG, or the feature films. They may look back at the 1966 debut of Star Trek as merely u0026quot;the future looked a lot like the Sixtiesu0026quot;. But why is it that the pure human emotions in those 79 episodes still attracts new converts? There must be something there thatu0026#39;s communicating beyond the showu0026#39;s original five year mission. Star Trek still works as an adventure; one that considers human drama primary. That is unusual for any science fiction based story, wouldnu0026#39;t you say?”