Saturday, August 25, 2012

TV – Me TV Remembers William Windom

Me TV just proved once again what an awesome network it is. In honor of prolific television and film actor William Windom, who passed away this week at the age of 88, the channel aired the classic Star Trek episode in which he guest-starred, “The Doomsday Machine.” The episode began and ended with a memorial screen featuring a black-and-white photo of a very young and handsome Windom and including his years of life, 1923 to 2012.

“The Doomsday Machine” will always hold a special place in my heart. It was not the first episode of Star Trek I ever saw (I don’t remember which one was), but it was the very first episode (not just of Star Trek, but of any show) I bought on videotape. I saved $35 from my earnings as a paperboy to buy the videocassette in 1985, back when Star Trek was the first television show to be released in its entirety on home video. Twenty years later, I was able to buy the whole Star Trek television series on DVD for $125, far less than the $2,800 it would have cost to buy the entire series on videotape.

Windom stars in “The Doomsday Machine” as Commodore Matt Decker, who commandeers the Enterprise in a suicide mission to destroy the planet-killing ice cream cone that wrecked his ship and killed his crew. Decker ultimately completes the mission on his own via shuttlecraft. 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture is sort of an unofficial sequel to “The Doomsday Machine,” with Stephen Collins starring as Decker’s son Will, who is personally recommended by Admiral Kirk to become the new captain of the Enterprise before having to relinquish command to the Enterprise-obsessed Kirk in the wake of an intergalactic threat too big for the small screen.

If you love classic television, Me TV should be your first and last stop on the dial. In addition to featuring scores of classic television shows, the network features brilliant commercials touting its various slogans composed entirely of expertly spliced-together clips from all of its shows. This is the ultimate TV channel for the ultimate TV fan.

--Raj Manoharan

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