[6.1/10] What’s funny about this episode is that it has two stone cold classics, and then a good amount of dross.
The first is the famous “Get a Life” sketch in the monologue with Shatner attending a Star Trek convention. And it’s a good bit. Sure, it plays on some hoary nerd stereotypes, but the gags that these events are ripoffs and poking fun at fan obsession with minutia is good fun. Plus, there’s some solid attention to detail in the actual Trek references, and Shatner going on his rant and then backing up when the convention organizer gives him guff is a funny bit.
The other is the alternate ending to It’s a Wonderful Life. Dana Carvey’s Jimmy Stewart impression is almost worth the price of admission on its own. But the entire gang realizing that Mr. Potter has the money and going to beat him up is just an absurd, dark humor twist on the holiday classic. It’s a superb sketch that, appropriate to what it’s parodying, offers some slapstick wish fulfillment.
But the rest of the episode is uneven at best. You can tell the powers that be were less than confident in Shatner’s abilities to work with the cast because they sideline him for a number of sketches. He gives the introduction to the It’s a Wonderful Life sketch, he sits and watches the Sweeney Sisters bit with little to add, and they amusingly keep him silent in the cold open “Ollie North: The Mute Marine.”
They also riff on his contemporary projects to meh results. The Star Trek Restaurant sketch was just bland eatery humor with some Star Trek gloss, and Dana Carvey parodying prior object of SNL mockery Ricardo Montalban’s pronunciation of “Kahrk” does little to save it. By the same token, the T.J. Hooker sketch was just one gag stretched to eternity.
But maybe I would have appreciated it more if I’d ever seen T.J. Hooker. That’s how a decent chunk of this episode felt, particularly Dennis Miller’s “Weekend Update” which was, understandably, almost entirely topical, and the only gag I fully understood referenced Caligula.
That just leaves two oddball sketches that I mostly liked. One was just Shatner preening and admired himself in the mirror, which was enjoyable in its sheer silliness and goofball sensibility. Shatner goes for broke, and it’s probably his best performance of the night. The other is a more wry short film about a guy getting increasingly frustrated at everyone from his brother’s doctor to his death row priest doing a half-assed job, that isn’t really “haha funny” but has an amusing point of view.
Overall, a rougher night for SNL, but one with two all-time great sketches in it.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-09-30T22:19:12Z
[6.1/10] What’s funny about this episode is that it has two stone cold classics, and then a good amount of dross.
The first is the famous “Get a Life” sketch in the monologue with Shatner attending a Star Trek convention. And it’s a good bit. Sure, it plays on some hoary nerd stereotypes, but the gags that these events are ripoffs and poking fun at fan obsession with minutia is good fun. Plus, there’s some solid attention to detail in the actual Trek references, and Shatner going on his rant and then backing up when the convention organizer gives him guff is a funny bit.
The other is the alternate ending to It’s a Wonderful Life. Dana Carvey’s Jimmy Stewart impression is almost worth the price of admission on its own. But the entire gang realizing that Mr. Potter has the money and going to beat him up is just an absurd, dark humor twist on the holiday classic. It’s a superb sketch that, appropriate to what it’s parodying, offers some slapstick wish fulfillment.
But the rest of the episode is uneven at best. You can tell the powers that be were less than confident in Shatner’s abilities to work with the cast because they sideline him for a number of sketches. He gives the introduction to the It’s a Wonderful Life sketch, he sits and watches the Sweeney Sisters bit with little to add, and they amusingly keep him silent in the cold open “Ollie North: The Mute Marine.”
They also riff on his contemporary projects to meh results. The Star Trek Restaurant sketch was just bland eatery humor with some Star Trek gloss, and Dana Carvey parodying prior object of SNL mockery Ricardo Montalban’s pronunciation of “Kahrk” does little to save it. By the same token, the T.J. Hooker sketch was just one gag stretched to eternity.
But maybe I would have appreciated it more if I’d ever seen T.J. Hooker. That’s how a decent chunk of this episode felt, particularly Dennis Miller’s “Weekend Update” which was, understandably, almost entirely topical, and the only gag I fully understood referenced Caligula.
That just leaves two oddball sketches that I mostly liked. One was just Shatner preening and admired himself in the mirror, which was enjoyable in its sheer silliness and goofball sensibility. Shatner goes for broke, and it’s probably his best performance of the night. The other is a more wry short film about a guy getting increasingly frustrated at everyone from his brother’s doctor to his death row priest doing a half-assed job, that isn’t really “haha funny” but has an amusing point of view.
Overall, a rougher night for SNL, but one with two all-time great sketches in it.