Let That Be Your Last Deathstar Quiz

Answer: Frank Gorshin

Frank Gorshin, also well known for his portrayal of "The Riddler" on the "Batman" TV show, played the contentious law enforcer in the third year original "Star Trek" episode. This is the storyline where two factions of a world's people are fighting each other because their bi-colored complexions (one side black, the other white) are reversed.

Gorshin did a killer impression of Kirk Douglas and an equally impressive Robert Mitchum, and nobody could do furtive creeps like he did when he acted, which is what made his Riddler so good on what was an otherwise idiotic show on "Batman".

Answer: Salacious Crumb

In "Return of the Jedi", Crumb is the little creature with the tufted "ears" that giggles sadistically when our heroes are subjected to indignities and threats to their well-being during the course of events on Tatooine where they confront Jabba. He is one of the few minor peripheral characters with a well-known name.

Answer: Boss Nass

Boss Nass is the acknowledged leader of the Gungans, whose facial tics and manner of speech made him, as far as I'm concerned, a much more interesting character than Jar-Jar Binks. He is at once funny, dignified and quirky, the makings of an enduring fictional persona. Why he was used in only one of the prequel films in lieu of Jar Jar is beyond me.

Answer: Suzie Plakson

Suzi Plakson is the versatile character actress that brought Worf's former paramour to life in this poignant episode introducing Worf to a son he never knew he had. K'Ehleyr is working for the Federation in assessing the situation concerning a Klingon battle crew that has been in suspended animation for 75 years, not knowing that the United Planets and the Klingons have been allies for most of that time.

In this episode, K'Ehleyr is killed, and just before she breathes her last, she puts little Alexander's hand in Worf's, perhaps the most emotional scene ever in a "Star Trek" franchise episode. The other emotional scene is Worf's incredible grief when he discovers her fatally injured body.

Plakson is incredibly tall for a woman, at nearly 6'2", and she has played no less than four aliens in the "Trek" pantheon: K'Ehleyr; Tarah, an Andorian; Dr. Selar, a Vulcan; and a member of the "Q" Continuum. She has also starred in many sitcoms and dramas over the years and was a regular on "Love & War" and other sitcoms.

Answer: Anakin Skywalker

Ironic, isn't it...a protocol droid created by an eight year old boy who will turn out to be the scourge of the Universe at one point in his life? C3PO, in his entire run through the "Star Wars" mythos, never showed any real malevolence in his programming, though he too often seemed to favor surrender or seeming to turn on his allies, as in his working for Jabba the Hutt in "Jedi" or becoming a warrior droid in "Attack of the Clones".

It could be argued that these situations put him under duress, but I don't know...

Answer: Second year

Wonder of wonders...Jonathan Frakes/William Riker started sporting that beard from the very first second year episode, when the male crew was still wearing those inconvenient, pajama-type uniforms. The change in appearance to the character was amazing. Frakes looked like a different person compared to the first year for Riker.

Answer: Two

Tatooine has two suns, Tatoo I and Tatoo II. George Lucas named the world after the Tunisian location where some "Star Wars" scenes have been shot. It also has three moons, whose names are not mentioned anywhere in the series.

Answer: "The Changeling"

Actually, an argument could be made that both "The Changeling" and "The Doomsday Machine" were the inspiration for "ST:TMP", since Decker's son figures prominently in the movie, but the general plot follows "Changeling" a lot closer, with no nods whatsoever to "Doomsday".

This is generally considered to be the weakest "TOS" movie, and your quizmaster concurs. Not only is it overlong and derivative, but pretentious, Spielbergian and too bluish! Those pajama-type uniforms were the worst, as well...Along with Shatner's obvious hairpiece!

Answer: Edith Keeler

This episode, widely considered to be the best "TOS" episode, was written by Harlan Ellison, one of my favorite sci-fi writers. It has the requisite camaraderie between the sexes that Ellison stories often have, where characters of the opposite sex seem to get very friendly with each other rather quickly, if they don't already have a history.

The story was one of the first to explore what repurcusions alteration of the past might have on the future. It broke Kirk's heart when he realized that Edith, who he had come to be very fond of, might have to die to prevent Adolf Hitler from winning World War II! She died right in front of his eyes from a preventable auto accident that Dr. McCoy, who he restrained, was trying to stop. Frankly, I've always felt that this could have been handled another way.

Answer: Mark Austin , Jason Wingreen and Jeremy Bulloch

Mark Austin, Jason Wingreen and Jeremy Bulloch portray the mostly mute bounty hunter in the original trilogy, appearing in "episodes IV", "V" and "VI". Wingreen is the first to speak in character in "The Empire Strikes Back", and Daniel Logen playing him in the prequels, both vocally and physically, as a child. Whoever thought this character would figure so heavily in the series, eh?

Answer: Moisture farmers

Like the Fremen in "Dune", Beru and Owen were "moisture farmers", people extracting as much humidity as they can from Tatooine's arid environment. Tatooine is a very silica-rich planet whose water has been largely boiled off due to planetary conditions, and moisture conservancy is a must. The Fremen in Frank Herbert's "Dune" series faced a similar situation on Arrakis.

Answer: Andreas Katsulas

Yes. "ST:TNG's" Romulan Commander Tomalok, Andreas Katsulas, up until his work on "Babylon 5" portraying G'Khar, the Narn ambassador, had actually made a name for himself in Hollywood playing psycho-killers and villains! However, he parlayed G'Khar as a very sympathetic, put-upon character.

The Narn had had an ongoing colonial war with the Centauri, represented by Londo Molari, played by Peter Jurasik, where the Narn were the underdogs. Both Katsulas and Jurasik were highly underrated actors. You would never know it was either of them if their names weren't revealed in the credits.

Answer: Gary Lockwood

Gary Lockwood, a man who had worked with Gene Roddenberry before on a show called "The Lieutenant", portrayed a friend of Kirk's who acquires god-like powers in this early, first year episode. Lockwood played Frank Poole in the 1968 masterpiece, "2001: A Space Odyssey". Seems like he had a real knack in being in science fiction vehicles that contemplated the nature of creation, doesn't it? For years after "2001" premiered, there was endless conjecture of what the nature of God and the Universe was, and to this day, the first fanfaring strains of "Also Sprach Zarathustra" denote grandness, no matter what spirit, (usually jocular these days,) it's used in.

Answer: "Encounter At Farpoint"

Yes! The very first episode of "Next Generation", in fact! The two hour premiere episode of the show that revived "Star Trek" for TV featured John Delancey parlaying the overly mischievous and genie-like "Q" as he sets himself up as the judge of all mankind, using the crew of the Enterprise-D as surrogates.

At one time, any episode of "TNG" that featured either "Q", Luwoxanna Troi or K'Ehleyr was a sure bet to be a better than average hour. However, rote screenwriting and overuse eventually defeated this, and the only way you could get a really outstanding episode out of the franchise was perhaps to put all 'three' of them in the same episode!

Answer: Alderaan

Alderaan, home of the Organa family, the one that adopted Leia Skywalker, was the very first world to be destroyed by Deathstar, under order of Grand Muff Tarkin. (Not a nice thing to do!) Alderaan was used as a chip to get a captive Princess Leia to reveal the home base of the rebel alliance in "Star Wars IV: A New Hope". Tarkin, of course, realized that Leia would never give him the true location, and as a punishment for her lying to him, destroyed her adopted planet.

It's one of the more poignant scenes in all six movies.